Well, nobody can say they were surprised.
The state House in Tallahassee today gaveled for a special session session just after noon, but adjourned after 49 minutes without taking up Governor Charlie Crists proposed constitutional amendment on drilling. House Speaker Larry Cretul called the special session "a terrible way to propose constitutional changes," and said he was setting up working groups to look at the effects of the spill and come up with solutions. "We were called here today because of politics," added before saying legislators could consider next year a proposal to put the drilling ban before vote.
Hours before the session began (and then ended), Governor Crist met with protesters hoping that the Legislature would approve putting a constitutional amendment on the November ballot on whether to allow offshore drilling in state waters. He said it would be a "real slap to the people," if lawmakers thwarted a debate.
Later, CFO and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink dubbed it "the tone-deaf state Legislature," and may use what happened today as another reason why change needs to happen in the state capitol.
It should be noted that though Republicans called this week a glorified photo op session and completely unnecessary, there was serious talk less than a year ago to actually drill in state waters. Incoming Florida legislative leaders Dean Cannon in the House and Mike Haridopolos in the Senate were quite serious about doing just that, and had employed economist Hank Fishkind to travel with them on a road show in "debates" that were heavily weighed in their favor, though critics like Eric Draper from Audubon and Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch were involved in some of those forums.
So even though it may be illegal to do so today without legislative maneuvers, the sentiment in Florida among some of its top leaders (including Governor Crist) just a short time should be indicative of how fleeting such sentiments can run.
Which is why the majority of Democrats in the Legislature – who have been mostly been critical of such drilling here – led the call for such an amendment in the immediate weeks after the Deepwater Horizon spill manifested itself in the Gulf of Mexico
Meanwhile, reports indicate that for now, the Senate, which as a body is not nearly as antagonistic about the proposal (or probably Charlie Crist, though there are some definite haters there), will stick around and work on legislation that could be part of what happens in a subsequent special session that could take place next month revolving the economic situation due to the spill, particularly in the state's Panhandle. UPDATE: Possibly not. It now looks they will sine die as well.
Democratic State Senator Dave Aronberg, free to use Twitter after the Senate took a break, called the House's action's "embarrassing," in a tweet sent out early this afternoon. Really, Barney? There was a statewide poll yesterday that said quite the opposite, that in fact 71% of those surveyed supported letting the public have a vote on offshore drilling this fall.
But conservatives are lovin' what the Leg has done. Barney Bishop from the uber powerful president and CEO of American Industries of Florida, said in a statement that "The Governor has indicated that, regardless of the outcome, he intends to take this issue to the people in November, but voters are not clamoring for a constitutional amendment to ban drilling."
CL readers may recall that this space (and others) called it a gamble when the Governor finally decided to pull the trigger and call for a special session, when there was considerable opposition from House Republicans to go along with the move. In a way, it blew up as bad as you could imagine, but because it has done so in a way that seems to thwart democracy, House Republicans might have only helped Crist in his ultimate bid, which is to become the next U.S. Senator from Florida.
This article appears in Jul 15-21, 2010.