Republican-turned-independent-turned Democratic former Gov. Charlie Crist was in Washington supporting his new team at Thursday night’s Congressional Baseball Game for Charity.

Crist posed with Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, in a picture that Murphy’s campaign circulated along with news that the freshman House member had belted an RBI double in the first inning. Murphy may be a rookie, but he showed a veteran’s awareness of political visuals, wearing a jersey from Indian River State College in his Treasure Coast swing district.

The Democrats shellacked the Republicans 22-0.

“Is there any better proof we need more young & Hispanic Republicans in Congress?” said Miami-based Republican strategist and CNN contributor Ana Navarro on her Twitter account.

On his Twitter account, Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Okeechobee, managed to find a silver lining for the GOP: “Didn’t go our way but raised a lot of money for some great charities.”

U.S. Reps. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, and Tom Rooney, R-Okeechobee, are on the rosters for tonight’s Congressional Baseball Game, a tradition that goes back more than 100 years.

Republicans hold a 38-to-36 advantage, with one tie, in the games. But Democrats have dominated since Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, a former college player, took office in 2011 and brought his overpowering pitching to the game. Republicans are hoping to counter Richmond this year with freshman Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Ponte Vedra Beach, who pitched in the 1991 Little League World Series and at Yale.

DeSantis, Rooney and Murphy are the only Floridians in the game.

Murphy can pitch and play center field for the Democrats. Rooney plays first base for the GOP squad.

A congressional aide implicated in an absentee ballot scheme in Miami-Dade County while working on a Democratic campaign there also had “a very limited role” producing web videos for Democratic U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy’s 2012 campaign.

Murphy was “dismayed” by the news about consultant Jeffrey Garcia, whom the Murphy campaign characterized as a minor player who had no involvement in absentee ballots or get-out-the-vote efforts during Murphy’s 2012 victory over former Republican Rep. Allen West.

Jeffrey Garcia resigned Friday as chief of staff to Rep. Joe Garcia, D-Miami. The Miami Herald reported that Jeffrey Garcia, who is not related to Rep. Garcia, took responsibility for a plot to submit hundreds of fraudulent requests for absentee ballots during the 2012 primary when he was a top adviser to Joe Garcia’s campaign.

Jeffrey Garcia runs Palm Media LLC, which according to Federal Election Committee reports was paid $24,000 by Murphy’s campaign from April 2011 to April 2012 to produce web videos.

“Congressman Murphy was dismayed to hear today of the of the wrong doing involving Mr. Jeff Garcia. The integrity of the electoral process is vital to our political system,” said a Murphy campaign statement over the weekend. “Mr. Garcia’s media company had a very limited role in the campaign which included producing some web videos. He was not one of the campaign’s primary consultants and had no involvement in the campaign’s field program, absentee program or outreach to voters.”

WEST PALM BEACH — Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, and Rep. David Joyce, R-Ohio, called for more cooperation between Republicans and Democrats when they appeared together at a Forum Club of the Palm Beaches lunch today to discuss a bipartisan bill to trim the deficit.

Murphy and Joyce are both freshmen and part of a bipartisan group seeking to find common ground on deficit issues. They co-sponsored a bill called the Savings, Accountability, Value and Efficiency (SAVE) Act, which identifies about $200 billion in savings over 10 years by adopting efficiency recommendations from the Government Accountability Office.

The $200 billion in savings amount to about 3 percent of the $6.3 trillion in projected deficits over the next decade, but Murphy and Joyce said their bill is at least a start.

“We are not going to solve the world’s problems overnight. We are freshman members. But we’re changing the tone and step by step that’s what we need to do in this country is change to the tone and get back to bipartisanship,” Murphy said.

“I view myself as a fact-based problem solver,” said Joyce, a former prosecutor whose district includes some Cleveland suburbs and northeast Ohio. “It’s about time we take off our red jerseys and we take off our blue jerseys and we put on our red-white-and-blue jerseys and do what’s right for this country.”

Murphy and Joyce were asked by an audience member if they feared that working across the aisle would make them targets for a primary challenge.

Joyce decried the influence of conservative groups that pressure Republican House members to vote their way or face primary opposition. He specifically mentioned Grover Norquist of Americans For Tax Reform, which asks candidates to pledge to oppose all tax increases.

