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From John Stemberger, Florida Family Policy Council president:
“I have spent hours in conversation with both of the leading Republican candidates for Governor. They are both fine men with impressive backgrounds.
Earlier this month, disgraced former Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer was arrested and charged with six felony counts related to a secret consulting contract that allegedly skimmed party donations to his own corporation.
Turns out that his partner in that company, then-state party executive director Delmar Johnson, was working with investigators. And included in a batch of evidence released by the state Office of Statewide Prosecution this week is a phone call Johnson taped with Greer, who is his former boss and the father of his godson.
We thought we’d give you a chance to listen to the call. All told, these recordings will take an hour of your life. But take a listen and then jot down your favorite part in the comment section below…
With Gov. Charlie Crist by his side, Vice President Joe Biden vowed that the Sunshine State has the president’s full support as residents and business owners cope with the continuing impacts of oil on beaches and inland waters from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
“This region has been hit hard by acts of God and now by an act of man. We’re going to be feeling the effects, and you’re going to be feeling the effects, for some time to come. But we also intend to stick with this region until it has been made whole,” Biden said early this evening, referring to the devastation of 2004 Hurricane Ivan on the Panhandle. “We’re not going anywhere. We’re staying here until the job is done.”
Flanked by Deepwater Horizon incident commander U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the state’s newly-appointed disaster response leader Capt. Steve Poulin and Crist, Biden spoke of the importance the Gulf of Mexico plays in the “cultural ecosystem” of the coastal communities where fishing has come to an abrupt end.
“There’s in a sense a way of life at stake here, not just an economic concern,” Biden told reporters reading from a prepared statement to a group of reporters in front of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter “Oak” at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola.
“We’re not going to forget the people of the Gulf until their economy is back up and running, until this is cleaned up, until the oil is stopped from gushing from the bottom of the ocean floor. We’re not going to end this until everyone is made whole,” he said.
(more…)
Dave Aronberg issued a late-night press release on Monday calling on Dan Gelber, his Democratic primary opponent in the attorney general race, to resign from Akerman Senterfitt law firm. The powerful law firm was retained by BP after its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and Florida’s next attorney general will likely have to defend the state in a lawsuit with the company.
But Gelber says Aronberg is trying to score political points: Gelber notified his boss of the resignation on Thursday, just hours before he told The Palm Beach Post editorial board that he was stepping down from the firm.
“This is obviously a political stunt. I was literally off the (firm’s) web site yesterday,” said Gelber, who was among the first to call for a special session to write a constitutional ban on offshore drilling in state waters. “He’s using a bona fide tragedy for his own personal ambition. I hope he regrets it.”
Aronberg doesn’t regret it. He’s actually pretty fired up.
“I expected Dan to resign weeks ago,” Aronberg said. “When that didn’t happen, I just thought it was important to speak up.”
Aronberg also says that Gelber’s resignation might not be enough. He said there are “real questions” about whether Gelber would have to recuse himself from a case involving BP because the company was represented by his former firm.
But Florida Bar rules are fairly clear that there is only a conflict of interest if Gelber was involved with his firm’s client. Gelber says he’s done no work on behalf of BP.
“This could be the biggest lawsuit in Florida’s history and the next AG needs to be an active part of it,” Aronberg said.
A week after Tea Party operative Doug Guetzloe crashed a press conference of tea party activists (a biased account from the activists is here) a similar skirmish could be in the works tomorrow night in Delray Beach.
Some quick background: Guetzloe’s Tea Party has fielded candidates in 20 state races to target “big spending” Republicans. The South Florida Tea Party is suing Guetzloe’s group in a West Palm Beach federal court, charging they have no right to use the name as a formal political party. The tea party, they argue, is a political movement – not a formal party.
The latest now is that Guetzloe is threatening to bring his band of Tea Partiers to a tea party gathering for an event with GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum at the South County Civic Center.
Guetlzoe was informed that invites for him and 19 of his allies has been rescinded.
“It is a private affair and if you attempt to enter the building you will be met by the Palm Beach Sheriffs Officers to charge you and your group with trespassing,” Tim McClellan, outreach director for the South Florida Tea Party, wrote to Guetzloe.
