The Patrick Byrne connection

Patrick Byrne is the maverick businessman who created quite the buzz a few years ago with his 65-percent movement. Truth be told, the movement fizzled as fast as it flared, but now it's roaring back to life thanks to the resurrective powers of Jeb Bush and other die-hard voucher supporters (see Sunday’s St. Petersburg Times story here.)

Byrne's brainchild lives on in Amendment 9, which happens to be all tangled up with vouchers. Byrne is a big fan of those too: Last we heard, he was licking his wounds from the pounding he took last fall as the leading financial backer of a failed bid in Utah for universal vouchers.

The St. Petersburg Times did this entertaining profile on Byrne in 2006, when he was couch surfing in the Florida Legislature. Can we expect to see him back in our fair and freaky state soon?

- Ron Matus, state education reporter