Former Republican state Rep. Joe Negron of Stuart has better than a 20-to-1 money advantage over Democrat Bill Ramos as they head toward an Aug. 4 special election for the seat of retiring state Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie.
Reports filed Friday show Negron has raised $239,169 and Ramos $11,414.
With Pruitt facing term limits next year, both Negron and Ramos had already opened campaigns and were raising money for a 2010 Senate race. But Pruitt, citing family and economic concerns, announced May 8 that he would step down this summer instead.
Since then, Negron has hit the accelerator. He raised $174,619 in the five weeks after Pruitt’s announcement.
From the Sun-Sentinel: General Motors plans to close 35 dealerships in Florida as part of a restructuring plan that winds down 1,323 dealers nationwide by October 2010, executives from the troubled carmaker told a U.S. House committee Friday.
Pennsylvania stands to lose the most GM dealers: 90, followed by Ohio with 79, Illinois with 66 and California with 65, the company informed the Energy and Commerce committee’s oversight and inestigation’s subcommittee. Only Alaska is spared shutdowns.
GM has declined to identify individual dealerships set to wind down, offering only the state-by-state breakdown so far.In South Florida, Pines Pontiac GMC Buick, 16100 Pines Blvd., Pembroke Pines, is contesting GM’s plan to end the franchise, owner Craig Zinn has said.
Florida’s tally of 35 dealer closings is relatively small, considering that the state has the third largest vehicle fleet iin the country.
Rick Baker, president of the South Florida Auto-Truck Dealers Association, has said the area is not as “overdealered” as some other U.S. areas, partly because Floridians rely more on their cars and have less options for mass transit.
Local governments don’t have to scrap their laws requiring developers to pay for roads despite a new law loosening the states growth management oversight, Florida’s top planner said today.
But the state was given that power because cities and counties were too susceptible to pressure from builders, critics of the law contend.
Department of Community Affairs Secretary Tom Pelham held an Internet-based seminar today to answer a slew of questions asked by planners and others since Gov. Charlie Crist signed SB 360 into law.
Pelham, who criticized the bill during the legislative session that ended last month, repeatedly instructed local planners that they do not have to weaken their laws requiring developers to include roads in urban areas just because the state will no longer force them to.
“Nothing here limits a home rule power to adopt ordinances or fees,” Pelham emphasized over and over.
But cities and counties that fit the law’s broad definition of “urban” will have two years to come up with an as-yet-undefined alternative strategy for dealing with transportation congestion.
West Palm Beach accountant John Yeend was diagnosed with swine flu while traveling in China. His two traveling companions were also quarantined. Three seemingly healthy North Palm Beach teens are also being quarantined because someone on their flight into China tested positive for the disease.
Rooney’s statement: “I, along with my colleagues from Florida, have been in contact with the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing to work to get these travelers back home as soon as possible.
“I urge anyone planning on traveling to China this summer to use caution and be aware of the strict quarantine procedures the Chinese government has instituted. Upon arrival in China travelers will be forced to go through thermal-scanning checkpoints. If a traveler on an arriving flight is suspected of having contracted H1N1, all passengers and crew on the flight are subject to possible quarantine in local hospitals or hotels. All travelers should heed State Department advisories and contact the American Embassy or Consulate if there are any problems.”
Another heavyweight Republican endorsement for Wellington Councilwoman Lizbeth Benacquisto in her state Senate bid: U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, is backing her in the 2010 race for the seat of Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, who’s running for attorney general.
Rooney called Benacquisto “a tireless advocate” for Wellington “and I know she will bring the same dedication to Tallahassee.”
Earlier this week, Benacqusito picked up endorsements from three big Senate Republicans: President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, Majority Leader Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, and former Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie. The three Senators are hosting a fund-raiser in Tallahassee for Benacquisto this month.
Benacquisto was also endorsed this week by Lee County Republican Matt Caldwell, the GOP’s unsuccessful 2008 candidate for the seat.
Benacquisto is the only announced Republican in the Senate race, though former Republican state Rep. Sharon Merchant has said she’ll probably run. Democratic attorney Peter Burkert is also likely to enter.
The Senate sponsor of a bill expressed dismay that Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed it yesterday and called into question the self-described “People’s Governor’s” motives.
Sen. Steve Oelrich said he was asked to file the bill that would have raised community college transportation fees by the students themselves.
The bill (SB 739) would have allowed community colleges to hike transportation fees by up to $6 per credit hour. Students requested the fees so they could have public transportation access on campus “just like university students do,” Oelrich, R-Cross Creek, said in a press release.
Because of the dismal economy, community college enrollments are increasing and access to public transportation and on-campus parking is limited, he said.
The bill passed in the House with a 108-4 vote and in the Senate by 37-1.
“Governor Crist’s veto of this bill confounds me,” Oelrich’s release states.
Oelrich took a jab at Crist, who’s dubbed himself “The People’s Governor” and frequently mentions “the people” in speeches.
“The students came to me with this bill. They have been working on it for several years; it was theirs,” Oelrich wrote. “Since the bill came from the People, I thought the Governor would appreciate that…I sincerely hope the veto was not the product of political expediency or retribution.”
