TALLAHASSEE — Less than three weeks after President Obama complained about liberal activists attacking Democrats over health care reform, his own grass-roots campaign will put the heat on U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson on Thursday by rallying outside six of the Florida Democrat’s offices around the state.
Organizing for America, which continues to operate an Obama campaign Web site and use the president’s campaign logo, is scheduled to hold afternoon rallies in front of six of Nelson’s eight state offices. They include his West Palm Beach location at 500 Australian Ave., where the rally begins at 3 p.m.
Nelson has given little indication of how he would vote on key aspects of the health care legislation being debated, and he’s one of a key group of Senate Democrats whose support would be critical to overcoming a GOP-led filibuster.
The group will also demonstrate outside one of the seven Florida offices of Republican U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez.
Wexler, center, with former U.S. Senator and current Poker Players Alliance Chairman Al D'Amato, left, are interviewed for an episode of WSOP TV in 2007. Photo via pokerati.com.
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, helped kickoff the gaming industry’s National Poker Week in Washington on Monday urging the state directors of the Poker Players Alliance to visit their local congressmen back home. From Poker News Daily:
Wexler called the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) … an “absurd law” and labeled Congressmen Barney Frank an “important ally.” He then hit up the buffet to grab a snack before exiting with a staff member.
Wexler has long been a favorite among poker enthusiasts, partly due the Skill Game Protection Act, his proposal to legalize online poker.
The Boca Raton Democrat reportedly was welcomed with a “mountain of applause” when he appeared at the 2007 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Wexler also issued the traditional “shuffle up & deal” command to kick-off the 2008 World Series of Poker at the Rio.
Wexler, who collected nearly $70,000 from casinos and the gambling industry in 2008-09 – among his top contributors that election cycle, calls poker “as American as apple pie” in this 2008 interview with PokerNews.com: (more…)
Floridians so far have received less federal stimulus money than any of their fellow Americans, despite an unemployment rate here that ranks among the highest in the country and a budget crisis that few states can match.
Calabro
“It just shows how inept Florida’s government officials are,” Florida TaxWatch President Dominic Calabro said. “Relying on Washington has always been a bad deal for Florida.”
Florida has received more total dollars than all but three other states from a stimulus pot of about $198 billion so far for infrastructure projects and social services, according to figures reported this week by The Wall Street Journal.1 That total includes money Congress left for states to divide among themselves and other dollars that federal departments have already disbursed.
But Florida received just $505 per person, which ranks last among the 50 states, all U.S. territories combined and Washington, D.C., according to a Palm Beach Post analysis of the Journal’s data.
The numbers raise significant questions about the stimulus program, which President Obama said during a February stop in Fort Myers would help curtail the state’s rising unemployment rate.2
The U.S. House Financial Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee will hold a hearing in West Palm Beach on Thursday at 10 a.m. in the city commission chambers to review the availability and affordability of homeowners insurance in the country.
The subcommittee will examine insurance industry coverage of catastrophic natural disasters, the withdrawal of insurance companies from offering policies in coastal areas, rising homeowners’ insurance premiums and the resulting economic impact on state and local governments, as well as possible solutions to the homeowners’ insurance crisis.
U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, will also participate in the hearing.
Lisa Smith of Lake Worth is featured in this video from President Obama’s Organizing for America, the latest in the group’s “Faces of Health Care Reform” video press release series.
In the video, Smith says she lost her job and her insurance and then was denied coverage by private insurers because of a preexisting condition. Smith has hydrocephalus, or water on the brain, and monthly prescriptions that cost about $800.
Obama’s team says that with regular checkups, it’s easier to control her condition. But without those visits, Lisa is “forced to wait until her situation is dire enough to warrant a trip to the emergency room.”
Organizing for America Director Mitch Stewart doesn’t say exactly how the government should help Smith, just that it should.
“Unfortunately, her story is indicative of what’s wrong with our broken system – we must reform our system to lower costs, increase access and protect patient choice,” Stewart said in a release.
Republican congressional hopeful Allen West hosts a fund-raiser Saturday at the Delray Shooting Center.
West
“In this day and age we all need to learn to protect ourselves … so come on out, practice shooting, compete and have a great time with Allen!” said a blast e-mail promoting the event — called “The Delray Shootout” — to local Republicans.
Guns and ammo will be provided, said West.
“It’s just a different twist on a fund-raiser,” said West, who’s seeking a 2010 rematch against U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, after getting 45.3 percent against Klein in 2008.
Roll Call is reporting that U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, has spent more than $6,700 in campaign contributions this year on attorneys to help answer questions about his residency.
