Gov. Rick Scott will speak at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, joining a lineup that includes encore performances by Sen. Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation.

CPAC is the conservative movement’s premiere annual showcase. Rubio’s status as a rising star of the right was confirmed when he was booked for a featured 2010 speaking gig while former Gov. Charlie Crist was still the establishment favorite for Florida’s GOP Senate nomination. Tea party megastar West keynoted last year’s conference.

Mitt Romney‘s 2012 presidential bid arguably began four years ago at CPAC when he chose the venue to announce he was dropping out of the 2008 Republican nomination hunt. Romney, who has had his troubles firing up the GOP conservative base this year, was considered the conservative alternative to John McCain in 2008.

Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are all scheduled to speak at this year’s CPAC, which begins Thursday and ends Saturday.

Charlie Crist was a rising Republican star whose endorsement was coveted in the run-up to FLorida’s 2008 GOP presidential primary. He threw his support behind John McCain the weekend before the primary, helping McCain win Florida and effectively clinch the GOP nomination.

Four years later, Crist is a GOP pariah — but his name is hot again in the week before the Republican primary. Newt Gingrich suggested GOP establishment favorite Mitt Romney is like Crist, whose moderate brand of Republicanism fell from favor in 2010 and led Crist to bolt the GOP to pursue a failed Senate bid against Florida’s new rising Republican star, Marco Rubio.

PostOnPolitics caught up with Crist today and asked how he feels about having his name bandied about before the primary.

“What’s up with that?” Crist said. “Maybe that matters to some people. It sure doesn’t matter to me. I mean, I can’t even vote in the Republican primary. I’m an independent.”

Crist, who attended Monday night’s GOP debate in Tampa, said the race has been “anything but dull,” but he declined to offer any specific observations on the 2012 candidates or the GOP race.

“You know what? I am going to hesitate to inject myself into the primary,” Crist said. “I’ll let the candidates handle their own campaigns.”

Former U.S. Rep. and 2010 Democratic Senate nominee Kendrick Meek is endorsing Lois Frankel‘s congressional bid.

Democrat Frankel is running in a primary against Patrick Murphy for the seat of U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation.

Meek cited his longstanding friendship with Frankel going back to their days in the Florida legislature, adding “I know of no better person to take on Allen West and replace his extreme obstructionism with a proven leader who can get things done.”

It would have been a shocker if Meek backed Murphy. Murphy got a $1,000 contribution from former Gov. Charlie Crist, whose independent bid for Senate in 2010 siphoned votes from Meek. Murphy’s consultant, Eric Johnson, was a strategist for Crist’s campaign.

Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler contributed $2,000 during the fourth quarter of 2011 to the congressional campaign of Patrick Murphy, one of two Dems running for the Palm Beach-Broward seat of U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation.

Murphy raised more than $300,000 in the quarter, his campaign said, bringing his fundraising total to $1.4 million. Former Democratic governor candidate Bill McBride and former Wilton Mayors Mayor Jim Stork also contributed to Murphy. Stork ran for the congressional seat in 2004 but cut his campaign short for health reasons.

Republican-turned-independent former Gov. Charlie Crist gave $1,000 to Murphy’s campaign last spring. Murphy consultant Eric Johnson was a strategist for both Wexler and Crist.

Former West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel is also running as a Democrat for West’s seat and raised more than $1.1 million through Sept. 30.

Fourth-quarter campaign reports are due Jan. 31 for federal candidates.

Murphy and Frankel are among the top Democratic fundraisers in the U.S., but they are no financial match for West, who through Sept. 30 had raised more than $4.1 million and had $1.8 million in cash on hand.

Secretary of State Kurt Browning is stepping down – for the second time – but will stay on the job long enough to oversee the Jan. 31 GOP presidential primary election.

Browning, who met briefly with Gov. Rick Scott today before announcing his resignation, has served twice as the state’s chief elections official. He worked for four years for Gov. Charlie Crist but took an early retirement in 2010 because of a new rule dealing with state workers collecting pensions while on the job.

Scott rehired Browning shortly after the governor took office in January. After six months off the state payroll, Browning was again eligible to work and collect retirement pay at the same time. Browning, who earns $139,999.92 a year, will stay until Feb. 17, after which he is considering a run for Pasco County school superintendent.

Browning told reporters Wednesday he did “a lot of soul-searching” over the holidays before deciding to step down, that he was not being forced out and that he hopes his replacement will take over before he leaves.

“I’ve always said the department of state ran well before I got here. It will run well after I’m gone,” Browning said.

