One of the signs is along U.S. Route 1 in Fort Pierce
FORT PIERCE — The campaign of U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Palm Beach Gardens, has begun posting signs that feature a 2003 mug shot of Democratic rival Patrick Murphy and urge voters to “REJECT Patrick Murphy’s Racist Attacks on Allen West.”
Murphy, attending a meet-and-greet with former Gov. Charlie Crist in Port St. Lucie today, called the signs “a desperate attack on his part. I think he sees the numbers, he sees the polls.”
The intoxication charge was ultimately dropped and the fake ID charge was dismissed. Murphy called it “the biggest mistake of my life.”
West has already featured the mug shot in two TV ads.
The accusation of “racist attacks” refers to an August TV ad by a super PAC bankrolled primarily by Murphy’s father, Thomas P. Murphy Jr.. The ad showed a cartoonish likeness of West, who is black, with a shiny tooth punching white women and taking money from a black family. West said the ad played on racial stereotypes, but an NAACP official disagreed and called it “a typical campaign ad.”
Former Gov. Charlie Crist, a potential Republican vice presidential pick in 2008 who criticized Barack Obama as a surrogate for GOP nominee John McCain, returned to surrogate duty this afternoon — but this time for Obama.
Crist, who became an independent in 2010 and endorsed Obama in August, appeared on a Democratic conference call to bracket upcoming visits to Florida by Mitt Romney and running mate Paul Ryan.
“As Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan come to our own state all they have to offer are empty promises and failed policies,” Crist said.
Echoing Obama’s stump speeches, Crist accused Romney of backing a deficit-busting $5 trillion tax cut for the wealthy and an unnecessary $2 trillion hike in defense spending.
“He asks for your vote, but he won’t tell you how he’s going to pay for these things,” Crist said.
Crist also picked up on this week’s popular Democratic theme of ridiculing Romney for his description during Tuesday’s debate of his efforts to recruit women for his administration when he was governor of Massachusetts.
“I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks,’ and they brought us whole binders full of women,” Romney said. Critics pounced on the “binders full of women” phrase and Crist joined in today.
Crist said Romney “talked about (women) as resumes in a binder….He doesn’t understand the challenges they face.”
Crist added that Romney should have known of plenty of qualified female applicants from his prior experience in the business world.
“Why did Mitt Romney even need binders full of women to find qualified candidates?” Crist said.
Photo provided by Gorilla Magic, a PR firm that represents the Van Duzer Foundation.
Former Gov. Charlie Crist was serious about wanting to meet presidential man-hug champion Scott Van Duzer.
A few hours after expressing a desire to meet the Fort Pierce pizza parlor owner who hugged and lifted President Obama on Sunday, Crist showed up at Van Duzer’s business this afternoon and, according to Van Duzer, said “You know what I’m here for.”
Van Duzer obliged by lifting Crist off the floor.
“Nothing surprises me any more after the president walked in,” Van Duzer said. He said it was his first time meeting Crist, although he said Crist had helped his non-profit Van Duzer Foundation in 2009 by promoting Be A Hero Day to promote blood donations.
Crist admits his 2009 hug of Obama was put "to shame" by Van Duzer.
Former Gov. Charlie Crist, whose Republican political career began to unravel after his famous Fort Myers stimulus hug of President Obama in 2009, says he wants to meet Scott Van Duzer, the Republican pizza parlor owner who embraced and lifted Obama off his feet Sunday in Fort Pierce.
Republican-turned-independent Crist, widely rumored to be mulling a 2014 run for governor as a Demcorat, added more fuel to that fire today by attending a Bill Clinton-headlined fundraiser for Democratic congressional candidates Lois Frankel and Patrick Murphy in West Palm Beach.
Van Duzer's presidential hug-and-lift.
When PostOnPolitics mentioned witnessing Van Duzer’s hug of Obama, Crist said: “You know what? I wanted to stop by the guy….Where is his place?”
