As local supporters and opponents of health care overhaul took to the streets Tuesday to make their case, it was clear that many supporters of the Democratic legislation don’t see it as the culmination of decades of struggle but as a starting point for future changes.

“The day after it’s passed we’re going to start working on it to improve it. It’s a mess,” said Charles Oliver of Delray Beach, one of about 15 demonstrators at a MoveOn.org event outside U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s office in West Palm Beach. Oliver wants a government-run public option, and says even if it doesn’t make it into the emerging legislation now, the bill will provide “a structure” for future change.

About 30 opponents of the Democratic legislation made their case Tuesday outside Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein’s office in Boca Raton at an event organized by conservative tea party and 9-12 groups.

Read more here.

WASHINGTON — Republican congressional hopeful Allen West, hoping to gain national momentum for his challenge of Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, was well-received during his 15-minute speech at Saturday’s Conservative Political Action Conference.

Read about it here.

WASHINGTON — Actor Stephen Baldwin, a.k.a. the conservative Baldwin brother, just dropped by a fund-raiser/meet-and-greet for South Florida Republican congressional hopeful Allen West at the Conservative Political Action Conference here.

West’s improved money-raising has drawn the notice of the national GOP as he tries to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein. West should raise his profile even more on Saturday afternoon, when he has a featured speaking slot shortly before conservative multi-media star Glenn Beck speaks.

This morning, West got several standing ovations when he was part of a panel discussion called “Jihad: The Political Third Rail,” in which he said America needs to confront the ideology behind Islamic terrorism.

“There’s no such thing as a war on terror….A nation goes to war against an ideology, and that’s what we’ve been talking about today.

“We’ve been talking about the fact that here is something that is a totalitarian, theocratic, political ideology and it is called Islam. This is not about Muslims. It is just the same as in Nazi Germany. Not every German was a Nazi. It’s just the same as when I was in Iraq in 2003. Not every Iraqi was a member of the Baath Party,” said West, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel.

Klein: Top-10 Dem moneyman

Klein’s Republican rival, Allen West, began 2010 with $707,150 cash on hand — the second-highest figure for all GOP challengers, according to CQ.

West: No. 2 for GOP challenger money

Klein’s District 22 covers parts of Palm Beach and Broward counties. It was represented by Republican Clay Shaw for 26 years but has grown more Democratic and voted 52 percent for Barack Obama in 2008.

The National Republican Congressional Committee is upgrading Republican candidate Allen West from one of about 50 “on the radar” candidates to one of its top 15 contenders for 2010.

West is making a second try to unseat well-financed U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, in Palm Beach-Broward congressional District 22. West, who got little national help and raised only $583,897 for his 2008 campaign against Klein, has turned heads this year by announcing he raised more than $670,000 during the fourth quarter of 2009.

“Having had such a monster fourth quarter is certainly a major factor” in the national GOP’s heightened interest in West, NRCC spokesman Andy Sere said.

With his fund-raising surge, West says he has about $700,000 cash on hand. Klein, who hasn’t announced his latest totals yet, had about $2.2 million in the bank on Sept. 30. Federal Election Commission reports are due Sunday.

Republican congressional challenger Allen West’s campaign says it raised an impressive $670,000 in the fourth quarter of 2009 for West’s bid to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein. This video, posted in October and viewed more than 1.8 million times, helped West raise more in those three months than he did for his entire 2008 campaign.

Read about in this week’s Politics column.

Full-body imaging might have detected that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had stuffed his underwear with explosives before he boarded a Detroit-bound flight on Christmas day.

But a considerable bipartisan majority of U.S. House members are on record opposing the widespread use of such scans in a vote that saw privacy concerns trump security measures. In June, the House voted 310-to-118 for an amendment by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, that would have prohibited whole-body imaging as a “primary screening” method at airports. The amendment died in the Senate.

