An Optimistic Joe Negron Feels an Obama Visit Coming On

Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, told Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers (STCN) he's "feeling the momentum building toward a President Obama visit" to the polluted St. Lucie estuary and Indian River Lagoon.

First, on Sept 25, Gov. Rick Scott invited the president and his administration to fly into Stuart -- as he had once before when he visited to play golf with Tiger Woods -- this time to see the sick St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers.

Then on Tuesday, U.S. Reps. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, and Trey Radel, R-Fort Myers, combined on a letter of invitation to the president to come on down, see the condition of the waterways for himself.

In part, the letter read, "Your administrations attention to environmental issues leaves us with no doubt that once you bear witness to the destruction of our once thriving waterways you will be all-in with our efforts to prioritize real solutions.

Negron told STCN, I think (an Obama visit) would make a big difference, just as it did when he went to New Jersey, billions of dollars later, speaking of Obamas visits to New Jersey after Superstorm Sandy. Its not just symbolic. I think it would result in more funding and also in revisiting the issue of the Corps.

Any such visit, if it happens, might have to wait until the federal government officially reopens for business.

Negron not only lives in the affected district, he is chairman of the Senate Select Committee on the Indian River Lagoon and Lake Okeechobee Basin.