Republican firebrand Ronda Storms is dropping her state Senate reelection bid and instead will run against embattled Hillsborough County Property Appraiser Rob Turner.

Storms, a lawyer and former Hillsborough County commissioner, had two years left before she was term-limited out of the Senate. But she said the porn scandal surrounding Turner prompted her to abandon the legislature and instead try to oust her fellow Republican.

“As a Republican I have a responsibility to make sure that he has an opportunity to be held accountable to the Republican voters,” Storms, R-Valrico, said.

Storms’ exit makes her District 10 seat another battleground for a Senate leadership battle between Republicans John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, and Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater.

Although Storms is a conservative Christian who consistently supported anti-abortion efforts, she bucked Thrasher and other Senate leaders and joined forces with Latvala and moderates on several key issues, and was instrumental in helping to kill a prison privatization effort.

Storms, chairwoman of the Senate Children, Families and Elder Services Committee, has been an ardent advocate for children and a harsh critic of the Department of Children and Families. Among other battles, she has waged a war against the administration over its use of psychotropic medications on youth in state custody. She intensified her scrutiny of the agency in the aftermath of the tragic death of Nubia Barahona, whose adoptive parents are accused with her murder and the abuse of her twin sibling Victor.

Storms said the caustic atmosphere created by the leadership maelstrom over who will succeed incoming Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, contributed to her decision to leave the chamber early.

“I was going to have to find an exit ramp at some point. So this was the point. It would be dishonest for me to say that it hasn’t been difficult to have this swirling tension all the time,” the passionate Storms, adding that “believe it or not, I don’t like conflict,” said.

“It is wonderful to think that I can go in and make changes and be an administrator and manager and say, ‘Here’s the way we’re going to behave’ and carry it out and cause it to happen all from the top without 10 people above your or ahead of you saying ‘no’ or creating dissension,” she said.

Storms said her possible replacements include former Senate President Tom Lee, state Rep. Rachel Burgin, R-Riverview and Rep. Shawn Harrison, R-Tampa.

Charlie Reed, who was Florida’s higher education chancellor for 13 years until heading to California in 1998, announced Thursday that he was stepping down as top executive of the nation’s largest university system.

Reed said he’ll return to Florida when a successor is named.

“It has been an incredible honor to serve as chancellor of the California State University during such a dynamic period in the university’s history,” Reed said.  “Over the past decade and a half, the CSU has emerged as a national leader in providing access and support to students from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds.”   

But over the past four years, Reed also has had to grapple with California’s deep budget problems. State cuts to the state university system totaled more than $1 billion, a  35 percent reduction even as enrollment spiked.  Since Reed joined the CSU, the system has grown by 100,000 students to 427,000.

“Nobody has cared more about the mission of the university, worked harder despite overwhelming challenges or advocated more passionately on behalf of the CSU than Charlie Reed,” said CSU Trustee Bill Hauck.  “His leadership over more than 14 years has been invaluable, and he has managed the institution through some of the most difficult times in its history.  Charlie leaves a legacy that puts students first.”

Reed, 70, was a popular, hardnosed figure as Florida’s university system chancellor. A former chief-of-staff to Democratic Gov. Bob Graham, Reed remained outspoken about Florida’s system – even from his position on the left coast.

Earlier this year, he told the Palm Beach Post, “the bigger problem in Florida is, there’s no real vision, no plan or direction for what higher education means and what it should do for the state.”

After a sometimes rocky economic mission to Spain, Gov. Rick Scott is scheduled to return stateside Thursday where he’ll be greeted by some better approval ratings in the latest Quinnipiac University poll.

The survey released Thursday shows Scott’s job approval among Floridians has topped 40 percent for the first time in the Quinnipiac poll — although by a 46-41 percent rating, more voters still disapprove of his performance as chief executive.

“Although (Scott’s) numbers aren’t that impressive, they are a step up for him – the first time he has gotten his approval rating out of the 30s since taking office,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

In the Quinnipiac poll, Scott’s previous best score was 50-38 percent disapproval in January, Brown said.

The Florida Republican Party has spent $1.2 billion since late March on a TV advertising campaign to promote Scott and his policies, with the spending all directed outside more costly South Florida.  The latest poll shows Scott drawing his worst ratings in South Florida, where voters disapprove of the job he’s doing by 54-29 percent.

Although Scott’s not on the ballot this fall, Democrats are eager to lash him and his lackluster numbers to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Democrats say the recent TV campaign is aimed at softening Scott’s negatives.

