The frontrunner right now in the race to be the replacement candidate for GOP Rep. Mark Foley -- who resigned yesterday amid revelations of his sexually-charged emails to House pages -- is Florida State Rep. Joe Negron, a 45-year-old lawyer and aggressive fundraiser. Florida GOPers are telling the St. Petersburg Times that Negron is a strong contender, and Negron himself told the paper, "I'm making calls as quickly as I can." Who is Negron? Well, here's one indicator: Negron full-throatedly supported government intervention in the case of Terry Schiavo, the Florida brain dead woman who was allowed to die after a national political battle over her fate. Negron's take? It was wrong, Negron said in June, "for a judge to say you can't put water on the lips of a citizen of Florida."

This year, Joe Negron ran in the GOP primary to replace state Attorney Charlie Crist, who's now the GOP gubernatorial nominee. Negron dropped out of the AG race in July after concluding that despite having raised an impressive $1.3 million, he didn't have the name recognition to defeat his opponent, former GOP Rep Bill McCollum, whose 20 years as a Congressman and his two failed runs for Senate made him well known statewide.

The Schiavo case came up as an issue in the AG race in June. From a June 23 Associated Press piece:

Three of the four candidates for Florida attorney general said Friday the government should not have intervened in the Terri Schiavo case, but one state Rep. Joe Negron said it was right for the state and Congress to try to usurp the courts.

The four didn't disagree on many issues, all saying they supported the death penalty, would protect individual liberties and the environment and get tough on Internet predators and consumer crimes.

Negron, of Stuart, stood out from the others when asked about Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman who died last year following an epic legal battle over whether she should be kept alive artificially.

He disagreed with the other candidates, who said the ruling of the many courts that heard the case was the ultimate authority. Negron said if he had been attorney general, he would have intervened to try to keep her artificial feeding intact.

It was wrong, he said, "for a judge to say you can't put water on the lips of a citizen of Florida."