“I want taxes to do go down. But we can’t sign stupid pledges that abdicate our responsibility to some outside party,” Joyce said.

Both Murphy and Joyce represent battleground districts and are expected to be top targets in 2014. Joyce said he is also bracing for possible opposition from within the GOP.

Joyce was asked if any Republicans tried to dissuade him from appearing with Murphy.

“I’m not endorsing him (Murphy), I’m coming down to endorse the system and what we need to do in D.C. to fix it,” Joyce said in an interview.

Freshman U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, is one of the national GOP’s top 2014 targets, so it’s likely that a parade of Republican figures will come to Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast over the next 18 months to assist efforts to defeat him.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., was in town recently to interview potential Murphy challengers. McHenry heads up recruiting efforts for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Rep. David Joyce, R-Ohio, is scheduled to make a Murphy-related visit on Friday — but not to try to oust Murphy from Congress.

Joyce and Murphy are co-sponsors of the Savings, Accountability, Value and Efficiency (SAVE) Act, which aims to trim $200 billion in federal spending over 10 years by implementing some efficiency recommendations put forward by the Government Accountability Office.

Murphy and Joyce are scheduled to discuss the SAVE Act and the prospects for bipartisan cooperation at a Forum Club of the Palm Beaches luncheon on Friday at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.

Read more here.

Fox News Channel has signed former U.S. Rep. Allen West as a contributor.

The conservative firebrand often appeared on Fox programs during his single term in the House and chose Fox as the venue when he conceded his narrow loss to Democrat Patrick Murphy in November.

“Representative West’s congressional and military experience along with his fearless approach to voicing key issues will provide a valuable point of view to the Fox News lineup,” said a statement from Bill Shine, the executive vice president of programming for Fox News.

In addition to his Fox duties, West will continue to be director of Next Generation TV programming for conservative PJ Media, where he hosts a subscription-only online TV show.

Freshman Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, today called for congressional investigations into the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of the tea party movement and other conservative groups and the Justice Department’s secret seizure of business and personal phone records from Associated Press journalists.

“The news regarding the IRS is completely unacceptable. Congress should swiftly and thoroughly investigate this matter, and the administration should provide its complete cooperation to ensure that this never happens again,” Murphy said in a statement released by his office.

“Additionally, the reported actions of the Department of Justice in relation to the Associated Press are deeply troubling and those responsible must be held accountable for any illegal or unethical actions taken. The American people must have faith that their government isn’t abusing its powers, which is why I am calling for full investigations into both of these troubling matters.”

A conservative group plans to examine more than 118,000 ballots and sift through voter registration records in St. Lucie County, which was the site of tabulating problems and litigation in Democrat Patrick Murphy‘s narrow congressional victory over Republican Allen West in November.

The group True The Vote says it will send at least 10 people to Fort Pierce to look at the ballots and records under an agreement reached this week with St. Lucie County Elections Supervisor Gertrude Walker.

True The Vote and Pamela Wohlschlegel, the former head of the Palm Beach County Tea Party, filed a federal suit against Walker in February, claiming her office was denying access to public records. Walker denied blocking access. A settlement dated Wednesday states True The Vote will have access to the records it wants and will pay the elections office for copies and staff time associated with the request.

“This lawsuit has never been about the victor. It’s been about vulnerabilities, vulnerabilities in the system,” True The Vote attorney J. Christian Adams said. He said at least 10 and as many as 50 people will participate in examining the ballots and records. Adams said his group expects to pay more than $20,000 for the exercise.

Among the questions True The Vote hopes to answer, Adams said, is “Were people voting in the congressional election that weren’t allowed to vote?”

The records True The Vote plans to review include registration forms for people who became voters after Jan. 1, 2012, notices sent to inactive voters, lists of voters purged from the county rolls after Jan. 1, 2009, notices sent to potential felons and lists of voters who were identified by the Florida secretary of state’s office as potential non-citizens.

Murphy officially defeated West by 1,904 votes or less than 0.6 percent in the expensive, nationally watched congressional District 18 race. About 36 percent of the ballots were cast in St. Lucie County, with the remainder in Martin and Palm Beach counties.

