The Florida Supreme Court was asked Thursday to let a lawsuit proceed in circuit court on whether Republican legislative leaders violated new redistricting standards by sharing critical data and proposed maps with political consultants.

But a lawyer for the state House and Senate said the challenge by voters groups including the Florida League of Women Voters, Common Cause and National Council of  La Raza, should be dismissed.

Former Justice Raoul Cantero, representing the Legislature, said the state constitution allows only the Supreme Court to rule on the state’s redistricting plan — and validated the once-a-decade rewrite last year.

Cantero said that allowing the voters’ group challenge to proceed “opens up the possibility for serial redistricting litigation.”

Justice Charles Canady agreed.

“There can be a succession of claims and this can go on and on and on,” Canady warned. “We can be litigation the redistricting plan for the next decade.”

But Justice Barbara Pariente said that the voter-approved Fair District amendments to the constitution, which prohibit districts from being drawn to help or hurt incumbents, have complicated the existing constitutional standards for redistricting.

The “intent” of legislators is a factor courts must consider. That’s not likely possible to determine in the narrow time-frame given the Supreme Court for review of redistricting plans, she said.

“It may be a little messy until we get the law straightened out,” Pariente said.

The voters’ groups want a lower court to determine whether the Senate and congressional maps are invalid, because Republican leaders violated the Fair Districts standards. Court documents in that case filed in Leon County Circuit Court show that emails were exchanged between aides to Senate President Don Gaetz, House Speaker Will Weatherford and consultants who analyzed proposed maps.

The emails also show that in 2010, Rich Heffley, a Florida Republican Party consultant advising Gaetz, then the Senate’s redistricting chairman, organized a “brainstorming” meeting at the state party headquarters in Tallahassee. Other documents in the case show that Sen. Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, and Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, who are both angling for Senate presidency in coming years, emailed district information to consultants for review.

With Gov. Rick Scott stopping at a Palm Beach County school Monday to tout teacher pay raises, the Florida Republican Party launched an internet strike on Democratic Rep. Mark Pafford of West Palm Beach, one of 11 lawmakers voting against the state’s proposed $74.5 billion budget.

‘Why Did Pafford vote against Governor’s budget that’s a win for public schools,’ was one of the headlines in a Florida GOP release that interlaced newspaper stories on the teacher pay raise with stinging words for Pafford.

Pafford was accused of being part of a ‘(Dis) appreciation week for teachers.’

“They apparently didn’t listen to my debate,” Pafford said Monday of the GOP criticism.

Pafford said he voted ‘no’ on the budget because it failed to adequately serve poor Floridians, the elderly and disabled. Mostly, he centered his opposition on the Legislature’s failure to expand health insurance to low-income residents, a battle that consumed much of the session and ended in a stalemate between the House and Senate.

“The budget is not plugged into the reality that exists outside this chamber,” Pafford said Friday on the House floor.

The GOP blast on Pafford came shortly after Scott toured Wynnebrook Elementary School in West Palm Beach, among a handful of school stops the governor plans to make this week. The budget includes $480 million that could give teachers a $2,500 pay raises by next June.

Florida Republicans want to get back to basics after losing the presidential race, four congressional seats and super-majorities in both the state House and the state Senate in November.

And, mirroring national Republicans’ post-election introspection, Florida GOP leaders say they need to change their tone to broaden their appeal.

“It’s got to reinvent itself,” said Tom Slade, said of the Republican Party of Florida, which he chaired for three consecutive terms until 2000 and ushered in an era of GOP dominance.
Elected officials, state party staff and consultants repeatedly point back to Republican icon Ronald Reagan even as they look forward to instituting high-tech methods to spread the message of a softer, gentler GOP.

For some — including Republican Party of Florida Chairman Lenny Curry — that means moving away from hot-button social issues such as abortion and refocusing on the principles of lower taxes and smaller government that earned broad support in a state where voters are almost evenly split between the parties.

“The Republican Party I grew up in is the party of Reagan. That was, ‘it’s morning in America, the shining city on the hill.’ It’s about optimism and it’s about hope. And for whatever reason, we have allowed folks that maybe aren’t even our party to poison the well. And somehow we’ve gotten this reputation that we’re ‘the party of ‘no,’ and that’s just not true,” Curry said. “That’s just not the party that I fell in love with.”

Read the rest of the story here.

Incoming House Speaker Will Weatherford continued Monday to round out his leadership team, naming some close allies to top spots in the chamber he’ll soon command following the Nov. 6 elections.

 Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, named Rep. Rob Schenck, R-Spring Hill as Rules Committee chairman, a role that gives the six-year lawmaker major influence over what legislation makes it to the House floor.

Schenck had been Health and Human Services Committee chairman the past two years, and helped shape the Legislature’s move to revamp Medicaid into mostly a managed-care program, a change still awaiting federal approval.

Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, was named speaker pro tempore; and Rep. Chris Dorworth, R-Lake Mary, who is in line to succeed Weatherford, was appointed majority leader. Coley and Dorworth will play a significant role in guiding the House Republican caucus.

Weatherford has already named Rep. Seth McKeel, R-Lakeland, as appropriations chairman.

Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff (R-Fort Lauderdale) and Sen. Maria Sachs (D-Boca Raton), who are both vying for a senate seat in District 34 on Election Day, will be in Palm Beach County on Saturday to rally voters in the newly-drawn Palm Beach-Broward district.

Bogdanoff will be bicycling through coastal communities starting at 7:30 a.m. at El Prado Park in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. Bogdanoff will finish at Boston’s on the Beach in Delray Beach. Throughout the tour, which Bogdanoff is calling Ellyn’s Bicycle Classic, the senator is expected to make stops in Boca Raton and Highland Beach.

Meanwhile, Sachs will be canvassing in Boca Raton Saturday morning. The senator is meeting firefighters at Panera on Military Trail in Boca Raton, according to campaign officials.

The District 34 race between Sachs and Bogdanoff is the only Senate district in Florida where two incumbents are running against each other. It’s also a race both Republicans and Democrats consider key for the future of their parties.

Sachs and Bogdanoff are both facing a largely new set of voters.

Forty-nine percent of constituents in the new district are from Bogdanoff’s old district, and 39 percent are from Sachs’ former district. But the new district is also mostly Democratic, where 58 percent voted for Barack Obama in 2008, possibly putting Bogdanoff at a disadvantage.

An organization supporting three Florida Supreme Court justices facing merit retention this fall began running a TV spot Tuesday blasting the “politicians in Tallahassee” for looking to overhaul the court.

The ad, by Defend Justice from Politics, a political spending committee, is airing a spot in West Palm Beach, Miami and Tampa markets that condemn the push to defeat the last three justices appointed by a Democratic governor. The spot calls it a “political power grab.”

Justices Barbara Pariente, Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince are facing what is shaping up as the most vigorous merit retention fight in Florida history.

A small tea party group, Restore Justice 2012 began criticizing justices last year over decisions that blocked measures pushed by the Republican-led Legislature, but the billionaire Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity also recently weighed in with an ad attacking the court.

When the Florida Republican Party’s executive board voted last month to oppose the justices, that seemed to crank up the merit retention contest to a new level.

Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday he has no problem with the GOP’s decision, although he steered clear of expressing any opinion about the justices being targeted. Another prominent Republican, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, though, said he was uneasy with the party stepping into the non-partisan retention fight.

Atwater said, “it wouldn’t have been certainly a direction that I would have recommended.”

 “We as a party hold certain principles and we look for policies and candidates who are going to shape those with the expectation that justices are going to just constitutionally use good judgment and rule,” Atwater said.

Here’s Defend Justices’ TV spot: http://tinyurl.com/9tmz9eg

Television spots blasting the Florida Supreme Court over the federal Affordable Care Act are scheduled to begin running today in West Palm Beach and other markets, paid for by Americans for Prosperity, the conservative grassroots group founded by the Koch brothers.

Slade O’Brien, Florida state director of the organization, said the ads don’t directly call for voters to oust Justices Barbara Pariente, Peggy Quince or Fred Lewis, who are up for merit retention on Nov. 6. Instead, O’Brien said the “intent is to call attention to judicial activism and legislating from the bench.”

The Florida Republican Party said last week that its leaders have agreed to oppose the three justices seeking new six-year terms. Another organization, Restore Justice 2012, has been active most of the year to unseat the three justices, the last appointments of late Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles, although Quince was named jointly with incoming Republican Gov. Jeb Bush.

The AFP spots are the first TV ads aired in the campaign. The three justices have raised just over $1 million, combined, to defend themselves.

In its ad, AFP targets the Florida Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling that upheld a lower court which stripped from the ballot a measure intended to block the federal health care overhaul from taking effect in the state.

