U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Cape Coral, will not run for U.S. Senate in 2012.

He told The St. Petersburg Times that family concerns were leading him to pass up a GOP primary in which he had the highest name recognition going in.

State Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, is already in the race for the seat of Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson. Former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton has opened an exploratory committee.

The next big GOP question mark is former Sen. George LeMieux, who was appointed in 2009 and left office in January.

LeMieux told The Palm Beach Post this morning: “I’m very close to making my decision public…I have made a decision and I’m going to announce it soon.”

UPDATE — St. Pete Times’ Adam Smith reports Mack will NOT run for Senate in 2012

U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Cape Coral, appears poised to launch a 2012 U.S. Senate campaign this morning in Fort Myers and set up what could be a primary battle with four Generation X Republicans vying for the right to challenge pre-Boomer Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

In addition to the 43-year-old Mack, 41-year-old state Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, is in the race and 41-year-old former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton has set up an exploratory committee. Former appointed U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, who’s 41, is also considered a likely GOP candidate.

The four Gen Xers are considered the leading Republican candidates, but 59-year-old Mike McCalister, a retired Air Force colonel who got 10.1 percent in last year’s GOP governor primary, has also announced a campaign.

Nelson, 68, was elected in 2000 after Mack’s father retired from the Senate.

Mary McCarty is back in Palm Beach County.

The former county commissioner, who pleaded guilty in 2009 to a federal felony count of honest services fraud, left a Texas prison Thursday and checked into a West Palm Beach-area halfway house to serve the remaining six months of her sentence, her husband confirmed Thursday night.

“She looks great and is in terrific spirits,” Kevin McCarty said.

Mary McCarty was the third county commissioner in a period of less than three years to resign, plead guilty to corruption charges and go to prison. Former colleagues Tony Masilotti and Warren Newell have already completed their sentences — and are both seeking to have their honest services fraud convictions thrown out and their forfeited assets returned.

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In mostly party-line votes, the House and Senate overrode former Gov. Charlie Crist‘s veto of legislation reviving banned “leadership funds,” enhancing the fund-raising ability of top lawmakers from both parties.

The 81-39 House vote was soon followed by the Senate, 30-9. The debate also broke along party lines — with outnumbered Democrats deriding the accounts and the GOP praising them as ushering-in a new wave of “transparency.”

Leadership funds were banned 20 years ago by Florida lawmakers following newspaper reports drawing links between legislation approved and cash flowing into accounts controlled by party leaders.

The new proposal would allow legislative leaders from both parties to continue raising unlimited amounts of campaign cash. But instead of pouring the funds into the state party as is the current practice, the leaders would get control under the proposal.

Supporters say the new step will result in more disclosure, because the leadership funds would be subject to campaign reporting requirements.

“This is not a revival of the past. This is something new,” said Majority Leader Carlos Lopez Cantera, R-Miami.

But Rep. Gwyn Clarke-Reed, D-Pompano Beach, said, “Can you tell me how this does not look like corruption?”

In the Senate, Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, urged support for the override, concluding, “Gov. Crist vetoed some things he shouldn’t have.”

A rewrite of the state’s $22 billion Medicaid program cleared the House budget committee Thursday in a party-line vote, after ruling Republicans tucked in a provision making it tougher for patients to sue doctors.

Medicaid patients injured in medical malpractice cases would be limited to a $300,000 award under the late-added measure.

Rep. Rob Schenck, R-Spring Hill, who is spearheading the House’s Medicaid rewrite, said the limitations will encourage more doctors to care for the low-income, elderly and disabled patients the program serves — if shielded from heavy legal liability.

Democrats pushed back — unsuccessfully, seeking to at least delay the vote.

Critics also said the limit would force severely injured, indigent patients to remain on state Medicaid rolls, adding costs that could have been removed if they were able to secure a malpractice settlement.

Without prospects for a substantial legal payment, trial lawyers are unlikely to pursue lawsuits involving Medicaid doctors or facilities, critics said.

“I can’t answer as to why or why not an attorney would take a case,” Schenck said. “What I’m okay with is having more providers taking care of more Medicaid recipients.”

A day after House budget committees squawked about how paltry allocations from Speaker Dean Cannon were forcing  deep program chopping, the Winter Park Republican reshuffled the books.

Cannon found another $75 million to scatter among schools, higher education and the justice budget panels –maybe easing back on some of the axe-wielding. Cannon said he and House budget chair Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, decided to distribute the legislative lagniappe after seeing how budget subcommittees had done the right thing and focused on statewide spending issues.

