Just $50 to have breakfast in Bradenton with the Republican gubernatorial frontrunner:
December 1, 2009, 7:30 - 8:30 am
Country Pancake House, 8205 Natures Way Bradenton, Florida
HOSTED BY: Manatee County Commissioner Donna Hayes; ALONG WITH: John and Pat Colon; David Garofalo; Joe Gruters; Kathy King; [...]
Florida's elder affairs chief has racked up nearly $70,000 in travel bills in less than three years, much of it by driving his car between the capital and Orlando, where Douglas Beach owns a home and where his wife lives.
[...]Winner of the week: Charlie Crist. It’s been a long time since Crist hasn’t had a politically rocky week, so this qualifies as terrific news: The governor showed up at a local Republican party gathering, in Broward, and for a change actually received an enthusiastic welcome. [...]
"(Charlie Crist) was more green than any governor had ever been before," said David Guest of Earthjustice, an environmental law firm.
But since he launched his bid for a U.S. Senate seat this year, Crist has left environmentalists feeling jilted. He canceled his climate summit. [...]
For Florida's 11 universities, the political savvy of their new chancellor could help mend recent tense relations and budget tussles with the Legislature. Two months into the job, Brogan, 56, is focused on thawing the ice. A former education commissioner, he is well-versed enough in Florida politics to know universities [...]
Tampa Bay area political parties are scaling back in these tough times — except the Pinellas County Republican Party. There, under new chairman J.J. Beyrouti, spending is up even as donations are down. The local party spent $103,000 the first nine months of this year, a 59 percent spike over [...]
"I have never voted for a tax increase," Rubio says on his campaign Web site. "While I generally support tax cuts, I believe meaningful tax reform that simplifies our tax code, makes it easier to understand and is more fair to the taxpayer should be [...]
Charlie Crist acknowledged in an interview that it may not look like he's 100 percent focused on Florida, when he's spending so much time raising money out of state for his Senate race. "One of the things I like the least about what I do is having to raise money...I [...]
Someone sent us this nice shot of Alex Sink and her pal, disgraced fundraiser/alleged Ponzi scheme king Scott Rothstein, who has enough bling on his hands to make Mr. T look like the picture of understated taste by comparison.
It's a scenario that we hear raised surprisingly often now that Gov. Crist is in a tougher-than-expected Senate race against Marco Rubio. So today we asked Crist about the chances of that happening: "Zero. There may be hope on the part of some that that would occur - opponents perhaps, [...]
Former state House Speaker Jon Mills and Linda Kobert, an Orlando parent and education activist, appeared on Political Connections Sunday to discuss their lawsuit alleging that the state is vioilating its Constitutional duty to provide "high quality" education to students. The full interview can be seen in Tampa Bay on Ch. [...]
Jeb Bush never actually mentions Charlie Crist in this Tallahassee Democrat column , but he clearly is taking a shot at Charlie Crist for vocally opposing FPL's requested rate increase. Seems to us the first time the former governor has publicly criticicized current leadership in Tallahassee:
The well-publicized pronouncements made [...]
Winner of the Week: State Sen. Ted Deutch. It looks more and more like the first term Democratic legislator from Boca Raton will walk into the Congressional seat Robert Wexler is vacating to take a well-paid middle east policy advocate job. No serious rival [...]
The answer [...]
What do Nintendo, the A-Team, MTV, and Microsoft Windows have in common?
That was the question posed to dozens of top Democratic fundraisers gathered last night at the lakefront Thonotosassa home of Alex Sink for a [...]
This shouldn't be much of a surprise, but Florida GOP leaders took no formal action at their closed door meeting in Lake County this afternoon - called to help iron out concerns many party leaders expressed about the state Chairman Jim Greer.
"It was productive, definitely. Just open discussion,'' said Hillsborough [...]
Florida Trend: A U.S. Commerce Department spokeswoman told Florida Trend Thursday that the agency is frustrated over the delay in Frank Sanchez’s confirmation to be under secretary of international trade but rejected speculation that the holdup is related to anything other than the fact that the [...]
Robo poll from liberal DailyKos and Research 2000: Gov. Charlie Crist leads Rubio 47 percent to 37 percent among Republicans. In January, Crist led 57 percent to 11 percent. Among all voters, Crist beats Kendrick Meek 50-33, while Meek beats Rubio 38-30. Birthers prefer Rubio 54-31.
These trendlines are bleak for Crist, [...]
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum is (finally) taking a position on whether the Republican Governor's Association should return the $200,000 that disgraced donor Scott Rothstein gave the organization.
"As I have said on many occasions over the last few weeks, I believe that any individual or organization that has received money [...]
Three days ago we asked the Bill McCollum gubernatorial campaign if he intended to call on the Republican Governor's Association to return the $200,000 contribution it received Nov. 17, 2008 from Scott Rothstein. McCollum, after all, was quick to call for both the state GOP and [...]
My father-in-law, former Raleigh Times editor A.C. Snow, hails from the same rural North Carolina County as Alex Sink. Here's his column on what lessons we may learn from Alex Sink's great grandfather Cheng, of the original Siamese Twins, Cheng and Eng:
The next time [...]
Almost daily, some supposedly savvy Florida political operative insists Charlie Crist has already lost the U.S. Senate race. It's a crazy suggestion considering Gov. Crist is leading Republican rival Marco Rubio by about 20 points in recent polls and so [...]
Much of Charlie Crist's old campaign staff already is on the payroll of Sen. George LeMieux, so it only makes sense that LeMieux is now actively raising money to help Crist take over his temporary Senate seat:
You are invited to a Luncheon honoring Governor Charlie Crist Candidate for Florida United States Senate with Special [...]
