One of Gov. Rick Scott’s closest advisors wanted to keep the newly-elected governor out of meetings about the state budget, a recently released batch of e-mails from Scott’s transition team revealed.

Mary Anne Carter – one of Scott’s two key players in his transition – tried to keep Scott out of preliminary meeting with the Office of Policy and Budget staff in an attempt to insulate him.

Donna Arduin, a long-time budget director for several governors including Jeb Bush, served as Scott’s budget advisor during his campaign and transition. She was trying to set up a meeting with Scott and the budget staff to give the newly elected governor and his aides an inside look at how the budget is crafted.

But writing to Arduin on Dec. 15, Carter (who calls Scott “RLS” in her messages) asked, “Are we not better off going through it without RLS and then determine what decisions need to be made? If there are going to be areas where policy and politics collide, I think it’s best to know ahead of time and not have him involved in initial conversations.”

Arduin didn’t back down.

“You will see how budget meetings go by observing tomorrow,” Arduin wrote. “The meetings are the governor meeting with his opb staff and making decisions.”

The politically-savvy Arduin then sent Susie Wiles, Scott’s campaign manager who later became his legislative liaison, a more pointed note: “Keep the governor out of his budget decisions because we don’t want him involved in political decisions….really??!!!”

“This process is beyond amazing to me,” Wiles, who has since left Scott’s administration, responded. “I am praying hard for Rick.”

Two influential GOP operatives who served as chiefs of staff to former Gov. Jeb Bush are backing former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton in the 2012 Republican Senate primary.

The endorsements from Sally Bradshaw and Kathleen Shananahan were reported Thursday — the same day the Florida Commission on Ethics released a stipulation signed by Hasner last month admitting he failed to file a financial disclosure form within 60 days of the end of his state House term. The stipulation, which will be considered by the commission next month, calls for a public report on the matter as the commission doesn’t have the authority to levy fines against lawmakers.

The complaint against Hasner was filed in April by Palm Beach County Democratic activist Diana Demarest, who said she did so because “I didn’t like Adam Hasner when he was in the House. I certainly don’t want him in the Senate.”

Another top aide to Gov. Rick Scott announced Wednesday that he is leaving the administration, as promised, after the chief executive’s first session.

Hayden Dempsey, the governor’s special counsel who formerly worked for ex-Gov. Jeb Bush, becomes the latest in a series of departures from Scott’s office, as the governor enters the latter half of his first year in office.

“You were elected by Florida residents on the promise to make Florida the leader in job creation and economic development, to reform education, and to reduce taxes and government spending,” Dempsey wrote in his resignation letter to Scott. “I am proud to have played a part in helping you fulfill those promises this past legislative session.”

Dempsey was one of the few state government veterans that Scott welcomed into his office. Instead, Scott burnished his ’outsider’ image by staffing the governor’s office with insiders from his campaign, most of whom had little connection to Tallahassee.

Some of that now seems to be changing, with adviser Mary Anne Carter and chief-of-staff Mike Prendergast, leaving in recent weeks and Capitol veteran Steve MacNamara brought in to run the office.

Dempsey, who helped direct the governor’s legislative lobbying effort, will be succeeded by Jon Costello, Scott’s legislative affairs director.

The state’s largest teachers’ union filed a lawsuit Wednesday to strip from next year’s ballot a measure allowing state money to go to religious institutions, a proposal they warned would open the door to more private-school vouchers.

Joining the Florida Education Association in challenging the proposed Amendment 7 are a half-dozen religious clergy and the current chairman of the Florida School Boards Association.

“Those of us who work to make public schools a priority know this is designed to open the door to vouchers,” said Andy Ford, FEA president.

A lawyer for the association, Ron Meyer, also condemned state lawmakers for crafting a ballot measure that misleads voters. “Instead of trying to hide the ball and playing word games, they should tell people they will empower religious organizations to extract tax dollars,” Meyer said.

The proposed constitutional amendment would effectively lift a century-old provision, dubbed the “Blaine Amendment,” which prohibits tax dollars from directly or indirectly going to religious organizations.

Millions of state dollars are budgeted each year for programs serving foster children, inmates, and low-income and elderly Floridians that are run by religious-affiliated organizations. Supporters of the amendment say they are merely looking to clarify state law, to avoid putting these services at risk.

