Ray Sansom's resignation from the Florida House of Representatives Sunday night is in the words of Bradenton House Republican Bill Galvano "a resolution that's in the best interest of everyone involved."
No kidding.
The departure of the embattled Panhandled based former House Speaker means that the House Select Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (which Galvano chairs) will not spend most of this week hearing testimony about a $6 million airport hangar project that Sansom, as appropriations chairman, quietly inserted into the state budget.
That also means that officials with knowledge of how the budgeting process works – none bigger than U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio – who were scheduled to have to testify at the public hearing now will not, which saves the now rock star Rubio any embarrassment that might have evolved out of a hearing process that he did not control.
This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2010.