The court ruled the proposed constitutional amendment was flawed because it promised guaranteed access to health care services without waiting lists, would protect doctor-patient relationships, and prohibit mandates that don’t work.

Opponents said the ballot summary deceived the public since the amendment did not directly address those issues, but was written solely to draw voter support against the federal law advanced by President Obama.

An effort to place the full text of the amendment before voters that year also was rejected. The Leon County Circuit judge who made the initial ruling, James Shelfer, said that to do so would amount to “legislating from the bench.”

A rewritten version of the proposal is now set to go before voters in November as Amendment 1.

Americans for Prosperity is a grass-roots activist organization founded by Charles Koch and part-time Palm Beacher David Koch.

The brothers, who run Koch Industries, an oil services company, back a host of conservative causes. Each has a net worth of $31 billion, which last week placed them fourth on Forbes magazine’s list of wealthiest Americans.

AFP on the national stage has run TV ads against Obama and provided phone banks, rallies and get-out-the-vote efforts central to the Republican Party’s takeover of the U.S. House in the 2010 elections.

The organization has fought climate change legislation and the Affordable Care Act, and push for limite

The Florida Republican Party’s entry into a campaign to unseat three state Supreme Court justices drew fresh outrage Monday from supporters who said it endangers an independent judiciary.

“I think the Republican Party should be concentrating on those races in the House and Senate,” said Alex Villalobos, a former Republican state senator from Miami. “To now divert money from those races into a total non-political, non-partisan race, is getting away from what they should be concentrating…No party has any business getting involved in this.”

The Florida GOP announced Friday that its executive board had voted to oppose the merit retention of Justices Barbara Pariente, Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince on Nov. 6.

A conservative group, Restore Justice 2012, has condemned the three justices as a liberal-leaning bloc on the seven-member court, which has stymied a variety of initiatives advanced by the Republican-ruled legislature in recent years.

But defenders of the justices said Florida voters created the merit retention system in 1976 to get politics out of the Supreme Court.

“Before we had that, we had terrible scandals involved” with the court, said Talbot ‘Sandy’ D’Alemberte, a former American Bar Association president, legislator and Florida State University law school dean and president. “What’s happening now is the Republican Party is trying to break something that was fixed.”

D’Alemberte, who served in the Legislature as a Democrat, said he would be “infuriated if the Democratic Party entered this. They’d have no business entering this.”

Curry, the GOP chairman, said no money that flows into the party for legislative races will be diverted to merit retention campaign. He also took issue with critics who say the move opens the door to outside special interest spending in the campaign.

Instead, Curry said the push to have the party work against the justices seeking six-year terms came from “the grassroots of the party.”

“This is coming right from the base of this party,” Curry said. “The more these (critics) push back, the more they’re likely to ignite the base.”

In merit retention, voters get to decide “yes” or “no” whether a justice should receive another six-year term. No justice has been voted off the court since it was introduced.

But some rulings by the Florida court in school voucher, abortion and ballot initiatives sought by the Republican-ruled Legislature have spawned anger from the political right. The three justices targeted were appointed by late Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles, with Quince named jointly with former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush.

A study by the Brennan Center and the National Institute on Money in State Politics found that $38.4 million was spent on high court elections nationwide in 2009-10. Political parties and special interest groups, many of them backed by businesses or social activists, accounted for 30 percent of the spending.

The three justices have raised more than $1 million, combined, for their campaigns — with virtually all the cash coming from lawyers and law firms. The Florida Bar earlier this year also launched a $300,000 campaign to educate voters about the merit retention system for electing justices and appelate judges.

The Bar insisted the unprecedented effort had nothing to do with this year’s challenge to the high court justices. Instead, Bar leaders said polls show 90 percent of voters don’t understand merit retention.

While supporters of the justices say they worry about being overwhelmed by hard-hitting campaign ads, dollars haven’t flowed yet  to the opposition campaign.

Restore Justice has received almost all of its contributions from a South Florida doctor, Allan Jacob, who contributed $59,250, according to the group’s filings with the Internal Revenue Service.

State records show Restore Justice also has filed in Florida as an “electioneering communications organization,” which can influence races by running ads and mailings. The so-called ECO raised $1,075 between Aug. 13 and Sept. 14.

Rep. Mike Horner, a Kissimmee Republican and a favorite of the Christian Coalition of Florida, abandoned his re-election bid Monday after being named in a state attorney’s investigation into a prostitution ring.

