Florida's 33rd senator, George LeMieux, will be sworn in today at 2:45 amid concerns his Broward law firm helped secure visas for foreigners to work on a hotel and condo project in Bal Harbour, depriving Americans of jobs.
As our brothers in blog-arms The Juice point out, a Capital News Service video confirms what's been whispered about: LeMieux obviously won't run for Senate in 2010 against his former boss, Charlie Crist, the man who appointed him to the position, but might be open to a run in 2012.
Which makes us wonder just how well LeMieux and Florida's senior senator, Bill Nelson, will be able to work together. Nelson hasn't announced his plans for re-election in 2012. The senator will be 70 -- old, but by no means "Senate old," and appears to be good in health. There's no indication yet that he won't run, anyway.
Senators from the same state but different parties usually try to get along and work on issues they agree on -- and considering Nelson is one of the Senate's more moderate Democrats, and LeMieux, a self-described "Charlie Crist Republican," could be a more moderate Republican voice, the two could find a lot of common ground. Most senators in that situation at least know their across-the-aisle colleague will never come gunning for their char, but is Nelson going to be willing to work closely with LeMieux if he knows he could be aiding his potential electoral nemesis?
