GOP holds all the cards but wants more
By TIM NICKENS
Published May 1, 2005
Florida Republicans should have amassed more than enough power by now to be content.
Jeb Bush is the most powerful governor of the state's modern era, having consolidated control over education, elections and the appointment of judges. The state House, the state Senate and the congressional delegation are overwhelmingly Republican. The state Cabinet is all Republican. The Florida Republican Party is a sophisticated machine fueled by piles of cash. The Florida Democratic Party is leaderless and broke.
Apparently, it's still not enough.
Heading into the last week of the legislative session, Republicans are doing everything they can to squash anyone who might challenge their conservative views. The cumulative result would be even less creative thinking in Tallahassee and fewer options for voters to influence the direction of their government.
The Legislature already has voted to permanently eliminate the primary run-off. The result will be that primaries could be won with less than 50 percent of the vote. The more candidates there are in the primary, the less likely a moderate will be able to beat opponents with more extreme views who appeal to the party's base. That is not a good development for Republicans or Democrats, and voters can expect general elections with statewide candidates who have little crossover appeal.
But conservative Republicans are not satisfied with scaring off moderates who fear they can't win a primary election. They also want to silence any candidates who cannot raise obscene amounts of money. To make sure statewide candidates with limited resources can't compete by relying on public campaign financing, the House passed a bill to raise the spending cap to more than $20-million. The same lawmakers who once railed against public campaign financing as welfare for politicians have figured out how to still raise tons of money, take the public cash and avoid exceeding the limit that triggers a one-for-one match.
Also floating around is a plan to further open the floodgates for huge contributions that are sent to political parties, which then send the money on to candidates. Enhancing that money-laundering scheme appears to be too much even for some Republicans.
While they are manipulating election schedules and campaign fundraising rules, Republicans are making it harder for voters who might not support their views. Early voting has proven very popular, but lawmakers have not done a thing to make early voting easier or more accessible. A safe assumption is that some GOP operatives have concluded that more time for early voting and more early voting sites would mean more poor people and minorities who are juggling jobs, child care and transportation problems might actually make it to the polls. Wouldn't that be terrible.
Just to make sure voters can't take things into their own hands, the Legislature is poised to strangle the constitutional amendment process. To snuff out most any bright idea, lawmakers would restrict the subject matter. In the name of combating fraud, they would make it next to impossible to collect the signatures needed to get an amendment on the ballot. And if a miracle occurred and an amendment made it to the ballot, it would need to win 60 percent of the vote to be approved. All of this has passed the House; the only hope is that the Senate will keep its senses. If not, voters still will have the final say on everything but the rules for collecting petitions.
Some of these efforts might be acceptable in a different context. An increase in the spending limits for public campaign financing might be reasonable, but not to $20-million. Some limits on constitutional amendments might be worth talking about if there were another way voters could force government to address issues, such as an initiative process for statutes.
But it is important to view these fundamental changes in terms of their overall impact rather than individually. Taken together, they would severly limit the ability of voters to influence state government and the state's direction. They would encourage extremists and discourage moderates. Money would have an even larger advantage over ideas.
When you hold all of the cards in Tallahassee, consolidating power looks good. But as Democrats who once ruled Florida know, things can change. There will come a time when Republicans wish there were primary runoffs to screen out extreme candidates, or campaign fundraising rules to help fight a candidate with unlimited resources. There might even come a time when they want to amend the Constitution to get something done.