LeMieux is sworn in as Fla.’s new senator
WASHINGTON (AP) – George LeMieux was sworn in Thursday as Florida’s newest senator, a job he is expected to hold only 16 months while his former boss, Gov. Charlie Crist, and other candidates seek a full term in the same seat in next year’s election.
Vice President Joe Biden administered the oath of office on the Senate floor and then did a ceremonial swearing with LeMieux’s family in the old Senate chamber. Biden, who served in the chamber before taking his current office, quietly offered LeMieux advice.
“Be straight with people. Not everybody is,” the vice president said. “For all the cynicism about this place, this is history. It matters.”
LeMieux was picked by Crist to fill the seat Republican Mel Martinez left early. He is putting his life as a lawyer and political strategist on hold to join an exclusive group for a short time. He has said he will not seek the job when it comes on the ballot in November 2010.
LeMieux, who at 40 is the youngest member of the current Senate, spent Wednesday watching Martinez’s farewell speech from the public gallery overlooking the floor where he now represents 18 million Floridians. After being sworn in, he held a press conference and expressed concerns about a bill that would allow oil drilling near Florida’s coast. He also weighed in cautiously on President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, saying there are parts he likes and other parts that concern him.
“I really need to learn and listen more and I’m going to spending the next week or two really trying to immerse myself in health care issues so that I can do what’s best for the people of Florida,” LeMieux said.
LeMieux then went to the Senate floor and cast his first vote, opposing the appointment of Cass Sunstein as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
While it was a historic day for LeMieux, he didn’t arrive without criticism. He has been called a placeholder for Crist, who critics say picked a loyal friend over more qualified candidates. And the pick isn’t sitting well with some of the most conservative Republicans, who see LeMieux as a moderate, like Crist.
“There’s always going to be skeptics and there’s always going to be folks that are critical and that’s our American democracy,” LeMieux said before the ceremony. “We’ll see how things go over the next 16 months and hopefully they’ll be less critical when I leave.”
His law firm, Gunster, has also been more closely scrutinized, including the state contracts it has received since LeMieux left his job as Crist’s chief of staff and returned to the firm in January 2008.
Gunster billed the state Department of Transportation nearly $3 million in the fiscal year that ended in June, up nearly $2 million from the previous fiscal year. The fiscal year before LeMieux became chairman of the firm, it received no state payments, according to the state Department of Financial Services. The year before that, it earned more than $4.4 million in state business.
Two Senate candidates, Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Rep. Kendrick Meek, have criticized LeMieux’s appointment because Gunster helped secure visas for foreign sheet metal workers for a South Florida construction project. The firm has said that only four of its 140 lawyers practice immigration law and LeMieux isn’t one of them.
“I know that politics is a rough and tumble sport, but I’m a big boy and I understand that and that’s fine,” said LeMieux, who ran Crist’s 2006 campaign. “They’re allowed to take their shots.”
Still, many who have worked with LeMieux, including Democrat Rep. Robert Wexler and Bob Butterworth, a Democrat who served as attorney general and as child welfare secretary, have praised his intelligence and integrity.
While Crist and LeMieux are nearly identical politically and on policy, LeMieux is the person who can talk about both with greater depth. He has had a strong hand in shaping and achieving Crist’s accomplishments.