Freshman state Sen. John Legg, chair of the influential Senate Education Committee, moves to head of the class as #24 on the SaintPetersBlog list of Tampa Bay’s Most Powerful Politicians, after dropping six spaces from last’s years ranking.
After succeeding state Rep. Heather Fiorentino in 2004, Legg served eight years in House District 46 until he was term-limited in 2012. Through his House career, Legg advanced through the GOP ranks as Deputy Majority Leader to Speaker Pro-Tempore during his final term.
Currently, Legg serves Senate District 17, covering south Pasco and northwest Hillsborough counties, as well as sitting as chair of the Hillsborough County Legislative Delegation.
Legg’s full proficiency in educational issues came through his career launching Dayspring Academy, the cutting-edge Pasco County charter school. Once elected to the Senate in 2012 (after the withdrawal of GOP Sen. Jim Norman in the primary), Legg was immediately pegged by President Don Gaetz to chair the newly created Education Committee, a body that merged the K-12, Higher Education and Workforce boards into one unified committee.
In recent years, Legg also emerged as a staunch Republican leader through an issue close to the hearts of many Floridians — nuclear cost recovery for energy companies. In 2013, he sponsored Senate Bill 1472 (Nuclear and Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle Power Plants), to force utility companies to jump through additional regulatory hoops before receiving a rate hike approval from the Public Service Commission.
As a solid advocate for reforming Florida’s K-12 system, Legg is pushing to revolutionize education in the state by introducing SB 790 in the upcoming session. The bill requires school districts to adopt a digital-classrooms plan and to provide students the opportunity to learn computer coding and programming.
For a complete explanation of how this list was created and who comprised the panel which assembled it, please read here.
