Conservative Palm Beach celebrities Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are among those leading a furious pushback from the right against an anonymously sourced Politico.com report that Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain was accused of sexual harassment in the 1990s.

And part-time Palm Beacher Donald Trump has weighed in as well, speculating that “perhaps he settled just because he didn’t want to go through the legal fees or he didn’t want to spend a lot of money.”

Cain today adamantly denied sexually harassing anyone, saying he was the target of “false accusations” in the 1990 when he was CEO of the National Restaurant Association. He said he had no knowledge of any settlement stemming from the charges. Politico said two women, whose identities were not revealed, received settlements “in the five-figure range.”

Limbaugh today blasted the “unconscionable, racially stereotypical attack on an independent, self-reliant conservative black” and said the media would not pursue a similar story against President Obama.

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Lawmakers have appealed a Tallahassee judge’s ruling that the way they ordered the privatization of prisons in the southern portion of the state was unconstitutional.

Attorney General Pam Bondi filed the appeal late Monday, the last day an appeal could be made. Gov. Rick Scott, whose administration was named in the lawsuit, decided not to appeal Tallahassee Circuit Court Judge Jackie Fulford’s decision.

But lawmakers, who included the privatization of 29 prisons and correctional operations in the 18-county region south of Polk County in the state budget passed this spring, asked Bondi to appeal on their behalf.

“Not only is the privatization of our state’s prisons good policy, but it ensures that our state can dedicate more money to education, health care or economic development programs that would otherwise be spent on prisons,” Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, who pushed the appeal, said in a statement.

Matt Puckett of the Florida Police Benevolent Association, the union representing correctional and probational workers which filed the lawsuit, said his group is “prepared to take this all the way to the Supreme Court.”

Lynn University in Boca Raton has been selected by the Commission on Presidential Debates as one of three sites for general election presidential debates in 2012.

Lynn will host the third of three presidential debates on Oct. 22 between President Obama and the Republican nominee.

The other presidential debates are set for Oct. 3 at the University of Denver and Oct. 16 at Hofstra University in New York.

A vice presidential debate is slated for Oct. 11 at Centre College in Danville, Ky.

Gov. Rick Scott won’t appeal a circuit court judge’s ruling that a sweeping prison privatization plan included by state lawmakers in the budget is unconstitutional. Scott has until today to appeal the decision.

Read The Palm Beach Post story about why lawmakers would rather not appeal Tallahassee Circuit Court Judge Jackie Fulford’s ruling that the way lawmakers went about the privatization plan, later signed into law by the first-term governor, was unconstitutional.

Scott told the Florida News Network early this afternoon he won’t appeal and that the plan will now go back to lawmakers, who are expected to pass it during their regular session that begins in January, then defended the proposal that would have required a single vendor to take over an 18-county region in South Florida, including 29 prisons and other corrections operations, for 7 percent less than what the Department of Corrections is now spending.

“We’re not going to file an appeal. It goes back to the legislature. But let’s all remember what we’re doing here,” Scott said at the airport before flying to Titusville for a Kennedy Space Center jobs announcement.

“You as a consumer, you expect your government to be efficient, right? You don’t want your government to waste money. So all that’s happening is your state legisalture with my support is saying look let’s figure out how we can save money. Let’s do the best job we can but let’s also make sure we’re not wasting taxpayer dollars. That’s what that program was supposed to do. So I’m hopeful that we’ll continue to do that,” Scott said. “We have a billion to $2 billion deficit this year….We’ve got to look at all the opportunities we can to do a gret job for the taxpayers of the state of Florida but not waste their money.”

The Florida Police Benevolent Association, which filed the lawsuit, applauded Scott’s decision, saying it would save 3,600 correctional workers’ jobs.

“The Florida PBA is pleased that Governor Scott and legislative leaders decided not to move forward with appealing the Court’s ruling that the legislature’s attempt to privatize public facilities through the budget was unconstitutional,” PBA executive director Matt Puckett said in a statement. “Now we need to educate the public and the legislature on the significant public safety issues and lack of significant savings associated with the privatization issue.”

Facing the first big test of his presidential candidacy, Herman Cain told Fox News this morning that he has never sexually harassed anyone but said he was “falsely accused” while he was CEO of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.

Politico.com reported late Sunday that two women who worked for the association “complained of sexually suggestive behavior by Cain that made them angry and uncomfortable.” Both women, who are not named in the story, left their jobs with “separation packages that were in the five-figure range,” Politico reported.

