U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Cape Coral, has become the instant frontrunner in the GOP Senate primary and runs virtually even with Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, a new Quinnipiac University poll says.
“The entrance of Congressman Connie Mack into the Senate race changes what had been shaping up as an easy reelection for Sen. Bill Nelson into a tough fight that the incumbent could lose,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “The fact that Mack is essentially tied with Nelson, who has been a statewide political figure for two decades, should set off warning bells at Democratic headquarters.”
Mack, whose office announced he would enter the race Oct. 26, gets 32 percent of GOP primary support in a poll taken Oct. 31 to Nov. 7. Placing a distant second is former appointed Sen. George LeMieux at 9 percent, followed by businessman Mike McCalister at 6 percent and 2 percent apiece for former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner and former restaurant CEO Craig Miller.
Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Ken Tucker has brought in one of his former colleagues from the Department of Law Enforcement as his deputy secretary and hired a former lawmaker as his legislative liaison, according to an internal memo distributed by Tucker’s staff.
Tucker, a top staffer at FDLE before being tapped by Gov. Rick Scott to head the agency after Scott ousted former secretary Ed Buss, has hired Michael Crews as his deputy secretary. Crews, whose resume includes stints as a correctional officer and a probation officer, most recently served as FDLE’s “professionalism program director,” according to the memo.
And Tucker also hired former state representative Will Kendrick. A familiar face at legislative criminal justice committee meetings, Kendrick had been working in the same capacity for the Florida Parole Commission. Kendrick replaces Allen Mortham, son of former secretary of state Sandy Mortham, who “resigned to pursue other opportunities,” according to Tucker’s memo.
Rarely on friendly terms, the Florida League of Cities and the Police Benovolent Association are duking it out in court, trying to force the other to give up information both insist is private.
Palm Beach County PBA President John Kazanjian this week was sued by the group that represents the state’s municipalities. It wants a judge to force him to give up personal emails it insists are public records.
Kazanjian scoffed at the claims, pointing out that the PBA is a private organization and therefore so are his emails. “I think it’s comical,” he said of the lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.
The funny part, he says, is that Florida PBA filed a similar lawsuit against the league in Tallahassee last year. The lawsuit against him is simply payback, he says.
Former appointed Sen. George LeMieux has announced the Palm Beach County leaders for his Republican U.S. Senate campaign. Veteran Palm Beach County Commissioner Karen Marcus, state Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, and former state Rep. Carl Domino of Jupiter are on the team.
One of LeMieux’s main GOP primary rivals is former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton. LeMieux has Boca backing from city Vice Mayor Susan Haynie, businesswoman Yvonne Boice and Alex Berry, the co-founder of the Palm Beach County Tea Party’s Boca Raton chapter.
Read the LeMieux campaign’s press release after the jump….
With higher education poised to take center stage in next year’s Legislature, the State University System’s Board of Governors elected a new chairman Thursday — Miami attorney Dean Colson.
Colson will succeed Jacksonville’s Ava Parker, whose term on the 17-member board expires next year. Colson served as former Gov. Charlie Crist’s adviser on higher education, helping shape eventual limits on the state’s Bright Futures program and a push to bring Florida’s low-tuition rates more in line with those seen nationally.
Gov. Rick Scott has already targeted higher education for the kind of systemic changes that he and lawmakers last spring imposed on K-12. Scott is pushing the state university system to embrace science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs, while de-emphasizing liberal arts education. He’s also considering trying to loosen the grip of tenure at Florida universities.
Colson, elected by fellow board members meeting Thursday at Florida Atlantic University, sounds like he’s ready for the hot seat.
“At this challenging time for our 11 public universities, I look forward to continuing the strong commitment that I share with my fellow Board members to ensuring our State University System has the resources its needs while serving our more than 320,000 students at all levels,” Colson said. “The Board of Governors’ mission and its constitutional responsibilities have never been more tested nor more important.”
And while Floridians are nearly evenly split when asked if they view President Obama favorably or unfavorably (47 percent favorable, 48 percent unfavorable), they are decidedly negative in evaluating his job performance and reelection worthiness.
Only 41 percent of Floridians approve of the way Obama is handling his job, with 52 percent disapproving. And by a 51-to-43 percent margin, Florida voters say Obama does not deserve to be reelected next year.
Gov. Rick Scott‘s gets a 36 percent job-approval rating and a 50 percent disapproval. He’s not on the ballot until 2014.
Asked about the tea party movement, 34 percent of Floridians said they have a favorable view and 40 percent said they have an unfavorable view — a 6-point negative spread.
The Occupy movement was viewed favorably by 30 percent and unfavorably by 39 percent — a 9-point negative spread.
