Gov. Charlie Crist said today he will likely veto an insurance deregulation bill that consumer advocates charge will lead to rate increases.

Crist said he will probably not sign HB 1171 that would give carte blanche to insurers with more than $200 million in surplus to raise rates.

“The odds are not. But I haven’t made a final decision,” he said.

Department of Insurance Regulation chief Kevin McCarty urged Crist to veto the bill in a letter sent last month and last week saying that it would unfairly benefit large insurers and destabilize the insurance market.

It would also give a leg up to State Farm, the insurer that is canceling its Florida homeowners policies because McCarty rejected its rate increase requests, McCarty said.

State Farm was overexposed in Florida and would likely have canceled the policies regardless of how much they were allowed to charge, McCarty said.

“In fact, State Farm and other companies may actually use excessive rates to effectively non-renew policyholders under the ruse of consumer choice,” McCarty wrote.

Soon-to-retire state Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, says his new job with a top-shelf law firm could involve lobbying the executive branch of state government. He won’t be allowed to lobby legislators for two years.

Non-lawyer Pruitt today announced he has accepted a government-relations job with the Port St. Lucie office of the Weiss Handler Angelos and Cornwell firm, which is based in Boca Raton. Pruitt said he’s been a friend of one of the firm’s partners, Cynthia Angelos, for 20 years since both were chamber of commerce activists in the Treasure Coast.

“Life is about relationships,” Pruitt said.

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State Sen. Ken Pruitt has joined a law firm specializing in land use.

Pruitt, who is not a lawyer, is working for Weiss, Handler, Angelos and Cornwell, a law firm with offices in Boca Raton and Port St. Lucie.

The firm’s specialties include land use, commercial real estate and zoning, according to its web site.
Pruitt resigned from his District 28 seat on the last day of the legislative session for financial and family reasons.

The Port St. Lucie Republican served as Senate President from 2006-2008.

Pruitt was a well-driller who became involved in real estate during his tenure as a lawmaker. He was first elected to the House in 1990 and joined the Senate in 2002.

More on Pruitt’s new job on The Palm Beach Post later.

Ben Wilcox, who spent a decade as the head of government watchdog Common Cause Florida, is now executive director of Health News Florida, an online non-profit news organization.

Carol Gentry, who founded the online service two years ago, formerly served as its executive director and editor. She will remain the editor, according to a press release sent out by Wilcox this morning.

Common Cause shuttered its Florida office and a few in other states to cut costs earlier this year.

With state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton, term-limited in 2010, Democrats are making a serious play for his District 87 seat. The district, which includes parts of southern Palm Beach County and a few Broward County precincts, has a slight Republican registration edge and was effectively out of reach for Dems when prolific fund-raiser Hasner was running.

In a sign that Democrats are more optimistic about their post-Hasner prospects, several A-list Dems are on the host committee for a fund-raiser next week for Democratic candidate Lori Berman, a former aide to U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton.

The money-raising committee includes Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aaronson, state Sen. Ted Deutch and state Reps. Kelly Skidmore, Maria Sachs and Kevin Rader. Wexler’s top local aide, Wendi Lipsich, is also listed as one of the hosts.

Former Boca Raton councilman Bill Hager is the only Republican in the District 87 race.

Democrats haven’t recruited a candidate to challenge U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, but the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is targeting the freshman House member with radio ads and automated phone calls that criticize his vote against a $787 billion economic stimulus plan.

Rooney is one of six Republicans targeted in the new Democratic campaign.

“Did you know Congressman Rooney voted against the Economic Recovery Plan? He opposed an $800 tax cut and opposed creating or saving 206,000 Florida jobs. Tell Rooney to put Florida first,” says the radio spot.

Rooney said the Republican alternative he voted for would have created twice as many jobs. He said he’s happy to debate Democrats on the stimulus plan and other spending measures that he considers excessive.

Democrats have tried to get state Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, to run against Rooney, but Aronberg hasn’t shown much interest.

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, is defending his use of $24,730 in taxpayer money last year to lease a 2008 Lexus hybrid sedan.

As noted over the weekend, U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, was the first example cited by The Wall Street Journal in an article about legal but “eye-catching” expenses that members of Congress have passed on to taxpayers.

“The lease of the vehicle in question has been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives,” Hastings’ chief of staff, Lale Mamaux, said in an e-mail Monday.

“It is an energy-efficient vehicle that the congressman feels safe driving throughout his district, which … encompasses Palm Beach, Broward, Hendry, Martin and St. Lucie counties,” Mamaux said. “He believes that the overall cost of the vehicle will decrease as he plans to keep it over the next six years for official business.”

Mamaux didn’t respond to a follow-up request for more detailed information about the lease, so it was unclear what period was covered by the $24,730.

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State Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, sidestepped a U.S. Senate primary over the weekend but may be headed into a three-Democrat battle for the party’s attorney general nomination.

Gelber, state Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, and former Democratic state Sen. Rod Smith of Alachua are all continuing to explore runs for the state’s top legal post in 2010. Incumbent AG Bill McCollum is running for governor.

The three potential Democratic candidates have talked extensively to each other over the last few weeks about avoiding a primary, but so far none has ruled out running.

“When we get into these primaries, it tends to become a circular firing squad,” Gelber said today.

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Former teacher Marc Shepard, who ran unsuccessfully for a Palm Beach County school board seat in the 1990s and for state House in 2000, has resurfaced as a 2010 Democratic candidate for governor.

Shepard, formerly of Boca Raton and now living in Broward County, said he was disappointed to attend Saturday’s Florida Democratic Party Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Miami Beach and discover that party officialdom has lined up squarely behind Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink in the governor’s race.

“I didn’t anticipate it would be The Alex Sink Show….They have anointed her already,” said Shepard, who through March 31 had raised $450 for his campaign — all of it from himself.