By Matt Dixon

Two out-of-state companies that offer education testing paid a lobbying firm where state Sen. John Thrasher was a partner between $60,000 and $190,000 over a two-year period, state records indicate.

During the current legislative session, Thrasher, a St. Augustine Republican, sponsored Senate Bill 6, which, among other things, would have required school districts to develop or acquire end-of-course assessment tests.

After drawing stiff criticism from educators and teachers' unions, the bill was vetoed Thursday by Gov. Charlie Crist.

Thrasher left the lobbying firm, Southern Strategy, in 2009 and has denied personally lobbying on behalf of the testing companies.

"I never had any connection to [the testing companies]," he said. "I was bought out last May and don't even have any connection with them anymore."

The companies - Ohio-based IQ Innovations and New Jersey-based Educational Testing Service - say the lobbying Southern Strategy did on their behalf was unrelated to Thrasher's bill.

IQ Innovations paid between $60,000 and $150,000 to Southern Strategy in 2008 and 2009, and Educational Testing Service paid the firm between $4 and $40,000 over the same period, according to state compensation reports. Lobbying firms are only required to report a range of payments received from clients.

The companies are still clients of Southern Strategy, but 2010 compensation reports are not yet filed with the state.

Southern Strategy founder Paul Bradshaw declined comment, saying it's company policy to not speak to the media about clients.

In 2009, Thrasher reported more than $1.5 million in income from Southern Strategy. Included in that amount is a $695,169 buyout, $614,613 in stock sales and $190,509 in salary, according to financial disclosure reports.

Tallahassee — Gov. Charlie Crist has just vetoed SB 6, ending a week of suspense and protests against the controversial teacher tenure bill sponsored by the chairman of Crist's own political party.

Crist's action goes against conservative leaders, including former Gov. Jeb Bush, and will likely spur more speculation that he plans to break from the party and run as an independent for U.S. Senate.

Crist has been in the hot seat since the House approved the bill in the early morning hours of April 9, after eight hours of debate. The measure passed both the House and Senate along party lines, but not without Republican defectors including Paula Dockery and Alex Villalobos in the Senate and Ed Homan and Faye Culp in the House, all of whom later urged Crist in writing to veto.

Because the governor received the bill during the session, he had only seven days to decide whether to sign or reject the measure. Crist's action today beat that clock by more than 24 hours.

Conservatives and business groups rallied around SB 6, arguing that it would be a transformational education reform, injecting unpredecented accountability into the public school system.

The bill would have ended traditional tenure for teachers hired after July 1 and tie teacher salaries and recertification directly to student performances on tests. The new emphasis on "performance pay," according to advocates like the Florida Chamber of Commerce, would reward the best teachers with more money, sooner in their careers.

It would have also made it easier for districts to freeze pay and even fire experienced teachers deemed to be ineffective. Critics argued the bill was a thinly veiled attack on the state teacher's union, historically a backer of the Democratic Party; SB 6 supporters countered that the union had led a fear-mongering campaign that misrepresented the bill.

Hillsborough County would have been exempt from this because of ongoing reform efforts at the local level. State and local teacher's unions mounted a massive protest campaign against the bill that surged in intensity after the final House vote.

Teachers, students and other opponents flooded the governor's office with tens of thousands of messages lambasting the bill for overemphasizing testing, robbing teachers of job security and ceding local districts' control over schools to the state. The bill, they said, included costly unfunded mandates and would become a disincentive for talented people to enter or stay in the teaching profession.

Senate sponsor John Thrasher, R-Jacksonville, who took over as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida in February, said repeatedly over the last week that Crist had assured him he would sign the bill. Crist acknowledged that he was supportive of the bill through much of the session but denied promising that he would actually sign it.