Veteran Florida legislative watchers will recall two of my favorite members of the House of Representatives from the early 1970′s, Former Hillsborough County Sheriff and State Representative Ed Blackburn (D., Temple Terrace) and retired Air Force Colonel and State Representative Bill Gibson (R., Orlando). They were both rock solid conservatives and commanded the attention of their colleagues for two different reasons–The Sheriff because of his stern law and order perspective and the Colonel because he never missed a vote during his entire career in Tallahassee. As a freshman in the House of Representatives, with concerns about straying too far philosophically from my conservative South Dade County district, I often compared my votes with these two wonderful Floridians. They have both passed on now, but I still think about the expression, “But what would the Sheriff or Colonel do here?”