Florida’s Blaine amendment first gained prominence during the 2006 challenge to the state’s private school voucher program. The First District Court of Appeal ruled that then-Gov. Jeb Bush’s first-in-the-nation statewide program violated the no-aid provision.

But by the time the case got to the Florida Supreme Court, justices instead ruled vouchers unconstitutional because they violated another constitutional standard –one requiring that the sttte provide a “uniform system of public schools.”

The Blaine amendment came back into prominence in 2007, when the Council for Secular Humanism, a New York nonprofit which advocates a “non-religious lifestance,” sued the state’s Department of Corrections over substance abuse housing programs provided by a pair of faith-based organizations.

Sen. Mike Haridopolos’ abrupt departure from the Republican field prompted Florida Democrats to question whether it could be linked to his association with former state Republican Party chairman Jim Greer, who faces six felony counts of grand theft, money laundering and attempted fraud involving a consulting company he formed in 2009 that drew $200,000 from the party.

Greer is suing the party to recover about $124,000 in severance, which party leaders say was never approved.  Haridopolos’ signature is on the severance, but the Senate president has denied approving a pay-out to the former party chief.

Tim Baker, a Haridopolos spokesman, denied any connection to the candidate’s folding his campaign, with $2.4 million in his war chest — and the Greer case.

But Haridopolos is expected to give a deposition in late August to Cheney Mason, one of Greer’s lawyers, who recently completed a lead role as defense attorney for Casey Anthony.

Damon Chase, a Lake Mary attorney also representing Greer, said Monday, “I think the timing is significant. He knows his deposition is coming up and it’s going to be a videotaped deposition that the press will have as soon as it’s finished. He knows it’s going to leave Florida voters thinking, ‘is this the kind of liar we want representing us in the Senate?” (more…)

One of the state capital’s premiere lobbying shops, Smith & Ballard, is changing its nameplate — with founding partner Jim Smith walking away from the high-powered firm.

Smith, a former Florida attorney general as a Democrat and secretary of state as a Republican, is leaving at the end of this month. He and son-in-law Brian Ballard founded the company in 1998 and muscled it up to where state records show that Smith & Ballard took in more than $1 million in payments from clients during the first three months of this year, alone.

The firm, with offices in Tallahassee, Jacksonville and West Palm Beach, will be called Ballard Partners from hereon. Ballard is a brother of former Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty.

“Our new name is another step moving Ballard Partners forward,” Ballard said in a statement. “I want to personally thank Jim for the unparalleled professionalism and value he has brought to our firm as we’ve advanced into what we are today. Jim will be missed and we wish him well in the future.”

For his part, Smith, 71, plans to continue lobbying. “The last thirteen years as a partner at Smith & Ballard have been rewarding, both professionally and personally,” Smith said.

Smith & Ballard represented close to 100 business interests, governments and associations, including U.S. Sugar, the city of Boca Raton and Bethesda Hospital in Boynton Beach. Ballard also has led John McCain’s 2008 fund-raising effort in Florida, and was a big fundraiser for former Govs. Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist.

Ballard played middle-man on one of Crist’s most ambitious efforts — a bid to buy-out U.S. Sugar’s 187,000 acres in western Palm Beach and neighboring counties for use in Everglades restoration. The deal was later dramatically downsized and has been ridiculed by Crist’s successor, Gov. Rick Scott.

Ballard backed former Attorney General Bill McCollum in last year’s Republican primary for governor, but has since worked to build the firm’s influence with Scott.

Smith’s long political history includes serving as attorney general from 1979-87. He ran for governor as a Democrat in 1986, losing the primary to Jacksonville Rep. Steve Pajcic, following a bitter contest that saw him initially team as running mate to West Palm Beach Sen. Harry Johnston, only to drop out and wage his own campaign.

Smith soon after became a Republican and was appointed Secretary of State by Republican Gov. Bob Martinez, for whom Ballard was chief-of-staff.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty‘s presidential campaign officially announced its key Florida members today, including former Jeb Bush campaign chairman Phil Handy as Pawlenty’s Florida chairman and national finance co-chairman.

Former Bush adviser and speechwriter Justin Sayfie, proprietor of the must-read Sayfiereview.com political site, will be a Florida co-chairman and former Bush fund-raiser Ann Herberger will be a national senior finance adviser.

