From the Charlie Crist for Senate campaign:

The Charlie Crist for Senate Campaign Announces $8.2 Million Cash on Hand – Fundraising up more than 60% over last quarter

The Crist for Senate Campaign announced today that the campaign has $8.2 million in the bank for the upcoming election. In addition, fundraising for the second quarter of 2010 has increased more than 60% over the last period – to $1.8 million for the last 3 months.

“We are thrilled with the outpouring of support for Charlie Crist’s Senate campaign. Democrats, Republicans and Independents from across Florida and across the country are saying that they want a new type of leadership in Washington, and they want Charlie Crist,” said Margaret Wood, campaign manager.

We are also pleased to announce that since launching our independent campaign, we have seen a 650% increase in online contributors.

State Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, says she hasn’t decided whether she’ll remain in office through 2012, when her current Senate term expires.

Dockery had planned to give up her Senate seat this year to run for governor, but she dropped out of the governor’s race in June.

She’s been mentioned as a potential candidate for lieutenant governor this year.

Asked today about a potential lieutenant governor candidacy, Dockery said, “My decision-making process right now is whether I even want to finish my last two years in the Senate.”

Dockery said she hasn’t set a timetable for deciding on whether to remain in the Senate. Dockery said the possibility she’ll leave office early gives her added incentive to push for an Arizona-style immigration law during one of this year’s special legislative sessions rather than waiting for the regular session next year.

That’s the response from House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, after Senate President Jeff Atwater’s requested a second special session on the oil spill. Gov. Charlie Crist has called lawmakers back to Tallahassee next week for a special session to approve a constitutional amendment for the November ballot that would constitutionally ban drilling. That would need to be done before Aug. 4.

Atwater didn’t bother to mention that constitutional issue. But Cretul has taken a somewhat cryptic approach, but seems to be saying that he wants to slough off Crist and ignore the drilling amendment.

Read the letters for yourself and decide:

(more…)

Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, just sent a letter to House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, asking him to agree to a special session after the Aug. 24 primary that would allow lawmakers to address issues related directly to the oil spill.

Lawmakers are scheduled to return on Tuesday to consider putting a constitutional ban on drilling in state waters on the November ballot. Gov. Charlie Crist is forcing lawmakers to deal with that question.

But there are competing opinions on that amendment. Atwater, a candidate for state CFO and one of the few Republicans who has consistently opposed oil drilling, is a crucial voice in whether the constitutional amendment passes or fails next week. He does not mention the amendment in his letter.

(more…)

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott is planning a statewide, week-long bus tour next week to roll out his economic plan, The Palm Beach Post has learned.

The tour is tentatively scheduled to start Wednesday and run through Monday. Exact stops are still being confirmed, but the plan is to start in South Florida and spend the next week traveling north.

The timing is interesting.

For one, Scott will have a tough time competing for the media spotlight as independent Gov. Charlie Crist’s four-day special session starts Tuesday.

But on the other hand, Scott will spend the week talking about the most important issue to Florida voters while the Tallahassee political establishment that Scott is essentially running against — and which is also stocked with Republicans supporting Scott’s primary rival, Bill McCollum — spends the week (and about $200,000 of taxpayer money) considering a constitutional amendment to ban oil drilling, which is already prohibited in state statutes.

Tea Party activists from across South Florida urged regional water managers Wednesday to kill the planned $500 million purchase of land owned by U.S. Sugar.

About 100 activists rallied outside the South Florida Water Management District’s headquarters on Gun Club Road to oppose the purchase, which Gov. Charlie Crist unveiled in 2009 as part of a plan to increase the flow of surface water through Florida’s Everglades. The deal’s opponents describe it as a corporate handout rather than a boon to Everglades restoration.

The Florida Supreme Court is weighing opponents’ arguments that the state’s plans to finance the purchase because the land deal would serve no public purpose and would delay restoration.

Story here.

Somebody’s in for a surprise on Aug. 24.

Republican state Reps. Carl Domino of Jupiter and Ellyn Bogdanoff of Fort Lauderdale — primary rivals in the race for Palm Beach-Broward Senate District 25 — are both leading in their respective internal polls, their campaigns say.

Domino has a 41.7-to-25.3 percent lead in a poll conducted July 8 by Diversified Research, according to a memo today by consultant David Wolfson.

Bogdanoff has a 31.7-to-21 percent lead in a late-June poll conducted by McLaughlin & Associates, campaign manager Todd Richardson says.