Walker admitted her office double-counted some ballots from early voting and failed to count others on election night. That led to a partial recount of 16,275 early-voting ballots in which West made a net gain of 535 votes. Based on those results and the subsequent revelation that another 306 early votes had gone uncounted, the county’s canvassing board ordered a recount of all 37,379 ballots from St. Lucie County’s early voting.

The larger recount showed Murphy making a net gain of 242 votes — but the revised figure was not included in the county’s official total because the canvassing board missed a noon deadline to submit its final results to the state Division of Elections.

State Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, tells PostOnPolitics she’s not ready to make an announcement on whether she’ll run for the Palm Beach-Treasure Coast congressional District 18 seat held by freshman Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter.

With national Republicans eager for candidates to start raising money to combat Murphy’s $672,013-and-growing re-election warchest, Harrell said earlier this year that she’d wait until the end of the state legislative session to make a decision. The session ended Friday. Now Harrell says she probably won’t make an announcement before July 1.

“I would not anticipate any formal announcements until the new fundraising quarter,” Harrell said today. “If I do it I would want to have a strong (first) fundraising quarter.”

The current quarter began April 1 and runs through June 30. Candidates often wait until the beginning of a new quarter to open a campaign so they can collect three months’ worth of contributions and post an impressive number when they file their first Federal Election Commission report.

Harrell is in Washington this week on business, but said she’ll also be talking to the National Republican Congressional Committee and other political operatives about the race. Former state Rep. Carl Domino is also expected in D.C. this week as he considers a congressional run.

Juno Beach Councilwoman Ellen Andel and former Derby, Conn., mayor Alan Schlesinger have already announced campaigns for the District 18 seat. Other Republicans looking at the race include St. Lucie County Commissioner Tod Mowery, former Tequesta councilman Calvin Turnquest and businessman Gary Uber.

JUNO BEACH — About 100 people turned out this morning as two-term Councilwoman Ellen Andel launched her Republican bid for the Palm Beach-Treasure Coast congressional District 18 seat held by freshman Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter.

In what could be a crowded GOP primary, Andel staked out conservative positions in an outdoor speech by the town hall.

“Washington could gain some valuable insights about the way we do things here in Juno Beach,” Andel said, noting the town is debt-free while the federal debt is nearing $17 trillion.

“This race is about restoring conservative principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, individual sovereignty, free-market ideas and strong national security. It’s about promoting policies that lessen crippling regulation, reduce the tax burden and simplify the tax code. This is the only way that we will create economic growth and opportunity,” Andel said.

Andel, 46, was accompanied by her husband and two daughters. Palm Beach County GOP Chairman Ira Sabin and St. Lucie County GOP Chairman Bill Paterson — both neutral in the primary — were on hand.

Andel will likely face several Republican rivals for a seat that is a national priority for the GOP. Other Republicans who have shown interest in the race include state Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, former state Rep. Carl Domino, St. Lucie County Commissioner Tod Mowery, former Tequesta councilman Calvin Turnquest, businessman Gary Uber and former Derby, Conn., mayor Alan Schlesinger.

Ellen Andel, the vice mayor pro tem of Juno Beach, is entering the race for the Palm Beach-Treasure Coast congressional District 18 seat held by freshman Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter.

Andel plans an official announcement Tuesday morning at the Juno Beach Town Center.

The district has a slight Republican registration edge and voted 51.5 percent for Mitt Romney, so several Republicans have been eyeing the seat. Alan Schlesinger, a former mayor of Derby, Conn., who was the GOP’s 2006 Senate nominee in Connecticut, has declared he’s running and lined up Tallahassee-based consultant Rockie Pennington for his campaign.

Other Republicans looking at the District 18 race include state Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, St. Lucie County Commissioner Tod Mowery, former state Rep. Carl Domino, former Tequesta councilman Calvin Turnquest and businessman Gary Uber. Former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner has not ruled out running.

(more…)

Former Republican Rep. Allen West has nixed the idea of a 2014 rematch against Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, who unseated him in November.

National Republicans would love state Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, to challenge Murphy next year, but Negron is opting to remain on the Senate president track.

