State: Senator finds his way back to power

Senator finds his way back to power

By LUCY MORGAN

This week Sen. John McKay, R-Bradenton, was anointed as the next president of the Florida Senate. He'll take over next fall if Republicans keep a majority.

McKay, 51, is a calm, quiet, reserved real estate developer who has gotten more publicity over his divorce and remarriage than almost anything else he has done. Three years ago, he resigned as chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee -- one of the most powerful seats in the Legislature -- after disclosing an extramarital affair with Michelle Dodson, a telecommunications lobbyist.

It was a rare moment in Florida politics. A state official voluntarily gave up power to stand beside the woman he loved. If every legislator in the same circumstance stepped aside, we'd have trouble finding people to run the place.

McKay has come back to the pinnacle of power despite a former wife's efforts to ruin him. He won re-election without opposition.

Next year McKay will have the power to appoint senators to committees and decide which bills pass and, in 2002, over reapportionment decisions. Until then he and supporters are out raising campaign cash to hang on to the 25 Republican seats.

Some senators compare McKay to a modern-day phoenix, rising from the ashes. Some are just getting to know McKay, figuring out what he's all about. They see him as something of a loner, a shy and retiring man who has not established close, back-slapping ties with lobbyists or other senators.

They expect him to give his chairmen a lot of independence. They also expect McKay to support the Senate as an institution, protecting it as an independent branch of government.

McKay doesn't like the "loner" label, preferring instead to be seen as "independent." He's also very much a businessman. He spends a lot of time in his real estate development and investment business.

Who's close to him?

Other senators expect Sens. Lisa Carlton, R-Sarasota; Tom Lee, R-Brandon; Jim Horne, R-Orange Park; John Laurent, R-Bartow; and Jack Latvala, R-Palm Harbor, to play significant roles in his administration.

Outside the Senate, McKay counts as close friends, Steve Uhlfelder, who sits on the Board of Regents; Ken Plante, a former Republican senator who lobbied for Gov. Jeb Bush last year; and Frank Rosenblum, a Jacksonville developer who is also McKay's business partner.

McKay says he hasn't made committee decisions yet. But this is a man who moves quietly. Few realized he was locking up the presidency last year while everyone else was whirling around like chickens with their heads cut off, putting together a budget and "reforming" the civil justice system.

McKay has never called a news conference, rarely releases a statement. One of his few news releases was issued Thursday as he apologized for a 911 call from his home in October, an episode sheriff's deputies labeled as a non-violent domestic dispute. He's never held another elective office and doesn't plan to seek another one when term limits send him home to Bradenton in 2002.

He doesn't expect the political battles of next year to spill over onto the Senate floor.

"We all have our differences, but let us remember what unites us far outweighs what divides us," he told the Senate earlier this week.

McKay hopes to be remembered as a president who treated both parties fairly, and he'd be happy not to see his marriage in headlines, ever again. He says he and wife, Michelle, realize that her work as a lobbyist working the House could pose problems and are determined to avoid a conflict.

And now the race is already on to replace McKay in 2002. It seems to be a contest between Sens. Jim King, R-Jacksonville, and Dan Webster, R-Oviedo, former colleagues in the House. But that's another story.