Florida’s massive game of political musical chairs continued as expected today when Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, opened a campaign for the state’s chief financial officer job.

In a video posted on his campaign Web site, Atwater said he’ll use the CFO’s office to combat “fly-by-night mortgage scammers…Wall Street hot-shots…(and) big out-of-state insurance companies…..As CFO I will be your watchdog in the one office that’s responsible for literally every dollar spent in the state, every contract signed by the state, every promise made by the state.”

The CFO’s post is one of five statewide offices that will be on the ballot next year with no incumbent running.

The scramble for open seats began when Republican U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez announced he wouldn’t seek reelection in 2010. Republican Gov. Charlie Crist is running for Senate rather than seeking a second term. Within a week of Crist’s announcement, Democratic CFO Alex Sink and Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum announced they would forgo reelection bids to run for governor. Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, a Republican, faces term limits in 2010 and is also mulling a run for governor.

Atwater’s run for CFO means he will give up his Palm Beach-Broward Senate seat in November 2010 rather than 2012. Three Republicans — state Reps. Ellyn Bogdanoff of Fort Lauderdale and Carl Domino of Jupiter and Delray Beach investor Nick Loeb — are poised to run for Atwater’s seat.

Atwater, 51, is a banker whose great-grandfather, Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, was governor of Florida from 1905 to 1909. His own political career began with a stint on the North Palm Beach Village council in the 1990s. Since entering state politics in 2000, Atwater has pounced on some critical opportunities to notch a series of impressive victories.

In 2000, he surprised the political establishment by winning 71.2 percent in a three-candidate GOP primary for a northern Palm Beach County state House seat. He then cruised to easy victory in the general election.

In 2002, taking advantage of redistricting that put more of Palm Beach County into Senate District 25, Atwater challenged incumbent Republican state Sen. Debby Sanderson of Fort Lauderdale in a Senate primary. Sanderson eventually dropped out. In the general election, popular Democrat Bob Butterworth, leaving the attorney general’s job because of term limits, began as the heavy favorite to win the Senate seat.

But Atwater raised more money, knocked on more doors and slammed Butterworth as a tax-hiking liberal in TV ads. His 10-point victory established Atwater as one of the Florida GOP’s rising stars. Atwater was considered a likely 2006 candidate for CFO, but announced in late 2004 that he would stay in the Senate rather than run statewide.

In the Senate, Atwater was in line to become president of the chamber from 2010 to 2012. But he outmaneuvered fellow Sen. Alex Villalobos of Miami in a party leadership battle and was chosen Senate president for a two-year term that began last fall.

Tags: Jeff Atwater

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 11:49 am and is filed under 2010 campaigns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.