By all accounts, the ascendancy of Republican Will Weatherford to Florida House Speaker is grist for the optimism mill. The clean-cut, collegial 33-year-old, who is the youngest Speaker in modern Florida history, is the antithesis of Ray Sansom.
The Wesley Chapel resident has been saying all the right things since the election. Inclusion and cooperation have become mantra-like references, which is not unimportant in a Legislative House that still has 76 Republicans out of 120 members. That still has 26 Republicans out of 40 Senate members. That still has a Republican cabinet. And still has GOPster Gov. Rick Scott, now trying to regain the respect of the Koch Brothers.
The test, of course, will come in March. That’s when the 86th Legislature will convene and the people’s business moves from the rhetoric of reconciliation to the reality of law-making. Hopefully–in a state with 8.5 percent unemployment and budgetary subplots–it won’t be ideological business as usual.
Speaker Weatherford is no miracle worker, of course. And the GOP majority still includes some Tea Party and Deliverance elements. But he can help put the House on notice by how he uses his good will, what tone he sets and what he actually prioritizes. Some suggestions: Consider blatantly necessary voting reform, meaningful health care cooperation, overdue internet retailer-tax remittances, genuine support for higher education and serious, distracted-driver legislation. If common sense, good faith and sheer need were the criteria, all this would be low-hanging fruit. Even in Florida.
Weatherford can’t do all the picking, but a savvy-beyond-his-years, ethical, moderate Republican with across-the-aisle instincts is surely cause for encouragement. Surely.