But Lombardi switched to the Democratic Party in July, severing her ties to the Brevard County Republican Party because she believed its hard-line conservative stance on issues didn't reflect the community. The Democrats now tout Lombardi as their great hope for retaining Senate District 15 in the face of voter registration numbers that give Republicans the edge.
Lombardi is also the model for the kind of candidate Democrats want to recruit to recapture many of the 66 open legislative seats in the 2000 elections. "Gone are the days when you go and find the most leftist liberal," says Rep. Lois Frankel of West Palm Beach, scheduled to become House Democratic leader in 2001. "Most people just want reasonable, mainstream thinkers running their government. And we want to win."
GOP leaders are targeting District 15, too: Depending on who succeeds in the primary, the party will offer either Rep. Bill Posey, a Rockledge Realtor, or Rep. Harry Goode, a Melbourne retailer who until 1998 was -- no surprise -- a Democrat.
GOP on defensive
If the Senate District 15 race isn't enough to muddle party labels, how about this: A recent voter survey by FloridaFree, a non-partisan, business-backed political research organization, found that more voters now say Democrats better represent their views on economic and business issues than Republicans. Talk about messing up a reputation! The survey also found while the number of Independent voters in Florida is growing, more identify themselves as leaning Democrat than Republican.
Republican leaders, such as Rep. Tom Feeney of Oviedo, House speaker-designate for 2001, and Republican Party Chairman Al Cardenas, blame those trends on voter dissatisfaction with Congress, not Florida's Republican-dominated legislature.
The poll found that 49% of the 800 respondents were satisfied with the performance of the Florida Legislature -- not bad, but down slightly from a similar survey two years ago. What's more, only 31% of the voters surveyed said they want to see their legislators re-elected. "We are entering an era of great political uncertainty," observes Lee Hinkle, president of FloridaFree.
With the political dynamics changing, another GOP landslide in 2000 is no longer a sure thing. Republicans may have to tread carefully to defend some of their positions. An example: Gov. Jeb Bush and House leaders have promised another $1 billion in tax cuts for "Florida's families" in 2000. (Among the suggestions: eliminating the sales tax on diapers, saving taxpayers an estimated $20 million.) But numerous polls have shown tax cuts are not a top priority for most Floridians, who put more weight on improving education.
Only 5% in the FloridaFree poll said tax and budget issues were a top concern. Notably, 33% said business and industry pay too little in taxes. Republicans must be careful that their tax breaks aren't perceived as doing more to help corporate interests than average people, or voters may see the cuts as political paybacks.
natural resource
Water Works
"This will be the year of water," enthuses Allison DeFoor, the governor's Everglades clean-up adviser and chief champion of a new water policy group. The Water Policy Advisory Committee, a 15-member group of House and Senate leaders and Bush administrative staff, has established a framework for funding surface water, stormwater and wastewater projects. If legislators can agree on which long-range projects should take priority, they will also have the makings for an unprecedented five-year water plan.
The committee is another in a series of budget-priority exercises initiated by Bush since his veto of $313 million in legislative projects, many of which were intended to address water quality. A white paper produced by Bush's staff describes the inadequacies of state water policies: Planning is fragmented, water restoration projects are disjointed and inadequate, stormwater needs are ignored and long-term projects are not given long-term funding.
Environmentalists are approaching the committee skeptically. "While I'm trying to stay open-minded, I am suspicious," says Linda Young, director of the Florida Chapter of the Clean Water Network, a Washington-based advocacy group. She says the Bush administration continues to allow polluters to discharge into protected waters at high rates, and that it refuses to allow a review of the Clean Water Act to increase water quality standards. The administration also has continued the pattern of legislatively approved loopholes that permit the degradation of water resources. For example, Bush allowed a bill to become law that allows developers to build septic tanks on wetlands by preventing county health departments from stopping them. The result: hundreds of permits have been approved.
Young notes that the composition of the advisory committee -- particularly from the House -- includes many lawmakers who routinely support exemptions to Florida's environmental laws or who have attempted to weaken state water regulations. "I'm not seeing a lot of substance behind all their glitzy words," she says. DeFoor responds that the rigorous criteria established by the task force speak for themselves. "The perfect should never be the enemy of the good," he says. "This is a good thing, and I'm proud of it."