Prominent Fort Pierce artist James Gibson is one of eight National Governors Association winners for Distinguished Service to State Government.

Gibson is one of the self-taught “Florida Highwaymen,” a group of self-taught black artists trained by Fort Pierce artist Bean Backus and who sole their vivid portrayals of Florida beach scenes, sunsets and flora out of the trunks of their cars by the side of the road.

Gibson’s a favorite of Gov. Charlie Crist, who’s decorated the mansion and his Capitol offices with Highwaymen paintings and selected this painting by Gibson as his holiday card last year.

Gibson, 71, is a member of the Florida Artists Hall of Fame estimates he’s created about 10,000 paintings since he began in the 1950s. He contributes to charitable events and is active in youth crime prevention programs.

Gibson will receive the award at the NGA annual convention in Biloxi on July 18.

Former House Speaker and GOP U.S. Senate wannabe Marco Rubio will address reporters and editors in Palm Beach on Friday. Also invited but not yet confirmed is Gov. Charlie Crist, who’s the leading Republican candidate to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez.

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, the Democratic contender for the high-profile post who’s stumped through the Florida Panhandle all weekend, is also a maybe at the annual Florida Press Association/Florida Society of Newspaper Editors convention.

Meek’s got to be in D.C. to vote in Congress but might get there at the tail-end of the 2:30-4 p.m. Friday powwow, his campaign spokesman Adam Sharon said.

This web video was released this morning by the 527 group “Don’t Bank on Sink,” run by Gainesville businessman Jay Navarrete. The video jumps off this AP story that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink used the state plane to pick up and drop off her husband in Tampa Bay. Sink has re-paid the state for his costs.

But the ad tries to paint Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink as out-of-touch with state taxpayers and pulls footage from her ’06 campaign in which she promises to end the “spending spree” in Tallahassee.

This story from the Times-Herald, however, shows that Republican candidate Bill McCollum also has his share of questions surrounding his taxpayer-funded travel.

The anti-Sink group’s spokesman, Alachua County Republican Party Chairman Stafford Jones, acknowledged that McCollum isn’t squeaky clean on this issue. But he said Sink, the state’s chief financial officer, should be held to a higher standard.

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A West Palm Beach lawyer who was repeatedly raped by a neighbor when he was 7 years old and the mother of a man who committed suicide 20 years after he was sexually molested by his Boca Raton karate teacher are desperate.

After five years, they’ve given up trying to get legislators to do away with the statute of limitations on civil and criminal punishment for child molesters that are now protected by time in Florida state law.

Their chief opponent, they say? The Catholic Church.

Now West Palm Beach Lawyer Michael Dolce is trying to get voters to do what lawmakers would not. He’s launched a petition drive to get a ballot initiative on next year’s November ballot.

Lantana resident Patti Robinson, whose only child Jeff Smith killed himself on Christmas morning in 2001, is tapping her grief to help Dolce get the law changed.

“I felt this would be the best way that I could memorialize him so we would maybe save somebody else from having to go through the pain and suffering he did,” Robinson said.

Read the full story here.

Under Florida’s Truth in Millage law, a 15 percent property tax-rate hike proposed by Palm Beach County Administrator Bob Weisman for the coming year is not a countywide tax increase. That’s because real estate values have plummeted and the higher rate would leave revenues relatively flat.

Under the laws of political reality, however, bumping the rate from the current $3.78 to Weisman’s $4.34 per $1,000 of appraised value would irk many homesteaders – the county’s core voting bloc – when they see double-digit increases in their tax bills.

That’s why county commissioners seem particularly flummoxed this summer as they try to come up with a taxing and spending plan for the year that begins Oct. 1.

Read the read of George Bennett’s Politics column here.

Floridians so far have received less federal stimulus money than any of their fellow Americans, despite an unemployment rate here that ranks among the highest in the country and a budget crisis that few states can match.

“It just shows how inept Florida’s government officials are,” Florida TaxWatch President Dominic Calabro said. “Relying on Washington has always been a bad deal for Florida.”

