Underneath the posturing
Lawmakers' political ambitions may leave serious issues buried under election-year rhetoric.
By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published March 5, 2006
TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Legislature is apt to do odd things in even-numbered years.
That's because it's an election year, and the next election is already casting a towering shadow over the 22-story Capitol.
This is Gov. Jeb Bush's last chance to define Florida's future, and the outgoing governor will inspire legislators to think boldly and take the long view. But Tallahassee is a political stage, and Bush is one of the few people in it not preoccupied with the campaign that will officially begin the day after the session ends.
Term limits have shortened the typical legislator's field of vision. With so many of them thinking about the forthcoming election, this session threatens to descend into a circus of posturing, of all talk and no action.
Consider the following:
* The Legislature is run by Republicans, who are increasingly divided over who should be the next governor. As Bush's star begins to fade, Charlie Crist and Tom Gallagher and their allies will use the 2006 session to sharpen the contrasts between them on taxes, insurance and other issues.
* The Capitol is awash in ambition. In a revolving-door atmosphere spawned by term limits, 11 lawmakers are running for statewide office or Congress, while others hope to extend their political careers as senators or as county or city commissioners. That list includes six lawmakers from Tampa Bay alone.
* One of those six, Senate President Tom Lee of Valrico, is running for the statewide Cabinet office of chief financial officer. Lee, who will control the Senate agenda for the next 60 days, faces a Republican primary battle with Rep. Randy Johnson of Celebration, who trails Lee in fundraising and must use the session to raise doubts about Lee's commitment to conservative principles.
"The session very candidly has been complicated by the fact that there are a lot of people running for statewide office, and for higher office," Lee said. "That always creates a more complicated dynamic."
Lee is a big part of that. A backroom power struggle over who will run the Senate in 2008 has poisoned the atmosphere in the usually clubby Senate and exposed deep personal divisions in the Republican caucus.
Election-year politics always shape the agenda. Lawmakers in both parties want to cut taxes, and House Republicans will act quickly to repeal a law that forces businesses to pay a greater share of damages than their actual liability to ensure that an injured person is fully compensated.
Repeal of the doctrine of joint-and-several liability is a sure thing in the House, but the Senate is another matter. Leading senators such as Ken Pruitt of Port St. Lucie, the incoming Senate president, have enjoyed strong campaign support from trial lawyers who favor keeping the doctrine in place.
Lee has promised Bush and the House an up-or-down Senate vote. The result will reflect the influence of election-year politics on the Senate.
"Will Lee lock down the Senate, or will he let everybody vote his conscience?" asked Sen. Walter (Skip) Campbell, D-Fort Lauderdale, a trial lawyer who opposes repeal and is running for attorney general. "Will he pander to the business community?"
The long shadow of Election 2006 prompts other questions, such as whether Republicans will propose a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, a sure-fire way to improve voter turnout among conservatives.
Will legislators consider legislation that could result in higher homeowners' insurance rates - even if that's the best way to revive the hurricane-ravaged market? Will they put on the fall ballot a measure weakening the class size amendment? Will they reconsider their vote of a year ago to ask voters to extend term limits from eight years to 12 years?
Some are having second thoughts on the term-limits question.
"That discussion has come up among members," said House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City. "There has been talk, but it hasn't been serious talk."
If legislative leaders manage to keep election-year politics at bay, it could be the result of a hard-earned history lesson. Nobody in Tallahassee needs to be reminded about what can happen when a presiding officer of the Legislature is consumed by political ambition.
It happened two years ago when House Speaker Johnnie Byrd of Plant City ran for the U.S. Senate while simultaneously controlling the levers of legislative power.
It was a disaster. The session became a running series of talking points and graphics to showcase Byrd's Senate campaign, and every move he made was seen as a transparently cynical ploy to get Republican votes.
