WEST PALM BEACH — Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele was in town this morning to launch a 60-second ad aimed at attracting GOP donors. The spot accuses President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of “experimenting with America” and favoring “massive government expansion, government takeovers, redistribution of wealth and staggering debt to countries like China and the Middle East.”

The GOP is spending less than $1 million nationally on the campaign. The ads will run on cable rather than pricier broadcast TV stations. In addition to the West Palm Beach market, the ads will run in Greensboro, N.C., Cincinnati, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla., a GOP spokesman said.

To view the ad, click here.

Steele appeared briefly at the West Palm Beach Marriott before about 30 GOP activists, including Palm Beach County Republican Chairman Sid Dinerstein, Broward GOP Chairman Chip LaMarca and Republican congressional hopefuls Ed Lynch and Allen West.

Like many GOP candidates across the nation, including his pal former House Speaker Marco Rubio, House budget chief David Rivera is working the conservative angle in his Congressional run to replace U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart.

Rivera was in Palm Beach County on Friday at a Club For Growth meeting at The Breakers.

He met with U.S. Rep. Tom Price, Chairman of the “Republican Study Committee,” the self-proclaimed “Caucus of House Conservatives.” Rivera said Price, a Georgia doctor who’s in charge of recruiting Congressional candidates in the South, promised to give his campaign a hand and gave him tips on how to woo other conservatives.

Rivera’s expected opponent, Senate Republican Leader Alex Diaz de la Portilla, hasn’t officially entered the race yet. Diaz-Balart is jumping from his district to his brother Lincoln’s, a safer GOP seat. U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart isn’t seeking re-election this year.

“We discussed several policy issues, including health care reform as well as the overall political landscape and outlook for Republicans in the upcoming election,” Rivera, R-Miami, said.

Put it under the headline “Only in Florida.”

A Republican National Committee memo found in a Boca Grande hotel reveals the GOP’s strategy of using fear to intimidate voters and mocks donors, Politico reported today.

The memo - a Power Point presentation given at an RNC meeting in Florida last month - details the GOP’s plans for this year’s election cycle by luring “ego-driven” rich donors with promises of access and “tchochkes.”

“What can you sell when you do not have the White House, the House, or the Senate…?” it asks.

The answer: “Save the country from trending toward Socialism!”

Read the Politico report here.

The revelations left Democrats licking their chops, naturally.

“If you had any doubt, any doubt whatsoever, that the Republican Party has been taken over by the fear-mongering lunatic fringe, those doubts were erased today,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse said in a statement. “The Republican Party, which barely 20 percent of Americans will even admit they belong to anymore, seems hell bent on damaging their battered brand even further by engaging in the most despicable kind of imagery, tactics and rhetoric imaginable. This type of politics at all cost approach to our public discourse is what the American people are sick and tired of – and if anyone thinks this wasn’t approved of or signed off on at the highest levels they are kidding themselves. Republicans across the country have cheered on crowds where these very images appeared, they’ve encouraged and perpetuated scandalous lies about the President and his plans. And, from calling for secession to condoning violence against government officials they have sunk to new and unbelievable lows.”

Capitalizing on the scandal erupting over the state GOP’s credit card spending, national Democrats released a video take-off of the MasterCard “Priceless” television campaign.

The spoof highlights some of the Republican Party of Florida-issued credit card charges now-U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio made when Florida House Speaker, including $1,000 in repairs to his family mini-van.

“Getting your personal bills paid for by the Republican Party of Florida like Marco Rubio: Priceless,” the Democratic National Committee video mocks.

The state GOP may get some unwanted mail as a result of the “Priceless” satire.

“Want your bills paid for by the Republican Party of Florida? Just send them in. 420 E. Jefferson Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32301,” it concludes.

The DNC ad targets Rubio at a time when the once-long-shot candidate’s popularity is soaring while his GOP primary opponent Gov. Charlie Crist’s is on the wane.

UPDATE: Crist shrugged off the poll results this morning, telling reporters that his main responsibility was to govern and “fight for the people.” Rubio’s campaign sent out a press release announcing the results, but did not offer a reaction.

