Organizations which backed the voter-approved constitutional amendments guiding redistricting Friday blasted proposed maps slated to be voted on later in the day by the House Redistricting Committee.

In a 12-page letter to House Redistricting chief Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, former state Sen. Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat serving as legal counsel to Fair Districts supporters, effectively urged lawmakers to scrap the plans they’ve been working on.

The League of Women Voters, Common Cause and the National Council of La Raza have submitted an alternate approach to district maps that Weatherford today plans to introduce as an amendment to the House plan.

 The alternate proposal would “nest” three House districts within the 40-seat state Senate plan, making the boundaries more compact and logical for voters, Gelber said in his letter.

Congressional districts also would meander less, under the proposal. House, Senate and congressional maps recommended by the groups also would lean less Republican and prove more reflective of a state where registered voters are closely divided, with Democrats still holding a 500,000-voter edge.

“In sum, we believe that we have provided the committee with alternative proposals that comply with the Fair Districts amendments, while the proposals currently under consideration by the committee and those already passed by the Senate fail to comply with those amendments,” leaders of the organizations concluded in the letter to Weatherford.

The alternate maps likely stand little chance of being approved today.

But the letter lays out what could emerge as the central argument against the legislative maps when Florida’s redistricting effort advances for review to the state Supreme Court and U.S. Justice Department in coming weeks, and when Fair Districts advocate file an expected legal challenge.

The Florida Nurses Association has filed a lawsuit against the state corrections department over a prison health care privatization effort ordered by lawmakers in the budget last year.

The nurses are using the same argument that the Florida Police Benevolent Association successfully used to kill a prison privatization plan also included in the budget. A Tallahassee judge ruled that the way lawmakers went about the outsourcing was unconstitutional and needed instead to be the subject of a stand-alone bill.

The Department of Corrections is now taking bids to privatize all health services to the state’s 100,000 inmates. The outsourcing would put more than 1,000 nurses and other health care professionals now working for DOC out of a job, according to FNA director of labor relations Jeanie Demshar.

“We believe that any effort to turn thousands of state employee jobs over to private companies needs to be vetted by the public, with input from those workers,’’ Demshar said in a statement.

The suit was filed on Tuesday in the Leon County Circuit Court, where Judge Jackie Fulford scrapped the privatization of all corrections operations – affecting more than two dozen facilities and nearly 4,000 workers – in the 18-county southern portion of the state from Polk County to the Florida Keys.

Lawmakers are now reviving the prison privatization plan, slated for a Senate vote on Tuesday.

Read the lawsuit here.

With the House already including a potential 15 percent tuition increase in its budget, 300 Florida students rallied at the Capitol Thurday to oppose shelling out more even as lawmakers reduce the state’s share of higher education spending.

Michael Long, chairman of the Florida Student Association, told the crowd that tuition has climbed 60 percent over the past four years, while the state has reduced general revenue support for schools by 24 percent.

“We do not mind contributing to our education as long as its reasonable,” Long said. “But 60 percent in four years is not reasonable.”

In his role as FSA chairman, Long also sits as a member of the State University System’s Board of Governors. Along with opposing the tuition boost, students are opposing separate legislation that would give the governor authority to appoint the BOG’s student representative.

For his part, Gov. Rick Scott didn’t include a tuition increase in the $66.4 billion budget proposal he unveiled last month. He also has questioned the spending priorities of the state’s 11 public universities — nudging them to promote for science and technology programs that employers are said to want.

The Senate so far hasn’t begun serious budget work.  But Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, was among those speaking to the student group Thursday. He pointed out that even with the steady increases, Florida has the fifth lowest average tuition in the country among state systems.

Haridopolos, though, told the crowd that one of the reasons the Senate was moving slowly on the budget was so that it could hear more from those — like the students — affected by the Legislature’s budget building in a year when lawmakers are trying to close a $2 billion shortfall.

Alexander Press, a 22-year-old Florida Atlantic University senior, was among those at the rally.

“It’s a lot of money,” Press said of the tuition hikes. “We’re just starting to make a recovery from this recession, and it’s not easy for families to have to keep paying more.”

House Speaker Dean Cannon was an early supporter of Texas Gov. Rick Perry in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, and apparently remains one of his most faithful.

With a laugh Thursday, Cannon acknowledged that he had cast his absentee ballot for Perry in next week’s Florida primary. Perry quit the race last week – before the most recent primary in South Carolina.

