Rick Scott vetoed legislation Tuesday that would have allowed children of undocumented immigrants to get Florida drivers’ licenses, a move likely to rattle the governor’s support within the state’s Hispanic community while bolstering his backing from conservative groups.

The measure (HB 235) had sailed easily through a Republican-controlled Legislature, which in previous years had opposed similar steps toward embracing children of those in the country illegally.

The House approved the bill this spring 115-2; the Senate 36-0, a sign to many that Florida Republicans were looking to distance themselves from the hardline themes of the 2012 elections.

Scott, however, said the bill’s reliance on a newly adopted policy of the Obama administration was alarming.

In June 2012, the administration said children brought illegally to the country would not be subject to deportation under most circumstances.

Florida already allows immigrants legally allowed to work the opportunity to receive temporary drivers’ licenses. For now, Scott said that was enough.

In his veto letter, Scott wrote, “Although the Legislature may have been well intentioned in seeking to expedite the process to obtain a temporary driver license, it should not have been done by relying on a federal government policy adopted without legal basis.”

Florida Democrats lashed out at Scott.

“Rick Scott continues to alienate and discriminate against thousands of undocumented immigrants,” said Florida Democratic Party spokesman Joshua Karp. “Instead of joining the legislature’s near-unanmous consensus around HB 235, Gov. Scott imposed his rigid ideology on Floridians — to the detriment of the young immigrants who are Florida’s future.”

Floridians for Immigration Enforcement, the Pompano Beach-based group that demonstrated outside Sen. Marco Rubio‘s recent Port St. Lucie appearance, has rented a billboard along Interstate 75 in Ocala to slam Rubio for co-sponsoring the “Gang of Eight” Senate bill that includes a pathway to citizenship.

While it’s a fairly minor expenditure in a pricey media state, the billboard is one indication that Rubio’s tireless efforts to sell immigration reform to conservatives have not succeeded in winning over many of the hard-liners who are influential in GOP primaries.

FLIMEN includes several Palm Beach and Treasure Coast activists who say Rubio promised them as a 2010 Senate candidate that he would oppose amnesty for people who are in the country illegally. Rubio says the measures in the bill that would allow millions to attain legal status are not amnesty.

FLIMEN Legislative Director Jack Oliver alluded to Rubio’s potential presidential ambitions in blasting the Senator.

“I predict that no politician who votes for the Senate immigration bill will ever be elected to higher office,” Oliver said.

Supporters and opponents of the bipartisan immigration reform bill championed by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio took to the streets near Rubio’s Palm Beach Gardens office today.

At about 12:30 p.m., PostOnPolitics counted 23 supporters of the bill near the corner of PGA Boulevard and Military Trail and 13 opponents less than half a mile away in front of Rubio’s office. The outnumbered opponents scored higher in drive-by eye appeal, however, by bringing an “Amnesty Is Death To America” skeleton prop.

Tea party activists organized the protest outside Rubio’s office and delivered a Rubio aide a letter expressing concern about the legislation’s long-term costs. A study released by the conservative Heritage Foundation this week contends that, over 50 years, the bill would be a net drain of $6.3 trillion on federal coffers. Rubio has disputed the study, saying it fails to account for the dynamic economic effect the new citizens would have over the coming decades.

“Secure the borders first. If you secure the borders, then we could understand a little bit more and go forward from there,” said Mel Grossman of the Palm Beach County Tea Party. Grossman said the current bill leaves too much discretion to the Department of Homeland Security, which he said has failed to take illegal border crossings seriously.

Supporters of the bill — including the Service Employees International Union, the President Barack Obama-affiliated Organizing For Action, the Florida Immigrant Coalition and Florida New Majority — organized their counter-demonstration after hearing about the tea party plans.

“They’re trying to scare all these bipartisan Republicans who are taking a moderate approach….We are showing that there are two groups. There is a minority group who is against immigration reform, but a majority of Americans are for immigration reform,” said Florida SEIU’s Afifa Khaliq.

Back when Marco Rubio was a long shot anti-establishment Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in 2009, the William F. Buckley-founded National Review certified him as a national conservative star by featuring him on its cover.