The Quinnipiac survey also shows Romney now holding a 47-41 percent advantage over President Obama in Florida. Democrats disputed those findings, saying the Quinnipiac poll questioned too many Republican-leaning voters.

Scott’s trip to Spain may not have much effect on his popularity in Florida. But the governor was lampooned on Spanish television during his visit for awkwardly asking King Juan Carlos about his elephant-hunting expedition to the African nation of Botswana.

The monarch’s trip became known only after he broke his hip while in Botswana. In a nation wracked by soaring unemployment and crippling debt, the kingly junket was ridiculed as insensitive. Juan Carlos later called the trip a “mistake.”

Scott and his wife, Ann, peppered the King with questions about the Botswana hunting expedition during their brief meeting  Wednesday. The exchange, and the king’s unease, was used to draw plenty of laughs on the Spanish TV program El Intermedio, an Iberian version of  The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Here’s a link to Scott on Intermedio. Disfruten!   http://bit.ly/LteyRr

A coalition of voting rights groups is asking Gov. Rick Scott to stop a statewide effort to purge thousands of potential non-citzens from the voting rolls, and U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, also plans to ask the governor to stop the scrub.

Lawyers for the groups said in a letter to Secretary of State Ken Detzner that the voting purge is in violation of the National Voting Rights Act which prohibits systematic purging of the voter rolls 90 days prior to a general election. The purge effort falls within that 90-day prohibition because of Florida’s Aug. 14 primary.

Last month, Detzner sent a list of more than 2,600 potentially ineligible voters to the state’s 67 elections supervisors flagged as potentially ineligible by matching driver’s license and voting records. But the list was riddled with errors and included some voters who were born in the U.S. and others who had become citizens since getting their driver’s licenses or state-issued ID cards. Detzner’s office then went to work on scrubbing a list of up to 180,000 flagged voters whose citizenship is in question.

Last week, Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles officials said they would begin a more exhaustive vetting of the list by using a federal database with more up-to-date citizenship information. The list is exacerbating an already strained relationship between state and local elections officials as the November general election approaches.

Project Vote, Fair Elections Legal Network, Advancement Project, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, LULAC Florida, and the Hillsborough Hispanic Coalition asked Detzner to abandon the non-citizen initiative, prompted by Gov. Rick Scott after he took office in 2010.

Many of the voters on the list are Hispanics, which could also be a violation of the NVRA which requires state voter list maintenance programs to be uniform and non-discriminatory, lawyers for the groups said.

“The right to vote is the fundamental pillar of our democracy. Florida has a shameful history of purging minority voters based on false information and inaccurate lists right before the presidential elections,” Penda Hair, co-director of the Advancement Project, said in a press release. “This year’s deeply flawed process disproportionately targets Latino voters and is discriminatory, unfair and antithetical to the values of our nation.”

Detzner’s spokesman Chris Cate said the group is wrong.

“We just received the letter, but we’ve had it long enough to know we disagree with their interpretation of the law. Not only do we believe it’s crucial to have ineligible voters removed from the voter rolls, we’re obligated by law to do it,” Cate said in an e-mail. Detzner’s office will be sending a formal response to the coalition, Cate said, noting that the presidential primary was in January, not in August as the groups said in their letter.

Deutch also drafted a letter to Scott asking him to stop flushing the voter rolls.

“Given that this process fails to meet basic standards of accountability, and that the legal authority for automatic removal of registered voters is currently being challenged in both state and federal court, it is irresponsible to proceed so quickly and with so little room for oversight. If the goal is truly to remove ineligible individuals who were intentionally or somehow mistakenly registered to vote, then that process must move forward in a nonpartisan manner with transparency, uniformity, and great care,” Deutch’s draft letter reads. “Governor Scott, Florida has never encountered problems with mass voter fraud. Unfortunately however, our state does have a troubled history of wrongfully purging from our rolls the names of legitimate voters mistakenly deemed ineligible to vote. In both 2000 and 2004, the state pursued misguided efforts to purge the voter rolls that were shown to wrongfully include legal voters in these lists. Only when the lists and the process were made transparent could all Florida voters trust that no one would be wrongfully denied their right to vote.”

Sustained character attacks from Republican primary rival George LeMieux and fretting by some GOP activists about his campaign don’t appear to have damaged U.S. Rep. Connie Mack‘s Senate bid, according to new polls from Quinnipiac University and NBC News-Marist.

The Quinnipiac poll shows a virtual tie between Mack and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, with Mack up by a 42-to-41 percent margin that’s within the poll’s 2.4 percent margin of error. In the GOP primary, Quinnipiac has Mack clobbering LeMieux by a 40-to-7 percent margin.