In addition to those moves, which were reported here Tuesday, the Pawlenty camp announced that Gretchen Picotte will be Florida finance director. Picotte raised money for Gov. Rick Scott‘s 2010 campaign and was Florida finance director for Rudy Giuliani‘s 2008 presidential bid.

Handy was chairman of Jeb Bush’s 1994 and 1998 campaigns and a 2002 Bush co-chairman. He was state chairman for John McCain‘s 2008 presidential campaign. Handy was chairman of the Florida Board of Education from 2001 to 2007.

With former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty making a beeline to Florida for a Tampa fund-raiser on the heels of making his presidential candidacy official Monday, Florida’s own former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, was — again — quick to rule out his own potential run.

“While, I am flattered by everyone’s encouragement, my decision has not changed. I will not be a candidate for president in 2012,” Bush said in a statement.

With the GOP White House field seen as unsatisfying to many party faithful, Florida Republicans are among those who see Bush as having the supernova quality needed to reroute President Obama’s trajectory toward re-election next year.

Having the Republican National Convention in Tampa only adds to the wish-upon-a-star dreams of some within the party. A poll of Florida voters last month by state Republican operatives, Public Concepts, LLC, and Data Targeting, Inc., even gave Bush a 19 percentage point lead over Obama in the nation’s biggest toss-up state.

Bush, who’s gained increased attention as many of the education initiatives he debuted in Florida gain traction in other states — and even with the Obama administration –is clearly wary. And, perhaps, with good reason.

A Gallup poll in April showed Bush’s unfavorable rating among nationwide voters is 44 percent, compared with 35 percent who have a positive view of the former chief executive. Fox News in February also found Bush trailed Obama by 20 percentage points, on a list of potential GOP contenders.

Far closer for Fox, then, was a candidate who actually is running — former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who only trailed Obama by 7 percentage points at the time.

On the same day Gov. Rick Scott fretted about the state’s rising tide of red ink, Florida lawmakers Tuesday sent him the $69.7 billion budget they approved earlier this month.

Scott has until June 1 to sign it and issue his vetoes — which he hinted Tuesday he plans to do, maybe with some gusto.

“I can tell you, though, there will be additional savings,” Scott said – hinting at vetoes that pour more money into state reserves, already at the $2.2 billion level.

 “In these economic times, we must ensure that every hard-earned tax collar is used wisely in a way that we get Florida back to work.”

State government debt climbed to $28.2 billion last year – up almost $2 billion from a year earlier and double what it was in 2000, according to the state’s Division of Bond Finance.

While lawmakers struggled to close an almost $3.8 billion budget shortfall – enacting deep cuts to schools and health and social services programs – almost $2.1 billion had to be taken from the budget just to finance the state’s debt.

 Since former Gov. Jeb Bush took office in 1999, ushering in a dozen years of Republican leadership, Florida’s borrowing has climbed by $12 billion. 

Those who helped write this year’s spending plan know the governor has the ball now.

 

“I suspect there will be some vetoes, but we have a responsible budget,” said House Appropriations Chair Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring.

 ”The governor will come in and look at different issues, different items. He’ll bring a fresh eye to it.

The House joined the Florida Senate in approving a measure Wednesday making mostly modest changes to city pension plans — backing away from more sweeping approaches proposed earlier to stabilize some of the financially troubled funds.

The only major overhaul included in the legislation (CS/SB 1128) limits overtime pay to 300 hours per year for benefit calculations for police, firefighters and other municipal employees. The cap would stop government workers from using what critics say is a common pension-boosting practice.

The legislation was approved 80-35 and sent to Gov. Rick Scott, who is expected to sign it into law. The bill also requires more oversight from the state’s Department of Management Services of the hundreds of local funds, including posting a five-year history of each plan’s financial status.

But it stops far short of what many cities had earlier proposed. The Florida League of Cities had wanted lawmakers to rework a 1999 law that fattened the pensions of police and firefighters that had been spearheaded by former Gov. Jeb Bush.

The lucrative pension provision was the first bill signed into law by the former two-term governor, who had been endorsed by the Florida Police Benevolent Association and Florida Association of Professional Firefighters in the governor’s race the previous fall. (more…)

    Gov. Charlie Crist’s portrait joined those of past Florida chief executives in the Capitol Monday — a full-framed likeness of the state’s 44th governor, noteworthy by what it does not include.

