In a time of great political division, North Florida's state legislative delegation has been practicing bi-partisan cooperation. That was the assertion of Democrat Allison Tant and Republican Corey Simon speaking on Tuesday, May 30 before members of the Network of Entrepreneurs and Business Advocates, meeting in Tallahassee.
State Senator Corey Simon is a Republican. But he says his years playing football in college and the NFL taught him the value of teamwork. Even if you sometimes disagree with the other folks on the team.
"Our goal in football was to win the game. You had to come together to win. My goal coming into the Senate is that the good folks of District 3 win. So I'll do what I need to do."
One of Simon's lawmaking teammates is House Democrat Allison Tant.
"The citizens that we serve need to see us all working together, or we are like DC. And I think everyone is worried about that. Because they need us to get things done for them."
Tant added that collaborative spirit extended to other members of the delegation as well.
"I'd like to think that we are setting a good model for everyone else. There wasn't a single time that Corey and I didn't text or call each other that we didn't respond. Same with Jason. Same with Gallop," Tant concluded, referring to District 7 Republican House Member Jason Shoaf along with District 8 Democratic Representative Gallop Franklin.
Tant and Simon talked mostly about bi-partisan common ground before the members of NEBA, stressing the work they'd done together on issues such as affordable workforce housing, rural economic development and water resource protection.
