With 6-year vision ready, trio prepares to lead House
By HOWARD TROXLER
Published January 24, 2006
"I have seen the future of rock and roll," a critic once remarked famously after witnessing a young Bruce Springsteen.
Well, I have seen the future of the Florida House of Representatives. It ain't Bruce, but it is more promising than you might think.
Starting in 2007-2008, assuming there is no revolution in Florida that puts the Democrats back in charge, three youthful Republicans are scheduled to preside for two years each as House speaker:
--Marco Rubio of Coral Gables, 2007-2008 annual sessions.
--Ray Sansom of Destin, 2009-2010.
--Dean Cannon of Winter Park, 2011-2012.
This, by itself, is not news. We already know the House has been lining up its speakers years in advance. Term limits have only speeded up that early selection.
Here is the news. Rubio, Sansom and Cannon have yoked themselves together. They are presenting themselves as a six-year package of leadership.
On top of that, Rubio, Sansom and Cannon are talking about a different kind of House, in which "good ideas" matter more than party label, money or lobbying power, and the citizens have more say.
Here in January 2006, I do not know enough to tell you whether this is really going to happen. Tallahassee has a way of beating folks down. Money has a way of making itself heard. So does partisanship.
But the words, at least, are fresh. There is more idealism afoot, more talk about the Legislature - and not lobbyists or anyone else - serving as the main source of public policy for our state.
Rubio, only 34, is a lawyer from Coral Gables, married with three kids, a graduate of the University of Florida and has a law degree from the University of Miami. He was elected to the House in 2000.
Rubio was in the Tampa Bay area the other day talking about the program. The theory is that when he takes over there will an agenda in place. Everybody else has a "legislative agenda" before each year's session - why not the Legislature itself?
You cannot get very far with Rubio without him mentioning his Web site, www.100ideas.org which asks citizens to contribute to and to rank the state's priorities. He also is presiding over events that he calls "idea-raisers" in contrast to fund-raisers. You can ask to be the host of your own idea-raiser.
Here, according to Rubio, is how Florida too often makes its policy. Either we are reacting to horrible news (an infamous crime, a hurricane, a media expose) or else an interest group is driving the agenda. The Legislature itself has been a "power vacuum" in the policy process.
(This rings true. Regular readers know how much I have harped on the fact that Florida's telephone companies got to write their own law that raised local rates, and basically rammed it through.)
Some other things he said:
--Republicans should not support ideas such as school vouchers for their own sake, out of ideology, but only if they are the best way to achieve the desired end.
--Republicans should not "expand the role of government," and he agrees with the classic conservative belief that taxes stifle the economy. But he does NOT consider spending increases to be an expansion per se . He said of education in particular: "If we need to spend more, we'll spend more."
--Citizen petitions, which have dominated Florida politics in recent years, reflect frustrations that the Legislature ignored. Had the Legislature listened and created a pre-kindergarten program years ago, for example, it would have been less expensive, better and further along by now.
"Today's ballot," Rubio said, "is what people favored years ago."
Please, I do not mean to slobber all over the guy. For one thing, Florida's next governor is going to have a lot to say. The older, more stubborn Senate also gets a vote.
Most importantly, Rubio will not be the first speaker of the House to gush with enthusiasm. The test will be how well he can lead his own chamber.
But with Sansom, 43, and Cannon, 37, in on the deal, the House is talking for the first time about a multiyear vision for leading Florida through the post-Jeb Bush years. The prospects are interesting.