    Unlike recent governors who have chosen to include iconic symbols of their time in office, Crist’s portrait is a straight-ahead, formal depiction. Crist is standing next to a Florida flag, his arms by his sides, his left hand holding the back of a chair.

“I think the seal of Florida says it all,” Crist said, following a ceremony at the Capitol, which included the current occupant of the Governor’s office, Republican Rick Scott. “I just love this state and didn’t want to kind of distract with anything else.”

Pensacola artist Jeffrey Bass painted Crist’s official portrait from a photograph taken inside the governor’s mansion last December. Bass was commissioned to paint Crist’s predecessor, Gov. Jeb Bush, whose portrait included such background details as a Blackberry, a family photo, and images of the  Bible, Majorie Kinnan Rawlings’ Florida memoir Cross Creek, and the 1899 motivational essay A Message to Garcia by Elbert Hubbard.

Earlier governors also included similar memorabilia. Late Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles’  portrait includes a  racoon, homage to his self-styled ‘he-coon,’ image; former Gov. Claude Kirk  is portrayed next to a desktop elephant, marking him as Florida’s first Republican governor of the last century.

Crist said he offered no direction to the artist, but was pleased with the result.

“Not really any at all,” Crist said of any advice given Bass. “But I’d seen some of his work before…I trusted his artistic judgment.”

The municipal pension rewrite now advancing in the House — and headed to the Senate Budget Committee next week — has a history rooted in Republican politics, having emerged as a payback to unions that supported Gov. Jeb Bush in 1998.

But the political wind in Tallahassee has shifted sharply this spring.

And for Florida’s police and fire unions, one-time allies are now enemies, with the pension overhaul the latest in a series of what labor sees as union-busting moves by the GOP leadership.

“Did we go too far? Yeah, maybe we did,” said Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, who as House Speaker in 1999 led the legislation sought by Bush. “But we were pretty flush back then. We can’t afford this now.”

As for Bush, he’s apparently changed, too. In January he and presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich co-authored an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times. In it, the pair urge that states consider declaring bankruptcy to reorganize their troubled finances.

Why do they need to take such a drastic step?

To get out from under sweetheart pension deals for greedy unions, the former deal-maker turned reformer now writes.

A House panel agreed Friday to revamp city pension requirements for police and firefighters — advancing another union-opposed bill in an already tough legislative session for public employees.

The House Government Operations Subcommittee approved a measure sought by city officials which scales back a 1999 law demanding that growth in insurance premium tax dollars go to enhanced pension benefits.

The Florida League of Cities said that improving payouts has cost city taxpayers more than $400 million since Republican Gov. Jeb Bush pushed the legislation through as the first law he enacted as chief executive.

“It’s not sustainable,” Kraig Conn, league lobbyist, told the House panel.

The Senate has its own version of the bill (CS/SB 1128), that had languished since clearing an early committee.

But in a sign that lawmakers are ready to enact yet another pension overhaul, Senate leaders quickly sent that proposal Friday to the Budget Committee for a hearing next week.

 The measure looks poised to take its place alongside what some are deriding as union-busting measures backed by Florida’s ruling Republican Party.

Among them: legislation demanding new employee contributions to the Florida Retirement System, a teacher merit pay law, and a proposal to bar governments from making union deductions.

Gov. Rick Scott reenacted Friday his signing into law legislation restricting teacher tenure and introducing merit pay — steps fiercely fought by the state’s teachers’ union.

“The big winner here is all our kids,” Scott assured in a brief ceremony at the Capitol, flanked by House and Senate sponsors of the measure, approved last week by the Republican-ruled Legislature.

It’s the first state law enacted by the rookie governor. “Good start, governor,” shouted Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, after Scott put down his pen.

Scott formally signed the legislation Thursday at a Jacksonville school, capping a long political march by Republican leaders. Florida GOP lawmakers have been pushing back against the Florida Education Association for years and got close last year to enacting the merit pay bill – only to have then-Gov. Charlie Crist veto it.

Scott indicated Friday that he’s got plenty more to change in Florida schools.

“We’ve got to get charter schools expanded, we’ve go to give our public schools the opportunity to be run by third parties and be way more innovative,” said Scott — who declined to take questions following the ceremony.

