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Senator who wouldn't be dumped may haunt GOP

By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published September 8, 2006

The Florida Senate will never be the same.

Some of this state’s most powerful political forces threw all they had at Miami Republican Alex Villalobos. But he still won.

Gov. Jeb Bush said Villalobos “abandoned our party’s principles and lost his way” for opposing vouchers and supporting the class size amendment. Bush did radio ads in two languages for Villalobos’ primary opponent, Frank Bolanos.

Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, the incoming Senate president, stayed neutral in the primary, an act that contradicted a decades-long tradition that parties protect all of their incumbents.

Now Pruitt has to live with the fellow Republican senator he snubbed when that person needed help the most.
Interest groups spent millions of dollars in an all-out effort to destroy Villalobos’ political career — a soft money assault never before seen in a Florida legislative election.

And still Villalobos won.

The final result was 10,637 votes for Villalobos and 10,059 for Bolanos — a margin of 578 votes.
This was a rare thing in Florida politics, and ought to be part of every civics class — that is, if schools still taught civics.

Villalobos’ grip on the 2008 Senate presidency began loosening last February when a band of Republicans joined forces to hand it to Sen. Jeff Atwater instead.

Then Villalobos lost his majority leader’s post for siding with Democrats and opposing key parts of the Republican agenda.

His votes — acts of conscience to Villalobos and his allies, and rank political opportunism to his opponents — antagonized powerful interests.

They decided to go after him and take him out, to teach him, and others, a lesson.

The Florida Chamber of Commerce. Retailers. The phosphate industry. Insurance companies. All aligned with a small bloc of senators working to derail Villalobos’ Senate presidency.

The anti-Villalobos faction included Sens. JD  Alexander of Lake Wales, Mike Bennett of Bradenton, Mike Fasano of New Port Richey, Mike Haridopolos of Melbourne and Alex Diaz de la Portilla of Miami.

Under the names of groups like the Committee for Florida Justice Reform, they smothered a swath of Miami-Dade County with ads and mailers attacking Villalobos.

Villalobos had special interest help, too, from teacher unions, trial lawyers and others.

The attacks didn’t succeed. They wounded the bear, but they couldn’t kill him, and now they all have to live with each other in the Florida Senate. Villalobos is coming back stronger and more defiant of the status quo than ever.

“The rich snobs that live in million-dollar mansions aren’t the ones that live in my district,” Villalobos said Thursday on Jim DeFede’s radio program on WINZ in Miami. “My district wants smaller class sizes.”

The results speak for themselves. Villalobos is the David who triumphed over the Goliath of special interest money.

He is a force to be reckoned with.

Yet you could hear in Villalobos’ voice the sound of a sore winner — and that won’t get him very far in the next legislative session.

When talk show host DeFede asked whether Villalobos might consider graciously making peace with the people who went after him (an idea suggested by lobbyist and ex-GOP leader Al Cardenas), the senator wasn’t buying it.

“That’s called hypocrisy and I’m not a hypocrite,” he said.

Villalobos wants the Senate presidency more than ever, and it’s fair to assume his close-knit group of six or seven loyalists is stronger than ever.

The group includes Sen. Nancy Argenziano, R-Dunnellon, who said the race was “a fight between good and evil.”

“I feel fantastic,” Argenziano said the morning after the election. “I feel like good has prevailed. … I think Jeb Bush needed a dose of reality, and that’s what he got.”

Pruitt, who controls all of the Senate committee assignments, would not say what he has in store for Villalobos. But he promised to “fully utilize” every senator, and he seemed to get the message from Miami.

“When you’ve served your constituents for 14 years, there’s a lot of goodwill that’s built up,” Pruitt said. “It’s a testament to what Alex has done in the community.”

One intriguing subtext to the Villalobos-Bolanos battle is that some of Bolanos’ strongest supporters are key members of the inner circle of Rep. Marco Rubio, the incoming speaker of the House.

They include Rep. Ralph Arza, R-Hialeah, who said Villalobos owes his victory largely to the 55-and-over

Cuban-American voters who especially despise personal attacks in political campaigns.

“To his credit and his team’s credit, he fought hard, he didn’t quit and he didn’t buckle,” Arza said.

And the Florida Senate will never be the same.

Steve Bousquet can be reached at (850) 224-7263 or bousquet@sptimes.com.

[Last modified September 8, 2006, 20:34:09]