Horner served two terms in the state House. He was to face Democrat Eileen Game in November in a race he was widely expected to win.

Horner is president of the Kissimmee/Osceola County Chamber of Commerce. Although not charged, he has reportedly been named on a client list at an Orange County brothel allegedly run by Mark Risner, who was arrested on five felony charges in August.

The Florida Republican Party can name a replacement for Horner. But the incumbent’s name will appear on the ballot and the new Republican will have to run under Horner’s name.

Horner earned a 100 percent rating from the Christian Coalition in 2009, its most recent legislative scorecard.

Incoming House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, said, “I believe he made the right decision. It is in the best interest of our state and his family. As elected officials, we are held to a high standard and no member of the Florida House is above that standard. 

 ”I accept Mike’s decision and offer my prayers during this difficult time for him and his family.”

 In a statement his office issued, Horner acknowledged some missteps.

“I deeply regret decisions I made that are causing my family unjustifiable pain and embarrassment,”  Horner said. “My family still deserves better from me, as do all my friends, supporters and constituents.”

As a legislator, one of Horner’s noteworthy accomplishments was sponsoring National Rifle Association-backed legislation barring adoption agencies from making prospective parents reveal whether they have guns or ammunition at home.

Horner said the measure stemmed from a personal experience. Horner said he and his wife dealt with a “mountain” of paperwork when they attempted to adopt a child through the Children’s Home Society of Florida, which assists with adoptions in the Orlando area.

Horner said the couple were offended when asked about what weapons they had at home.

Horner is the second Orlando-area House member to quit after being linked to prostitution. In 1996, state Rep. Marvin Couch, a family-values, conservative Christian legislator, has been charged with having sex with a prostitute in his truck at an Orange County shopping center.

The Florida Republican Party said Friday it is adding its heft to an effort to unseat the last three state Supreme Court justices appointed by a Democratic governor.

State GOP Chairman Lenny Curry said the party’s executive board has voted to oppose the merit retention of Justices Barbara Pariente, Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince on Nov. 6.  A conservative group, Restore Justice 2012, has labeled the three a liberal leaning bloc on the seven-member court, which has stymied a range of initiatives advanced by the Republican-ruled Legislature in recent years.

Curry didn’t say whether the party would steer cash toward Restore Justice, which so far has reported only modest fund-raising. Instead, party leaders lashed out at the justices as activists, pointing to a specific death penalty ruling.

“While the collective evidence of judicial activism amassed by these three individuals is extensive, there is one egregious example that all Florida voters should bear in mind when they go to the polls on election day,” said GOP spokeswoman Kristen McDonald. “These three justices voted to set aside the death penalty for a man convicted of tying a woman to a tree with jumper cables and setting  her on fire.”

McDonald referred to a 2003 ruling by the Florida Supreme Court that ordered a new trial for Joe Elton Nixon, convicted of murder in Leon County 19 years earlier. The three justices were part of a 5-2 ruling that found Nixon’s lawyer wrongfully conceded his client’s guilt without his approval.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Florida court in an 8-0 decision. Nixon is still on death row.

Supporters of the justices blasted the GOP’s entry into the campaign.

“Florida has had its experience with partisan political involvement in our judiciary and we know that it has been corrupting,” said Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte, a former president of the American Bar Association and Florida State University president.

“ The announcement that the Republican Party is engaged in this effort would shock those wonderful Republican statesmen who helped create the merit selection and merit retention processes,” he added.  ”Surely we do not want to go back to the broken past.”

In merit retention, in place in Florida since 1976, voters get to decide “yes” or “no” whether a justice should receive another six-year term. No justice has been voted off the court since it was introduced.

But some rulings by the Florida court in school voucher, abortion and ballot initiatives sought by the Republican-ruled Legislature have fueled a kind of “kill the umpire” campaign, emerging from the political right. The three justices targeted were appointed by late Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles, with Quince named jointly with former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush.

A study by the Brennan Center and the National Institute on Money in State Politics found that $38.4 million was spent on high court elections nationwide in 2009-10. Political parties and special interest groups, many of them backed by businesses or social activists, accounted for 30 percent of the spending.

Curry later the the Post that it was not yet decided whether the GOP would spend money on TV spots, mail pieces or other efforts to defeat the justices. “Those are operational decisions,” Curry said.

But he added the direction from his board members was clear. “They said, ‘make sure the justices are not retained,’” Curry said.