It helped boost Rubio’s fundraising and popularity with GOP primary voters.

He eventually overtook heavily favored Gov. Charlie Crist in Republican primary polls, sending Crist to a failed no-party Senate bid and, eventually, the Democratic Party.

The National Review isn’t showing Rubio any love with it’s latest cover, calling his push for bipartisan immigration reform “Rubio’s Folly” and depicting him yukking it up with two figures who are reviled by many on the right — Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York and Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona

PORT ST. LUCIE — At least 25 foes of immigration reform were protesting in the rain before Republican Sen. Marco Rubio arrived here to speak at tonight’s St. Lucie County GOP Lincoln Day dinner.

Members of the group Floridians for Immigration Enforcement say Rubio is breaking a 2010 campaign promise to oppose amnesty because Rubio has become a key supporter of legislation that includes a pathway to citizenship for people who are now in the country illegally.

“I expended shoe leather and time and energy helping Marco Rubio become the senator in Florida and now he’s gone back on his campaign promises on amnesty,” said Ed Bender of Pompano Beach. “You want to call it a path to citizenship…the net result is people get to call themselves citizens on some level and the reality of it is billions and billions of additional dollars that this country does not have to support new citizens.”

Rubio, in a brief interview with the Politics column before his speech, said the bill he and other members of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” have drafted does not grant amnesty to the estimated 11 million people in the country illegally.

“I think their definition of amnesty is anything that doesn’t deport 11 million people. And I say ‘theirs’ – that specific group, I’m not saying everybody has that same definition,” Rubio said of the demonstrators.

“When you’re asking someone to pay a $2,000 fine, an application fee, undergo a background check and a national security background check and all the other elements that are involved in this and wait 10 years before they can even apply for a Green Card and not qualify for any federal benefits – when you’re asking someone to go through all of that, that’s not amnesty. That’s a significant undertaking,” Rubio said.

Rubio has repeatedly called the Senate legislation a “starting point” and says he’s open to amendments and changes to the bill.

“I never pretended that eight senators could come up with a piece of legislation that we could offer to everyone as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition,” Rubio said.

To win support in the Republican-controlled House, Rubio said, “I think where we still need to do a little bit of work is on firming up the border security things to ensure that the border security happens.”

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio‘s efforts to assuage the concerns of the right on immigration reform haven’t worked with Floridians for Immigration Enforcement, a group based in the Treasure Coast that plans to protest Wednesday when Rubio speaks at the St. Lucie County GOP’s Lincoln Day Dinner.

Rubio is part of the bipartisan Gang of Eight that drafted a reform bill that would create a 13-year path to citizenship for people who are now in the country illegally. Critics accuse Rubio of supporting amnesty — something Rubio has criticized in the past and says he’s not supporting now.

Rubio’s immigration stance also puts him at odds with mentor and former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, whose June 2009 endorsement of then-underdog Rubio helped establish Rubio’s conservative bona fides and sent him on his way to overtaking Charlie Crist for the 2010 GOP Senate nomination. DeMint now heads the Heritage Foundation, which is gearing up to oppose the immigration bill.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio‘s attempts to get conservatives to support — or at least not vehemently oppose — immigration reform continued Tuesday night with an appearance on Sean Hannity‘s Fox News show.

Rubio played on the right’s dislike of President Barack Obama, arguing that the administration has done a poor job of handling of border security and contending that passing immigration reform would force the administration to get tougher.

“I think people have a good reason to be skeptical about immigration reform at the outset, because this administration has not done a good job of enforcing the law. What I have found over the last few days is that one of the biggest obstacles we face here is a lack of trust in the administration’s willingness to enforce the law,” Rubio told Hannity.

“But my point is, if we don’t do anything, that’s exactly what you are leaving in place. The only way that I know how to make the administration, this administration or a future administration, secure the border, is to pass a law that forces them to secure the border. And that’s what I’m working on, and that’s what our bill does. It requires them to spend upwards of 5.5 billion dollars on a border security plan, on a fencing plan. In addition to that, it requires the full implementation of e-verify. It requires the full implementation of an entry-exit tracking system. That is just so much better than what we have in place right now. And so, if we don’t do anything, or if we can’t get those things done, then what stays in place is what we have right now. How is that good for us?”