“I have never sexually harassed anyone,” Cain said on Fox News this morning. “Let’s say that. Secondly, I’ve never sexually harassed anyone and, yes, I was falsely accused when I was at the National Restaurant Association. And I say falsely because it turned out, after the investigation, to be baseless…..It is totally baseless and totally false. Never have I committed any sort of sexual harassment.”

Asked if he had ever had to settle a claim because of an accusation of sexual harassment, Cain said:

“If the Restaurant Association did a settlement I am not even — I wasn’t even aware of it and I hope it wasn’t for much, because nothing happened. So if there was a settlement it was handled by some of the other officers that worked for me at the Association.”

Cain can expect more questions when he appears at the National Press Club in Washington early this afternoon.

Gov. Rick Scott was among a host of political figures Monday touting Boeing’s decision to open a commercial space capsule assembly facility at Kennedy Space Center — eventually bringing a projected 550 jobs to Florida’s economically ravaged Space Coast.

Scott said the assembly site — housed in an empty shuttle hangar — will yield 140 jobs by June 2013 and as many as 550 positions by December 2015.  Boeing received $131 million from NASA to develop the commercial taxi service to bring astronauts to the International Space Station, beginning in 2016.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, a Rockledge Republican, were expected to be on hand at KSC for the formal announcement Monday.

“Florida has five decades of leadership in the space industry, which makes our state the logical place for the next phase of space travel and exploration,” Scott  said. “Boeing’s choice of Florida for its commercial crew program headquarters is evidence Florida has the world-class facilities and workforce expertise needed for aerospace companies to succeed.”

The move comes only a couple weeks after the latest round of  layoffs in the region, tied to the closing of the shuttle program. When the Space Shuttle Atlantis’ completed its last voyage earlier this month, 1,600 employees of United Space Alliance were dismissed days later — part of wholesale reductions that over the past three years are likely to cost the region some 10,000 jobs.

“This positions our state well for future growth and a leadership role in NASA’s next generation human space exploration initiatives,” said Frank DiBello, president of Space Florida, the state’s economic agency for space ventures. “It is also a key factor in ensuring Florida’s space-related economy continues to thrive in the post-shuttle retirement.”

Scott wasn’t alone in courting Boeing. Among the organizations luring the aerospace giant were the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast, Enterprise Florida, the Brevard County Board of County Commissioners and Brevard Workforce.

 

 

 

LAKE BUENA VISTA — Florida Democrats wrapped up a weekend in which party activists were reminded of President Obama‘s accomplishments and told that a combination of George W. Bush policies and “obstructionist” tea party congressional stances are to blame for America’s economic woes.

Much rhetorical heat was also directed at Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who won’t be on the ballot in 2012 but whose unpopularity, Democrats hope, will be a drag on GOP hopes of winning Florida’s 29 electoral votes.

Vice President Joe Biden started things off Friday with a pair of red-meat speeches.

Click here to read about the Democrats’ focus on Scott.

A couple weeks after Gov. Rick Scott approved a $45.6 million loan for the financially strapped state court system, a workgroup of judges and county clerks of court Friday recommended some sweeping changes to stabilize the system.

The workgroup doesn’t call for increasing filing fees, fines, charges or court costs. Instead, the group, which included Palm Beach County Court Clerk Sharon Bock basically found there is plenty of money now in the system to finance core court functions.

But courts are drawing 80 percent of their basic financing through foreclosure fees, which have rollercoastered the past couple years. And the group is recommending that as much as $22.6 million in fees, fines and other court-related revenue — now scattered across other state agencies — be confined in the court system to help cover costs.

The report is here:   http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/

 

A federal court has turned down Gov. Rick Scott’s request for expedited review of four of Florida’s most contentious election law changes, blaming Scott’s administration itself for delays.

Secretary of State Kurt Browning asked the three-judge panel to decide whether the four election law changes violate the federal Voting Rights Act and earlier this month asked the panel to also rule on whether the act is unconstitutional and speed up its review. Browning said a decision is needed before the Florida’s early Jan. 31 presidential preference primary or the state could be in trouble for not having the same set of elections laws in all 67 counties. Five counties – Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough and Monroe – require federal preclearance of voting rights laws. The rest of the counties have already implemented the changes, but the five counties cannot until federal officials or a federal court approves.

