While some Democrats press for a “resolution of disapproval” against U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., for shouting “You lie!” at President Obama during a joint session of Congress last week, U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, hopes his party lets the matter die.

“I abhor Joe Wilson’s behavior at the presidential address. But the man has apologized….I think we should heed President Obama’s advice and end the bickering, and maybe we Democrats can play our part by moving on,” said Wexler, known as one of his party’s fiercest partisans.

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., has led the push for a resolution reprimanding Wilson.

Wilson apologized to President Obama through White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. But some Democrats have said he should apologize on the floor of the House as well because his outburst occurred there.

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Not even the governor should tell utility regulators whether to give the thumbs up to a proposed $1.3 billion Florida Power & Light Co. rate hike, Public Service Commission Chairman Matthew Carter said today.

“I don’t think anybody should tell us how to vote on a rate case. We have to make our decision based on the facts presented. Each case has to stand on its own merit. To do otherwise would be violating the statute,” said Carter, appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2006 and up for reappointment by Gov. Charlie Crist next month. “I’m not going to do that for anyone.”

Earlier today, Crist said that the commissioners’ vote would impact whether he picks them for the panel. Two commissioners – Carter and Katrina McMurrian – are among the six finalists given to Crist by a nominating council.

“Let’s see what the commissioners want to do. Then I can have a better handle on who I want to appoint or reappoint,” Crist said.

The FPL rate hearing is scheduled to resume on Wednesday.

On Friday, Sen. Mike Fasano asked that it be indefinitely delayed until investigations into possibly too-cozy relationships between the regulators and the utilities they oversee are complete.

Carter hasn’t made up his mind yet on whether to halt the hearing and said Crist’s comments won’t sway him.

“I make my own independent decision. And I’m not intimidated nor am I persuaded by anyone else. I have to stay focused on the law,” he said. “I’m not going to g o into a war of words with the governor.”

An opponent of Florida Power & Light Co.’s proposed $1.3 billion rate hike wants a utility regulator who attended a conference in New York and had a steak dinner with an FPL executive disqualified from the case.

Public Service Commissioner Katrina McMurrian should recuse herself because, at a minimum, the events leave the impression that she won’t be impartial, according to a motion filed this morning by Stephen Stewart for Sarasota citizen Richard Unger, an intervenor in FPL’s rate case.

McMurrian, appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush to the panel in 2006, was a panelist at a Standard & Poors conference in New York in March that dealt with credit issues and their effect on the power industry. The night before the conference, McMurrian had dinner with, among others, FPL Treasurer Paul Cutler.

That leaves the impression that McMurrian won’t be impartial, Stewart said in the motion.

The hearing is scheduled to resume on Wednesday.

State law requires that commissioners “must avoid impropriety in all of his or her activities and must act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the commission.”

McMurrian, whose term ends in January, is up for reappointment by Gov. Charlie Crist.

Crist earlier this morning threatened not to reappoint commissioners who vote for the rate hike. PSC Chairman Matthew Carter is also up for reappointment.

The future of two utility regulators depends upon their vote in a proposed $1.3 billion Florida Power & Light Co. rate hike, Gov. Charlie Crist said this morning.

Crist has until Oct. 1 to reappoint two commissioners – Chairman Matthew Carter and Katrina McMurrian – whose terms expire Jan. 1.

Crist said he wants them to just say no to the Juno Beach-based utility.

“Let’s see what the commissioners want to do. Then I can have a better handle on who to appoint or reappoint,” Crist told reporters this morning.

A reporter asked Crist if he heard the governor correctly – that the commissioners’ vote would affect their appointments.

“You did,” Crist answered. “I think it would be nice to reject the increase. I’m trying to appoint members that would be sympathetic to the people and the economic challenge that they’re facing. So that’s a factor.”

Sen. Mike Fasano on Friday asked Carter, appointed to the panel by Gov. Jeb Bush, to indefinitely delay the FPL hearing and a $500 million Progress Energy Florida rate case until a storm of controversies surrounding the regulatory panel clears.

Crist disagreed.

“I don’t know why we should postpone it,” he said.

Carter said this morning that he hadn’t seen Fasano’s letter because he was on bed rest Friday recuperating from two back surgeries earlier this year.

(more…)

With Democratic Palm Beach County Commissioner Jess Santamaria remaining enigmatic on his 2010 reelection plans, Republican and longtime Wellington Councilman Carmine Priore says he’d consider running for Santamaria’s western District 6 seat if it’s open next year.

That’s potentially good news for a local GOP that hasn’t been able to recruit a District 6 candidate. The bad news: Priore says he’ll cross party lines and support Santamaria if the incumbent runs again.

Santamaria says he’ll announce in January or February whether he’s running. Meanwhile, attorney Elissa Pearl has opened a Democratic campaign in District 6.