The NBC-Marist poll gives Nelson a 46-to-42 percent lead over Mack. That poll has a 3 percent margin of error.

Both new polls suggest the race has tightened since last month, when a Rasmussen poll gave Nelson an 11-point lead and a poll by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling showed Nelson up by 10 points. Quinnipiac’s last poll on the race in late March had Nelson up by 8 points.

The new Quinnipiac poll is based on a sample that Democrats criticized on Wednesday as too tilted to the GOP.

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Despite clashes over reproductive rights and same-sex marriage, the presidential fight in Florida appears certain to pivot on the economy, a Quinnipiac University poll Wednesday suggests.

Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, holds a 47-41 percent over President Obama in the latest survey. Since Republicans began rallying around Romney following his late primary victories, the former Massachusetts governor also has gained in Florida across most voter groups.

Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac’s polling institute, said rising optimism among voters about the economy has lately gone flat. And that souring has helped Romney.

“The reproductive rights issues and some of the social issues rank much lower on the priority scale of voters than things like the economy,” Brown said. “What’s moved voters toward Romney in Florida has moved both men and women. It’s not just women’s issues, mens issues. The economy is what matters over all.”

Romney is viewed as better able to handle the economy 50-40 percent, the poll showed.

Romney’s 47-to-41 percent advantage in the new poll, which has a 2.4 percent margin of error, compares to a statistically insignificant 44-to-43 percent lead for the Republican in a Quinnipiac poll at the beginning of the month. And it compares to a 49-to-42 percent lead for Obama two months ago.

Click here to read the new poll.

The survey finds Florida voters, who approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in 2008, remain opposed to such unions by a 50-to-40 percent margin. When given a choice of three options, 36 percent support same-sex marriage, 34 percent support civil unions and 23 percent favor no legal recognition of any kind for same-sex relationships.

President Obama’s recent announcement that he supports gay marriage makes no difference in how they’ll vote for president, 63 percent of Florida voters say in the poll. Another 25 percent say it makes them less likely to vote for Obama, while 11 percent say they are more likely to vote for him because of the announcement.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio gets high favorability and approval ratings in the poll, but adding him to the presidential ticket wouldn’t have a big impact. A Romney-Rubio ticket gets 49 percent to 41 percent for Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

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Rep. Chris Dorworth

John Moffitt

Reached by phone, Moffitt didn’t say why he launched a campaign against the powerful incumbent. But it’s an unusual move for a local party official to take on a future House Speaker.

“I’m not ready to make a statement at this time,” said Moffitt, whose message beneath his Twitter account (@johntheumpire) reads “Going to run for congress someday!” Like Dorworth, Moffitt lives in Lake Mary.

Dorworth, who’s collected more than $250,000 for his reelection effort, is scheduled to pick the gavel after incoming House Speaker Will Weatherford’s term ends in November 2014.

Maitland Democrat Michael Clelland is also listed as a candidate in the race.

A pair of ads from a female point of view are the latest negative spots to hit Florida airwaves in the race between President Obama and Mitt Romney.

The pro-Obama PAC Priorities USA is airing a new ad slamming Romney’s past leadership of the private equity firm Bain Capital, accusing Romney of profiting by shutting down companies and eliminating jobs.

The conservative PAC Crossroads GPS blasts Obama on the national debt, which has grown from $10.6 trillion when Obama was sworn in to $15.7 trillion today. The crossroads ad begins Wednesday.

Joe Namath making his 1969 guarantee that Jets will beat Colts in Super Bowl III. He delivered -- will Rod Smith and Florida Democrats do the same in Senate District 34?

Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith says the state Senate District 34 race between Democratic Sen. Maria Sachs and Republican Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff is the Democrats’ top Senate priority this year and he’s promising that Sachs will win.

The two incumbents were thrown into the same race by redistricting.

Smith’s promise has a brash, Joe Namath pre-Super Bowl III tone. But the new Palm Beach-Broward district has a Democratic tilt, so a Sachs isn’t really an underdog.

“The number one race and focus is right here in Maria Sachs. Number one for the state. Whatever it takes, however long it takes, whatever the work is, we’re going to to do it because we’re going to win this race,” Smith told about 120 Sachs supporters Monday night in West Delray.

Smith said Sachs looked at the new map and, rather than run against Democratic Rep. Joseph Abruzzo in Senate District 25, said “I’ll take a Republican, I’ll take her out.”