Cannon, R-Winter Park, didn’t want to talk much about it.

“The presidential race is something I am staying way away from,” Cannon said. “I’m just going to let that one stand.

“But I will say this. I think the real winner in this is Florida. By moving this primary date, no one can argue that that has not concentrated extraordinary attention, focus and emphasis and potentially decisiveness…on Florida,” he added.

Cannon helped pushed a state commission last September to change Florida’s primary date to Jan. 31 from its original March 6, to heighten the role Sunshine State voters would play in choosing a Republican nominee.

Cannon had already endorsed Perry, but the Texas governor’s campaign started teetering soon after with a faltering performance in a nationally televised debate at the Florida GOP’s Presidency 5 convention.

 

Rick Santorum’s sporadic Florida campaign has cancelled his scheduled appearance in Jupiter on Friday. Santorum was going to hold a Tea Party rally in Abacoa. Santorum will instead spend Friday morning being interviewed by three Florida radio stations, including NewsRadio 610 in Miami at 7:50 a.m.

Santorum will address the Latin Builders Association conference at the Downtown Miami Hilton at 1:30 p.m. on Friday. That comes after Santorum’s scheduling snafu left him out of Wednesday’s Univision forum, which could have helped get his message across to Hispanic voters.

Santorum is then leaving the state for a Friday night fundraiser in Pennsylvania. He will also prepare his tax returns before heading back for one final day of campaigning in Florida. Santorum, who is a distant third in the polls to Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, will appear in Sarasota and Punta Gorda on Sunday and at the Boca Raton Synagogue Monday morning. Of course, Santorum’s travel plans can change by the minute.

John Brabender, Santorum’s long-time political consultant, said Santorum will likely leave Florida for good on Monday and travel to Nevada and Colorado, two states Santorum is eyeing.

While Santorum hasn’t been able to afford TV ads in Florida, Brabender said Santorum’s first Nevada TV ad will air tonight. Santorum is expected to be in Colorado when Tuesday’s Florida election results come in, although Brabender said that hasn’t been officially determined.

“The press is interested to hear from us wherever we are,” said Brabender of Santorum giving his post-Florida primary speech from another state.

In what has quickly turned into a finger-pointing game of you’re the biggest liar, Mitt Romney responded to Newt Gingrich’s charge that he is “fundamentally dishonest” by insisting that the former House Speaker “can’t tell the truth.”

“Speaker Gingrich has demonstrated that can’t tell the truth about his unprecedented ethics reprimand, his resignation in disgrace at the hands of his own party, and his work as a highly paid Washington lobbyist for Freddie Mac,” Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said shortly after Gingrich blasted the former Massachusetts governor during a morning stop in Mount Dora.

Gingrich accused Romney, a multimillionaire businessman, of holding stock in both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and investing in . mortgage-backed securities with Goldman Sachs. The current owners of the mortgage debt are foreclosing on tens of thousands of Floridians.

Gingrich said he couldn’t believe his chief rival in the GOP presidential primary had the “gall” to criticize his $1.6 million consulting contract with Freddie Mac when Romney’s own business ties were so deep and led to so much misery for average citizens.

“There is something so grotesquely hypocritical about the Romney campaign that it is going to meltdown in the next several weeks as Americans learn more about him,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich has insisted he was nothing more than a consultant/historian for Freddie Mack. He has only released one year of a multi-year contract which didn’t illuminate exactly what he did.

Pointing out that Gingrich reported to Freddie Mac’s chief lobbyist, Romney has said Gingrich used the influence he gained as House Speaker to pad his own wallet at the expense of homeowners who later fell victim to Freddie Mac’s bad decisions.

 

Yellow school buses could be emblazoned with ads promoting sneakers, power drinks or television shows under a proposal making its way through the Florida legislature.

The House Education Committee gave the thumbs-up to the proposal, already in place in 15 other states, that could raise up to $100 million statewide for cash-strapped school districts struggling to cover transportation costs for students, according to bill co-sponsor Rep. Irv Slosberg, D-Boca Raton.

The proposal (HB 19) would give school boards the ability to contract for ads on school buses but would ban advertisements for pari-mutuel or Internet gambling or political or religious promotions.

Half of the money generated by the ads would have to be spent on transportation costs and 10 percent would go for drivers education classes if the districts offer them.