Crist also conceded that he has been dethroned as Florida’s bipartisan presidential hugging champion.
PostOnPolitics began telling Crist that Van Duzer’s embrace of Obama “kind of put your hug –”
A poll of Florida Democrats commissioned by Democratic consultant Christian Ulvert shows former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist enjoyed strong favorable ratings among Florida Dems before he endorsed President Obama and spoke at the Democratic convention.
Taken Aug. 5-7 by Democratic firm SE&A Research, the poll shows 59 percent of Florida Democrats had a somewhat or very favorable opinion of Crist and 52 percent had a somewhat or very favorable view of Alex Sink, the former Florida chief financial officer who lost the 2010 governor’s race to Republican Rick Scott.
In a hypothetical head-to-head Democratic governor’s primary matchup, Sink got 31 percent to 29 percent for Crist. That’s within the poll’s 4 percent margin of error.
Crist, who ditched his Republican registration for no party affiliation during a failed 2010 Senate campaign, endorsed Obama Aug. 26 and spoke at the Democratic convention the following week. Crist is widely rumored to be mulling a 2014 run for governor as a Democrat.
Ulvert is advising Palm Beach County Democratic state attorney candidate Dave Aronberg and the Florida Democratic Party on state legislative races. He’s close to former Democratic state Sen. and 2010 attorney general candidate Dan Gelber, but said he didn’t commission the poll on behalf of anyone.
Crowd gathers at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne this morning. President Obama speaks here and in West Palm Beach today after campaiging along the Interstate 4 corridor on Saturday.
MELBOURNE — The gym at the Florida Institute of Technology is filling up and there’s a long line outside as President Obama prepares for day two of a campaign swing through Florida that will bring him to the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach this afternoon.
Obama campaigned Saturday along the fabled Interstate 4 corridor. He was joined in Pinellas County by former Gov. Charlie Crist, the Republican-turned-independent who’s rumored to be mulling a 2014 bid for governor as a Democrat and spoke at last week’s Democratic convention. Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson also joined Obama in Central Florida on Saturday.
Former Gov. Charlie Crist at the Democratic convention tonight.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former Republican Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is attending his first Democratic convention tonight in Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz‘s box at the Time Warner Cable Arena.
“It’s awesome. People are so friendly and so kind and so nice. It’s just a wonderful atmosphere and we’re having a great time,” said Crist.
The former governor was accompanied by his wife Carole and attorney John Morgan, head of the Orlando law firm where Crist works.
Crist, scheduled to speak on Wednesday night, arrived on the arena’s Founders Level a little before 10 p.m.
“We’re going to Debbie’s — Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s,” Crist told an arena employee, who directed him to go up a flight.
Longtime Republican Crist switched his voter registration to no party affiliation in 2010 after Marco Rubio pulled ahead of him in a GOP Senate primary. Crist ran as an independent and lost. He endorsed President Obama on Aug. 26, just before Republicans held their convention in Tampa.
Asked if he plans to become a Democrat, Crist said, “I have no idea. I just have plans to help the president. Although Carole switched.”
Carole Crist became a Democrat last year.
“I feel right at home here in Charlotte,” she said.
Asked to preview his Thursday speech, Crist said, “I just want to talk about the president and how he tried to help Florida so much.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, one of the featured speakers at this week’s Democratic National Convention, has a net unfavorable ranking among Florida voters, according to a new survey by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling.
But Crist, who switched to no party affiliation in 2010 and is rumored to be mulling a 2014 run for governor as a Democrat, would edge Republican Gov. Rick Scott in a hypothetical matchup, PPP says.
Crist is viewed favorably by 36 percent of Floridians and unfavorably by 44 percent, according to the survey of 1,548 likely voters taken Aug. 31-Sept. 2. Democrats and independents have a net favorable view of Crist, while Republicans are overwhelmingly negative. The poll has a 2.5 percent margin of error.