Smith added: “And that’s what’s going to happen down here, I promise.”

“However much money we need to raise, however much money we need to spend. However many times we have to hit every one of you up to help us, we’re going to do it. Because I’m not going to be at the end of night saying ‘Oh, I wish we had done just a little bit more in Palm Beach and Broward County.’ We’re going to take this seat and I promise you, it’s a Democrat-performing seat. It voted for Barack Obama last time; it will again. It’s voted for Bill Nelson every time; it will again. And it’s going to vote Democrat if we go out and tell our precincts, our neighborhoods, our communities and our friends that this is the number one race for us, and we win this race.”

A Florida House Democrat urged Gov. Rick Scott on Monday to fix a glitch in a much-touted overhaul of the state’s mandatory auto insurance requirement, which some critics say threatens payments to a wide range of health care providers.

Rep. Rick Kriseman, D-St. Petersburg, said he wanted to hear how the Republican governor planned to address errors that he said could have a significant effect on Floridians and businesses. The new law goes into effect July 1.

“While your intent in advocating for the passage of this bill was to combat auto fraud, the errors contained in this bill are of such significance that failure to fix them prior to implementation of the legislation will invite litigation,” Kriseman told Scott. “I am sure you recognize that the lack of clarity under which insurance carriers and medical providers will attempt to operate is bound to create needless new chaos and costs.”

Scott toured the state earlier this month promoting the legislation (HB 119) that he said will reduce accident fraud and high insurance premiums which have plagued Florida’s mandatory, no-fault personal injury protection (PIP) coverage.

The PIP bill, a top Scott priority, was hastily cobbled together in the waning hours of the legislative session.  But the measure includes a glitch — conflicting language that raises questions of whether insurers could be considered exempt from paying claims between July 1 and Jan. 1, 2013 to hospitals, chiropractors, dentists, doctors and others.

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration has sought to resolve the new law’s problems by issuing a memo saying that it considers all providers still eligible to receive insurance payments. Changes to eligibility outlined in the law would not take effect until Jan. 1, according to AHCA’s memo.

In the memo, AHCA’s general counsel, Stuart Williams, acknowledged the conflict “would place the agency in a conundrum.” But he concluded, the “agency believes that the (law) applies the same effective date of January 1, 2013 to both the new licensure requirement and the…exemption.”

But given that Scott and other advocates for changing PIP said the current system was marked by wholesale fraud and overcharges, some experts have questioned whether AHCA’s memo will be enough to keep the legislation out of court.

Kriseman, who was among 30 House Democrats voting against the legislation, said he also has been hearing from constituents who are being charged more for auto insurance since the PIP bill passed. Lawmakers lifted a mandatory rate reduction from the legislation as a concession to insurance companies who promised lower premiums once the PIP changes went into effect.

“Unfortunately, it does not appear that these insurance companies are living up to their assurances,” Kriseman said.

Bogdanoff

Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith and incoming Senate Democratic Leader Chris Smith plan to attend Sachs’ campaign kickoff event tonight at the South County Civic Center west of Delray Beach.

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, one of the most popular Republicans in the state, announced his endorsement for Bogdanoff today.

Atwater used to represent a coastal Palm Beach-Broward Senate district that leaned Republican. But the new district where Bogdanoff and Sachs are running has a Democratic advantage.

Democrats have successfully cleared the field for Sachs, with former Rep. Kevin Rader dropping a Sachs primary challenge and running in another district instead. Bogdanoff, meanwhile, faces a challenge from the right by Mike Lameyer in the GOP primary.

Keever

“I’m sure you’re going to do well,” Scott said to Keever during remarks at a Boca Raton Republican Club dinner last week. “We need to elect a Republican state attorney down here.”

Find out the latest on fundraising strategies by Aronberg and Keever in this week’s Politics column.

Less than three months before the Aug. 14 GOP primary, former Space Coast Republican Rep. Dave Weldon has entered the Republican race for U.S. Senate, joining frontrunners Connie Mack and George LeMieux.

Weldon’s announcement doesn’t mention Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, but criticizes President Obama and mentions “tough choices that will determine our national direction for the next 4 years,” even though Senate terms are six years. The Weldon campaign also released an Obama-slamming video that doesn’t mention Nelson.

Weldon, a physician, was elected to Congress in the Republican wave of 1994. He opted not to seek reelection in 2008. In the House, he had a reputation as a friend of Israel and foe of abortion who had a lifetime 92.5 percent rating from the American Conservative Union.