Former Gov. Jeb Bush returned Thursday to the Florida Capitol for one of his few visits since his two terms as chief executive ended six years ago.

Bush, who now leads foundations that advance education policies similar to those he signed into law as governor, met behind closed doors with House and Senate members, frequently posing for pictures with lawmakers. Many had entered the Legislature since Bush left office.

Bush, however, insisted he came to Tallahassee without specific proposals to push.

“We provide assistance to people who want to advocate education reform policies, the Legislature is about ready to start,” Bush said outside Senate President Don Gaetz’s office. “I’m here to say hello to some friends and advance the cause of rising student achievement.”

Bush said he conveyed identical messages to lawmakers he encountered.

“Be big. Be bold. Fill the space,” Bush said.

Although Bush’s stop at the Capitol was his first since 2010, he still has plenty of allies. Fellow Republican, Gov. Rick Scott, is promoting changes to expand enrollment in charter schools.

House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, has pushing for expanding online education in Florida, a concept now being studied by state university officials. He also has created a new education Choice and Innovation Subcommittee charged with exploring more charter-, virtual- and home-school options.

Legislation introduced this week in the Senate also would let parents in low-performing schools call for a private-management company to take over. A similar “parent trigger” bill died on a 20-20 vote last year in the Senate. But Bush said his Foundation for Excellence in Education, which advocates nationwide, is a strong proponent of the approach.

“It’s a pretty simple law. It says that if you’re in a failing school, parents ought to have the ability, if a majority want to, to have a say — simply a say — in providing advice on what structure a failing school should take,” Bush said. “That doesn’t say…they can convert to a charter school or something else. It just simply says, parents’ voice matters. If that’s a radical idea in America today, then we’re in a heap of trouble.”

“I think it’ll pass,” Bush said.

Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett, who adheres to Bush’s parental choice concepts, has been a frequent speaker at the former governor’s foundation meetings. Bennett is Florida’s third education commissioner in two years.

Gaetz, however, said that in their meeting, he and Bush didn’t speak about the parent trigger idea.

“We talked generally about where education policy was going in this country, we talked about online education,” Gaetz said.

Gaetz acknowledged that the pair shared concerns about deadlines that are nearing for many state and national education efforts. Among them, is the movement in Florida away from FCAT testing toward standards based on a common core curriculum, and the linking of teacher salaries to student performance.

“I told him we have a lot of reform that has been sort of shot off like rockets…and it’s all coming down from the sky now in the same place at the same time,” Gaetz said.

Gaetz said that Bush’s response was, “You need leadership. He sort of looked at me like, ‘Gaetz, do your job.’”

Cesar Henao, a registered Democrat running as a no-party candidate against U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, faulted Republicans and Democrats alike on immigration when he was interviewed this week by Neil Cavuto of Fox News about his campaign.

Henao, 34, was born in Colombia and has billed himself as “the first illegal immigrant ever to run for Congress,” saying he came to the U.S. at age 12 by crossing the border from Mexico while hiding beneath bales of hay in the back of a pickup truck. He later joined his mother in New York and eventually got a Green Card and became a citizen in 2002.

Asked about Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, Henao said “he’s the only Senator in the Republican Party that’s actually touched the immigration issue.” Henao said he’s “disappointed” in President Obama for not delivering on his promise to pass immigration reform in his first term.

Henao and Mike Trout will both appear on the ballot as no-party candidates against Democratic incumbent Deutch in heavily Democratic Palm Beach-Broward District 21. No Republican is running.

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.
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The Supreme Court struck down key portions of Arizona’s controversial illegal immigration law, handing a partial victory to President Obama’s administration.

The majority ruled that that giving state or local law enforcement the power to detain and question people could result in “unnecessary harassment.”

