Feeney

Former Florida House speaker and ex-congressman Tom Feeney was named Thursday as president and CEO of Associated Industries of Florida, the big business lobby.

Feeney succeeds Barney Bishop, who left the post last summer after seven years on the job. AIF is expected to play a central role in the upcoming legislative session as an advocate for casino gambling — pushing a major ‘destinations resorts’ package targed for Miami and two other, still-to-be-named areas of the state.

“Representative Feeney is highly respected, both as an elected official and as a Florida businessman.  He is a proven leader and will be a tremendous asset to the association. Having dedicated much of the last 20 years to public service, Tom knows what it takes to be effective in the halls of the Florida capitol and on Capitol Hill,” said Erika Alba, Chair of the AIF Board of Directors.

Feeney was the state House speaker from 2000-2002, when he was elected to Congress from Central Florida. Feeney twice won re-election, but fell out of  favor after becoming a crony of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who paid for the congressman to play golf  in Scotland, along with other perqs.

Feeney, who as a state legislator called himself a “happy warrior” for conservative ideas, usually drew high marks from business associations, anti-tax advocates and social conservatives. But running a losing campaign against Democrat Suzanne Kosmas in 2008, Feeney also ran a TV spot apologizing for his “bad judgment” in the Abramoff case.

Back in Florida, Feeney has been running a business consulting and lobbying company called Liberty Team, based in Orlando.

“With the 2012 Legislative Session just around the corner, I will be immediately rolling up my sleeves and getting to work on AIF’s top priorities,” Feeney said.

One of the Capitol’s most potent business lobbies Wednesday was in search of a new leader.

Associated Industries of Florida President and CEO Barney Bishop resigned after seven years as the public face of the organization, effective at the end of the year. Bishop had been under rising pressure from AIF’s board of directors and his resignation precedes a scheduled meeting next week where his future with the organization was expected to be discussed.

“There are other things in life — other passions — that I wanted to pursue,” Bishop said. “Now is that time. I have always been a serial entrepreneur, having previously started two companies. I may start a third company or join another.”

Erika Alba, a Jacksonville lobbyist who chairs AIF’s board of directors, said, “Barney has accomplished great things at AIF by rebuilding our membership and enhancing our effectiveness in the halls of the Florida Capitol.”

Bishop, who earned more than $400,000 in the AIF post, drew some heat from board members in July, months after he caused a stir by declaring that the “number one job of our board (is) to defeat Bill Nelson.” 

AIF’s board is not publicly disclosed by the organization. But a member acknowledged that Bishop’s comment may have got him crossways with some influential corporate backers of Florida’s senior U.S. senator, a Democrat.

But AIF, whose membership is eclipsed by the Florida Chamber of Commerce as a business lobby, has always had outsized personalities at its helm. Preceding Bishop was Jon Shebel, a six-foot-six-inch, ex-Marine who led the organization for more than 30 years until his 2006 retirement.

AIF is also renowned for its annual pre-legislative session cocktail party, which draws thousands to the organization’s Georgian-styled headquarters a block from the Governor’s Mansion. But in an age of business consolidation, some lobbyists have questioned how long the Chamber and AIF, which have many overlapping members, issues and candidate endorsements, can endure as separate entities.

No successor to Bishop has been named.

Just two days before the legislative session was supposed to end, the two professions at the center of a deregulation bill started girding up for what ultimately proved to be a sine die train wreck.

The National Kitchen and Bath Association, already represented by Nick Iarossi – a rising star on the Tallahassee lobbying scene – and his associate Chris Schoonover, added seven more prominent lobbyists to its team: Sarah Bascom (already doing PR for the group), Louis Betz, Michael Corcoran, Chris Floyd, Yolanda Jackson, Ron LaFace Jr. and Gerald Wester.

On the opposite side: interior designers, the profession the Florida House wanted to deregulate to the chagrin of thousands of interior designers and universities with specialty graduate programs. Tallahassee powerhouse Ron Book and his entourage began representing the Interior Designs Association Foundation back in February. But on May 5, the foundation also enlisted the aid of some of the Capitol’s most influential lobbyists: former RPOF lobbyist Rich Heffley, Brecht Heuchan, Guy Spearman, Sean Pittman and Missy Timmins.

In the end, those latest to the game won out.

In a stunning rebuke to GOP leadership, the Senate killed the dereg bill – keeping regulation of interior designers – late Friday afternoon on what was supposed to be the session’s last day, setting off the vendetta-laden denouement to what might have otherwise been a collegial hanky drop but devolved into public remonstrations from House Speaker Dean Cannon and a bleary-eyed Senate President Mike Haridopolos in the wee hours of the morning Saturday.