(We talked with McClellan, who said it’s not exactly a private affair. The public is welcome, but he said his group has the right to bar anyone it wants.)
Guetzloe’s e-mail response to McClellan: “Then it should be a fun event. See you then. Bring lots of police, we have a constitutional right to attend an open even and since I got the invite directly, you don’t have a leg to stand on. … Can’t wait.”
The rivalry between Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio can be traced back to 2007, when Crist was inaugurated as governor and Rubio was installed as state House speaker. The two Republicans battled over property tax cuts, health care laws and property insurance changes with Crist using his deeper political experience and bigger bullhorn to thwart Rubio and his House disciples time and again.
For the moment, Crist appears to have done it again. As Adam Smith at the St. Petersburg Times writes today, Crist’s decision to abandon the Republican primary with Rubio and run as an independent (combined with Crist focusing more on the oil spill than the campaign) has deflated some of the energy from Rubio’s campaign:
“It seems like I’m not seeing you guys as much,” Rubio joked to reporters. “We’re out there, we’re doing what we’ve always done. I think it’s just that we’re competing with a bunch of other races right now. Clearly, there’s an interesting primary in the Republican Party for governor, there’s an increasingly interesting Senate primary for the Democratic Party.”
…
“It was a big story when Marco Rubio was opposing Charlie Crist, but right now the big story is Charlie Crist out in the Gulf of Mexico trying to save our beaches,” said Kevin Wright, a Rubio supporter and state House candidate from Wesley Chapel. “Rubio needs a new reason to energize people.”
A pair of contributors to Gov. Charlie Crist’s U.S. Senate campaign have filed a lawsuit demanding their money back after Crist dropped his party affiliation and decided to run as an independent, the Naples News reports today.
Linda Morton of Naples, who donated $500, and John Rood of Jacksonville, who donated $4,800, are the plaintiffs. They’re represented by state Rep. Tom Grady, R-Naples, who resigned in April as a regional chairman of Crist’s Senate campaign after falsely accusing Crist of scrubbing his web site of any mention of the word “Republican.”
Crist has, essentially, said he will not return donations because he needs the money.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., says U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., taught him and other newly-elected senators about proper debate decorum in the chamber. Byrd died today at age 92.
“In a hot political crucible, where there are sharp differences of opinion, you have to keep an atmosphere by which you can build consensus to govern a very large and complicated and diverse country,” Nelson said. “Sen. Byrd was the embodiment of that.”
Nelson’s comment came during an interview this morning with Rich Jones, the morning news host of WOKV AM 690 & 106.5 FM. The radio station, along with The Palm Beach Post, is owned by Cox Enterprises.
Incidentally, Byrd doesn’t appear to have deep ties to Florida, according to a search of our news archive.
The late Sen. Lawton Chiles, D-Fla., unsuccessfully attempted to unseat Byrd as the Senate minority leader in 1984
In 2002, Byrd, as Appropriations Committee chairman, sponsored an amendment to let government condemn about 10 residential properties in Miami-Dade County in the name of Everglades restoration. The amendment, intended to overturn a federal judge’s ruling, was sponsored at the request of Nelson and then-Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla.
Graham told the Post in 2001 that both he and Nelson had a good relationship with Byrd, which Graham hoped would translate into money from the appropriations committee for Everglades restoration.
Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, told The Palm Beach Post earlier this month about his interest in bringing Arizona’s controversial immigration law to Florida.
(Interestingly, Snyder’s fellow MartCo Republican, Gayle Harrell, also made a big push for tougher state immigration laws while she was in the House. She essentially was shot down by then-Speaker Marco Rubio, who relegated her bill to a workshop where no votes were recorded.)
Anyway, Snyder’s effort is, predictably, picking up steam among the conservatives who control state legislature, the St. Petersburg Times reports today:
In an election year shaped by anti-incumbency sentiment, majority leaders in the Florida Senate and House said a new approach is needed to address the federal government’s failure to temper illegal immigration.
The effort has the backing of both leading Republican gubernatorial candidates businessman Rick Scott and Attorney General Bill McCollum.
In fact, McCollum’s office is helping to draft the bill.