Chaffetz’s amendment would have allowed such scans as a “secondary” screening method, but passengers would be given the option of a pat-down search in lieu of whole-body imaging and the Transportation Security Administration would have been banned from “storing, transferring, or copying any images” from the scans.

Local U.S. Reps. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar; Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta; and Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, supported the ban on whole-body imaging. U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, voted against the Chaffetz amendment.

Gov. Charlie Crist moved the special election to replace U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler ahead a week after Jewish voters complained the original election would have taken place during Passover.

The Jewish holiday ends on April 6, the date Crist originally picked for the special election.

“Originally, the special general election was inadvertently scheduled during Passover, and out of respect to the Jewish community, the special general election has been rescheduled to Tuesday, April 13, 2010,” Crist’s office wrote in a memo announcing the new election date.

The special primary election in the heavily Jewish Congressional District 19 will still take place on Feb. 2.

State Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, is considered the favorite to replace Wexler, who resigned to head the nonprofit Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation.

Deutch secured not only Wexler’s support but practically the entire South Florida Democratic delegation. He’s been endorsed by U.S. Reps. Ron Klein, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Alcee Hastings.

Deutch, D-Boca Raton, is running in the not-yet-scheduled special election to replace U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, who’s leaving office in January to head a Middle East think tank. If Deutch wins, his Palm Beach-Broward Senate seat will be open. Depending on the timing of the congressional election, it’s not clear if a state Senate vacancy would be filled by another special election or if the seat would remain open until the fall 2010 elections.

While those scenarios unfold, Sachs has secured big-name backing for her potential Senate bid, including Wexler and U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton; Democratic County Commissioners Burt Aaronson, Shelley Vana, Jess Santamaria, Priscilla Taylor and Jeff Koons; state Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton; and two dozen Democratic club presidents and activists.

In addition to the display of endorsement firepower, Deutch’s campaign said it has already raised more than $200,000 in its first 10 days. And Deutch has about a dozen fund-raisers scheduled for the next six weeks, including one in Washington hosted by his congressional endorsers and events in New York and Cleveland.

Wexler is resigning in January to head the nonprofit Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation. A special election is expected in early 2010.

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West: spending big on direct mail

West raised a meager $583,877 for his 2008 race and got 45.3 percent of the vote against Klein, who spent more than $2.3 million.

This time around, West has already raised $543,808 . But so far, West isn’t socking away that money. He has already spent $336,427. More than $230,000 of that figure has gone to direct-mail consultants and services.

West and consultant Ed Brookover say they hope the early expenditures pay off by next fall in the form of a steady revenue stream from contributors around the U.S.

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Craft, who entered the race in early August, raised $61,605 through Sept. 30, according to a report filed today. His campaign ended the quarter with $51,546 in the bank. Rooney raised $114,655 during the quarter and has $247,416 on hand.

Congressional money-raising reports are due by midnight tonight.

Republican Allen West, who’s challenging U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, raised $281,508 during the quarter and has $257,416 on hand. Klein’s report has not yet been filed. He began the quarter with nearly $2 million in the bank.

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan will join U.S. Reps. Robert Wexler, Ron Klein and Mario Diaz-Balart tomorrow on a tour of a Boynton Beach doctor’s home contaminated by Chinese drywall.

The entourage, which includes state Sen. Ted Deutch, will visit Steve and Jennifer Robert’s home in Cobblestone Creek. The Roberts’ daughter has been afflicted with frequent respiratory infections possibly caused by the toxic drywall.

Palm Beach County officials, including Wexler and Klein, have pushed Congress to do something about the tainted building product, as has U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

s had on the lives of the Roberts family, who own a home in the community of Cobblestone Creek. Dr. Steve Roberts and his wife Jennifer Roberts have struggled with their 16 month-old daughter’s frequent respiratory infections, and the fact that their home has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in value as a result of this toxic product.