Nelson was once considered a top GOP target. But a shifting GOP field (Adam Hasner, Mike Haridopolos and Craig Miller have dropped out; Mack declared himself out in early 2011 before jumping in later in the year) and an increasingly nasty fight between Mack and LeMieux have soured Republican hopes.

Democrats responded gleefully to the Weldon news.

“The fact that there’s still so much turmoil in the Republican field less than six months from Election Day speaks volumes about their party’s challenges in Florida,” said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee press secretary Shripal Shah.

Read Weldon’s announcement statement after the jump.

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Incoming Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, is ramping up his staff in preparation for taking the gavel after the November elections.

Gaetz has hired Department of Revenue executive director Lisa Vickers, who worked for the agency for more than two decades, as a chief policy advisor focusing on governmental operations. Her salary will be $135,000 a year, Gaetz’s chief of staff Chris Clark said this morning. Clark will remain in the same post after Gaetz takes over as president.

Vickers, whose current annual salary as the agency chief is $120,000, submitted her resignation – effective July 1 – yesterday to Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet.

And, in what is sure to be good news for Capitol reporters: Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon‘s spokeswoman Katie Betta will move across the rotunda to take the same role in Gaetz’s administration. Betta’s resume also includes a stint as spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Florida.

Florida Department of Revenue executive director Lisa Vickers resigned from her post today, effective July 1.

Vickers has been on the job since 2007, when she was appointed by former Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet. The revenue department collects and distributes child support payments, collects and administers state taxes – including sales tax – and oversees property taxes. A copy of her resignation letter was not immediately available.

Last year, Vickers’s agency collected more than $32 billion in state taxes and processed more than $1.5 billion in child support payments.

Vickers, who answers to Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet, submitted her resignation in the wake of a shake-up in Scott’s inner circle. The governor’s chief of staff Steve MacNamara resigned over the weekend after media reports questioned his awarding of no-bid contracts to close associates while he worked for Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island. Former associates also accused him of being an overly controlling presence in the governor’s office. MacNamara had intended to leave in the fall.

State highway officials will begin vetting a controversial list of 180,000 potential non-citizens who are registered to vote within the next few weeks, The Palm Beach Post has learned.

The news comes as a surprise to elections supervisors who, at their summer meeting this week, pleaded with state Division of Elections leaders to more thoroughly scrub the records before sending them on to the local officials for further action.

The Department of State last month gave elections supervisors a list of more than 2,600 voters – many of them in Miami-Dade County – potentially ineligible to vote because they may not be legal citizens. The list was generated by matching voter registration files with driver’s license data.

But the information in the list included some voters who were born in the U.S. and others who are naturalized citizens. Secretary of State Ken Detzner and his staff blamed the problematic list on the Department of Homeland Security. The federal officials have refused to give Detzner’s office access to a federal database with more up-to-date immigration and citizenship information.

But the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has access to the SAVE – “Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements” – database, prompting county supervisors on Tuesday and Wednesday to ask the state elections staff to get DHSMV to run the records through SAVE. Division of Elections chief Gisela Salas and DOS lawyer Maria Matthews told the supervisors their agency is working with DHSMV to resolve the issue but were uncertain about whether it could be done.

On Thursday, DHSMV Director of Motorist Services Boyd Walden told The Palm Beach Post that his agency will begin running the list of 180,000 potential non-citizens through the SAVE database within the next few weeks.

“We are gearing up to get it done. That’s the plan,” Walden said.

DOS spokesman Chris Cate confirmed that the vetting would begin soon, and the state department would pick up the tab. DOS sent a memo to supervisors late Thursday telling them of the new plan, Cate said. Read the memo after the jump.

The SAVE database includes records on people who have gone through the immigration process, including those who have applied for green cards or become citizens.

“It’s disappointing DHS will not give us direct access to their database but we are very grateful for our state partners at highway safety who understand the importance of having accurate voter rolls,” Cate said. “We have an obligation to improve the accuracy of Florida’s voter rolls. So we have offered to pay the cost it takes for Highway Safety to update their records and ultimately the status of potential non-citizens on Florida’s voter rolls.”

State elections officials do not have an estimate of many non-citizens will be confirmed on the voter rolls, Cate said.

“We just know it’s important for us to find out what that number is,” he said.

Supervisors were relieved at the news.

Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher pressed officials from both agencies on Tuesday and Wednesday to have DHSMV scrub the list.

