TALLAHASSEE — Florida Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, listened to Palm Beach County leaders ask for more money for beach renourishment, flood control and higher education during a meeting in the Capitol this morning.

But Gaetz said legislators will be cautious about spending until Florida has a clear picture of what effect automatic federal spending cuts, or sequestration, will have on the state’s economy and tax revenues.

“What’s happening in Washington is creating a lot of uncertainty, obviously, in the aerospace industry, in the defense industry, in the industries that are part of the supply chain that feed those industries. That’s scores of thousands of jobs in the state of Florida. So we’re kind of on a knife’s edge right now,” Gaetz told about 40 people who met with him during the county’s annual lobbying blitz in Tallahassee.

As long as that uncertainty exists, Gaetz said, it’s prudent for the state to rein in spending.

“I would suggest to you, be cautious, lower your expectations and let’s watch and see what happens to the variables we cannot control. You may not have wanted to hear that, but that is the message,” Gaetz said.

Today is Palm Beach County Day, when the county organizes a group of public and private sector people to visit the Capitol and meet with legislators and state officials.

The meeting with Gaetz and Senate Appropriations Chairman Joe Negron, R-Stuart, was attended by five county commissioners, State Attorney Dave Aronberg, Palm Beach State College President Dennis Gallon, former Senate President and Florida Atlantic University Foundation lobbyist Ken Pruitt, school district lobbyist Vernon Pickup-Crawford, municipal elected officials and various representatives of business and civic groups and the firefighters union.

Freshman Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, filed a bill that would make the state responsible for registering eligible voters instead of leaving the onus on voters themselves.

Clemens’s proposal (SB 234) is one of a slew of bills filed by Democrats in the aftermath of the 2012 presidential election where some voters, including some in Clemens’s home county of Palm Beach, waited in line up to eight hours to cast their ballots during early voting.

His proposal would require the state to automatically register eligible U.S. citizens when they reach age 18 using Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles driver’s license data.

“The original purpose of the voter registration system was to disenfranchise women and African-Americans,” Clemens said in a press release. “It’s time we ditched the archaic scheme and realize that every adult American citizen should be automatically registered. There simply is no good reason to make people jump through hoops.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perez, the country’s leading civil rights prosecutor, also wants the country to join the majority of other democratic nations regarding voting by making the government – instead of the voter – responsible for signing up voters.

Clemens’s proposal gives adults the ability to opt out of getting registered, a twist on the current “Motor Voter” law that requires DHSMV workers to ask those applying for a driver’s license or state ID if they want to register to vote.
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Democrat Dave Aronberg‘s internal polling shows him with a 2-to-1 lead over Republican rival Dina Keever in the Palm Beach County state attorney’s race, according to a memo released by Aronberg’s campaign today.

The poll of 400 likely voters was conducted Monday through Wednesday and shows Aronberg at 49 percent, Keever at 24 percent and no-party candidate Robert Gershman at 5 percent with 22 percent undecided. The poll by the Kitchens Group has a 4 percent margin of error.

While the poll was in the field, WPTV Channel 5 reported Tuesday that the state Ethics Commission had decided to investigate an August complaint alleging that Aronberg improperly engaged in campaign activities before he announced his candidacy in January.

Tuesday was also the day that Keever began her TV campaign with ads citing the ethics investigation.

Aronberg, who says he’s confident the ethics complaint will be dismissed, has been running TV spots for several weeks and has spent about $300,000 on television time.

Former Democratic state Sen. Dave Aronberg has released the first TV ad of the Palm Beach County state attorney’s race. The 30-second spot will air on broadcast stations in a “significant” buy, consultant Christian Ulvert said.

The extent to which either of Aronberg’s rivals will be able to compete on the airwaves is unclear.

Republican Dina Keever said this week she hopes to buy TV time as well. Through Aug. 9, her campaign had collected $113,468 (including $50,500 from Keever herself) while Aronberg had raised $484,339.

No-party candidate Robert Gershman had raised $65,136 through Aug. 9, including $43,005 of his own money.

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.

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Republican Palm Beach County state attorney hopeful Dina Keever concedes she won’t match Democrat Dave Aronberg in fundraising. But it appears she has Gov. Rick Scott in her corner.

