Pork producers are being devastated by the H1N1 pandemic, commonly known as “swine flu,” which is responsible for the deaths of 59 deaths in Florida, including five in Palm Beach County.

Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles Bronson wants officials to quit using the term “swine flu” to get the public to separate the virus, unrelated to the consumption of meat, from things like pork chops.

“It is unfortunate that pork producers and processors have been impacted so negatively by the inaccurate characterization of this virus,” Bronson said in a press release issued today. “But the fact is there have been no detections of swine flu in any swine herds in this country, and people cannot get this flu from eating pork.”

The virus is continuing to spread and health officials fear it a resurgence of it as schools re-open after the summer break. Gov. Charlie Crist traveled around the state this week to warn school officials to heed safety precautions, including frequent hand washing.

A 12-year-old Palm Beach County girl died yesterday from complications from the virus.

Worries about President Obama’s health-care proposals have contributed to his plummeting popularity among Floridians, according to poll results released Thursday, leaving him in a virtual tie between those who approve and disapprove of his performance.

Obama’s 47-percent approval rating among likely Florida voters was the lowest in the nation of any poll conducted by Quinnipiac University. The president’s approval rating in Florida dropped 11 points since June, the poll found.

In Thursday’s results, 48 percent of likely Florida voters disapproved of Obama’s performance. The survey had a margin of error of 3 percent.

The poll also found that nearly three out of four Floridians don’t trust Obama to keep his promise to reform health care without increasing the federal budget deficit.

On the other hand, the poll found that a majority of voters — 58 to 36 percent — support creating a government-backed health insurance plan to compete with private insurers, despite protests from opponents who liken the concept to socialism.

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Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum edged out Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, a Democrat, by 38-34 percent in the latest Quinnipiac University poll. Twenty percent of the state’s likely voters polled remain undecided.

That flip-flops Sink’s 38-34 percent lead among likely Florida voters two months ago. Sink remains relatively unknown to Floridians, according to the poll from Aug. 12-17 of 1,136 likely voters. Nearly two-thirds of those polled said they don’t know enough about her to have an opinion of her job performance.

McCollum and Sink are both leaving office after one term in pursuit of the governor’s mansion. Gov. Charlie Crist is also vacating after one term to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, who stepped down before his first term in Washington is complete.

The poll also shows Crist with a healthy 55-26 percent lead over GOP primary opponent, former House Speaker Marco Rubio. In June, Crist held a 54-23 percent margin over Rubio.

You can add another political bigwig to Thursday’s health care forum at the South County Civic Center near Delray Beach, which is already attracting lots of attention from both supporters and opponents of Democratic health-care proposals: U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Democrat from Miramar, says he’s going to join the already-announced Robert Wexler.

According to an e-mail from Hastings chief of staff Lale M. Mamaux:

“I just wanted to give you the heads up that Congressman Hastings will be participating in the town hall meeting tomorrow hosted by the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans. During the August recess he has met with physicians, home health care representatives, health underwriters, hospital officials, nurses, patients, and representatives from a community health center to discuss health care reform.”

Once again, this is an event put on by the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans, which said it was requiring tickets and giving preference to members. Feel free to contact them for more information.

Gov. Charlie Crist is screening long-serving U.S. Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young and former chief of staff George LeMieux to fill U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez’ seat. Martinez quit before his first term ends in 2012.

Crist, who is leaving office after one term to replace Martinez himself, spent yesterday and today interviewing possible candidates – including state Rep. Jennifer Carroll, UNF president John Delaney, former U.S. Attorney Bobby Martinez and LeMieux, a former deputy attorney general under Crist. They’re all Republicans who presumably have no interest in challenging Crist, who is running against former House Speaker Marco Rubio in a GOP primary, for the seat next year.

Also on the list: former state attorney general and secretary of state Jim Smith, now a Tallahassee lobbyist.

Young is in his 20th term in Congress and is from Indian Shores near Crist’s St. Petersburg hometown in Pinellas County.

Gov. Charlie Crist is meeting with former chief of staff George LeMieux today as he ponders his replacement for U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez who resigned from office earlier this month.

The hastily-added meeting with LeMieux, a close ally who headed Crist’s gubernatorial campaigns and is now the chairman of the largest law firm in the state, raises speculation about whether the governor will tap LeMieux to fill in for Martinez for the remainder of his term.

Crist is seeking the office himself, running against former House Speaker Marco Rubio in a GOP primary next year.

Last week, Crist asked for applications for the temporary post from U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, former attorney general and secretary of state Jim Smith and former U.S. Atttorney Bobby Martinez. Diaz-Balart dropped out of consideration late Monday.