“Obviously our goal is to have the most accurate data possible so we don’t disturb voters who shouldn’t be on that list,” Bucher, who has not yet notified about 115 voters in Palm Beach County that they have been flagged as potentially ineligible voters. “All of us would have appreciated some more specific information from the division of Elections. I’m hopeful that we receive that soon.”

Read Salas’ memo to supervisors below.
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U.S. Education SecretaryArne Duncan  ridiculed Florida’s Republican-ruled Legislature on Thursday for sidestepping a  sought-after waiver from the federal government to help private vendors retain lucrative tutoring contracts.

Speaking in Washington, D.C. ,to the Florida Council of 100, the business-dominated advisory group, Duncan criticized lawmakers for requiring school districts to spend 15 percent of federal funds for low-income students on private tutoring programs.

Under pressure from state officials, the Education Department had granted Florida and several other states waivers that shielded them from a federal standard demanding that a set amount be spent on tutoring.

State officials had argued that data was inconclusive about whether the tutoring programs, which range from online to in-home student assistance, were effective.

“I find it ironic that Washington is offering flexibility but Tallahassee is taking it away,” Duncan said.

A federal study released this month analyzed results from No Child Left Behind tutoring programs in Connecticut, Ohio and Florida. It found that for students in grades three through eight, there was “no statistically significant impact” on performance in reading or math.

“Why is Florida keeping the set-aside for tutoring that is showing little or no impact on children?” Duncan asked. “Is it because of pressure from the industry?”

The Florida legislation (SB 7127) takes effect July 1. It was signed into law last month by Gov. Rick Scott.

The Council of 100 has long been an ally of Republican governors. But in recent weeks, the council’s appeals to Scott have fallen on deaf ears.

 The council sent a letter last month urging Scott to veto legislation creating the state’s 12th public university, giving independence to the University of South Florida’s Polytechnic campus in Lakeland. The council also called for Scott to approve legislation giving the University of Florida and Florida State University authority to charge whatever tuition they wanted, as part of a push to enhance the schools’ science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs.

Instead, Scott approved the new university — and vetoed the UF/FSU tuition bill.

U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, a Boca Raton Democrat, praised Duncan’s criticism of the Florida legislation. He called on Scott to suspend the 15 percent requirement before the law takes effect in July.

 ”This statute will deny our school districts the flexibility the Obama Administration intended to give them by awarding Florida this waiver,” said Deutch, a former Florida state senator.  ”At a time when school districts throughout Florida are struggling with inadequate resources, top-down mandates, and high-stakes testing, we cannot afford to spend 15% of our state’s Title I funds on an ineffective, for-profit earmark for private vendors.”

Stephanie Monroe of the Tutor Our Children Coalition in Washington, which represents providers of the service, swung back at Duncan. She questioned the accuracy of studies that challenged whether the tutoring effort was effective.

“Secretary Duncan’s comment today on free tutoring services offered to low-income students at under-performing schools misrepresents the program  and does a disservice to the 74,000 students who access free tutoring in Florida,” Monroe said.

Former appointed Sen. George LeMieux defended and reiterated his character attacks against his main GOP Senate primary rival, Rep. Connie Mack, during an appearance this morning on MSNBC.

“If Connie Mack is the nominee, I don’t think he can beat Bill Nelson. It’ll be a race about character. Connie Mack can’t win a character contest with Bill Nelson,” LeMieux told host Chuck Todd.

LeMieux has called Mack, son of a popular former Florida Senator with the same name, a “Half Mack” and repeatedly criticized the younger Mack’s past fistfights, financial woes and residency questions. Todd asked LeMieux if he regretted the personal nature of his attacks on Mack and if he thought they would hurt the GOP if Mack becomes the nominee.

“He’s trying to run a campaign where people will mistake him for his father. And we can’t make that mistake,” LeMieux said. “If he is the nominee we will lose.”

Nelson

While not offering specifics, Nelson seemed to suggest an overhaul in which rates would be lowered in exchange for closing loopholes and eliminating tax breaks. He said he’s been talking with Republican Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who’s been mentioned as a potential Mitt Romney running mate.

“Our corporate tax is too high and too complex, and it stifles competition. In fact, the United States has the highest statutory corporate income tax rate in the developed world,” Nelson said in an advance copy of his remarks.

At the same time, Nelson said, the U.S. ranks 18th to 25th in the world in corporate tax revenue as a percentage of gross domestic product.

“I believe that we can actually cut the corporate income tax rate and improve tax fairness at the same time. That’s because, right now, some firms pay an effective rate well above 30 percent, whereas other corporations pay nothing at all,” Nelson said.

Read the entire prepared text after the jump…

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