Crist would beat Scott by a 45-to-42 margin, the poll says. But a generic Democrat would beat Scott by the same margin.
Sen. Bill Nelson, who’s attending the convention today only, leads Republican Rep. Connie Mack by a 45-to-38 percent margin in PPP’s poll. Voters disapprove of the job Nelson is doing by a 42-to-35 percent margin. But they’re even more negative toward Mack, with 27 percent having a favorable opinion of him and 45 percent unfavorable.
The Florida Republican Party is taking to the airwaves this week to cloud renegade former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who is scheduled to address the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.
Ads that start airing statewide Tuesday — and will stretch through Friday — use Crist’s own words against him as the GOP attempts to blunt the impact of the former chief executive’s endorsement of President Obama.
In the spot, video clips show Crist describing himself as a “pro-life, pro-gun, anti-tax Republican,” and concluding, “I’m about as conservative as you can get.” In between, Crist praises Jeb Bush, George W. Bush and Sarah Palin in the video montage.
Crist’s convention speech is widely talked of as the opening act of a come-back which could include a 2014 run for governor — as a Democrat.
Florida Republican Chairman Lenny Curry said Crist’s convention speech this week will be even weirder than that given by Clint Eastwood at the Republican National Convention in Tampa.
“If many Democrats thought Clint Eastwood’s speech was a bit odd, wait till they see Charlie Crist – a man who has built his career bashing virtually everything President Obama and the Democrats stand for, including the President’s spending programs and ObamaCare – debate himself,” Curry said.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In a lineup that’s largely devoid of speakers from the nation’s largest swing state, former U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, who represented a Palm Beach-Broward congressional district for 13 years, will speak tonight to the Democratic National Convention between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Wexler resigned in the middle of his seventh term to take a job as president of the Washington-based S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace in 2010.
Broward County U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, will play a prominent role in this week’s convention. And former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist is a featured speaker.
Beyond that, no other prominent Floridians are scheduled to speak — a reflection of the lack of Democratic star power in the Sunshine State. The only Democrat to hold statewide elected office is Sen. Bill Nelson, who faces a tough reelection challenge from Republican Rep. Connie Mack this year. Nelson is keeping a low profile this week, with his campaign saying he’ll only be at the convention today.
Republicans scheduled five Florida speakers for last week’s GOP convention in Tampa: Sen. Marco Rubio, former Gov. Jeb Bush, Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi, Mack, and Gov. Rick Scott. Scott ended up missing his speaking gig because of Hurricane Isaac.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — National Democrats obviously are delighted to have former Republican Florida Gov. Charlie Crist as a speaker at this week’s convention. They’ve heightened the air of suspense surrounding Crist’s address by not revealing exactly when it will occur.
Florida Democrats, meanwhile, are looking beyond this week and pondering the possibility of Crist seeking the 2014 Democratic nomination for his old job.
See what Alex Sink, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the Obama campaign have to say about Crist by clicking here.
After a brief sound check onstage at the Tampa Bay Times Forum, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio was crushed by a media scrum anxious to hear the GOP rising star wax on about everything from Charlie Crist’s endorsement of President Barack Obama to how to address immigration.
Rubio, Florida’s Republican U.S. senator who grew up in Miami, will introduce Mitt Romney tomorrow night at the Republican National Convention, a primo spot second only to the presidential candidate’s acceptance speech itself.
Rubio said his job is to make clear to the millions of television viewers during his prime-time speech the choices between the two candidates and the role of government in people’s lives.
“This election is about the choice the country has about the role government should play in our country. And really that is what this choice is going to be about. It’s not a choice between a Democrat and a Republican simply. It’s a choice about much more than that. So tomorrow, my job is to introduce the next president of the united states and to do so in a way that makes It clear to people what their choice is.
It’s a great honor,” Rubio said.
Rubio will also talk about his experience as the son of Cuban immigrants, something he does with an earnestness that has made him one of the most popular Republican politicians in the country. Rubio was on Romney’s short-list for veep before the former Massachusetts governor settled on U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan.