Browning’s been involved in a high-profile federal lawsuit over the state’s new elections laws, and has been an outspoken critic of President Obama’s administration.

(more…)

One of Florida’s wealthiest lawmakers again has legislation that would carve a new public records exemption into state law for donors to taxpayer-financed performing arts center.

Margate Democratic Sen. Jeremy Ring’s legislation (SB 570) sailed Monday through the Senate’s Community Affairs Committee on a 7-0 vote. Ring said the measure has been promoted by the Broward County Performing Arts Center, whose leaders have told him that the idea of going public with a sizable gift has discouraged some prospective donors — who demand anonymity.

Ring has reported a $17.9 million net worth, making him the second-wealthiest member of the Florida Senate. He made a fortune as an executive with Yahoo, the Internet company.

Ring said he’s sponsored the public records exemption for several years — but has never managed to get it through both chambers of the Legislature and the governor. Former Gov. Charlie Crist, who was honored by the media-backed First Amendment Foundation for his service to the cause of open government, vetoed the measure one year, Ring said.

Legislation approved during Crist’s term also requires two-thirds approval of the House and Senate for an exemption. But Ring drew plenty of support Monday for his proposal.

“There are a lot of people who want to give, but they don’t want to get on someone’s mailing list,” said committee Chairman Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton. “It’s sort of like giving to the Republican Party. They may have money they want to give, but they don’t want to be public about it.”

Ring said, “I never gave one penny to the Republican Party. But I’m on their mailing list.”

 

 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.”

Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty’s approval Monday of a sharp increase in worker’s compensation insurance rates paid by businesses is rekindling a fight between potent power bases of the ruling Florida Republican Party.

McCarty’s 8.9 percent rate hike drew scorn immediately from the business lobby, Associated Industries of Florida, which blamed higher health care costs on doctors pocketing extra money from repackaging prescription drugs they give worker’s comp patients.

“Almost one third of this rate increase is due to the ever-expanding practice of physicians dispensing repackaged drugs at prices exponentially higher than the statute allows pharmacies to charge for the same drugs,” said Jose Gonzalez, an AIF vice-president.

 ”Associated Industries of Florida will diligently seek the Legislature’s intervention to close this loophole during the 2012 session and allow Florida employers to use those millions of dollars to create new jobs rather than line the pockets of those who unfairly manipulate the system for their own gain,” Gonzalez said.

Over the past two years, Florida business groups have been scuffling with the Florida Medical Association, Florida Orthopedic Society and the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), a Democratic power base, over the prescription repackaging issue.

Last year, lawmakers approved a measure backed by then-Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink that would have imposed new restrictions on doctors’ repackaging, lowering costs to the state and private companies. Sink, who lost to Republican Rick Scott in last fall’s governor’s race, was among those saying the change would have saved private companies $34 million in worker’s comp costs.

But then-Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed the measure.

Among those supporting Crist’s veto in June 2010 was Automated Healthcare Solutions, a Miramar company headed by a pair of doctors, Paul Zimmerman and Gerald Glass, who later that summer gave more than $1 million to political spending committees headed by the Legislature’s then-incoming leaders, Senate President Mike Haridopolos and House Speaker Dean Cannon.

The company provides software that helps doctors dispense and manage patient prescriptions, a profitable sidelight for many doctors. Because the legislation vetoed by Crist would have imposed new restrictions on doctors’ repackaging,  it also threatened Automated Healthcare’s services.

Zimmerman, the company’s CEO, says in a statement on the company’s website that its services are designed to “enhance revenue production by allowing physicians to retain profits.”

Haridopolos and Cannon last year used the money funneled from the doctors primarily to help then-Attorney General Bill McCollum in his losing Republican primary fight with Scott.

But with McCollum out of the picture, the doctors quickly pivoted following the campaign – pouring $735,000 into the Florida Republican Party and another $145,000 to Scott’s spending committee – in an attempt to make nice with the new GOP nominee, who is now a resident of the Governor’s Mansion.

And the doctors are still giving. While the business groups looking to cut worker’s comp costs aren’t shy about giving to the ruling state GOP, Automated Healthcare Solutions also has donated $203,500 to the party so far this year, records show, as it becomes more apparent another effort to rein-in repackaging is coming. 

 

 

 

 

 

BOYNTON BEACH — U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, won’t reveal if he has a favorite in the Republican presidential race, but during a town hall meeting tonight he weighed in on Herman Cain‘s Florida straw poll victory and 9-9-9 tax plan, Michele Bachmann‘s polling swoon, Ron Paul‘s Federal Reserve bashing and in-state tuition benefits for the children of illegal immigrants as championed by Rick Perry.

