The U.S. Justice Department was sent the Florida Senate’s latest attempt at redrawing its own political boundaries Friday in a bid to have the plan approved by the state’s scheduled June 4 candidate qualifying period.

The Senate map, endorsed this week by the House, still must go to the state Supreme Court, which then has 30 days to act on the proposal. Justices rejected the initial Senate rewrite, forcing a 15-day special session which ended with Tuesday’s House vote.

But federal officials have their own 60-day window to review the proposed map. In light of the advancing date for candidates to file papers, attorneys for the House, Senate and Attorney General Pam Bondi, are clearly hoping the Justice Department review will overlap with that of Florida’s high court.

“In light of the imminent qualifying period, prompt consideration is requested,” the attorneys concluded.

The state is already in uncharted waters with the Supreme Court rejecting the first Senate plan as favoring incumbents and packing minority voters into districts.

Justices had validated legislative maps drawn by lawmakers in each of the previous 10-year redistricting cycles dating to 1972, when the court was first brought into the process.

Just in time for another election cycle, former Rep. Kevin Rader had a complaint filed against him dismissed Friday by the state Commission on Ethics.

Rader, a Delray Beach Democrat, was accused in 2010 of failing to disclose his partial ownership of an underwriters’ group on his state financial disclosure forms. Rader, at the time a state Senate candidate, said he owned Advanced Insurance Underwriters through another firm, Rader Insurance Inc., which he did disclose on the forms.

State ethics investigators found probable cause that Rader should have revealed his connection to Advanced Insurance. The matter emerged when Victoria Thiel, a tea party activist, filed the complaint a month before the November 2010 election Rader lost to Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers.

But Rader fought the charge. His attorney, Mark Herron, filed a legal challenge with the state’s Division of Administrative Hearings, arguing that ethics investigators misapplied the state’s disclosure law. As part of Friday’s finding, that case also will be dropped.

“In the heat of a campaign, people sometimes will file complaints without merit,” Rader said. “I’m extremely happy this has been dismissed and the commission took no action.”

Rader last month announced that he would challenge Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, in this summer’s Democratic primary.

But with Senate district boundaries still not set, Rader also acknowledged he is considering running in a proposed district in the Lake Worth-West Palm Beach area that has a majority black and Hispanic voting age population. Rep. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, filed candidate papers this week to run in that district. Rep. Mack Bernard, D-West Palm Beach, also is weighing a campaign for the seat.

“It’s hard to say what’s going to happen, because know one knows what these districts are going to look like,” Rader said.

After the first redrawn Senate boundaries were rejected as unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court, the Legislature has completed its second attempt at map-making. The redrawn plan now must win approval from justices.

Fresh from a Fox News television appearance Thursday, Gov. Rick Scott released a sample of a letter he sent to 100 New York businesses urging them to relocate to Florida.

His message to those slogging through lousy weather and high taxes? Fuhgeddaboutit.

“Florida is a right-to-work state with no personal income tax, low business taxes, great teachers, the best beaches and weather in the world, and an overall great quality of life — factors that every CEO and entrepreneur considers,” Scott said at the start of his three-page pitch.

He goes on to contrast Florida with New York, which he says has the “second worst tax climate in the nation and a corporate income tax rate of 7.1 percent.” Scott just signed into law legislation Wednesday that keeps Florida’s rate a 5.5 percent, but shields businesses from having to pay the levy until they owe $50,000, doubling the current exemption.

Scott appeared on Fox’s Your World with Neal Cavuto on Thursday with his ‘c’mon down’ call to Empire State executives.

“As you are exploring cost-saving options, and evaluating whether or not you want to continue paying higher taxes, I ask you to consider doing business in Florida,” Scott concludes in his letter. He adds the governor’s office telephone number to “allow me to personally  make the case for Florida.” 

Here’s the governor’s letter: Letter to NY Businesses

 

Florida’s Democratic U.S. House delegation signed a letter to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi today expressing “grave concern” about the handling of the Trayvon Martin case more than a month after the unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford.

“We remain troubled that this incident occurred on February 26, 2012, and yet Mr. George Zimmerman has not been arrested,” says the letter signed by the six Florida Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Read the text of the letter after the jump…

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Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who was in a virtual tie with Republican Connie Mack in a January poll, has moved to a 44-to-36 percent lead over the GOP frontrunner now, a new Quinnipiac University poll says.

