TOM LEE: STRAIGHT-TALKING POLITICIAN OR JUST ANOTHER MONEY-GRUBBIN' OFFICE-SEEKER?

A great column in today's St. Petersburg Times by Steve Bousquet which looks at State Senate President and Chief Financial Officer candidate Tom Lee of Brandon.

The senator has always come across to many as a breath of fresh air, talking about more disclosure of legislators' "public interest" organizations and the contributions they receive along with efforts to defeat efforts of importance to many powerful energy corporations such as wholesale energy deregulation. However, Bousquet noted that at the same time his own "public interest" organization, known as Floridians Uniting for a Stronger Tomorrow, was taking big dollars from many of those same businesses. Contributions to these type of groups are exempt from the $500 limit on contributions directly to legislators.

Bousquet does note that, to his credit, Lee's group was the first with a Web site which disclosed donations before it was required by law.

The potential problem for the senator is that FUST was formed to raise money in case he felt the need to purchase advertising to deflect attacks against his senatorial collegues. But the need never arrived, so he now has approximately $1.1 million in "soft money" that he could possibly convert to his CFO campaign.