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Speaker gets to ride out in a fast car

House members present a bipartisan gift - a royal blue 1977 Corvette - to Allan Bense.

By STEVE BOUSQUET and ADAM C. SMITH
Published April 28, 2006

TALLAHASSEE - Whether he heads home to Panama City or on the campaign trail to run for the U.S. Senate, outgoing House Speaker Allan Bense can travel in style.

His colleagues shocked the popular speaker Thursday with an unusual going-away present: the keys to a 1977 Corvette convertible with a new royal blue paint job. For a low-key millionaire contractor, it seems that few things say thank you as well as a muscle car.

"I can't believe it," Bense said when he saw photos of the car on the House video screen. "All my life I've wanted a Corvette, but I just never got around to getting one. When I could finally afford one, I got into politics and realized it's not the best thing to be driving around."

Bense's farewell gift is a result of an elaborate transaction involving House members and the Republican Party of Florida. The Corvette cost $9,434. It was bought by the party and is listed on the party's latest expense report as a gift.

Two Republican House members, Dudley Goodlette of Naples and Baxter Troutman of Winter Haven, shared the cost of reimbursing the party. They in turn have been reimbursed by collecting checks of $110 from Republican and Democratic House members.

"It's not fair to ask Democratic members to write a check to the Republican Party," said Rep. Marco Rubio, R-Miami.

In a memo to House members last week, Rubio said Goodlette and Troutman already have paid the party for the car "and it is only fair that they be reimbursed."

Rep. Chris Smith of Fort Lauderdale, the House Democratic leader, said he gave $110 to Rep. Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, the majority leader. Smith said he had no problems with the way the Republicans handled the purchase.

"We are fully allowed to give gifts to our members," said Republican Party spokesman Jeff Sadosky. "We paid for it, and we have all the checks to reimburse the party for it."

Bense has not ruled out a run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Bill Nelson.

Florida Democratic Party spokesman Mark Bubriski couldn't resist musing about Bense's new wheels.

"Either things are so bad for Republicans in Florida that even their cars are turning blue, or it's an acknowledgement that to compete in a Republican primary against Katherine Harris' $10-million, the speaker's going to need something really fast," Bubriski said.

Apparently the GOP was not entirely comfortable with how it handled the purchase.

Jennifer Morgan, office manager of Corvette Shop & Supplies in Tampa, which sold the car, said a party representative, whom she declined to identify, wanted her to return the check and let the GOP pay for it some other way.

"I think they realized it was a mistake the way they did it. They shouldn't have paid me the check they paid with, and they wanted to give me another check, from I don't know who," said Morgan, who declined to take a different check.

Party officials said they merely wanted there to be no mistake that the Corvette was a gift from House members and not the party.

Bense's farewell gift is a lot more expensive than those of his past two predecessors. John Thrasher received a golf cart in 2002 and Johnnie Byrd a vintage guitar two years ago.

Along with the car, Bense received a vanity license tag, SPEAKER1, and a pair of fuzzy dice - which he says he won't hang from the rear-view mirror.

[Last modified April 28, 2006, 01:15:08]