The Dean of the Florida Senate was mad. It was not often that Senator Dempsey Barron was out foxed…and by the fox he had put in charge, at that. It was 1982 and Senate President W. D. Childers had replaced Senator Barron as Rules Chairman with Senator Ed Dunn, a loyal Childer’s supporter. Barron didn’t take the slight easily–he quietly began organizing a coalition among his dissident Democrats and the minority Republicans. When the votes were counted, Barron had cobbled together the first Senate Coalition–26 votes to Childer’s 14. But W.D. and his team (including yours truly) dug in and retained the Chairmanships (duly appointed by the President in accordance with the Senate rules). But we could not get bills over to roll over to third reading and the Senate became paralized. I was the Chairmen of two committees, and Barron appointed Senator Tom Lewis, the ranking member of my two committees to shadow me in the mangement of the committee meetings.
