As freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, seeks reelection this year, older brother Pat Rooney Jr. is running for a state House seat and younger brother Brian Rooney is trying to win a Michigan congressional seat.

Read about it this week’s Politics column.

Also: Read about how prosecutors want tougher residency standards in response to Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher’s frequent address changes when she was a state House member. And Robert Wexler returns to South Florida this week.

Undeterred by polls or Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts, Democratic congressional challenger Chris Craft says Congress should press ahead with health care reform.

Craft, hoping to unseat freshman GOP Rep. Tom Rooney of Tequesta in a Republican-leaning district, supported the health care bill that passed the House last year on a 220-to-215 vote with Rooney opposed.

Read about it in this week’s Politics column.

As noted over the weekend, Rooney began 2010 with more than a 7-to-1 financial advantage over Craft. Craft is listed as one of the Democrats’ “recruiting duds” in a campaign money round-up by Politico.com

National Democrats are touting Chris Craft’s challenge of freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney of Tequesta as an “emerging” race this year.

But Craft has yet to emerge as a money-raising rival to the incumbent.

New Federal Election Commission reports show Rooney raised $288,060 during the fourth quarter of 2009 and began 2010 with $460,304 in cash on hand for his reelection bid. Craft, a St. Lucie County commissioner, raised $41,700 during the quarter and has $64,854 on hand.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee this month listed the Rooney-Craft race in Florida’s congressional District 16 as one of 26 “races to watch” for open or GOP-held seats. The list includes 17 “top races” and nine “emerging races.”

Democratic St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft, who’s challenging U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, in a Republican-leaning district, said Wednesday he’s “deeply concerned” that President Obama and Democratic congressional leaders might bypass a formal House-Senate conference on health care and hash out a private deal.

Craft is running as a “moderate and independent voice” in a district that voted for Republican John McCain in 2008. So he raised some eyebrows in the fall when he said he supported the House health care bill. That bill passed on a 220-to-215 vote in which most Dems from McCain districts voted no.

Now that the Senate has also passed a bill, there’s talk of scrapping the traditional conference and jettisoning Obama’s oft-repeated 2008 pledge to have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN.

Craft issued a statement Wednesday calling for a bipartisan solution on health care. Read it after the jump….

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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.

It took 37 days, but GOP state House hopeful Pat Rooney Jr. on Thursday was able to lock down the endorsement of his younger brother, Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney of Tequesta.

Tom Rooney released a statement that praises his brother’s business and charity work and says he is “flattered that my older brother is looking to follow in my footsteps by entering public service.”

Pat Rooney, one of three Republicans running for the northern Palm Beach County seat of term-limited Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, has also received the backing of former Palm Beach Gardens Councilman Hal Valeche. Valeche, a Republican, was considering running for the seat.

Valeche ran against Tom Rooney and former state Rep. Gayle Harrell in a 2008 GOP primary for Congress. In that campaign, social conservative Valeche tangled with the Rooney family over gambling issues. Pat Rooney Jr. is president of the Palm Beach Kennel Club dog track.

Most Democrats who represent congressional districts that went for Republican John McCain in 2008 voted no on the recent health care bill. Democrat Chris Craft hopes to win election in such a district in 2010, but he’s for the health care legislation.

Read about Craft’s position in this week’s Politics column, along with the latest on Irv Slosberg’s plans and the warning from not one but two local Dems about Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

Gov. Charlie Crist and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson will both be in Palm Beach County today.

Republican Crist will speak to the state Board of Education and Board of Governors joint meeting at The Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter at 12:30 p.m. He’s also scheduled to address the Florida Council of 100 at The Breakers in Palm Beach tonight.

Democrat Nelson will meet with local elected officials at 10 a.m. at West Palm Beach City Hall, then travel to Fort Pierce, where he’ll join U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, for a 2 p.m. tour of the new Indian River State College public safety complex.

As Florida pols scramble to unload contributions they received from accused mega-scammer Scott Rothstein, U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, announced he’s giving the $4,600 he got last year from attorney Rothstein to a pair of Treasure Coast charities. But Rooney’s campaign said it doesn’t plan to return $4,600 he received from Rothstein’s wife last year.

Rooney’s Democratic challenger, St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft, slammed the incumbent for that.

Read Craft’s statement after the jump….

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Gov. Charlie Crist’s U.S. Senate campaign will give $9,600 it received from Fort Lauderdale attorney and accused multimillion-dollar investment scammer Scott Rothstein and his wife to charity or some other entity, Crist campaign manager Eric Eikenberg said this afternoon.

Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney’s campaign will give $4,600 in Rothstein contributions to a pair of Treasure Coast charities. And the Republican Party of Florida is pledging to give about $150,000 in Rothstein-linked money to a victim-compensation fund when one is set up.

The Florida Democratic Party announced it is returning a $200,000 check from Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm to the firm in hopes it “helps the victims of any wrong doing recover what they have lost.”

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Democratic St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft’s challenge of freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, is off to a slow financial start.

