Sunshine News:

At a hastily called press conference Thursday afternoon, Gov. Charlie Crist called for a special session of the Legislature to propose voters decide in November whether to put an offshore oil-drilling ban in the Florida Constitution.
“This gives the people of Florida — to put in their constitution, and it’s their constitution — a ban on oil drilling off Florida waters,” said Crist at the 1:15 p.m. press event announcing the session.
The session will start on Tueday, July 20 — three months to the day when the Deepwater Horizon accident occurred that unleashed the oil spill still impacting the Gulf of Mexico. The session will last until Friday, July 23.
Having left the Republican Party to continue his campaign for the U.S. Senate as an independent, Crist will face some political obstacles in the Legislature. There are solid Republican majorities in both the House and the Senate, still hostile to the governor for bolting the GOP. Included in Republican ranks are legislators, including incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, and incoming Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, who were firm supporters of offshore drilling until the oil spill.
Crist’s challenges in the upcoming special session were evident Thursday. While the governor said that Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, would sponsor the proposed amendment in the Senate, he added that he had not yet found a sponsor for the measure in the House.
Jill Chamberlin, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, said that her boss had no comment yet on the announcement of the special session.
“As you know, the speaker has wanted to avoid special sessions unless it was for matters of urgency for which there was a specific plan,” said Chamberlin. “He’ll be sitting down, talking with the staff tomorrow and we’ll see where we go from there.”
Despite Crist’s bid for the U.S. Senate seat, the governor insisted that his call for the special session had nothing to do with his electoral ambitions — despite claims by Republicans that offshore drilling is already prohibited in state statutes.