Crist met with Martinez yesterday before hurriedly asking state Rep. Jennifer Carroll, a Republican from Jacksonville and the only black Republican in the legislature, and University of North Florida President John Delaney. He visited with the Jacksonville pair in their hometown yesterday as well.

The Florida Supreme Court refused to grant a stay of execution for John Richard Marek, a convicted murderer scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection at 6 p.m. today.

Marek and Raymond Wigley were convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering Adela Marie Simmons in 1983 when her car broke down on the turnpike near Stuart.

Marek has another appeal pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. A circuit court judge on Monday also denied another hearing to Marek, who claims that Wigley killed Simmons. Wigley was sentenced to life while Marek received the death penalty. Marek’s lawyers argue that he, too, should be serving life in prison.

Marek has spent more than two decades on Florida’s Death Row. Gov. Charlie Crist ordered him to be put to death in May but the Supreme Court halted that. If the execution takes place today, Marek will be the fourth Death Row inmate to be executed since Crist took office in 2007.

Gov. Charlie Crist added two names to the list of candidates he’s interviewing to replace U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez: state Rep. Jennifer Carroll and University of North Florida President John Delaney, both of Jacksonville.

Carroll is the only black Republican serving in the state legislature. Delaney was formerly the mayor of Jacksonville and a long-time Crist supporter.

Crist plans to interview both tomorrow in Jacksonville. Neither was among possible candidates speculated on by political insiders around the state.

Crist today met with Bobby Martinez, a Miami lawyer who oversaw his transition when the governor took office in 2007 and a former U.S. prosecutor.

The governor, who is running in a GOP primary next year against former House Speaker Marco Rubio to take the seat himself, must appoint someone to fulfill the remainder of Martinez’ term, which ends in January 2012.

Crist also asked U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Jim Smith, a former state attorney general and secretary of state who is now a lobbyist, to apply for the post. Diaz-Balart pulled out yesterday and a visit with Smith has yet to be scheduled.

STUART — What began as a semi-friendly discussion outside a health care forum tonight quickly turned ugly with nearly a dozen people shouting at each other and one spitting on another.

Everett Wilkinson, chairman of the anti-tax South Florida Tea Party, found himself the unsuspecting victim of a spittle attack just minutes after joining the argument.

The altercation had begun with just two people having a semi-friendly discussion outside tonight’s health care forum at Indian River State College’s Chastain campus on Salerno Road. U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, is holding the forum inside The Wolf High-Technology Center.

Trying to make himself heard as proponents and opponents yelled about socialized medicine, Wilkinson raised his arms over his head and shouted: “It’s a great flight to Cuba!”

He turned then and found himself in the middle of an already heated argument between two men. One of the men questioned whether the second man, who was wearing a camouflage jacket, was a veteran.

The second man stepped up to the first and yelled: “I joined after Sept. 11. Do you remember Sept. 11, you ***?!”

Wilkinson and another man, John Fels, of Port St. Lucie, tried to intervene, fending off shoves from the man in camo. Both turned to leave, but the man followed and spit on Wilkinson’s arm.

Deputies arrived just as the crowd split up.

“It’s pretty sad that we can’t have discussion,” Wilkinson said.

Allen West, the Republican challenger to U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, said the government needs to fix its current health care programs before rolling out a new one.

West will host his own town hall meeting on health care tonight at 7 p.m. at South Florida Bible College in Deerfield Beach.

West says reform efforts should begin by properly identifying what inflates costs in the current system. He said reforms should reduce lawsuits, encourage employers to offer coverage to workers and address coverage for illegal immigrants, whose trips to emergency rooms incur costs that are ultimately passed on to the rest of us.

“When people talk about a public option, we already have a public option – in Medicare, Medicaid and the SCHIP option,” said West. “The federal government needs to show that it can effectively run those programs.”

Gov. Charlie Crist is expected to request more candidates to apply to replace U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez after initially asking three GOP allies to apply.

U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart withdrew his name from the list late last evening, the day before Crist is scheduled to meet with another Hispanic potential replacement, former U.S. prosecutor Bobby Martinez.

Crist will meet with Martinez at the Miami airport at 1 p.m. today.

Crist hasn’t scheduled an interview yet with former secretary of state and attorney general Jim Smith – now a Tallahassee lobbyist – the last of the three candidates the governor asked last week to apply for the job.

But he said today the “short list” isn’t limited to just Smith and Martinez.

Crist called Bobby Martinez a “brilliant man” and “a dear friend and a loyal ally.”

But, he added, “There are others who we’ll be interviewing, too. And I look forward to the process.”