Pearl and Santamaria recently met for the first time.

“Our philosophies are similar and it appears that we care about the same things,” said Pearl after the hourlong sit-down in the commissioner’s office.

Santamaria, 72, called the 37-year-old Pearl “a good person” with “a young person’s idealism. We need people like that.” But Santamaria said a commissioner’s job is tough and complicated.

“My question is, (for) Elissa Pearl or anybody else, do they really have the background, the experience, the education, the training, the psychological framework to handle all of these variables on a day-to-day basis?” Santamaria said. “My first impression is, she’ll have a lot to learn.”

Pearl lives just outside District 6, which irks potential GOP candidate Priore. If Santamaria doesn’t run, Priore said, he’d consider the race because “I wouldn’t want to leave the door open to someone that doesn’t live in our area.”

* * *

Pleased with the grass-roots volunteer organization for her 2010 Democratic campaign for county commission, school board member Paulette Burdick has put paid consultants Eric Johnson and Neil Schiller on hold — at least temporarily. Burdick is running against state Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach, in a Dem primary to succeed term-limited Commish Jeff Koons.

Burdick paid $1,000 in June for the consulting expertise of Johnson, who’s also chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, and who works with Schiller on several local races.

“My idea was she didn’t need them,” said Palm Beach Democratic Club President Elna Laun, an unpaid Burdick backer and adviser. “I think I was one of many” offering that advice, Laun said.

* * *

Both GOP District 27 state Senate candidates — Wellington Councilwoman Lizbeth Benacquisto and former state Rep. Sharon Merchant — are from Palm Beach County, but about 60 percent of the GOP primary voters are in Lee County.

In the scramble for Lee County support, Benacquisto will be in Fort Myers Friday for a fund-raiser whose hosts include state Rep. Trudi Williams, R-Fort Myers, Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann, school board member Elinor Scricca and longtime Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson.

Palm Beach Town Councilman Bill Diamond will open his island home Wednesday for a $500-per-plate luncheon and photo op with Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum. Invite here.

McCollum, the state’s attorney general, is expected to face Democratic state CFO Alex Sink in the 2010 election. Sink was leading McCollum, $2.4 million to $1 million after the most recent campaign finance reports through June 30.

Diamond would not say how much he’s hoping to raise, but acknowledged that “we’re doing very well.”

“I’m proud to call Bill McCollum my friend,” Diamond said.

Diamond and McCollum were both supporters of Republican Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Along with Diamond and his wife, Regine Traulsen, the host committee for the fundraiser includes:

(more…)

Public Service Commissioner Nancy Argenziano snapped back at state Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera for criticizing her critique of his questions of Public Service Commission Chairman Matthew Carter.

Argenziano, a former lawmaker who served in both the House and the Senate, sent a heated letter to Lopez-Cantera late this evening in which she expounds on her repeated complaints that lawmakers with too close of ties to utilities have too much influence over the regulatory panel on which she sits.

Lopez-Cantera sits on the council that selects nominees for the governor to appoint to the regulatory agency. He wasn’t happy with the answers Carter gave at the Sept. 1 nominating council meeting although Carter did make the list of six finalists for Gov. Charlie Crist to consider.

Her letter is a response to one Lopez-Cantera sent to her yesterday criticizing her reaction to his dissatisfaction with the PSC’s unanimous decision to force Florida Power & Light officials to release the salaries of all its employees that earn more than $165,000 per year. He advised Argenziano she could have found the information in the Juno Beach-based corporation’s federal filings as he and his office staff did in less than an hour.

“This same information would have saved the PSC time and taxpayer money,” Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami, wrote in a letter sent yesterday.

The federal information does not include bonuses and other perks that boost some of the salaries by up to 500 percent, Argenziano responded tonight.

“Your apparently gullible acceptance, Representative Cantera, as the FERC document reflects, that the salary of FPL’s Executive Vice President is $23,000, is flabbergasting. The ‘less than an hour’ which you and your office spent producing this useless information is perhaps the true waste of time and taxpayer money,” Argenziano wrote.

(more…)

Public Service Commissioner Katrina McMurrian offered what appears to be a simple solution to the troubled regulators and staff caught in a web of secret messages with utility company execs and lawyers.

Put it in writing.

McMurrian issued a proposal late Friday evening suggesting that the quasi-judicial panel should act more like…judges to restore the public’s trust.

In 1992, a statewide grand jury found that “the manner in which utilities communicate with the PSC is in need of reform.” That was long before Blackberries and text messages revolutionized communications, but, to McMurrian at least, the shoe still fits.

McMurrian proposed that no commissioner or staff “shall engage in communications with parties, interested persons, or stakeholders except in writing.” That would include “all procedural matters, docketed matters, rulemaking proceedings, declaratory statements, workshops, non-docketed matters and matters for deliberation at Internal Affairs,” she wrote.