One of Gov. Rick Scott’s longest-serving advisers — communications chief Brian Burgess — is heading across town to the Florida Republican Party.

Burgess will be replaced by Melissa Sellers, a former spokeswoman for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Scott and Burgess go way back — working together on Conservatives for Patients Rights, the political committee the governor set up as a private citizen to work unsuccessfully on derailing the Affordable Care Act.  Burgess was by Scott’s side as the former health care executive became a longshot candidate for governor in Florida in 2010.

After Scott spent $72 million of his own money pursuing his first elected office, Burgess emerged as prime spokesman for the governor.

The Burgess move to the party has been talked of for months.

But while marking the end of an era — albeit brief — on the Capitol’s first floor, it also likely carries some larger symbolism, as well.  Scott and the party are now effectively one as he heads toward a 2014 re-election campaign.

Scott acknowledged as much in his parting comments about Burgess.

“From the very beginning, Brian has been by my side as a strategic and political adviser, a trusted aide, and loyal member of my team,” Scott said.  “His strong work ethic, strategic advice and leadership will be missed inside the administration, but he isn’t going far.  In his new role, he will continue to help tell the story to Floridians and the nation about what we’re accomplishing every day.”  

For her part, Sellers already began spinning in Florida last week — directing communication for regional media at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Before that, she was Jindal’s press secretary during his gubernatorial campaign and played the same role in the governor’s office – leaving last December.

Seller’s move across the Gulf shouldn’t be that much of a scenery change. After all, she was around Jindal for a couple hurricanes, the BP oil spill in 2010, and several budget shortfalls, according to Scott’s announcement on her hiring.

Scott welcomed her arrival. “We have an ambitious agenda to create more jobs and opportunity for the hard working people of Florida and while we have made important progress already, there is a lot of work still ahead of us,” Scott said.

The Florida Republican Party is taking to the airwaves this week to cloud renegade former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who is scheduled to address the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.

Ads that start airing statewide Tuesday — and will stretch through Friday — use Crist’s own words against him as the GOP attempts to blunt the impact of the former chief executive’s endorsement of President Obama.

In the spot, video clips show Crist describing himself as a “pro-life, pro-gun, anti-tax Republican,” and concluding, “I’m about as conservative as you can get.” In between, Crist praises Jeb Bush, George W. Bush and Sarah Palin in the video montage.

Crist’s convention speech is widely talked of as the opening act of a come-back which could include a 2014 run for governor — as a Democrat.

Florida Republican Chairman Lenny Curry said Crist’s convention speech this week will be even weirder than that given by Clint Eastwood at the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

“If many Democrats thought Clint Eastwood’s speech was a bit odd, wait till they see Charlie Crist – a man who has built his career bashing virtually everything President Obama and the Democrats stand for, including the President’s spending programs and ObamaCare – debate himself,” Curry said.   

Here’s the Florida GOP ad: http://bit.ly/TVW6lO

Gov. Charlie Crist’s plans to speak at next week’s Democratic National Convention brought a fresh round of outrage Monday from Republican leaders — already sizing up the renegade former Republican executive as a likely opponent in the 2014 governor’s race.

“It’s got to be an historic moment,” said Florida Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry. “A self-proclaimed Jeb Bush, a self-proclaimed Ronald Reagan Republican, who is on the record opposing most of the policies of President Obama is going to speak at the Democratic convention.

“I’m not quite sure what they’re thinking,” he added. “I know what he’s thinking.”

Curry said, “I don’t know what his plans are. It certainly looks like he’s in a position to do something.”

Curry also challenged Crist’s central theme — expressed in an op-ed in the Tampa Bay Times on Sunday — that the Republican Party had moved too far to the right for him, and that’s why he was endorsing President Obama. Curry and Republican researchers have released a trove of Crist quotes and policy positions from his long political career that clearly cast him as a pr0-gun, anti-abortion, anti-same sex marriage Republican.

Instead, Curry said Crist’s latest move follows a pattern that saw him run unsuccessfully as an independent for U.S. Senate when Republican Marco Rubio became the party’s nominee in 2010.

“Charlie left the Republican Party because it was the most likely scenario in which he could win the United States Senate seat,” Curry said. 

The timing of Crist’s announcement — on the eve of the Republican National Convention in his Tampa Bay-area home — infuriates Republicans even more. Asked if the party would run TV spots ridiculing Crist’s conversion, Curry said, “You just gave me an idea.”