The GOP primary winner faces Democrat Kelly Skidmore and no-party candidate Miranda Rosenberg in November.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, who is also suing the federal government over its health care changes, today announced that he was joining Michigan, seven other states and the territory of the Mariana Islands in an amicus brief supporting the Arizona immigration law.

Immigration has become one of the top issues in McCollum’s Republican gubernatorial primary with Rick Scott.

“I support the current law in Arizona, and I support efforts to see a similar law brought to our state,” McCollum said in a statement. “Seeing no action or leadership from the federal authorities, Arizona has every right to move to protect its citizens, and for this they are being sued by the President.”

BOCA RATON — Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein’s campaign is blasting Republican challenger Allen West for saying last year that the U.S. Department of Education should be abolished.

West’s campaign manager says the fact that two-term incumbent Klein is going on the offensive shows he’s “desperate” and doesn’t want to run on his record.

Klein’s campaign today assembled three retired teachers — two of whom are active in Palm Beach County Democratic politics, the third a former Broward County teachers union leader — and a high school student to speak out against West’s “radical policies.”

In a speech last November that’s posted on YouTube (look around the 8:35 mark), West said there are “a couple of agencies up there” in Washington “that have to go.”

(more…)

Judge Robert Hinkle turned down Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott’s request to block his primary opponent, Bill McCollum, from receiving some matching dollars for his campaign from taxpayers, Gary Fineout reports.

Some background on the issue here and here.

While attorneys for the top two Republican gubernatorial candidates debate the merits of campaign spending caps, the candidates themselves are still spending and collecting money at a feverish pace.

Rick Scott will air $2.2 million in television ads starting today and for the next week, a source told The Palm Beach Post. That total brings the amount of television spending for Scott’s campaign and his 527 political advocacy group, Let’s Get to Work, to an astonishing $23.2 million over the past three months.

Meanwhile, McCollum’s campaign was down to just $800,000 on Saturday. But McCollum’s 527 group, the Florida First Initiative reported two big new checks: $100,000 from Progress Energy and $50,000 from Florida Phosphate, a political advocacy group run by Mosaic Fertilizer lobbyist Mark Kaplan.

(On potentially related a side note, incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, has sent $15,000 to the Committee for Responsible Representation, a political committee controlled by Stafford Jones. Jones, who is running the Florida First group, did not return a call for comment.)

A hearing this morning on Republican Rick Scott’s plea for Judge Robert Hinkle to toss out part of a Florida taxpayer-funded campaign finance system was delayed until 1 p.m. after an ambulance was called for one of the state’s attorneys.

Daniel Norby, of Ausley & McMullen, began stumbling over his speech, stuttering and slurring his words when he turned white and started sweating. The judge called a 10 minute recess and court officials called 9-1-1.

But emergency officials left the federal courthouse after about 15 minutes without Norby, who walked out of the building a few minutes later.

The hearing was called to debate the constitutionality of a state law aimed at leveling the playing field for statewide races and reducing the corrupting appearance of money in campaigns.

Scott is on the verge of spending more than $24.9 million on his gubernatorial campaign, an amount that will trigger a dollar-for-dollar match from the state treasury for his GOP primary opponent, Bill McCollum. McCollum is has agreed to the $24.9 million limit in exchange for a state match of contributions up to $250 from Floridians.

(more…)

Rep. Joe Abruzzo tell us he’s signing up to raise money for the 527 political advocacy group known as Florida Mainstream Democrats and knows at least one Democrat who his money won’t be helping: state Rep. Rick Kriseman.

“Rick Kriseman is about as mainstream as Dennis Rodman,” Abruzzo said.

The group hasn’t spent anything this year beyond consulting and web site management, but clearly it’s created quite a stir.

(more…)

Former Florida Senate President Ken Pruitt, who resigned his legislative seat in 2009 for a combination of family and economic concerns, announced today he will run in the election to replace the late St. Lucie County Property Appraiser Jeff Furst.

Furst, 68, died of a stroke last week.

Furst’s term as appraiser ran through January 2013. The election to fill the last two years of his term will coincide with this year’s general election. A special period for candidates to qualify for the ballot for the appraiser’s race has been set for Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“Jeff Furst left a legacy of dedicated public service; St. Lucie County and the state of Florida have been enriched by his commitment to excellence,” Pruitt said in a prepared statement.

Pruitt is now a governmental affairs consultant in the Port St. Lucie office of the Boca Raton-based Weiss Handler Angelos & Cornwell law firm. He also has a real estate license.

