Secrecy claims shadow speaker
From Miami Herald:
A computer firm, suing over unpaid bills, says an aide to House Speaker Johnnie Byrd demanded a secret program that records lawmakers' promises and votes. A House lawyer denies the claim.
Entering the last term of his two-year stint as speaker, the Plant City Republican seeks his party's nomination for the U.S. Senate next fall -- just before the trial is scheduled to begin in Leon County court. Badly trailing in the polls, Byrd can little afford the portrait Hayes is attempting to paint of him as a secrecy-obsessed big spender who steers fat contracts to his favorites.
Could be a real story, could be sour grapes by the computer firm. In one way, it would have been interesting for the system to be created, since it's unlikely it could have remained secret forever, and the vote trading/promises could have been an eye opener for voters...