President Obama and former Gov. Jeb Bush will tour Miami Central High School on Friday along with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Later, the president will raise money for Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson’s 2012 reelection bid.

Bush has ruled out a 2012 presidential bid. It’s also considered highly unlikely he’d run for Senate in 2012, though a recent Mason-Dixon poll for Ron Sachs Communications suggests Bush would beat Nelson by a 49-to-41 percent margin while Nelson would beat other potential GOP rivals.

Read more about the Obama-Bush event here.

Read the White House news release after the jump…

(more…)

Sen. Arthenia Joyner of  Tampa and Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich of Weston on Friday renewed Democratic call for Attorney General Pam Bondi to drop her push to tighten Florida’s standards for restoring civil rights to felons after they completed their sentences.

 ”With a staggering unemployment rate of 12 percent, I’d think the attorney general would want to support any effort to help Floridians who have fully paid their debts to society, to find work,”  Rich said.

In a shocker for civil rights advocates and Democrats, Attorney General Pam Bondi is looking to undo Florida’s limited automatic restoration of rights for felons. Bondi said she was likely to have a proposal to put before Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet next month.

“I don’t believe any felon should have an automatic restoration of rights,” the Republican Cabinet member told reporters Thursday morning. “I believe you should have to ask, and there should be an appropriate waiting period” of three to five years.

Joyner, though, said she felt Bondi’s move was aimed at placating tough-on-crime tea party advocates.

“From fighting Floridians access to family doctors, to withholding civil rights, it seems the Republican politicians are more interestedin hurting Florida than helping her,” Joyner said Friday.

WEST PALM BEACH — Former House Speaker and potential 2012 presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, arriving at tonight’s Palm Beach County GOP Lincoln Day dinner, says several Floridians could end up on the Republican presidential ballot next year.

“Florida has two and maybe three potential vice presidential candidates right now, maybe four if you count Jeb Bush,” Gingrich said. He mentioned Sen. Marco Rubio, U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation and Gov. Rick Scott.

Gingrich says he’ll announce his presidential plans within a few weeks.

Asked about Florida’s 2012 primary date, Gingrich said Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina should be the first states to hold 2012 presidential primaries or caucuses. After that, he said, “it’s up to Florida. At that point Florida has to negotiate with the RNC.”

The Republican National Committee wants Florida to move its primary from January to March.

Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi’s call Thursday to erase Florida’s already restricted system for automatically restoring civil rights to felons is leaving some Democrats shaking their heads — and blaming politics, of both the tea party and presidential election variety.

Sen. Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, said he plans to sponsor legislation that runs counter to the Republican attorney general’s stance – effectively making it easier for felons to obtain occupational licenses after they complete their criminal sentences.

Smith said Bondi was appealing to conservative voters with her calls for slowing down rights restoration.

“It’s tough on crime, bumper-sticker politics,” Smith said. “But that flies in the face of what we’ve seen in other states – even Texas – where people are looking at the economics of crime. Corrections is costly, and the quicker you can integrate someone back into society after they serve their time, the better.”

Controversy surrounding civil rights restoration has clouded Florida before. Thousands of Floridians – including many Democratic-leaning black voters – were purged from state rolls before the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, sparking widespread criticism of then-Gov. Jeb Bush, whose brother was on the ballot both years.

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist relaxed the rights restoration process during his term. But Smith said Bondi appears poised to turn back the clock on the eve of another big presidential year.

“I think it’s somewhat motivated by that,” Smith said. “But maybe more by the perception that you have to pander to the tea party, which wants tougher sanctions on crime.”

Democratic firm Public Policy Polling says Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who’s up for reelection in 2012, begins with “tepid” support from his own party and has failed to make an impression on a “remarkable” 31 percent of Florida voters despite being a Senator nearly 10 years.

Still, PPP’s Tom Jensen notes, Nelson does well with independents and not too shabbily with Republicans and wins early hypothetical match-ups against potential Republican challengers Connie Mack (44-to-36 percent), George LeMieux (47-36), Mike Haridopolos (44-32) and Palm Beach County’s own Adam Hasner (46-30).

One Republican who’d give Nelson trouble: former Gov. Jeb Bush, who outpolls him 49-44.

“Nelson’s in decent shape but certainly not invincible and the competitiveness of this race will hinge a good deal on how strong the Republican candidate field ends up being,” says the Democratic pollster.