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A split committee could vote today in favor of a special session as early as next week.
By SHELBY OPPEL and TIM NICKENS
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 30, 2000
TALLAHASSEE -- The Republican-controlled Legislature is preparing for a special session as early as next week to name 25 electors who would help send George W. Bush to the White House.
A special committee of House and Senate members is prepared to vote today, probably along partisan lines, to recommend that House Speaker Tom Feeney and Senate President John McKay call the special session.
That would place the Legislature squarely in the middle of a fight over the presidency that is being waged in state and federal courts more than three weeks after the election.
Republicans fear Vice President Al Gore's challenge of the state's certified election results could leave Florida unrepresented in the Electoral College and endanger Texas Gov. Bush's claim to the presidency.
Feeney and McKay are expected to follow the recommendation of the committee they hand-picked just last week.
"I don't believe there's an option at this point and I'm prepared to go," Feeney said. "I'm standing on the playing field ready to put my helmet on."
Gore strongly disagreed with the Legislature's apparent direction.
"I can't believe that the people of Florida want to see the expression of their will taken away by politicians," Gore told CNN. "I think you'd see quite a negative response to it."
But Republican legislators said they have an obligation to ensure that Florida's 25 electors are in place when the Electoral College meets Dec. 18. Federal law also says states should choose their electors by Dec. 12.
Lawmakers were still deciding exactly how detailed today's recommendation would be.
"I think it will say the Legislature might ought to meet to safeguard its duty," said Rep. Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, the committee's co-chairman, describing today's expected recommendation. "I think we will be methodical, cautious, studied."
Shortly before the committee met, Gov. Jeb Bush abandoned his neutral public stance on whether the Legislature should jump into the presidential drama involving his brother, George W. Bush, and Gore, who has contested Florida's certified results that gave Bush a 537-vote victory.
The Florida governor praised the Legislature for considering naming electors, calling it "an act of courage," and said he believes lawmakers have the legal right to do so. Jeb Bush said he would sign such a bill into law "if it was the appropriate thing to do."
"This would be something that, if it was to be done, would be clear, and I think people expect governors to say yea or nay," he said.
But the Florida governor said he would abide by the U.S. Supreme Court if it decides Gore won the election. "If the U.S. Supreme Court disagrees with the Florida Legislature, I think the United States Supreme Court trumps the Legislature," he said.
The committee is not expected to recommend specific dates for a special session or exactly how the Legislature should act. Various proposals are being circulated by legislators and constitutional experts.
Feeney, R-Oviedo, said in an interview with the Times earlier in the day that the Legislature had the clear duty at least to consider naming Florida's electors. He said such a decision might be the Legislature's obligation even if court rulings put Gore back in the lead. It is responsible to begin the process now, even though Bush still is the officially certified winner, instead of rushing in after a court ruling, he said.
"What I've heard so far is if all the contests are not concluded by the 12th, the Legislature has a responsibility to create a safety net," McKay said. "If that's our responsibility, that's our responsibility."
Some prominent Senate Republicans have been less enthusiastic about a special session than their counterparts in the House. But several sounded emboldened after two days of testimony from their hired constitutional law professors, who encouraged them to enter the fray.
Sen. Jim Horne, R-Orange Park, said he's unsure if the Legislature should "trump" the judicial process of resolving contested elections, one that lawmakers themselves created in statute. But he also said they must be prepared to take that step, whether it was "next week or the next."
Horne likened the process to a term paper: "At some point, you've got to finish that paper and turn it in to the teacher," he said.
Even senators who are more sold on a special session, such as Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Orlando, talked in measured tones about what should happen next in the presidential drama.
"I think what we're discussing is not necessarily "should we' but (the) timing," Webster said. "I'm not into doing this," he said, then added: "I support making certain that we have electors."
He was particularly intrigued by one lawyer's theory that the Legislature might have until Dec. 18 to act, not Dec. 12. While federal law requires states to name electors by Dec. 12, the Electoral College does not meet in state capitals until Dec. 18.
If the Legislature has those additional six days, lawmakers could await the outcome of Gore's legal challenges. "It's got to be the last effort," Webster said of a special session.
But Democrats who oppose a special session contend that Republicans are primarily interested in ensuring that the Texas governor becomes president even if Gore scores a court victory.
Rep. Ken Gottlieb, D-Miramar, said Republican legislators want to make sure "if Bush wins, Bush wins; if Bush loses, Bush wins."
"They're giving us a two-headed coin and saying each side is for Bush. And saying, "Call it,' " Gottlieb said.
Over two days of testimony, the special committee has heard contradictory advice from constitutional law experts.
