Meet Florida’s Next US Senator

Filed in National by on August 28, 2009

Gov. Charlie Crist has reportedly appointed his former Chief-of-Staff George LeMieux to fill out Senator Mel Martinez’ unexpired term. Here’s a bio of the political operative turned US Senator.

He appears to be nothing more than a corporate litigator-turned-Party aparatchik.

In other words, a typical Rethug.

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  1. Wow, you’re quick on the breaking news. I hadn’t even heard this on Twitter yet.

  2. Dana says:

    Really? From the bio you linked:

    In 2003, he was asked by then Attorney General Charlie Crist to serve as Florida’s Deputy Attorney General and Chief of Staff to the Attorney General’s Office where he supervised more than 400 lawyers and 1300 total staff. As Deputy Attorney General he appeared on behalf of the State of Florida in the United States Supreme Court where he argued for and won a unanimous decision in a death penalty case.

    So, when your attorney general runs for his father’s former Senate seat next year, while having less experience than Mr LeMieux, will we see the Delaware Liberal writers denouncing him as nothing more than a “aparatchik?”

  3. ‘Bulo’s already criticized him as such. He even coined the term ‘Beaudhisatva’. While he can’t speak for other DL writers, El Somnambulo despises this concept of inheriting political office. Whether it’s Thurman Adams, Nancy Cook, Herman Holloway, the Beast Who Slumbers has been consistently critical of what he calls ‘the crack cocaine of the Delaware Way’, aka passing elective office down through one’s family.

  4. cassandra_m says:

    The Miami Herald has more:

    While LeMieux has steadily avoided discussing the clients he represented at Gunster Yoakley, he had to disclose on a Senate questionnaire last week that he had a consulting business, MTC Strategies, named after each initial of his three boys. Federal election records show he earned $150,000 in consulting fees in the past 13 months from the Republican Party of Florida.

    LeMieux wouldn’t discuss what he did to earn that money.

    LeMieux said he’s representing the Florida Department of Transportation in negotiations with Florida East Coast railroad and he’s negotiating the Seminole Tribe of Florida gambling agreement on Crist’s behalf for free.

    But Republican operative Roger Stone, who has campaigned publicly against the choice of LeMieux for the Senate, questioned whether LeMieux was really working pro bono. Stone pointed to a Herald/Times blog report showing that 71 percent of the $912,000 the Seminoles directly gave to the Republican Party since 1996 was donated since Crist took over party fundraising after he won the 2006 Republican governor’s race primary.

    “The pattern of giving and the flow of money to LeMieux are deeply concerning,” said Stone, who has done political work for South Florida pari-mutuels opposed to the Seminole compact. “I don’t see how you can be an objective negotiator with the tribe when it appears as if he was paid by the Seminoles using RPOF as a pass through.”

    An analysis of Crist’s Senate campaign documents shows Gunster Yoakley and its clients accounted for $142,250 in contributions.

  5. Tom S says:

    So what did we get with whats-his-name who took Fredo Biden’s place?

  6. cassandra_m says:

    I think he would be called the Deputy Attorney General.

  7. xstryker says:

    I think he meant Kaufman.

  8. cassandra_m says:

    LOL!

    I think that the whats-his-name there is Biden’s ex-Chief of Staff. But Tom will need to do the work of letting us know how much money Kaufman is getting from the Democratic Party or how much he raised for the VP.

  9. Susan Regis Collins says:

    I call the ‘lesser ones’ who don’t run for office but keep the wheels of the Delaware Way all greased up ‘legacy bureaucrats’ (For example former mayor Dan Frawley’s son works in the A.G.’s office.)

  10. Phil says:

    Eh, this kind of crap happens on both sides. Kennedy wanted the law changed back so that the gov could appoint a dem in his place.

  11. callerRick says:

    It’s funny; Kennedy pushed for the current Mass. law when he thought Kerry would be elected, and that Gov. Romney would appoint a Republican replacement. I know that it’s simple politics, but the hypocrisy is stunning.

  12. cassandra_m says:

    Think of it this way — Massachusetts may decide to play by Texas Rules.

  13. Massachusetts law is up to the government of Massachusetts. The elected officials of Massachusetts is decided by the people of Massachusetts. If the people decide that they don’t like what their legislators are doing, they’ll vote them out. This is not a hard concept.

  14. cassandra_m says:

    True — and the way you get to a hypocrisy charge on this is if you really thought that a repub had a chance at winning the seat.

    In Massachusetts.

    Right now, the only thing on the table is an appointment to keep up with MA interests in the Senate until a special election in January. So far, I don’t see any serious proposals to just do an appointment and do away with the Special.

  15. callerRick says:

    Romney was a Republican governor- in Massachusetts.

  16. cassandra_m says:

    And when was the last time Massachusetts sent a repub to the Senate or to the House?

    And don’t forget that Romney won MA by trying to run to the left of the Dems. That came back to haunt him in his Presidential race.