And, she suggested, all the communications should be posted on the PSC’s website for the public to read.

Today Sen. Mike Fasano asked that a Florida Power & Light $1.3 billion rate increase hearing scheduled to resume Wednesday and a Progress Energy Florida $500 million rate increase case set for the following Monday be delayed indefinitely.

McMurrian and Chairman Matthew Carter are both included in a list of six nominees give to Gov. Charlie Crist earlier this month. He has until Oct. 1 to pick one and the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee, on which Fasano sits, must confirm his choice.
“Respectfully, I ask my fellow commissioners for their support of this proposal. I would also like to let the public know that we hear you and want to earn back your trust,” McMurrian’s proposal concluded.

Public Service Commission spokeswoman Cynthia Muir gave this response to Sen. Mike Fasano’s request today that Chairman Matthew Carter indefinitely delay rate hearings now underway for FPL and Progress Energy Florida.

“The Chairman is on bed rest today due to his recent back surgery and the strain caused from the long hours of sitting during the hearings. I can tell you that there are statutory time lines that must be followed for each rate case filing. If a Commission decision is not made within the required time frame, the rates requested by the company in its filing can be implemented, at the discretion of the company.

Florida Statue 366.06 provides detail on this.

Thanks,
Cindy”

Progress is requesting a $500 million rate hike. That hearing is scheduled to resume Sept. 21, and the FPL – which is seeking a $1.3 billion rate increase – case is slated to resume on Wednesday.

When asked specifically whether Chairman Carter would postpone the hearings and what the pertinent dates were in both cases, Muir gave the following reply:

“Florida Statute 366.06 spells out the time frame. The Chairman has not responded to the Senator’s letter yet, so there’s no way of knowing what he intends,” she wrote.

Under Florida law, the PSC must give a final order in the FPL case by Nov. 20 or the new rates can go into effect Jan. 1. The utility would have to pay customers back if the panel then rejected the rate hike.

Florida Power & Light Co. officials had this to say about a top GOP senator’s request to halt utility rate hearings until investigations into what could be too cozy connections between regulators and utilities.

“We believe it is in our customers’ best interest for the PSC to proceed with its evaluation of our request – on its merits and the facts – so that it can make a timely decision that will allow us to move forward with investments in the electrical infrastructure that benefit our customers and the communities we serve,” FPL spokesman Mark Bubriski said in an e-mail.

Sen. Mike Fasano asked Public Service Commission Chairman Matthew Carter to postpone rate hearings currently underway – including a $1.3 billion rate hike sought by FPL scheduled to resume Wednesday – indefinitely.

Fasano wants several current investigations wrapped up before the hearings continue. He also wants them suspended until the Senate confirms Gov. Charlie Crist’s two nominations for the panel. Crist received a list of six finalists – including two current commissioners – earlier this month and has until Oct. 2 to make his picks.

(more…)

Democratic Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink refused to say whether she supports Congressional Democrats’ government-backed health insurance proposal, known as the “public option,” despite her GOP gubernatorial opponent Attorney General Bill McCollum’s demands.

Attorney General Bill McCollum, the presumptive GOP candidate for governor, pilloried President Barack Obama’s and the Democrats’ public option and challenged Sink state her position on the issue.

Sink, however, maintained her neutrality but hammered on the Medicaid portion of the health care reforms. She said she would not support anything that increased the state’s share of Medicaid payments, something that McCollum, as her campaign pointed out earlier this week, did numerous times during his long tenure in Congress.

Just because Palm Beach County’s Democratic Party gave its blessing to a 14.9 percent countywide property tax rate hike doesn’t mean all Democratic candidates are on board.

“A 15 percent increase in the tax rate is unconscionable in the kind of economy we’re in right now,” said state Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach, who’s running next year for the District 2 commission seat of term-limited Jeff Koons.

(more…)

Sen. Mike Fasano wants a halt to all utility rate hearings – including a proposed $1.3 billion Florida Power & Light Co. hike – until investigations into alleged coziness between the Public Service Commission and the utilities they regulate.

“The integrity of the Commission has been brought into question due to the recent resignation of the PSC’s lobbyist, the firing of a commission aide and the placement of two others on leave due to the question of ex parte communications, as well as sharing of Blackberry PINs, with utility executives of the two companies seeking the rate increases. With the possibility of the Florida Senate Ethics & Elections Committee holding a hearing to look into the serious allegations regarding the operation of the PSC, any decision made while under the cloud of controversy would forever plague all parties in the case,” Fasano, R-New Port Richey, wrote in a letter to PSC Chairman Matthew Carter today.

Fasano is asking for the Senate investigation and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is also looking into possible wrongdoing at the commission.

