Senator
Alex Villalobos
Loses Support for
Senate President
February 9,
2006
According
to a late-breaking article on the Miami Herald website, Senator Alex
Villalobos (R-Miami) appears to have lost his support to become Senate
president in 2008.
Miami
senator appears to have lost top job
By Marc Caputo
for the Miami Herald
TALLAHASSEE
- At least seven Republican state senators withdrew their support from
Miami's Alex Villalobos bid to become Florida's first Cuban-American
Senate president.
The senators,
all solid conservatives, say they have different reasons for swinging
their support to Sen. Jeff Atwater, a North Palm Beach Republican, and
for backing away from the moderate Villalobos, who has made a few high-profile
votes against the party line established by Gov. Jeb Bush.
Whether this
means Villalobos is officially knocked out of the future leadership
post -- which would begin 2008 -- is unclear. Villalobos supporters
say he still has enough votes from his fellow Republicans, who control
the 40-member chamber with 26 votes.
Villalobos
said he's not giving up, but acknowledged he was caught late in an active,
well-organized conspiracy engineered by Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla,
a fellow Miami Cuban-American Republican.
''When I first ran for this office I was behind. Then I had the votes.
Now some people are saying I'm behind. This is far from over,'' Villalobos
said.
Diaz de la
Portilla didn't comment this morning. Atwater, who met with Villalobos
this morning, couldn't be reached either.
Meantime,
Senate Democrats -- who could conceivably team up with moderate Republicans
to keep Villalobos -- are staying out of the fight. One South Florida
Democrat said the party is eagerly watching Republicans tear each other
in an effort to remove a Cuban American from one of the state's top
lawmaking posts.
The Miami
Herald reported in today's editions that the coup attempt had failed
Wednesday night. However, two of the senators who said they were in
Villalobos' camp Wednesday night switched this morning. A third, Sen.
J.D. Alexander, who refused to comment Wednesday, was among those who
backed away from Villalobos.
''I'm not
going to comment on internal caucus positions,'' said Alexander, who
has had a history of switching votes for legislative leadership races.
Some otherwise
loquacious senators have also fallen silent. Chief among them: Sen.
Ken Pruitt, a Port St. Lucie Republican. He wouldn't say whom he supports
now.
Pruitt is
scheduled to be Senate president after this spring's lawmaking session.
But some Villalobos supporters say that, if Pruitt double-crosses the
Miami Republican, some longtime senators who are leaving by 2008 --
and therefore have no say in the Atawter-Villalobos race -- might pressure
Pruitt to back off or face a tough road through the 60-day lawmaking
session.
Villalobos
wouldn't comment about that, but noted: ``You don't become Senate president
until the day of the vote when you're installed. As you can see, anything
can happen.''
