This guy will NEVER relinquish the reins of power, even after we shove him out in 43 days. According to Jeb!, no else will be able to run Florida (into the ground) as well as he can. So he just aims to stick around outside the Governor's mansion.
From the Governor's house to the state House of representativesBY MARY ELLEN KLAS
October 18, 2006
TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush handed Rep. Marco Rubio an ancient sword last year, in a symbolic gesture that the incoming House speaker would be the keeper of the outgoing governor's ideological flame.
Now, Bush is handing Rubio his most devoted soldiers -- 18 of his staffers, including budget director Mike Hansen, former budget director Donna Arduin and several members of the budget office.
''Gov. Bush and his administration have assembled some very talented people who now are available to us,'' Rubio said Wednesday. The Miami state lawmaker is scheduled to be sworn in as speaker on Nov. 21, presuming Republicans continue to hold the majority in the House on Election Day, as expected.
The shift is significant as a new governor takes over and Bush leaves office because of term limits. The governor has frequently said his greatest concern is that after his departure his policies and initiatives, such as the state's test-based school accountability program, could be dismantled.
But with 18 of his top staff moving to the House, Rubio is in a position to keep those programs alive.
''The Bush legacy, above all else, is about bold public policy and that's what we want to be about,'' Rubio said.
Arduin, for example, will be retained by the House on a consulting basis. She is a devoted fiscal conservative who helped craft Bush's first budgets and rework the way the agencies make their requests to lawmakers. She then brought her tight-fisted approach to government to California, where she helped Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger bail out of that state's fiscal crisis.
In policy areas, Rubio and his top deputies, Reps. Ray Sansom and Dean Cannon, have employed the governor's top transportation and economic development chief, Teresa Tinker. They will bring in health care experts Carol Gormley, Charles Liem and Paul Lowell. In education, they have recruited Marlene Ahearn. And in finance and tax, they have hired Don Langston, who may assume the title of ``House economist.''
Bringing in so many newcomers to the House will not be without some pain. Rubio notified several House staffers, some with a decade of experience, that they would likely be laid off by the end of the year.
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