 |
Jeb Bush says on CNN’s John King, USA that he won’t run for president in 2012.
Asked if he’d support Sarah Palin, Bush said, “if Sarah Palin is the nominee and she’s running against Barack Obama, you betcha.”
Whoever the Republican nominee is in 2012 should have a “big and bold and aspirational” agenda that provides a positive alternative to Obama, Bush says.
The interview runs on CNN tonight at 7 p.m.
It’s part of a new trend inspired by a judge’s decision last week to toss Tampa-area Republican state Senate candidate Jim Norman off the ballot because of disclosure deficiencies. Backers of Democratic congressional candidate Joe Garcia are trying the same legal strategy against Republican David Rivera in Miami.
Dinerstein’s suit follows the lead of a tea party activist’s ethics complaint that accuses Rader of trying to hide his ownership interest in an insurance underwriters group when he filled out financial disclosure forms.
Rader consultant Eric Johnson told The Post‘s Jason Schultz that a Rader supporter has filed an ethics complaint against Benacquisto and the Rader campaign might file a lawsuit over her use of campaign funds to pay rent on an apartment in Lee County.
Alex Sink with supporters in Perry on Friday, Oct. 22
Sink began her day in the Big Bend by appealing to a few dozen supporters at downtown Joyce’s Main Street Cafe.
There, she pleaded with Taylor County voters to give her the same 56 percent win she earned there four years ago in her bid to become the state’s chief financial officer.
“I expect and hope that we’ll get about that much again,” Sink said.
Sink spoke broadly about her plans to jumpstart the state’s economy on the same day Florida’s latest unemployment figures showed a slight increase – 11.9 percent – from the previous month.
Sink said she supports giving tax credits to businesses that hire Floridians and wants to defer business taxes for start-up companies for up to three years.
Accompanied by her son Bert McBride, Sink boasted that she would be the only governor in 12 years whose two children graduated from Florida public schools.
Sink said it is her dream that her children, who both attend out-of-state universities, will one day, “They call me up and say, ”Mom, I’m coming back to Florida because I’ve got a great job lined up.”
Gov. Charlie Crist called Republican Senate rival Marco Rubio a “radical-right, Sarah Palin fellow” on Thursday, prompting the Rubio campaign to reach not too far back in the Crist archives for a 2008 clip of then-Republican Crist saying GOP vice presidential nominee Palin would do “a great job” if required to step in as president. Noting Palin’s executive experience as governor of Alaska, Crist said, “I think she’s ready.”
Rubio is slated to appear with Palin on Saturday at a Republican National Committee fund-raiser in Orlando.
Florida’s jobless rate rose to 11.9 percent in September from 11.8 percent in August. The weak job market creates an advantage for Scott, said Brad Coker of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research.
“A Republican businessperson has more credibility than a Democratic businessperson right now,” Coker said. “That wasn’t the case four years ago. But any hard economic issue is going to favor the Republicans.”
Many voters see President Obama’s stimulus spending as a failure, and the weak job market plays into Scott’s focus on lower taxes and smaller government, Coker said.
“If (stimulus) doesn’t work quickly, people will turn on it,” Coker said.
Yet another high-profile Democrat will be visiting Florida during the next couple days to help struggling candidates in what is considered a battleground election state.
Democratic National Committee chair Tim Kaine will make a couple campaign stops in Broward and Miami-Dade counties with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Kendrick Meek today and Saturday.
The tour begins today with a 2:30 p.m. visit to the Lauderhill Mall to promote early voting. Meek and Kaine will then join Congressional candidate Joe Garcia at a Moving American Forward rally at 6:45 p.m. at the Miami-Dade College Homestead Campus. Kaine is also expected to visit a phone bank on Saturday.
Earlier this week, former President Bill Clinton visited Tampa and Orlando, where he encouraged students to spread the word about Meek through Facebook and YouTube. Clinton was also campaigning for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink on Thursday in Miami.
Palm Beach County Clerk ‘n’ Comptroller Sharon Bock, a Democrat who backs U.S. Rep. Ron Klein’s reelection bid, says she was “shocked” to see her name listed as a host for a fund-raiser for Republican challenger Allen West.
“I have no idea how my name would get on something like this,” Bock said this afternoon.
UPDATE: West campaign manager Josh Grodin said someone mentioned Bock as a potential host when the event was being organized and her name made it onto the invitation by mistake. Grodin said he had called Bock to apologize.
Rod Smith and Alex Sink
Rod Smith, the former state Senator who is Sink’s lieutenant governor pick, says Scott keeps bringing up Obama — including the term “Obama math” in Wednesday night’s debate — because he’s afraid to discuss the issues and his own past, which includes $1.7 billion in Medicare fraud fines paid by Scott’s former hosptial chain.
Liberal metaphor
“He has to try to nationalize this election. He has no plan for Florida and he has no record to run on,” Smith said.