“I’m sure you’re going to do well,” Scott said to Keever during remarks at a Boca Raton Republican Club dinner last week. “We need to elect a Republican state attorney down here.”

Find out the latest on fundraising strategies by Aronberg and Keever in this week’s Politics column.

The first meeting of all three candidates for Palm Beach state attorney was a civil event with discussions of qualifications and such issues as mandatory-minimum sentencing laws.

The Post‘s Stacey Singer offers a wrap-up here of Thursday’s forum at the nonpartisan Voters Coalition.

Republican Dina Keever and no-party candidate Robert Gershman also got in a few digs at Democrat Dave Aronberg, the former state Senator who is backed by the Democratic Party establishment and some big-name Republicans.

“I am not backed by the Democrats. I am not backed by the Republicans. I am truly independent,” said Gershman, who switched his registration from Dem to no party after party leaders discouraged him from challenging Aronberg.

“I am not looking at this position as a steppingstone to something else,” said Keever in an apparent reference to Aronberg, who capped his 8-year Senate career with a failed 2010 bid for Florida attorney general before launching the bid for county prosecutor.

Former Palm Beach County state attorney Barry Krischer is endorsing Democrat Dave Aronberg‘s bid for the top prosecutor’s job.

The Aronberg camp unveiled the endorsement today as former assistant state attorney Robert Gershman launched a no-party campaign for state attorney.

“I firmly believe that Dave Aronberg is the person best equipped to be our next State Attorney, and that’s why I’m enthusiastically and wholeheartedly endorsing him,” said Krischer, who was elected state attorney in 1992 and reelected three times. “Dave Aronberg’s extensive career of public service has prepared him to serve as Palm Beach County’s next top prosecutor. Dave is a prosecutor, fierce consumer advocate and leader in public safety, and is known for making criminals pay for the crimes they commit.”

As publisher of conservative West Palm Beach-based Newsmax Media, Christopher Ruddy‘s support is coveted by many Republicans. Next week, he’ll help a Democrat — former state Sen. Dave Aronberg– raise money for his Palm Beach County state attorney campaign.

“On local races like that, law enforcement, there is no partisan way to handle it,” Ruddy said last month of his support for Aronberg. He said Aronberg is “very highly regarded as an honest, independent, fair-minded person.”

The host committee for a Wednesday lunchtime fundraiser at Newsmax HQ includes several big local GOP names: former Ambassador to the Bahamas and current Mitt Romney money-raiser Ned Siegel of Boca Raton; megadeveloper Llwyd Ecclestone; BIZPAC Review tandem John R. Smith and Jack Furnari and Republican Palm Beach County Commissioners Karen Marcus and Steve Abrams.

Aronberg has enjoyed strong Democratic establishment support since former Democratic state attorney Michael McAuliffe left office for a private-sector job. A recent Aronberg fundraiser included five current or former Democratic members of Congress as co-hosts: Reps. Ted Deutch and Alcee Hastings and former Reps. Ron Klein, Robert Wexler and Harry Johnston.

Aronberg’s support from Democratic leaders led attorney and longtime Dem Robert Gershman to switch his registration to no party affiliation last week so he can run for state attorney without facing Aronberg in a Democratic primary. Gershman plans to file next week. The candidate qualifying period ends next Friday.

Republicans have not fielded a candidate for state attorney.

Gov. Rick Scott made it official this morning and appointed Tallahassee lawyer Peter Antonacci as the state attorney for Palm Beach County for the final 10 months of Michael McAuliffe‘s term.

Antonacci, a Republican, said this morning that he does not plan to run for a full four-year term in the fall.

That’s good news for former Democratic state Sen. Dave Aronberg, the only candidate who has opened a 2012 campaign for the job.

Antonacci, 63, is a former statewide prosecutor and deputy attorney general who now works as a lawyer and lobbyist for the powerhouse Gray Robinson firm in Tallahassee. McAuliffe, elected in 2008, is leaving next Friday to take a job with billionaire Bill Koch‘s Oxbow Carbon.

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Former Democratic state Sen. Dave Aronberg — still the only announced candidate for Palm Beach County state attorney — will get fundraising help next month from U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, and Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, and former Democratic Reps. Robert Wexler, Ron Klein and Harry Johnston.