Attorney General Bill McCollum stepped up his demands for more skimming vessels to be sent to Florida to combat black waves of oil as thick as two inches deep washing up on Panhandle beaches.
McCollum, a Republican running for governor, sent U.S. Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano a letter today again seeking more skimming boats for the Sunshine State.
McCollum’s staff located at least four skimming vessels operated by a Jacksonville-based company that helped in the Exxon-Valdez oil disaster and included information about Crowley Maritime in his letter to Napolitano.
There are 28 skimming vessels in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida’s shores but thousands more are available from other countries offering services that President Barack Obama’s administration has thus far refused to accept.
“I don’t get it. There’s some real disconnect. It’s either incompetence or somebody’s decided we don’t need them,” McCollum said in an interview. “Why should we leave a single American flag vessel available? Why aren’t we calling them? I don’t know for the life of me.”
The campaign for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Greene is claiming today’s Washington Post profile (we linked to it here) quotes him out of context saying there was “all kinds of this crazy stuff” in the Koran.
The campaign played us a tape from the relevant portion of the Q&A session with the Wynmoor Democratic Club. Here’s a transcript:
Pollster.com contributor Kristen Soltis also says the oil spill has helped Gov. Charlie Crist in the U.S. Senate polls by making him look like a leader. From her analysis:
… Marco Rubio has struggled to pivot out of primary mode and into a general. The shift from running as “the true conservative” to a general election candidate will not be an easy one, and it becomes more and more critical with each tough poll that the Rubio campaign make that transition and begin to build his case to an audience beyond Tea Parties and local GOP groups.
There are a number of things going in Crist’s favor – but don’t count Rubio out. Five months is an eternity in politics. Looking at the recent polls and exit polling data going back to 1994, there are a variety of factors that will keep this race interesting through November.
Greene
“I like lots of career politicians; I’m not against all career politicians,” Greene said. “I am against the career politicians I’m running against.”
“I’m not an expert on Muslims,” Greene said. But he added that anyone who knows anything about the Koran knows that it contains “all kinds of this crazy stuff. And unfortunately that’s motivating a lot of these extremists.”
He doesn’t hide from his friendship with “Hollywood Madam” Heidi Fleiss (“She’s a businesswoman”) or his feud with film director Ron Howard (“He screwed me”). He denies the anecdotes about his extravagant life as a bachelor detailed in “The Greatest Trade Ever,” a book by Wall Street Journal columnist Gregory Zuckerman, two copies of which are in a bookcase in Greene’s billiards room. (“I’ve never even been into strippers or had a hooker,” he said. “It’s not my thing.”)
Gov. Charlie Crist was in Palm Beach County on Thursday campaigning for U.S. Senate for a ceremonial bill signing. He was asked about the potential for a special session this summer:
“There’s a number of issues, the most important one, however, is oil drilling, and I want to ban it in all Florida waters. And I want the people to have the power to choose to make that decision by putting it on the ballot in November so that they can do that. So I’m trying to build a consensus. The Senate has been more amenable than the House, frankly, on this issue, so I continue to reach out to the members of the Florida House so that we can have a consensus when we go into session, and I’d like to do it before the end of summer.”
From Post columnist Frank Cerebino:
From: God
To: Florida Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp
Subject: Day of prayer to stop the oil spill
So now it’s my job?
I appreciate the shout-out in your proclamation to make this Sunday a Day of Prayer in Florida “to stop the flow of oil in the gulf.”
I’m not flattered. After all, I’m apparently only the Day 69 solution, long after the one that involved trying to stop the leak by plugging the hole with shredded tires and golf balls.
And your prayer idea echoes Louisiana, which is having its own Day of Prayer on Sunday to prompt a “miracle” fix to the Deepwater Horizon wellhead leak.
(OK, Mississippi. The tar ball’s in your court.)
But seriously, Jeff. Respect my mysterious ways.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday narrowed the definition of what constitutes honest services fraud, opening the possibility that three Palm Beach County commissioners may be able to reverse their public corruption convictions.
But attorneys who represented the former elected officials said the task won’t be easy and success far from guaranteed. Further, they said, it could be a perilous quest.
