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It’s been said up here in Tallahassee that too many good, conservative bills go off to die in the Florida Senate. This is true in many cases, despite Republican control for over a decade.
When I moved up to Florida’s capital back in 2006 I quickly noticed that the Florida Senate not only claims the lives of good bills, but also seemingly good conservatives. For whatever reason, there has been a tendency by many legislators who usually voted the right way during their service in the Florida House of Representatives to get elected to the state Senate only to throw in with the leftists and RINOs on several important issues. It’s almost as if they undergo some kind of RINOmorphosis. Some attribute this to greater flexibility and independence that the Senate as an institution provides its members as opposed to the House where those in leadership have greater influence over the body.
I just call it not being principled enough, but I digress.
Whatever the reason, we conservatives need to elect those who will stay true to the conservative principles they run on. Occasionally, it is difficult to identify the solid ones from the squishes, but when we do, we need to rally around them.
But what do we do when we have two seemingly decent candidates running against each other? How can we conservatives tell which one will be the steadfast conservative if their campaign rhetoric and voting records are similar?
One way is to look at their personal, non-political backgrounds. Another way, as my 90 year-old grandmother would tell me, is by looking who their friends are, as that tells you who they are. My years in politics verifies this. In fact, this is pretty much all I had to go by when I decided to abandon my support for the Backstabber Crist and give it to Tom Gallagher in the 2006 gubernatorial primary. Neither Gallagher nor Crist had memorably bad legislative or cabinet voting records. However, I witnessed how Crist loyalists in the legislature were undermining conservatism, and I knew that if he was elected, these RINOs would be empowered to continue their mischief under a Crist administration. I was right.
The race for the open state Senate seat in District 22 is one of those where there are two seemingly decent Republicans vying for the same seat. It pits State Representative Jim Frishe against State Representative Jeff Brandes.
We feel Representative Jeff Brandes not only shares our conservative principles, but most importantly, will not allow himself to be swayed from them.
A look at his personal, non-political life sheds light on Brandes’ character and temperament. As a combat veteran of over 75 convoy missions in Iraq and now owner of a large lumber business that has remained successful despite current economic circumstances, Brandes possesses a keen sense of discipline and focus that I believe is exactly the right antidote to the aforementioned Florida Senate’s RINOmorphosis syndrome.
I have had the pleasure of working with him closely on a few free market issues these last two years, and I can verify that he is absolutely committed to advancing the cause of conservatism and economic liberty. Not only has he had an open-door policy, but he is actually one of the few legislators who reaches out to the conservative think tank community for ideas on meaningful market-freeing reforms.
We in the think tank community do not have campaign contributions to offer legislators in exchange for “influence,” yet committed conservatives like Brandes have always welcomed us and valued our input. This is a good sign of their priorities.
This past legislative session he led the effort to oppose an initiative many powerful forces in his own backyard wanted, which would have raised taxes on his constituents in exchange for a light rail boondoggle. His opponent, Jim Frishe was on the wrong side of that debate. The bill passed the legislature overwhelmingly, with only Brandes and a handful of others opposing it, but Governor Scott rightfully vetoed it after pressure from Brandes, tea party groups, conservative activists, and others.
Speaking of raising taxes, Jim Frishe served in the Florida House way back from 1984 to 1990, during which time he voted with the Democrat majority to extend the state’s sales taxes on professional services. At the time, this was called the largest tax increase in Florida History.
That was a long time ago, and in fairness to Rep. Frishe, he maintained a relatively decent voting record since his return to the legislature in 2006. In 2009, however, he again voted the wrong way with the majority–this time, the Republican majority–to increase fees on cigarettes, auto tag renewals, and court filings, as well as raising business taxes.
Just because a majority of Republicans vote for something, it doesn’t make it conservative. #ReaganistaProverb #justsaying
Brandes, on the other hand, has never voted to raise taxes or fees during his time in the legislature.
These are all important issues and differences, but there’s another important component to this Senate primary and a few others around the state: they will likely determine who leads that chamber in 2017-18. Yes, that may seem like eons away, but that’s how Tallahassee works: politicians and the special interests who finance their campaigns like predictability, so Senate Presidents and Speakers of the House are chosen years ahead of time. This matters a great deal, as they are the ones who set the legislative agenda.
Representative Frishe’s senate campaign is backed by State Senator Jack Latvala, and it is no secret that Frishe supports him for senate president. This is the kind of ”insider” issue we conservatives cannot afford to ignore. Unfortunately, Latvala has used his position as an influential Republican state senator to undermine many conservative initiatives in the past couple of years by forming coalitions with RINOs and Democrats to kill good bills. The last thing we conservatives need is one more senator to join their cabal.
For example, one such conservative initiative they recently killed was the bill to enact “paycheck protection,” which would have terminated the practice of state government collecting and remitting union dues. Those of us who favored the paycheck protection bill believe that government should not be collecting dues for anyone. If the unions want to collect dues, let them invoice their members just like every other organization does. Besides, why would any conservative come to the defense of the unions who do everything to undermine us?
If only Florida had more Scott Walkers.
Anyway, that’s just one example that really grinds my gears, but there are several others that I may discuss in a future post.
Another major issue that is very dear to us here at Reaganista.com is what we call the Florida Conservative’s Litmus Test : whether or not someone supported the proven backstabber Crist’s 2010 senate candidacy against solid conservative Marco Rubio. Unfortunately, as “Honorary Crist Campaign Co-Chairman,” Representative Frishe fails this test.
Of course, a majority of Republican politicians supported Crist’s candidacy in 2010 in most cases out of political expediency since Crist was widely expected to win. But Florida–especially the state Senate–needs courageous conservatives who will not just go with the majority for the sake of it, but rather fight to advance the cause of conservatism whether or not it’s politically expedient.
Representative Brandes has a proven record of standing up for the right thing, even when he knows he is not in the majority doing so. Heck, even on his campaign website he proclaims support for an issue that is not exactly popular in that part of the state–property insurance reform. But agree with him or not, he’s upfront about his goals.
That is exactly the kind of courageous conservative we need in the Senate, because without courage, conservatism is meaningless. All this makes Rep. Brandes as #ReaganistaCertified as they come.
**UPDATE 7/25/2012**
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According to a Twitter update by Jeff Brandes today, Former Governor Jeb Bush endorsed his candidacy for Senate District 22 . This endorsement definitely adds to Brandes’ solid conservative bona fides and, in my opinion, carries a little more weight in a Florida Republican primary than a newspaper endorsement. #JustSaying
**UPDATE 7/20/2012**
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The newspaper that two years ago endorsed the disgraceful backstabber Charlie Crist today issued its endorsement in this race (to appear in print this Sunday, July 22).
The Tampa bay Times editorial board is recommending Jim Frishe because according to them, Jeff Brandes is “a tea party favorite who has served just one term and does not represent the county’s best interests.”
In other words, Brandes is a conservative who is not a career politician (Strike 1!).
According to the Times’ own editorial, they define ”the county’s best interests” as support for both the light rail boondoggle and liberal Republican Jack Latvala’s bid for the Senate presidency. Brandes, on the other hand, is unacceptable because he defended taxpayers by opposing the light rail boondoggle (Strike 2!) and is ”backed by more conservative lawmakers seeking to block Latvala’s rise (Strike 3!). That alone,” the Times contends, ”should disqualify Brandes as an option in this race.”
They’re essentially asking Republican primary voters to reject Brandes because he’s too Republican.
Good luck with that, Tampa Bay Times. And thanks for validating my arguments.