Mack and Nelson are tied among male voters at 41 percent apiece, but Nelson has a 14-point lead among women.

Quinnipiac’s Peter Brown links Nelson’s improved numbers to President Obama‘s rising fortunes in the state. Mack has also been hammered on character issues in recent weeks by Republican primary rival George LeMieux, who has called Mack the “Charlie Sheen of Florida politics.”

The poll of 1,228 registered voters, conducted March 20-26, has a 2.8 percent margin of error.

Sen. Marco Rubio, who vouched for Mitt Romney‘s conservative credentials before the Jan. 31 Florida Republican primary but didn’t make an endorsement, ended his neutrality tonight and announced his support for Romney.

“I am going to endorse Mitt Romney and the reason why is not only because he is going to be the Republican nominee but he offers at this point, such a stark contrast to the President’s record,” Rubio told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

Romney, who has struggled to seal the deal with many GOP conservatives, called the endorsement from one of the party’s brightest conservative stars “a major milestone” for his campaign.

Rubio told Hannity that Romney’s Republican rivals “have a lot to be proud of.” But he said scenarios spun by Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich for winning the nomination at the August GOP convention in Tampa are “a recipe to deliver four more years to Barack Obama.”

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A liberal group that has organized several recent protests of U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, has yanked an ad on Craigslist offering canvassers $10 to $12 an hour to work in the new congressional district where West is running.

The ad by Stand Up Florida sought canvassers and team leaders to work for five weeks to help build “a movement of people demanding that politicians represent people not corporate interests” in northern Palm Beach County and Martin and St. Lucie counties — the area where West is running in a newly drawn congressional district.

The ad was pulled from Craigslist, but not before conservative blogger Javier Manjarres saved and posted a copy on his Shark Tank site, and accused the group of being an “AstroTurf leftist organization.”

The contact in the Craigslist ad is Lynne Purvis, a Lake Worth activist who gained attention in 2004 when she and another woman ran topless through a Scripps Research Institute luncheon at The Breakers with “Nature Yes” and “Biotechnology No” written on their backs.

Reached by phone this morning, Purvis said she didn’t immediately have time to talk.

Stand Up Florida’s website and Facebook page are dominated by anti-West material and don’t mention other politicians.

Despite the group’s anti-corporate sentiments, its address is listed as a suite on Corporate Way in West Palm Beach.

Gov. Rick Scott signed legislation Wednesday that includes a host of tax cuts for businesses and rebrands the state’s financially strapped unemployment compensation system.

Scott said the four bills he signed, flanked by leaders of state business organizations, represents his “job creation and economic growth agenda.” One of the measures, (HB 7087), also doubles to $50,000 the state’s corporate income tax exemption — further shrinking a levy Scott has vowed to eliminate over the next five years.

“With this plan, our unemployment rate will continue to go down,” Scott said. “Job creators will experience tax relief. Job seekers will have a better chance to get back to work. Florida is clearly going to be the state that everyone has to compete with.”

Among the more controversial measures is the unemployment compensation bill (CS/HB 7027).  Scott and the Republican-led Legislature last year reduced the number of weeks jobless workers could receive benefits, and this year, rename the system the “reemployment assistance program.”

The legislation also cuts the tax businesses pay to cover employees in the system, saving companies an estimated $800 million over the next three years. Currently, employers were on track to pay $171-per-worker this year. The bill cuts that to $121 for each employee.

The legislation also delays Florida’s efforts to rebuild its unemployment compensation trust fund by reducing the base wage subject to the tax, and increasing the debt repayment schedule. The delay was pushed by such business groups as the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries of Florida and the National Federation of Independent Business, which said prospects of an $817 million unemployment compensation tax increase would be tough to absorb in a still-fragile economy.

Scot acknowledged Wednesday that he was initially reluctant to embrace what amounts to the third consecutive year of delayed payments. But Scott said he eventually saw a benefit in slowing the debt payments.

“It made sense,” Scott said. “We want employers to hire more people. We have to think like they do. They’ve got to keep their costs as low as they can.”

 

 

With Florida voters perceiving an improvement in the economy, President Obama has opened up a 49-to-42 percent lead over Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney in the Sunshine State, a new Quinnipiac University poll says.

Obama leads Republican Rick Santorum by a 50-37 margin in Florida in the new poll.

Florida voters are divided in their opinion of Obama. They narrowly disapprove of the job Obama is doing as president, with 49 percent giving him unfavorable marks and 47 percent approving. But they say by a 50-47 margin he deserves to be reelected.

