User:Bearsona/Dan Webster

Daniel Webster (born April 27, 1949) is an American air conditioning contractor, businessman, and politician from Florida. A resident of Winter Park, Florida, Webster moved to Florida at the age of seven, and has been a resident since. He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology, graduating in 1971 with an engineering degree. Returning to Orlando, Florida, he began working at the family air conditioning and heating business. In 1979, Webster decided to run for the Florida House of Representatives after becoming unsatisfied with the decisions of local and state governing bodies.

He was first elected to the House in 1980. In 1986, he became the first Republican Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives in the 122 years since Reconstruction. After reaching the legal term limits for a State Representative in 1998, Webster ran for the Florida Senate; after wining, he continued to be re-elected, serving ten years from 1998 to 2008. In the Senate, he was Majority Leader and head of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Webster is the longest serving legislator in Florida history. He is currently running for the United States House of Representatives in Florida's 8th congressional district against Democrat incumbent Alan Grayson.

Life and education
Webster was born in Charleston, West Virginia on April 27, 1949. His family moved to Orlando, Florida when he was seven, after a doctor recommended a change of climate as a cure for Webster's sinus problems. He attended Georgia Tech, where he was student government chaplain from 1970 to 1971 and was a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He graduated in 1971 with a degree in engineering.

After college, Webster returned to Florida, where he helped his father run the family business: Webster Air Conditioning and Heating, Inc., an air conditioning and heating company he continues to own and operate. Webster lives in Winter Park, Florida. He attends First Baptist Church of Central Florida, and is on the University of Central Florida board of trustees. He has six children and five grandchildren.

Political career
Webster spent 28 years in Tallahassee as an elected official. During that time, he served as both Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives and Florida Senate majority leader. He left both after reaching the legal term limits for the positions. He is the longest serving legislator in Florida history. He was only ever opposed in 1980, 1982, and 1984; other than these elections, he ran unopposed in his House and Senate elections.

Webster first decided to run for the Florida House in 1979 at the age of 30. He had been working on a project with his church to convert a residential house into a place for Sunday school to be conducted. When the Orange County commissioners rejected the church's request for a zoning exception, Webster investigated and found that the county commission had rejected every zoning exemption request brought before them by a church or religious organization. Seeking to rectify what he thought an injustice, Webster decided to run for public office after finding no politician who shared his displeasure with local and statewide government. He faced an incumbent Democrat and was considered an underdog; the race came down to one precinct, Webster's own Pine Hills, which he won along with the race. During his tenure, he received recognition from a number of organizations, including 1995 Florida Chamber of Commerce Legislator of the Year, the 1995 Florida Farm Bureau Legislative Award, the 1996 Florida Medical Association recognition award, and the 1995 Florida Republican Statesman of the Year award, and the 2006 Florida Family Council Award.

Florida House
Webster was first elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1980. There, he served as Minority Floor Leader, and then Minority Whip. In 1984, he defeated former State Representative Dick Batchelor in his first re-election campaign, one of the few races in which he ran opposed. In 1996, when the Republicans claimed a majority in the House, Webster became the first Republican Speaker of the Florida House in 122 years. He remained in that position until term limits forced him not to run for re-election. He served as Speaker from 1996 to 1998.

Florida Senate
After he served as many terms as legally allowed in the House, he successfully ran unopposed for the Florida Senate in the ninth district. He continued to get elected, never facing an opponent until he reached the Senate term limit in 2008. In 2002, he unsuccessfully tried for the position of Senate President. From 2006 to 2008, he served as Senate Majority Leader. He also chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Political positions
Webster's main platform rests on calls for smaller government as well as spending cuts. He proposes doing this by streamlining government agencies, rolling back the budget to prior levels, and cutting taxes. He also claims he will increase the protection of personal rights and encouragement of financial responsibility in the federal government.

Education
While Speaker of the House, Webster insisted that any proposed changes to the state education budget meet a number of requirements. Among them, the legislature must provide assistance to overcrowded schools, require districts to maintain efficient and frugal schools, and use existing funds rather than raising taxes. As House Speaker, he worked with then-Senate President Toni Jennings to increase education funding statewide.

In 2007, Webster added an amendment to a bill that would have created a governing body for private school athletes separate from the public Florida High School Athletic Association. He also sponsored legislation to improve and streamline pre-kindergarten education in the state. He is a homeschooling advocate who homeschooled his five children.

Right to die
Webster was a central figure in the Terri Schiavo case, where he lead a faction in the Florida legislature that sought to intervene and keep Schiavo alive. He sponsored a bill that would have made it illegal to kill someone in a persistent vegetative state by withholding food and water from them without a judge's approval; the bill did not pass the Senate, however.

Abortion
Webster is pro-life, and sponsored SB 2400 in the Florida Senate that would have given women seeking an abortion the option to view an ultrasound of the fetus prior to undergoing the operation. The bill did not require women to see the ultrasound, but that all abortion providers allow women the option; Webster argued that it would give woman more medical information prior to receiving an abortion. The bill did not pass the Senate. He also sponsored a law that would have required minors to notify their legal guardians before receiving an abortion.

2004 US Senate campaign
Webster briefly ran for the United States Senate in 2004 when he attempted to collect the 93,000 signatures necessary to place his name on the ballot without paying the filing fee. Webster claimed that he sought to be the first Senate candidate to ever qualify using this method as both a symbolic gesture and a way to build an early network of voters. Webster eventually qualified by paying the fee instead, and later dropped out of the race.

2009 US Senate bid
When Mel Martinez resigned from the United States Senate, it fell upon Governor Charlie Crist to name a replacement to finish out his Senate term. Webster was floated early on as a possible replacement, and was considered by Crist. He was added to a list of seven potential candidates for the position. In the end, George LeMieux was selected for the position.

US House of Representatives Campaign
Webster is currently running for the United States House of Representatives in Florida's 8th congressional district. He was initially approached to run for the seat early on, and was encouraged to do so by several leaders in the Republican Party of Florida. Despite this, he initially decided not to run for the seat, but in April 2010, he changed his mind and entered the race. His name recognition and an endorsement from popular former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush quickly turned him into the race frontrunner. His was further aided by a late endorsement and campaign rally from former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee.

On August 24th, 2010, Webster defeated six other candidates in the Republican primary. He won the nomination with forty percent of the vote, whereas the runner-up received twenty-three percent. He has been named one of fifty-two "Young Guns" of the National Republican Congressional Committee's Young Guns Program, those the Republican Party views as serious contenders in their races.

Webster faces four opponents int he general election: incumbent Democrat Alan Grayson, Independent George Metcalfe, Florida Whig Party candidate Steve Gerritzen, and Peg Dunmire of the Florida TEA Party, a group not affiliated with the Tea Party movement.

Legacy
Webster has had a number of government constructions named after him. The Florida Department of Transportation district headquarters in Webster's area is named the "Senator Daniel Webster Building". In addition, Florida State Road 429 has been designated the "Daniel Webster Western Beltway". The largest committee room in the Florida House is named "Speaker Daniel Webster Hall" in his honor.