In a 12-page memo issued today, the judges chastised Florida for dragging out the process by side-stepping Department of Justice review. The court said Browning waited three weeks after Scott signed the law before sending it to the Justice Department for approval, removed four provisions of the law from the department’s review after 50 days and later asked the court to expedite its review.

“Thus, the present state of affairs is, at least to an extent, a matter of Florida’s own choosing,” judges wrote. “The Court is neither willing to rush to judgment on the complex statutory and constitutional issues raised in this case nor inclined to impose unreasonable litigation burdens upon the United States and Defendant-Intervenors simply because Florida chose to schedule its primary election early in the election season.”

Browning’s proposed schedule would have given the parties only 28 days to prepare for arguments and allowed the court just two to three weeks to hold hearings and draft an opinion, the judges wrote.

“The Court finds this extraordinarily abbreviated schedule to be unworkable,” they wrote.
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Some elbows are already being directed at U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Cape Coral, as he gets ready to enter the crowded 2012 Republican Senate primary.

Former appointed U.S. Sen. George LeMieux welcomed Mack as “a friend,” but also slammed Mack for supporting earmarks and congressional pay raises.

Former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner‘s communications director Douglass Mayer called four-term House member Mack “another Washington incumbent.”

After announcing in March he wouldn’t run, Mack has decided to enter the Republican primary against LeMieux, Hasner and businessmen Craig Miller and Mike McCalister. the four declared GOP candidates have been plagued by underwhelming poll numbers and fundraising as they vie to challenge Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012.

Read statements from LeMieux, the Hasner campaign and McCalister after the jump….

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As reported in The Palm Beach Post earlier this week, former Palm Beach County GOP Vice Chairwoman Beth Kigel will chair Texas Gov. Rick Perry‘s campaign in Palm Beach County, the Perry camp announced today.

Kigel has served similar leadership roles with Charlie Crist‘s 2006 campaign for governor, John McCain‘s 2008 presidential campaign and the 2010 gubernatorial campaigns of Bill McCollum and then Rick Scott.

The Perry campaign also announced four Palm Beach County co-chairs: county GOP Treasurer and Republican Jewish Coalition activist Ira Sabin; former county Young Republicans president Jackie Fay; county GOP Secretary Michael Barnett; and former Republican Club of the Northern Palm Beaches president Linda Gore.

Read a complete list of the Perry campaign’s Southeast Florida campaign leaders after the jump….

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After ruling out a Senate run in March, U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Cape Coral, appears to have had a change of heart.

With none of the Republican candidates showing impressive polling or fundraising numbers, a Mack aide told The St. Petersburg Times late Wednesday that the congressman would enter the race.

Republicans are trying to field a candidate to challenge two-term Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

Mack, the son of a former Senator and great-grandson of a Hall of Fame baseball legend with the same name, would bring a well-known name and presumed fundraising connections to the race. But Mack has occasionally run afoul of the GOP’s conservative base, most notably in opposing an Arizona-style crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Mack cited family concerns in passing up the Senate race in March, then endorsed state Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, in the primary. But Haridopolos dropped out during the summer.

Former appointed Sen. George LeMieux, former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner and businessmen Craig Miller and Mike McCalister have spent months on the campaign trail, but none has built a strong following in the polls.

Reports this month showed all of the Republicans far behind Nelson in fundraising. Nelson raised $2 million in the last quarter and has about $7.5 million in his campaign account.

LeMieux’s fundraising plunged from $951,558 in the second quarter to $402,916 in the third quarter. He has about $1 million in the bank. Hasner raised $535,000 in the last quarter and has $786,000 on hand.

Mitt Romney is ahead in Florida and three other early states on the Republican presidential selection calendar, according to polls released today by CNN.

Romney has a 30-to-18 percent lead over Herman Cain in Florida, according to the Oct. 20-25 poll of 401 registered Republicans, which has a 5 percent margin of error. Former frontrunner Rick Perry and former House speaker Newt Gingrich are tied for third with 9 percent.

The polls, conducted for CNN and Time by the firm ORC, show Romney with a commanding 40-to-13 percent lead over Cain in New Hampshire. Ron Paul is third in the Granite State with 12 percent.

In Iowa and South Carolina, Romney holds narrow leads within the 5 percent margin of error for each state. He’s up 24-to-21 percent over Cain in Iowa and 25-to-23 percent over Cain in South Carolina.