“If Charlie Crist wants to…rain on our parade, we’re going to respond,” Curry said.

Las Vegas casino king Sheldon Adelson double-downed on his $250,000 contribution to Gov. Rick Scott’s political committee by giving the same amount to the state’s Republican Party in June, according to campaign finance reports released Friday.

Adelson, who financed Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign and recently contributed $10 million to a political action committee backing presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney, was among the top individual donors to the state party over the past three months, records show.

Adelson’s check to the party was posted June 4. A day later, the same amount went to Scott’s Let’s Get to Work political committee, records show.

The Florida Republican Party collected $9 million between between April 1 and Thursday, bringing its total to almost $12 million for the year. It’s also a big bounce-back from  the year’s first quarter, when the party which controls the governor’s office, Legislature, Cabinet, and a majority of Florida’s congressional seats pulled in its lowest contribution total in three years.

The Florida Democratic Party raised almost $2.2 million in the latest report, bringing its total to about $3.1 million for the year.

Adelson, though, clearly sees Florida as ripe for casinos, with the entire gambling industry emerging as a potent player this election cycle. The Seminole Tribe, whose compact with the state would be effectively nullified by the approval of non-tribal casinos, also steered $250,000 to the state Republican Party.

The tribe also pushed $5,000 toward the state Democratic Party, records show.

The Republican-ruled Legislature has long been split on gambling — with the House overwhelmingly opposed and the Senate mostly tolerant of expanding card rooms, slot machines and the arrival of street corner internet cafes.

But the industry cash flowing to the state Republican Party also is only part of the picture.

Political committees guided by GOP legislative leaders also have been on the receiving end of big money from the industry, which then gets converted into campaign mailers and TV spots flooding Florida households as election season deepens.

With Democrats fueling campaign talk of the Republican Party’s alleged war on women, a leading Florida GOP group Wednesday launched its own campaign to promote Republican women candidates and officeholders.

The Florida Federation of Republican Women announced its 2012 Women to Watch list, headed by Attorney General Pam Bondi and Lieutenant Gov. Jennifer Carroll, the first women elected to the posts in Florida.

 The goal of the campaign is to help women candidates find role models and campaign strategies based on the success of those Republican women already in office, said Cindy Graves, president of the federation.

“As in the case of the attorney general and lieutenant governor, each ran completely different campaigns as one was a political newcomer and the other a seasoned politician running as part of a ticket, but both campaigns were well organized, well funded and driven by confident women candidates who not only worked tirelessly but utilized every resource available and built huge consensus among Republicans and ultimately won,” Graves said.

The effort’s web site is here: www.ffrw.net 

 Florida Republicans are pushing back even as Obama campaigns in Colorado where in prepared remarks he is expected to criticize rival Mitt Romney for being out of touch with female voters and looking to “turn back the clock on decades of progress” with his policies.

Obama is scheduled to be introduced by Georgetown University Law School graduate and health care advocate Sandra Fluke, who gained national attention earlier this year after being ridiculed by conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

Limbaugh in March called Fluke a “prostitute” and “slut” after she testified before Congress in support of full insurance coverage for birth control, even if a church-affiliated employer objects. He later apologized.

Obama is expected to emphasize Tuesday the role the Affordable Care Act will play in promoting women’s health. Polls show Obama heavily favored over Romney among women in key swing states including Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist’s endorsement of Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson brought a swift reaction Thursday from the state GOP.

“Just when we though Charlie Crist couldn’t sink any lower, he’s surprised us once again,” Florida Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry said in a news release condemning, “The Two Faces of Charlie Crist.”

Crist’s embrace of Nelson is expected to be completed Friday at an Orlando fund-raiser at the home of uber-trial lawyer, John Morgan, the former governor’s boss. Remember, it was Crist’s hug for President Barack Obama that sent his career as a Republican on a downward course.

Also attending the Nelson cash call will be former President Bill Clinton.

Crist’s shape-shifting, though, is getting the most attention. It’s widely talked of as a likely prelude to his reemerging as a Democrat and candidate for governor.

Republicans, though, are steamed, pointing out that Crist’s snub of Republican primary frontrunner Connie Mack IV comes despite the then-governor having endorsed Mack in his 2008 congressional race, contributing to his campaigns between 2004 and 2006, and backing Republican Katherine Harris over Nelson in 2006.