When asked what’s different about his tomorrow-night speech, Rubio laughed.
“I don’t know. Thirty-nine million people, probably. Look, it’s a tremendous honor to be able to give this speech in my home state in front of a lot of family and friends,” he said, mentioning his mother and late father.
“It will be affirmation that their lives matter. That all the sacrifices and hard work they went through was worth something…It’s just an honor to be able to introduce the next president of the U.S. and to do so in a way that I hope will make clear the choice that we have and the difference between the two men.”
Rubio blamed complaints that the Romney campaign hadn’t done enough to reach out to Hispanic voters on the campaign’s limited resources and said the pace would pick up in the general election cycle .
Read what Rubio said about immigration, Charlie Crist and Paul Ryan after the jump. (more…)
Gov. Charlie Crist’s plans to speak at next week’s Democratic National Convention brought a fresh round of outrage Monday from Republican leaders — already sizing up the renegade former Republican executive as a likely opponent in the 2014 governor’s race.
“It’s got to be an historic moment,” said Florida Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry. “A self-proclaimed Jeb Bush, a self-proclaimed Ronald Reagan Republican, who is on the record opposing most of the policies of President Obama is going to speak at the Democratic convention.
“I’m not quite sure what they’re thinking,” he added. “I know what he’s thinking.”
Curry said, “I don’t know what his plans are. It certainly looks like he’s in a position to do something.”
Curry also challenged Crist’s central theme — expressed in an op-ed in the Tampa Bay Times on Sunday — that the Republican Party had moved too far to the right for him, and that’s why he was endorsing President Obama. Curry and Republican researchers have released a trove of Crist quotes and policy positions from his long political career that clearly cast him as a pr0-gun, anti-abortion, anti-same sex marriage Republican.
Instead, Curry said Crist’s latest move follows a pattern that saw him run unsuccessfully as an independent for U.S. Senate when Republican Marco Rubio became the party’s nominee in 2010.
“Charlie left the Republican Party because it was the most likely scenario in which he could win the United States Senate seat,” Curry said.
The timing of Crist’s announcement — on the eve of the Republican National Convention in his Tampa Bay-area home — infuriates Republicans even more. Asked if the party would run TV spots ridiculing Crist’s conversion, Curry said, “You just gave me an idea.”
“If Charlie Crist wants to…rain on our parade, we’re going to respond,” Curry said.
Former Gov. Charlie Crist, whose rise as a Republican star flamed out after his 2009 man-hug of President Obama in Fort Myers, has endorsed Obama’s reelection in an op-ed piece in today’s Tampa Bay Times.
Timed, no doubt, to get a rise out of his former party as Republicans from across the U.S. arrive in Tampa for this week’s GOP convention, the Crist endorsement provoked a quick denunciation from Republican Party of Florida Chairman Lenny Curry.
“Today we have seen a repugnant display from a self-centered, career politician. While the people of Florida, and thousands of visitors who’ve traveled here, are facing an emergency, Charlie Crist has demonstrated, yet again, that his political ambition will always come first,” Curry said.
Lifelong Republican Crist was elected governor in 2006 and got some consideration to be John McCain‘s running mate in 2008. He was a slam-dunk favorite to win the 2010 Republican Senate nomination, but Marco Rubio tapped into tea party dissatisfaction with Crist’s embrace of the $787 billion Democratic stimulus bill. Crist introduced Obama, and briefly hugged the recently inaugurated Democratic president, during a stimulus pep rally in Fort Myers in February 2009.
Rubio used a picture of “The Hug” to symbolize conservative dissatisfaction with the moderate Crist and overtook him in the polls. Crist dropped out of the Republican Party in 2010 and continued his Senate bid as a no-party candidate, abandoning his conservative GOP primary rhetoric to accuse his old party of being beholden to extremists on the right. Crist lost the general election to Rubio but outpolled Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek.
