Senate President Mike Haridopolos On Session, Senate Race and Scott

Senate President Mike Haridopolos is putting his focus on the 2011 regular legislative session, which begins Tuesday, attempting to put behind him the recent furor over his $150,000 book deal with Brevard Community College that produced one copy. He pointed to large, transformative bills that are set to be passed in the Senate this week dealing with opting out of the federal Affordable Care Act, capping state revenues, merit pay for teachers and a tort reform bill.

"Look at what we're doing the first week of session," Haridopolos said.

Haridopolos said his approach to running the Senate is not "heavy-handed" and every piece of legislation will go through three committee meetings. Still, he plans to take on large reform bills tackling Medicaid this year and is convinced his record as Senate president will define how voters look at him in his race for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democrat Bill Nelson.

"I wouldn't call it aggressive," he said of the Legislature's agenda for the 2011 session. "I'd call it smart, methodical and well-planned out."

Haridopolos also said that a meeting between himself and Gov. Rick Scott at the governor's mansion Sunday night, which was publicly noticed by his office, involved no discussion of state business.

"It was a social meeting; we chose specifically not to talk about state business," he said.