For all those muscle heads or celebrity-watchers: Gov. Charlie Crist today picked up an endorsement from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his independent bid for the U.S. Senate.
The endorsement came on the gubernator’s Twitter account. In his Tweet, Schwarzenegger wrote, “I endorse Gov. Charlie Crist for Senate. Great leader, works with both parties, and our country needs someone like him in DC right now.”
The announcement had staffers for GOP candidate Marco Rubio working overtime to come up with a clever jab in response. Perhaps winning an award for putting the most movie titles in a paragraph, they wrote: “When it comes to inflicting Collateral Damage on the economy, Charlie Crist and Arnold Schwarzenegger are definitely Twins. Charlie’s flip-flops have made him a master at telling True Lies. We all know the only thing Charlie cares about is the next election. But this year, Florida will take an Eraser to The Running Man.”
Meanwhile, Crist, who likes a morning swim, pointed out how much he and and his muscle-bound west coast counterpart have in common: “We have worked together on such critical issues as reducing climate change and promoting alternative energy. In the United State Senate, I will work toward bipartisan solutions to our common challenges so we can create jobs and put Florida back to work.”
Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek canceled tomorrow’s meeting with Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aaronson, saying it would be a waste of time because he believed the influential Democratic had already decided to endorse no-party candidate Gov. Charlie Crist in the U.S. Senate race.
The cancellation capped a day that started with news that a Palm Beach County political action committee had voted to ask Aaronson to urge Meek to get out of the race and continued with a largely incoherent telephone press conference that featured Democratic leaders insisting Meek wouldn’t pull out.
“I certainly understand his feelings,” Aaronson said of Meek’s decision not to meet with him alone or with a group he planned to put together.
A statement from Meek’s campaign showed the congressman was steamed by the entire chain of events.
“Unfortunately, it’s clear that this process is a charade and I don’t make it a habit to attend Charlie Crist campaign events,” his campaign said of the aborted Aaronson confab. “I’m going to spend my time talking to Democrats and undecided voters and not with those willing to stand with conservative Republicans.”
“I don’t need to attend an event with a small group of Crist supports trying to hijack the Democratic process,” the statement continued. “They have never been with my campaign.”
Nancy Argenziano resigned from the Florida Public Service Commission to endorse Alex Sink for governor, she told reporters this afternoon.
The life-long Republican and former lawmaker said today would be her final day on the utility regulatory panel, where she was appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist nearly four years ago.
A fired-up Argenziano, an outspoken critic of GOP leaders of the Florida Legislature, said she was quitting so she could speak out in favor of Sink, a Democrat.
“I cannot imagine a more noxious mix of government than that which the legislative leaders and Rick Scott concoction would produce,” Argenziano said. “I’m terrified if Rick Scott became governor…With Alex Sink, I do believe she has integrity.
Argenziano was passed over for reappointment by a panel of lawmakers that give a list of candidates to the governor for appointment. Her term would have ended in three months.
While rumors keep circling that Democrat Kendrick Meek could drop out of the U.S. Senate race against Republican Marco Rubio and no-party Gov. Charlie Crist, a group of fellow party leaders said Tuesday Meek is still very much part of the race and urged Democrats to vote for him in November.
During a telephone conference with reporters, Florida Democratic Chair Karen Thurman said Meek “has a clear path to victory” and that Democrats are backing him up. She also said that “you never know till almost the very end where people are going to land.”
“Kendrick Meek should not be dropping out of anything and we want to put to rest any rumors that he could or that Democrats aren’t supporting him because that is just not true,” Thurman said. (more…)
Attorney General Bill McCollum said he is likely to vote for GOP governor candidate Rick Scott but still won’t endorse him.
Scott, who had never run for office before, defeated McCollum after a brutal primary in which Scott spent $50 million of his own money, much of it on negative campaign ads targeting McCollum, who spent decades in Congress and as a lobbyist, as a career politician.
McCollum said he has “big differences” with Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the Democrat gubernatorial candidate, primarily about her opposition to his lawsuit against the federal government over health care reforms.
“I cannot vote for her for governor,” McCollum told reporters after a Cabinet meeting this morning.
Although McCollum has refused to endorse Scott, McCollum said he will “probably” vote in the governor’s race.
