GOP to celebrate 4-2 majority on Cabinet

Education Commissioner Tom Gallagher becomes insurance commissioner and treasurer, while Charlie Crist becomes education commissioner. Bob Crawford soon may choose to leave the state board.

By SHELBY OPPEL

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 3, 2001

TALLAHASSEE -- The state Cabinet, a board of six independently elected politicians who decide statewide issues, gets reshuffled today as two Republicans take new seats and give their party a 4-2 majority.

Tom Gallagher, who up until today was education commissioner, will move into the insurance commissioner and treasurer's post -- a job he held from 1989 to 1994. Gallagher replaces the most recent insurance commissioner, Bill Nelson, a Democrat who won election to the U.S. Senate.

Gallagher's successor as education commissioner is Charlie Crist, a Republican and former state senator from St. Petersburg.

Gallagher and Crist will be sworn in at 11 a.m. in the House of Representatives chamber, on the fourth-floor of the Capitol. Crist requested to take his oath from Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls, who attracted international attention last month when he rejected Vice President Al Gore's effort to contest the results of Florida's presidential election.

Gallagher will be sworn in by Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles T. Wells. Gov. Jeb Bush will preside at the ceremony, to which all 160 state legislators, as well as state agency heads, have been invited. Like all Cabinet members, Gallagher and Crist will each earn $118,957 annually.

To mark the occasion, the Republican Party of Florida planned an inaugural gala Tuesday night at Florida State University's Doak Campbell Stadium, which Crist said would be a "black-tie affair" with a band.

Indeed, the new look of the Cabinet gives Republicans reason to celebrate -- and more good news could be on the way.

Just 12 years ago, when Gallagher was elected to the insurance commissioner's post in 1988, he was one of only two Republicans elected to the Cabinet this century. Recently, the Cabinet has been split 3-3 between Republicans and Democrats, though Bush, a Republican, also has a vote on Cabinet issues.

When Gallagher and Crist are sworn in today, Republicans will outnumber Democrats 4 to 2. And the majority may widen again.

Bob Crawford, a Democrat who serves on the Cabinet as agriculture commissioner, has been asked to head the state Citrus Department. Terry McElroy, Crawford's spokesman, said the commissioner plans to discuss the job offer with Citrus Commission officials in the next day or so, but has yet to make a decision.

If Crawford takes the new job, the state Constitution gives Bush the power to appoint his replacement, who is expected to be a Republican. Such a move would leave Attorney General Bob Butterworth as the lone Democrat among the governor and members of the Cabinet.

Bush has yet to say who he might name as Crawford's replacement, but he's having fun as he ponders the choice. Last month, Bush received a letter from Butterworth and Bob Poe, the chairman of the Florida Democratic Party.

In their letter, Poe and Butterworth asked Bush to follow through on his pledge to "move beyond politics" in the aftermath of Florida's contested presidential election, by appointing a Democrat to replace Crawford.

"You have the opportunity to send a message to all Floridians that civility will be the tone in Tallahassee and bipartisanship the melody," the letter said.

Bush responded with a letter marked with a smiley face.

"Though recently disparaged by you as a Republican in Democrat clothing -- if you trust what's reported in the press -- Commissioner Crawford will indeed be difficult to replace, should he decide to accept the offer ...," Bush wrote.

Instead of serving traditional four-year terms, Crist and Gallagher step into jobs today that will be gone in 2002.

Voters approved changes to both posts in 1998. The position of insurance commissioner and treasurer will be combined with that of comptroller to create a new elected post of chief financial officer. The education commissioner's post will become an appointed one.

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