LeMieux Works To Build A Brand

St. Petersburg Times - March 08, 2010
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The phone rang past 10 on a Saturday night. U.S. Sen. George LeMieux had a scoop: Florida was getting a nuclear aircraft carrier. "This is huge news," he told a reporter. LeMieux was not at his office in Washington but had made a special trip to Jacksonville, home to Naval Station Mayport. Before the telephone call, he dropped by a local TV studio to go on camera and break the news.
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The 40-year-old Republican says he is working hard to represent Florida and communicating in ways that reflect a changing society.
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LeMieux has shown a command of the issues. He has offered amendments on health care, and a proposal to cut government spending earned kudos from the conservative publication Weekly Standard.
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On any given day, he sends out a flurry of news releases and Twitters, sounding off on the budget, national security, health care or legislation he is backing or bashing.
All senators do this, of course. But LeMieux is aggressive when compared to other stand-ins. He seems to be literally taking his own pledge to squeeze a six-year term into 16 months, and to gain as much attention as possible.
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"People are not just reading the newspaper anymore and they're not just watching television. They are communicating through all these new media ways," LeMieux said. "So it's my job to get what I'm doing to them and receive from them input about what I should be doing."
Not that he has completely overlooked traditional media. LeMieux has aggressively sought national TV appearances and courted stations in Florida. Last week, he appeared on the news in Miami, Orlando and Fort Myers.
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