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LUCY MORGANTom Lee, the next Senate president, asks colleagues and lobbyists to stop giving to leadership committees.
TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Senate's next president has asked fellow Republican senators to stop raising money to fuel their leadership ambitions and focus their time on Senate campaigns.
Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, also sent letters to lobbyists asking them to let him know whether they keep getting hit up for money for Senate leadership committees.
Lawmakers use the so-called committees of continuing existence to bankroll their efforts to seek leadership posts. About a dozen Republican senators have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars through groups with names like "Floridians for Better Government" and "Floridians for Accountable Government."
The committees give lawmakers a vehicle to raise unlimited amounts of money in addition to their regular re-election campaigns, which are limited to $500 contributions.
Lee said he decided to act after receiving repeated complaints from lobbyists about all the fundraising by Republican senators.
"When it starts to rise to the level of an outcry, you feel you need to show some leadership," Lee explained Monday.
At first, Lee said he suggested that lobbyists simply refuse to contribute, but he realized some felt pressured to donate if competing interests were giving.
Lee's power over senators will never be greater than it is now because he has yet to assign members to committees, which determines the power each senator has for the next two years.
Senate President Jim King commended Lee, saying the situation has gotten out of control in recent years as members limited to eight years jockey for leadership. "I think Tom did exactly the right thing," King said. "It was time to have done it."
Although King has two fundraising committees, he said he will not raise money until after the November elections, and only if he decides to seek re-election.
Sending a letter to lobbyists was also a good move, King noted.
"Now he's put the burden of not complying with member requests on the lobbyists," King noted. "Now a lobbyist can say "I'd love to help you, but I can't afford to suffer the wrath of Tom Lee because he's the incoming Senate president.' "
Lee urged members to wait until after the 2004 elections to raise money for their committees.
Two years ago King raised about $8-million for Senate Republican races, but he said he doesn't expect this year's election to require as much. Lee plans similar fundraising but would not say how much, saying only that it "is a grotesque sum of money."
Several senators who have committees said they will do as Lee suggested.
Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, compared the situation to a hockey team.
"A team is successful when it works together," Fasano said. "This is no different. We need to work as a team, and whatever money we can raise should go to the same cause."
Fasano formed the Committee for Floridians for Principled Government to raise money as he seeks to become Senate president in 2010.
Other senators with committees are Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie; Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami; Durell Peaden, R-Crestview; Alex Villalobos, R-Miami; Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland; JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales; Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach; Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton; and Lee Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs.
Earlier this year Lee and incoming House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City, spearheaded changes in state law to force all the fundraising committees to report contributions and expenditures. State law had allowed them to keep the identities of contributors secret.
- Times staff writer Steve Bousquet contributed to this report.