The poll of 1,228 Florida voters, taken March 20-26, has a 2.8 percent margin of error.

Gov. Rick Scott gets a 52 percent disapproval rating, with 36 percent approving.

The poll found 68 percent of Floridians believe the economy is in a recession, but 57 percent say it’s improving. Asked who would do a better job of handling economic issues, Florida voters side with Romney by a 48-45 margin.

The national unemployment rate was 7.8 percent in January 2009 when Obama took office. It was 8.3 percent in February. Florida’s unemployment rate was 8.7 percent in January 2009 and 9.6 percent in January 2012.

The Florida poll was part of an ongoing swing-state project. Quinnipiac also released polls showing Obama with a 47-41 lead over Romney in Ohio and a too-close-to-call 45-42 edge in Pennsylvania.

Shortly before the House approved the Senate’s plan Tuesday for redrawing district boundaries, Rep. Jeff Clemens filed campaign papers to run for newly carved Senate District 27 in Palm Beach County.

The Lake Worth Democrat said the proposed central county district, with a majority black and Hispanic voting-age population, contains about 95 percent of the current House seat he has held since 2010.

“Other people may get into the race, but this makes sense for me,” Clemens said.

Rep. Mack Bernard, D-West Palm Beach, has said he is also considering running. Former Rep. Kevin Rader, a Boynton Beach Democrat who has said he plans to challenge Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, also is said to be sizing up the boundaries of District 27, which includes a big chunk of urban Palm Beach County, including Lake Worth, Lantana, Riviera Beach and parts of West Palm Beach and Boynton Beach.

The Senate map still must be upheld as constitutional by the state Supreme Court. Clemens was among House Democrats who joined with Hispanic Republicans in voting against the measure Tuesday, approved in a 61-47 vote.

Clemens isn’t the only House Democrat eyeing the latest district plan.

Senate Democratic Leader Ron Saunders of Key West said Tuesday he expects soon to announce his candidacy for the four-county District 39 seat now held by term-limited Sen. Larcenia Bullard, D-Miami, which her son, Rep. Dwight Bullard, also a Miami Democrat, also plans to seek.

UPDATE: A spokesman for Gov. Rick Scott said “it makes no sense whatsoever” to convene a special session or expedite the task force until the investigations into Trayvon Martin’s shooting death are concluded.

“The Governor has already convened a task force that will review all the facts of the case and make recommendations to him. It makes no sense whatsoever to call a special session before the FBI, FDLE and special prosecutor have completed their investigations, or before the task force has reviewed the facts, or before recommendations based on those facts have been presented to the governor,” Scott spokesman Brian Burgess said in an e-mail.

Waiting up to a year to start investigating the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law is too long, state Sen. Chris Smith said today.

Smith, a black lawyer from Fort Lauderdale and the incoming Senate Democratic Leader, is asking Gov. Rick Scott to speed up the task force the governor ordered to look into Florida’s first-in-the-nation “Stand Your Ground law” that allows individuals to use deadly force when they feel threatened.

The shooting death of Trayvon Martin, who was unarmed, by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who said he shot Trayvon in self-defense, has provoked lawmakers like Smith to demand an investigation into the use of the law.

Scott conceded to demands from black lawyers and civil rights activists’ demands for an outside prosecutor to take over the investigation into the Feb. 26 shooting. And Scott said he wants a special task force to look into the use of the law, passed in 2005.

But Scott’s given State Attorney Angela Corey of Jacksonville, the special prosecutor in the case, up to a year to complete her investigation. And the task force won’t meet until her inquiry officially ends.

That’s too long, Smith said in a statement released Tuesday. Smith wants the task force to start meeting next week and a special legislative session to start a month later.

“The questionable incidents and lives lost under Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ law did not begin, nor do I expect it to end, with the tragedy in Sanford,” Smith wrote in a letter hand-delivered to Scott’s office today. “While the special prosecutor sets about unraveling the facts in the case, and whether self defense was a legitimate factor, the law remains intact – with all the same components still in place for more killings and additional claims of self defense, warranted or not.”

Smith, then a Florida House member, argued against the “Castle Doctrine” proposal in 2005 before lawmakers passed it and Gov. Jeb Bush signed it into law with NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer by his side. He and other critics say the law gives vigilantes and others cover when they incite deadly confrontations. Smith said he intends to file legislation to tweak the law. But supporters say the law does not give permission to anyone to pursue and confront anyone but rather to stand their ground when they are threatened.