On Wednesday, Justice Appropriations Chair Rich Glorioso, R-Plant City, bemoaned the cutting his panel was doing.

Wholesale spending cuts would eliminate one-quarter of the state’s more than 2,800 judicial assistants, leaving judges to do much of their own research, scheduling and brief-writing, to save $13.6 million. Judicial salaries also would be scaled-back, letting the state pocket another $11.4 million.

Rep. James Grant, R-Tampa, said the proposed cuts threatened the legal rights of Floridians.

“We are going to wind up with an umpire who can’t see the strike zone,” Grant said of the burden also being put on judges.

Conservative icon Grover Norquist is in Tallahassee pitching the national “Smart on Crime” agenda, a prison reform movement that’s got the support of other “center right” politicos including Newt Gingrich and William Bennett.

Hosted by business-backed Florida TaxWatch, Norquist spoke for more than half an hour at the tony Governor’s Club to a crowd of lobbyists, criminal justice providers and policy makers.

TaxWatch is pushing the reform agenda aimed at cutting back on prison spending. The reforms include revamping mandatory minimum sentences, something House Speaker Dean Cannon said is a no-go this session.

But Norquist said elected officials don’t have to be afraid to support reforms because conservatives like Texas Gov. Rick Perry have proven the reforms work and save taxpayers money, something that could win points with tea party activists.

“They need to feel it’s potentially safe, that they won’t get hit in the back of the head with a 30-second ad saying they’re soft on crime,” Norquist said.

Whether he’s able to move the House remains unclear.

Only three lawmakers – GOP Sens. Paula Dockery of Lakeland and Thad Altman of Viera and Rep. Dennis Baxley of Ocala – attended Norquist’s speech.

House criminal justice appropriations committee chairman Rich Glorioso, R-Plant City, almost made it. He was spotted smoking a cigar outside a local watering hole steps away from the venue as Norquist wrapped up.

After nearly three months on the job, Gov. Rick Scott reached out for the first time yesterday to the members of the state board of education after chairman T. Willard Fair quit over what he called Scott’s heavy-handed handling of Education Commissioner Eric Smith‘s resignation.

During an emergency board meeting by telephone this morning, each of the panel’s five remaining members said they were encouraged that Scott, who on the campaign trail called education one of his top priorities, called them yesterday afternoon.

“I’d never spoken to Gov. Scott before,” said Roberto Martinez, appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush. “It was greatly appreciated.”

Martinez said Scott told him “he recognized the record of accomplishment and service” of Smith and “also recognized the record of leadership by Chairman Fair.”

In a letter to the board yesterday, Fair complained Scott forced Smith out of his position, something Smith denied, and refused to participate in the telephone call.

Martinez said Scott gave him his cell phone number during the lengthy call.

“It was a very encouraging call. It was an excellent call and I greatly appreciated it,” Martinez said.

The board agreed to hire a head-hunter firm to conduct a national search for Smith’s replacement. And they unanimously agreed to put into the record their admiration and support for Fair.

The state constitution gives the governor the authority to appoint the seven members to the board, which is responsible for hiring and firing the state education commissioner.

Fair’s term ended in December, but he stayed on until Scott made his own appointments, something he has not yet done.

PALM BEACH — Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton, who’s thinking about a 2012 presidential bid, gave a foreign policy talk at Temple Emanu-El Wednesday night in which he said President Obama waited too long to act on Libya.

When he finished his talk to about 150 people, he stopped to say hello to U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, who was about to begin a congressional town hall meeting down the hall that drew more than 300 people.

Rabbi Michael Resnick said it was “pure coincidence” that the GOP celebs ended up having their events at the temple on the same night.

T. Willard Fair, chairman of the state Board of Education, has resigned over Gov. Rick Scott’s handling of the resignation of education commissioner Eric Smith, who announced he was stepping down on Monday.

Fair’s term had already expired in December, but has remained on the board until Scott replaces him.

In a letter to board members sent yesterday, Fair, appointed to the board by Gov. Jeb Bush, criticized the manner in which Scott handled Smith’s resignation. Fair essentially accuses Scott of usurping the board’s authority by forcing Smith to resign. The governor-appointed board is charged with hiring and firing commissioners. Fair said that Scott has not met with Smith since the governor took office in January.

Fair wrote that he is “alarmed by the Governor’s dismissive treatment of this Board, which after all, hired Eric Smith, but which was not consulted, regarding the Governor’s desire to divest the State of his services.”