“And if I do I’m leaning towards voting for Scott. But I haven’t made that decision formally yet. Haven’t decided. I’m weighing it right now,” he said.
He said he hasn’t decided either whether he will formally endorse his former opponent but that he’s offered to meet with Scott “more than once and no meetings occurred to this point.”
Worried that Kendrick Meek can’t beat GOP candidate Marco Rubio, a group of Democratic leaders is asking the congressman to pull out of the U.S. Senate race and throw his support to Gov. Charlie Crist who says he is the only one who can beat Rubio.
Members of the People’s Choice of Palm Beach County PAC voted Monday to send County Commissioner Burt Aaronson a letter, asking him to relay their concerns to Meek, said Jay Weitz, president of the PAC that he says represents 80 to 85 percent of the Democratic clubs in the county.
Aaronson, who has been flirting with the idea of endorsing independent candidate Crist, is to meet with Meek on Wednesday to decide which of the two candidates will get his support.
In the letter, members of the PAC agreed to ask Aaronson to urge Meek to get out of the race “for the good of the Democratic Party,” Weitz said.
Republican congressional challenger Allen West’s new ad says Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein should “admit his ideas just don’t work” and highlights his votes for the $787 billion stimulus bill and the health care overhaul and the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program.
The ad’s claim that the health care bill includes “$500 billion in Medicare cuts” is disputed by Democrats, who say savings and efficiencies won’t result in seniors seeing a reduction in guaranteed benefits (although private Medicare Advantage programs will be reduced). The Post On Politics blog looked into the Medicare numbers here, noting Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf’s assessment when the bill passed that it’s “unclear” whether the savings can be achieved.
Gov. Charlie Crist believes he’s the only candidate who can “stop the Tea Party mess” and defeat Marco Rubio in the three-way U.S. Senate race and that a vote for the Democrat – U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek – equates to a vote for Rubio.
“It sure looks like it. Yeah. I mean, you know, regrettably, that would be the case. I think Democrats are reaching that conclusion all across Florida. They tell me that,” the Republican-turned-independent told reporters when asked if a vote for Meek would be the same as a vote for Tea Party favorite Rubio.
Crist denied that his campaign has been pressuring Meek, lagging in the polls behind frontrunner Rubio and Crist, to drop out of the race.
“Number one, there’s no pressure. People should do what they feel is right. But I’m clear about this. I’m the only candidate who can win in November and stop the Tea Party and the mess that Mr. Rubio would bring to Washington,” Crist said.
Crist said it’s up to Meek whether to drop out. (more…)
Sink has been on an upward trend, and voters believe she is more ethical than Scott by a 44-to-28 percent margin. Overall, voters view Sink positively by a 42-to-37 percent margin. Scott is viewed favorably by 39 percent and unfavorably by 46 percent.
Quinnipiac surveyed 1,055 Florida likely voters Oct. 6-10; the poll has a margin of error of 3 percent.
President Obama praised U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, at an event that raised $1 million for Klein and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee at the Coral Gables home of Alonzo Mourning.
President Obama’s fund-raising visit to Coral Gables today will raise $1 million for U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, organizers said.
The guest list at former Heat star Alonzo Mourning’s house includes current Heat players Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade and Juwon Howard and retired NBA greats Patrick Ewing and Earvin “Magic” Johnson. A variety of South Florida congressional Dems are also on hand, including Senate nominee Kendrick Meek.
Tickets for the event ranged from $1,000 for the general reception to $17,600 for a couples package that includes dinner and a spot in a “presidential photo line.”
Klein is being challenged by Republican Allen West.
Politicians are foxes guarding the hen house or bank robbers protecting the banks when it comes to drawing their own districts, a new ad by the backers of Amendments 5 and 6 accuses.
Opponents of the measures are fighting back – they’ve enlisted the help of former NAACP president and civil rights icon Benjamin Chavis to boost their argument that the proposals would make it harder for minorities to get elected.
Supporters of Fair Districts, the group that collected the petitions to put the amendments on the ballot and is running the ad, include the NAACP, the League of Women Voters and national groups – including ACORN – that traditionally back Democrats who’ve pumped millions of dollars into Fair Districts’ campaign fund.
