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Bash of lawmaker gets chamber bashed back

By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published March 23, 2006

A leading business lobby, the Florida Chamber of Commerce, has angered one of the Senate's most powerful members, Ken Pruitt, the Port St. Lucie Republican who's in line to become Senate president in November.

What angered Pruitt were chamber e-mails to its members criticizing Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach. Lynn changed her position and now sides with Democrats in opposing a bill that would make it harder for groups to collect voter signatures on petitions to change the Florida Constitution.

Lynn said she changed her mind after discovering that "mainstream" groups such as the League of Women Voters and American Cancer Society opposed the bill (SB 1244).

Passage of the bill is a priority of the chamber, which has long criticized the ease with which Florida's Constitution can be amended. The group blasted Lynn, calling her actions politically motivated because she is on the opposite side of a Republican leadership struggle from the bill's sponsor, Sen. JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales.

"I must ask that you refrain from lowering your organization to personal attacks and assigning assumed motivations to a member's vote," Pruitt said in a letter to chamber president Frank Ryll Jr. In his reply, Ryll said "we regret any problems" his group caused senators as a result of targeting Lynn.

Doug Wheeler, the chamber's vice president of grass roots advocacy, said plans for a phone bank and a direct mail campaign have been placed on hold, along with letters to newspaper editors.

Lynn, who received a 100 score from the chamber last year for pro-business votes, said she was gratified by Pruitt's action. "I was disappointed that the chamber didn't recognize that members do vote their consciences," Lynn said.

[Last modified March 23, 2006, 02:15:42]