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.
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.
While some Democrats press for a “resolution of disapproval” against U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., for shouting “You lie!” at President Obama during a joint session of Congress last week, U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, hopes his party lets the matter die.
“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.
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.
Wexler
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.
Hastings
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.
Klein
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.”
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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Andrews
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.
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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Thomas
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.
Bernard
But he doesn’t rule out seeking reappointment by the council.
Taylor
Thomas is also weighing a 2010 challenge of Bernard or taking on County Commissioner Priscilla Taylor, who was a key Bernard backer.
U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, will appear with a pair of Republican congressional candidates from other districts at a health care forum next week organized by the Palm Beach County GOP.
Hastings contacted county GOP Chairman Sid Dinerstein after seeing a Dinerstein quote accusing Democrats of ducking public meetings with constituents on health care. Hastings is scheduled to appear with Republican Allen West, who challenged Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein of Boca Raton last year and is gearing for a 2010 rematch, and Ed Lynch, who challenged Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler of Boca Raton last year and is planning on another challenge next year.
Dinerstein said he’s trying to line up another supporter of Democratic health care reform proposals to join Hastings on the panel.
The event is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 3, at 1 p.m. at the county commission chambers in the Governmental Center in West Palm Beach. Seating is limited and those wishing to attend should call the county GOP headquarters at 561-686-1616 to reserve a spot.
The event carries almost zero political risk for Hastings. He represents a district that’s more than 4-to-1 Democratic and he was reelected with 82.2 percent of the vote last year.
Gov. Charlie Crist is screening long-serving U.S. Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young and former chief of staff George LeMieux to fill U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez’ seat. Martinez quit before his first term ends in 2012.
Crist, who is leaving office after one term to replace Martinez himself, spent yesterday and today interviewing possible candidates – including state Rep. Jennifer Carroll, UNF president John Delaney, former U.S. Attorney Bobby Martinez and LeMieux, a former deputy attorney general under Crist. They’re all Republicans who presumably have no interest in challenging Crist, who is running against former House Speaker Marco Rubio in a GOP primary, for the seat next year.
Also on the list: former state attorney general and secretary of state Jim Smith, now a Tallahassee lobbyist.
Young is in his 20th term in Congress and is from Indian Shores near Crist’s St. Petersburg hometown in Pinellas County.
Something’s going on when organizers of a health care forum on a summer weekday wonder if they’ll have enough room in the 500-seat South County Civic Center.
RPOF Chairman Jim Greer stood by his assertion that President Barack Obama’s health care reforms could lead to “forced, taxpayer-funded abortions.”
Greer held a roundtable with reporters at GOP headquarters this morning, covering a range of issues including the hijinks at town hall meetings throughout the country, including one in Tampa that erupted in physical violence.
Opponents of Obama’s health care package claim that the changes would create “death panels” that would pull the plug on Grandma to save government spending.
“I don’t like the term death panels,” Greer said.
But, he added, “I do believe that trying to pass legislation such as this will provide opportunity for certain types of medical procedures that in some cases Americans would not be aware of or in most cases Americans would not want taxpayer funds to help facilitate.”
The chairman was apparently referring to abortions. Greer yesterday circulated a memo questioning the health care bill and whether it would “work to systematically ‘increase birth intervals between pregnancies,’ opening the very real probability of forced, tax-payer funded abortions.”
He stood by his characterization of the bill this morning.
“If the procedure is financed by taxpayer funds, then in fact the word forced or mandated would be appropriate,” Greer said.
The portion of the bill Greer refers to deals with home visitation services.
The full text follows:
“The term ‘nurse home visitation services’ means home visits by trained nurses to families with a first-time pregnant woman, or a child (under 2 years of age), who is eligible for medical assistance under this title, but only, to the extent determined by the Secretary based upon evidence, that such services are effective in one or more of the following:
(1) Improving maternal or child health and pregnancy outcomes or increasing birth intervals between pregnancies.”
Greer decried the outbursts at town hall meetings but blamed Democrats for spinning the events and not being able to answer questions about the health care bill.
Supporters and opponents of a Democratic health care overhaul bill and at least one member of Palm Beach County’s congressional delegation will converge next week for a public forum sponsored by a labor-backed retiree group.
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, plans to attend the Aug. 20 event at 1 p.m. at the South County Civic Center west of Delray Beach. The event is sponsored by the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans, which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO and supports the Democratic bill.
Other local members of Congress were invited but it wasn’t immediately clear today whether any others would attend.
Opponents of the legislation plan to show up as well.
“We’ll be there with signs but, more importantly, we’ll be there with questions,” said Everett Wilkinson, the state coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots group.
Don’t expect any YouTubed confrontations when U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, hosts a town hall meeting later this month to discuss the 1,018-page House Democratic health care bill.
Klein is planning a “telephone town hall” that he says will reach far more constituents than an in-the-flesh event.
West
Republican challenger Allen West says Klein’s a chicken.
“The unwillingness to stand in front of your constituents can only be called cowardice,” said West.
Klein dismissed West’s claim. He said the teleconference has been planned for weeks and was not a reaction to the recent transformation of town hall events from soporific C-SPAN affairs to shout-fests that go viral on the Internet.
Here’s one of many video clips available on the Internet from Thursday night’s shout-and-shovefest on health care in Tampa, which was originally billed as a town hall meeting hosted by U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa….
