TALLAHASSEE — Conservatives have long called the Florida Senate the place where good policy ideas went to die. Now, they view it as one of the keys to a new era of change that could help the already-conservative House and Gov.-elect Rick Scott reshape the state.

As the GOP locked up majorities in the Legislature and won the governor’s mansion in recent years, conservative ideas continued to face one major hurdle: A bloc of moderate Republicans in the Senate capable of slowing down the most sweeping conservative changes.

Now, legislative leaders and observers say the chamber is changing.

“This is a new Senate,” said President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, one of the architects of the change. “It’s more conservative, and I’m proud of that. I worked hard to get it here, and a lot of members of my caucus worked hard to get it here.”

As the old guard of centrist GOP lawmakers steps aside because of term limits or other causes, more conservative lawmakers are taking their place. And the speed bump to right-leaning ideas like tort reform and abortion legislation that sailed through the House is fading away.

“As it’s more conservative, it’s not going to act as a brake,” said Matthew Corrigan, a political science professor at the University of North Florida.

Barney Bishop, president and CEO of Associated Industries of Florida, a business group, painted the change as one with historic ramifications.

“This is going to be the most significant sea change in the Florida Senate since the end of the pork-chop days,” Bishop said.

The “Pork Chop Gang” was a group of North Florida lawmakers that clung to power in the 1950s and into the 1960s because of the state’s peculiar method of doling out legislative seats.

Over the last three election cycles, Haridopolos endorsed and worked to elect the more conservative candidates in Republican primaries, with an eye on this year, when he took over as president after this month’s elections.

“I’m a pretty aggressive guy,” Haridopolos said, “and if I believe in something, I’m going to be aggressive about it.”

Some of the more significant wins took place in 2009, in special elections to replace two former Senate presidents: Sen. Jim King of Jacksonville, who died in the summer of that year; and Sen. Ken Pruitt of Port St. Lucie, who retired. King — who was moderate on many social issues and loved building wide-ranging political coalitions — was replaced by Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, a more hard-nosed conservative. Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, is also viewed as more conservative than Pruitt.

The trend accelerated during the 2010 election cycle: This year, four Republicans endorsed by Haridopolos won primaries to replace outgoing Republican senators; Thrasher also won re-election with the president’s backing.

Bills that moderates had once stymied began to flow through the Senate in this year’s Legislature. A measure requiring women to have an ultrasound before undergoing an abortion finally won approval from the Senate, though only after a fierce battle by moderate Republicans, who helped defeat a similar measure two years earlier.

It ultimately was vetoed by Gov. Charlie Crist, but Scott said that he would sign a similar bill into law.

Business groups could also see their agenda sail through more easily. Bishop says that seven to eight lawmakers he says were close to the trial lawyer bar have been replaced.

“Now you have business-friendly senators there,” Bishop said.

AIF expects to have an easier time getting approval for overhauling the civil-justice system and believes it won’t have to fight as hard on tax-reporting and energy measures opposed by business groups in the new Senate.

“It’s going to be about as friendly a place,” Bishop said, “as the House has always been.”

brandon.larrabee@jacksonville.com, (678) 977-3709