The Arizona law (SB 1070) would have given law enforcement the power to detain and question the immigration status of someone they believed was in the country illegally. The court ruled that immigration matters are strictly a federal function. The Arizona law would have required police to check the immigration status of anyone who is arrested.

“Under state law, officers who believe an alien is removable by reason of some ‘public offense’ would have the power to conduct an arrest on that basis regardless of whether a federal warrant has issued or the alien is likely to escape,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the 5-3 opinion.

“This would allow the State to achieve its own immigration policy. The result could be unnecessary harassment of some aliens (for instance, a veteran, college student, or someone assisting with a criminal investigation) whom federal officials determine should not be removed,” the ruling reads. “This is not the system Congress created.”

The court did uphold one of the most controversial portions of the law, that requires local law enforcement officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws if there is “reasonable suspicion” that they are in the country illegally.

The justices also said that provision, however, could be subject to additional legal challenges. Civil liberties groups are challenging that portion of the law in Arizona courts, arguing that it could lead to racial profiling.

Chief Justice John Roberts joined Kennedy and Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor in the majority. Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito concurred in part and dissented in part. Justice Elena Kagan, who served as Obama’s solicitor general, had recused herself from the Arizona case.

As President Obama‘s campaign launched a Spanish-language TV ad blitz in Florida and other swing states with large Hispanic populations, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro painted presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney as “extreme” on immigration.

Republicans, who launched their own Latino outreach program this week, countered by blaming Obama for a sour economy that has been tougher on Hispanics than other groups.

“Mitt Romney would be the most extreme nominee that the Republican Party has ever had on immigration,” said Castro, who joined Messina and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., on a morning conference call to tout the Latinos for Obama campaign initiative.

Messina also used the word “extreme” to describe Romney’s immigration stance — echoing criticism from Romney Republican rival Newt Gingrich, who called Romney “anti-immigrant” in a January radio ad that was pulled after Sen. Marco Rubio objected.

Romney has called for beefed-up border security and tougher employer verification standards to curb illegal immigration. He also said Arizona’s controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants was a “model.” And Romney has said he would veto the Dream Act, which would offer a path to citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants who were raised in the U.S. and complete two years of college or military service.

Romney adviser Albert Martinez accused Obama’s allies of trying to divert attention from the president’s “record of failure on the issues most important to Latinos. Hispanics have been hit especially hard as a result of three years of President Obama’s record of high unemployment, soaring debt, and skyrocketing gas prices. President Obama will do everything possible to make this election about anything other than his failed record.”

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Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich‘s staying power as a top-tier candidate will be tested by the less-than-hardline stance on illegal immigration he articulated in Tuesday night’s CNN debate.

Republican strategist Alex Castellanos called it a “Nixon-goes-to-China” moment.

Or will it be a Rick Perry-goes-to-Orlando moment in which a candidate plummets after running afoul of the GOP base on the immigration issue?

Read about it in today’s Palm Beach Post.

Former Florida Sen. Mel Martinez is endorsing Mitt Romney in the crowded GOP presidential race.

As a sitting U.S. Senator four years ago, Martinez’ endorsement of John McCain a few days before the 2008 Florida primary helped McCain edge Romney and effectively clinch the Republican nomination. Martinez and McCain were cosponsors of immigration reform legislation that many in the GOP criticized as “amnesty.” Romney has emphasized a tough-on-illegals immigration stance in his 2012 campaign and blasted rival Rick Perry for supporting in-state tuition benefits in Texas for the children of illegal immigrants.

Says Martinez in a statement released by the Romney campaign this morning: “I have great confidence that Mitt Romney is the candidate to get our country back on track. Unemployment remains a pressing issue both in Florida and across the nation. Now more than ever, we need a leader who will get our country’s fiscal house in order. From his experience in the private sector, Mitt Romney understands how the real economy works and how jobs are created. As Governor of Massachusetts, he balanced the budget without raising taxes. I am proud to support him.”

Talking tough on illegal immigration helped Rick Scott score an upset Republican primary win in last year’s Florida governor’s race. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is betting the issue will sour GOP primary voters in Florida and elsewhere on Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who supports granting in-state college tuition rates to children of illegal immigrants in Texas.

