Mack Bernard, D-West Palm Beach

From the Florida House Democratic office this afternoon:

State Representatives Ronald Brisé (D-North Miami) and Mack Bernard (D-West Palm Beach) are pleased to announce that they will join Haiti’s President René Préval during his visit to The White House on Wednesday, March 10, 2010. Both legislators are Haitian-Americans who have traveled to Haiti since the earthquake. They have worked extensively with colleagues to facilitate Florida’s relief efforts in earthquake-torn Haiti.

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Left - House Republican Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton displays proper attire for the chamber floor. Right - the latest thing out of L.A.

Florida House members are banned from snapping cell phone pics while they’re in the chamber under a decorum edict from House Speaker Larry Cretul.

Lawmakers were reminded this morning that they can get pictures from the staff of taxpayer-funded photographers who document each days work.

Rules Chairman Bill Galvano, who highlighted some of the finer points in the memo for lawmakers today, reminded his colleagues to wear “proper attire” and “not the latest thing out of L.A.”

They were reminded not to use cell phones in the chamber, not to vote for other members in a quorum call, to get floor props approved first and to use state laptops for state business.

“That’s about it by way of highlight on the memorandum,” Galvano said.

Video: Crist’s Tuesday morning press availability.

Gov. Charlie Crist says he tossed out the possibility that Marco Rubio used his Florida Republican Party credit card for a back waxing after reading it in the St. Petersburg Times on Sunday. The column, from political editor Adam Smith, speculated on what the $135 charge could have been for after Rubio told Fox News that it wasn’t for a hair cut.

Crist, who is badly trailing Rubio according to a new poll today, said repeating the comment would not risk distracting voters from the fiscal issues he and Rubio are debating.

“It puts a fine point on the issue,” Crist told reporters after the Cabinet meeting this morning. “And the issue is whether or not people can trust the speaker to spend their money wisely. I mean, clearly they can’t.”

Crist also sidestepped a question about whether, in hindsight, he would push as hard for former state GOP chairman Jim Greer. “Remember, Chairman Greer wasn’t chairman when Speaker Rubio had his credit card.”

More nuggets from Crist this morning:

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Gov. Charlie Crist said today he may veto a measure that would create a new public records exemption for 911 calls.

First Amendment advocates and some victims vigorously oppose the legislation, the brainchild of House Speaker Larry Cretul and other unidentified House GOP “leaders,” according to Cretul’s spokeswoman Jill Chamberlain.

Cretul believes the calls should be made secret to spare victims from reliving traumatic events when tapes of the emergency calls are broadcast.

But some victims, including the family of one of the most notorious 911-calls-gone wrong kidnap and murder victim Denise Amber Lee, want the calls to remain public to keep dispatchers and law enforcement officials accountable when they err.

Crist, whose first act after becoming governor in 2007 was to create the “Office of Open Government,” said he prefers greater openness and transparency.

“What we can learn after the fact many times with these 911 recordings can be beneficial to make sure that it’s done better in the future because you can discover mistakes or maybe better management practices that can be utilized in the application of 911,” Crist said this morning.

“It’s been a great thing for the people, a great thing for safety and it has saved a lot of lives. But if we keep those secret going forward, we might not be able to continue to learn from those experiences as to what might help people in the future,” he said.

The House Government Policy Accountability Council is slated to take up the measure (PCB GAP 10-3, PCB GAP 10-3A) tomorrow morning.

Democratic firm Public Policy Polling says former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio now has a 60-to-28 percent lead over Gov. Charlie Crist in their Republican U.S. Senate primary race.

Rubio’s lead is bolstered by a “staggering” 71-to-17 percent lead among conservatives, the poll says. Click here for PPP’s analysis.

Crist’s campaign was quick to label the poll “agenda-driven” and “designed to help Speaker Rubio, as they understand how easy it would be to defeat a lobbyist-politician in November.”

It isn’t just Republicans who are trying to capitalize on the tea party movement and Scott Brown’s surprise Massachusetts Senate win.

As the April 13 special election approaches to replace former Democratic Rep. Robert Wexler in Palm Beach-Broward congressional District 19, Democrat Ted Deutch’s campaign has sent a mailer to voters in the heavily Democratic district warning that “Republicans & The Tea Party Want To Capture YOUR Congressional Seat!”

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First, the good news: Florida’s fiscal forecast hasn’t changed much since the last time state economists met in December.

Now, the bad news: The state’s still facing about a $2.2 billion budget shortfall in its general revenue collections.

In December, the economists estimated about $22.5 billion in sales and other tax collections for 2010-2011.

