On Nov. 5, 2008, Ray Sansom pulled up a chair before a swarm of reporters and effectively began his term as speaker of the Florida House, exulting in Republican success at the polls the night before and staring down a $2 billion budget deficit.

``It's going to be a tough one, no question about it,'' he said of the coming year.

A few weeks later, those words would prove brutally true. Sansom, one of the three most powerful politicians in Florida, saw it wash away after taking a high-paying job at his hometown college, exposing $35 million in tax dollars he funneled to the school.

Now, precisely one year later, a special House committee will decide Thursday morning whether to continue its investigation into whether Sansom broke the rules, a tribunal that could result in exoneration, reprimand or expulsion from office. An investigator found probable cause of wrongdoing in several areas. Sansom's lawyer has asked for a delay because a criminal case involving the same issues is unresolved.

If the five-member Select Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, which includes three Republicans and two Democrats, decides to proceed, a hearing would be held the week of Jan. 25.

Sansom is accused of using his influence as budget chairman to manipulate the state budget and get favors for Northwest Florida State College, including $6 million for an airport building that a grand jury and the House investigator concluded was intended to benefit a private developer and major GOP contributor, Jay Odom.

In addition, he faces questions over the millions he got for a ``leadership institute'' at the school that he was to oversee as a part-time college employee, as well as a secretive meeting Sansom and now former college president Bob Richburg set up with the college trustees in Tallahassee, 150 miles from the college campus in Okaloosa County in the Panhandle. The trustees are supposed to meet in public.

Sansom, who declined interview requests, says he did nothing wrong. But the ordeal has already exacted a price on the 47-year-old lawmaker, who was a portrait of poise during his first news conference a year ago.

As the legal and legislative process labors on, Sansom has been rendered a sort of non-legislator legislator. His colleagues are in Tallahassee this week for committee meetings, but Sansom has no committee to call home. After resigning from his college job and losing its $110,000 annual salary, he relies on his roughly $30,000 legislative salary as legal bills accumulate.

Back home in Destin, though, he is trying to maintain a sense of self. Sansom has given a speech to the Chamber of Commerce and been seen at local restaurants. His spirits lifted, at least somewhat, after a judge dismissed part of the criminal case. He still has considerable community support.

``Almost invariably if Ray's name comes up people shake their head and say, `He's really a nice guy, I'm sorry this has happened to him,' '' said state Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, a friend who is critical of some of Sansom's actions.

It's possible various investigations -- including one by the Florida Commission on Ethics and an inquiry by the FBI -- could extend into the 2010 session beginning in March, which is to be Sansom's eighth and final due to term limits.

Alex Leary can be reached at leary@sptimes.com.

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