Future House Speaker Richard Corcoran vowed Wednesday to clean up the corrupting influences on Florida’s legislative process, even as critics contended that the next leader of the House has himself been part of the problem.
Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, outlined the reform during a ceremony officially naming him as the leader for the House GOP following the November 2016 elections.
Barring an unexpected loss of the chamber by Republicans next year, or a defeat in his bid for re-election, that puts Corcoran in line to become speaker for a two-year term.
In a speech following his unanimous approval by House Republicans, Corcoran detailed a list of initiatives that included universal vouchers for education, 12-year term limits for state judges and new restrictions on lawmakers’ employment during and after their time in office.
For example, Corcoran said he would push for a ban on lawmakers becoming lobbyists for six years after they leave office, up from the current two-year moratorium.
“We have to begin by cleaning up our own House,” he said. “We have to close the revolving door between lobbyists and legislators. We have to increase that distance (between) those who want to influence the laws and those of us who make them.”
Corcoran also said that lobbyists should have to disclose what legislation they are working on; currently, they only have to report who they are working for. He also called for barring lawmakers from taking a job in government for six years, or accepting a position while in office with any organization that receives money from the state budget.
“We must build an absolute firewall between our personal lives and the influence of the special interests,” he said. “We must remove temptation and end special interests hiring legislators. Period.”
But Corcoran has long been a force in Tallahassee politics — he was considered the front-runner for House speaker even before taking office — and his brother is a lobbyist. The Florida Democratic Party openly scoffed at his calls for change.
“Corcoran has lived large for years on the dime of lobbyists and special interests as a staffer, failed candidate, political operative, and elected official…The only thing left for Corcoran to add to his message of reforming Tallahassee is the punchline,” party spokesman Max Steele said in a statement.
Corcoran’s call for judicial term limits came in the wake of weeks of angry rhetoric from Republican lawmakers who argued that the Florida Supreme Court overreached with a decision striking down legislatively-drawn congressional districts as a violation of a voter-approved ban on gerrymandering.
Conservatives have long viewed the court as one of the last bastions of liberalism in GOP-dominated Tallahassee. But after his designation, Corcoran told reporters that his proposal wasn’t an attack on the court, and he ruled out a repeat of former House Speaker Dean Cannon’s push to split the court in two.
Corcoran offered few specifics on what appeared to be a call for universal vouchers on education, or on health-care proposals that he has championed. Those proposals became a flashpoint in a bitter budget battle earlier this year between the House and the Senate.
Corcoran did promise to “dance” with the Senate on health-care legislation, after an infamous speech earlier this year when he vowed not to dance with the upper chamber on expanding Medicaid.