A new web video from the Romney campaign associates Perry’s position with President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and features a clip of former Mexican President Vicente Fox praising Perry for the Texas policy.

There’s also a clip of Perry from last week’s GOP debate in Orlando saying opponents of the program “don’t have a heart” — a statement that angered many conservatives as much as the program itself.

Gov. Rick Scott drew cheers from Presidency 5 delegates Saturday, saying he expected the winner of the Florida Republican primary to emerge as the party’s nominee — with a key first step on that path being the upcoming straw poll.

“You will send a very strong signal about who will be America’s choice,” Scott told the 3,000 delegates. ”As Florida goes, so goes the nation. And as you go, so goes Florida.”

Scott pointed out that victories in straw polls at earlier installments of the party convention gave an important push to Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole.  Later though, speaking to reporters, the governor conceded that Saturday’s outcome may not prove so decisive.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is close to Scott. is narrowly leading in Florida over second-place Mitt Romney, according to a poll this week. But Perry stumbled in Thursday night’s nationally televised debate, and his struggle to explain his stance on illegal immigration seems to have cost him support among at least a portion of  P-5 atttendees.

“There’s all these expectations games, I didn’t have to deal with that in my race,” Scott said. “If he doesn’t win, he’ll be frustrated. But I think the positives are that whoever wins, it shows what people in this state are thinking about. If you want people to be active in your campaign, these are the issues you need to focus on, and have a message.

“I personally believe that the most important message is going to be jobs,” Scott added. “But we’ll see….this is the real group of activists, the people who care about this race today.”

While Florida delegates may not send as clear a message as they have in past conventions, Scott drew cheers from the crowd with a direct attack on President Obama. He recalled the 2000 presidential election, marked by hanging-chad and voter confusion.

“There were all those Palm Beach voters who couldn’t believe they voted for Pat Buchanan,” Scott remembered. “Well, since 2008, I’ve met people all over the country who can’t believe they’ve voted for Barack Obama. I’m absolutely convinced, they’ll get it right next year.”

Scott described Saturday’s speech as among the three biggest of his short political career. His inaugural address, his State of the State speech to open this year’s Legislature also are up there, the governor said.

For Scott, the speech also placed the one-time political outsider firmly within Florida’s Republican establishment.

Scott also brought many in the crowd to their feet by boasting that he had not wavered from his stance that “businesses create new jobs, not government and for “sticking to my principles.”

“I did not run to be voted most popular, I ran so that Florida could be most likely to succeed,” Scott said.

ORLANDO — In asking a question about abortion at a Republican Senate candidates forum today, conservative Tampa radio host Bill Bunkley veered from the usual moral arguments into a discussion of the U.S. labor force, illegal immigration, the future solvency of Social Security and the changing demographics of Europe.

Here’s Bunkley’s preamble:

“Since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, most estimates put the number of aborted unborn children in America around 50 million. Arguably, that loss has been one of the contributing factors leading to an ongoing shortage of available domestic workers, and practically speaking, workers who would have filled the gap of jobs held by illegal aliens and by workers who would have been contributing to provide financial resources for the future Social Security and Medicaid payments. In Europe we are witnessing the impact of long-term declining growth rates that will soon change the face of many of their countries.”

Then Bunkley asked the candidates’ positions on abortion and the recent vote to de-fund Planned Parenthood.

In their answers, Adam Hasner, George LeMieux, Mike McCalister and Craig Miller all proclaimed themselves opposed to abortion and steered clear of matters like immigration and Social Security

Immigration is at the top of Gov. Rick Scott’s legislative priorities when lawmakers reconvene in January, the first-term governor told Northwest Florida conservative radio talk show host Burnie Thompson today.

Lawmakers failed to reach agreement on any immigration proposals during the session that ended in May.

“We should have done an immigration bill. The federal government should be securing our borders. They should have a logical, national immigration policy, a good work visa program policy. But if people are in our state illegally we should be able to ask them if they’re legal or not if they’re doing something wrong and violating our laws. That’s one thing we ought to be doing,” Scott told Thompson, a talk show host on Panama City Beach’s WYOO 101.1 FM.

