The Florida Supreme Court today threw out three proposed constitutional amendments placed on the November ballot by lawmakers.
The court tossed an amendment that would have watered down two other amendments put on the ballot by citizens’ petition dealing with redistricting, another designed to give tax breaks to first-time home-buyers and a third passed by lawmakers opposed to federal health care reforms.
The Supreme Court found that all three legislative proposals were misleading and struck them from the ballot.
The court also today refused to remove two proposed amendments put on the ballot by citizens’ initiative that would revamp the way congressional and legislative districts are drawn.
All constitutional amendments require 60 percent approval by voters to pass.
Gallup finds the GOP taking an “unprecedented” 10-point advantage over Democrats in the generic congressional ballot question — 51 percent to 41 percent.
And the latest monthly Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds support for the new health care law — the signature accomplishment of the Democrat-controlled 111th Congress — dropping seven points in August to 43 percent approval, with 45 percent disapproving. Among independent voters, Kaiser finds the health care law is viewed favorably by 41 percent, unfavorably by 48 percent.
Generic ballots and national surveys are one thing, but congressional races are of course decided by voters in 435 separate districts.
In Florida, the national trends put a greater spotlight on four Democratic U.S. House incumbents who face stiff Republican challenges — U.S. Reps. Ron Klein of Boca Raton, Alan Grayson of Orlando, Suzanne Kosmas of New Smyrna Beach and Allen Boyd of Monticello.
The abstract “constitutional principles” and “core values” of Republican congressional challenger Allen West’s first ad have given way to an economic message in his second spot, released today.
Many Republicans believe continued economic anxieties and the absence of a promised “recovery summer” will be the key to GOP hopes of picking up congressional seats in 2010 from incumbents who have backed the Democratic economic plan like U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton. While West has been using his blog to rip Klein, the incumbent isn’t mentioned in this ad.
Scott said he switched soda brands to save his company $23 million in food service costs.
His employees were not happy with the self-made multi-millionaire’s decision, he said. Scott said he received a stack of complaints more than three feet high from disgruntled workers who preferred Coke over Pepsi.
Meek said Sachs, a Delray Beach lawyer, signed an endorsement pledge for him in December and called the switcheroo “strange” especially because Palm Beach County Democrats virtually anointed her to fill U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch’s seat when he left the state senate to go to Washington.
“She spoke very passionately two weeks ago of her support of my candidacy, felt that I should be the next U.S. Senator of Florida,” Meek said at a roundtable with reporters this morning.
“Message to all liberals, name calling and petulant simpleton gimmicks dare not distract me from my mission; destroying the liberal progressive socialist machine and its legislative agenda……Klein is just a stepping stone to that end,” West writes.
West refers to Klein as “inept” and “little Lord Ron” and “this cretin” and “the pathetic liberal Congressman against whom I run.” He also calls Klein “little Ronnie” and a “Mama’s boy” for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
AP photo of crowd for Saturday's Restoring Honor rally in Washington.
Palm Beach County activist and charter school founder Joseph Bernadel says Glenn Beck had the right to hold Saturday’s massive Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial. He just objects to the “political theater” of holding it on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech at the same spot.
In that respect, Bernadel sounds a little like critics of the proposed Ground Zero mosque in New York. Foes of the project generally say they don’t question Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s right to build an Islamic center on private property, but they question the sensitivity of putting it near the site where Islamists killed 2,700 people at the World Trade Center.
Not everyone sees the parallel. Rev. Al Sharpton has defended the mosque, but protested Beck’s rally Saturday.
To read about some local reactions to the Beck event, click here.
Democrats have a registration advantage of more than 612,000 in Florida. But Republican turnout was nearly 1.3 million for Tuesday’s governor’s primary and less than 920,000 for the Democratic Senate primary even though both were high-profile statewide races.
Republicans say the turnout disparity is the latest evidence of an “enthusiasm gap” that will boost the GOP in November. Florida Democratic Party spokesman Eric Jotkoff says that’s “ridiculous.”
One nugget: Palm Beach billionaire Jeff Greene lost his precinct 2-to-1 to Kendrick Meek in the Democratic Senate primary. That’s not a ratio of 2-to-1. It was literally 2 votes for Meek and one for Greene, presumably his own. Greene’s wife isn’t registered in Palm Beach County.
Only 26 Democrats are registered in Greene’s precinct, compared to 84 Republicans. Marco Rubio carried the precinct 26-0 in the GOP Senate primary.
Another tidbit: Greene’s mother’s Century Village precinct was more competitive. Meek won it 115 votes to 107.
Meek carried Palm Beach County with 64.4 percent. He got 57.6 percent statewide.
Republican-turned-independent Senate candidate Charlie Crist is coming to Palm Beach County’s Democratic heartland to campaign on Sunday. Crist is scheduled to appear at the South County Civic Center west of Delray Beach at 9:30 a.m.
Consultant Eric Johnson, a Democratic operative hired by Crist to help woo South Florida Dems, said Crist will be introduced by a “high-profile” Democrat, but wouldn’t name names. It won’t be Broward County Democratic state Sen. Jeremy Ring, a Johnson client who attended a Crist event in Coconut Creek this month but today announced he’s endorsing Democrat Kendrick Meek in the Senate race.
Crist faces Meek and Republican Marco Rubio in the Nov. 2 general election. Since bolting the GOP in April, Crist has aggressively courted Democratic voters in South Florida. Both Meek and Rubio have attempted to lump Crist with the opposing party in the three-way race.
Friday, August 27th, 2010 by Palm Beach Post Staff
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Sarah Palin called President Barack Obama the most pro-abortion president ever Thursday and mocked Florida’s governor for claiming to be pro-life after vetoing a bill that would have required women to get ultrasounds before having the procedure.
