WMBB News 13 - The Panhandle's News LeaderFasano Bumped From Crim Justice Budget Chairmanship

Fasano Bumped From Crim Justice Budget Chairmanship

Sen. Mike Fasano was removed Wednesday as chairman of the Senate committee that writes the criminal justice budget by President Mike Haridopolos because the president said he lost confidence in Fasano's dedication to cutting spending.

Fasano, R-New Port Richey, has led the effort to derail a Senate priority, a plan to privatize prisons in most of the southern part of the state, a plan that has slowed in the face of that opposition this week.

Haridopolos has said he wasn't doing any arm twisting to try to get that measure passed, and said Wednesday he simply didn't think Fasano was committed to the massive budget cutting task at hand, which includes the prison privatization proposal with its projected - though disputed – cost savings of more than $16 million.

"I'm asking other budget chairmen to make difficult cuts," Haridopolos said. "It became clear to me that Sen. Fasano was not willing to make those difficult cuts."

Fasano, who will be replaced as chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Appropriations Subcommittee by Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, said he was being thrown out of his chairmanship for standing up for "the little guy and gal."

"No matter how big the bully in the schoolyard may be, if the loss of a chairmanship is the result of taking a stand for what is right, I wear that loss as a badge of honor," Fasano said in a statement released to reporters after Haridopolos announced the change.

Fasano was taken off the committee altogether, not just stripped of its chairmanship, according to the committee's web site. He remains a member of several other legislative committees.

Opponents of prison privatization filled the capital's bandwidth with statements condemning the decision by the president, and praising Fasano, who has often been a thorn in the side of his own party, particularly on consumer issues, where Fasano has taken populist stands against many big business interests.

Ken Wood, acting president of Teamsters Local 2011, which represents corrections officers, called the move "shameful."

"The citizens of Florida should be outraged by this bullying of a people's representative," Wood said. "Sen. Fasano is simply doing what a Florida senator is supposed to do, which is to deliberate over important policy matters – not rush them through without careful analysis."

The Fraternal Order of Police called the move an "affront … to democracy itself."

The Florida Police Benevolent Association, which recently lost to the Teamsters in its re-election bid to be the collective bargaining representative for corrections workers, also expressed disappointment in the decision. "Senator Fasano is a strong supporter of law enforcement officers and their families," said Matt Puckett, the group's executive director. "He is also a watchdog of the taxpayers' money and his questioning of the alleged cost savings from privatization should be applauded not condemned."

Fasano is term limited and can't seek re-election. He was elected to the Senate in 2002 after serving in the House since 1994. While he has been sometimes at odds with his party's leadership in recent years, he once was firmly part of that leadership – he was House majority leader in 2000 and 2001 and Senate president pro tem from 2008-2010. He represents a district loaded with retirees – Fasano often has called them "seniors and savers" - along the coast north of Tampa Bay.

Fasano's independent streak also extended to his political associations, and that has affected his place in the GOP fold. When the Florida Republican Party split in 2010 into those who supported Gov. Charlie Crist as Crist ran for U.S. Senate against Marco Rubio and then later left the party, and those who supported Rubio, Fasano remained in the Crist faction. With Crist eventually becoming despised by many in the state's GOP leadership, that hurt Fasano's standing among fellow Republicans as well.

Fasano said in a statement he had no regrets.

"In my 18 years of elective office I have always and will continue to vote my conscience," he said. "I have stood up for the little guy and gal, those who otherwise would not have a voice in the legislative process.  I will always speak out when I see injustice, no matter what the consequences may be."

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Information Provided by News Service of Florida