The congressional quintet and former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth are on the host committee for the March 15 event at the Delray Beach home of Aronberg’s parents. Democratic Palm Beach County Commissioners Burt Aaronson, Shelley Vana and Priscilla Taylor and several Democratic club presidents and municipal officials are among the co-hosts.

With an April 20 candidate qualifying deadline approaching, Aronberg is the only candidate who has opened a campaign to replace State Attorney Michael McAuliffe, who is stepping down March 16 for a private sector job. Gov. Rick Scott will appoint a replacement to fill the remainder of McAuliffe’s term, which ends in January. Scott last week said he hasn’t decided whether he wants an appointee who will also run for the job in the fall.

Former Democratic state Sen. Dave Aronberg, the only candidate to open a 2012 campaign for Palm Beach County state attorney, is urging Republican Gov. Rick Scott to appoint a “caretaker” to serve the last 9-1/2 months of incumbent Michael McAuliffe‘s term and not pick someone who will run against Aronberg for a full four-year term.

McAuliffe leaves office next month to take a private sector job. Seven people have applied to Scott for the appointment to fill the remainder of McAuliffe’s term, which ends in January. Several of the applicants have said they are only interested in the short-term appointment and not in running on the 2012 ballot.

Aronberg sent a letter to Scott today saying he won’t seek the appointment “to avoid even the appearance of using the temporary position for political purposes.”

And Aronberg doesn’t want anyone else to use the appointed position for political advantage.

“I believe that the interim State Attorney should be a caretaker, rather than someone who seeks to benefit from the temporary appointment to get elected to the position full-time in November,” Aronberg wrote.

The deadline to apply for the appointment is 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Read Aronberg’s letter after the jump…

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Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Krista Marx told PostOnPolitics this afternoon that she will not run for state attorney or seek the interim appointment to replace incumbent Michael McAuliffe.

Marx, a former assistant state attorney, was entertaining the idea after McAuliffe announced last month that he would not seek reelection this year. McAuliffe later announced he’s leaving office in March to take a job with West Palm Beach-based Oxbow Carbon, which means Gov. Rick Scott will appoint a replacement to serve the last nine months of McAuliffe’s term.

Former Democratic state Sen. Dave Aronberg is the only candidate to open a 2012 campaign for McAuliffe’s job.

Scott’s office says it has received one application for the state attorney appointment, from Wesley Forrest White, an assistant state attorney in Nassau County near Jacksonville. White said he would move to Palm Beach County if he got the appointment. He said he is not interested in running for a four-year term.

Former state Sen. Dave Aronberg — a Greenacres Democrat — looks poised to become the first candidate to jump into the race to succeed outgoing Palm Beach County State Attorney Michael McAuliffe.

Aronberg has scheduled a West Palm Beach news conference Thursday at the county’s historic courthouse, where he expected to announce his candidacy.

“It’s an exciting time,” Aronberg told the Post. “It shows you that even when you lose a race and it looks like a door has closed, it can be a new beginning.”

Aronberg has been working as an assistant statewide prosecutorl for Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Republican, since December 2010. Aronberg, who earns $92,000-a-year,  is based in Palm Beach County and oversees efforts to combat prescription fraud and abuse.

 Aronberg, who served eight years in the Senate, lost a 2010 bid for the Democratic nomination for attorney general. While in the Senate, he had pushed for creation of the prescription drug database that is now a central part of the state’s efforts to crack down on so-called pill mills, which have proliferated across South Florida.

“No matter what job I’m in, I’m not changing my focus,” said Aronberg. “It’s always going to be about public safety and fighting prescription fraud.”

McAuliffe surprised local officials Tuesday when he announced he would not seek re-election, instead taking a job with the energy company Oxbow Carbon. Aronberg had been mulling a Democratic primary challenge to McAuliffe, but now appears set to be the first candidate running for the open seat.

Aronberg, 40, has said he had considered running for state attorney several years ago, when longtime state attorney Barry Krischer announced he would not seek another term in 2008. But by then, Krischer had positioned McAuliffe to run as his successor.

Aronberg, who earned his undergraduate and law degrees at Harvard, grew up in South Florida. He formerly worked as a special assistant in the U.S. Treasury Department and as an assistant attorney general.

If former state Sen. Dave Aronberg challenges Palm Beach County State Attorney Michael McAuliffe in a Democratic primary next year, he can expect the McAuliffe camp to blast him for working as “pill mill” czar under Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi.