Crist, who is running against former House Speaker Marco Rubio in a GOP primary in November to replace Martinez, cited integrity rather than someone who would mirror his own votes Congress as his top priority in making the selection.

“I have to appoint somebody who in my belief number one has great integrity, will serve our fellow Floridians with honor and will do an incredible job of making sure that we continue to be well represented in both seats in the United States Senate,” Crist told reporters after a morning meeting with educators at the governor’s mansion. “Those are my primary considerations.”

U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart withdrew his name for consideration to replace U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez this evening.

Diaz-Balart issued a statement this evening saying he told Gov. Charlie Crist to remove him from the short list of three to fill in for Martinez until next year’s November election.

“I have informed Governor Charlie Crist this evening that I will not be submitting the Questionnaire for appointment to the Senate he kindly asked me to consider submitting. It was a great honor to be considered by Governor Crist for appointment to the United States Senate. I thank him for his kind gesture of confidence. After giving the Governor’s request serious consideration and deliberation, I have decided to remain in the U.S. House of Representatives fighting for the causes which I deeply believe in,”‬‪‬‪‬‪ the statement reads.

That leaves Tallahassee lobbyist Jim Smith, a Democrat-turned Republican who served on the Florida Cabinet as both Attorney General and Secretary of State, and former U.S. prosecutor Bobby Martinez.

Crist is scheduled to meet with Martinez tomorrow at the Miami airport at 1 p.m.

Crist is leaving office after one term to run for the seat and is being challenged in a GOP primary by former House Speaker Marco Rubio.

Gov. Charlie Crist will meet with Bobby Martinez, not the former governor, tomorrow afternoon at the Miami airport.

Martinez is on Crist’s short list to replace outgoing U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, who is stepping down 15 months before his term ends in November.

Martinez (Bobby) is a former U.S. prosecutor who sits on the state Board of Education and was a chief transition aide to both Crist and Jeb Bush when they took over as governor.

Last week, Crist asked Martinez (Bobby), U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and former Attorney General and Secretary of State Jim Smith, now a top-tier Tallahassee lobbyist, to apply as Martinez’ fill-in for the next 15 months.

Crist is leaving office next year after just one term to run for the post himself.

Bobby Martinez is considered by some GOP operatives to be the likeliest candidate to replace Mel Martinez, and not because they share the same surname.

Sources close to Diaz-Balart say that he today withdrew his name from consideration for the post.

And Smith’s lobbying career could make him vulnerable to criticism, although he’s considering retiring. Quitting his lobbying job may not quell objections, however. His partner Brian Ballard, one of Crist’s closest advisers, is also his son-in-law.

A Florida Supreme Court panel recommended court-ordered mediation for all residential home foreclosures except in cases where banks and homeowners come to an agreement on their own.

The high court appointed the Task Force on Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Cases earlier this year to make suggestions on how to deal with the influx of foreclosures in the state’s courts. Florida has the second highest foreclosure rate in the nation.

The panel released its final report today, likening the impact of the increase in foreclosures on the courts to a car-jammed evacuation route during a hurricane.

The recommendations include expediting foreclosures on abandoned properties and dividing foreclosures into three categories: mortgages on homesteaded properties, abandoned properties and rental properties.

The 15-member panel of judges, lawyers and financiers acknowledged that the state’s budget crisis makes appointing more judges and clerks an unreasonable option while addressing the urgency of the situation.

“Instead, their recommendations include “the least of evils that can work on an emergency basis to immediately begin to meet the challenge of these cases. We believe it is imperative that the Florida Supreme Court address the explosion of mortgage foreclosure filings as soon as possible for the welfare of our courts, our communities, our businesses, and our state,” the panel wrote.

Vice President Joe Biden will visit an Orlando middle school on Wednesday to tout Florida’s $3.5 billion share of the economic stimulus package for education.

Biden will be joined by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. They’re scheduled to appear at Jackson Middle School in Orlando at 10 a.m.

Not all of the money is being spent in schools or on teachers, however.

Florida’s three-year education stimulus cash includes money for school lunch equipment, homeless education, independent living programs and services for older blind individuals.

Perhaps the White House duo will receive a warmer welcome than Congressional members touting the president’s health care package at raucous town hall meetings throughout the country.

Audubon of Florida lobbyist Eric Draper said today he will end his two-month campaign for state agriculture commissioner to focus on his job with one of largest environmental groups in the state.

“All non-profit organizations are facing unprecedented financial times,” Draper said in a statement. “I had thought these manageable challenges but now find they require my full efforts.”