The story says Wexler paid nearly $3,700 to the Florida-based law firm Berger Singerman; $2,200 to the Washington, D.C., office of McDermott Will & Emery; and $900 to the Miami office of law firm Hunton & Williams.
Wexler’s chief of staff, Eric Johnson, told the newspaper that the firms were hired to address questions about Wexler’s residency as well as a series of unrelated amendments to the congressman’s FEC filings.
Wexler got into hot water last year for claiming his in-laws retirement village home as his Florida residency. Wexler and his family live mostly in Washington D.C.
Some Democrats hoped state Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, would challenge freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, next year. With Aronberg running for attorney general, many Democrats are waiting to see whether St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft will run for Congress.
Craft
Craft has talked to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and said today he hopes to decide on a congressional race by sometime this summer.
With Aronberg out of the congressional picture, Craft said, “now we really step up the efforts to see what’s out there as far as the support network, not only financially but also what kind of ground troops.”
“When this issue started to resurface I called the appropriate people in the agency and said I would like to know the dates from your records that briefings were held,” Graham recalled.
Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer has decided not to pursue the Orlando-area congressional seat of freshman Democrat Suzanne Kosmas, according to a GOP press release this morning. Kosmas ousted Republican Tom Feeney last year in one of the few congressional districts in Florida that’s competitive between Rs and Ds.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, 42, sent out this letter to her constituents today detailing her year-long battle with breast cancer. From the letter:
I chose to manage my breast cancer and get through the last year privately, with my family and close friends around me. I also chose to wait to tell my young children until recently. After consulting with my doctors, I knew that I could get through the surgeries and procedures and make it very unlikely that I would have a recurrence. I wanted to be able to tell my children with a clear conscience that their Mommy would be okay.
This week in Washington, with a clean bill of health and cancer-free, I plan to introduce the EARLY Act, which seeks to educate young women on the risk factors for breast cancer, why certain populations are more likely to be at risk, and ways that young women can be proactive in lowering their risks. The legislation also seeks to help young women diagnosed with breast cancer deal with the issues unique to their fertility, and the social ramifications young women face.
From left: U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton; state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton
After not initially signing on and setting off a flurry of speculation on the left and right, U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, has decided to be a cosponsor of the labor-backed Employee Free Choice Act. He cosponsored the legislation in the last Congress.
The legislation would allow unions to bypass secret-ballot elections and organize by collecting authorization cards from a majority of employees. Supporters say the measure allows labor to counter intimidation by employers. Foes say it will allow labor organizers to coerce and pressure workers to support unionization.
In Florida, state House Majority Leader — and potential Klein challenger — Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton, is leading the drive for a state constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right of Floridians to cast secret ballots in all elections, including votes on whether to unionize.
Find out how the recent one-vote Palm Beach mayor’s race could end up setting statewide precedent. Plus: Is the vaunted Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce losing its mojo? What’s U.S. Rep. Ron Klein’s explanation for not cosponsoring Big Labor’s top congressional priority? Will Art Argenio and Joe Negron — the Frazier and Ali of Treasure Coast Republican politics — beat each other up again?
State Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, is in Washington, D.C., this morning slated to testify on Iranian divestment at 10 a.m. before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade.
You’ve probably bookmarked the Financial Services Committee page already. But in case you haven’t, here’s the link, which will allow you to see a Webcast of Deutch’s testimony and download a copy of his prepared remarks. (more…)
On today’s Palm Beach Post letters page, state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton, rips the labor-backed Employee Free Choice Act while local AFL-CIO President Pat Emmert rips Hasner.
In what some Republicans would like to be a preview of a 2010 congressional race, state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton, is calling out U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, over the labor-backed Employee Free Choice Act.
Liberal bloggers and the Republican Party of Florida are noting that the labor-backed Employee Free Choice Act introduced in Congress today no longer has U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, as a cosponsor.
Klein will “review this year’s bill carefully before it reaches the House floor,” a spokeswoman said.
Klein is highlighted on the liberal “Down With Tyranny” blog as one of 29 House Dems who cosponsored the legislation last year but aren’t cosponsors this year. The state GOP, which calls the bill as an assault on ballot privacy, is pressing Klein to “come clean” on whether he supports or opposes the bill.
Read more, including a statement from Klein’s office, after the jump….
State Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, says he’s been invited to testify on Capitol Hill next week on a federal bill aimed at helping states divest from companies that do business with Iran.
He’ll be addressing a House Financial Services subcommittee on Thursday.
Deutch led a successful Iranian divestment efforts in Florida in 2007.
The last two occupants of Deutch’s Senate seat — Democrats Robert Wexler and Ron Klein — are now members of Congress.
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