All Eyes On Graham As She Enters Congress
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/FKNB) - Congresswoman-elect Gwen Graham likes to say that when she is sworn in Tuesday, she'll be ready to "hit the ground running from day one."
She'd better be.
Graham, a Democrat, is one of the best-known freshmen in the incoming Congress, after unseating two-term Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland in a closely watched race in Northwest Florida. In the aftermath, Graham's moves are being scrutinized across the political spectrum.
"She won a Republican-leaning district against a flawed incumbent," wrote Kyle Kondik, managing editor of the political prognostication site Sabato's Crystal Ball. "And Republicans will have a great incentive to defeat her. If they don't, they will probably have to contend with her as a statewide candidate down the road."
Graham acknowledged in a fundraising appeal this week that she could be a top focus of the GOP, writing that "political strategists and Tea Party extremists are already eyeing Florida's Second Congressional District as a target in 2016."
Democrats, meanwhile, have soaring hopes for the eldest daughter of former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham. She was one of just two Democrats in the country to defeat a Republican member of the U.S. House in November.
As a candidate, Graham promised three main things: a bipartisan approach, a focus on economic development and advocacy for people in the district, which stretches across 14 counties in Northwest Florida and includes areas such as Tallahassee and Panama City.
A number of the counties are rural and struggling. Graham has pledged to work with federal agencies to bring infrastructure and other projects to the district and to boost job training through its colleges and universities. She's also pledged to hire a staffer who does nothing but economic development projects.
"She'll hear across Northwest Florida, 'We want to fully participate in the economic recovery,' " said state Sen. Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican who supported Southerland. "Gwen Graham campaigned as a person prepared to reach out, and I think that that's the way she'll serve in Congress."
Graham hopes to be assigned to the House Armed Services and Agriculture committees, which would put her in a position to play to the district's strengths: military bases and the agriculture industry. She traveled across the district in mid-December, with stops in Gadsden, Leon, Jackson and Bay counties and meetings with members of the local chambers of commerce and representatives of the colleges and universities. They agreed it was time for Washington to focus on helping small businesses and the middle class.
"People across this country want to have a government that's working again," Graham said.
That includes collaborating to help the seafood industry in the Apalachicola Bay area recover from a drought and other woes. The bay has been declared a federal fisheries disaster area, but Franklin County Commissioner Smokey Parrish, whose day job is managing Ward's Shrimp House, predicted that the federal disaster money "is not going to be enough."
Apalachicola Mayor Van Johnson agreed, saying he hoped Graham could "leverage some federal dollars specifically for Franklin County to develop a third industry. We need something that would be totally unrelated to oysters and tourism."
Johnson said he hoped Graham could deliver entry-level jobs and "computer-type training" that would allow seafood workers to stay in the area and "take the pressure off the Apalachicola Bay."
Florida has sued Georgia, where the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system originates, in an effort to force the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release more freshwater downstream into the bay. And although the U.S. Supreme Court has assigned a special master to the case, Graham said it would take too long to settle --- and the troubled bay can't wait.
"I would love to identify some members of Congress across the country that have an interest in working together to help me establish the Apalachicola Bay and river as a national treasure, as the Everglades were," she said. "I'm going to do my best to make friends with the people from Georgia."
She's also been making friends with other members of Florida's Congressional delegation, including U.S. Rep. David Jolly, a Pinellas County Republican.
"Congress will deal with a number of issues over the next two years, and many will be significantly bipartisan, from the economy to fisheries to border security," wrote Jolly in an email. "I've enjoyed getting to know Gwen, and she has presented an independent conviction that puts Florida first."
That's exactly how Graham's father, who played a crucial role in her campaign, hopes the delegation will operate.
"If it's moving in a common direction, everybody pitching in to help the state at large, not exclusively their own congressional district, we'll all be better for it," Bob Graham said.
As to his daughter's ability to deliver infrastructure money and job-training programs, he said, it wouldn't be easy. But he said she could be effective by building relationships, working with executive agencies and providing constituent services.
"I don't think she is going to have a lot of legislation with her name on it passed in the next couple of years," said the former senator.
This report is by Margie Menzel with The News Service of Florida.
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