Lawyers hired by the Republican-led Legislature told the committee that if legal disputes aren't resolved by Dec. 12, Congress might not count Florida's votes when the Electoral College meets Dec. 18. While Florida has declared Bush the winner and sent its certified list of 25 electors for Bush to Washington, they said, Gore's contest of the election could put their status in doubt.
The committee members were repeatedly assured that the Legislature, rather than the Florida Supreme Court, has the clear authority to appoint electors when the results of an election are in doubt.
"This body has absolute powers to choose electors," said Roger J. Magnuson, a conservative Minneapolis lawyer hired by the Senate.
But there were some other views Wednesday.
Thomas Julin, a Miami lawyer, told lawmakers that they would be "prudent" to convene a special session to examine whether to choose electors. But before intervening, the Legislature must first determine that the courts failed to resolve the election contests. Otherwise, he said, lawmakers will risk seeing their actions overturned by the state Supreme Court.
"Before the Legislature can step in front of the train they have set in motion, they must find that that train has run off the tracks," Julin said outside the hearing.
Another option, he told lawmakers, would be for the Legislature to effectively try to take charge of Gore's contest of the election results from the courts. He said outside the hearing that the Legislature's authority to appoint electors is not unrestricted and that a special session carries risks for the Texas governor.
"It is a definite possibility that by stepping in and having a special session, you could make it worse for Bush than it is now," Julin said.
Julin, a Democrat, was asked to speak by Rep. Dudley Goodlette, a Republican committee member from Naples. He was recommended to Goodlette by Florida State University President Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte.
Democrats invited their own constitutional scholars to testify by telephone. Bruce Ackerman, a Yale University professor of law and political science, told lawmakers that it would be illegal for them to choose Florida's electors and that Congress has the power to bar them from doing so.
That's because Florida already has a set of certified electors, he said.
"The state of Florida will have a vote counted. The state of Florida has made a decision," Ackerman said. "If the Florida Legislature proceeds to intervene at this late stage in violation of federal law, it will be setting a precedent for future state legislatures to intervene in every close election."
Countered Magnuson: "I frankly disagree with him. I think his interpretation was somewhat eccentric."
Lawmakers spent two hours listening to public comment, almost all of it from 68 South Florida voters whose plane trip to Tallahassee was paid for by the Democratic National Committee.
Most wanted to complain about problems they encountered with Palm Beach County's infamous "butterfly ballot" and other problems at the polls and were angered when lawmakers changed the agenda to allow only testimony about whether the Legislature should choose the state's electors.
Most of the speakers live in Palm Beach County and told lawmakers they shouldn't choose electors before thousands of disputed and discarded votes are counted.
"You will be no better than the people who sneak under the cloak of darkness who rob and steal and kill," warned the Rev. Richard Harris of St. John's Missionary Baptist Church in Belle Glade.
Lewis Hassan, 83, complained that he mistakenly voted for Reform Party candidate Patrick Buchanan because of the unusual order of candidates on the Palm Beach County ballot.
"For years, it's been one and two, Republican and Democrat. All of a sudden, there's an arrow here. I didn't even look at it," Hassan said.
-- Times staff writer Diane Rado contributed to this report, which used information from the Associated Press.
The 14-member special committee set up to study Florida's elections consists of eight Republicans and six Democrats. Seven members are lawyers. They have an average of 6.4-years of experience in the Legislature.
LISA CARLTON, R-Sarasota
Experience: House, 1994-98; elected to Senate, 1998
BETTY HOLZENDORF, D-Jacksonville
Experience: House, 1988-1992; elected to Senate, 1992
JIM HORNE, R-Orange Park
Experience: Elected to Senate, 1994
JOHN LAURENT, R-Bartow
Experience: House, 1990-98; elected to Senate, 1998
TOM ROSSIN, D-West Palm Beach
Experience: Elected to Senate, 1994
ROD SMITH, D-Gainesville
Experience: Elected to Senate, 2000
DANIEL WEBSTER, R-Orlando
Experience: House 1980-98; elected to Senate, 1998
JOHNNIE BYRD, R-Plant City
Experience: Elected to House, 1996
ANNIE BETANCOURT, D-Miami
Experience: Elected to the House, 1994
GASTON CANTENS, R-Miami
Experience: Elected to House, 1998
MARIO DIAZ-BALART, R-Miami
Experience: House, 1988-92; Senate 1992-2000; elected to House, 2000
J. DUDLEY GOODLETTE, R-Naples
Experience: Elected to House, 1998
KENNETH GOTTLIEB, D-Miramar
Experience: Elected to House, 1998
DWIGHT STANSEL, D-Wellborn
Experience: Elected to House, 1998
Source: the House of Representatives