West also told reporters he expects Florida to be influential in presidential politics regardless of when it schedules its 2012 primary.

West also got a dig in on former Gov. Charlie Crist, the Republican-turned-independent who has contributed to one of West’s Democratic rivals.

Find out what West had to say after the jump…

(more…)

The Florida Education Association sued Wednesday to overturn the new state law that ends teacher tenure and introduces merit pay based in large part on how students perform on standardized tests.

The state’s largest teachers’ union said the measure — approved by the Republican-ruled Legislature and the first bill signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott — violates constitutional collective bargaining guarantees. Employment terms are to be decided by negotiations between teachers and school districts — not by state lawmakers, said Ron Meyer, attorney for the FEA, which filed the suit on behalf of six school teachers.

“It strains credulity that people in Tallahassee,  over in the Capitol, know better than the people on the ground,”  Meyer said.

Andy Ford, FEA president, said the new standard — approved in a mostly party-line vote, with legislative Democrats opposed — “totally changed the teaching profession in Florida.”

“It denies teachers the constitutional right to collective bargaining,” Ford said.

The merit pay legislation requires that 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation be based on student achievement on tests — including the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and other standardized exams, most of which must still be developed by state and local educators.

Under the bill, current teachers would retain existing pay schedules and contracts — even those spanning multi-years. They could lose their jobs, though, if they drew two subpar annual evaluations within three years.

Teachers hired after July 1, however, are limited to one-year contracts and would draw raises only if rated “effective” or “highly effective.”

Former Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a similar bill last year. But during last fall’s governor’s race, Scott made ending teacher tenure and enacting merit pay a central portion of his campaign, with the FEA throwing in heavily behind Democrat Alex Sink.

After months of promising action, the state’s largest teachers’ union looks ready to bring Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-ruled Legislature to court in an attempt to overturn a measure that creates a new merit pay standard and ends teacher tenure.

The legislation (CS/SB 736) was the first bill signed into law this spring by Scott. But it also marked was the culmination of a increasingly bitter clash between Florida Republicans and the Democratic-allied Florida Education Association, a struggle whose roots are deep.

FEA President Andy Ford and other leaders of the teachers’ group plan to outline the lawsuit they plan to file during a news conference and media call tomorrow.

The merit pay legislation requires that 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation be based on student achievement on tests — including the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and other standardized exams, most of which must still be developed by state and local educators.

Under the bill, current teachers would retain existing pay schedules and contracts — even those spanning multi-years. They could lose their jobs, though, if they drew two subpar annual evaluations within three years.

Teachers hired after July 1, however, are limited to one-year contracts and would draw raises only if rated “effective” or “highly effective.”

Former Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a similar bill last year. But during last fall’s governor’s race, Scott made ending teacher tenure and enacting merit pay a central portion of his campaign, with the FEA throwing in heavily behind Democrat Alex Sink.

The FEA is already squared off against the Legislature, having earlier this summer sued to overturn a proposed constitutional amendment put on next year’s ballot to lift the state’s more than century-old prohibition on tax dollars flowing to religious institutions.

Gov. Rick Scott overstepped his authority and violated the separation of powers by freezing state agency rulemaking, the Florida Supreme Court ruled today.

Shortly after he was sworn in as governor on Jan. 4, Scott suspended agency rulemaking and required the proposed rules be vetted by his office. He later created the “Office of Fiscal Accountability and Regulatory Reform” to review the rules, saying he wanted to make sure they did not slow down government, create barriers for businesses or cost taxpayers money.

But in a 5-2 ruling, the court found that Scott’s executive orders “infringe upon the very process of rulemaking and encroach upon the Legislature‘s delegation of its rulemaking power as set forth in the Florida Statutes.”

Chief Justice Charles Canady and Judge Ricky Polston, both appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist, dissented. Scott acted within his constitutional authority as the state’s chief administrative officer whose duty is “to manage, plan, and hold agencies under his charge accountable to State laws, including the APA. The actual facts before us do not demonstrate otherwise,” Polston wrote.

Canady called the majority opinion an “ill-conceived interference with the constitutional authority and responsibility of Florida‘s Governor.”

Scott also saw it that way.

“It doesn’t make any sense to me,” Scott said of the court ruling. “I don’t think it follows the constitution. It’s a disappointment.

“Think about it, the secretaries of these agencies report to me, they work for me at will, and I’m not supposed to supervise them? It doesn’t make sense,” he added.

(more…)

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is backing George LeMieux in a heated GOP primary for U.S. Senate.

