Capitol Chatter: March 30

Pat Neal ponders
a return to public office
Long-time Manatee County homebuilder and former state senator Pat Neal wants to get back in the game.

“I hope someday to be involved in public service,” Neal told the Business Review Monday. And he said the Florida Senate would be the perfect place.

Manatee and Sarasota counties are covered mostly by two Senate seats. When the original legislative maps were approved by the Senate in February as part of the census redistricting, a third Senate seat was proposed that included Lakewood Ranch in eastern Manatee County, where Neal is a major homebuilder. Neal, who was in the Florida Senate from 1978 to 1986 and has always been active in Republican politics, gave serious consideration to running in the third district.