At least eight other Republicans have shown some interest in running for Murphy’s Palm Beach-Treasure Coast congressional District 18 seat. With Murphy already building a warchest of more than $600,000, candidates are under pressure to decide soon whether to enter the race and start raising money.

Read about it in this week’s Politics column….

Freshman Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, turned 30 last month. But the parties continue for the youngest member of Congress.

Murphy supporters are hosting a low-dollar birthday bash Wednesday in Washington that requires only a $30 contribution for young professionals and students under 30.

According to the Sunlight Foundation’s Political Party Time website, which tracks fundraising parties by candidates and elected officials, it’s the fourth birthday-themed fundraiser for Murphy in the past month. His campaign used the three-decade milestone to raise money at events last month in Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

Murphy raised an eye-popping $557,912 in the first quarter of 2013 and already has $672,013 cash on hand as he prepares for what could be a tough 2014 re-election bid. University of Virginia prognosticator Larry Sabato‘s Crystal Ball newsletter called Murphy the “most vulnerable” House Democrat in February because he narrowly beat Republican Allen West in 2012 in a district that voted 51.5 percent for Mitt Romney.

The GOP has not yet recruited a candidate to challenge Murphy. But that hasn’t stopped the National Republican Congressional Committee from running web ads attacking Murphy or from using the multiple birthday fundraisers to accuse Murphy of “treating his time in Congress like an episode of MTV’s Super Sweet 16.”

Former Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West has ruled out running for office in 2014. But through a PAC he formed to support other conservatives, West is raising and spending more money than a typical congressional candidate.

A Federal Election Commission report filed Monday night shows that his PAC, the Allen West Guardian Fund, raised $479,370 during the first quarter of 2013 — most of it in contributions smaller than $200.

West’s PAC also spent $267,887 during the quarter, primarily on direct mail. The PAC began April with $220,169 in cash on hand.

The man who unseated West in November, Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, raised $557,912 in the first quarter and spent $157,524. Including money carried over from 2012, Murphy’s 2014 campaign has $672,013 in cash on hand.

Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, raised $302,061 and spent $97,433 during the quarter and has $332,119 cash on hand.

Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, raised $98,623 and spent $103,493 but still has a cash-on-hand balance of $466,395 from previous contributions.

Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, raised $37,307, spent $58,653 and has $234,760 in cash on hand.

Former Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West gave $400,000 of leftover campaign money to the nonprofit Allen West Foundation, according to a Federal Election Commission report filed today.

The contribution was made March 27, according to West’s FEC report. West also gave $250,000 in unspent campaign money to his foundation in late December.

“The primary objective of the Allen West Foundation is to educate and inspire the next generation of conservative leaders among the minority and veteran communities,” says the Allen West Foundation website.

The foundation has applied for 501c4 status as a nonprofit education and advocacy group, spokeswoman Michele Hickford said. The foundation shares a Boca Raton address but is legally separate from the Allen West Guardian Fund PAC, which got $250,000 from West’s campaign in December.

The Guardian Fund hasn’t filed an FEC report so far today; the filing deadline is midnight tonight. In a late-March fundraising appeal, West said he was hoping to raise at least $250,000 for the PAC during the first quarter.

In addition to the $400,000 contribution to the Allen West Foundation, West’s congressional campaign listed more than $178,000 in expenditures related to the November recount in St. Lucie County. West narrowly lost his reelection bid to Democrat Patrick Murphy.

Former U.S. Rep. Allen West lost his re-election bid in November, but he still has the ability to set Facebook ablaze.

Republican West, whose Facebook page has 268,074 “likes,” made two Facebook posts on Sunday complaining about a $166 traffic citation he received earlier in the day at the PGA Boulevard exit on Florida’s Turnpike. According to West, he stopped to pay his toll in a lane that was closed, backed up his car to get into another lane and was cited for an illegal lane change.

As of 1 p.m. today, West’s two citation-related posts had received a combined 22,450 likes, been shared 3,945 times and generated 10,059 comments — pro and con.

By comparison, a pair of Sunday Facebook posts on Republican Sen. Marco Rubio‘s page about his seven TV appearances to discuss immigration reform generated a combined 6,247 likes, 842 shares and 1,393 comments.

