The congressman from the 7th District is John Mica, a Republican first elected in 1992. Mica (MY-kah) grew up in south Florida, in a bipartisan political family originally from upstate New York. His younger brother, Dan Mica, was a Democratic congressman from Palm Beach County from 1978 to 1988, when he lost a primary for the U.S. Senate; he then became president and CEO of the Credit Union National Association. Another brother, David Mica, worked for Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles and became executive director for the Florida Petroleum Council. John Mica made a small fortune in real estate by developing New Smyrna beachfront. He was elected to the state House in 1976 and served four years. He worked on the staff of U.S. Sen. Paula Hawkins, a Republican, from 1981 to 1985, and then became a lobbyist. He ran for the U.S. House when the district was created after the 1990 census. In the GOP primary, his opponents attacked him as an insider representing special interests, to which Mica responded, “Some of the finest folks I’ve met are lobbyists.” He still managed to win the primary 53%-34%. In the general election, against a liberal Democrat, he won 56%-44%. Read More

The congressman from the 7th District is John Mica, a Republican first elected in 1992. Mica (MY-kah) grew up in south Florida, in a bipartisan political family originally from upstate New York. His younger brother, Dan Mica, was a Democratic congressman from Palm Beach County from 1978 to 1988, when he lost a primary for the U.S. Senate; he then became president and CEO of the Credit Union National Association. Another brother, David Mica, worked for Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles and became executive director for the Florida Petroleum Council. John Mica made a small fortune in real estate by developing New Smyrna beachfront. He was elected to the state House in 1976 and served four years. He worked on the staff of U.S. Sen. Paula Hawkins, a Republican, from 1981 to 1985, and then became a lobbyist. He ran for the U.S. House when the district was created after the 1990 census. In the GOP primary, his opponents attacked him as an insider representing special interests, to which Mica responded, “Some of the finest folks I’ve met are lobbyists.” He still managed to win the primary 53%-34%. In the general election, against a liberal Democrat, he won 56%-44%.

Mica has been a consistent conservative but also a brash reformer. After taking office, he led the charge to abolish House select committees and to make public the names of lawmakers who sign petitions to bring bills to the floor for a vote over the objections of congressional leaders. In 1995, Mica became chairman of Government Reform’s Civil Service Subcommittee. There he helped pass the White House Accountability Act of 1996, imposing on the White House the laws that are imposed on the private sector. On other issues, Mica has focused on fighting drugs by promoting eradication and interdiction programs. He was the only House member from Florida who voted to lift the moratorium on oil drilling off the coasts of his state.

His chief legislative front has been at the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which he now chairs. Over the years, he has worked to build more airplane runways across the nation and to improve security in the post-September 11 era. When the Senate passed a bill that federalized airport screeners, Mica and other House Republicans sought to preserve some role for the private sector. They reached a deal to allow airports to opt out of the federal system after three years if they met certain standards. A few months later, Mica introduced a bill to permit commercial airline pilots to carry guns in the cockpit. The bill was initially opposed by the Bush administration and the Senate, and airlines worried about the risks. But the House voted 310-113 to allow pilots to carry guns. The Senate agreed 87-6, and Bush bowed to popular will. Since then, Mica has raised alarms about gaps in security. He complained in a June 2010 op-ed column that the Transportation Security Administration was a “huge, rudderless agency (that) has lacked leadership for too long and is in need of reevaluation and reorganization.”

On local transportation issues, Mica waged a long fight for mass transit in the traffic-clogged Orlando area and ultimately secured a pledge from federal officials of $300 million for a commuter rail project in central Florida. “You can only pave over so much of central Florida,” he said. He promised in 2010 to authorize money to extend the line eastward. And even though he joined all other House Republicans in opposing the Democrats’ $787 billion economic stimulus bill, he subsequently lauded the inclusion of $8 billion for high-speed rail projects, including the project in his district. Gov. Rick Scott, R-Fla. later rejected federal money for the project, but Mica continued to push for a downsized version of the rail line. Mica has also engaged in some sharp criticism of the Obama administration. In 2010, he pinned the safety failure of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on the administration. “I’m not going to point fingers at BP, the private industry, when it’s the government’s responsibility to set standards to do the inspections,” he said.

Part of Mica’s anger at the administration stemmed from its refusal to cooperate on a multi-year transportation reauthorization bill. Administration officials balked at the idea partly because of Democratic Rep. James Oberstar’s proposal to increase the federal gasoline tax. Mica strongly opposes the tax and called for replacing the per-gallon tax with a percentage sales tax on gasoline, which he said would be a more stable method of augmenting current transportation revenue. He blasted Obama’s call in 2010 for investing $50 billion on infrastructure projects, saying it was no substitute for not enacting a full six-year reauthorization.

In 2002, Mica faced a serious challenge at home from Democrat Wayne Hogan, a Jacksonville trial lawyer who spent $4.4 million of his own money on his campaign. Hogan, part of the legal team that won Florida’s settlement with the tobacco industry, said he would fight for “ordinary families against powerful interests.” Mica responded that Hogan was trying to buy the seat and that his pledge not to take contributions from political action committees was like “Rockefeller saying he won’t take food stamps.” Mica won comfortably, 60%-40%, carrying all six counties. Since then, he has not been seriously challenged.