But the amendments are pitting minority leaders against one another and Democrats. (more…)
Republican congressional challenger Allen West says House members should serve no more than eight years and Senators no more than 12. And no legislator should serve more than 12 years in combined House and Senate service, West says.
If term limits aren’t made law, West says he’d voluntarily abide by them anyways.
“I do not want to stay up in Washington, D.C., and become part of the culture that I think is corrupting people,” said West, who’s running against two-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein.
Boehner
West brought up term limits in a discussion of House Minority Leader John Boehner’s visit to West Palm Beach this morning to promote West’s campaign. West said the GOP “Pledge To America” that Boehner and other GOP leaders put forward last month falls short because it doesn’t mention term limits. West said he also wished the manifesto had more detail about curbing illegal immigration and about banning earmarks and pork-barrel spending.
Some of the stars of the Palm Beach County Democratic Party converged in Delray Beach today and joined in a standing ovation for independent U.S. Senate candidate Charlie Crist.
Officially there as the governor, Crist used the ground-breaking for the 144-unit Village at Delray to remind those gathered that it was his bipartisan efforts that helped snare federal stimulus dollars to make the $30 million affordable housing project possible.
“It happened when I, a Republican governor, stood with a Democratic president,” to bringing federal stimulus money to the state, he told the crowd of about 250.
Speaking over a keyboard background that makes it sound like he might burst into song at any moment, President Obama has cut a new radio ad for Democratic Senate candidate Kendrick Meek.
The president, visiting South Florida this afternoon to raise money for Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, calls Miami congressman Meek “a powerful voice for Floridians.”
GOP congressional challenger Allen West, left, with House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, this morning at Gun Club Cafe. J. GWENDOLYNNE BERRY/Staff photo
House Minority Leader John Boehner, in line to become speaker if Republicans regain control of the House in the Nov. 2 midterm elections, says the GOP today is different than the model rejected by voters in congressional elections only four years ago.
“I think Republicans learned their lesson. They understood that we were spending too much, government was growing too much,” Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said this morning at a campaign appearance for Republican House candidate Allen West at the Gun Club Cafe in unincorporated West Palm Beach.
Florida Democrats are running an unusual, two-minute campaign ad slamming GOP governor candidate Rick Scott for fraud charges and fines against his health care companies.
The ad, “Fraud Files,” mimics TV crime shows and is styled as an investigative piece on the $1.7 billion in Medicare fraud fines paid by HCA/Columbia, the company Scott founded, and questions about a federal investigation into another Scott health care company, Solantic.
The ad makes much of Scott’s use 77 times of the Fifth Amendment in a deposition he made six days before announcing he was running for governor. Scott has refused to release a videotape of the deposition.
Scott’s opponent Alex Sink, the state’s chief financial officer, held a press conference in Tampa announcing the release of the ad, which will run in the Tampa Bay area during nightly news programs.
WEST PALM BEACH — President Obama’s visit to Coral Gables later today to raise money for Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein underscores the high partisan stakes in the congressional District 22 race.
But Klein, facing a tough challenge from Republican Allen West, sought to emphasize his bipartisan appeal this morning by appearing with two elected Republicans — Palm Beach Mayor Jack McDonald and Riviera Beach Council Chairwoman Dawn Pardo — who are endorsing him. Also backing Klein at the city waterfront was David Brady, the Republican who got 23.3 percent in the Aug. 24 primary against West.
Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio says he favors no changes to Social Security for current recipients or for those 55 and older and approaching retirement. But to improve the program’s long-term solvency, Rubio says he’s open to eventually raising the retirement age and changing the way annual benefit increases are calculated for those who are now younger than 55.
So the Rubio camp says indie rival Charlie Crist is “blatantly lying” in this video shot today at a senior center in Ocala when he tells retirees that Rubio wants to cut “your” benefits.
Read the Crist campaign’s explanation after the jump….
Underscoring the national significance of the congressional District 22 race, President Obama will visit Alonzo Mourning’s house in Coral Gables on Monday to raise money for U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton.
Boehner
House Minority Leader John Boehner, who hopes to become speaker if West and other Republicans unseat Dems in November, will appear with West at a Monday morning breakfast meet-and-greet in suburban West Palm Beach.
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