In Palm Beach County, U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, has scheduled a town hall meeting on health care for Aug. 20 at 1 p.m. at the South County Civic Center west of Delray Beach.
U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, is planning a “telephone town hall” later this month, but hasn’t set a date. (Here’s an account of a Wednesday health care dustup between protesters and Klein’s staff.)
U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, has no town hall meetings scheduled. Plans for U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, were not immediately available.
Democratic St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft didn’t mention incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney in his statement Wednesday announcing he’s running for Rooney’s District 16 congressional seat. Rooney didn’t comment on Craft’s announcement, with a spokesman saying the congressman is too busy with his job to focus on 2010 politics.
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Andy Sere and Florida Democratic Party spokesman Eric Jotkoff, however, served up some harsh commentary.
Democratic St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft this afternoon announced he’s running for the congressional seat of freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney of Tequesta.
Craft’s announcement, rumored for months, came a day sooner than he planned.
A press release scheduled for release Thursday was briefly posted on Craft’s old commission reelection Web site today, then taken down. The National Republican Congressional Committee saw the announcement and a spokesman branded Craft “a job-killing army of one” before the candidate himself had even gone public.
“I’m running for Congress because we need a representative who has shared the struggles of hardworking Floridians and can relate to the people of this district,” said Craft, who pledged to work with Republicans and Democrats as a “moderate voice” in Washington.
A python posse armed with clubs and machetes will start combing the Everglades for the supersized serpents this weekend.
Gov. Charlie Crist ordered the python bounty hunt Wednesday at the urging of two Florida congressmen who were in an uproar after one of the exotic snakes strangled a 2-year-old girl July 1 near Ocala.
That python was a pet and didn’t live in the Everglades. But the case called new attention to the plague of the oversized reptiles that have spread throughout South Florida’s marshes, gobbling wading birds and posing a danger to native wildlife.
Estimates of the python population in the Everglades range between 10,000 and 150,000. They can reach up to 20 feet in length and have long, curved teeth, along with the ability to squeeze their prey to death.
U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney has filed a bill to blacklist Burmese pythons and other unwelcome animal immigrants from entering the country.
The Tequesta Republican has joined the movement, led by Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, to rid the River of Grass of the perilous pests after a pet python strangled to death a two-year-old Florida girl.
About 150,000 pythons, not native to Florida, have taken up residence in the Everglades, threatening other endangered wildlife there, including Florida panthers and wood storks.
Rooney’s backing two bills to crack down on bringing invasive animals into the country.
One McCarthy-esque proposal would create a black list of nonnative species would create a black list of nonnative species barred from being brought into the United States and a green list of creatures that would be welcome.
The other would add Burmese pythons to the list of dangerous animals, similar to a measure Nelson filed several months ago.
Conservative freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, doesn’t often join with the likes of liberal Democratic U.S. Reps. Dennis Kucinich, Maxine Waters, John Conyers and Fortney H. “Pete” Stark. But Rooney and most of the House GOP were joined by 32 largely anti-war Dems in Tuesday’s vote on appropriating money for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The $106 billion measure passed 226-202, with 221 Democrats — including local U.S. Reps. Alcee Hastings, Ron Klein and Robert Wexler — in favor. All but five Republicans voted against the measure, objecting to an array of non-military measures added to the bill.
Statements by Rooney and Kucinich illustrate the odd coalition that voted against the bill.
U.S. Rep. Ron Klein’s investment portfolio took a hit last year while U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney saw the value of his family trusts increase, according to the latest round of congressional financial disclosure reports.
The reports show that U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, incurred fresh college-loan debt in 2008 while U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, continues to list liabilities of more than $2.1 million for legal fees from a 1980s impeachment fight.
U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, topped this story in the Wall Street Journal today detailing how members of Congress spend their office expense accounts.
Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings spent $24,730 in taxpayer money last year to lease a 2008 luxury Lexus hybrid sedan. Ohio Rep. Michael Turner expensed a $1,435 digital camera. Eni Faleomavaega, the House delegate from American Samoa, bought two 46-inch Sony TVs.
The expenditures were legal, properly accounted for and drawn from allowances the U.S. government grants to lawmakers. Equipment purchased with office expense accounts must be returned to the House or the federal General Services Administration when a lawmaker leaves office.
But as British politicians come under widening scorn for spending public money on everything from candy bars to moat-dredging, an examination of U.S. lawmakers’ expense claims shows Washington’s elected officials have also used public funds for eye-catching purchases.
Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Bronson won’t run against Attorney General Bill McCollum in a GOP primary for governor, Bronson said today.
Bronson apparently succumbed to pressure from RPOF Chairman Jim Greer to avoid an expensive primary before the general election against presumptive Democratic candidate Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink.
“This will either be the greatest plan ever of all times or it’s going to be the biggest failure of all times,” Bronson said.
Earlier this week Greer introduced McCollum as the “next Republican governor of Florida” when McCollum announced he was entering the race being vacated by Gov. Charlie Crist. Crist is running to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez rather than seeking a second term in the governor’s mansion.
Bronson, a long-time Republican and former party chief, has advocated that a primary excites voters and allows for the exchange of ideas.
And he left the door open for entering the race later – qualifying for the post does not begin until next summer.
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.
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