Crist signed into law a bill allowing universities to hike tuition up to 15 percent, which all state universities are considering. He also signed into law nearly $1 billion in motor vehicle fee increases and another $1 billion in a buck-a-pack cigarette tax.
The McCranie’s, married nearly a decade, might be considered a Romeo and Juliet romance.
They met when was Virgil was 19 and Misty was 14 and fell in love. Since then, they’ve raised four children while struggling to make ends meet.
But their story is no fairy tale.
Misty and her father pressed charges against Virgil, accusing him of raping the minor. The rape charge was dropped and adjudication but he was charged with lewd and lascivious acts against a minor and was sentenced to two years of probation.
That’s when the father of four’s nightmare began, McCranie told the clemency board today. (more…)
Gov. Charlie Crist again succumbed to pressure from Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander regarding no-bid contracts inked by the governor’s executive agency staff.
Crist said yesterday he would re-open a $20 million contract to market Florida citrus.
Florida Citrus Commission staff recently recommended re-upping the contract with a Texas-based corporation without a public hearing or taking new offers despite a significant drop in citrus sales since the agency took over the contract.
“I think every contract ought to be open bid. Every time,” Crist said when asked whether he would re-open bids on the advertising contract.
When asked if he would order the commission to do so, he replied: “I think I just did.”
The orange juice struggle is the latest in what is becoming an increasingly sour relationship between Alexander, an heir to Ben Hill Griffin’s citrus fortune, and Crist.
Crist vetoed a bill Alexander sponsored that would have given lawmakers more control over high-dollar contracts with private vendors.
Local governments won’t be able to spend money advocating for or against issues under a bill Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law today over the objections of county and city officials.
The bill would prohibit cities and counties or those acting on their behalf from spending money to advertise or campaign on issues appearing on the ballot. The prohibition does not apply to state officials or agencies.
Local government representatives asked Crist to veto the measure (SB 216) because they said it is overbroad and that local officials could inadvertently violate the law by discussing issues pending before voters.
“Anyone with a vendetta against any public official or employee, elected or not, could use the vague provisions of this legislation to wreak havoc,” Florida League of Cities Executive Director Mike Sittig wrote to Crist last month seeking the veto.
A legislative staff analysis of the measure said that it could be unconstitutional because it could limit free speech.
Crist professes to be a strong supporter of government in the sunshine. His first executive order after taking office in 2007 was to create the “Office of Open Government.”
Republican Senate heavyweights are lining up behind Wellington Councilwoman Lizbeth Benacquisto in her bid for the District 27 seat that Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, is giving up to run for attorney general in 2010.
Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, Majority Leader Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, and former Senate Prez Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, are all backing Benacquisto, her campaign announced this afternoon.
Benacquisto got another break today when Matt Caldwell, the 2008 Republican Senate candidate from Lee County, announced he won’t run in 2010 and will back Benacquisto. Senate District 27 stretches from West Palm Beach to Fort Myers, with about 54 percent of voters in Palm Beach County and 45 percent in Lee County. About 60 percent of the district’s Republican voters live in Lee County.
Democrats overall have a 40-to-36 registration edge in the district and Barack Obama carried it in 2008.
Former state Rep. Sharon Merchant of Palm Beach Gardens has said it’s “highly likely” she will run in the GOP primary. Merchant couldn’t be reached this afternoon. Democrat Peter Burkert, a Fort Myers attorney, is also likely to run.
In a geographically significant announcement, Fort Myers real estate appraiser Matt Caldwell, the GOP’s unsuccessful 2008 candidate for the state Senate District 27 seat, said today he will not run for the seat in 2010 when incumbent Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, runs for attorney general.
Caldwell also announced he’s supporting a Palm Beach County Republican — Wellington Councilwoman Lizbeth Benacquisto — in the 2010 Senate race.
District 27 runs from West Palm Beach to Fort Myers. About 54 percent of voters live in Palm Beach County and about 45 percent live in Lee County. In a Republican primary, however, Lee County is dominant, with about 60 percent of GOP voters living there.
Gov. Charlie Crist made an impromptu promotion of Agency for Workforce Innovation chief Cynthia Lorenzo this morning by uttering a single sentence.
Lorenzo has been the temporary head of the department, which handles unemployment claims and early childhood education, since February.
“You’re interim? Why is that?” Crist asked Lorenzo at a morning powwow with his agency heads to discuss implementation of the federal stimulus boost. Lorenzo didn’t answer.
“I think you’re not interim anymore,” Crist said.
The governor quickly checked with his chief of staff Eric Eikenberg to make sure the promotion was legit.
“Chief, I’m allowed to do that?” Crist asked. Eikenberg nodded.
“You deserve it. And it’s the right thing to do,” Crist said.
Lorenzo, who was deputy secretary at the agency for two years before taking over in February, later said she had no idea her promotion would take place in public today.
“It was spontaneous. It was an audible at the line,” Crist confirmed.
The latest Quinnipiac University poll of Florida voters shows Gov. Charlie Crist with a 54-to-23 percent lead over former state House Speaker Marco Rubio in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate.
