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. [...]
As a special session seems likely on rail issues, opponents of the proposed SunRail commuter system say it's the same old bad deal. The issues: cost, liability for taxpayers and federal protections for railroad workers on the tracks the state wants to buy from CSX for Central Florida [...]
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 [...]
Our friends at Bay News 9 ran into Gov. Charlie Crist this morning serving meals to the homeless in St. Petersburg. During the conversation, Bay News 9 reporter Josh Rojas asked Crist if he was thankful for the PolitiFact on Marco Rubio's tax record.
Here's what Crist said:
"I'm thankful for [...]
The state's response: no thanks. Keep your money.
Kottkamp, a Republican candidate for attorney general, [...]
"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 [...]
Trying to convey broad support for President Obama's decision to vow greenhouse emissions cuts in an upcoming visit to Denmark, the White House tonight released statements from a host of prominent officials. Among them: Lew Hay, CEO of Florida Power & Light.
"We commend the president for his efforts and [...]
With U.S. Senate Democrats just barely scrounging up the 60 votes to avoid a GOP filibuster on health care, Orlando congressman Alan Grayson is trying to gain public support for a proposal to drop the threshold to 55 votes. "We've got a problem with democracy," Grayson said on MSNBC. Below' [...]
Legislators might not be thankful for this heads-up: Senate President Jeff Atwater and House Speaker Larry Cretul just sent letters to members in their respective chambers to notify them that if negotiations continue to move positively, a special session on commuter and high-speed rail could be called Monday -- to [...]
Word is that legislative leaders and Gov. Charlie Crist are close to a deal on Tri-Rail, SunRail and high-speed rail, and could call a special session as early as next week.
Crist said he preferred the week of Dec. 7, but the Legislature might meet before then to avoid running into Hannukah.
Expect Sen. Paula Dockery of [...]
Gov. Charlie Crist just released the executive order to reschedule the special election to fill Congressman Robert Wexler's seat. The original date conflicted with Passover. Now it will be held April 13, 2010.
Read the order here: Download Wexler Executive Order 09-265
[...]She's not an official candidate for state attorney general, but Pam Bondi gave a sense of what she might be like on the campaign trail at a meeting of the Tampa Bay Young Republicans Tuesday night. She spoke to about 20 people -- including state house candidates Irene Guy and [...]
Gov. Charlie Crist bragged the other night that all his chiefs of staff have been from Broward County, forming a "Broward County connection."
Accused Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein was from there as well. And he gave loads of money to Crist and the Republican party. Did George LeMieux (now [...]
As expected, the Florida Supreme Court approved the permanent disbarment of alleged Ponzi schemer and major political donor Scott Walter Rothstein. The order, signed by the court's clerk, allows the Florida Bar to recover $1,250 in costs from Rothstein, though it might be difficult considering those at the front of [...]
Rich Text Area.
The Rubio camp sent out this transcript of Rush Limbaugh on the Republican Senate race:
“I like Rubio. …
Former House Speaker Marco Rubio, ex-Senate President Ken Pruitt and Senate budget writer Lisa Carlton are potential witnesses in the House investigation of Rep. Ray Sansom, according to new documents that portend a high profile, [...]
Well, it took awhile, but Gov. Charlie Crist finally suspended accused Ponzi schemer and major political donor Scott Rothstein from the Fourth DCA Judicial Nominating Commission.
Crist just release the executive order, which comes about three weeks after the initial reports of Rothstein's alleged misdeeds. He also has appointed William [...]
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement released its final report today in its investigation into the Public Service Commission and concluded, as expected, no criminal wrongdoing. Download PSC Report
What is newsworthy is that PSC Commissioner Nathan Skop was the one who first brought the issue to state investigators on [...]
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 [...]
THE VILLAGES -- Lori Pitner walked back to her place in line at Barnes & Noble, holding her toothbrush and tooth paste.
The 46-year-old stay-at-home mom and Sunday school teacher from Tavares, Fla., arrived here with her posse -- a girlfriend who is running for U.S. Congress and several children -- [...]