It’s highly unlikely the GOP-dominated legislature would revisit the law prior to the November elections, according to observers including Senate Rules Chairman John Thrasher, R- St. Augustine, a former Republican Party of Florida chairman. The NRA pushed the law and is a powerful lobby in a crucial election year.

But Rep. Perry Thurston, a black lawyer from Plantation, said that is all the more reason why the issue needs to be addressed now.

“There can’t be a better time than now for them to take it on,” Thurston, incoming House Democratic Leader, said. “The right thing to do is address it sooner rather than delay it.”

State corrections officials did not go through the proper process when they stopped most home visits with criminals on probation or community control, the union representing corrections workers is alleging in a complaint filed today.

Lawyers for the Teamsters, which represents prison guards and probation and community control workers, are accusing Department of Corrections Secretary Ken Tucker and his staff of changing the number of visits without seeking a rule change, they argued in an administrative complaint filed today.

Union representatives say the new policy is unsafe and that probation officers have found guns, drugs and other illegal activity when visiting offenders’ homes.

“We know that home visits are critical to keeping our citizens safe, whether it’s in their home, at work or at school. The safety of our citizens is paramount,” Teamsters lobbyist Ron Silver said in a statement.

Tucker and his staff late last month ordered probation and community control officers to stop conducting face-to-face visits with most offenders in part to deal with a $79 million budget deficit.

Tucker’s order effectively changed the rules regarding offender supervision but he did not go through the rule-making process, the complaint argued.

And even if he had gone through the rule-making process, the new policy would still be illegal, Teamsters lawyer Holly Van Horsten said Tuesday, because it does not comply with what Florida law requires regarding field visits. They’re asking the administrative law judge to order the department to go back to the old visit schedule.

DOC officials would not respond to the complaint but said they were continuing to visit sex offenders and offenders on community control.

And offenders are still required to meet with their probation officers in the office, department spokeswoman Jo Ellyn Racleff said in an e-mail.

But “other measures will be taken to verify the inmate residence and employment, without having to visit their residence,” Racleff said.

And supervisors can order face-to-face visits with probationers considered a threat to public safety or suspected of violating their probation, DOC spokeswoman Ann Howard said.

“If there’s an order from the court that the person be drug-tested, we’ll continue to do that. Anything the court has ordered, we’re going to continue,” Howard said. “The idea of compromising safety is a bad one. We’re not going to do that.”

Probation and community control officers will be “doing less driving” to save money, Howard said.

“But probationers need to know they will continue to be monitored. We’re not compromising public safety,” she said.

The Senate’s plan for remapping its 40 districts cleared the House on a 61-47 vote, with Democrats and Hispanic Republicans opposing the proposal.

Democrats said the measure still protects incumbents and includes a numbering scheme that may still be aimed at giving senators more time in office. Hispanic Republicans said the Senate had failed to create a potential fourth Hispanic-oriented Senate district in Miami-Dade County, instead packing Hispanic voters into three districts.

The plan will go back to the Florida Supreme Court, which rejected the Senate’s first plan. With the vote, the House ended the 15-day special session at 2:32 p.m.

About 100 students, many of them wearing hoodies in the 85-degree heat, marched to the Capitol from nearby Florida State University and Florida A & M University, joining protestors in Sanford and throughout the country to mark the one-month anniversary of the Feb. 26 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

Chanting and holding signs including one that read “Please don’t shoot me. I only have Skittles and a drink,” the students’ enthusiasm grew as cars in the rush-hour traffic honked their approval.

Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who said he shot the youth in self defense, in a gated community last month. Zimmerman has not been charged with a crime.

The shooting has sparked a national furor with celebrities and sports stars joining in the demands for an arrest, and President Barack Obama saying that “If I had a son, he would have looked like Trayvon.” Martin’s parents joined in a rally in Sanford at 4 p.m. this afternoon.

FSU political science major Michael Sampson, 22, organized the Tallahassee event. Sampson called the failure of authorities to charge George Zimmerman with a crime “the last straw” for blacks and others.

“This case of Trayvon Martin, it’s the last straw for people of color,” Sampson, who is from Jacksonville, said. “We will not stop. We must keep going because we do not want to let another Trayvon Martin happen. Anyone one of us could be Trayvon Martin. I’m Trayvon Martin. I’m a young black male.”