Among Democratic voters, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek leads the field with 18 percent. More than half of Democratic voters are undecided. Eighty percent of Floridians, including 74 percent of Dems, say they don’t know enough about Meek to form an opinion.
Among all Florida voters, Crist has a higher job-approval rating (62 percent positive, 28 percent negative) than President Obama (58-35).
State and federal officials are joining with private organizations to offer a $15,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a Florida panther killer.
The panther was shot and killed in Hendry County near the Big Cypress National Preserve. Its body was found on April 21.
Anyone with information about the killing of the Florida panther can call the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at (239) 561-8144, or can anonymously call the state’s Fish and Wildlife Commission’s toll-free hotline at (888) 404-3922.
There are only about 100 Florida panthers, protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, left. It’s illegal to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect them.
Bob Smith hopes to return to the U.S. Senate where he served for more than a decade representing his home state of New Hampshire.
But this time he wants to get elected as a Floridian.
The conservative Republican moved to Sarasota after leaving the Senate in 2003. Now he’s jumping into the GOP primary against Gov. Charlie Crist and former House Speaker Marco Rubio to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez.
He’s running on a platform of returning the GOP to its conservative roots.
“The Republican Party appears demoralized, confused and leaderless. America and our party have lost their compass,” Smith wrote in a letter to supporters.
Smith’s somewhat fickle political history includes a stint as the head of the Everglades Foundation shortly after he relocated to Florida.
But he’s more renowned for an ill-fated presidential bid in 1999 when he broke with the GOP and aligned himself with the U.S. Taxpayers Party. For a month. He then ran as an independent before dropping out of the race and endorsing President George W. Bush.
Smith was elected to the U.S. House in 1985 and to the U.S. Senate in 1991 where he served until he was defeated in a 2002 reelection bid in a Republican primary by John Sununu.
In 2004, Smith endorsed Democrat John Kerry for president, which he later said he regretted. (more…)
In a swift turnaround, Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson today endorsed Attorney General Bill McCollum as the GOP candidate to replace Gov. Charlie Crist.
Just last week, Bronson succumbed to pressure from state GOP leaders, including RPOF Chairman Jim Greer, to stay out of the race against McCollum. Greer and others want to avoid an expensive and potentially politically divisive GOP primary while Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink presumably will not face an opponent in a Democratic battle for the post.
Dressed nearly identically in dark pin-striped suits, white dress shirts and red ties, McCollum and Bronson stood shoulder-to-shoulder at a press conference announcing the endorsement.
The duo acknowledged the influence that the state’s dismal economy and anticipated skimpy campaign resources will have over the election.
“The finances as we all know are going to be tight…extremely tight,” Bronson said.
All the concern about limited campaign funds comes as the candidates embark on the races more than 18 months before the November election next year. That’s because Crist unleashed the campaign floodgates when he announced he would not seek reelection to a second term as governor but would run to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez instead, McCollum said.
“It’s too bad we run these long races but that’s the way it is,” he said. (more…)
Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander launched another assault on multi-million dollar no-bid contracts issued and approved by Gov. Charlie Crist’s agencies, this time objecting to an agreement with a Texas corporation to advertise the state’s citrus industry.
Alexander’s contract watchdog radar seems to have kicked into overdrive since Crist vetoed a bill he sponsored that would have given the legislature more oversight of high-dollar contracts with private vendors.
Alexander, a citrus baron himself, wrote Crist a letter asking for a re-bid on the $20 million contract with The Richards Group, based in Dallas, Tex., that the Department of Citrus was ready to renew for three years without any public oversight.
Gov. Charlie Crist and Attorney General Bill McCollum, both Republicans, were in full campaign mode this morning announcing 77 arrests during a 10-effort to round up child pornographers and molesters.
The governor’s press conference room was re-arranged to accommodate to huge maps showing where the arrests were made how widespread child porn is around the state. They also displayed 76 of the 77 mug shots of the men who were arrested.
The duo even brought in John Walsh, the host of America’s Most Wanted, who has been at Crist’s side several times before, including Crist’s signing of the “anti-murder” law in 2007 and when Crist announced his campaign for governor in 2005.
Gov. Charlie Crist said this morning he won’t travel on any overseas trade missions this summer. Crist has traveled to England, the Middle East and South America since he took office in 2006. Crist has celebrated successes for the state economy from the trips, but the missions have also meant some bad press for him.
Crist poses outside 10 Downing Street, the residence of the Prime Minister, during his trip to England last year.
In 2007, much of his trip was coordinated by Harry Sargeant, a Palm Beach County man who has since been accused of war profiteering and been connected to an indictment of a foreign national over federal campaign contributions.
Last year, Crist spent $430,000 on a 12-day European trip that was estaimted at $255,000.
But Crist said the tough headlines are not why he’s staying in the country this summer.
“No,” Crist said. “It’s because it costs money to do it and we’re trying to make ends meet.”
Where's the money? Use The Post's interactive database of who wants and who's getting federal dollars.
Use these interactive graphics to find and contact Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast legislators.