The board is holding an emergency meeting tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. “relating to discussion and action the announced departures of the Commissioner of Education and Chair of the State Board of Education,” the Department of Education advised in a press release today.

But Fair said the meeting is a farce.

“In fact, the notion that this Board should immediately commence a “national search” for a new Commissioner, flies in the face of the reality that Governor Scott will choose his new Commissioner. This Board, including its new members, will merely provide the votes that affirm the Governor’s choice. Therefore, it seems pointless to put on a public display that gives the impression that the decision will ultimately rest with the Board,” he wrote.

Read Fair’s letter after the jump.
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PALM BEACH — Former United Nations Ambasssador John Bolton just finished giving a one-hour rundown of the situation in Libya and the Middle East in which he criticized President Obama’s handling of Libya and other foreign policy issues.

Bolton, who has said he’s considering a run for president in 2012, offered no hint of such plans in his remarks to an audience of about 150 at Temple Emanu-El.

Asked on his way out about a possible presidential run, Bolton said: “I’m still thinking about it. I’ve never run for public office before, it would be a huge decision…I think the race is very wide open.

“The reason I’m considering it is because I think national security ought to be a lot more salient in the national debate than it has been and if I got into it I might be able to help increase the prominence of the issue.”

Gov. Rick Scott, who made his controversial millions of dollars in the private health care industry, Wednesday created a commission to examine government-run hospitals in Florida.

The executive order Scott signed creates the Commission on Review of Taxpayer Funded Hospital Districts.

 Before his swearing-in as governor, Scott’s health care transition team issued a report which included a stinging assessment of publicy funded districts, complaining that the hospitals they support largely muscle-out private facilities and may no longer be needed in Florida.

Palm Beach County’s health care district, created 20 years ago, was generally backed by Scott’s advisers at the time. The district’s taxpayer dollars are deployed countywide, not concentrated in one hospital.

“I am confident this new Commission will protect Florida taxpayers,” Scott said.  “At the same time, the commission’s guidance will help provide Floridians a high-quality health care system.”

Scott helped build Columbia/HCA, one of the nations’ biggest health care companies, until his ouster by its board. Three years after his departure, the company paid $1.7 billion to settle federal accusations of Medicare fraud.

 In announcing the commission’s formation, Scott said its goals will include reviewing how doctors are paid at the public hospitals, whether they serve as broad a population as they should, and whether taxpayers are getting their money’s worth.  The 10-member commission has until next January to complete its findings.

 There are more than 60 hospital or health care districts in Florida.

Times are tough for the state courts — which are running a $72 million deficit this year.

But life in Florida’s courthouses could soon get a lot rougher, under a spending plan unveiled Wednesday by the House Justice Appropriations subcommittee.

Wholesale spending cuts would eliminate one-quarter of the state’s more than 2,800 judicial assistants, leaving judges to do much of their own research, scheduling and brief-writing, to save $13.6 million. Judicial salaries also would be scaled-back, letting the state pocket another $11.4 million.

Chairman Rich Glorioso, R-Plant City, said the committee’s action stemmed from the low allocation handed out by leaders. House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, has been at odds with the Florida court system, already outlining plans to dramatically overhaul the state Supreme Court.

“The difficulty with doing this budget is that 61 percent of our money is people,” Glorioso said. “In our budget, if you’re going to cut something, you’re going to cut people.”

But Rep. James Grant, R-Tampa, said what the House is proposing will damage the judiciary — and poses a risk to the constitutional rights of Floridians.

“We are going to wind up with an umpire who can’t see the strike zone,” Grant said of the burden put on judges.

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A House panel advanced a plan Wednesday that dims the lights on the state’s popular Bright Futures scholarship program — making the merit-based college aid harder to get and less lucrative for students and their parents.

As part of spending cuts coursing through most state programs, top tier Bright Futures recipients would have to earn a 1300 SAT score, up from 1280 now. Second-tier “medallion” students also would need a 1270 SAT, up from 1020 currently, under the House’s $5.7 billion college and university budget proposal.

Community service hours needed to qualify for the scholarships also would be bumped up, according to the House approach.

Bright Futures’ overall allocation would be cut 15 percent, or $33.8 million. With the Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee also authorizing tuition hikes of as much as 15 percent, parents will be digging deeper for Florida college costs next fall. (more…)

Senate President Mike Haridopolos made a last-minute change to tomorrow’s floor session, adding a 4 p.m. session to the Senate calendar Wednesday afternoon.