“My experience in real estate combined with the knowledge I gained from my service in Tallahassee make me uniquely qualified to hold this position,” Pruitt said. “I won’t pretend to ever fill the huge shoes left behind by Jeff Furst; however, I do commit to maintaining the high level of service and expertise he instilled in his professional staff at the Property Appraiser’s office.”

Pruitt, 53, is a Republican who held a state House seat from 1990 to 2000, when he was elected to a Treasure Coast and Palm Beach County Senate seat. He was Senate president from 2006 to 2008.

After his 2009 resignation, Republican Joe Negron won a special election to fill the remainder of Pruitt’s Senate term. Negron was reelected to a new four-year term this year when no one filed to challenge him.

From Reuters:

Florida Governor Charlie Crist holds a narrow edge over Republican Marco Rubio in a three-way Senate race dominated by economic worries, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday. … Crist holds a similar 34 to 29 percent edge over Rubio in a three-way race against Democrat Jeff Greene, who is locked in a tough party primary fight with Meek. The Florida primary will be held August 24.

In the race to succeed Crist as governor, Republican Rick Scott leads Democrat Alex Sink by 34 percent to 31 percent. But Sink leads slightly, 31 percent to 30 percent, when matched against Republican Bill McCollum. McCollum and Scott are waging a bitter Republican primary race.

The Ipsos poll of 600 registered voters was taken July 9-11 for Reuters and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish and the data were weighted to Florida’s registered voter population according to U.S. Census figures.

Democratic Senate hopeful Jeff Greene says he still doesn’t remember whether he voted for Republican icon Ronald Reagan in 1980, but reminded a Democratic retiree crowd today that the U.S. was “in a mess” at the time and “Ronald Reagan didn’t get elected just by Republicans.”

Palm Beach billionaire Greene campaigned at Century Village of Boca Raton, where Democratic club president Marvin Manning — speaking personally and not in his official role — told the crowd of about 150 that Greene is the “strongest candidate to represent our party in November.”

Greene’s main primary rival, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek of Miami, released an Internet video today calling himself the only “real Democrat” in the race. Meek has repeatedly noted that Greene ran for Congress in California as a Republican in 1982 and, after years of being registered with no party affiliation, didn’t register as a Democrat until 2008.

(more…)

Here are the new productions from the top Democrats running for U.S. Senate in Florida. Palm Beach businessman Jeff Greene showcases his family while state Rep. Kendrick Meek says he’s the real Democrat in the race.

On a related side note, The Hill is reporting that the Democratic National Committee has shifted $333,333 to the Florida Democratic Party as party of the national party’s $50 million get-out-the-vote campaign for the fall.

Former Florida Gov. and Sen. Bob Graham, a co-chair of the presidential commission that began hearings on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill today in New Orleans, has a long record of opposing drilling off the coast of Florida.

But in 2004, Graham and Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry took pains to distinguish between politically unpopular drilling off Florida and presumably safer drilling farther away in “the deep water” in the Gulf of Mexico.

When the two appeared together in Tampa in April 2004, Kerry was asked about drilling.

The Massachusetts Senator gave a long answer typical of what his supporters celebrated as “nuance” and his critics blasted as all-things-to-all-people waffling.

(more…)

We wrote this morning that the former head of the now defunct Florida Mainstream Democrats, Rick Kriseman, is upset that Dave Aronberg is using a 527 committee with the same name to help raise money for his attorney general primary campaign.

Well, an anonymous reader commented that Kriseman might not be as neutral as he let on. And that reader was correct: Kriseman recorded a robocall over the weekend on behalf of Aronberg’s primary rival, Dan Gelber. (For the record, we interviewed Kriseman before he recorded the call.)

The call criticized Aronberg for the mailer pictured above. Listen to the call here.

The mailer is a bruising piece of campaign literature that takes aim at Gelber for working at Akerman Senterfitt, the state’s largest law firm that recently was retained by BP.

It follows a press release that Aronberg, an attorney at Greenspoon Marder, sent out calling for Gelber to quit the firm, although Gelber had told The Palm Beach Post editorial board several days earlier that he was resigning from the firm.

The mail piece implies that Gelber was “”defending BP” and that he earned $225,000 per year from “BP’s law firm.”

Here’s the inside and back of the mailer.

Predictably, Kriseman is not only Gelber supporter unhappy about the mailer.

(more…)

That’s more than the previous record for a Florida U.S. Senate candidate in a single quarter, which was set by then-Republican Gov. Charlie Crist when he raised $4.3 million in the opening days of his campaign.

Rubio has raised more than $11 million for his campaign.