Courts May Eliminate Push for Special Session

Dec. 5 -- In the wake of Monday’s court rulings, Florida’s Republican House speaker now believes it may be possible to avoid calling a special session to choose presidential electors.

Speaker Tom Feeney has been the most forceful advocate for the Republican-controlled Legislature to intervene in the disputed presidential race by naming a slate of electors, presumably for George W. Bush, to vote in the Electoral College on Dec. 18. But Feeney’s spokeswoman, Kim Stone, raised the possibility Monday that court rulings might render such a move unnecessary.

On Monday, the Gore campaign suffered two setbacks. First, the U.S. Supreme Court set aside a Florida Supreme Court ruling that had extended a deadline for ballot recounting.

Later, Leon County Circuit Court Judge N. Sanders Sauls rejected Al Gore’s request for a manual recount of some 14,000 questionable ballots from Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties.

Stone said her boss believes “there’s still enough uncertainty” to warrant a special session that would choose electors. But if courts settle the matter in favor of Bush, the point would be moot.

“If there’s no need for us we’re not going to step in. Right now we still feel as though there’s an imminent need for the legislature to intervene,” Stone said.

Feeney has indicated for days a desire to call a special session to to appoint electors.

Intervention as ‘A Last Resort?’

George W. Bush signaled strongly Monday that he’s in no rush to have Florida’s Legislature intervene.

“We ought to take this process one step at a time,” Bush said Monday during a brief meeting with reporters inside the governor’s mansionin Austin, Texas.

Polls have said that Americans would take a dim view to the Legislature intervening in the election, and some legislators have said they would prefer to stay out of it if they can.

“Most people think it’s a more pragmatic and politically savvy approach to make [intervention] be a last resort,” said Susan MacManus, professor of political science at the University of South Florida in Tampa.