Freshman senator quietly affirming her independence

© St. Petersburg Times
published November 27, 2002

TALLAHASSEE -- Once a rowdy member of the Florida House, newly elected state Sen. Nancy Argenziano says she's toning down her act for the "kinder, gentler Senate."

Speaking to the Capital Tiger Bay Club Tuesday, Argenziano, R-Dunnellon, described the House as "a tough place" where a lot of members are wiling "to line up and drink the Jim Jones Kool-Aid."

Senators are more independent, she said. "I'm not drinking anybody's Kool-Aid," she added.

Argenziano now represents the state's largest Senate district. It includes all or part of 13 counties stretching from Georgia to Citrus County, including Tallahassee.

Noting that she developed "a certain reputation in the House," Argenziano said she will tone it down for the Senate, but quickly indicated that her idea of toning it down may not square with the wishes of Senate leaders.

During her six years in the House, Argenziano often disagreed with the Republican leadership and is best remembered for sending 25 pounds of cow manure to a lobbyist who opposed her on a nursing home bill. House Speaker Tom Feeney admonished her and later stripped her of a committee chairmanship.

Many of her fellow House members obviously didn't eat their carrots, Argenziano said, because they couldn't see when Appropriations Chairman Carlos LaCasa of Miami diverted $31-million to pay for citrus trees in South Florida while running for a Senate seat.

"They said, 'You didn't see the chairman do that'," she said. LaCasa lost anyway, she noted.

She promised not to write her House memoir, "thus preserving the myth of leadership's humanity and competence."

And Argenziano jokingly pledged to file a bill to air-mail leftovers from Senate President Jim King's buffets to needy countries.

King, a former House member himself, has been a little worried about decorum in a chamber where voices are seldom raised and disagreements more often take place behind closed doors.

He plans to meet with some of the rowdier former House members to discuss the Senate's more sedate environment.

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