The Florida Commission on Ethics dismissed a complaint filed by the Teamsters accusing Gov. Rick Scott of a conflict of interest in a prison privatization plan ordered by the legislature.

The commission found there was no legal basis for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ complaint alleging that Scott had a conflict of interest in the prison privatization plan because he oversees the prisons agency and is a trustee of the State Board of Administration that invests money in the state pension fund. The state’s investments include holdings in the companies bidding on the privatization plan, now scrapped after a Tallahassee judge ruled it was unconstitutional.

The Teamsters are engaged in a battle with the Police Benevolent Association to represent the state’s 22,000 prison and probation officers. Voting in the union election is now ongoing and the winner should be announced in mid-November.

The Teamsters also accused Scott of a conflict of interest because the companies vying for the privatization contract contributed money to the Republican Party of Florida for his inauguration.

But the ethics commission, meeting in an executive session Wednesday, didn’t buy that either.

“Alleged receipt by the governor’s inaugural fund of contributions from (private prison operators), coupled with the complainant’s use of the phrase ‘pay to play politics,’ does not equate to the quid-pro-quo, criminal-bribery-like understanding … required to indicate a possible violation” of the law, the dismissal order reads.

Rep. Erik Fresen today filed a suite of highly-anticipated gaming bills that would allow three high-end casinos in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

The 142-page plan(HB 487) creates a seven-member gaming commission and a new state agency – the Department of Gaming Control -that would be responsible for oversight of all gambling ventures in the state except the lottery. Under Fresen’s proposal, the gaming commission would choose who can open casinos in Florida, selecting up to three vendors who promise to bring jobs to the state and spend at least $2 billion, not including the price of the property, to develop and build the “destination resorts.” Bidders would pay $50 million to apply.

Fresen, R-Miami, and Senate sponsor Ellyn Bogdanoff told The Palm Beach Post yesterday that it’s time for lawmakers to step up to the plate and establish a gaming vision for the state instead of the hodge-podge approach gambling-leery lawmakers have taken for decades.

“This is about creating a strategic direction for gaming,” Bogdanoff, a Fort Lauderdale Republican whose district includes part of Palm Beach County, said in a meeting with The Post’s editorial board yesterday evening. “Nobody has taken hold of the gaming issue because nobody wants to touch it. We are an anti-gaming legislature that refuses to deal with this holistically.”

The push for the casinos has spurred the revival of the dormant No Casinos Inc., headed by Orlando PR consultant John Sowinski. Sowinski is joining forces with businesses, faith-based groups and law enforcement officials opposed to the casino proposition.

After the bill was filed, Sowinski issued a press release asking lawmakers to look into a federal investigation into Las Vegas Sands, which is pushing the casino proposal. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Justice Department in March opened an investigation involving the gambling giant’s Macau’s casinos.

“It’s time to ask the tough questions, not fast-track legislation to build the biggest casinos in the world here in Florida,” Sowinski said in a statement. “Legislators should learn more about this investigation before moving a bill forward. They should also learn more about the enormous social and economic costs that mega-casinos would add to Florida taxpayers’ burden.”

Lawyers for the state were grilled Wednesday by Leon Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford over the Legislature’s move to rewrite the Florida Retirement System and pull 3 percent payroll contributions from some 700,000 government workers.

Lawmakers were able to use the more than $1 billion from teachers, state workers and other public employees as savings last spring, helping cover what then was an almost $3.8 billion budget shortfall. The Florida Education Association and other public employee unions argued before Fulford that the change is an unconstitutional violation of collective bargaining guarantees. 

But attorneys Doug Hinson and David Godofsky, from the blue-chip law firm, Alston & Bird, representing the state, argued that past case law gives lawmakers authority to make such revisions — which they labeled a “modification.”

In an unusual move, Fulford left the bench to get a better look at slides Hinson was projecting on a courtroom viewing screen. En route to the floor, Fulford delivered a stunning message:

“I disagree with you,” she said.

Fulford, who last month ruled lawmakers violated the constitution by approving a massive prison privatization plan for South Florida in the budget — rather than a separate bill — said she doesn’t know how she’ll decide the pension case.  But she acknowledged having a “fundamental difference,” with the state’s interpretation of its authority.

Arguments continue this afternoon.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has sent a critical letter to Republican Gov. Rick Scott and plans to meet Wednesday with a Volusia County high school teacher whose student voter registration drive could violate Florida’s tough, new elections law.

