State: Pasco lawmaker leaps to forefront in fracas

Mike Fasano has never shied away from the spotlight. But after a half-dozen appearances on national television in as many days, just leaving his office has become a challenge.

"Right now, it's quite difficult for me to walk from the Capitol to get lunch without being bombarded by the press," the New Port Richey lawmaker said Sunday.

Almost overnight, Fasano has emerged as the highest-profile supporter of the idea that the state Legislature is constitutionally obligated to pick Florida's 25 Electoral College delegates if the courts fail to resolve election litigation by the Dec. 12 deadline. GOP leaders asked Fasano, the House majority leader, to tour the news show circuit to spread the word.

Although he is well-known in Pasco County's political circles, the 42-year-old financial adviser said seeing his face replayed on national television has taken some adjustment. Fasano has appeared on CNN, Larry King Live, Meet the Press and other news shows in recent days to push for legislative intervention in the disputed presidential election.

"When I went to lunch today, there were three people who were just staring at me. I guess they saw me this morning on Meet the Press," he said from his Tallahassee office.

All of the attention is quite a leap for a man nicknamed the "prince of mud" by an opponent in Fasano's unsuccessful 1992 race for the Legislature. After that race, Fasano was asked by former state GOP Chairman Van Poole to leave the party for refusing to accept his defeat for state representative gracefully.

Fasano, an associate vice president for investments at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in Port Richey, was narrowly elected (with 53 percent of the vote) as the District 45 representative two years later. He rapidly ascended the ranks of leadership within the House, and last week was selected majority leader by his fellow Republicans.

"He's probably the hardest-working legislator I've ever worked with," said House Speaker Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo. "He works around the clock. Mike doesn't play golf. He doesn't go fishing. He doesn't have a family."

Fasano lives with his mother, Joan, and dog, Ginger, in the age-restricted Pasco community Heritage Lake Estates. Because he is not old enough to own a home there, his mother's name appears with his on the title to the house. (He sent his mother to Nevada during the 1996 election to protect her from what he predicted would be a barrage of negative ads against him.)

Now she is thoroughly enjoying seeing her son on television, Fasano said.

"My mother loves politics."

So does her son. Fasano is known as a calculating, competitive campaigner who takes few chances when it comes to keeping his seat. He raised more than $250,000 and spent almost $200,000 of that in his latest re-election bid, even though his Democratic opponent dropped out, leaving Fasano facing a write-in candidate. About $13,000 of that was spent on Ethan Allen furniture intended for his campaign headquarters, which Fasano has said he plans to donate to a non-profit group.

Fasano also campaigns for and against others. He helped unseat Democratic Pasco County Sheriff Lee Cannon this month by directing thousands of dollars to, and marshaling votes for, Cannon's Republican opponent Bob White.

Fasano's formal education is the GED he earned in 1987. Fasano also worked as a newspaper carrier for the St. Petersburg Times from 1976 to 1986, when he was fired over what he called a dispute with management over his route.

Term limits will force Fasano out of the House in two years, but he already has his eye on the Pasco-based Senate seat the Legislature is expected to carve out in 2002. But for now, Fasano's assignment is to repeat the GOP's mantra to the public: The state Legislature is constitutionally obligated to act if certified election results are not available by Dec. 12.

And that could mean a Republican-controlled Legislature picks Republican delegates to the Electoral College, Fasano said.

"It is a Republican-driven Legislature because the people wanted it that way. The people of Florida voted it that way," Fasano said.

He appeared on Meet the Press on Sunday morning opposite state House Minority Leader Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach. Frankel opposes Fasano's efforts to drum up support for legislative intervention.

"I do not believe the Florida Legislature should be the political arm of the George W. Bush campaign," Frankel said on Meet the Press.

Fasano doesn't see it that way.

"If something doesn't happen soon, and we don't act, I don't think we're doing our constitutional duty," Fasano said.

-- Times staff writer Tim Nickens contributed to this report, which also contains information from Times files.

For recent coverage

Florida legislators talk of acting (11/232/00)

Do we really want lawmakers picking president? (11/23/00)

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