Read Fasano’s letter after the jump.
(more…)

George LeMieux was sworn in as a U.S. Senator this afternoon by Vice President Joe Biden in the U.S. Capitol. LeMieux, an attorney was was a Broward County GOP chairman and right-hand man to Gov. Charlie Crist, was appointed by Crist last month to replace Sen. Mel Martinez, whose resignation took effect Wednesday.

LeMieux, who’ll serve the final months of Martinez’ term, has said he won’t seek election to the seat in 2010 when Crist runs for it.

“There are tremendous issues facing this nation, and although my time in Washington will be brief, I intend to work hard every day to address these critical challenges and serve the people of this unique, diverse and wonderful state,” he said in a statement released by his office.

Read LeMieux’s entire statement after the jump……

(more…)

State Sen. Dan Gelber is pushing a constitutional amendment aimed at cracking down on the kind of secret budget deals that got former House Speaker Ray Sansom in trouble.

Gelber, who is running against Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres in a Democratic primary for state attorney general, and Rep. Keith Fitzgerald, D-Sarasota, want lawmakers to put the constitutional amendment on next year’s November ballot.

The amendment would require that appropriations bills be written in plain language and that all budget conference meetings between two or more lawmakers be conducted in a publicly noticed meeting.

The state budget is usually crafted in a much different manner, going through a series of conference committees until the Senate President and the House Speaker ultimately resolve their differences behind closed doors.

In Sansom’s case, he was the House budget chairman when he slipped in a $6 million item to build an airport at a college where he later became a high-paid executive on the day he was annointed Speaker.

Sansom, Okaloosa County developer Jay Odom and former Northwest Florida State College President Bob Richburg have been indicted on official misconduct charges regarding the airport.

Sansom and Richburg each face an additional perjury charge for allegedly lying to a Leon County grand jury. They are scheduled to stand trial at the end of this month. (more…)

U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson’s decision to heckle President Obama during a speech to the joint session of Congress may have been, as Wilson apologized, inappropriate and regrettable. But was what he yelled correct?

(more…)

The House Majority Office sent out a tongue-in-cheek e-mail today trying to steer fans to its new Facebook page.

Earlier this week, House Majority Leader Adam Hasner invited fans to do a Facebook search for “Florida House Majority Office” to check out his new site and join up.

But a search turned up a variety of Facebook groups – including “Stop Horse Slaughter and Murder in Mexico!” – none of which was the Majority Office’s.

“Thanks in part to Dara Kam of the Palm Beach Post, many of you know that a glitch in the Facebook search box leads folks to pages other than our own. For the record, the House Majority Office is fully supportive of stopping horse slaughter and murder in Mexico, and is proud that we have done our part to raise awareness of the issue. But our intention was to send you to our new Facebook page, not one on Mexican equines,” House Majority Office Staff Director Todd Reid wrote in an e-mail.

Reid said his staff have tried to get Facebook to fix the glitch, but in the meantime wanted to advertise a direct link to the site: www.facebook.com/FLGOPMajority.

Senate President Jeff Atwater put the brakes on an October special session to deal with a gambling compact Gov. Charlie Crist signed with the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, sent Crist a list of questions about the compact – the second deal Crist inked with the tribe – today seeking “clarification.”

Atwater gave Crist until Oct. 9 to respond.

In an interview, Atwater also said he’d like the final compact to include provisions allowing the Palm Beach Kennel Club and other parimutuels around the state to add video slot machines or otherwise expand gambling if voters give the OK in local referenda. Such a measure was approved by legislators in the spring, but was not part of the recent compact Crist agreed to with the Seminoles.

Crist has said he wants lawmakers to meet in a special session in early October to approve the compact and to also consider offshore drilling.

No dice on that, either, Atwater said in a memo sent to the Senate and the media.

“As you all are aware, this issue involves a series of complex conversations with a variety of interests and impacts throughout our State. There are policy decisions to be considered that are not well served by undue haste. If, or when, the Senate takes up this issue it will be in a manner that allows for sufficient time to debate the facts and the merits of such policy,” Atwater wrote.

OK, so it was Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer, not the man who put him that job – Gov. Charlie Crist, who started a ruckus over President Obama speaking directly to schoolchildren. But this line Wednesday night from The Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien’s monologue is still kinda funny…

“Florida’s Republican governor, Charlie Crist, got a hold of President Obama’s speech to students in advance, because everyone was talking about how controversial it might be. He decided there was nothing partisan and he allowed his kids to watch it. Of course, like everyone else in Florida, Crist’s kids are in their late 60s.”

George LeMieux, the attorney and former top aide to Gov. Charlie Crist who was tapped by Crist to serve the last 16 months of Mel Martinez’ Senate term, will be sworn in this afternoon on the Senate floor at 2:45 p.m.

Martinez officially retired Wednesday.

Vice President Joe Biden, in his constitutional role as president of the Senate, will administer the oath to LeMieux.

C-Span 2 will carry it live.