Rep. Cliff Stearns (R)

The congressman from the 6th District is Cliff Stearns, a Republican first elected in 1988. The son of a U.S. Justice Department attorney, Stearns grew up and attended public schools in Washington, D.C. After college, he served in the Air Force, where he was a specialist in satellite reconnaissance. In the early 1970s, he saw potential in land development in Florida and moved to Ocala. He ultimately ended up owning five motels, three restaurants and other properties, while also becoming active in community affairs. In 1988, he beat the favored candidate for the district seat, Democratic state House Speaker Jon Mills, 54%-46%. “I was elected to put the federal government on a diet,” Stearns said, and went on to compile a mostly conservative voting record. Since losing a low-level leadership contest in 1994, he has been an occasional maverick. He bucked party leaders on free trade in the 1990s and complained about the growth in the federal deficit under President Bush. “We used to be the party of accountability and fiscal responsibility,” he said. Stearns also supports ending automatic cost-of-living increases for members of Congress.

Stearns has been a productive legislator. On the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, he sponsored a center to do research on Gulf War syndrome. For his district, he secured expansion of a veterans’ hospital in Gainesville and a new national cemetery in Jacksonville. On Energy and Commerce, he has worked on health care and Internet policy. In 2004, he won House passage of a bill to restrict abuses of computer spyware. His Do-Not-Call Implementation Act became law and authorized the Federal Trade Commission to establish a national registry of consumers who opt out of telemarketing calls. He helped to enact the anti-spam law that requires most commercial e-mail to be labeled and to have a valid return address. He was the chief sponsor of the widely debated 2005 legislation that limited lawsuits against the firearms industry when their products are used in crimes. The House also passed a bill with his provision to protect consumers from price-gouging during fuel emergencies. He backed a measure that opened parts of the outer continental shelf to oil and gas leasing, but he opposed new drilling in Florida waters. He held hearings on problems in college athletics, including gambling and recruitment.

But Stearns suffered some setbacks. The House defeated his proposal for a Federal Boxing Commission, with enforcement of uniform standards, and he lost on an amendment to prohibit federal funds for bilingual ballots and language assistance under the Voting Rights Act. With his diminished role under Democratic rule, Stearns has worked to make the Do-Not-Call Registry permanent and to enhance its enforcement. In 2009, he became the ranking Republican on the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet of the Energy and Commerce Committee. He has pressed for additional steps to protect personal privacy as corporations use computers to collect vast amounts of information on people.

In 2008, Stearns won re-election easily, 61%-39%, over Democratic Ocala attorney Tim Cunha. But Alachua, which produced the second largest vote among the counties in the district, backed the Democrat, 52%-48%. That could signal redistricting changes in 2011.