Florida goes Republican.

• Author: Wallsten, Peter
• Position: Republicans gain control of Florida Senate and House of Representatives - Three of a Kind

After 120 years, Republicans control both chambers of the Florida Legislature. Leading them in the House, after a skirmish with moderates, is a conservative Christian who says he wants to share the power.

Orlando's Daniel Webster had little time to savor the moment in November when he was sworn in as Florida's first Republican House speaker since Reconstruction.

Minutes after he took the gavel during the organizational session, bitter Democrats - still smarting from losing their House majority during elections two weeks earlier - went on the attack. Jewish members protested that Webster, a conservative Christian, was insensitive in letting his pastor invoke Jesus Christ in an opening prayer. Black members complained that a veterans' honor guard entering the House chamber for the pledge of allegiance consisted only of white men.

But that was just the beginning. For four and a half hours that day, 61 Republicans and 59 Democrats hotly debated rules for how the House would conduct itself. They did not agree. The result: The chamber adopted temporary rules that will expire at midnight March 4, the first day the Legislature meets for its 1997 session.

Welcome to Florida's new Legislature, the first in the South to be controlled completely by the Grand Old Party. If the first day was any indication, Speaker Webster's reign will be a rocky ride.

"It's going to be a long two years," said Representative Lars Hafner, a St. Petersburg Democrat who was in line for a leadership role if his party had maintained control. "Unfortunately the games began on the very first day."

In the Senate, the November elections solidified the GOP's majority with a 23-17 margin. But the real action and intrigue came in the House, where the Democrats failed to hold on to their 120-year-old majority. Instead, the Republicans rallied to win 61 seats, knocking off several incumbents and taking away the Democrats' six-seat margin. Florida voters on Nov. 5 elected the South's first Republican-controlled legislature, meaning the Sunshine State would have its first GOP House speaker since a carpetbagger named Malachi Martin held the post in 1874.

The historic majority was not sealed until well past midnight on election night, when the final returns from a West Florida district came in and the GOP learned that a rookie - Nancy Argenziano from a tiny, rural county - had unseated a Democratic incumbent. Argenziano upset incumbent Helen Spivey, the liberal darling of the state's environmentalists. Spivey, and several other Democrats tagged as vulnerable, had been targeted by the state Republican leadership, which helped pump millions of dollars into legislative races from South Florida to the Panhandle. Indeed, Florida was an election battleground. The money told the story.

A St. Petersburg Times review found that candidates for the 120 House seats spent more than $18 million in their campaigns. Senate candidates spent about $8.8 million. Those totals, according to the Times, are about $1 million more than what was raised in 1994 and about twice as much as candidates were spending a decade ago. All told, candidates, parties and independent committees spent at least $40 million in the election. Legislators in Florida's part-time assembly earn about...