GOP majority grows past its list of easy agreements

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© St. Petersburg Times
published March 6, 2002

At the beginning of this year, the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida sent out a message to his members around the state:

Be respectful to other Republicans when you disagree with them.

"There are two roads ahead of us," Al Cardenas wrote. "One road requires us to respect each other, to engage in spirited yet civil debate, to work hard for the broad spectrum of Floridians we represent ...

"The other road is a bumpy one, filled with sharp rhetoric aimed not at the opposition but at each other. It is the road to failure. Let's choose the right road. Let's pull together."

Cardenas' message was timely. This year appears to be a turning point for Republicans in Florida when it comes to disagreement.

Remember that Republican control of Florida's government is still young. The party only gained full control of the Legislature in 1996. Not until Jeb Bush's election in 1998 could the GOP-run Legislature work with a Republican governor.

After that, Republicans released pent-up frustration with a series of landmark bills: limiting lawsuits, creating school vouchers, curbing civil service, ending affirmative action and abolishing the state Board of Regents.

But in 2002, deeper philosophical divisions emerged among Florida Republicans, especially in whether Florida should change its tax structure and spend more money for education. The House and Senate have spent much of this year butting heads.

Let's borrow a term from local government -- the "consent agenda." It's a list of things that don't need much debate and can be gotten out of the way with a quick vote. Then come the tougher decisions.

I think the Republican Party of Florida has finished its consent agenda.

This is good news for the party and for Florida. Just as liberal Democrats have their own list of sacred cows, such as abortion rights, until now Republicans in Tallahassee have been expected to toe the line on their party's conservative "principles."

Foremost among these has been the insistence that no Republican may support tax increases to meet Florida's needs no matter what those needs are. It is good to worry about the government blowing too much of our money. But to vow never to change Florida's taxes, even if it's the fair and right thing to do, is not truly "conservative." It's just mindless.

Revolution broke out this year. The Senate passed a broad program of tax reform. The governor and House received the Senate's idea with roughly the same enthusiasm with which they would have debated the legalization of marijuana. But they discussed it.

It is especially interesting to watch the increasing frustration of two of Pinellas County's veteran Republican state senators, Jack Latvala and Don Sullivan. Both want to repeal some of Florida's unfair tax breaks to raise more money for schools.

"Those who believe our education system is just fine," Latvala wrote in a newspaper column Tuesday, "are allowing our students to sacrifice so that special interests can benefit."

Until now, it has been said scornfully that a Republican who says that kind of thing is "talking like a Democrat." Maybe it should be said that Latvala is "talking like a Republican who cares about education."

But let's not make the revenue of the state the only issue. A lot of grass-roots Republicans totally agree on the no-new-taxes issue -- but are increasingly uncomfortable with their party's performance in Tallahassee.

They do not think it is "conservative" to hurt the environment. They do not think it is "conservative" to do every single favor that any business lobbyist asks.

They do not think it is "conservative" to store dirty water in Florida's aquifer, or to let lobbyists' buddies into med school, or to expand gambling, or to weaken manatee protection, or to deceive people with fake "insurance," or to abolish the university system.

As it matures, the Republican Party of Florida is growing beyond a narrow agenda set in Tallahassee. This is a healthy process -- unless the Republicans decide to start trying to punish Republican officeholders who disagree. There is an adjective for parties that lose their majority in that way: Democrats.

-- You can reach Howard Troxler at (727) 893-8505 or at troxler@sptimes.com.

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