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Florida has a new United States Senator.� Shortly after 2:45 this afternoon, George LeMieux took the oath of office from Vice President Joe Biden. LeMieux becomes the fifth senator to be appointed to the post in less than a year. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the new US Senator plans to stay focused on Florida during the short 16 months he will be in office.

George LeMieux was one of ten people given serious consideration to fill the seat of retiring Mel Martinez�s. He was only one of two candidates who had never elected to office.

LeMieux worked for Charlie Crist in the Attorney Generals office and then was his first chief of staff in the Governor�s office. Although never elected, he says he will hit the ground running in Washington.

�I have never supervised the executive office of the Governor, I�ve never helped supervise all the agencies in state government, the tens of thousands of people who work in Florida everyday, but I learned it,� LeMieux said.

LeMieux describes himself as a Charlie Crist Republican.

�Every time that I have to make a decision, I know that I represent 18 million people in Florida,” LeMieux said. “And the first thing I�m going to decide is how is this going to be for the everyday Floridian.�

LeMieux and his wife have three sons. He says he is concerned about the debt they will inherit.

�Because I know that I�m responsible for making sure that they have a better life than even we had,” he said. “I feel that for all the children in Florida, all the children in the country. The next generation is what we need to be focused on. That will be my focus.�

Since 1913, only three other people have been appointed to fill a vacant Florida U.S. Senate seat.

In 1936 both of Florida�s US Senators were appointed. Then 10 years later Spessard Holland got the job. He�s the only one that sought reelection.

LeMieux is the fifth sitting US Senator who was appointed, not elected.

See a list of all of the people appointed to the US Senate since 1913 us-senate-appointees-since-1913