Florida has received more total dollars than all but three other states from a stimulus pot of about $198 billion so far for infrastructure projects and social services, according to figures reported this week by The Wall Street Journal.¹ That total includes money Congress left for states to divide among themselves and other dollars that federal departments have already disbursed.

But Florida received just $505 per person, which ranks last among the 50 states, all U.S. territories combined and Washington, D.C., according to a Palm Beach Post analysis of the Journal’s data.

The numbers raise significant questions about the stimulus program, which President Obama said during a February stop in Fort Myers would help curtail the state’s rising unemployment rate.²

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1. Wall Street Journal, 06/30/09: Stimulus Spending, Breakdown by State
2. Remarks of President Obama, 02/10/09, Fort Myers.

Barack Obama joined the Hall of Presidents in Disney World this weekend, in what park officials tell CNN is “the most dynamic figure Disney has ever created.”

“We’re very proud of the technological advances that allow this to make him come to life so realistically,” said Eric Jacobson, senior vice president of creative development at Walt Disney Imagineering.

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin consulted on the project and Disney workers traveled to Washington D.C. to record Obama’s voice for the show. They also worked with White House staffers to make sure his wardrobe, hair and mannerisms were portrayed as accurately as possible.

Gov. Charlie Crist today crossed party lines and named Democratic state Rep. Priscilla Taylor of West Palm Beach to fill the minority-dominated Palm Beach County commission seat of retired Addie Greene.

Taylor’s appointment runs through November 2010, when an election will fill the District 7 seat for the next two years. Taylor recently opened a 2010 campaign, saying she planned to run for the seat regardless of whether she was appointed by Crist.

Taylor will be the county’s only black commissioner, as was Greene. District 7, which runs from Lake Park to Delray Beach, is about 48 percent black and 40 percent white.

“This particular District 7 needs representation…I’m just ready to get in and get to work,” said Taylor, who said she was “grateful” that Crist chose her from more than 20 applicants.

Commissioners now are trying to craft a 2009-10 budget at a time when plummeting real estate values have made it more difficult to reap big property tax revenue windfalls.

“I don’t know everything” about the county budget, Taylor said, but she said he hopes to quickly get up to speed.

In District 7, Democrats outnumber Republicans by roughly a 4-to-1 margin.

Many Republicans publicly urged the Republican governor to name a GOP appointee to the seat. County GOP Chairman Sid DInerstein was among those calling for a Republican appointee, but he conceded Republicans probably would not be able to hold the seat in an election.

Some Republicans said privately they would not object to Taylor because she has maintained cordial relations with the business community.

Taylor, 59, owns an insurance agency and was a Port of Palm Beach commissioner before winning election to the state House in 2004. A special election will fill the final year of her current state House term.

Greene was reelected to a new term in November 2008, but announced in March that she planned to step down because of health concerns. Her last day in office was April 30. Greene wanted Crist to name Taylor as her replacement and recently expressed disappointment that the seat had remained open for two months.

Today, however, Greene was pleased.

“Boy, what a beautiful Fourth of July,” Greene said. “I told her (Taylor) I never did give up on the governor even though it took him so long.”

South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford recently has been seeking refuge in her parents’ Hobe Sound home. And today, her husband, Mark, is scheduled to fly into town and spend the weekend in attempt to reconcile.

Sanford has been in the spotlight since his bizarre disappearance last week and the revelation that he had been visiting his Argentine lover in Buenos Aires.

In a front-page column this morning, the Post’s Frank Cerabino writes that “Michael Jackson’s chimp Bubbles has ended up in a Florida retirement home, so it’s only natural that your own monkey business gets sorted out here during this sweaty firecracker of a weekend.”

Cerabino also advises Sanford against looking to Gov. Charlie Crist for help.

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Former House Speaker Ray Sansom was the “kingpin” in a $6 million budget deal that ultimately resulted in indictments for himself, former Northwest Florida State College President Bob Richburg and RPOF donor Jay Odom.

Richburg referred to Sansom as the “kingpin in this whole operation” in an e-mail included in a set of records released today by the Leon County state attorney’s office. State Attorney Willie Meggs said his office received the records recently as part of a public records request to the college.

