Dudley Goodlette not a candidate for chancellor
Former state Rep. Dudley Goodlette said today that he is not a candidate for the state university chancellor job and doesn't intend to be.
"I think having more of an academic involvement in the academic community than I have had as a lawyer for 30 some years would be a prerequisite for that job that I would think would be important," Goodlette said. "So for that reason and just because I’ve been so busy with my full-time job as the chief of staff of the Florida House, I just really haven’t had an opportunity to apply and I don’t anticipate it."
Goodlette, a Naples Republican who is serving as House Speaker Larry Cretul's chief of staff, had expressed interest in the job several weeks back, but said he was too busy to apply. Now he says he owes a phone call to the Texas search firm helping the board of governors find candidates to let them know he's not interested.
But what if, after session finally ends, board members think he's too good a candidate to pass up and try to twist his arm into applying?
"I’m not a candidate and I don’t intend to become a candidate for the chancellor position," Goodlette said.
Chancellor Mark Rosenberg stepped down in February to return to Florida International University. University of North Florida president John Delaney has the interim job, but has said he's not interested in staying on.
So far state Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville, is the most notable candidate, along with Steve MacNamara, associate professor of communications at Florida State University and former chief of staff to then-House Speaker John Thrasher.
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Now that Dudley is Speaker, he does not want to leave. Besides, I'm sure that Cretul calling him crying at 3AM begging him to stay and saying how he can't make decisions without him may have moved his cold heart.
Posted by: Rorschach | May 06, 2009 at 02:49 PM
Let's hope King takes the same exit door and withdraws his name for the same reasons: not an academic and never will be, cares about a big salary for a few short years.
Posted by: razor | May 06, 2009 at 03:38 PM
MEMO
From: FSU
To: Search Committee (is there one yet, or is this all a complete sham?)
Re: Next leader of the 4th most populous state in the nation with high numbers of National Merit Scholars
---------
Look, dearest search committee, anybody but Steve Macnamara. We'll even keep him on staff at FSU to save the State the embarrassment, ok?
Thank you.
Board of Trustees at FSU and the Tallahassee community who knows the real S.M.
Posted by: campus mandate | May 06, 2009 at 10:02 PM
Steve MacNamara would be the strongest, smartest choice. As FLorida's fiscal freefall continues and the higher ed system is reeling from budget cuts, we need a tough, smart, honest player with academic street cred and political savvy. One of those qualities is good.....but both of them are necessary for whomever is going to do this job. Steve M scores on both fronts. He knows how to get things done...he loves education....politicos on both sides of the aisle respect and trust him....He can build momentum to make the system better. But Job 1 for the next Chancellor: save the system (Get Money).
Steve is the top choice, if the 'deciders' are wise.
Posted by: SunQuote | May 06, 2009 at 11:09 PM
Steve MacNamara would be the strongest, smartest choice. As FLorida's fiscal freefall continues and the higher ed system is reeling from budget cuts, we need a tough, smart, honest player with academic street cred and political savvy. One of those qualities is good.....but both of them are necessary for whomever is going to do this job. Steve M scores on both fronts. He knows how to get things done...he loves education....politicos on both sides of the aisle respect and trust him....He can build momentum to make the system better. But Job 1 for the next Chancellor: save the system (Get Money).
Steve is the top choice, if the 'deciders' are wise.
Posted by: SunQuote | May 06, 2009 at 11:09 PM
Many of us old time state government types do know Steve MacNamara well. Steve worked his way through UF and FSU Law School, worked for the Senate Rules Committee, Assoc. Dean of FSU Law School, was Secretary of DBPR for Martinez, worked at the Collins Center, was Exec. Director of the Claude Pepper Center at FSU and has been a tenured professor in the FSU College of Communications since 1994, winning numerous teaching awards from students. In addition, he served as Chief of Staff for Speaker John Thrasher and Chairman of a Task Force on re-integrating former state inmates into productive jobs in society for Gov. Jeb Bush. Along the way he was also a partner in a state-wide law firm and ran the local cable TV franchise and managed a steak house to put himself through school. Steve MacNamara is a hard working professor and an excellent father of three kids who are all in the State University System at FSU, UF and UCF. Steve has devoted his life to the education of young people and to serving the public. No one is more uniquely qualified than MacNamara to help raise our state universities up to the first rank of state universities in America. He is an academic and a state government insider and he is tough, pragmatic and intelligent. He is head and shoulders above the other names we have heard so far.
Posted by: Old Conservative | May 06, 2009 at 11:24 PM
I worked with Steve MacNamara at Florida State for 3 years and there is no one that I know of that knows the State University system better than him. He would make an incredible Chancellor. Anyone who knows Steve knows he is one who can shake things up and get things done. Passing him over for this position would be a serious mistake for the University system. I have every confidence that at the end of the day, MacNamara will be chosen for the post.
Posted by: nolealumn | May 07, 2009 at 03:15 PM
What about Steve Macnamara's past financial problmes and corruption? Is there any decency in Tallahassee? or you all want to put your friends whose past has no meaning anymore?
Posted by: Jessika | May 22, 2009 at 08:27 PM