UPDATE: Chairwoman Moore stressed to Buzz that there is "overwhelming support for Charlie Crist" on the Escambia REC, and that the e-mail was sent only to about five vocal Marco Rubio supporters who were complaining about Crist being the featured speaker. She released a press release that we pasted into [...]
Not enough money. Not enough progress. Florida is violating the state Constitution by not pouring enough money into schools and relentlessly focusing on high-stakes testing policies that aren't getting good results, says a lawsuit expected to be filed today in Leon County Circuit Court.
Prepared by a team of lawyers that [...]
Frank Peterman, secretary of [...]
When yet another story like this from Politico generates this kind of traffic (front and center on Yahoo), we can't help but wonder how many donations flow to Marco Rubio -- and how many to Charlie Crist, from sympathetic [...]
Disgraced fundraiser Scott Rothstein may have been helping Democrat Alex Sink's gubernatorial campaign, but Talking Points Memo reports that he gave $200,000 to the Republican Governors Association:
The week before Rothstein's donation, RGA's annual conference was held in Crist's home state, in Miami (headlined, you [...]
Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and Attorney General Bill McCollum have dramatically cut back their use of state aircraft since a Times/Herald analysis in June revealed they had racked [...]
When will Charlie Crist debate Marco Rubio? The Tampa Republican Club has asked Rubio and Crist to attend a January debate moderated by me. Rubio has agreed, but the Crist campaign had no immediate comment.
Republican Bob Smith is also eager to participate in a bunch [...]
Here's a clip from Republican gubernatorial candidate Paula Dockery's appearance on Political Connections on Bay News 9. The full interview is available on Ch. 342, Bay News 9 on Demand. Best viewed on Firefox: [...]
Before he became House Speaker in 2006, Marco Rubio had a nice "A" rating from the NRA. But when he faces Gov. Charlie Crist in the 2010 Republican U.S. Senate primary, his rating will drop when they post grades/ratings after the spring legislative session of 2010, said NRA lobbyist Marion [...]
Charlie Crist has always courted national media attention and lately - for better or worse - he's getting it in spades.
There was the Wall Street Journal piece on disgraced lawyer/fundraiser Scott Rothstein, featuring a front page image of Crist with Rothstein, inscribed, "Scott-you are amazing! [...]
Winner of the week: George LeMieux. We’re starting to think U.S. Sen. LeMieux really could be a super-human political genius, the way Charlie Crist started stumbling and looking more and more vulnerable since LeMieux moved to Washington and left his side.
Loser of the week: Erin [...]
Bill McCollum, Alex Sink, Maurice Ferre, Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio all spoke before the Council of 100 group of business leaders today, and it sounds like Crist and Rubio may have been the most newsy. Also speaking were Mary Matalin and husband James Carville, who gave quick assessments of the [...]
Is it so hard for Charlie Crist to simply say he supported the stimulus package and that while it was far from perfect, he thinks it did a lot of good for the people of Florida? Now, state party chairman Jim Greer is adding to the credibility gap.
"If [Crist] had been a [...]
Our sense is Yes. But he seems to be on mighty thin ice: Republicans should have the wind at their backs this election season with President Barack Obama's poll numbers dropping and independents turning away from Democrats.
But many Florida Republicans increasingly see a significant obstacle [...]
Jim Greer had a conference call with members of the state GOP executive board today over the concerns about the numerous negative reports swirling around the RPOF - fake twitter accounts, RPOF consultants creating anti-Rubio web sites, questionable fundraising/spending, etc.
Jim Greer issued a statement: “While these are challenging times within [...]
Days after he called for her resignation, Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Thurman is dumping Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chairman B.J. Chiszar. Thurman's spokesman, Eric Jotkoff, said the timing is incidental and the complaints against Chiszar have been mounting for months. He has been in the post for about one year.
"He [...]
Having been criticized repeatedly for receiving campaign donations from disgraced uber donor Scott Rothstein, the Alex Sink campaign was happy to e-mail this photo of Rothstein and McCollum to supporters. "Curious to see Rothstein and Bill McCollum looking so chummy, isn't it?,'' said the Sink note. " Especially [...]
State Sen. Mike Fasano, one of Charlie Crist's scrappier supporters, has sent a letter to Marco Rubio calling him out for his criticicsm over the federal stimulus package that bailed out Florida's budget. Correct us if we're wrong, but Fasano appears to slightly misstate the position of Rubio, who has [...]
Brevard County Republican Chairman Jason Steele is asking the state party to cover his legal expenses, $7,500, from dealing with a bogus Twitter account a party staffer created in his name and defending against a grievance complaint that he says was encouraged by the state party too. Steele has been [...]
We've never thought of ourselves as especially politically correct here, but check out this YouTube video attacking Marco Rubio. Does it not seem clearly aimed at turning off voters who might be uneasy about Rubio's Hispanic heritage? Beyond questioning Rubio's conservative bona fides, it seems designed to shout, HE'S HISPANIC! [...]
LAKELAND — Florida Republican leaders worked hard to thwart any costly and potentially divisive primaries in this busy election cycle. They could not have failed more and looked less disciplined if they were Democrats.
State Sen. Paula Dockery became the latest to thumb her nose at the party establishment, formally announcing [...]
It has become part of Gov. Charlie Crist's firewall when confronted with criticism that he isn't conservative enough.
"I signed the largest single tax cut in the history of Florida, a $25 billion tax cut over five years, directed at property tax cuts," Crist said [...]
