BFRBriefings from the Rotunda Mike Sole moves up to NextEra Energy, John Holley replaces him as FPL’s top in-house lobbyist Mike Sole, who has been Florida Power & Light’s top in-house lobbyist in Tallahassee, has taken a new job with FPL’s parent company. Sole, also a former head of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, became NextEra Energy’s vice president of environmental services in November, replacing Randy LaBauve. The move was caused by the retirement of LaBauve, who spent 21 years with the company. “Since joining the company in 2010, Mike has done a terrific job of managing both legislative and executive branch matters in Tallahassee on behalf of the 54 | INFLUENCE WINTER 2016 company,” said Charlie Sieving, executive VP and general counsel of NextEra Energy, and Eric Silagy, FPL president and CEO, in a joint memo. Replacing Sole is John Holley, who moves from vice president of state legislative affairs to vice president of state government affairs. Holley was legislative affairs director and chief of staff for the Department of Management Services in 2003–07. “Please join us in wishing Randy the very best in his retirement, and congratulating Mike and John on their new roles and offering them your full support,” Sieving and Silagy wrote. >> Corcoran, from pg 52 The new rules, an echo of President elect Donald Trump’s drive to “drain the swamp,” should be no surprise to anyone paying attention to the Land O’ Lakes Republican since his rise through the leadership ranks. Corcoran, first elected in 2010, called the state’s lobby corps “Gucci-loafing, shoe-wearing special interest powers-thatbe” in his closing remarks on the 2015 state budget. In his speech following his designation as House speaker last September, he went further. “We must close the revolving door between the Legislature and the lobby corps,” said Corcoran, whose brother Michael is a prominent state lobbyist. “We need to restore the distance between those who seek to influence the laws and those of us who make the laws.” He called for a constitutional amendment banning “any state elected official from lobbying the legislative or executive branch for a period of six years.” Corcoran also said he wanted to toughen lobbyist registration rules by requiring lobbyists to specifically “disclose which bills, which amendments, and which appropriations they are trying to influence.” Sound familiar yet? “Other states require such disclosure,” he said during his remarks. “It’s time Florida does too.” Nearly all of these ideas came from an 86-page policy paper written by Corcoran and colleagues from his Class of 2010, titled “Blueprint Florida.” They called for a new “legislative culture of purpose” that included, among other things, a more transparent budget process. The paper called for members to pledge not to seek leadership positions until they serve two legislative sessions. For those who break the pledge, it means being frozen out, with current leadership “refus(ing) to meet” with them. Under the new conference rules — a separate rulebook governing only the GOP members of the chamber — members must “serve at least one full session before directly or indirectly soliciting pledges of support.” “All of the stuff we’ve been working on has been meant to say, at the end of the day, we’re the enemies, we’re the problem,” he told reporters after a November orientation for new members. “The only reason they” — the special interests — “have power is because we voluntarily abdicate and give to them what (power) is rightfully ours,” Corcoran said. “And what is rightfully ours belongs to the people.” PHOTO: Courtesy NextEra Energy Sole
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