Crist’s biography also wouldn’t be complete without his homage to Mack’s father, former U.S. Sen. Connie Mack III, for whom Crist worked as a state director.

 ”With his latest attempt to reshape himself, Charlie shows he is absolutely willing to betray anyone and everyone, including his own political mentor and longtime friend,” Curry said.

Attorneys for the state and a former aide to Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll accused of giving an illegally recorded office conversation to a reporter agreed Tuesday to tone down their testy war of words.

Leon County Circuit Judge Frank Sheffield brought the attorneys behind closed doors and forced the agreement before a hearing Tuesday in the case against Carletha Cole, a 49-year-old grandmother and minister facing as much as 5 years in prison if convicted of the charge.

“We agree with the judge. That’s the rule, and we think we’ve followed it so far. But message received,” said Steve Andrews, Cole’s attorney. “It’s not unusual…for judges to call the parties back to praise them or scold them. It was a joint scolding, I would say. The judge wants a fair trial, and so do we.”

Cole was arrested in October. But the case gained new momentum earlier this month when Cole’s attorneys filed a court document alleging that her relationship with Carroll soured after Cole saw the lieutenant governor and her travel aide, Beatriz Ramos, in a “compromising position” inside Carroll’s office.

The filing also suggests that Ramos started a fire in Cole’s office wastebasket in retaliation. The illegally recorded conversation features Carroll’s chief-of-staff, John Konkus, criticizing Gov. Rick Scott and Cole said she made it to show how dysfunctional the state’s executive office had become.

The governor’s office has dismissed the charges as “outrageous.”

Once Cole’s attorneys aired the allegations of lesbian sex and arson, Tallahassee-area State Attorney Willie Meggs started talking publicly about increasing the charges against Cole.

But following Tuesday’s hearing, both sides apparently pledged to the judge that they would behave more civilly. A trial is not likely to take place until at least the fall, with depositions from witnesses in the case expected to be taken in coming weeks.

Andrews acknowledged that Meggs has offered plea agreements for his client to consider. But he and Cole have rejected them, he said.

“Mr. Meggs was very fair, reasonable,” Andrews said. “But some cases have to be tried. This is one.”

The Palm Beach Post reported earlier this week that the focus on Carroll may remove her as a potential speaker at the Republican National Convention, scheduled for Tampa from Aug. 27-30. With the case looking poised to stretch into the fall election season, it also could hamper whatever role she’d play in campaigning for Republican candidates.

Rep. Scott Randolph, an Orlando Democrat who has regularly antagonized House Republicans with his biting floor debate, announced Tuesday that he will not seek re-election this fall in a district dramatically redrawn district following this spring’s redistricting.

Instead, Randolph said he will focus on his candidacy for state Democratic Party chairman and efforts to deny Republican Gov. Rick Scott a re-election victory in 2014.

“I am proud of my legislative service,” Randolph said. “For six years I fought back against a radical agenda that continues to shift the tax burden to the middle class, that has shrunk Florida’s commitment to spending on Florida’s students in public schools, and which has led an unrelenting attack on women and all of Florida’s families.”

Randolph’s most memorable moment in Tallahassee may have come when he lashed out in debate against proposed tougher abortion laws by noting that the Republican-ruled Legislature put more focus on protecting businesses from regulation than women’s rights.

Given that, Randolph said, his wife should “incorporate her uterus,” to avoid GOP interference. He was later warned by Republican leaders not to talk about body parts on the House floor.

Randolph’s wife, Susannah, leads Florida Watch Action, a Democratic-leaning grassroots group and is former campaign manager for former U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando. She also heads the Pink Slip Rick effort, a kind of flash-mob campaign critical of Gov. Rick Scott.

Randolph has been chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party, but is looking to succeed former state Sen. Rod Smith as Florida Democratic Party chairman next year. The House District 47 seat Randolph now lives in has gone from Democratic leaning to a toss-up district. Randolph said three-quarters of the residents there don’t live in the district he has served since 2006.

In announcing he would not seek re-election, Randolph endorsed former Orange County Commissioner Linda Stewart for the seat. Former Rep. Bob Brooks of Winter Park is among two Republicans running for the seat.

After a sometimes rocky economic mission to Spain, Gov. Rick Scott is scheduled to return stateside Thursday where he’ll be greeted by some better approval ratings in the latest Quinnipiac University poll.

The survey released Thursday shows Scott’s job approval among Floridians has topped 40 percent for the first time in the Quinnipiac poll — although by a 46-41 percent rating, more voters still disapprove of his performance as chief executive.