Former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist’s endorsement of Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson brought a swift reaction Thursday from the state GOP.
“Just when we though Charlie Crist couldn’t sink any lower, he’s surprised us once again,” Florida Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry said in a news release condemning, “The Two Faces of Charlie Crist.”
Crist’s embrace of Nelson is expected to be completed Friday at an Orlando fund-raiser at the home of uber-trial lawyer, John Morgan, the former governor’s boss. Remember, it was Crist’s hug for President Barack Obama that sent his career as a Republican on a downward course.
Also attending the Nelson cash call will be former President Bill Clinton.
Crist’s shape-shifting, though, is getting the most attention. It’s widely talked of as a likely prelude to his reemerging as a Democrat and candidate for governor.
Republicans, though, are steamed, pointing out that Crist’s snub of Republican primary frontrunner Connie Mack IV comes despite the then-governor having endorsed Mack in his 2008 congressional race, contributing to his campaigns between 2004 and 2006, and backing Republican Katherine Harris over Nelson in 2006.
Crist’s biography also wouldn’t be complete without his homage to Mack’s father, former U.S. Sen. Connie Mack III, for whom Crist worked as a state director.
”With his latest attempt to reshape himself, Charlie shows he is absolutely willing to betray anyone and everyone, including his own political mentor and longtime friend,” Curry said.
Sen. Mike Fasano, a New Port Richey Republican, was named winner Monday of the Friend of the First Amendment Award by the newspaper-backed Florida First Amendment Foundation.
Fasano, a legislator since 1994, is campaigning for the House this fall, seeking to return to the chamber where he began his legislative career after term limits force him out of the Florida Senate.
“Too often government goes too far in closing records from public scrutiny,” Fasano said. “I was honored to have worked with the foundation during my tenure as a lawmaker, and in particular during this past year, to help keep public records what they should be: public.”
The award is expected to be presented next March to Fasano. A friend and political ally of Fasano, former Gov. Charlie Crist, is a two-time winner of the award, honored when he was attorney general in 2005 and governor in 2007.
Fasano was an outspoken opponent last year of proposals by Senate leaders to privatize South Florida prisons, questioning how much of the issue had received a public airing. He also drew attention after receiving a $10,000 bill from state officials for public records involving the State Board of Administration’s investment decisions.
Fasano successfully fought the charge as “chilling to the concept of governmental transparency.”
The First Amendment award is named after Pete Weitzel, former managing editor of the Miami Herald and a past president of the foundation.
The former head of Florida’s jobs’ agency has announced her resignation, the latest departure from the new Department of Economic Opportunity created by Gov. Rick Scott.
Cynthia Lorenzo, chief operating officer of DEO, said she was leaving July 6 to spend more time caring for her two young sons. Lorenzo had been head of the former Agency for Workforce Innovation under ex-Gov. Charlie Crist, and continued in that role in the early months of Scott’s administration.
Scott, however, got the Legislature to reconstitute AWI as the new Department of Economic Opportunity, naming Doug Darling as the jobs’ agency’s head. Darling lasted six months — exiting soon after he acknowledged that Florida over the years had paid tens of millions of dollars to lure companies to the state for jobs that were never created.
Lorenzo briefly served as DEO’s interim director after Darling left. Hunting Deutsch, is the current executive director.
Florida’s unemployment rate fell to 8.7 percent in April, it’s lowest level in three years. But the state’s unemployment compensation system — recently renamed ‘reemployment assistance’ — is being investigated by the U.S. Labor Department following a complaint by workers’ organizations that claim the state’s new online system of filing for benefits creates too many hurdles for out-of-work Floridians.
Critics have said frustration with the system may be aiding Scott’s goal of reducing unemployment. Some workers may abandon their job search or just leave the state, falling out of Florida’s labor market.
Unemployment benefits are paid by employers, and the changes approved in 2011 were pushed hard by the state’s largest business associations.
