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Gov. Bush names House insider to appeals court
By LUCY MORGAN, Times Tallahassee Bureau Chief
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 11, 2002
TALLAHASSEE -- Former state Rep. Paul Hawkes was appointed Tuesday by Gov. Jeb Bush to the 1st District Court of Appeal.
Except for a brief stint in the governor's Office of Policy and Budget two years ago, Hawkes, 45, has been a policy adviser to the House of Representatives since Republicans took control in 1996.
Hawkes has no judicial experience. He has worked as a prosecutor and defense attorney in Citrus County. He was selected over five other nominees, including three judges.
Hawkes will replace Judge Charles E. Miner Jr., who is retiring. The 1st District hears appeals of cases arising across North Florida. Hawkes will take a pay cut. The House paid him $162,000 as a special counsel. He'll make about $141,000 as a judge.
In 1990, Hawkes defeated Rep. Dick Locke, D-Inverness, after filing a public records lawsuit that went to the Florida Supreme Court. Hawkes had sought access to records of the money Locke spent to run his office. When Locke refused, Hawkes, a lawyer, sued.
The Supreme Court decision upholding the right of legislators to keep their records from public view sparked a move to amend the Constitution and force some legislative meetings and records into public view.
Since leaving the legislature in 1994 to make an unsuccessful race for circuit judge in Citrus County, Hawkes has become a behind-the-scenes GOP adviser.
Hawkes was appointed to the 1998 Constitution Revision Commission by Speaker Dan Webster, and also worked as a consultant with his former aide, Richard Cocoran.
He rankled legislators and openly clashed last year with Sen. Nancy Argenziano, R-Dunnellon, who was then in the House and defeated Cocoran in 1998.
Argenziano said she thought much of what Hawkes did under House Speaker Tom Feeney was wrong and cited an incident where he leaked a draft of a nursing home bill to lobbyists who opposed it. She said he later apologized to the bill's sponsor.
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