Punish Sen. Dawson

Mandy Dawson will deserve the censure the Legislature should give her, but the punishment shouldn't stop with her.

Because she wanted to visit South Africa, Sen. Dawson, D-Fort Lauderdale, hit up lobbyists for $5,000 this year so she and a "traveling companion," in the words of a Senate investigator, could make the trip. Even in Tallahassee, where many legislators are more chummy with lobbyists than with their constituents, that was a violation of Senate rules, as the investigation concluded. Given the source of the money, it seems clear that Sen. Dawson, almost half of whose district is in Palm Beach County, would have repaid the favors with votes.

Such blatant money-grubbing would be a problem by itself. Sen. Dawson, however, has embarrassed herself and her office regularly since winning it seven years ago. In 2000, then-Senate President Toni Jennings rebuked her publicly for poor attendance; The Post calculated that she had missed nearly half of Senate votes. In 2002, she was arrested for prescription-drug fraud and blamed the missed votes on an addiction to painkillers, for which she underwent rehabilitation. Her attendance record, though, remains spotty; she has sought 16 excuses, and she missed the last vote on the Terri Schiavo bill.

Ideally, Sen. Dawson will resign or announce that she won't run in 2006. Given what passes for legal behavior by some legislators, expulsion may be too severe. Still, if it happens, Sen. Dawson will have caused it. As the investigator noted, an aide warned Sen. Dawson that the solicitations could be illegal.

Of course, this sort of thing goes on all the time. Usually, though, it happens when a company, an individual or a political action committee gives a campaign donation as an investment. The people who know that best are the lobbyists from whom Sen. Dawson begged. Just as the Senate can and should punish her, the Senate can and should punish the lobbyists, possibly by banning them from working during the last three weeks of the session.

One of those lobbyists, Ron Book, called himself "an innocent bystander for having done what I thought was a reasonable thing to do." Mr. Book's many clients include the state's most powerful business group, Associated Industries of Florida, and BellSouth, which with his help got a big rate increase two years ago. "Innocent?" Sen. Dawson knew exactly what she was doing. So did the lobbyists.