Negron locks up Senate presidency as fight ends

By DARA KAM
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, November 5, 2015……A bitter intra-party battle between two Republican senators over who will be the chamber's next president quietly came to an end Thursday after Jack Latvala ceded the race to his longtime nemesis, Joe Negron.

The struggle has shaded the Senate's politics --- and policies --- for more than three years, affecting previous GOP leaders' priorities and resulting in bad blood between Republicans who control the chamber. As recently as last week, it played a part in a verbal throw-down between the sharp-tongued Latvala and the equally acerbic Sen. Don Gaetz, a former Senate president and close Negron ally.

In exchange for Latvala giving up his quest to become president after the November 2016 elections, Negron agreed to let the more-moderate Latvala serve as the powerful chairman of the Senate's budget committee.

Standing beside Negron after a tense floor debate Thursday over a failed Senate redistricting plan, Latvala told reporters he withdrew after realizing that the rancor over the race had reached "a boiling point" characterized by some of his colleagues as a "low point" for the chamber as an institution.

"As someone who has made a lot of my life here, that really disturbed me greatly," Latvala, a veteran political consultant from Clearwater, said. "…It just dawned on me that I, for one, have not been paying as much attention to policy issues here in the Senate as I should have been. I've been totally consumed in the political side of being in the Senate but not in the policy side. That's what people sent us here to do. It just occurred to me that we needed to start focusing on what the people sent us here to do, trying to solve some of the problems."

Negron, who held a narrow lead in the race, praised Latvala for "bringing this to a conclusion in a way that's honorable."

Negron said he is "optimistic" that Latvala's concession would help Republicans unite.

"I think it's important that as a caucus and as a Senate that we're able to come together to work on common initiatives that we all support," Negron, a lawyer from Stuart, said. "There will be differences from time to time on policy items, but our goal always was that the caucus family would come together."

Rumors about Latvala quitting the race swirled in the Capitol late Thursday afternoon until the once-dueling duo issued a joint press release confirming that a deal had been struck.

Thursday's announcement came during a floor debate about a proposed Senate redistricting plan that could potentially have had an impact on the outcome of the leadership race, set for a GOP caucus vote on Dec. 2. Senators ultimately killed the redistricting plan, sending the issue into the court system.

Latvala's concession to Negron allows him to avoid a potentially embarrassing caucus vote and to flex his muscle during the 2017 and 2018 sessions as the Senate's chief budget writer.

Earlier this summer, Senate President Andy Gardiner called the caucus vote in an attempt to calm down a fractious upper chamber after it became clear Negron held a two-vote lead over Latvala. Gardiner, R-Orlando, told reporters Thursday evening that he did not play a role in Latvala's decision.

The end of the leadership struggle gives Negron access to $7 million in campaign funds for Senate races. Negron's assumption of the fundraising helm until he becomes president late next year should ease complaints from some Republicans --- and lobbyists --- that the competition between the two senators for leadership funds had created a distraction.

Latvala said he intends to ask three Senate candidates he had recruited to instead sign a "pledge card" indicating their support for Negron.

And Negron said he and Latvala would cooperate to help Republican candidates.

"There's a time for the election cycle to kick in. That's not today," he said. "We're going to work to have all of the candidates that want to be part of the Senate."