May 6, 2013 - 6:00pm
With the 2013 legislative session over, most lawmakers are already back in their districts after two months in Tallahassee. Despite solid Republican majorities in both chambers, the GOP did not exactly have the most impressive of sessions with the House and the Senate failing to agree on major issues.
On the other hand, in 2012 the House ran roughshod over the Senate. This year the Senate began to get its groove back.
As members of both parties look ahead to 2014, some winners and losers emerged in the 2013 legislative session.
WINNERS
Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel. While Weatherford was not successful in moving new state employee pensions into a 401(k)-style system, he ranks as one of the biggest winners of the session. Weatherford stuck to his guns, not accepting federal funds for Medicaid expansion mandated by the federal healthcare law, despite drawing fire from Gov. Rick Scott and the Democrats. Only 33, he has his eye on the future and knows that conservatives are key to winning a statewide Republican primary -- as Rick Scott, Marco Rubio and Pam Bondi showed in 2010. Weatherford was even able to claim a bit of the national spotlight this session when he was showcased at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in March. Like Rubio, Weatherford clearly hopes to use the speakership as a launch pad for something larger. In his first session as speaker, he helped his chances of running for office in the future.
Gov. Rick Scott. Mired in the polls, Scott needed to show he could round the bases with the two top priorities he talked about day in and day out for the last two months -- a $2,500, across-the-board pay raise for teachers and elimination of the manufacturing sales tax. True, those priorities barely made it to the finish line, but the fact that they got there showed a decided synchronicitythat hasn't always been there between governor and Legislature since 2010. Though teachers' unions won't suddenly turn around and support Scott's re-election, unions and Democrats will have a tougher time trashing him on education issues -- and the pay raise likely will attract a percentage of the independent vote that wasn't there before. Eliminating the manufacturing sales tax -- cleverly attached to another bill -- drew cheers from the business community at a time when the state unemployment rate hit a new low. True, Scott supported accepting federal dollars for Medicaid expansion -- contradicting his original stance -- but he explained why, stuck to his guns and though conservatives revolted in the House and shut down the possibility, the issue isn't dead. Scott showed strength and, at times, statesmanship -- and he may yet call the Legislature back for a special session.
Rookie GOP Sen. Wilton Simpson, 46, a Trilby egg farmer who won his seat unopposed after Democrats missed a filing deadline, gained instant notoriety when all parties in the ringing Everglades restoration clash gave him credit for bringing parties together in happy resolution. Simpson's reputation as peacemaker is now carved in stone -- for so many years, environmentalists have locked horns with agricultural interests and sugar farmers with each other. But Simpson gets credit for so smoothly defusing the controversy that it made the Everglades bill's passage almost another ho-hum day at the office. Expect to hear a lot more from Simpson.
Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Doral. Only 30, this Miami-Dade legislator was the point man in the House on two of the biggest issues members voted on -- banning Internet cafes and parent empowerment. While parent empowerment would die in the Senate, Trujillos bills won by large margins in the Senate. It was a heavy lift for a legislator in his third year and he succeeded. The House Republican caucus is full of backbenchers, but Trujillo stood out considerably this session. This is one young Republican to keep an eye on.Sen. John Legg, R-Port Richey. Despite being only 38, Legg was already in danger of being a political has-been. With Wilton Simpson disrupting his plans, Legg ended up running for a different Senate seat instead of the one he first targeted. But this session showed Legg can be a player in the Senate. As chairman of the Education Committee, he scored some solid victories on charter schools, teacher assessment, and Career and Professional Education (CAPE) academies. These victories loom even larger with Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, unable to get her Parent Empowerment bill to the finish line. If conservatives want to push education reform in Tallahassee, Legg looks like the man to turn to in the Senate -- as his record in the 2013 session showed.
Rep. Katie Edwards, D-Plantation. Keep an eye on this freshman Democrat, a self-described blue dog" who received an A" from the NRA in the 2012 elections and who could emerge as a star in Tallahassee and beyond. In her first session, Edwards won points from the business community for backing insurance reform while still garnering cheers from liberals and libertarians for leading the fight on medical marijuana. Edwards was able to reach across party lines on everything from insurance to alimony. Liberals might want to primary her, but Edwards posted impressive first-quarter fundraising numbers in 2013 -- and after this session, she can expect to add to her war chest.
LOSERS
Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland. The sponsor of Parent Empowerment legislation, Stargel found that bill failing on a 20-20 tie, the same fate a similar bill suffered last year. It was doomed by action of four senators who first promised to support it, then blew it up at the last minute. Stargel was also the Senate sponsor of the alimony reform bill that Scott vetoed, and the bill to restructure the Florida High School Athletic Association, which failed. Not the best of sessions for the freshman senator.
Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, R-Miami. Like Weatherford, Diaz was honored by CPAC during session but, unlike the speaker, he did not win many political points. With Diaz mentioned as a possible candidate to challenge U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia, D-Fla, in 2014, he needed to make a little noise this session. But he failed to do so. While Diaz did not harm his cause, he didnt stand out either, wasting an opportunity to raise his profile, especially as other Republicans look at the race.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Shalimar. The son of the Senate president had a fine session, but it pales in comparison to that of a political rival. Gaetz sponsored some important legislation that managed to pass, including a reform to medical liability cases. But he won more attention for his often colorful and sometimes over-the-top commentary on Twitter. In the meantime, Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Panama City, whom Gaetz is expected to face in a state Senate primary in 2016, hauled in more than $90,000 in the first quarter of 2013 -- while Gaetz brought in around $28,000 during the same period for his 2014 House re-election campaign. Patronis also won points for leading the charge to streamline environmental regulations and his stand against Internet cafes. With his impressive first quarter fundraising, score this round for Patronis.
Rep. Carl Zimmerman, D-Dunedin. Its tough for a freshman in the House minority to garner much attention in his first term. A Democrat, on paper, in a strong Republican district, Zimmerman needed to score some points in his first session. It didnt happen. Republicans have already recruited a top-tier challenger in Chris Sprowls, who is building a war chest with more than $30,000 in the bank already, after pulling the plug on running in 2012. Zimmerman has less than $9,500 on hand. With a well-financed opponent waiting back home, Zimmerman needed to stand out in Tallahassee but failed to do so. He didnt help his re-election chances this session.
Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater. Latvala turned out to be a chameleon, a mischief maker, and his downfall? He was seen as just that throughout the Legislature. The man who still harbors Senate-president aspirations showed conservative stripes starting out, slipping into a left-of-center coatto finish up. Despite his success with ethics reform, he launched torpedoes less because Senate President Don Gaetz asked him to than because he could -- blowing up Parent Empowerment and aggressively leading the charge against Weatherfords plan to save billions of dollars on public pensions. With the likes of Mike Fasano and Paula Dockery term-limited in 2012, there were questions about how successful moderate Republicans would be in the Senate. Latvala showed they are still a force to be reckoned with in the years to come, especially with no senators facing term limits in 2014. Unfortunately, what he also showed legislators was that he might not be a man they can take at his word.
Jeff Henderson is a Tallahassee political writer who writes exclusively for Sunshine State News. Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