A special lawmaking session over high-speed and commuter rail inched closer Monday as legislative leaders and the governor said they were ready to tap surplus money discovered in the transportation budget rather than raise taxes on rental cars.
The surplus money -- about $76 million for the current and [...]
Vowing to save the state $5 million, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said Monday she's asking legislators to make it easier for her office to go paperless to collect payments from vendors. The proposed legislation would allow her to require electronic funds transfer payments, [...]
Sen. George LeMieux said he long wondered how disgraced lawyer Scott Rothstein was so successful but never acted on it because he's not "the kind of person to try to pull down others."
"I’ve talked to him and know him," LeMieux, who ran a competing law firm, said last week. "I [...]
U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., is taking aim at Radio and TV Martí, calling it a $300 million "relic of the Cold War ... that virtually no one tunes in to."
"Government studies show that Radio and TV Martí are riddled with problems, and fall short of journalistic standards," Feingold [...]
TAMPA -- Republican Congressional candidate Eddie Adams Jr. made an odd use of his campaign stationery in his capacity as a newly appointed member of the Hillsborough County Hospital Authority, a governmental agency. Adams is once again campaigning for the District 11 House seat held by Democrat Kathy Castor.
To read more, click [...]
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, [...]
Lori Edwards' campaign for Florida's 12th Congressional district released a poll today boasting she's got the lead "despite the challenging political environment for Democrats going into 2010."
In a recent survey conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, Edwards holds a 4-point edge over Republican challenger Dennis Ross, 46 – 42 percent. [...]
The initial list of candidates to replace longtime FSU president T.K. Wetherell is in, and the 17 people range from a middle school teacher to a few high-ranking professors and college deans at FSU. The earch committee is slated to start looking at the candidates' files Tuesday, with the aim [...]
Agriculture Commissioner candidate Scott Maddox, a Democrat, made his position on offshore oil drilling perfectly clear at a press conference Monday: "an absolute no."
The former state party leader and Tallahassee mayor stood next to an enlarged photo of an oil rig on fire and declared that offshore oil drilling (in [...]
Mustering all the fear of Armageddon, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush warns in an op-ed in the Tallahassee Democrat this weekend that if Florida Power & Light and Progress Energy don't get their rate increases a reliable energy grid could be "threatened." He blames "populist politics,'' translation: Gov. Charlie Crist, who has [...]
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 [...]
TAMPA — About 1,000 people lined up along Dale Mabry Highway for the chance to meet conservative pundit Glenn Beck, who visited a Borders bookstore as part of his whirlwind tour through Florida on Saturday to promote his latest book, Arguing with Idiots.
His [...]
The U.S. Senate just voted 60-39 to advance the health care bill, exposing deep division that will continue to play out during debate after Thanksgiving. Florida Senators reflected the party line vote.
"This is a debate that we must have. It is a debate that we cannot afford not to have," [...]
WASHINGTON — George LeMieux has been a member of the U.S. Senate only two months but has managed to jam up legislation on oil drilling, a bill cutting funding for Radio Marti and he is blocking President Barack Obama's nominee for ambassador to Brazil.
But what [...]
The answer [...]
A motion motion filed today with the First District Court of Appeal, lays out several technical arguments why the appeal is justified and asks the appellate court [...]
State Sen. Mike Bennett sent an angry letter to the state's five Public Service Commissioners this week, "appalled with the lack of oversight'' in the general counsel selection process when it let agency executive director Mary Bane "change the rules as you go in order to accommodate candidates who failed to meet the deadlines.''
"With [...]
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 [...]
UPDATE: Florida's Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson will vote to move the bill forward. Listen to his floor speech
Sen. George LeMieux said he will vote against moving the health care bill to the floor, contending it is still an unfinished product. "It's out for six weeks in Harry Reid's conference [...]Mary Ellen Klas, Shannon Colavecchio, Adam Smith, Times Editor, Alex Leary, Steve Bousquet, Janet Zink, Lee Logan, Aaron Sharockman, John Frank, Amy Hollyfield, David DeCamp, Joni James