Barbour, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee who briefly considered running in the 2012 presidential race, called LeMieux a “solid conservative” in a statement released this morning by LeMieux’s campaign.

“I am honored to earn the support of a principled conservative like Haley Barbour. When Governor Barbour was RNC Chairman, he helped orchestrate the Republican Revolution in 1994 that built the type of conservative majorities we need to turn our country around,” LeMieux said in the release. “More importantly, from his leadership during hurricane Katrina to his work passing key pro-life legislation, Governor Barbour is a case study in effective conservative governance.”

LeMieux is struggling to shake off his ties to Gov. Charlie Crist, who appointed LeMieux to replace former U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez when he resigned mid-term. LeMieux, a one-time close ally to Crist whom the former governor called “The Maestro,” did not seek reelection to the seat, which now-U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio won after Crist quit the GOP and ran against him as an independent.

LeMieux will face off in the primary against Delray Beach’s Adam Hasner, a former state House member who also served as the chamber’s majority leader.

Wealthy Delray Beacher Nick Loeb is toying with entrée into the race but is waiting until gal pal Sofia Vergara, star of Modern Family, gets past the Emmy Awards next month. Chris Ruddy, another Palm Beacher and CEO of the influential West Palm Beach-based conservative publication NewsMax, has ruled out getting into the candidate fray.

A Quinnipiac University poll last week showed that 53 percent of Republican voters remain undecided in the Senate primary but found Plant City tree farmer and retired Army Reserve Col. Mike McCalister leading the current four-candidate field with a meager 15 percent.

Behind McCalister in the poll were both LeMieux, with 12 percent, and Hasner, with 6 percent. Former Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse CEO Craig Miller weighed in with 8 percent support.

Nancy Argenziano, a former chairwoman of the Public Service Commission and lifelong Republican, is running against incumbent freshman U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland – as a Democrat. Southerland, a Panama City Republican, ousted Congressional veteran Allen Boyd, a Democrat, from his North Florida District 2 seat in November.

Argenziano, who earned a reputation as a maverick during her tenure in both the state House and Senate, will formally enter the race for the North Florida Congressional seat within two weeks, Argenziano said.

Argenziano sent a letter to supporters declaring her intention to run as a Democrat, saying she needs at least $200,000 to be taken seriously as a candidate and to get the Democratic National Congressional Committee to throw some money her way.

Argenziano has been an outspoken critic of GOP leaders as a legislator and as a utility regulator, appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist, and unleashed her sharp tongue in her message to supporters, explaining why she is switching parties. Crist also abandoned the GOP in a failing bid as an independent against now-U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.

“Current Republican leaders have neither patience with nor allowance for honest elected officials, and they demand that members of the various legislatures – who, after all, have sworn to uphold the Constitution – instead just follow the hijacked party line and shut up,” Argenziano wrote. “While I am of the opinion that Americans are not ready to vote in a third party, greater parity of the two parties in state legislatures would allow for far better public policy. When one party – or one intransigent, ideological arm of a party – controls governmental and political policy, as in Florida, it breeds a dangerous hubris and promotes the worst kind of extremism and acceptance of those whose public service is merely a well paid hobby.”

Gov. Rick Scott rounded out his administration today, naming three long-time state government workers as agency heads.

The appointments include a holdover from his predecessor Charlie Crist, a long-time legislative staffer and a former aide of his gubernatorial opponent Alex Sink.

Scott made Cynthia Lorenzo’s job as interim director of the Agency for Workforce Innovation permanent. Crist put Lorenzo in charge of the agency that oversees unemployment compensation in 2009. She’s worked in state government for more than six years, serving at the Department of Juvenile Justice and the state transportation department.

Mike Hanson will head up the troubled Agency for Persons with Disabilities, which for years had been running a deficit and at one time had a wait list of more than 18,000 Floridians seeking services. Hanson has been a health care guru for the state for more than three decades, serving under Gov. Jeb Bush and as a policy analyst in both the House and Senate. Most recently, Hanson was the staff director of the Senate’s health and human services budget committee.

Doug Darling, currently the governor’s deputy chief of staff and director of Cabinet affairs, will take over Scott’s new Department of Economic Opportunity. Darling was forced out as a top aide to former Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink – who lost her bid for governor to Scott by a hair – over an audit that found his division lacking in internal controls. Darling also served at the departments of Environmental Protection and Education.

Former state House majority leader Adam Hasner said Thursday that he has raised more than $560,000 for his U.S. Senate campaign since jumping into the race in April.

While that trails leading fundraiser, Senate President Mike Haridopolos, whose $900,000 last quarter brings his total to $3.4 million, Hasner said his first finance report will show he is not relying on the special interest contributors his leading rivals have turned to.