The Senate will override at least one of Gov. Charlie Crist’s vetoes during the late afternoon session – HB 1207, legislation that would revive so-called leadership funds, strengthening the hand of House and Senate leaders from both parties in raising campaign cash. Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, sponsored the legislation. The House is expected to override the veto earlier in the day.

Both chambers could also override Crist’s veto of HB 7103, a measure that allows owners of properties with an agricultural exemption to retain the tax break regardless of the sales price.

The House is expected to veto them earlier in the day.

Cuts to public school funding won’t be nearly as bad as it appeared earlier this week under the Florida Senate plan, budget chief J.D. Alexander said Wednesday morning.

That’s because the spending allocations released this week don’t include about another $1 billion in savings Alexander said he’s making in state employees,’ including teachers’, pay and benefits.

It appears he’s funneling nearly half that to schools, bringing down the cuts to about $300 million from more than $700 proposed earlier this week, Alexander said. That’s the opposite direction the House is headed in with its K-12 spending plan.

“It depends on your view of the world, but in terms of what a school board will have to do to adjust to available funds, our proposal has a much lower broad cut. I think the $700 million was too high,” Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said.

Without being able to raise new revenue through taxes or fees, Alexander said the savings from cutting health care benefits or requiring state employees to contribute to their pensions is the only way to avoid deeper direct cuts to services and education.

Under Alexander’s plan, state workers would have to contribute less to their pensions than the 5% Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida House are asking.

Just how much?

All will be revealed Monday when Alexander releases his budget proposal.

Gov. Rick Scott has hired a former U.S. Treasury Department investigator to head the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, the agency that oversees licensing professional occupations.

Ken Lawson, a native Floridian, graduated from Florida State University College of Law and also worked as chief of compliance for a Tampa-based financial services company, according to an announcement issued by Scott’s office this morning.

Read the press release after the jump.

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U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, hosts a town hall meeting tonight in Palm Beach.

The event is scheduled to run from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Temple Emanu-El at 190 North County Road.

West, whose congressional District 22 includes parts of Palm Beach and Broward counties, has been hosting a town hall meeting in each county every month.

Previous West town hall highlights include last month’s “Don’t try to blow sunshine up my butt” event in Pompano Beach, a brush with birtherism in Jupiter and well-attended meetings in Boynton Beach and in Deerfield Beach.

PALM BEACH — Former New York Mayor and 2008 Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani left the door open for a 2012 run tonight, saying he’d think about launching another White House bid if it looks the GOP might otherwise pick a nominee who is “too right-wing.”

Giuliani backed away from his previous suggestion that he’d be more likely to run if Sarah Palin got in the race. He said another potential 2012 GOP candidate, Mitt Romney, should declare the health care plan he championed as governor of Massachusetts was a mistake.

Giuliani spoke for about 90 minutes to a Palm Beach Republican Club crowd of about 200 at The Colony hotel.

During a Q-and-A session, he was asked about his January comments on CNN that he’d be tempted to run if Palin were a candidate. Giuliani called that remark “rash.” But he said his fears of the GOP choosing a nominee who can’t win a general election might prompt him to run.

“If all we are faced with are candidates that are too far right so that they can’t win the general election, then that’s when I’d reconsider doing it,” Giuliani said.

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In a social network experience marked by little socializing but plenty of network snafus, Gov. Rick Scott held his first Facebook townhall Tuesday night answering a few questions from the hundreds pelted at him.

Most of the Internet crowd was rough. The governor was quizzed about his recommended cuts to schools, merit pay for teachers, reducing pensions, and his reluctance to engage the conventional media.

One  Facebook friend from Tampa, Tony Cona, wrote the governor saying, “I’m taking bets right now that in the end you will prove to be the worse thing that ever happened to the state of Florida.”

As he did with a Twitter town hall a few weeks ago, Scott sidestepped his toughest critics. But he did try to defend some of his policies.

While the governor has gotten heat for blocking implementation of a prescription drug database to combat pill mills flourishing in South Florida, Scott on Facebook voiced sympathy.

“This is a significant (problem) for the State. A friend of mine just lost his daughter. We need to focus on the distribution of “narcotics and close down pill mills that are improperly distributing prescriptions,” Scott wrote.

The governor also pushed back in support of his and the Legislature’s support for tying teacher pay to student performance.

“My experience with teachers is they would like to be measured, the measurement need to be fair, and the most effective teachers need to be rewarded with both recognition and better pay,” Scott responded. (more…)