Incoming Florida Senate President Bill Galvano named the Naples Republican the Senate's majority leader for the upcoming legislative session.
Kathleen Passidomo was unimpressed Monday when incoming Florida Senate President Bill Galvano called to tell her she would occupy office number 330 in the upcoming legislative session.
“You can put my office in the men’s room for all I care,” Passidomo said. “He said, ‘You don’t get what I’m saying, do you?’” she recalled.
What he was saying is that he was naming her senate majority leader, one of the top three or four positions in the chamber, and moving her office accordingly.
“It’s a real honor and I was totally in shock when he asked me. I hung up. I was afraid I’d start babbling,” the Naples Republican said.
Galvano says he picked Passidomo for the post because she has a good rapport with both Senate Republicans and Democrats and is a consensus builder.
Passidomo tends to agree. “I’m a people person. Most of it (the job) is member relations, helping members get their bills heard. When somebody has a problem, they’re going to come in and talk to you about it. You have to have an open-door policy, that’s for sure,” she said.
The Senate majority leader only gets one vote, just like other senators, so what’s the upside for constituents?
For starters, Passidomo said, she’ll have a hand in shaping the Senate agenda for the coming session, which is to begin March 5. Committee meetings in advance of the session start Dec. 11.
“I’ll have the ability to weigh in on that. It gives me a seat at the leadership table,” she said. That table includes the Senate president, president pro tempore, in this case Sen. David Simmons, Passidomo as majority leader and perhaps one or two others.
Traditionally, legislators in leadership positions don’t file as many bills as rank and file members. Some recent predecessors in the post haven’t filed any.
Passidomo says she’ll file a few and they’ll focus on the same priorities she had a year ago including, water quality and mental health.
In a message to other senators, Galvano praised Passidomo’s efforts on the latter. “During her tenure as Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on PreK-12 Education, and prior to the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Senator Passidomo spearheaded the effort to create an allocation for mental health assistance,” he wrote.
The role of the Senate majority leader isn’t to extract favorable consideration from other senators. “You don’t want to throw your weight around. You want to keep the respect of the members,” Passidomo said.
At the same time, committee chairmen recognize leadership’s priorities and tend to act accordingly, she said.
Being named to a top spot now sets Passidomo up for even greater things in the future.
Assuming she keeps her seat in the 2022 election and Republicans maintain control of the Senate in 2020 and beyond, she could be Senate president herself in the session that begins in 2023.
Passidomo said she was taken by surprise by her sudden promotion.
“I’m thrilled. I’m floored,” she said.
Third floor, to be exact.