The Republican and Democratic parties and GOP presidential contenders Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich are also under water in their favorability ratings. Herman Cain‘s score is barely positive, with 36 percent of Floridians saying they view him favorably and 34 unfavorably.
Quinnipiac University’s latest round of swing-state polling shows a virtual tie in Florida between President Obama and Republican Mitt Romney, with the former Massachusetts governor holding a 45-to-42 percent lead that’s within the poll’s 2.9 percent margin of error.
Obama and Romney are virtually tied in Ohio and Pennsylvania as well
Among Republicans, Herman Cain leads the field with 27 percent to Romney’s 21 percent and Newt Gingrich‘s 17 percent. That sample has a 4.3 percent margin of error.
The poll was conducted Oct. 31-Nov. 7 — after accusations of sexual harassment surfaced against Cain.
In a head-to-head matchup with Obama, the president edges Cain by a 45-to-41 percent margin. Obama leads Gingrich 45-to-42 and tops Rick Perry 46-to-40.
The Department of Energy, a Jimmy Carter creation that has been a familiar conservative punching bag for more than three decades, eluded Texas Gov. Rick Perry during tonight’s GOP presidential debate when he launched into a familiar riff about federal agencies he’d like to dismantle.
“It’s three agencies of government when I get there that are gone: Commerce, Education and the, uh, what’s the third one there, let’s see….”
By the time Perry came up with the Department of Energy minutes later, the episode was already being compared to other legendary self-inflicted presidential debate wounds, including former President Gerald R. Ford‘s insistence in 1976 that “there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration.”
The Senate Regulated Industries Committee will hold the first of two three-hour workshop on the destination resorts proposal on Wednesday, committee chairman Dennis Jones, R-Seminole, said.
Jones extended the committee’s usual two-hour meeting time to accomodate the dozens of lobbyists on both sides of the issue expected to speak out on the proposal (SB 710). Business and faith groups have lined up against the proposal while gambling operators from Las Vegas to Malaysia have lined up in support.
“There’s a lot of people that want to speak on this bill,” he said.
Jones said he’ll take 20 minutes of testimony each from those who wish to speak on the issue and allow out-of-towners to go first. He said he expects his committee to vote on the bill sometime before the second week of the 2012 legislative session that begins in early January. Expect to see plenty of amendments before the measure makes it to the floor, Jones predicted.
Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, is the sponsor of the proposal she says would allow up to three non-tribal casinos to open in Broward and Miami-Dade counties and create a statewide gambling commission. Jones said he thinks her bill is unconstitutional because it would create a monopoly in South Florida with impacts that would be felt in all 67 counties.
The state’s existing racinos – pari-mutuels in South Florida that also offer slot machine gambling – are objecting to the bill’s 10 percent tax rate for the “destination resorts.” The racinos currently pay 35 percent of their revenue in taxes.
Jones said he wants to explore “parity” in taxing and games during the workshops and isn’t convinced the proposed casinos would be getting a better deal under Bogdanoff’s bill.
Casinos would have to agree to invest at least $2 billion in the resorts and are likely to employ 5,000 workers and would be paying $75 million in local property and school taxes, Jones said. Meanwhile, the seven racinos in Broward and Miami-Dade only pay about $2 million in property taxes combined, he said.
“I think it’s a wash,” Jones said. “But that will be one of the things we’ll have to work out in the workshops to see how people feel.”
The West Palm Beach TV market is one of the locations for a new ad by Republican-allied Crossroads GPS that looks to drive a wedge between President Obama and former President Clinton.
The spot, titled Two Presidents, begins airing today across Florida, Colorado, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania as part of a $2.6 million buy. Crossroads was formed by Republican strategist Karl Rove and former GOP national chairman EdGillespie. It was the biggest outside spender in the 2010 election and plans to pour $240 million into next year’s campaigns against Obama and congressional Democrats.
“President Obama has launched a tax attack on American jobs that hits Main Street businesses, home mortgages, school and road repair funds and even charities,” said Crossroads GPS president and CEO Steven Law. “Former President Clinton and bipartisan majorities in Congress agree that Obama’s tax hikes won’t solve the problem. The ad aims to get Obama to stop attacking and start listening.”
“The Republican Group American Crossroads has used a quote from me in a video opposing President Obama’s jobs plan and the “Buffett Rule.” The advertisement implies that I opposed the “Buffett Rule”. In fact, I support both the American Jobs Act and the “Buffett Rule”. I believe that it’s only fair to ask those of us in high-income groups — who have received the primary benefits of the last decade’s economic growth and the majority of its tax cuts as well — to contribute to solving our long term debt problem. What I did say was that the “Buffett Rule” cannot solve the problem alone.”
Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain‘s evolving crisis-management strategy — first ignoring requests to address anonymous sexual harassment accusations, then not completely denying they existed, then flatly denying bad behavior, then amending his denial with remembered details of settlements, then wishfully declaring “end of story” — is entering a new phase.
After Sharon Bialek stepped forward Monday with a detailed claim that Cain made a crude sexual advance in 1997, Cain told ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel that “There’s not an ounce of truth in all these accusations.”
Cain
And Cain’s campaign signaled an aggressive pushback late Monday, scheduling a press conference later today in Phoenix to address the allegations and firing some preemptive shots at Bialek’s credibility.
“After attacking Herman Cain through anonymous accusers for a week, his opponents have now convinced a woman with a long history of severe financial difficulties, including personal bankruptcy, to falsely accuse the Republican frontrunner of events occurring over a decade ago for which there is no record, nor even a complaint filed,” Cain’s campaign said in an e-mail.
Mikel D. Jones, a longtime Palm Beach County aide to U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, was found guilty today by a federal jury of scheming to defraud a New York venture capital fund that helped finance Jones’ private law firm.
Jones, 55, who lives in Boynton Beach, received a $78,578 salary in 2010 as a top local aide to Hastings while also running a personal injury law firm in Philadelphia.
Jones was convicted of conspiracy, money laundering, 14 counts of wire fraud and 14 counts of mail fraud. His wife, Dona Nichols Jones, 54, was convicted of conspiracy, money laundering, and 14 counts of wire fraud.
Mikel Jones was acquitted of several similar charges involving money his law firm obtained from the city of Philadelphia. His wife was not charged in those counts. Jones’ law firm received a $150,000 loan from the city and a “multimillion-dollar line of credit” from the private New York fund, according to the FBI.
Sentencing has been set for Feb. 7.
Jones attorney David Garvin said this afternoon that “I’m sure that he’s going to appeal because in my opinion there was a lack of evidence that he did anything wrong.”
U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, says he doesn’t disagree with the House GOP leadership’s piecemeal approach to the economy.
But Rooney has introduced his own comprehensive “Restore America Act” that addresses taxes, regulations and domestic energy production in a single piece of legislation.
“I’m sick of people asking ‘Where’s your jobs plan?’ So here it is,” Rooney says in this week’s Politics column, where you’ll also read about CFO Jeff Atwater‘s take on the U.S. Senate race and business reaction to a new countywide commission chairman idea.
A Tallahassee judge has ordered Gov. Rick Scott‘s administration to “cease and desist” the bidding process for a prison privatization plan she earlier ruled was unconstitional.
In her order, Fulford pointed out that corrections officials reneged on a pledge made Thursday not to move forward with the bidding before a Nov. 16 hearing. Later the same day, the department announced it was reopening the procurement and bids would be accepted after Nov. 10, Fulford wrote.
Fulford ruled on Sept. 30 that lawmakers should not have included the privatization plan in the must-pass state budget but instead should have ordered it in a stand-alone bill.
Scott opted not to appeal, but Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a last-minute appeal late Monday on behalf of state lawmakers, setting the stage for Friday’s court showdown.
In granting the emergency stay to the Florida Police Benevolent Association, Fulford wrote that “defendants are not likely to succeed on the merits on appeal.”
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who has focused primarily on Iowa and other early states rather than Florida, will visit a Palm Beach County Republican Party picnic on Saturday at John Prince Park in Lake Worth, party officials said today.
Representatives of Santorum’s campaign could not be reached this morning.
U.S. Reps. Allen West, R-Plantation, and Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, are also expected at the event, which runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the park’s Center Drive Pavilion. Admission is $20 for adults, $10 for children and $50 for a family of four. Griffin Perry, the son of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, is also expected to attend.
UPDATE: Tallahassee Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford will hold a hearing at 4:30 p.m. today on the privatization lawsuit. The Florida Police Benevolent Association is asking for an emergency stay to stop the procurement process.
Gov. Rick Scott‘s administration has re-opened bids on privatizating prisons in an 18-county region in southern Florida despite a recent court ruling that the way lawmakers ordered the privatization plan is unconstitutional.
Scott opted not to appeal. But Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday filed an appeal on behalf of the legislature challenging Tallahassee Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford’s ruling. That appeal opened the door for state Department of Corrections officials to re-open the bids, Department of Corrections officials said in a press release issued late Thursday.
Bids will be due within a week but because of the ongoing court battle “the agency will not sign a contract until the litigation is complete,” the release said.