Charlie Crist was surrounded by a crowd of cheering admirers in his St. Petersburg hometown when he announced he is dropping out of the GOP U.S. Senate primary.

On the fourth floor rotunda of the Capitol, not so much.

The rotunda’s typically a raucous swirl of frenzied last-minute activity on the penultimate day of the 2010 session,

But gone was the cacophony of just moments before as Crist’s tanned visage appeared on two large-screen televisions.

Dozens of lobbyists sat, stood with their arms folded or leaned against marble pillars watching the national broadcast of the governor’s decision.

The response? Utter silence, with one exception – when Crist said “I was never one who sought elective office to demagogue or point fingers.”
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K Street powerhouse Juan Carlos Benitez is hosting a fundraiser for state Rep. David Rivera’s state senate campaign at the D.C. lobbyist’s home Friday evening.

Benitez was one of President George W. Bush’s “pioneers,” fundraisers who raked in at least $100,000 for Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign.

Rivera, a Miami Republican who’s facing off in a GOP primary against fellow Miami Rep. Anitere Flores, has raised nearly $400,000 in campaign cash already, not including soft money or money in other campaign-related accounts.

Flores has less than half that amount, with about $170,000 so far.

The two are vying to replace Sen. Alex Villalobos, term-limited out of his Senate District 38 seat next year.

House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, spent about 30 minutes with the “Leadership Gainesville” group on Tuesday and said he was looking forward not just to the end of session, but the end of his House career altogether.

Cretul, who became the most powerful lawmaker in the House about two weeks before the start of session, has passed out calendars to all House members that count down the days until the end of session.

But on Tuesday, Cretul said he was already looking forward to the end of the 2010 session, when he’d be termed out, able to spend more time on the porch with his grandchildren and eventually return to the process to lobby his elected officials.

Cretul received a few chuckles from the group at the end of the Q&A when he said, “I hope that was worth your time, I guess.”

Here’s how he left them:

“Seventeen days can’t come soon enough for a lot of us,” Cretul said. “This was a position I didn’t necessary seek or campaign for. But circumstances put me here.

“Everyday has been different. Everyday has been new. I can’t say everyday has been exciting. It’s been scary sometimes. But anyway, we’ll get through this, because we’ve got a good group of members and a good Senate and we’ll be out of here.”

Well, not really. But they are emptying their closets of “gently used” clothing for domestic violence victims next week. And they want yours, too.

So if you’ve put on a few pounds and those St. John suits are a bit snug, or those Manolo Blahnik’s gave you blisters, bring ‘em down to the 2nd floor rotunda in the Capitol next Monday from noon to 5 or Tuesday from 8 to 5.

The Florida Association of Professional Lobbyists (FAPL) will collect the goods and donate them to the three neediest shelters in the state for victims of domestic violence who need decent threads for job interviews.

Fashion plates Victoria Zepp and Diana Hadi-Padgett are co-chairwomen of the first-ever clothing drive. You’ve got to envy the lucky recipient of their cast-offs…

A Senate committee killed Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson’s attempt to let lawmakers accept gifts of 20 bucks or less.

Current law bars lawmakers from accepting gifts of any value – except cards and plaques – from lobbyists and keeps them from eating and drinking on the lobbyist dime unless the public is invited as well.

Lawson picked up only one other vote in the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee this morning from freshman Garrett Richter, R-Naples.

Lawson said one of the reasons he proposed the gift ban change is the negative impact it has had on his hometown Tallahassee’s economy.

And Lawson said lawmakers are getting around the ban by using political committees funded by lobbyists to pay for pricey meals. And lobbyists sidestep the rules by having their non-registered pals pick up the tab at swanky eateries like the members-only Governors Club.

Common Cause Executive Director Ben Wilcox argued against the bill, calling it the “camel’s nose under the tent” that could lead to a further erosion of the ban.

“If $20 is going to influence the way I vote, then I am unfit to be in the Florida Legislature,” Lawson said.

Former House Speaker-turned lobbyist John Thrasher will run for term-limited Sen. Jim King’s seat, Thrasher confirmed.

The Jacksonville Republican has not officially entered the race but said he will almost certainly jump in after the legislative session ends in May.

Thrasher, who served as speaker from 1998-2000, is a high-powered lobbyist for the Southern Strategy Group, whose clients include Disney World, Associated Industries and the Florida Hospital Association.

Thrasher is a close ally of former Gov. Jeb Bush. The duo cooked up a massive education overhaul on the back of a paper napkin in 1999 that abolished the Board of Regents, the panel that used to oversee the state university system.

Two years ago, Thrasher was the front-man in an effort to revoke petition signatures in the Hometown Democracy effort that would have made it more difficult to change comp plans.