The e-mail is one of several that also include reference to then-Senate President Ken Pruitt, a Port St. Lucie Republican who gave Sansom, Odom and Richburg a tour of Indian River State College before the three started their project.

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Gov. Charlie Crist offered the following response to today’s Supreme Court’s ruling that he overstepped his authority by rejecting a list of judges to fill an appellate vacancy.

“While I am disappointed by today’s decision that the Judicial Nominating Commission cannot reconsider these important nominations, I respect the Supreme Court’s decision and their consideration of this case. I remain committed to ensuring that the diversity of the people of Florida is represented in our judiciary. In respect to the Court’s decision, I look forward to interviewing and considering the nominees for the Fifth District Court of Appeal,” Crist said in a statement issued shortly after the ruling was released.

The Florida Constitution trumps Gov. Charlie Crist’s demand for racial diversity among judges, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

It was the second time in almost a year that the state’s high court rebuked an attempt by Crist to overstep his authority. In July 2008, the court rejected a gambling deal Crist had struck with the Seminole Indians, saying he couldn’t let the tribe offer card games that legislators had outlawed.

In Thursday’s unanimous ruling, the justices said Crist has no power to reject a list of nominees for a judgeship, then leave the post unfilled indefinitely, as he has done with a six-month vacancy on Central Florida’s 5th District Court of Appeal.

The opinion was written by Justice Jorge Labarga, a former Palm Beach County circuit judge who was entangled in a similar nomination scrap before Crist named him to the Supreme Court in January.

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Today is the 63rd day that residents of Palm Beach County commission District 7 have gone without a commissioner. Former commissioner Addie Greene’s last day was April 30. She cited health concerns in stepping down.

Gov. Charlie Crist will appoint a replacement to fill Greene’s seat through November 2010. He has interviewed four finalists for the job: Riviera Beach Councilwoman Billie Brooks, retired educator Vincent Goodman, businessman Randy Johnson and state Rep. Priscilla Taylor, D-West Palm Beach.

It took Crist 64 days to name a replacement for former commissioner Mary McCarty, who resigned Jan. 8 under a federal corruption probe. Crist named Steven Abrams to the seat on March 13.

In 2007, when Warren Newell resigned from the commission under a federal corruption probe, Crist needed 31 days to name Bob Kanjian as his replacement.

While Greene’s seat has been vacant for nine weeks, she announced her intention to resign in early March and Crist interviewed the four finalists in April.

Republican state Rep. Pat Patterson kicked off his campaign Wednesday for state chief financial officer from his hometown of DeLand (pictured below). But to win the office, the 10-year House veteran must first get through Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach.

One reason to watch Patterson’s campaign is to see who supports him in favor of the sitting Senate president. Not that Atwater necessarily would let a state political race control his chamber’s agenda, but if you’ve got an issue in the legislature (and folks with money do) then its generally best to make friends with the man in charge of half of it.

Another reason to watch Patterson: he’s from Central Florida and right now that seems to be the key to Florida politics: Every statewide office holder right now is from the I-4 corridor (Nelson, Martinez, Crist, Sink, McCollum and Bronson). The last politician not from Central Florida to win a state election was President Barack Obama, a Chicagoan who, it could be argued, still lived closer to the I-4 corridor than Republican nominee John McCain, R-Ariz.

And that geography could play on property insurance issues: Patterson in an interview earlier this summer was quick to point out that 65 percent of Citizens policies are from five counties (including four from South Florida).

Those five counties, he says, pay just 35 percent of the Citizens’ assessment.

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A federal appellate court upheld a Florida law that bars petition gatherers from bothering voters within 100 feet of a polling place.

The U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit, overturned a lower court’s ruling that made the law unable to enforce during August’s primary elections. Voters complained then of being accosted by signature gatherers as they exited their polling sites.

Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning, a former elections supervisor, filed the appeal.

The court ruled that “exit petitioning” is akin to traditional political canvassing, which is also barred within 100 feet of a polling place.

