Guest AuthorLast week, there was little mention and no public observance of a sad anniversary: 15 years to the day (December 12th) that Gov. Lawton Chiles died just three weeks before the end of an historic two-term service as Florida’s chief executive in 1998. Chiles had earlier served 18 years as our U.S. Senator – with a prior distinguished younger career in the Florida Legislature.
Following Chiles’ death, his partner in governing and longtime friend, Lt. Governor Buddy MacKay, became governor for those final three weeks of the Chiles/MacKay era. It was a sad irony for MacKay, who had lost the statewide election for governor just a month earlier, to Jeb Bush.
The Chiles Administration is remembered for many things – but paramount among them should be the meaningful role that Buddy Mackay performed in the entire eight-year, two-term tenure of that partnership. Indeed, while there is only one governor, Chiles was fearless in his insistence that MacKay’s skills, experience, intellect and integrity be applied to the highest and best purpose.
It’s worth remembering a short litany of some of the diverse crises for which MacKay was designated to shoulder the burdens – any one of which amounted to a Herculean task. A major city in financial ruins . . . children at risk of abuse and neglect . . . citizens suffering from the impacts of a deadly and destructive Category 5 hurricane.
A former state legislator and congressman, MacKay was the first person in modern time to make a real difference in Florida’s second-highest office. He didn’t just expand the role; he reinvented it and in doing so set a new standard for those who followed.
Now, as some question the merits of even keeping the position around, it’s instructive to remember a time when the office and the officeholder were instrumental in improving the lives of Floridians.
MacKay, in particular, was so effective because he had the full confidence of his old friend and boss, Lawton Chiles. In fact, it was MacKay who coaxed Chiles out of early retirement and into the governor’s race in 1990. From the outset, it was clear that Chiles intended to rely on his trust for MacKay’s energy, vision and work ethic to tackle some of the state’s most vexing issues.
One of the first among these was the aftermath of 1992’s Hurricane Andrew that left much of South Florida in ruins, in the worst natural disaster in American history, at the time. With thousands of homeless crowded in tents, hundreds of square miles of destruction and an economy in ruins, Chiles tasked MacKay with leading a recovery that became a valuable model for such efforts in the years that followed. The battle cry “We Will Rebuild” carried over into bi-partisan legislative action during a special session on Hurricane Andrew in December 1992, for which Chiles said all “..should make sure that hurricane victims don’t become political victims, too.”
In 1993, Chiles asked MacKay once again to manage a disaster, only this time it was one created not by nature but by the Florida Legislature. The Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS) had become a top-heavy, bureaucratic wasteland. Overloaded with programs and strapped for funding, the department was more of a scapegoat for lawmakers than a lifeline for Floridians.
MacKay stripped away layers of middle management and directed resources to the front lines, protecting children and strengthening families. MacKay laid the groundwork for what would become an entirely new, streamlined Department of Children and Families (DCF).
The City of Miami’s fiscal crisis in 1996 presented MacKay with yet another challenge – and it is one that he took on over the loud protests of his closest advisors. Despite the thorny political issues, MacKay assembled a bipartisan, blue ribbon financial oversight committee and helped restore the city’s solvency.
It’s likely that most Floridians never took note of MacKay’s tireless work on their behalf, but one who certainly did was Jeb Bush.
When he ran against MacKay in 1998, Bush selected Frank Brogan, Florida’s education commissioner, as his running mate. And when Brogan left to lead Florida Atlantic University, it was the well-respected senate president, Toni Jennings, who replaced him. Despite his own considerable leadership strengths and abilities, Bush chose to advance his ambitious agenda for Florida better by giving his governing partners meaningful roles.
Though they represented different parties and competing ideologies, Gov. Bush recognized the value Buddy MacKay brought to the Chiles administration. Like Gov. Chiles, he also had the self-confidence to fill that role with seasoned, proven leaders who could get results for the people he served.
The job of Florida’s governor inarguably is the toughest one in this large, diverse, complicated and challenging state. As Gov. Rick Scott prepares to name a partner in governing and begins to campaign for a second term, the example served up by Chiles/Mackay and Bush/Brogan/Jennings could serve him – and the people of Florida – very well.