Other Scott priorities include property and auto insurance reform and restricting how school districts spend money, he said.

Scott, who spends part of his days reaching out to corporate leaders and encouraging them to set up shop in the Sunshine State, challenged all Floridians to follow his lead. Scott has pledged to create 700,000 in seven years.

“I want everybody in this state to call somebody and say, ‘Look why don’t you move your company here?’ Any feelers they get give my office a call because I’ll make the phone call with them to make it happen. We have 19 million people in our state. If all of us get active on economic development, everybody in this state will have an opportunity for a job,” he said.

Read what Scott said about insurance and education after the jump.
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Palm Beach County Republican Chairman Sid Dinerstein weighs in on The Palm Beach Post’s opinion page today with a column that highlights the the GOP’s internal division on illegal immigration.

Dinerstein laments the GOP-controlled Florida legislature’s failure to pass an “E-Verify” bill requiring businesses to use a federal database to check on in the immigration status of workers. While Dinerstein is part of a large contingent of Republicans who favor E-Verify as a way to crack down on illegal immigrants, others in the party view the system as a government intrusion that raises costs and enlists businesses as immigration police.

The latter sentiment had enough supporters among Republican legislators to thwart the bill Dinerstein and other Republicans favored. Says Dinerstein: “From my vantage point as a Republican Party official I can truly say that our recent performance in Tallahassee on this issue did not make me proud.”

Click here to read Dinerstein’s column.

As the Senate began debating the budget in anticipation of a vote late this evening, President Mike Haridopolos dropped into the press gallery to chat with reporters at the close of the 60-day legislative session.

Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, boasted that he’s achieved the goals he set out at the onset of the 60-day legislative session: a balanced budget, no new taxes, Medicaid reform, and passing “Smart Cap,” the proposed constitutional amendment limiting how much government can spend he’s championed for 11 years.

The result is “hopefully that people will be able to see Florida as a business-friendly state,” he said. “That was my goal and I’m happy to report on the final day of session we met those goals.”

But cutting $3.6 billion from the state budget without raising taxes and creating sweeping new policies on Medicaid, education and pensions wasn’t easy, Haridopolos said, .

“This was a very difficult year, a very trying year in many cases,” he said.

The biggest – if not only – issue left undone is immigration, Haridopolos said. The Senate passed its measure but House Speaker Dean Cannon said the proposal is dead because it doesn’t go far enough for the super-majority of his 120 members needed to take it up.

Haridopolos said he hoped the House would consider what he called solid, common-sense legislation that would deport criminals after their sentences are served and would have required anyone receiving state or federal benefits be a legal resident of the state.

“Too often politicians operate through bumper stickers,” Haridopolos said. “This is what the legislative process is about…
It’s not just a public opinion poll that says do this. We’ll come back next year with more information.”

Asked how much influence Gov. Rick Scott – who Senate budget chief JD Alexander said earlier should take a “victory lap” – had on the session, Haridopolos said: “He was a rock” because “you knew he was not going to raise taxes” and would veto any measures that did.

The Senate president, also running for U.S. Senate in the GOP primary, took a couple of campaign-related questions as well.

Democrats are using a coloring book based on the single-copy book Haridopolos wrote and was paid more than $150K for as a fundraising tool on the last day of session.

Haridopolos shrugged it off and even signed a copy for Miami Herald reporter Marc Caputo.

“Welcome to the NFL. I guess I’m in the NFL now and I’m playing on the field. Look, it says something if they’re constantly attacking me. So I must be doing something they don’t like if they spend so much time and attention on me,” Haridopolos said.

Then came a little bashing of U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

“I think the contrast is pretty darn clear between me and Bill Nelson. Bill Nelson’s been in office since I was two years old.
And other than getting a ride on the shuttle, name me something major in this building, in Washington, D.C., that he has accomplished since I was two years old,” the 41-year-old said. “I like to think I get things done. He’s a person who holds a press conference….a press conference is not legislation.”