Jacob Ogles
Senate President Wilton Simpson is fond of calling the Florida Senate “the upper chamber.”
With each Senator representing three times the number of constituents as do House Representatives, each member enjoys more significant influence, office space and general clout. But a challenge for many presiding officers through the years has been that each member also holds more autonomy. While former House Speaker Johnnie Byrd once compared running the House to herding sheep, the Senate is more often compared to herding cats.
Yet Simpson, in the past two years, has led a diverse chamber and routinely shepherded starkly conservative legislation to the finish line.
This year alone, the Simpson Senate passed a 15-week abortion ban, mainly on the strength of the anti-abortion Senate President’s urging. This year, a slew of such culturally divisive issues worked through the chamber that has served as a roadblock to hard-right bills even when Republicans worked with a larger majority. Whether this thrills or stuns you, it’s a sign of the firm hand wielded by chamber leadership. And it’s evidence of why Simpson lands this year on top of a list of Tampa Bay’s Most Powerful Politicians.
But for the firm grip of a particular executive branch member, Simpson arguably might lay claim this year to the most powerful elected official in the state.
Simpson topping the list this year shouldn’t surprise anyone. Indeed, our jury made the selection months after Florida Politics named Simpson the 2021 Politician of the Year.
At that point, we noted a level of class frankly lacking among many of Florida’s more high-profile pols, and that hasn’t changed. Simpson earned praise even from Democrats for the level of deliberation in the body. Last year, he came in at No. 2 on Tampa Bay’s Most Powerful Politicians list. But he surpasses House Speaker Chris Sprowls after taking a firm stance and holding an upper hand on appropriations and policy matters in the Legislature.
“Not only does he control the most powerful chamber, but he’s well-liked and not afraid to clap back at the Governor or his appointees,” WFLA’s Evan Donovan said. “His impressive campaign haul for Ag Commissioner proves he has solidified the support of the people who matter, and they trust him to lead statewide office.”
He stood up to the Governor’s Office when Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo refused to wear a mask while meeting with a Democratic Senator recovering from cancer, a big moment even if the Senate ultimately confirmed the controversial nominee.
More than any member of the Legislature, we can credit Simpson with pushing back on Gov. Ron DeSantis on redistricting. From the start of the once-a-decade process, Simpson set a conservative (lowercase ‘c’) tone. He was determined his chamber would produce maps that didn’t keep all state political leaders in court for years and have a process exposed as rigged (ahem, 2012 Legislature). For the legislative maps, Simpson’s process resulted in the first reapportionment of House and Senate districts to go before the Florida Supreme Court with no judicial review since automatic judicial review went into effect in the 1960s.
Granted, the process hasn’t been quite as smooth with congressional maps. But again, Simpson led the Legislature to stand up against a popular Republican Governor — during an election year, no less — and pass maps more interested in withstanding court scrutiny than in expanding the Republican caucus in Congress.
Oh, and then there’s the Moffitt money.
Perhaps the most consequential appropriations win for Tampa Bay in the last decade, the Legislature this Session approved spending more than $700 million on a transformational expansion of Moffitt Cancer Center. That includes establishing a campus for the Hillsborough institution in Simpson’s home district of Pasco County. He also nabbed $120 million for improvements immediately around that site, including a road network connecting to Ridge Road.
Tim Adams, chair of Moffitt’s Institute board of directors, revealed to Florida Politics that Simpson had as much to do with pushing the proposal with Moffitt’s leadership as he did with bringing the massive multi-year spend through the legislative process.
“Senate President Wilton Simpson encouraged Moffitt Cancer Center to expand its vision to transform cancer care and research in Florida,” Adams said. “His partnership and perseverance over the past several years has culminated in funding that will help build a global destination to live, work and cure cancer in Pasco County as part of an expanding Tampa Bay region. We are grateful for his unwavering support, and while he said in his farewell remarks, ‘If you don’t care who gets the credit, it’s amazing what you can accomplish,’ this life sciences district will be a lasting part of his legacy.”
Not bad for an egg farmer from Trilby. But then, if this level of success surprises, it’s worth pondering if that too is by careful design.
In so many ways, Simpson proved himself to be among the most consequential Senate Presidents in recent memory by creating as little noise as possible. With the stature of a gentleman and the hard nose of a hugely successful businessman, Simpson arrived in the office with the attitude of a CEO, not a career politician. He never spent a day serving in the Florida House — the “lower chamber” — and generally expressed distaste for the showmanship there that often overshadows nuts-and-bolts policymaking.
And as the Legislature put the final touches on a record $112 billion budget, Simpson ultimately ended some of the deal-making and elbow-throwing that go with the process. Once enough seven-figure wins had been thrown to the right parties, he pressed to make sure Session didn’t reach more than a day into overtime. His top priority won funding, adding to a list of successes that already included a Right to Farm bill and numerous other agriculture wins over his decade in the Senate.
To look over his pre-Session priorities is a bit like gazing at the list of everything that ultimately got finished: boosts in education funding to raise pay for teachers and staff; increasing investment in Florida’s ports; expanding environmental projects, including budgeting some money for water storage north of Lake Okeechobee and improving services for foster and adopted families.
“This Session, we have another chance to sow the seeds that will grow our tomorrow,” Simpson said in the opening speech of his final regular Session. Indeed, many of those seeds were planted in Pasco County and Tampa Bay soil.
This Session, the Tampa Bay area enjoyed having both a Senate President and a House Speaker who represented the region. Next year marks the first time neither presiding officer will be a part of the Bay Area delegation for the first time since Barack Obama was still President. But the investments here feel like they will be transformational and, indeed, generational.
As Simpson makes a run for Agriculture Commissioner, expect a boost in the showmanship of politics. But even there, he has brought a propensity for careful strategy. Just as when he ran efforts to expand the Republican majority in the 2020 elections, goal No. 1 has been to avoid a divisive Primary, which has been successful to date. He seems for the moment to have tilled the soil for a successful run, with little stopping him from flipping the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services blue.
Joe Henderson’s take: After he cruises to victory in November and becomes Florida’s next Agriculture Commissioner, don’t be surprised four years from now if we call him Gov. Simpson.
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As for methodology, we define the Tampa Bay region as Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco, but can also include Hernando, Polk or Sarasota — if the politicians from those counties impact either Pinellas or Hillsborough.
We define a politician as being in office or running for office.
Being first on a panelist’s list earns the politician 25 points, second earns them 24 points and so on, to where being listed 25th earns a politician one point. Points are added and, voilà, we have a list.
Special thanks go to our experienced and knowledgeable panelists, who were essential to developing the 2022 list: Christina Barker of the Vinik Family Office, Ashley Bauman of Mercury, Ed Briggs of RSA Consulting, Ricky Butler of the Pinellas Co. Sheriff’s Office, Reggie Cardozo of The Public Square, Ronald Christaldi of Schumaker, Evan Donovan of WFLA, Joe Farrell of Pinellas Realtors, pollster Matt Florell of Vicidial Group, Shawn Foster of Sunrise Consulting Group, political consultant Max Goodman, Mike Griffin of Savills, Joe Henderson, Todd Josko of Ballard Partners, Natalie King of RSA Consulting, Patrick Manteiga, publisher of LaGaceta, Seth McKeel of The Southern Group, Jennifer Motsinger, EVP of Tampa Bay Builders Association, Mitch Perry of Charter News, Ron Pierce of RSA Consulting, Preston Rudie of Catalyst Communications Group, and Alan Suskey of Shumaker Advisors. With Michelle and Peter Schorsch.
