Florida State Sen. Jim King

Florida lost a great one today. State Senator (and former Senate President) Jim King died of pancreatic cancer. And even though King was a Republican, I found him to be fair, thoughtful, and always humorous. He shared a trait that any good legislator or public servant has: when you came to him for help, he never asked — or particularly cared about — your party affiliation.

I only have a couple of personal memories of the man. One was when he was running for re-election and addressed my Tiger Bay club. King was a massive man, and by that I pretty much mean fat, but he told us that day he felt like a buck in rutting season.

The other was when I was leading a delegation of Florida advertising professionals on their annual pilgrimage to the state capitol to ask that advertising not be taxed. King was senate president at the time and we requested a meeting with him on the day of a critical vote. He kept his appointment with us and even though he was wanted on the Senate floor, and his assistant stuck her head in periodically to see if he was done yet, he treated us as if he had all the time in the world.

King also bucked (so to speak) Jeb Bush and his own party over the Terri Schiavo debacle. He passionately spoke out against Jeb’s foray not just into his constituents’ bedrooms but in this case, their death beds. More recently, the country might remember King as the Florida legislator who championed “truck nutz,” as an expression of “truckliness” and claimed to have a pair on his own SUV. I can easily believe that.