Keep your eyes on state Sen. Tom Lee, the John McCain of the Florida GOP.
Most Floridians have never heard of the Brandon Republican, in line to become Senate president next fall. But for the political establishment in Tallahassee, Lee might just be the most dangerous Republican in Florida.
How else do you assess a party leader who came into the system with few party ties and minimal interest in politics? A formidable fundraiser who speaks with bluntness and disgust about the power of special interest money in Tallahassee, and once got into a public shoving match with a telecommunications lobbyist?
A powerful lawmaker who last year faced down Gov. Jeb Bush on a top Republican priority - severely capping medical malpractice damages - and who continually accuses Bush and other GOP leaders of irresponsible and misleading budgeting?
He is a trim, 6-foot-2, 42-year-old homebuilder who professes to have no interest in seeking higher office after his Senate term expires in 2006. That may be his biggest threat to the status quo.
"After being in Tallahassee eight years, I still haven't found anything up there I want," Lee said recently in his Brandon office, where pictures of old Brandon adorn the walls. "When there's nothing in politics that you want other than public service, you are very liberated."
Lee makes plenty of powerful Republicans nervous, and sometimes livid. Privately, they describe a sanctimonious and hard-headed obstacle to carrying out fundamental Republican principles. They see little loyalty to the party from a man who already wields enough power to yank the legislative process off the tracks if he chooses.
His two primary goals for when he becomes Senate president are parochial and broad: bring back resources for his home region and restore some of the confidence the public has lost in state government.
The former requires money available next year, and Lee contends that the way Bush and the Legislature have budgeted in recent years - building debt, relying on one-time sources of money for recurring expenses, and raiding trust funds dedicated for specific purposes to cover other expenses - are jeopardizing Florida's future. He wants to pass a constitutional amendment requiring a five-year financial plan in Tallahassee.
"My big concern is this whole issue of spending money we know we're not going to have, setting Tom Lee up (when he becomes Senate president) to make a $1.5-billion cut to government services," he said. "The only way we would do that is to create the illusion that things are going well in Florida for the purposes of creating a positive political environment going into the election."
And restoring trust in government? "You do it with honesty. You do it by refusing to be complicit in the efforts of the political parties and certain individuals to perpetrate these illusions or allowing people to misrepresent the facts. You have to be able to say the emperor has no clothes."
Ever since he was elected, people have questioned Lee's loyalty to the Republican Party and its core principles of lower taxes and less government. After all, Lee had been a registered Democrat until shortly before he ran to replace retiring state Sen. Malcolm Beard. Despite a politically connected family, Lee said he had never had any interest in politics. Like most people in his district, he was a registered Democrat who tended to be more comfortable with the Republican philosophy.
The other day Lee spoke glowingly of current President Jim King, praised upcoming House Speaker Allan Bense of Panama City, and hinted that he won't expend much political capital this year. But Lee has a diplomacy deficit and rarely bites his tongue.
I asked him about Republican colleagues, including Attorney General Charlie Crist and House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, who recently have raised questions about a controversial law long opposed by Lee that that raised local phone rates.
"A crock," Lee said of his fellow Republicans' rhetoric. "This will either be used to raise money or position individuals politically with absolutely no intention of ultimately accomplishing anything."
He insists he is a strong Republican, but doesn't pretend to be especially loyal to party.
"To the extent I make people nervous it's because I'm a free agent," Lee said. "But I think I will do more to advance Republican causes as a free agent than others do as ideologues. Republicans are screaming out for elected officials they trust. I want to be judged on what I do, not what I say."
He is no liberal. The Christian Coalition last year gave him a 100 percent rating, and he made headlines early on in his political career fighting to lower the amount of tax money Hillsborough County took in for health care for the poor.
Rather, Lee is a probusiness moderate and rare Republican willing to question the ambitious conservative agenda of Gov. Bush and other Republican leaders. He argues he's the one most in tune with Florida voters.
"This is a very moderate state, and we have to be very cautious about how far in front of the people we get ideologically. The governor is very fortunate because he comes from a political dynasty of Republicans and has virtual rock star status among the electorate, but this is a really moderate state and you can not turn government on a dime without shocking the system that took generations to evolve."
Lee supported revamping the state's tax system two years ago to raise more money from businesses and less from sales taxes. Spending more on on schools and transportation, he said, is not anti-Republican.
"There's a difference between growing the size of government programs and making strategic investments in Florida's infrastructure," he said. "If Republicans are probusiness, then Republicans are proinfrastructure investment because you can't attract business or grow industry without a quality . . . transportation system, without a quality education system."
Still to be determined is whether Tom Lee is a rising breed of Florida Republican or dying one. What's certain is that he will keep Tallahassee interesting for the next three years.
Adam C. Smith can be reached at 727 893-8241 or adam@sptimes.com