State officials say the changes have saved businesses millions of dollars and have helped spur Florida’s job growth.
Mitt Romney will make some money stops in Florida on Wednesday and Thursday, including a $50,000-a-plate dinner at private equity mogul Marc Leder‘s Boca Raton home.
Romney visits the Tampa home of Dick and Cornelia Corbett on Wednesday afternoon, then heads to Coral Gables for a reception at the Biltmore and a dinner at the home of Phil and Pat Frost. There’s also a Romney reception and private lunch in Jacksonville on Thursday before the presumptive Republican nominee arrives in Boca for a Thursday evening reception at Woodfield Country Club and then dinner at Leder’s nearby home.
In each city, Romney’s schedule includes a general reception for $2,500 donors, a VIP event with a photo opportunity for $10,000 contributors and a private meal for those who pony up $50,000.
Leder is the co-founder of Sun Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in Boca Raton.
Leder has given $125,000 to the pro-Romney superPAC Restore Our Future and showered contributions on a variety of Republican candidates, including Sen. Marco Rubio and Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown. In Florida’s 2012 Senate race, Leder gave $5,000 to Adam Hasner‘s GOP campaign before Hasner switched to a U.S. House race; Leder recently gave $2,500 to Rep. Connie Mack‘s Senate bid.
Leder also gave $4,800 to Charlie Crist‘s 2010 Senate bid before Crist bolted the GOP. And he has contributed to South Florida Democratic U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch and Debbie Wasserman Schultz and former Democratic Rep. Ron Klein.
Former appointed Sen. George LeMieux, whose reputation as former Gov. Charlie Crist‘s “maestro” once made him the embodiment of the Florida GOP establishment, has been endorsed by Herman Cain, who hailed LeMieux’s anti-establishment credentials at a Hernando County GOP dinner over the weekend.
“Tonight was the first time I ever heard Sen. LeMieux. And I’m sitting there thinking to myself: He’s saying everything I would say,” businessman and former GOP presidential candidate Cain said.
“This is the type of person that we need in Washington, D.C. — people who are not afraid to challenge the establishment,” said Cain, who said he didn’t tell LeMieux or his own staff in advance before making the endorsement.
LeMieux and Rep. Connie Mack are the leading Republican contenders for the nomination to take on Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.
A former top aide to ex-Gov. Charlie Crist has been named the Everglades Foundation’s new chief executive officer.
Eric Eikenberg, who was chief-of-staff for Crist and, earlier, for former U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, will lead the environmental advocacy organization beginning July 1. He succeeds Kirk Fordham, who announced last month he was leaving the Miami-based nonprofit to take a job as executive director of the Gill Action Fund, a leading gay rights advocacy organization.
“Eric impressed us from the first moment we met. He has a deep understanding of what it takes to achieve success both in Washington and Tallahassee and he has the leadership skills that will help the Foundation continue to be at the forefront of Everglades restoration,” said Paul Tudor Jones, II, Everglades Foundation chairman.
Since leaving Crist’s office, Eikenberg has been a senior policy advisor for the law firm, Holland & Knight. During his time in the governor’s office, Eikenberg was a central negotiator in forging a deal to buy 187,000 acres of land owned by U.S. Sugar, part of a plan to sharply reduce sugar production in the region and use the property for Everglades restoration.
Crist’s successor, Gov. Rick Scott, opposed the sale, and the South Florida Water Management District went forward with a scaled-back plan by acquiring 27,000 of sugar land. Scott last fall unveiled his own plan for moving forward with Everglades work. Environmentalists expect Scott to offer more refinements to his proposal in coming weeks.
“I am honored to join the Everglades Foundation as its next chief executive officer,” Eikenberg said. “The mission is simple: Save the Everglades. It is the source of water for more than 7 million Floridians and a driver of our economy. What we do now, will determine whether our generation leaves future generations with a vibrant, healthy, River of Grass.”