WHO:
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan
Congressman Robert Wexler
Congressman Mario-Diaz Balart
Congressman Ron Klein
State Senator Ted Deutch

WHAT:
Press Availability Following Tour of Home

WHERE:
The home of Dr. Steve Roberts and Jennifer Roberts
10013 Cobblestone Creek Drive, Boynton Beach, FL

WHEN:
Tuesday, October 13, 10:30-11:30 am

Klein

District 22 voters have sent a Democrat — U.S. Rep. Ron Klein of Boca Raton — to Congress in the last two elections and Democrat Barack Obama carried the district by 4 points in the November 2008 presidential election.

But until this month, the district had a plurality of Republican voters.

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Republican congressional challenger Allen West applauded U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, for voting last week to cut off federal money to scandal-tainted ACORN.

But West says Klein’s a hypocrite if he doesn’t return $20,000 in past campaign contributions from the Service Employees International Union, which conservatives say is joined at the hip with the left-leaning Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

U.S. Department of Labor filings show SEIU has paid about $4 million to ACORN since 2005 for political activities. And ACORN founder Wade Rathke also founded a major SEIU local in New Orleans.

Klein rejected West’s call to give back the $10,000 he got from SEIU in 2006 and $10,000 he received from the union in 2008. Klein “is proud to stand with the hard-working SEIU families of the 22nd District, who have nothing to do with ACORN,” spokeswoman Melissa Silverman said today.

Check out West’s campaign statement and Klein’s response after the jump…..

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Hasner: videos bolster case for elections changes

Hasner and other Republicans have long accused the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now of perpetrating voter fraud.

Crist: no fraud problem in Florida

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Klein

Klein said he wants constituents who click on specific projects to tell him if they aren’t doing what they are supposed to do.

“We want to make sure that our local people…can see what’s going on in their local community and can be part of the eyes and ears to make sure this money is being spent correctly,” Klein said today in an appearance at the West Palm Beach Tri-Rail station, where he touted a $13.6 million federal expenditure to buy four new locomotives and make other transit improvements.

Said Klein, who voted for the $787 billion stimulus bill: “If the money’s doing its job and creating jobs and creating benefit in our community, I’m all for it. And if we find that it’s not being spent, or its being spent on anything other than creating jobs, we need to cancel it, pull it back and find a better way to support our local community.”

Wexler

Wexler was on the losing end of a 345-75 House vote in which local U.S. Reps. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, and Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, voted with the majority and U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, answered “present.”

A bill of attainder, forbidden in Article I, Section IX of the constitution, is a legislative act that imposes punishment on a specific person or group without a trial or hearing. But there’s legal precendent allowing a law that singles out an entity if “the law under challenge, viewed in terms of the type and severity of burdens imposed, reasonably can be said to further nonpunitive legislative purposes.”

UCLA law professor and blogger Eugene Volokh offers this discussion of the matter and concludes: “My rereading of the precedents leads me to confidently and unambiguously say, ‘I don’t know.’ “

Wexler

The vote was 345-75 to attach a Republican anti-ACORN measure to a student aid bill. All 75 “no” votes came from Democrats, including U.S. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton. Wexler considers the language unconstitutional, a spokesman said.

U.S. Reps. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, and Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, supported the measure.

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, answered “present.”

The left-leaning Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now has been under fire since a pair of guerrilla videographers — one of them a 20-year-old minister’s daughter who attends Florida International University — posed as a prostitute and a pimp and captured hidden-camera footage of ACORN employees offering advice on how to set up a brothel and conceal the income.

ACORN has ordered an independent investigation.

Wexler

“I abhor Joe Wilson’s behavior at the presidential address. But the man has apologized….I think we should heed President Obama’s advice and end the bickering, and maybe we Democrats can play our part by moving on,” said Wexler, known as one of his party’s fiercest partisans.

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., has led the push for a resolution reprimanding Wilson.

Wilson apologized to President Obama through White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. But some Democrats have said he should apologize on the floor of the House as well because his outburst occurred there.

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