The New Speaker Speaks

by Keith Laing
The News Service of Florida

Rep. Larry Cretul's ascension to the speakership of the House is barely a week old - or hasn't officially happened yet if you ask the lawyers - but the man who assumes the gavel from Rep. Ray Sansom has already spoken publicly about as much this week as his predecessor did during his controversial thee month tenure.

Republicans gathered this week after a weekend of questions about the validity of Sansom's temporary recusal to deal with legal issues. Once they were all together, the GOP set in motion a quickly unfolding process that seems to be headed toward the permanent conclusion of Sansom's tumultuous speakership when lawmakers begin the 2009 legislative session March 3.

{sidebar id=1}Cretul has been acting as speaker since Sansom's surprise announcement at the end of last week, but the Ocala legislator was unanimously elected Republican Conference Leader Monday night by his GOP colleagues. With the vote, Cretul took the reins of the caucus from Sansom, and the stage was set for the unassuming 61-year-old to take the gavel from the embattled Destin Republican with a vote of the full House on the first day of session.

Hours before he became Republican leader, Cretul spoke publicly for the first time since being named speaker-in-waiting. After months of having a speaker who didn't speak to the media, Cretul told reporters he would not be another silent House leader. He also told them how he spent his first weekend as acting speaker readying for the post. "Our immediate focus now is to get back to the business of the Florida House and also the households of the state of Florida," Cretul said.

On Friday, Cretul shifted around the power a bit in the chamber, naming new members of his leadership team. Among those rising were Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, the new chairwoman of the Finance and Tax Council and Rep. Ron Reagan, R-Bradenton, who is the new speaker pro-tempore. In previous sessions, many observers would have been hard-pressed to say who the speaker pro-tem was or what that person did. Now, everyone knows the speaker pro-tem could be called on to step in as speaker in an extraordinary situation. Former Finance and Tax Chair Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, wasn't demoted. He moves over to lead the House's new select committee that will look for ways to stimulate the economy – perhaps the most important job facing lawmakers this year.

With a new speaker chosen and a plan in place to formally elect him, lawmakers returned to Tallahassee and resumed committee meetings this week with a series of panels in the House and Senate in advance of the session that will begin in less than month.

Everything from renewable energy to property insurance to campaign finance was on the table and several bills began moving in the House and the Senate.

{sidebar id=1}Lawmakers got their first look at a proposal from utility regulators this week that would require power companies to drastically increase the amount of electricity from renewable energy sources. They got an overview of the plan proposed by the PSC to require a 20 percent increase by 2020, but heard from power companies that they will be unable to meet the ambitious rules without counting "clean" technologies like nuclear.

House Energy and Utilities Policy Committee Chairman Paige Kreegel, R-Punta Gorda, took issue with set asides for solar and wind technology and rate increase caps in the PSC proposal, saying they worked at crossed proposes. "We seem to be sending out a kid with money to buy a hamburger and asking him to come back with prime rib and two lobsters," Kreegel said to staffers from the PSC.

Orlando Democrat Darren Soto jumped into the roast-like fray as well. "The (standard) is sort of like asking our utilities to put a man on the moon," Soto said.

Despite the comedy power hour, the energy committee did not move on the proposal or give much indication of any changes they might make.

But other committees did move legislation this week. Among them was the House Government Affairs Policy Committee, which approved a resolution that would asked voters to repeal the state's public campaign financing laws. If approved by 3/5 of voters, the measure (HJR 81) would end the 23-year-old system of public funding for statewide races.

Public financing supporters say that while flawed, the system has allowed otherwise underfunded candidates to compete with deep-pocket opponents, but House sponsor Rep. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, said that spending disparities still exist and the public shouldn't foot the bill for political races.

The House Insurance Committee called in representatives from State Farm to talk about the company's plan to stop selling property insurance in Florida. After the hearing, a top official at the state Office of Insurance Regulation said the private insurance market could likely absorb potentially all of the 900,000-plus property insurance policies that would be shed if State Farm were allowed to pull out of Florida as it has proposed to do.

Lawmakers have generally said that it would be a disaster if Winter Haven-based State Farm were to fold up its property business here, partly out of fear that many customers would be thrust into Citizens Proprety Insurance. A number of smaller, private companies emerged this week, however, to say they'd be glad to pick up some of those policies.

This article originally published on February 6, 2009.

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