Haridopolos has powerful Tallahassee ties; George LeMieux, appointed by former Gov. Charlie Crist for a brief turn in the Senate and now seeking a term of his own, was the beneficiary last month of a Washington cash-call hosted by Senate Republicans.

Hasner, of Delray Beach, is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson next year.

“Obviously, we’re not going to out-raise our opponents right out of the gate,” said Hasner adviser Rick Wilson. “One of them is running the Charlie Crist-special interest, establishment campaign plan. And the other one wrote it. Our approach is fundamentally different.”

Hasner said his report, which is to be filed by July 15, will show he has raised money from more than 2,000 contributors, signs that he’s got an “energized grassroots base.” Hasner also says he’s got $460,000 cash-on-hand.

With the state’s new elections law it opposed now challenged in federal court, the Florida League of Women Voters is rolling back the clock to honor former Gov. Charlie Crist next week.

The league, which said it would refrain from major voter registration efforts because of potential penalties imposed by the new measure, will honor Crist with a “Making Democracy Work,” award at an event it will host July 15 in St. Petersburg.

The league fought the sweeping elections measure (CS/HB 1355) during the last legislative session. It also urged Gov. Rick Scott to veto the changes, which impose stiff fines on such organizations as the league if they do not submit lists of prospective voters to elections supervisors within 48 hours of signing them up.

Democrats and allied groups also battled the legislation for imposing new voter standards and shortening the number of days for early voting, provisions they say that will make it harder for minorities, low-income voters and college students to cast ballots in next year’s elections.

Crist, however, is fondly remembered by the league.
The award will commend the former governor for signing into law standards that required a paper trail for touch-screen voting machines once in use, extending early voting hours during the 2008 election, and streamlining civil rights restoration for felons who had completed their sentences.

Gov. Rick Scott defended his administration’s public records policy to a roomful of newspaper executives at the Florida Press Association and Florida Society of Newspaper Editors annual meeting in St. Petersburg.

Scott has come under fire from the media for charging for more for public records than his predecessor, Charlie Crist, who made a habit of giving away most documents for free. Scott is charging the maximum amount allowed under Florida’s broad Sunshine Law, including costs for his legal staff to scrub the documents of private information.

The number of requests “has skyrocketed” since Scott took office in January, he said.

“Part of my job is to make sure we don’t waste taxpayers money. It costs us money to do it. We pass that cost on. It’s the right thing to do,” Scott said in a brief question-and-answer period.

Scott said he plans to put more records on the internet, but did not elaborate. His office has already put online records his staff has generated – including databases of state employees’ salaries and state workers with pensions worth at least $100,000.

Dozens of demonstrators protesting the governor’s economic agenda shouted “Pink Slip Rick” across the street from the waterfront Renaissance Vinoy Hotel as Scott spoke.

After his remarks, Scott fielded a few questions from reporters.

(more…)

U.S. Reps. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, and Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, today urged U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to intervene in a long-running dispute between the Kravis Center and a stagehands union.

The union and the West Palm Beach performing arts venue have been at odds since 2000, when center officials broke off contract talks and stopped using union stagehands. A federal appeals court in 2008 upheld two lower court rulings that the center had engaged in unfair labor practices and ordered it to return to the bargaining table. Talks broke down in January.

“As this conflict dates back over a decade, we therefore request that you please take a stand to compel the Kravis Center to change their course of conduct once and for all,” Hastings and Deutch say in a letter to Solis.

Kravis Center officials didn’t immediately respond.

Union members have not gone on strike, but have conducted “informational pickets” outside the Kravis Center from time to time. During last year’s U.S. Senate campaign, former Gov. Charlie Crist and Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek refused to cross the picket line.

Former West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel, who’s now a Democratic congressional candidate, and liberal comedian Bill Maher are among those who have crossed the informational pickets.

Gov. Rick Scott has a 59 percent disapproval rating and would lose a do-over election to Democrat Alex Sink by a 57-to-35 percent margin, Democratic firm Public Policy Polling says in a new survey.

If the 2014 gubernatorial election were held today, and if Republican-turned-independent former Gov. Charlie Crist were running as a Democrat, Crist would thump Scott by a 56-to-34 percent margin, the poll finds.

Asked if the Republican governor’s actions have made them more or less likely to vote Republican in the 2012 presidential race, 40 percent of all voters — and 45 percent of independents — said they were less likely to vote Republican next year because of Scott.

The June 16-19 poll of 848 Florida voters has a 3.4 percent margin of error.