Tom Feeney

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Thomas Charles Feeney III, usually known as Tom Feeney (born May 21 1958), is a Republican politician from the state of Florida. Since 2003, he has represented that state's 24th Congressional District ([map]), which takes up several portions of the Orlando-Daytona Beach area as well as the Space Coast region.

He was born in Abington, Pennsylvania; a suburb of Philadelphia. He graduated from Penn State University in 1980, obtaining a law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1983. Soon afterwards, he moved to Oviedo, Florida; a suburb of Orlando where he still lives, and opened a private practice there.

Contents

1 Florida political career
2 Congressional career
3 Political positions
4 Election Fraud Controversy
5 See also
6 External links

Florida political career

In 1990, Feeney was elected to the Florida House of Representatives as a Republican from Seminole County. He served two terms there before running for lieutenant governor of Florida as Jeb Bush's running mate in 1994. After the pair narrowly lost, Feeney joined the James Madison Institute, a conservative think tank, as a director. He returned to the Florida House in 1996 and was elected as Speaker of that body in 2000.

He first came to national prominence shortly after his election as Speaker, when he led efforts to certify the state's Republican presidential electors even when it was still unclear whether George W. Bush or Al Gore had won the state's electoral votes. Feeney's rationale was the plenary constitutional power of each state's legislature to control the appointment of electors and the fact that the popular election victor could not be determined with legal certainty. Had the final judicial decision been that the winner was unclear, Feeney's course would have been the only constitutionally authorized course to allow Florida to participate in the selection of the President. Had Feeney not acted, Albert Gore could have been elected U. S. President by a majority of the electoral votes cast upon the default of Florida. The electoral contest was a virtual tie, or a legal nullity, and Feeney early recognized the legislature as the only constitutionally authorized power to decide such a contest. The initial unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court on December 4, 2000, supported this view. The concurrence of Chief Justice Rehnquist filed with the December 12 decision of the Court explains further.

Congressional career

Florida gained two congressional district after the 2000 census. One of them was the 24th District in the Orlando area. It was an open secret that Feeney drew this district for himself [link], since it included virtually all of his state House district and term limits prohibited him from running for the state House again. (The other new district, the 25th, was drawn for fellow state representative Mario Diaz-Balart). He was handily elected in 2002 and was reelected unopposed in 2004.

Feeney was named of "The 13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress" in a 2006 report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. [link]

Political positions

Feeney is one of the most conservative members of the House. He drafted a "Principles Card" soon after becoming Speaker of the Florida House that allowed his fellow Republicans to check if legislation was consistent with conservative principles. He modified this card when he came to Congress, calling it the "Conservative Check Card."

Despite his ties to the Bush family, Feeney broke with the White House and opposed the Medicare reform package of 2003 since he felt its centerpiece, a prescription drug benefit, was too expensive. He was a founding member of "Washington Waste Watchers," a group that combats what it considers to be wasteful government spending.

Feeney is a co-sponsor of a nonbinding resolution against the use of foreign law in federal courts. When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said of the resolution that "It's none of your business," Feeney said that Scalia's comments were "like being told your favorite baseball player disagrees with your approach to hitting." [link]

Election Fraud Controversy

Feeney has been publicly accused by former Republican assistant Clint Curtis of having asked Curtis to design an electronic voting program which could effectively "flip an entire vote count" away from any Democrat in an election and mass market it in order to defraud elections.[link]

External links

Florida Congressional Delegation currently serving in the United States Congress
Senators :	Bill Nelson (D), Mel Martinez (R)
Representative(s) :	Jeff Miller (R), Allen Boyd (D), Corrine Brown (D), Ander Crenshaw (R), Ginny Brown-Waite (R), Cliff Stearns (R), John Mica (R), Ric Keller (R), Michael Bilirakis (R), Bill Young (R), Jim Davis (D), Adam Putnam (R), Katherine Harris (R), Connie Mack IV (R), Dave Weldon (R), Mark Foley (R), Kendrick Meek (D), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R), Robert Wexler (D), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R), E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R), Alcee Hastings (D), Tom Feeney (R), Mario Diaz-Balart (R)
Current Delegation: AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY \| AS DC GU PR VI