In a speech that only ventured into politics on abortion issues, Palin criticized Obama’s health care overhaul as a plan that will lead to more abortions.
“The biggest advance of the abortion industry in America is the passage of Obamacare,” Palin said. “Elective abortions have nothing to do with health care. It’s about ending lives, not saving lives.”
Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein’s campaign is slamming Republican challenger Allen West again over an $11,081 tax lien that was placed on West in 2005 and satisfied four months later.
When Klein highlighted the lien in a TV ad ripping West on Tuesday night, West campaign manager Josh Grodin said Klein “flat out lied.” Grodin said he would produce documents Wednesday to prove the lien had been a mistake. But Grodin said Thursday that rounding up the documents was proving more difficult than he had thought.
“I spoke a little too soon as far as having all the documents,” Grodin said. “I jumped the gun. I’m still confident that was a mistake by the IRS.”
West himself said Thursday he doesn’t remember being hit with the lien in November 2005 or released from it in March 2006. West was working as a military adviser in Afghanistan at the time, his campaign said.
Republican Marco Rubio holds a 40-to-30 percent lead over indie Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida’s Senate race in a new Rasmussen poll, leading the survey firm to move Florida from “toss-up” to “leans Republican” in its Senate rankings.
Democrat Kendrick Meek gets 21 percent in the new Rasmussen poll of 750 likely voters, which was taken Wednesday and has a 4 percent margin of error.
Crist gets a 52 percent approval rating for his handling of gubernatorial duties in the poll. President Obama’s approval rating is 46 percent, with 55 percent disapproving, says Rasmussen.
Democrat Kendrick Meek this afternoon agreed to five of the debates and says he’ll do the other two if the dates can be changed.
Republican-turned-independent Gov. Charlie Crist has so far agreed to one of the dates — Oct. 24 in Tampa — and isn’t ruling out others, spokesman Danny Kanner said.
Check out the debate dates and which candidates have accepted them after the jump….
Republican Senate nominee Marco Rubio’s campaign has released its first general election ad, titled “Dream.” Looks like Rubio is content for now to let Democrat Kendrick Meek and indy Charlie Crist snipe at each other while he touts the American dream, hard work and opportunity.
Charlie Crist’s efforts to sell himself as a conservative fell flat with Republican Senate primary voters earlier this year. Now Democrat Kendrick Meek is trying to sell Crist as a “lifelong conservative” to general election voters in the unusual three-way Senate race between Meek, Republican Marco Rubio and Republican-turned-independent Gov. Crist.
Casting oneself as the lone alternative to a pair of similar rivals is a fairly straightforward strategy that Rubio is using as well. Rubio says both Crist and Meek are supporters of President Obama’s agenda in Washington and he’s the only alternative.
Meek attached the conservative label to Crist in his acceptance speech Tuesday night. Meek campaign manager Abe Dyk attaches the same “lifelong conservative” label to Crist in a strategy memo released today.
The gubernatorial nominees from the two main parties chatted last night after Democrat Alex Sink phoned Republican Rick Scott to offer her congratulations. Sink’s campaign described it as a “short conversation” in which she expressed hope they could focus on the issues.
Meanwhile, Scott still hasn’t heard from Bill McCollum, his primary rival who refused to say whether he would endorse Scott during their bruising campaign.
McCollum conceded the primary to Scott but has not endorsed the multi-millionaire who spent more than $50 million of his own money to defeat party establishment favorite McCollum.
McCollum’s campaign spokesman said he would endorse every other GOP candidate but failed to include Scott’s name in the list when asked.
“The attorney general is looking forward to being on the campaign trail for campaigns for our Republican slate, including Marco Rubio, Jeff Atwater, Adam Putnam and our new attorney general nominee and Dean Cannon and Mike Haridopolos and our entire legislative slate,” McCollum campaign spokeswoman Kristy Campbell said today.
When asked if McCollum would endorse Scott, Campbell said: “They have not yet spoken.”
When asked again, Campbell repeated her earlier remarks: “I think (Attorney) General McCollum will make comments this week, where he believes the Republican Party needs to focus on in November. I think you could take from that that he’ll make comments today or Thursday he will focus on electing Republican candidates including Marco Rubio and Mike Haridopolos and Jeff Atwater and the entire Republican legislative slate.”
McCollum became the state’s top GOP elected official when Gov. Charlie Crist abandoned the Republican Party to run as an independent in the U.S. Senate race against former House Speaker Marco Rubio.
Republican Party of Florida officials scrapped a unity party planned in Tampa today after the brutal primary season between Scott and McCollum.
The morning after winning his Republican primary — and drawing an attack ad from incumbent U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton — Allen West releases his first 30-second TV spot, an upbeat message featuring kids saying the Pledge of Allegiance.
West campaign manager Josh Grodin says he’s still rounding up documents that will show a 2005 IRS lien against West in Indiana, the centerpiece of Klein’s ad, was a mistake that the IRS corrected.
Bill McCollum issued a statement shortly after midnight conceding the Republican governor primary to Rick Scott. He doesn’t mention Scott by name but notes “the entrance of a multi-millionaire with a questionable past who shattered campaign spending records and spent more in four months than has ever been spent in a primary race here in Florida.”
In the two weeks leading up to Tuesday’s Florida primaries, most polls showed GOP establishment favorite Bill McCollum rebounding from outsider Rick Scott’s summer surge and regaining a lead in the Republican governor’s primary.
The most notable exception: Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, which on Monday said its weekend polling showed Scott up by 7 points. Scott appears to have won by just under 3 points.
And here’s its rundown of Democratic Senate primary polls. Everyone had this race trending toward Kendrick Meek, who ended up beating Palm Beach billionaire Jeff Greene by 26.5 points. PPP’s day-before poll had Meek up by 24 points.
