Connect Us wishes to thank the many Fans and Members who sent thousands of emails and made hundreds of calls to swing senators in the last two days of session.  Your voice was heard and you helped to make a difference.

There were many key players in this historic vote.   Florida Senate President Jeff Atwater assumed a key leadership role and crafted legislation that could muster a majority vote in the Florida Senate and create precedent setting passenger rail legislation.

Governor Crist worked diligently and over long hours in the past five days to help the Senate President muster the votes needed for passage in the Florida Senate.   

State Senators Ring, Negron, Fasano, and Gardner were the bipartisan sponsorship  team.   They carried the weight of the questions and merits of the arguments for the legislation through the adoption process.  Senator Gelber and Lawson were instrumental in working with organized labor and helping move Democratic votes to the cause. 

House Speaker Larry  Cretul and his team exercised commanding leadership in the House of Representatives to secure passage of this landmark legislation. 

And we wish to provide our compliments to State Senator Paula Dockery, who led a loyal opposition to various forms of this legislation over the past sessions.  Her intelligent and tenacious questions and advocacy helped frame a better legislative bill.    

With the passage of this legislation, which the Governor is expected to sign into law next week, Florida has removed all federal "concerns" about Florida's commitment to rail transit.  That doesn't mean we will get the nearly $3 billion in stimulus funding that we are seeking.  That success may hinge as much as on our own grassroots efforts in the next 30 days as anything.  For now, we can celebrate a piece of well-deserved and hard-fought history.