Rick Scott’s campaign staff quietly passed out black index card boxes labeled “Sink” to reporters biding their time until tonight’s gubernatorial debate kicks off at Nova University at 7 p.m.
“Sink has long been one of those behind-the-scenes players whose money and Rolodex help get people elected,” reads a quote from the St. Petersburg Times from 2002 taped to the top of the box.
Inside, Alex Sink’s fake files include a variety of familiar names and their pseudo-associations to Scott’s Democratic opponent.
“Barack Obama” is listed as Sink’s “chief policy advisor.” Bill Clinton? Her “finance and policy advisor.” Sink’s husband Bill McBride is included as “hubby and chair, Trial Lawyers for Sink.”
The candidates will go mano-a-mano live for the first time this evening at the debate hosted by Leadership Florida and the Florida Press Association.
At their only previous debate, a taped Univision event earlier this month, Scott’s campaign staff handed out whoopee cushions before the match began.
Scott and Sink will go at it again for their second live debate on Oct. 25.
GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott released a new ad attacking Democratic opponent Alex Sink for licensing felons as insurance agents although a recent court ruling found Sink, the state’s chief financial officer, is too harsh on the ex-criminals.
Scott’s campaign released the ad the day of the duo’s first live televised debate set to begin at 7 p.m tonight. His campaign staff first handed out information about Sink licensing felons at their first match-up in Miami at a taped Univision debate on Oct. 8.
The ad claims that Sink “had broad discretion to withhold a license…but after 3 days of searching could not name one case in which she used that authority.”
But civil rights experts and Sink’s staff insist that she has limited authority to withhold the licenses and a judge decided that Sink’s waiting periods before felons are eligible to get licenses is too long. Her office has appealed that ruling.
Read The Palm Beach Post story about the licenses here.
ORLANDO — Last-minute efforts to convince Democrats in Florida’s decisive I-4 corridor to remain faithful to their party on Election Day and vote for Kendrick Meek for U.S. Senate were boosted today by yet another visit from former President Bill Clinton.
Clinton, in his second day touring Central Florida with Meek, encouraged Democrats gathered at The Venue at University of Central Florida Arena to not only vote for Meek, but to support Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink and others in the Democratic ticket as the only option to “get America out of the hole.”
“You gave (Republicans) eight years to dig this hole. Give our crowd two more years to dig us out,” said Clinton, as he spoke about Meek’s efforts to create more green jobs and his support of recent student loan reform legislation.
“I am bent out of shape about the nature of how this election is happening. People on the far right, they are talking about a country and describing issues and making claims that I don’t recognize,” Clinton said.
Similar to his speech Tuesday at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg, Clinton urged students to use social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube to tell others about Meek’s record.
Palin
GOP guv nominee Rick Scott won’t be there — his campaign says he’ll be at a long-planned campaign barbecue in Jacksonville that day.
The Florida Democratic Party hopes to benefit from the Palin visit as well. Dem Chairwoman Karen Thurman sent out a blast e-mail today asking for $10 donations to combat the “Sarah Palin/Marco Rubio/Karl Rove extreme philosophy they want to impose on Florida.”
Palin’s merely the latest potential 2012 GOP White House aspirant to campaign for Florida candidates. Scott appeared Tuesday with Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty in Naples. And former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was in the state earlier this month for Scott.
ORLANDO — Former President Bill Clinton will stump for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Kendrick Meek this afternoon at the University of Central Florida, just a day after Clinton stood by the Miami congressman in nearby St. Petersburg to encourage voters to support Meek and vote early.
Meek is banking on Clinton’s support during his two-day visit through the I-4 corridor, an important geographical area in statewide elections, considering he is trailing behind former Republican House Speaker Marco Rubio and no-party Gov. Charlie Crist in the election. (more…)
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink’s campaign released a Clinton-esque video of her GOP opponent Rick Scott’s deposition in a 1995 lawsuit, one of several against his former hospital chain Columbia/HCA.
In the two-minute clip of the two-hour video of the deposition, Scott repeatedly answers the interrogator’s questions with questions, including this response when asked about a deal he allegedly struck with an El Paso doctor.
“I don’t know what the def — your definition or anybody’s definition of an ‘agreement’ is, or an ‘offer’ is, or ‘promise’ is,” Scott answered.
The video first surfaced in a report by The St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald.
Scott’s campaign folks contend the health care executive was trying to stave off money-grubbing lawyers.
DAVIE — Although Charlie Crist is a former Republican, the most striking aspect of his independent Senate candidacy so far has been his appeal to Democrats. He’s won the endorsement of “fire-breathing liberal” Robert Wexler and Palm Beach County Democratic “Godfather” Burt Aaronson and other Dems while the actual Democrat in the race, Kendrick Meek, has fended off questions about whether he should drop out to give Crist a better shot at Republican frontrunner Marco Rubio.