“We believe the sanctity of the voting process and the abuse it has historically faced must allow the Florida legislature to exercise some foresight, to take precautions, and to prohibit questionable conduct nearly polling places before that conduct proves its danger; a compromised election is too great a harm to require otherwise.”

Remember how everything ends up in Florida? Post staff writer Bill DiPaolo reports from Hobe Sound this afternoon:

The wife of philandering South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is staying at the home her parents own in a gated community here, said a woman who answered the phone Wednesday.

The woman, who would not identify herself, said Jenny Sanford was staying in the home in Loblolly Bay but was not available. She took a message. Sanford did not return the call.

Security guards at Loblolly Bay said Sanford’s parents live in the community. When asked if Jenny Sanford had gone through the gates, they refused to comment. Several reporters kept vigil outside the gates.

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The Florida Supreme Court pushed the judicial system closer to the electronic age by issuing guidelines for electronic filing and keeping of court records.

Clerks of courts have until Oct. 1 to implement the electronic record-keeping standards issued by Chief Justice Peggy Quince today.

“Technology provides benefits for both courts and court users,” Quince wrote in her order.

The courts’ goal is to have electronic court files while in the meantime wanting to allow court users to continue to file paper documents because many do not have access to computers.

Liberal blogger Markos “Kos” Moulitsas of DailyKos.com isn’t usually cited by conservatives. But the campaign of Republican Senate hopeful Marco Rubio is noting a recent DailyKos posting in which Kos wonders whether a grassroots conservative surge for Rubio might persuade the more moderate Gov. Charlie Crist, the current GOP Senate frontrunner, to bolt the party.

Kos muses that Crist could “pull a Specter and ditch it for better electoral prospects” with the Dems or “pull a Lieberman…and work to attract independents, mainstream Republicans and Democrats disaffected bytheirpoor field.”

Longtime Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter switched to the Democratic Party this year. Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, after losing a 2006 Democratic primary, ran in the general election as an independent and won.

Kos suggested a Specter switch to the Dems several weeks before it happened.

Former Crist chief of staff George LeMieux, asked his thoughts on the matter, replied: “Charlie Crist is a common sense conservative with a near 70 percent approval rating.”

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink’s daily schedule is now online.

Sink, a Democrat who is also running for governor after two-and-a-half years in statewide office, has worked an average of 33 hours per week since May 1, according to an analysis done by The Palm Beach Post. Her schedule shows she taken an average eight hours per week of personal time during the same time period.

The examination of the records also revealed that Attorney General Bill McCollum, whose schedule is also available on his website, spent an average of 22 hours a week on the job since May 1 and an average 17 hours a week of personal time. McCollum, a Republican, announced his bid to run for governor on May 18.

McCollum’s office charged nearly $770 for a copy of his schedule from the day he took office in January 2007 to May 1, when his electronic schedule became available electronically on his website. McCollum’s staff made paper printouts of each day of his schedule, which legal staff scrubbed of cell phone numbers of law enforcement officials. They then made electronic scans of the paper copies and provided the records on a disk.

In contrast, Sink’s office e-mailed an electronic copy of her schedule for the same time period within an hour of a request – for free.

Sink and McCollum also face ethics complaints about their use of the state plane to ferry them to their homes when they were not on official state business, a violation of state law.

Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer issued a news release today clarifying that he won’t pay for positive editorials in the state’s black media outlets.

“We’re looking for the opportunity to share our ideas and values, many of which we believe resonate with the African American community, and asking for African American voters to consider voting Republican,” Greer said in a release. (Full release here)

Greer’s statement comes after a story in the Orlando Sentinel on Saturday about a meeting he held with members of the Florida Association of Black Owned Media. The party created a “African American Republican Leadership Council” last year.

At the meeting, several of the media representatives said pretty clearly that Republicans enjoy positive stories if the party advertised in the papers.

“At the end of the day, it’s about money. If you buy advertising, you’re more likely to get coverage,” said Johnny Hunter, president of the Florida Association of Black Owned Media and publisher of Sarasota’s Tempo News.

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