That was one of the potential lines of attack tested in a poll conducted by the McAuliffe campaign this month.

Aronberg is expected to announce in January whether he’s running.

Read about it in this week’s Politics column.

Former state Sen. Dave Aronberg says he’s still doing some “due diligence” before deciding whether to challenge Palm Beach County State Attorney Michael McAuliffe in a 2012 Democratic primary.

McAuliffe’s consultant says he expects Aronberg to run, while many party bigs say they are hoping to avoid a primary that county Democratic Chairman Mark Alan Siegel says would be “heartbreaking.”

Read about it in this week’s Politics column.

Palm Beach County State Attorney Michael McAuliffe recently launched his 2012 reelection bid and hasn’t drawn an opponent.

Democrat McAuliffe’s first big fund-raiser this week features popular Sheriff Ric Bradshaw as a “special guest.”

Some McAuliffe critics have floated the name of former Democratic state Sen. Dave Aronberg as a potential challenger.

Find out what Aronberg has to say about it in this week’s Politics column (third item).

One of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s top priorities – a bill enhancing penalties for pill mill doctors and operators – received unanimous approval in its first Senate committee hearing this afternoon.

The measure (SB 818) would require the Board of Medicine to suspend a doctor’s license for six months and impose a minimum $10,000 fine for violating the state’s 72-hour dosage limit for pain management clinic docs.

Bondi said the harsher penalties – and more provisions in the yet-to-be-implemented prescription drug database included in the bill – will help her combat the state’s reputation as the nation’s illicit drug capital.

“We have become the destination for drug dealers,” Bondi said. “This is a horrible, horrible problem. Because the drug dealers are flying to Florida now to buy these drugs and take them back to other states. You are truly impacting lives today.”

The bill also enhances provisions in current laws related to the prescription drug database although the system has yet to get up and running two years after lawmakers created it.

The database is under fire from the Florida House where a committee last week passed a measure doing away with all regulation of pain clinics and replacing it with a ban on dispensing practitioners, who are responsible for only 16 percent of the oxycodone. The rest – 84 percent – comes from pharmacies.

Gov. Rick Scott said he scrapped Florida’s much-anticipated computer system aimed at curbing the sale of prescription drugs by pill mills because he doesn’t believe it’s something the state should do.

Scott said he’s backing instead Attorney General Pam Bondi’s announcement that she’s going to step up prosecutions of the pain clinics with a team led by former state Sen. Dave Aronberg, a Greenacres Democrat.

“What I’m focused on is the stuff Attorney General Bondi’s focused on -focus on the people that are doing the wrong things rather than just trying to create a database of everybody in the state,” Scott, a former health care executive, said this morning. “I’m focused on the things she’s working on.”

But Bondi, who ramped up her efforts after Scott axed his office of drug control and policy, said recently that the prescription drug database is one of the tolls that law enforcement officials – and doctors – need to stanch the flow of the highly addictive drugs from Florida, which she called the “epicenter” of the nation’s illicit drug activity.

Scott said the database hasn’t worked (it’s not up and running yet because of a bid dispute).

“And I don’t’ believe we ought to be doing it,” he said.

Scott’s decision to do away with the database, created by lawmakers two years ago, alarmed officials in Kentucky and other states who’ve seen an influx of prescription drugs from Florida. And it created shockwaves in the law enforcement community and among lawmakers who backed the program.

The database would crack down on “doctor-shopping” by allowing doctors to look up patients’ prescription records.

“Without this important program Florida will take a step back ten years or more into the past,” Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said of Scott’s decision.

Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, filed a bill that would continue the crackdown on “pill mills,” pain management clinics dealing prescription drugs that law enforcement officials say are worse than crack cocaine.

Fasano’s bill would enhance penalties for pill mill operators that don’t comply with state laws and require the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) to conform with national standards.

The drug database has been on hold because of a lack of funding and a bid dispute.

Attorney General Pam Bondi is launching a new assault on the pill mills with a team led by state drug czar Dave Aronberg. Bondi called Florida “the epicenter of the country” for prescription drug abuse because busloads of drugsters travel to the state from Kentucky, Ohio and other places to get prescriptions from the rogue clinics.

Seven Floridians each day die from overdoses of prescription drugs.