“Be careful of what you wish for,” attorney Michael Salnick said of the advice he would give those who view the high court’s decision as a way to open the door of their prison cells.
Honest services fraud, the court found, can only be used in cases where prosecutors can prove that those involved received bribes or kickbacks.
The political committee set up to help Republican Rick Scott avoid state spending caps in his gubernatorial race will air $1.5 million in television ads starting Friday, The Palm Beach Post has learned.
Nearly $1 million will be spent in the Tampa and Orlando markets, with another $165,000 in West Palm Beach.
Scott’s own campaign already has spent $16.1 million on television alone, which means he’s approaching the $29.4 million cap under state law. If Scott exceeds the cap, his opponents, like fellow Republican Bill McCollum, will get a dollar-for-dollar match from Florida taxpayers. Scott told reporters last week that the “Let’s Get to Work” political committee was being set up to help him avoid the spending cap.
McCollum, who has spent $1.9 million on television, has a pair of so-called 527 groups supporting him. Alliance for America has invested $1.9 million in TV spots and the Florida First Initiative has spent another $1.9 million.
Meanwhile, Scott’s out-of-nowhere, self-funded campaign is ruffling some feathers in state GOP circles. First was this ambush at the state party meetings last week.
Now, a pair of McCollum supporters — Washington County Republican Chairwoman Jennifer Bau and Gulf County Republican state committeeman Allen Cox — are circulating a letter complaining that Scott’s campaign staff “verbally and physically assaulted” Bau and another Republican during a recent meeting in her Panhandle county.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott is critical of the federal stimulus package, but it looks like one of his companies has benefited from the money.
Research from one of Scott’s opponents shows that the stock price from XFONE, an international telecommunications company, nearly tripled after it received $63 million from the stimulus package.
POLITICO just reported that the company touted its stimulus money in a press release.
Scott, who owns about 15 percent of the company, invested $10 million in the company in 2007 and 2008. He lost most of the value of that investment when the stock price dove. But after receiving the stimulus money, the value of Scott’s holdings increased by $4 million.
UPDATE: From the Scott campaign: McCollum is an investor in numerous companies that have already received and/or applied and lobbied for stimulus dollars and made quite a bit of money off of the federal government.
“There is an old adage,” Scott spokeswoman Jen Baker said. “He who lives in a glass house, should not throw stones. This is just the latest sloppy attack by a desperate career politician.”
Here’s the second web video from the Kendrick Meek campaign following his debate with Democratic U.S. Senate primary opponent Jeff Greene. The debate was hosted by The Palm Beach Post at the paper’s auditorium on Tuesday.
The latest video hits Greene for avoiding questions about the fortune he made from the meltdown of the housing market. Greene will not say exactly how much he earned or how much he invested. He also literally turns his back on reporters when CBS 4 Miami reporter Jim DeFede asks if any banks Greene invested with accepted federal stimulus money.
However, Meek’s accusation that Greene fled after the debate is a bit misleading. The clip of WPLG reporter Michael Putney saying, “Jeff Greene has left,” comes after Putney spent several minutes asking Greene questions. Viewers will notice that just about everybody else had left the room by then, too.
Meek’s campaign released the first post-debate video on Wednesday.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Sen. Mike Bennett, who served four tours of duty in Vietnam in the U.S. Navy, harshly criticized Obama in part because McChrystal had such a good relationship with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and was making progress in the war although some critics question how successful the campaign has been thus far.
“I think both of them expressed very bad judgment. Two wrongs actually don’t make a right. I don’t think that telling the truth is something you should get fired over. He exercised extremely bad judgment. I think the president firing him was just as bad a judgment. He should have figured out another way to reprimand him,” Bennett, R-Bradenton said.
But Rep. Rich Glorioso, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel who spent 27 years in the military, disagreed.
“If I was the president I would have fired him also. Even if what he’s saying is absolutely correct, there’s a way for him to do that. But putting it out in a magazine like that..You can’t have a general do those kinds of things. It doesn’t lead to good order and discipline,” Glorioso, R-Plant City, said. “If it was one of my squadron commanders, I’d have fired him. You may not like the person but you have to respect the position. There’s a proper place for you to exercise your beliefs within the chain of command and that’s where it belonged.”
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