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.

How independent should Palm Beach County’s independent ethics watchdog be?

That question is complicating efforts to win 2010 voter approval for an inspector general’s office to monitor local government after a three-year shame spiral in which County Commissioners Tony Masilotti, Warren Newell and Mary McCarty and West Palm Beach Commishes Ray Liberti and Jim Exline went to prison for corruption.

There’s broad support for an inspector general’s office with subpoena powers to keep an eye on local public officials, lobbyists and contractors.

But then the consensus breaks down.

A consortium of business and civic leaders says the inspector should be hired and fired and have its budget set by an independent ethics commission.

County officials propose the inspector be chosen by an outside panel but approved by a commission vote, financed through the county budget process and fired if five of seven commissioners agree.

Commissioners haven’t endorsed anything yet. They can wait until June to agree on a plan and put it on the November 2010 ballot.

The ethics consortium has less time. If it can’t persuade commissioners to endorse its view of the inspector general, the group has vowed to gather 58,200 signatures to put its version on the 2010 ballot. To succeed, such a petition drive should launch in November, said Marty Rogol of Leadership Palm Beach County and Mike Jones of the Economic Council.

Keeping the inspector general independent of the county commission is a key to ethics reform, Rogol and Jones argue.

Commission Chairman Jeff Koons disagrees. He says commissioners are more visible and accountable than an appointed ethics panel.

“We’re public elected officials…Everything we do is in the public,” Koons said. “We’re held responsible and we meet every couple weeks and people can come yell at us.”

If the sides can’t agree, it’s possible voters could see rival inspector-general ballot questions.

“Do we want dueling proposals before voters? Absolutely not,” said Jones. “It’s too early to say there’s no room for compromise.”

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Palm Beach Kennel Club Prez Pat Rooney Jr. says he needs more time to decide whether to launch a GOP campaign for the open state House District 83 seat. Rooney’s brother is U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta.

A third Rooney brother could also run in 2010: attorney and Iraq war vet Brian Rooney, who lives in Michigan and is eyeing a challenge of Democratic Rep. Mark Schauer.

* * *

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Boca Raton resident Dion DiMucci performed three numbers to big applause Wednesday at a powwow of about 300 Republicans featuring congressional hopeful Allen West.

When Dion covered Eddie Cochran’s Summertime Blues, however, the lyric expressing multilateralist sentiment (“Gonna take my problem to the United Nations”) drew audible boos and groans.

Although it’s a prostitution-themed video sting that has rocked ACORN, Florida House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton, hopes to use the scandal to revive Republican efforts to clamp down on elections activities by the left-leaning outfit and its allies.

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

But Republican Gov. Charlie Crist pooh-poohed those concerns in Florida last year when John McCain’s presidential campaign tried to make them an issue. And Crist voiced concerns this year when Hasner and other Republicans pushed for heightened restrictions and stiffer penalties for groups like ACORN that specialize in voter-registration and petition drives. The legislation died.

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U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, and some other Democrats who voted against a measure to deny federal money to scandal-tainted ACORN said they did so because they regarded the action as an unconstitutional “bill of attainder.”

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.’ “

The U.S. House joined the U.S. Senate this afternoon in voting to cut off any federal money to scandal-plagued ACORN.

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.

Democratic St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft, who’s challenging freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney of Tequesta, will attend a fund-raiser in Washington, D.C., Thursday at the home of a lobbyist whose clients include ACORN and other liberal groups. The invitation lists liberal U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, as a host.

In a Republican-leaning congressional district that favored John McCain over Barack Obama last year, the National Republican Congressional Committee is using the event to paint Craft as an out-of-touch liberal.

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Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta: “Tonight I hoped to hear that the President has been listening to the American people over the past month. From the town hall meetings I hosted in August it is clear to me that Americans have had enough of the rapid expansion of government especially when it comes to an important issue such as health care. We need a plan that does not punish small businesses and tax individuals. Any type of government takeover of our nation’s health care system is not the answer and is unacceptable.”

Sen. Bill Nelson (D): (Reacting to pre-speech excerpts released by the White House) “I’m glad the president is proposing insurance exchanges that will help the nearly one-in-four Floridians who don’t have or cannot get affordable health insurance. Americans who are satisfied with their coverage should be able to keep what they have. And we ought to make coverage affordable for those who don’t have it.”

Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton:“Like all Americans, I was glad to hear President Obama lay out a path ahead on health care reform. After listening carefully to South Floridians on all sides of this debate, it is clear that we all agree that we must make real changes to improve our health care system, increase competition and lower costs…. The most important thing is that we have a final product that lowers costs, improves the quality of health care and ensures that Americans cannot be denied coverage because they get sick.”

Klein on the public option: “I thought he made a very good case. The reason I support a public option in some form is competition.”

Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton: “The President is absolutely correct that all Americans must have security and stability in their health insurance, and I was pleased to hear him reiterate his support for a public insurance option. I enthusiastically agree with the priorities that President Obama outlined tonight, which include providing affordable and accessible coverage for all Americans, delivering real competition in the market to drive down costs, and helping seniors afford their prescription drugs. Congress is on the cusp of delivering historic change, and tonight President Obama provided the vision and initiative for us to get this done.”

Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate:
“Tonight’s speech was a game-changer. President Obama brought clarity to the health care debate. His objective is straightforward: offering stability and security in our health insurance system to Floridians with insurance and to Floridians who lack insurance…With over 80 percent agreement among various committee proposals, it is now time to pull together all components into a single piece of legislation. With skyrocketing health care costs bankrupting American families and businesses, doing nothing is not an option. In Florida alone, over 3,500 people lose their health coverage each week. We cannot afford to sit by and do nothing.”

Pat Rooney Jr. — the president of the Palm Beach Kennel Club dog track, restaurateur, attorney, radio personality, South Florida Water Management District board member and older brother of Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney — says he’s leaning toward running for a northern Palm Beach County state House seat next year and will announce his plans in September.

Rooney, a Republican, is eyeing the state House District 83 seat of state Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, who faces term limits in 2010 and is running for state Senate.

Republicans already in the race: Nancy Cardone, Francisco Rodriguez and Nick Wukoson. Former Palm Beach Gardens Councilman Hal Valeche — who ran against Tom Rooney in the 2008 GOP congressional primary — is also looking at the race. Democrats Tony Arena, Gary Lew and Mark Marciano have also filed for the District 83 seat.

Call it the Klein-Craft Axiom: In Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, Democratic enthusiasm for a government-run public health insurance plan to compete with private insurers is inversely proportional to the percentage of Republicans in one’s congressional district.

Liberal U.S. Reps. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, and Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, are vocal cheerleaders for the “public option” that is a centerpiece of the health care overhaul pushed by House Democratic leaders.

Wexler and Hastings represent slam-dunk Democratic districts.

But in nearby Palm Beach-Broward District 22, which has slightly more Republican voters than Dems, U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, approached the topic cautiously in a “telephone town hall” with constituents last week.

During the teleconference, Klein sounded as if he’s leaning toward the public option and rejected the argument that putting the federal government in the market would drive out private insurers.

But he stopped short of embracing it.

“I’m still looking at it. I haven’t committed to it yet,” Klein said of the public option. And as for the entire 10-year, $1 trillion House plan, Klein said he has problems with the price tag and described himself as “not quite there yet on saying I’m supporting the bill.”

Striking a similarly cautious tone is Democrat Chris Craft, the St. Lucie County commissioner drafted by national Dems to try to unseat freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, in Republican-leaning congressional District 16.

The public option, says Craft, “is an option that’s on the table. I’m not 100 percent sold on it.”

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Marcia Andrews, a former teacher and principal and school district administrator, is considering a run for the school board seat of veteran incumbent Sandra Richmond.

School board seats are nonpartisan. But here’s what makes Andrews’ potential bid interesting: she’s a member of the Palm Beach County Democratic Party’s executive board. And Richmond, elected six times since 1988, is one of the county’s longest-serving Democratic elected officials.

Party leaders traditionally discourage challenges of incumbents from within the party. County Democratic Chairman Mark Alan Siegel says he’s not backing Andrews, but hasn’t discouraged her, either, because “I don’t know if Sandi’s running again.”

Richmond says she’ll “probably” seek reelection next year.

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Cedrick Thomas, who lost to Mack Bernard in last week’s special state House election, has to give up his Riviera Beach council seat Sept. 22 because he ran for the House.

But he doesn’t rule out seeking reappointment by the council.

Thomas is also weighing a 2010 challenge of Bernard or taking on County Commissioner Priscilla Taylor, who was a key Bernard backer.

STUART — What began as a semi-friendly discussion outside a health care forum tonight quickly turned ugly with nearly a dozen people shouting at each other and one spitting on another.

Everett Wilkinson, chairman of the anti-tax South Florida Tea Party, found himself the unsuspecting victim of a spittle attack just minutes after joining the argument.

The altercation had begun with just two people having a semi-friendly discussion outside tonight’s health care forum at Indian River State College’s Chastain campus on Salerno Road. U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, is holding the forum inside The Wolf High-Technology Center.

Trying to make himself heard as proponents and opponents yelled about socialized medicine, Wilkinson raised his arms over his head and shouted: “It’s a great flight to Cuba!”

He turned then and found himself in the middle of an already heated argument between two men. One of the men questioned whether the second man, who was wearing a camouflage jacket, was a veteran.

The second man stepped up to the first and yelled: “I joined after Sept. 11. Do you remember Sept. 11, you ***?!”

Wilkinson and another man, John Fels, of Port St. Lucie, tried to intervene, fending off shoves from the man in camo. Both turned to leave, but the man followed and spit on Wilkinson’s arm.

Deputies arrived just as the crowd split up.

“It’s pretty sad that we can’t have discussion,” Wilkinson said.