Marco Rubio, who once trailed Gov. Charlie Crist by 31 points in polling on the 2010 Republican Senate primary, now has a narrow lead in the race, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this morning.

The poll shows former Florida House speaker Rubio with 47 percent to Crist’s 44 percent among Republicans, a lead within the poll’s margin of error.

The poll also finds Florida voters disapprove of President Obama’s job performance by a 49-to-45 percent margin.

In hypothetical general election matchups, Rubio tops Democratic Senate front-runner Kendrick Meek by a 44-35 margin while Crist tops Meek 48-36.

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Smith

Smith didn’t speak ill of Crist or Rubio, but said his 12 years in the Senate (1991-2003) give him experience and seniority his rivals lack to push the conservative agenda in Washington.

“I know that this has been a very active quote-unquote two-person race. That’s the way it’s all reported,” Smith told the GOP activists. “It’s seven months away, folks. Straw polls and polls don’t mean a heck of a lot now. Anything can happen. All I ask is if you’re not committed, keep an open mind.”

Things got heated after Smith left.

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Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson wants Sen. John Thrasher stripped of two important committee assignments if he is annointed chairman of the state GOP as expected.

Lawson asked Senate President Jeff Atwater today to remove Thrasher as chairman of the Ethics and Elections Committee and off the powerful reapportionment committee if he is also chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.

“The conflict is evident: Senator Thrasher’s primary job as RPOF head is to see that Republicans win and maintain office through the elections process – a process in which his committees - one of which he controls – play a critical role,” Lawson, D-Tallahassee, wrote Atwater this morning.

Thrasher, a former House Speaker, returned to the legislature in a nasty special election to replace the late Sen. Jim King of Jacksonville. The trial lawyers’ association political arm targeted Thrasher in a racially-charged mailer that resulted in a shake-up at the Florida Justice Association leadership and forced former executive director Scott Carruthers to resign.

Thrasher’s special election drama was one of the reasons why Atwater appointed him to chair the committee, Atwater said at the time. Campaign reforms are at the top of Thrasher’s agenda this session, the Jacksonville lobbyist said late last year.

Along with members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, I was deeply troubled by the announcement earlier this week that Republican Senator John Thrasher may take over as head of the Republican Party of Florida, while maintaining his seat in the Florida Senate.

“As you know, the task of the committee he chairs is to set public policy on maintaining fair and unbiased elections. The task of the second of which he is a member is to oversee the drawing of legislative districts. To allow Senator Thrasher to remain in dual chairmanship roles and/or as a member of a committee holding sway over fair representation would threaten the integrity of the process as a whole,” Lawson wrote.

Stay tuned for a response from Atwater.

Dinerstein, Black at December 2008 GOP meeting. Will they square off next in court?

The son of a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard is renewing his effort to be seated on the Palm Beach County Republican Executive Committee.

Derek Black, now 20, won a 2008 election to one of 111 executive committee seats. But the party disallowed the election because Black hadn’t signed a party loyalty oath on time.

Now Black is disputing that decision and citing a court ruling on a similar dispute in Miami-Dade.

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Republican Party of Florida Jim Greer, under fire from GOP discontents trying to oust him from his post, removed the party’s grievance chairman Tony DiMatteo from the committee set to deal with a complaint about the party infighting.

Greer accused dissidents of “treason,” “slander” and “libel” in a letter to party leaders.

In the letter, Greer, handpicked by Gov. Charlie Crist, warns he won’t back down from his leadership spot despite efforts by what he calls Marco Rubio backers to get rid of him. (more…)

Dinerstein: bus subsidies OK

“If the Republicans aren’t willing to defend the taxpayers, then nobody is,” Dinerstein said in an interview before Wednesday night’s county GOP meeting.

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Republicans didn’t even field a candidate in 2004 or 2006 for heavily Democratic congressional District 19. But with U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, leaving the Palm Beach-Broward seat in January, no fewer than three GOP candidates say they have collected signatures to get on the ballot for the special election to replace Wexler.