Rubio’s Facebook page has 454,848 likes, far outdistancing West. But West remains a much bigger Facebook presence than Gov. Rick Scott (82,432 likes) or Democratic National Chairwoman and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (72,537) or Sen. Bill Nelson (16,219 likes) or West’s replacement, Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy (15,050).

The campaign of freshman Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, says it collected more than $550,000 during the first quarter of 2013 for a race that is being targeted by the national GOP.

Murphy’s campaign says it has more than $650,000 in cash on hand for the 2014 race.

By comparison, former Republican Rep. Allen West, the prolific fundraiser Murphy narrowly defeated last year, raised $456,873 in his first quarter as a freshman in 2011.

The fundraising quarter ended Sunday and Federal Election Commission reports aren’t due until April 15, but Murphy’s campaign was eager to release its fundraising figure in a Wednesday press release.

Republicans haven’t fielded a candidate to challenge Murphy in GOP-leaning District 18, but the GOP has already launched online ads attacking Murphy.

The National Republican Congressional Committee today is beginning online video ad buys that attack freshman Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter. The GOP is spending about $2,000 for the online ads against Murphy, one of seven Democrats being targeted around the U.S.

The ads say Murphy already “fits right in” in Washington D.C. and that, “While Florida families are trying to live within their means, Patrick Murphy voted against balancing our budget. He even voted to allow Congressmen to fly first class on the taxpayers’ dime.”

That claim is based on Murphy’s March 21 vote against the Republican budget submitted by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc. The Ryan budget included a provision eliminating taxpayer-funded first class travel for members of Congress.

Murphy did break with most Democrats to vote for a Republican balanced-budget resolution this year. And while Murphy joined Dems in opposing the Ryan budget, he was one of the few House Democrats to vote against the major Democratic budget proposals as well, saying the plans put forward by his party weren’t serious about entitlement reform.

Murphy, who narrowly beat Republican Rep. Allen West in a GOP-leaning district in 2012, is a top GOP target for 2014, though Republicans haven’t fielded a challenger so far.

Freshman U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, joined a unanimous House Democratic caucus today in voting against House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan‘s budget plan.

But Murphy split with most of his party — including fellow Palm Beach County Democratic Reps. Ted Deutch, Alcee Hastings and Lois Frankel — by also voting against a House Democratic budget plan and against the budget put forward by Senate Democrats.

Murphy was narrowly elected in November in a Palm Beach-Treasure Coast swing district where Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney got 51.5 percent. Murphy has called for more bipartisan cooperation and a “grand bargain” between Republicans and Democrats on the budget.

The Senate Democratic budget plan, which includes $1 trillion in new taxes over 10 years, failed on a 261-to-154 House vote on Wednesday. All 154 votes for it came from Democrats — including Deutch, Frankel and Hastings. Murphy was one of 35 Democrats who joined 226 Republicans in opposition.

Later on Wednesday, Murphy was one of only 28 House Democrats to vote against a budget plan by Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee. Van Hollen’s budget includes $1.2 trillion in new taxes and $200 billion in new stimulus spending. Murphy joined 225 Republicans in opposition.

Republican Carl Domino, the Jupiter investor who served in the state House from 2002 to 2010 and was a driving force behind Florida’s property tax portability law, says he’ll take a look at running for the Palm Beach-Treasure Coast congressional District 18 seat held by freshman Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter.

“I’m going to probably set up one of these exploratory committees…I don’t have to make a decision, obviously, for a long time,” said Domino.

Domino said he’s getting help in setting up an exploratory committee from veteran Republican consultant Randy Nielsen. Nielsen’s past clients include state Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, who says she’ll make a decision on a congressional run when the legislative session ends in May. Nielsen wasn’t immediately reachable this afternoon.

“I don’t think there’s any way that both Gayle and I will be running,” said Domino, who said he hasn’t talked to Harrell about the race.

One thing Domino would bring to the race if he runs: deep pockets. He listed his 2011 net worth at $24.2 million.

Domino lost a bitter 2010 GOP state Senate primary to Ellyn Bogdanoff, then finished second to eventual state Rep. MaryLynn Magar, R-Tequesta, in a five-candidate 2012 GOP state House primary.