“Although (Scott’s) numbers aren’t that impressive, they are a step up for him – the first time he has gotten his approval rating out of the 30s since taking office,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

In the Quinnipiac poll, Scott’s previous best score was 50-38 percent disapproval in January, Brown said.

The Florida Republican Party has spent $1.2 billion since late March on a TV advertising campaign to promote Scott and his policies, with the spending all directed outside more costly South Florida.  The latest poll shows Scott drawing his worst ratings in South Florida, where voters disapprove of the job he’s doing by 54-29 percent.

Although Scott’s not on the ballot this fall, Democrats are eager to lash him and his lackluster numbers to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Democrats say the recent TV campaign is aimed at softening Scott’s negatives.

The Quinnipiac survey also shows Romney now holding a 47-41 percent advantage over President Obama in Florida. Democrats disputed those findings, saying the Quinnipiac poll questioned too many Republican-leaning voters.

Scott’s trip to Spain may not have much effect on his popularity in Florida. But the governor was lampooned on Spanish television during his visit for awkwardly asking King Juan Carlos about his elephant-hunting expedition to the African nation of Botswana.

The monarch’s trip became known only after he broke his hip while in Botswana. In a nation wracked by soaring unemployment and crippling debt, the kingly junket was ridiculed as insensitive. Juan Carlos later called the trip a “mistake.”

Scott and his wife, Ann, peppered the King with questions about the Botswana hunting expedition during their brief meeting  Wednesday. The exchange, and the king’s unease, was used to draw plenty of laughs on the Spanish TV program El Intermedio, an Iberian version of  The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Here’s a link to Scott on Intermedio. Disfruten!   http://bit.ly/LteyRr

U.S. Education SecretaryArne Duncan  ridiculed Florida’s Republican-ruled Legislature on Thursday for sidestepping a  sought-after waiver from the federal government to help private vendors retain lucrative tutoring contracts.

Speaking in Washington, D.C. ,to the Florida Council of 100, the business-dominated advisory group, Duncan criticized lawmakers for requiring school districts to spend 15 percent of federal funds for low-income students on private tutoring programs.

Under pressure from state officials, the Education Department had granted Florida and several other states waivers that shielded them from a federal standard demanding that a set amount be spent on tutoring.

State officials had argued that data was inconclusive about whether the tutoring programs, which range from online to in-home student assistance, were effective.

“I find it ironic that Washington is offering flexibility but Tallahassee is taking it away,” Duncan said.

A federal study released this month analyzed results from No Child Left Behind tutoring programs in Connecticut, Ohio and Florida. It found that for students in grades three through eight, there was “no statistically significant impact” on performance in reading or math.

“Why is Florida keeping the set-aside for tutoring that is showing little or no impact on children?” Duncan asked. “Is it because of pressure from the industry?”

The Florida legislation (SB 7127) takes effect July 1. It was signed into law last month by Gov. Rick Scott.

The Council of 100 has long been an ally of Republican governors. But in recent weeks, the council’s appeals to Scott have fallen on deaf ears.

 The council sent a letter last month urging Scott to veto legislation creating the state’s 12th public university, giving independence to the University of South Florida’s Polytechnic campus in Lakeland. The council also called for Scott to approve legislation giving the University of Florida and Florida State University authority to charge whatever tuition they wanted, as part of a push to enhance the schools’ science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs.

Instead, Scott approved the new university — and vetoed the UF/FSU tuition bill.

U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, a Boca Raton Democrat, praised Duncan’s criticism of the Florida legislation. He called on Scott to suspend the 15 percent requirement before the law takes effect in July.

 ”This statute will deny our school districts the flexibility the Obama Administration intended to give them by awarding Florida this waiver,” said Deutch, a former Florida state senator.  ”At a time when school districts throughout Florida are struggling with inadequate resources, top-down mandates, and high-stakes testing, we cannot afford to spend 15% of our state’s Title I funds on an ineffective, for-profit earmark for private vendors.”

Stephanie Monroe of the Tutor Our Children Coalition in Washington, which represents providers of the service, swung back at Duncan. She questioned the accuracy of studies that challenged whether the tutoring effort was effective.

“Secretary Duncan’s comment today on free tutoring services offered to low-income students at under-performing schools misrepresents the program  and does a disservice to the 74,000 students who access free tutoring in Florida,” Monroe said.