Climbing the Hill

Conservative record

The bulk of LeMieux's voting record and rhetoric has been predictably conservative. He opposed the Democratic-led healthcare reform bill, voted against the financial regulatory reform bill crafted by Democrats Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd, and opposed the extension of unemployment benefits because they weren't coupled with spending cuts. As a member of the Armed Service Committee, he voted against repealing the law that bars openly gay individuals from serving in the military.

Shortly after arriving on the Hill, he created a leadership PAC, he says, to help elect more Republicans to Congress. "I think this is a dire time for this government and what it means for the people of this country if the government can't figure out how to curb its spending. The only way that we're going to do that is by reversing the trends of recent years and bringing in more people to Washington who hold strongly conservative values," he says.

LeMieux hasn't been totally partisan. His credit agency amendment was crafted with the help of Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington. In April, he teamed up with Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island, to offer a bill that aims to provide teachers, principals and other school leaders with professional development and mentoring programs to strengthen their teaching and leadership skills. In July, he broke ranks with his party to help pass the Democrat-written amendment that establishes a $30-billion small-business lending fund. LeMieux won praise from both pro-business groups in Florida and Senate Democrats such as Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. "We couldn't get one vote from a single Republican to help small business through community banks. Thankfully, Sen. LeMieux has broken the ice," Whitehouse said on the Senate floor.

Back home, however, Democrats paint LeMieux as an "uber-partisan, ultra-Republican" obstructionist who does little more than "vote no" on the Democratic agenda. "By just saying no, he's not only said no to giving tax breaks to 200,000 small businesses in our state, he said no to closing the Medicare Part D doughnut hole to senior citizens and (by voting against healthcare reform), he said no to cutting the national deficit by a trillion dollars over the next 20 years," says Florida Democratic Party spokesman Eric Jotkoff.

LeMieux, shown here meeting with staffers, became active legislatively soon after arriving in Washington. He introduced his first piece of legislation as the Senate grappled with healthcare reform. But his profile among Floridians remains low. [Photo: Katherine Lambert]

Campaign considerations

LeMieux is clearly enchanted with his senatorial stint, which he calls "the best job I ever had." The 41-year-old Broward County native is coy about any plans to run against Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012. "I haven't ruled anything in or out for the future," he says. But aides and others close to him indicate that he's clearly interested in coming back, and LeMieux acknowledges that he "would like the opportunity to do public service again."

A 2012 run by LeMieux is a long way from a slam dunk, however. One consideration is whether he is willing to put his young family through the rigors of Washington life on a long-term basis. "We have four young kids, and that's the most important thing to me, my wife and my kids. They're little, and they're not going to be little forever, and this is a time that's extremely important in their maturation," he says.