INFLUENCE
100
Rich HEFFLEY {PLAYER}
PHOTO: Mary Beth Tyson
Inside the door to Rich Heffley’s office is a sign: “Boil them in oil, grind their bones to dust, salt the earth with their ashes. Leave them nothing but the memory of defeat.” That’s his soft side. Heffley has made governors and broken them. Presiding officers credit their majorities to his strategic skills. A hundred ex-politicians owe their “former” status to the precision of his kill shots. Hunched over spreadsheets, he foresees and navigates the fault lines of Florida politics as no one else I know. Almost every time, Heffley’s candidates win. But Rich is more than a political alchemist. He is one of Tallahassee’s most highly effective, highly selective lobbyists. Intentionally operating a two-person shop, he and Kelly Horton are among the most nimble, creative problem-solvers and coalition-builders in the Capitol. More than lobbyists, they are issue mavens who craft policy solutions, not just advocate for them. That’s why their clients win and why their clients stay. Rich is not a boom-and-bust operative, riding high with one presiding officer and then consigned to the wilderness when that one leaves. Year after year, speaker-after-president, as governors come and go, Rich Heffley is the king’s friend because Rich Heffley makes kings. – Don Gaetz, Former Florida Senate President 102 | INFLUENCE SUMMER 2018