“Obviously the state of Florida, we’re in a tough spot,” Slosberg told the panel before the 14-3 vote in favor of his measure. “There’s no money. So what do we do? Do we let the kids walk to school? Do we lay off teachers? This is a creative way to raise revenue and not increase our taxes and not increase our fees.”

But critics of the measure questioned whether children, especially kindergartners, already bombarded by advertisements should be subjected to even more propaganda with the tacit endorsement of their school.

Rep. Michael Bileca, R-Miami, said the bill gave him an “uneasy feeling” although schools already have advertisements in place on football fields or in gymnasiums.

“It has to do with this concept of endorsement,” Bileca, who voted against the measure, said. “It’s the idea that a trusted source…is saying that this is ok.”

The Florida PTA opposes the measure.

Two advertisements up to two by six feet in size could be posted on the buses, which some opponents said could create a distraction for drivers and endanger students’ safety.

“We’re dealing with children, three, four five years old,” Rep. Luis Garcia, D-Miami, objected. “That’s an early age to be bombarded with advertisements…I don’t think it’s fair.”

Slosberg, whose daughter died in an automobile accident, bristled at safety concerns.

“My daughter died in a car crash. I’d be the last guy in the world to want to endanger anyone’s life, especially our children, by putting advertising on our buses,” Slosberg said. “If I thought that…I would never have brought this bill forward.”

A push to ban texting-while-driving cleared a Senate budget panel Thursday, but it’s looking likely headed toward a dead end in the Florida House.

The measure (CS/SB 416) would make texting a secondary offense, allowing law enforcement to issue citations only if drivers were pulled over for another offense.

“I’m certainly not on infringing on anyone’s personal freedom, as long as it’s not affecting the person next to you,” said Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, who is sponsoring the legislation. “I’d like to get this done before there’s a tragedy where someone takes out all the kids at a bus stop and then the public is screaming, ‘Why didn’t you do something about it.’

“This is the opportunity to do something about it,” she said.

The proposal would impose a $30 fine for a first violation. A second offense within five years would force a $60 fine and 3 points added to a motorist’s license. Six points would be tacked on if using the device contributed to a crash.

Detert’s bill was approved 14-1 by the Senate’s budget subcommittee on transportation, tourism and economic development. The lone opponent was Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, whose district includes part of Palm Beach County, who killed a similar texting proposal two years ago, while a House committee chair.

The House this year again looks poised to end talk of text bans. House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, told the Post last month that he was wary of adding “one more layer of prohibitive behavior,” in Florida.

At the time, Cannon said, “I’ve heard evidence that eating fast food, or men fixing their ties, or women fixing their makeup, or talking to screaming kids in the back of the van — as I’ve done from time to time — is just as distracting, perhaps more so, than sending someone a text message.”

The National Transportation Safety Board last month called for states to enact a ban on non-emergency phone calls and texting by all drivers.  About 35 states ban text messaging while driving, 30 states ban cell-phone use by novice drivers, and 10 ban all use of hand-held phones, according to the NTSB.

But Cannon said he and many in Florida’s conservative, Republican-dominated Legislature are wary of steps aimed at “government-regulating private behavior.”

Some kind of ban on hand-held devices behind the wheel — usually aimed at minors — has been proposed in every regular session of the Florida Legislature since 2002. The bills have been filed by both Democrats and Republicans.

Last session, more than a dozen such bills were filed in Tallahassee — but none cleared the Legislature.

Detert said there are plenty of alternatives to texting behind the wheel. She uses a voice-to-text system for sending messages when driving. And her bill does nothing to restrict cell phone use, she added.

“I’ve tried to draw this bill as narrowly as we possibly can,” Detert said.

MOUNT DORA – The crowd that greeted Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich in this quaint conservative town in Central Florida was big but not as wildly supportive as those that have turned out for him at other Florida stops.

And some of the roughly 1,500 who came to watch him speak said they aren’t convinced he’s the man to defeat President Obama in November.

Several said they were hoping that a surprise candidate – U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio or former Florida Gov.  Jeb Bush – might emerge as the nominee before the last delegate vote is counted at the Republican National Convention in August in Tampa.

“If Donald Trump got back in I’d give my vote to Donald Trump,” said Chris Ward, a Herman Cain supporter who said he plans to vote for the former executive of Godfather’s Pizza in Tuesday’s state presidential primary even though Cain has pulled out of the race.

Two attorneys who stood at the back of the crowd said they remain undecided.

“I’m looking for the best candidate to run against Obama,” said real estate attorney Archie Lowry. “I’m looking for a fiscal conservative candidate someone who understands you can’t spend more than you will receive.”