The law is already being challenged in court by the ACLU and allied organizations. But Nelson is calling on Scott to push for revamping or repealing the measure following the case of Jill Cicciarelli, a New Smyrna Beach teacher and adviser to a local high school’s student government association.

Cicciarelli was registering students to vote since the beginning of the school year. But county Elections Supervisor Ann McFall said she was required to report Cicciarelli to the Florida Department of State apparently for violating the new  standard for those acting as third-party registration organizations.

Florida’s new law imposes strict regulation of third-party registration groups, including requiring that they submit voter  forms within 48 hours after they are signed. Formerly, such organizations had 10 days to submit forms. Either way, state officials said Cicciarelli appears to be in violation — although state elections officials say it’s unclear whether the teacher’s case will be referred to Attorney General Pam Bondi for further action.

Nelson, though, says the controversy points to flaws in the law — which critics say is designed to put hurdles before groups likely to assist minorities, students and other Democratic-leaning voters in advance of the 2012 elections. The League of Women Voters has already announced it has dropped third-party registration efforts.

“After this incident with the teacher, can anyone actually say we aren’t taking a step backwards in Florida when it comes to protecting one of our most fundamental rights?” Nelson asked in his letter to Scott.  “I hope that you and every Floridian, regardless of political party, will stop and re-examine this controversial law.”

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney rolled out a list of endorsements from two state Senators and 22 state House members today.

If you’re keeping score, that brings Romney’s Florida legislative endorsement total to 36, including 8 Senators and 28 House members.

The only local on Romney’s new endorsement list is state Rep. Pat Rooney Jr., R-Palm Beach Gardens. Rooney’s brother, U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, endorsed Romney earlier this year and on Monday joined U.S. Reps. Connie Mack and Ander Crenshaw as honorary co-chairs for the Romney campaign in Florida.

Romney has also snagged recent Florida endorsements from Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater of North Palm Beach.

A list of Romney’s legislative endorsements is after the jump…

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Former Jeb Bush operatives Kathleen Shanahan and Arlene DiBenigno and veteran Tampa GOP media consultant Adam Goodman will be part of Herman Cain’s long-awaited campaign team in Florida.

An official announcement is expected later today, but details were reported this morning by The St. Petersburg Times and confirmed to PostOnPolitics by state Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, an early Cain endorser who’ll be one of four state co-chairs for Cain.

The other co-chairs will be Shanahan, former St. Petersburg mayor Rick Baker and former state Sen. Carey Baker, R-Eustis.

Cain, whose Sept. 24 victory in a Republican Party of Florida straw poll propelled him into the top tier of GOP presidential candidates, has so far been relying on a network of volunteers in the crucial Sunshine State. But Plakon last week promised that the campaign would be adding “serious, seasoned people who have run significant campaigns.”

Others on Cain’s Florida team include Hillsborough County GOP Chairwoman Deborah Cox-Roush and Orlando activist “Typhoon Lou” Marin, who’s been heading the volunteer Florida4Cain organization.

UPDATE: Florida Republicans call the Dems new website “desperate.” This from Republican Party of Florida spokesman Brian Hughes: “With the most recent state reports showing RPOF outraised Florida Democrats by 5-to-1, it’s no surprise they are desperate to raise money. But this lame website demonstrates a level of desperation that is even worse than we thought possible. Instead of touting their anointed leaders, Barack Obama or Debbie Wasserman Schultz, they recycle ridiculous, cheap attacks. This tactic is more evidence why Floridians reject Democrats on Election Day.”

The Florida Democratic Party launched a new website today blaming Gov. Rick Scott and his fellow Republican lawmakers for the state’s dire economic straits.

The website accuses “Rickpublicans” of ethical lapses and causing teacher layoffs, among other things, and blasts Scott for “backsliding” on his campaign pledge to create 700,000 jobs over seven years as governor.

And the Dems remind viewers that Republicans have had a stranglehold on the state legisalture and governor’s mansion for more than a decade.

The site gives this definition of a “Rickpublican:”
[rick-puhb-li-kuh´n]
noun
1. Proper name for Florida Republicans wrought with greed and corruption who are hell-bent on selling out to the corporations and special interests while leaving Florida’s middle class families out-to-dry.

The Dems also use “Six Degrees of Separation” to link half a dozen GOP politicians – including Palm Beach County’s Adam Hanser and U.S. Rep. Allen West – to Scott, whose popularity among voters remains dim.