Lawmakers who bucked Byrd on key votes suddenly became pariahs. The 16 who refused Byrd's effort to freeze phone rates called themselves the "Sweet 16." Lobbyists grumbled privately that their bills were being held hostage to demands for campaign money. In the end, lobbyists mocked Byrd by wearing buttons that said, "May 1, Johnnie's done. May 2, Johnnie who?"
When it was over, Rep. Ken Littlefield, R-Wesley Chapel, delivered the best epitaph for the Byrd era. "I don't think I've ever seen anybody squander so much potential in such a little bit of time," he said at the end of the chaotic 2004 session.
The burden to avoid a repeat of 2004 will fall largely on Lee's shoulders. The outspoken Senate president, who says he will not alter his priorities or his principles for political expediency, vows he won't do anything differently.
"It doesn't affect me," Lee said.
Florida legislators are prohibited from taking campaign contributions during the two-month regular session, so they must find other ways to attract support and attention. Those who are running for higher office employ paid consultants who are constantly urging them to pose for cameras and preen for voters as often as possible.
With a sizable press corps permanently housed in Tallahassee, most legislators know they can draw a lot more media attention in the Capitol than they can back home.
That's why Johnson, who lives in Orlando, in the nation's 20th largest TV market, went to out-of-the-way Tallahassee in January and staged a photo-op outside Lee's Capitol office. It was Johnson's way of prodding Lee into promising not to use a special campaign fund, stockpiled with large, unrestricted donations, in his CFO race.
Lee didn't sign Johnson's pledge. But a few days later, he agreed not to use the money in his statewide campaign.
"You will see some inside politics being played in the session. No question about that," said Rick McAllister, president of the Florida Retail Federation, a major business lobby. "Where folks see an opportunity, they will take it."
Besides Lee and Johnson, the legislators running for higher office include Sen. Rod Smith, D-Alachua, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor against U.S. Rep. Jim Davis, D-Tampa.
Four want to be attorney general: Campbell of Fort Lauderdale; Sen. Burt Saunders, R-Naples; Rep. Joe Negron, R-Stuart; and Rep. Everett Rice, R-Indian Shores. Four more are running for Congress: Sen. Ron Klein, D-Delray Beach; Sen. Les Miller, D-Tampa; Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor; and Rep. Nancy Detert, R-Venice.
Of that group, only one is a true powerbroker in Tallahassee: Negron, chairman of the House Fiscal Council, holds sway over the state budget. Anyone seeking a bridge, a health clinic or a pay raise for local prosecutors has to seek Negron's support.
Negron is one legislator who flatly rejects the notion that election-year politics will dominate what happens in Tallahassee.
"I don't think it really does," Negron said. "But I know you don't believe me."
Still others are competing against each other for more influence in the Legislature. In the state's most closely watched Senate race, Rep. Frank Farkas, R-St. Petersburg, and Rep. Kim Berfield, R-Clearwater, will compete in the Sept. 5 primary, and the winner will oppose Rep. Charlie Justice, D-St. Petersburg, in November.
Between now and May 5, the scheduled last day of the session, all three Pinellas County politicians will be angling for a way to get an advantage over their competitors. Only one will return next year to a plush leather chair in the Senate chamber.
Some term-limited lawmakers are seeking work elsewhere. Rep. David Russell, R-Brooksville, is running for the Hernando County Commission. Rep. Bob Henriquez, D-Tampa, is running for a Tampa City Council seat. Rep. Fred Brummer, R-Apopka, is running for the Orange County Commission.
One of the few in the Capitol who professes to be unconcerned with the campaign calendar is Bense, the low-key House speaker. A conservative Republican from Panama City who remains very skeptical of big-government solutions, Bense said it would not be all bad if lawmakers didn't get much accomplished this spring.
"I'd like to set the record for having passed the fewest number of bills," Bense said. "We have enough laws on the books."
Steve Bousquet is the Times Tallahassee bureau chief. He can be reached at bousquet@sptimes.com or at 850 224-7263.