While both Gingrich and his chief rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, have been hammering on that theme, Lowry and his friend, tax attorney Steve Pullman, said neither candidate has locked in their votes.

Pullman said he cringes each time Gingrich mentions “my wife Callista,” who appears with him at each campaign stop.  It just reminds Pullman of Gingrich’s infidelity to two former wives. “If he’ll lie to his wives and family he’ll damn well lie to me,” Pullman said.

Lowry said Gingrich’s past infidelities also bother him. While not a critical factor in his decision, he said, “it does go to character.”

“But, I understand redemption that he has admitted that what he did was wrong,” he said.

JACKSONVILLE — Mitt Romney visited a recently shut-down printing business this morning, part of a Misery Tour of Florida in which he’s also visited a closed gypsum board factory and a foreclosed home to highlight his contention that President Obama has failed to fix the sour economy.

About 200 people crowded into the parking lot of Paramount Performance Marketing, where an “Obama Isn’t Working” sign was set up. Owner Jon Cummins blamed the demise of his business on a combination of foreign competition, the rise of electronic communications and burdensome federal regulations. Cummins said about 50 people worked at his business four years ago and 24 were left when he closed the business last month.

“I don’t know anybody that has a crystal ball that knows how long this uncertainty is going to last, so we just quit the fight,” Cummins told the crowd.

“Jon asked how long is this going to go on,” Romney said. “The answer is, it’s going to go on until January of 2013 when we take over.”

U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Cape Coral, and his wife, U.S. Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., accompanied Romney, as did Romney’s wife.

Romney didn’t mention any of his Republican rivals, but clearly referred to main rival Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, when he said: “I’ve never lived in Washington, D.C., I’m not part of the culture of Washington, D.C. I’ve spent my life out of Washington, D.C. I’ve lived my life on Main Street and on other streets across this country. I want to use the experience I’ve had working in the real economy to go to Washington, D.C., and fix it.

MOUNT DORA – GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich came out swinging against his chief rival for the Republican nomination calling Mitt Romney “fundamentally dishonest.”

Gingrich, who has endured months of criticism about a $1.6 million consulting contract with mortgage giant Freddie Mac, said the former Massachusetts governor has far more explaining to day about his business ties than he ever did. The former House Speaker said he worked as an historian for the company.

He accused Romney, a multimillionaire businessman, of holding stock in both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and investing mortgage-backed securities with Goldman Sachs, which ultimately led to foreclosure proceedings against tens of thousands of Floridians.

“There is something so grotesquely hypocritical about the Romney campaign that it is going to meltdown in the next several weeks as Americans learn more about him,” Gingrich said.

Read the rest of this entry »

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich doesn’t care about criticism – even from some of his party’s stalwarts.

He shrugged when told his party’s 2008 presidential candidate U.S. Sen. John McCain had blasted his leadership as House Speaker  and would be campaigning for rival Republican Mitt Romney throughout the state today.

“The entire establishment is in panic mode,” he said at a campaign stop late Wednesday.

The “establishment,” that not surprisingly includes the Arizona senator , U.S. Reps. Connie Mack and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and anyone else supporting Romney, is worried, he said.

“It’s disturbing people . . . that we would change Washington and they would have to live by new rules,” Gingrich said.

GOP Newt Gingrich doesn’t care about criticism – even from some of his party’s stalwarts.

He shrugged when told his party’s 2008 presidential candidate John McCain had blasted his leadership as House Speaker  and would be campaigning for rival Republican Mitt Romney throughout the state today.

“The entire establishment is in panic mode,” he said at a campaign stop late Wednesday.

The “establishment,” that not surprisingly seems to include the Arizona senator , U.S. Reps. Connie Mack and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and anyone else supporting Romney, is worried, he said.

“It’s disturbing people . . . that we would change Washington and they would have to live by new rules,” Gingrich said.

Mitt Romney gets more support from Florida’s independent voters than Newt Gingrich and would be a stronger Republican presidential nominee against President Obama in November, a new Quinnipiac University poll says.

Romney and Obama are tied at 45 percent in the poll while the president would defeat Gingrich by a 50-to-39 margin in Florida the poll says.

The big difference between the Republican frontrunners: while Romney and Obama are virtually tied among independent voters, the president would defeat Gingrich by a 50-to-33 percent margin among independents in Florida.