Despite Gov. Rick Scott’s appointment of an independent prosecutor and his creation of a task force to look into the use of the state’s first-in-the-nation “Stand Your Ground” law, blacks and civil rights activists need to keep up the pressure, state Rep. Mia Jones, chairwoman of the legislative black caucus said.

The protests “keep the heat on and let everyone know that we’re paying attention,” Jones, D-Jacksonville, said.

Rep. Perry Thurston, one of the black lawyers who asked GOP leaders to look into the law and says it needs to be revised, said the Trayvon Martin shooting represents discrimination and racism that is pervasive throughout the nation.

“Trayvon Martin is the face of potential injustice all across the state,” Thurston, D-Plantation, said.

U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, is a pretty well-known guy, but listening to his debut 2012 campaign radio ad in isolation, you might not guess he’s a member of Congress.

The narrator of the 60-second spot refers to the freshman House member as “Allen West” — not “Congressman” — and plays on anti-Washington sentiment.

“Washington, D.C., is a disaster — big government bureaucrats, phony politicians, higher taxes, wasteful spending, and middle class Americans are paying the price. It’s why Allen West ran for Congress and it’s why he’s taking the fight to the Washington establishment,” the ad says.

West is a newcomer to about 80 percent of the constituents in the newly drawn Palm Beach-Treasure Coast District 18.

Listen to the radio ad here.

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, is highlighted in a new Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington report for paying $622,574 between 2007 and 2010 to a staffer the watchdog group describes as Hastings’ girlfriend.

Congressional rules generally disallow hiring spouses and family members, but don’t address significant others.

The CREW report says Hastings Deputy District Director Patricia Williams is an example of a congressional “family” member drawing a salary or fees. Hastings disputes the “family” characterization. Asked directly if Williams is his girlfriend, Hastings said, via e-mail:

“No family members work in any of the Congressional offices that I am privileged to serve. Furthermore, my personal business is just that, personal.”

Read about it in this week’s Politics column.

The supplier of Palm Beach County’s voting and tabulating equipment says a software “shortcoming” led to votes being assigned to the wrong candidates and the elections office declaring the wrong winners in two recent Wellington council races.

Ballots from the March 13 Wellington election were counted properly. But the results were matched to the wrong races. Council candidates Shauna Hostetler and Al Paglia were declared winners on election night, but an audit six days later showed John Greene and Matt Willhite had in fact gotten more votes.

Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher blamed a software glitch rather than human error for the problem. Today, she released a statement sent to her office from Dominion Voting Systems Vice President Waldeep Singh.

The vendor’s statement: “The incorrect reporting of vote totals which occurred in the Wellington election was caused by a mismatch between the software which generates the paper ballots and the central tally system. This synchronization difficulty is a shortcoming of the version of software currently being used in Palm Beach County and that shortcoming has been addressed in a subsequent version of the software. These enhancements help to prevent such an anomaly from occurring in the future. Dominion is in the process of providing this newer version to Palm Beach County.”

COCONUT CREEK — Seeking to win over a voting bloc that fled Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections, Vice President Joe Biden told a crowd of seniors here that Republicans want to dismantle Medicare and the “dignity” of older Americans in order to give tax cuts to the rich.

Biden spoke to a crowd of more than 400 at the Wynmoor retirement community.

Shedding his jacket before his remarks, Biden blasted the latest plan by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, which calls for changing Medicare for those now 54 and younger from a fee-for-service program to one in which the government would provide subsidies to purchase insurance.

“We believe in strengthening Medicare. They don’t,” Biden said.

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COCONUT CREEK — About 400 or more people — mostly seniors — have turned out to hear Vice President Joe Biden at the Wynmoor retirement community here.

Biden is expected to bash Republican Medicare proposals. He’ll also make a stop for a private meeting with about 40 “community leaders” in Hollywood, one Democratic operative said.

The Obama campaign’s 17-minute video narrated by Tom Hanks just played for the crowd as it awaits Biden. Portions mentioning the killing of Osama bin Laden and the 2010 passage of the health care bill got applause from the audience.

Vice President Joe Biden‘s visit to a senior community in Broward County will include accusations that congressional Republicans and their “amen corner” of Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich want to dismantle Medicare, cut Social Security and hold down taxes for the rich.

Biden will speak at the Wynmoor condo community in Coconut Creek around noon.

President Obama‘s reelection campaign has released some excerpts in advance of Biden’s remarks. Read ‘em after the jump…

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