Tallahassees full of fights this session. Now you can add a House leadership contest to the bill.
It was already an unruly session. The House and the Senate continue their conflict over the budget and Medicaid expansion while Joe Negron and Jack Latavala continue their seemingly endless struggle to become the next Senate president. And South Florida environmentalists who claim to have the only legitimate science for fixing Everglades and water woes, want the state to spend $500 million to $700 million to buy land of questionable value and won't take no for an answer.
Two weeks to go until session ends and there are more grumbles and sighs than usual over the prospect of a special session.
But, over the last week, Tallahassee has witnessed yet another fight, this time between Eric Eisnaugle and other members of the House Republican caucus over whether he will be speaker after the 2020 elections. Saint PetersBlog has been all over the story as Republican freshmen peel away from Eisnaugle, including those who had already committed to him.
Some of the Republican rebels want to dump him, complaining about the process of naming House leaders six years before they actually take over. Others claim Eisnaugles religious conservatism is playing poorly with some of his fellow freshmen.
Blaise Ingoglia, chairman of the RPOF, is the most likely replacement for Eisnaugle. As Rick Scott, Leslie Dougher and Melissa Sellers learned, Ingoglia is not to be taken lightly.
After starting a successful real estate career, he became politically active, serving as the vice chairman of the RPOF -- but he also remained a favorite of conservatives. Running his popular Government Gone Wild online videos about the need to cut government spending, Ingoglia won the support of the tea party and became a popular speaker for conservative groups throughout Florida.
As his online videos showed, Ingoglia understands the power of social media. He has a grasp of where politics is headed. Thats one of the reasons so many Republicans had no problem letting him take over the RPOF instead of keeping Dougher who helped GOP have a good year in 2014.
Of course, one of the chief reasons Ingoglia prevailed over Dougher was the support of Richard Corcoran, next in line to be speaker. He has led House Republicans against Medicaid expansion. Corcoran is as crafty a politician as they come and while he makes some mistakes -- just look at the way he played the special election for Mike Fasanos vacant seat in the House -- he is almost always successful.
Corcoran is denying being behind the effort against Eisnaugle and so is Ingoglia. But there have been issues between Corcoran and Eisnaugle. The incoming speaker did, after all, help Ingoglia beat Dougher and take over the RPOF.
For the moment, it looks like there wont be a quick resolution to the struggle as Eisnaugle and his rivals maneuver for position. Just what Tallahassee needed this session: yet another protracted struggle in the Legislature.
Tallahassee political writer Jeff Henderson wrote this analysis piece exclusively for Sunshine State News.