Obama’s approval rating remains underwater in Florida, with 46 percent approving of the way he handles his duties and 52 percent disapproving. Only 43 percent of independents give Obama a positive job approval score, with 53 percent negative.

Read the rest of this entry »

NAPLES — In Tuesday’s State of the Union address, President Obama received his largest applause when he brought up the death of Osama bin Laden, and Obama has mostly received high marks for national defense since taking office.

But at a campaign rally on Wednesday, Santorum said Obama takes credit for bringing down bin Laden while radical Islamism is growing around the world.

“I’m very happy that Osama bin Laden is dead, but Osama bin Laden was not the only threat to America,” Santorum said. “The vehement threat that has erupted around the world under this president, the Muslim Brotherhood is now ascending in both Libya and Egypt, and is not ascending but has ascended in Egypt.

“What we’ve seen with the president twiddling of his thumb as Iran develops a nuclear weapon. Oh, he’ll give the tough talk, saying Iran’s not going to get a nuclear weapon. He’s doing precious little. He’s out there trying to negotiate with the Taliban, negotiating with the people who helped orchestrate and plan attacks on our country and are still radical Jihadists.”

As promised, Senate budget chief JD Alexander met with more than two dozen prison workers who’d traveled to the Capitol to protest a prison privatization bill approved by his committee late Wednesday afternoon.

Alexander met with the workers after the committee approved the measure by a 14-4 vote and sent it on its way to the Senate floor to a full vote. They pleaded with him to reconsider the proposal that would privatize an 18-county region in the southern portion of the state and affect nearly 3,800 state workers, objecting that Alexander’s estimated $22 million savings are questionable because of “cherry-picking” by the private prison operators currently running seven Florida prisons.

“I don’t do this to hurt people. You all may not believe that but I don’t. I’m trying to figure out how to make all this stuff work,” said Alexander, R-Lake Wales, overseeing his chamber’s version of the state’s nearly $69 billion spending plan.

Private prison guards also do not have to undergo the same training as workers at the state-run prisons, union leaders representing the prison workers said.

The emotionally-charged meeting took place in a large conference room manned by the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Donald Severance and at least two of his aides. Alexander remained calm throughout the 45-minute meeting as the workers tried to persuade him with comparisons about per diem rates and then anecdotes about the fear they have about losing their jobs.

“The privatization has added stress on us,” Martin Correctional Institutional guard Sarah Babineaux said. “I lay awake at night…just thinking about what am I going to do.”

Babineaux has two children and custody of two nieces, she said, one of whom is a 17-year-old senior looking for a high school ring. “And I don’t know where to purchase it, what county, what high school.”

Private prisons cost less because they are able to “cherry-pick” inmates that are cheaper to supervise, the workers said. Alexander said he believed the inmates have been assigned appropriately and later said he would look into the issue.

“I don’t work for anybody but the people of Florida. You might believe that but I don’t. I’m not running for anything. I’m not ever going to work for these folks. I haven’t raised money in years. I have no interest in making money. I have an interest in trying to make a budget work,” Alexander told the group, led by Teamsters lobbyist Ron Silver, a former state lawmaker. “Everything…is to get as clean and unfudgeable a set of contracts as possible because I don’t believe we should contract for one and give them easier stuff. If that’s what they contract for, that’s what they get.”

Charlie Crist was a rising Republican star whose endorsement was coveted in the run-up to FLorida’s 2008 GOP presidential primary. He threw his support behind John McCain the weekend before the primary, helping McCain win Florida and effectively clinch the GOP nomination.

Four years later, Crist is a GOP pariah — but his name is hot again in the week before the Republican primary. Newt Gingrich suggested GOP establishment favorite Mitt Romney is like Crist, whose moderate brand of Republicanism fell from favor in 2010 and led Crist to bolt the GOP to pursue a failed Senate bid against Florida’s new rising Republican star, Marco Rubio.

PostOnPolitics caught up with Crist today and asked how he feels about having his name bandied about before the primary.

“What’s up with that?” Crist said. “Maybe that matters to some people. It sure doesn’t matter to me. I mean, I can’t even vote in the Republican primary. I’m an independent.”

Crist, who attended Monday night’s GOP debate in Tampa, said the race has been “anything but dull,” but he declined to offer any specific observations on the 2012 candidates or the GOP race.

“You know what? I am going to hesitate to inject myself into the primary,” Crist said. “I’ll let the candidates handle their own campaigns.”