Contractor Ed Lynch, who was the uncontested GOP nominee last year and polled 27.2 percent against Wexler, says he has garnered the 1,163 signatures from registered District 19 voters to qualify for the ballot. FInancial planner Joe Budd and retired police officer Curt Price, both first-time candidates, say they also have met the signature requirement.

Candidates have to turn in their signatures to elections officials for verification by 5 p.m. today.

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“Gov. Crist looks forward to debating all of his primary opponents at the appropriate time, but he still has an important job to do, as the Governor of Florida. After preparing for the legislative session and a possible special session on SunRail, he hopes for an agreement on a suitable amount and possible dates to debate.”

Note that Rubio isn’t mentioned by name, but lumped in with the rest of the GOP field. While there’s no telling who will actually qualify for the ballot next year, the Florida Division of Elections lists eight Republicans currently running for the Senate seat: Crist, Rubio, Shawn Teeters, Belinda Noah, Bob Coggins, Gwyn McClellan, Marion Thorpe and former New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith.

It happened this afternoon when former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, who’s running in the GOP Senate primary against Gov. Charlie Crist, answered a question on immigration at a Martin County Republican Womens Federated meeting that drew more than 100 attendees.

Rubio delivered a six-minute discourse on immigration policy in which he brought up The Gipper’s support for the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which granted amnesty to most undocumented workers who could prove they had been in the country continuously for the previous five years.

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The latest poll shows Crist with a 50-to-35 percent edge over Rubio. It was 55-to-26 for Crist in August. Rubio is still largely unknown to half of GOP voters.

Crist beats the Democratic Senate frontrunner, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek of Miami, by a 51-to-31 percent margin in the poll. Meek tops Rubio 36-to-33 percent in a hypothetical Senate matchup.

In the 2010 governor’s race, Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum has a 36-to-32 percent lead over Democratic CFO Alex Sink. McCollum has a 43-to-7 percent lead among Republicans over state Sen. Paula Dockery, a potential primary challenger.

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Former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio has written a letter to his 2010 GOP Senate primary rival, Gov. Charlie Crist, asking him to probe scandal-rocked ACORN’s activities in Florida.

The left-leaning group has come under fire after a series of undercover videos — featuring a 20-year-old Florida International University student — have revealed ACORN workers appearing to condone prostitution and promote tax evasion.

Rubio’s letter notes a St. Petersburg Times report about Crist’s past links to ACORN and Crist’s absence in 2008 from the chorus of Republicans who criticized the group’s voter-registration practices.

Read the text of Rubio’s letter after the jump…..

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Diamond

Florida Attorney General and 2010 governor candidate Bill McCollum will be the latest GOP office-seeker to belly up to Diamond’s political ATM when he attends a fund-raising lunch there Wednesday.

McCollum

He was a regional administrator for the U.S. General Services Administration under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, then was former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani’s commissioner of administrative services from 1994 to 2001.

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County Democratic Chairman Siegel says $4.34 rate is OK

Because overall property values have declined, the 14.9 percent rate hike would generate roughly the same amount of revenue in 2009-10 as the county is getting this year and therefore wouldn’t meet the state’s legal definition of a tax increase. But homesteaded property owners, whose taxes have been relatively flat in recent years because of appraisal limits in the state’s Save Our Homes act, would see higher tax bills under the plan.

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Not appearing, but worth featuring in any doo-wop discussion: The Penguins, performers of the 1955 classic Earth Angel

The county Democratic Party is hosting a doo-wop themed dinner-’n'-dance fundraiser on Sept. 12 at Ellie’s ’50s Diner in Delray Beach. A $65 advance ticket (or $70 at the door) buys an evening of entertainment headlined by Vinnie Cagno & the Doo Wop Kid, along with a deejay.

Eleven days later, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Boca Raton resident Dion DiMucci will sing at a Boca Raton Republican Club meeting featuring congressional candidate Allen West. DiMucci began as frontman for the doo-wopping Dion and the Belmonts and survived Buddy Holly’s ill-fated 1959 Winter Dance Party tour before conquering other genres. Tickets for the GOP event are $30 with dinner included or $5 to hear Dion and West without a meal.

More details after the jump…..

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