Crist famously embraced President Obama at a February 2009 stimulus rally in Fort Myers and strolled Pensacola Beach with the president in June to show concern about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
So it was noteworthy in Tuesday night’s debate when Crist said Obama hadn’t delivered on his promise to work with Republicans and then heightened his criticism of the new health care law by calling it “Obamacare” — a term favored by its critics on the right.
“I’m just shocked to hear, now, the new lingo from the governor talking about Obamacare,” said an incredulous Meek. “I wonder if he said that to the president when he was walking with him on the beach.”
Former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre, who got 4.9 percent in the Aug. 24 Democratic primary for Senate, announced today he’s supporting Republican Rick Scott in the governor’s race.
Ferre praised Scott’s economic stance and also made it clear he’s still smarting at the way he was treated by his own party.
Said Ferre: “Despite the fact that I am a Democrat, I am deeply disturbed by the exclusionary direction of the Florida Democratic Party. Even though I was the first Hispanic Democrat elected to the Florida state legislature and the first Hispanic Democrat elected Mayor of a major US City, I was denied the opportunity to address the Florida State Democratic Convention and denied the opportunity to participate in the Democratic US Senate Debates. This ‘politics of exclusion’ is an insult to every Hispanic voter in our state. Too many 2010 Democratic office seekers stood by silently as these injustices were perpetrated.”
Read Ferre’s complete statement after the jump…
Former Democratic state Rep. and former Pompano Beach mayor John Rayson is backing Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein’s reelection bid. But Rayson, an attorney who used to represent a group of South Florida motorcycle clubs, says it’s “unfair…dirty politics” for Democrats to criticize Republican challenger Allen West for his brushes with the Outlaws biker club.
West said he’s not associated with the Outlaws, but was once shielded by some of them when he had to do a cellphone interview in a crowded club. He also told a supporter in an e-mail to make “no more references to ‘criminal’ “ in describing the Outlaws.
The national Outlaws organization was called a “highly organized criminal enterprise” in a June federal indictment of 27 Outlaws leaders. The Florida Outlaws website includes a page honoring “Brothers in Prison.”
After absorbing eight weeks of negative ads from Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, Republican challenger Allen West launches this testimonial spot in which a soldier who was under West’s command in Iraq says West gave him his body armor and saved his life.
“Without Colonel West, my children would be fatherless today,” says Sgt. Robert Delgado. “Allen put his men first then, and will put our country first now.”
ST. PETERSBURG — Former President Bill Clinton stood by Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Kendrick Meek Tuesday at a rally at the University of South Florida, and told voters Meek is the clear choice if they want issues like Social Security, Medicare and student loan reforms to be a priority in Washington D.C.
Clinton, who flew into the Tampa Bay area from the nation’s west coast early Tuesday to campaign with Meek, also spoke about Meek’s commitment to Florida’s middle class and his positions on key issues such as opposing offshore drilling and supporting student loan reforms.
“This man has been a good member of Congress. He served Florida well and has served America well,” Clinton told hundreds of Meek supporters who waited since before dawn outside USF’s Campus Activities Center to attend the rally.
“He’s the only person who you can vote for who actually has done things already to try to prepare himself for the enormous responsibility we have not talked about, which is to keep this country safe,” Clinton added.
Clinton’s visit, just two weeks away from Election Day, may help Meek gain a little momentum among voters, especially since recent polls place him in third place against former Republican House Speaker Marco Rubio and no-party Gov. Charlie Crist.
Meek has been denying rumors that he could consider dropping out of the race to support Crist, even after some key statewide elected officials have shifted their support toward the governor because they feel Meek cannot beat Rubio.
House Speaker-designate Dean Cannon essentially gave Gov. Charlie Crist a cease and desist order telling the governor to quit enabling the federal government regarding health care reforms.
Cannon, R-Orlando, accused Crist of “commandeering of state insurance regulatory resources” by allowing executive agencies to begin implementing the federal health care reforms even as the state is suing White House agencies over them.
Read Cannon’s letter to Crist here.
Cannon’s demands could set up a possible showdown between the executive and legislative branches of government over the health care reforms, which Crist, the independent candidate in the U.S. Senate race, says he supports in part.
Cannon gave Crist until Nov. 15 to tell him how much the state is spending on workers and other resources to comply with the reforms and told him that Crist will need the legislature’s approval before taking any further action.
Cannon complains in the letter to Crist that the Office of Insurance Regulation is jumpstarting new insurance regulations by developing data systems. But that office is overseen by not just Crist. He and the Florida Cabinet – including Attorney General Bill McCollum, who filed the lawsuit over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care act – make up the Financial Services Commission that’s in charge of OIR.
Where's the money? Use The Post's interactive database of who wants and who's getting federal dollars.
Use these interactive graphics to find and contact Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast legislators.
House | Senate | Congress
See the faces and find the names of Florida's fallen heroes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
War dead database | Photos