The Florida Police Benevolent Association, which filed the lawsuit, intends to ask the First District Court of Appeals for an expedited hearing and is asking Fulford to reinstate the stay on the bids she previously ordered.
Boca Raton-based GEO Group is one of the contenders for the privatization plan intended to cost the state 7 percent less than what the department is currently spending on the region’s 29 prisons and other correctional operations.
Read the corrections department press release after the jump.
AARP became the latest organization to fire off a letter urging federal authorities to reject the vast Medicaid overhaul approved by the state’s Republican-ruled Legislature last spring.
House Democrats, the Florida Medical Association, and the National Community Pharmacists Association are among dozens of groups that already have written the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) demanding it reject the state’s proposal to shift almost 3 million low-income, elderly and disabled Floridians into managed care programs.
The waiver sought by the state builds on a five-county pilot program started by former Gov. Jeb Bush. The program, which includes Broward County, has drawn criticism from patients who complain about being switched from one plan to another, or trouble seeing needed specialty doctors. Analysts have also given the pilot mixed reviews for its cost-savings and quality.
AARP, in a letter dated Wednesday, cites that performance, saying the state’s bid for federal approval for a waiver from existing requirements, “neither addresses the shortcomings of the current pilot program, nor recognizes the need for both a strong state oversight and a robust network of providers throughout the state.”
Joyce Rogers, an AARP senior vice-president, concluded the expansion also, “would place the state’s frailest and most vulnerable residents into a longterm managed care program that the state is not ready to operate.”
Solantic, the chain of urgent-care clinics Gov. Rick Scott founded — and which just announced plans to move its headquarters from Jacksonville to Nashville, took steps Thursday to downplay the impact of the decision on Florida jobs.
Scott, a day earlier said he was “disappointed,” with the move, which cast a shadow over the governor’s efforts to jump-start Florida’s stalled economy. Scott sold the company in June. His office said he has had no contact with the firm since then.
Solantic, though, appears to be trying to soften the optics of the move for Scott by unveiling numbers Thursday that downplay the impact.
Among them: Of the company’s 567 employees, only 35 work in the Jacksonville office. Even some of those jobs are staying, since Solantic plans to maintain its corporate billing and sales administration there, possibly even adding some positions in Jacksonville, the company said.
’The net impact for our Fl base is expected to be positive given the continued growth plans,” spokeswoman Mandy Villalva said in an e-mail.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, whose bid for a third term next year may be hinged on a strong turnout among Florida Democrats, continued to put heat on the strict new elections law approved earlier this year by the Republican-ruled Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott.
Nelson on Thursday called on the U.S. Justice Department to investigate whether new standards that took effect in Florida and 13 other states are part of a GOP-backed effort at keeping minorities, college students and other Democratic-leaning voters from the polls.
“These voting changes could make it significantly harder for an estimated five-million eligible voters in numerous states to cast their ballots in 2012,” Nelson wrote, in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, citing the findings of the first comprehensive study of the voting laws’ impact by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.
Florida’s new law imposes tougher requirements on such third-party organizations as unions, the NAACP and the League of Women Voters when helping citizens register to vote. The league announced earlier this year that it was abandoning its traditional voter registration efforts in Florida because it feared penalties stemming from any possible violations.
The law, which is being challenged as unconstitutional by the ACLU and other groups, also reduces the number of days in Florida available for early voting.
Nelson is facing a five-man field of Republicans seeking to challenge him. And in the last 10 days, he’s sought to keep questions about the new elections law simmering.
Nelson has met with a Volusia County teacher warned for apparently violating the new law by helping students register — with the senator then writing Scott urging that he soften the new law. Nelson also has taken to the Senate floor to condemn the law as violating basic constitutional rights, urging that a committee hold public hearings in states where new laws have taken effect.
A special Senate committee created in response to the murder of two-year-old Caylee Anthony and subsequent acquittal of her mother Casey wants to make it a felony to lie to law enforcement officials when a child goes missing and is hurt or killed, punishable by five years in prison.
Senate Select Committee on Protecting Florida’s Children Chairman Joe Negron, R-Stuart, proposed the measure heightening penalties under current law, now a misdemeanor for lying to law enforcement officials investigating crimes. Instead, Negron’s measure would make it a third-degree felony for anyone to “knowingly and willfully” give false information to law enforcement officers conducting an investigation involving a child 16 years of age or younger.
Casey Anthony was acquitted of murdering her daughter, two-year-old Caylee Anthony, this summer but convicted of four counts of misleading law enforcement officers. An Orlando judge sentenced Anthony to four years behind bars – one for each count of lying to police officers – and she was released earlier this year after serving three years.
Under Negron’s proposal, Anthony could have been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
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