Draper’s announcement cuts to three the field of Democrats seeking the job: former state Democratic Party Chairman Scott Maddox, former state Rep. Rick Minton Jr. of Fort Pierce and former Suwannee County Commissioner Randy Hatch. Republicans running include U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam of Bartow and state Sen. Carey Baker of Eustis.

Republican Ag Commissioner Charles Bronson is leaving office in 2010 due to term limits.

Draper has been with Audubon since 1995. Before that, he was the staff director for the House Majority Office under Democratic Speaker Peter Wallace and Majority Leader Jim Davis. Draper also worked for The Nature Conservancy.

Attempting to frame the agriculture position as the “top environmental steward” on the Florida Cabinet, he raised $35,125 in his first month of the race and attracted nearly 1,000 supporters to his campaign’s Facebook page.

Read the letter he sent to supporters after the jump.

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Barry Carson’s brief trip to the men’s room spared Gov. Charlie Crist the embarrassment of being censured by Palm Beach County’s Republican Party last week.

Carson, a Republican Executive Committee member from Jupiter, was out of the room and missed the vote when the rest of the committee split 65-65 on a resolution Wednesday night to rebuke Crist for his various departures from GOP orthodoxy.

The tie vote means the resolution failed.

Carson said he would have voted for censure.

But after hours of debate and an earlier vote on whether to table the censure resolution, Carson went to the men’s room. When he got back, his name had been passed in the roll call of Republican committee members.

Carson said he told party leaders he was back and wanted to vote before the roll call was complete, but was ignored by county GOP Chairman Sid Dinerstein and others who opposed censure.

“Sid didn’t want the resolution and because of my prostate problem he found a way to get it (defeated),” Carson told the Politics column.

Dinerstein said he didn’t know of Carson’s wish to vote until it was too late.

“This guy didn’t say a word until our vote was finished and recorded,” Dinerstein said. “To me it was a little like sending in your absentee ballot late.”

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The Republican Party of Florida, which is chaired by close Crist ally Jim Greer, took an interest in the censure vote. Carla Rivera, a field rep from the state GOP, attended the meeting and videotaped the county GOP’s deliberations.

“We do that a lot of times when we go to events,” state GOP spokeswoman Katie Gordon said. “It’s not sort of Big Brother overseeing what the local parties are doing. We’re all on the same team.”

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State Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, is bolstering her Palm Beach County support as she runs for the Palm Beach-Broward state Senate district now held by CFO-seeking state Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach.

Bogdanoff is already backed by House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach. And the hosts for a Bogdanoff fund-raiser later this month include some big Boca Raton names: Mayor Susan Whelchel, Boca Councilwoman Susan Haynie, GOP activist Jack Furnari and former county Republican Chairman Tom Sliney.

Bogdanoff faces two Palm Beach County rivals — state Rep. Carl Domino of Jupiter and businessman Nick Loeb of Delray Beach — in a Republican primary in which about 64 percent of Republican voters live in Palm Beach County.

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Retired educator Vincent Goodman, a Republican who was one of Crist’s four finalists for the Palm Beach County commission appointment that eventually went to Democrat Priscilla Taylor, has opened a campaign to run for the seat in 2010. Democrats have a 4-to-1 registration edge over Republicans in Taylor’s minority-dominated District 7.

Something’s going on when organizers of a health care forum on a summer weekday wonder if they’ll have enough room in the 500-seat South County Civic Center.

As members of Palm Beach County’s congressional delegation prepare to hear from constituents on health care reforms this week, click here to read how groups on the left and right are urging their activists to turn out and be heard on the issue.

Read details about the public forums.

In case you didn’t follow every turn of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s tour of Africa this week, she appeared to equate former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s role in the 2000 presidential recount with Nigeria’s notorious history of political corruption.

“In 2000, our presidential election came down to one state where the brother of the man running for president was the governor of the state. So we have our problems too,” America’s top diplomat said.

Here’s a full account from ABC News, including this modified walk-back by a State Department spokesman: “The point she is making is that it’s about a disputed result and then the willingness of the candidates to accept a flawed result rather than, say resort to violence.”

This story was updated from the original blog item. It appeared in print Aug. 15 on page 2A of The Palm Beach Post.

By MICHAEL C. BENDER and DARA KAM
Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau

TALLAHASSEE — Offering the first hints of who might eventually win his U.S. Senate appointment, Gov. Charlie Crist requested applications Friday from three Republicans: two Miami Hispanics and a Tallahassee lobbyist with a long history in Florida politics.

The first of possibly seven application forms were sent to U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and former U.S. Attorney Bobby Martinez, both Cuban-Americans. Jim Smith, a former secretary of state and Florida attorney general who also waged campaigns for governor and agriculture commissioner, was the third to receive an application form.

See the questionnaire here.

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