This afternoon, the Florida Legislature convened in a special session called by Governor Charlie Crist to consider the passage of a joint resolution that would have allowed voters to revise the Florida Constitution to prevent the exploration, drilling, extraction and production of oil in our coastal waters.

Background: After receiving hundreds of hand written letters and phone calls from our supporters and supporters of our coalition with Crude Awakening and other Florida organizations, Governor Crist officially called a special session

on behalf of the citizens of the state

, intended to last 4 days in order to allow debate on the issue of near beach drilling.

Our official opinion is that Governor Crist called this session on behalf of Florida voters. After all, the overwhelming public outcry we have generated (and that has generated itself in light of the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf) was what prompted the special session.We feel that the Florida Legislature wasted taxpayer time, money, and effort on political grandstanding, making the issue about the governor when it was really about the voters' right to decide what is best for us and our beaches. Their attempt to punish the governor for internal partisan issues took precedence over their duty to represent the will of their constituents. Because of them, Big Oil has claimed yet another victory in the state of Florida.One of the "Representatives" who voted against the citizens of Florida is incoming House Speaker Dean Cannon of Winter Park, who claimed they were trying to protect the Florida Constitution from being amended by Governor Crist, who left the Republican Party to run for the U.S. Senate as an independent.In reality, the amendment would have protected Florida from Representative Cannon.In 2009, Cannon helped pass a bill through the House overturning the state law that bans drilling in state waters. Fortunately, the bill was stopped by the Senate, which was more considerate of the potential damage to the state's $65 billion tourism economy from offshore drilling. Without a Constitutional ban on near beach drilling, Representatives like Cannon will continue to introduce bills like this until they ultimately win.We have compiled here a list of each Florida Representative that voted to kill the special session, and to deny the citizens of Florida a voice on the issue of near beach drilling this November. We ask that our supporters call, write and email them to express your disgust for their actions today. More importantly, we are asking that you all do everything in your power to help vote these men and women who stood against the people of Florida out of office.