Now, the legislature’s Bureau of Economic and Demographic Research is predicting that tax collections and other fees will bring in about $2.2 million less than the December projection, close to the Department of Revenue’s estimates that the collections will come in about $65.9 million short.

But Gov. Charlie Crist’s office is revising its estimate in the other direction, a reflection of the governor’s perennial optimism.

Crist’s budget gurus think the state will bring in $257.3 million more than they previously anticipated.

The revenue estimating conference will meet throughout the day and provide their final prognostications this afternoon.

But Gov. Charlie Crist’s office is showing about the about meeting with Gov. Charlie Crist’s budget gurus and the Department of Revenue’s economists

Gov. Charlie Crist, in his appearance on Fox News last night, insinuated that the $135 Rubio spent at a salon might have been on a back wax. (The initial issue with the expenditure, of course, was that Rubio charged it to his Florida Republican Party credit card.)

Crist said Rubio paid the party back “after he got caught.”

“Here’s something else that is really strange about that,” Crist told Greta Van Susteren. “He lists his net worth on his last financial statement as about $8,000. Yet he already said he paid back $16,000 and then another $3,000 on top of that, a total of almost $20,000. If his net worth is really only $8,000, how’s he paying back $20,000. Who’s money is he using now to do that? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s really a house of cards.”

Rubio’s campaign shot back saying he paid the $16,000 in personal expenses several years ago. The campaign also mocked the governor, saying “to Crist, being a fiscal conservative means having the right barber.”

Rubio’s press release here.

WEST PALM BEACH — After speaking to a packed Forum Club of the Palm Beaches lunch here today, once and possibly future Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney deflected questions about a 2012 White House run (he says he’ll think about his future after the November midterm elections) and punted on the Charlie Crist-Marco Rubio GOP Senate primary (”Usually I stay out of primaries”).

But Romney, in a brief sit-down with The Palm Beach Post, was a little more expansive in discussing his altercation last month with electro-hop artist Sky Blu on a plane waiting to take off from Vancouver.

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Harrell

Harrell said she was inspired by Iraqi voters who were not intimidated by terrorists who tried to disrupt the elections. Harrell said explosions of home-made “bottle bombs” slowed down voting but didn’t scare away voters.

“They were not intimidated by this. They were very angry…They were in total defiance of the terrorists,” Harrell said by telephone from Baghdad, where she’s staying at the U.S. Embassy.

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Florida Rep. Ari Porth, D-Coral Springs, removed his name today from the list of co-sponsors for a tax incentive package for the film industry in Florida. A story today in The Palm Beach Post highlighted a provision in the bill (HB 697) that could prohibit films and TV shows with gay characters from receiving a 5 percent “family-friendly” tax break.

“I believe in the film industry tax incentives, but was uncomfortable with provisions limiting the field of qualified recipients. I hope to be able to support the measure in the future,” Porth said in an e-mail.

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist’s Senate campaign responded to a jab from primary rival Marco Rubio, who called the Everglades land buy a “bailout” for U.S. Sugar: From Crist spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg:

“Marco Rubio is being supported in this campaign and in previous campaigns by Florida Crystals sugar company, who is the number one opponent to this Everglades restoration purchase. What else would you expect from a lobbyist who is bought and paid for by special interests?”

Rubio has received more thank $14,000 from the Fanjuls family, which owns Florida Crystals, and Gaston Gantens, the company’s chief lobbyist. The company and its subsidiaries gave anotehr $4,500 to Rubio during his nine years in the state House.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio said a New York Times story has raised “troubling new questions” about the U.S. Sugar purchase negotiated by his primary rival, Gov. Charlie Crist. From Rubio’s press release today:

“This deal is nothing more than a massive taxpayer-funded bailout for a top Charlie Crist campaign donor and a profitable bonanza for Crist’s inner circle.

“Once again, Charlie Crist has put his political ambition ahead of the people of Florida, and once again the results are disastrous for taxpayers. In fact, this bailout plan is the second most expensive photo op Charlie Crist has ever staged.

“Charlie Crist’s bailout plan will require higher taxes and increased debt, and it does nothing for the Everglades. In fact, it actually halts real restoration projects started by Jeb Bush, which were already underway.

“Charlie Crist simply can’t be trusted to go to Washington to fight massive government spending because, more often than not, he’s the one proposing it.”

WEST PALM BEACH — Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley and former GOP activist and bond underwriter Kevin McCarty are making their first post-scandal Forum Club appearances at today’s sold-out luncheon speech by Mitt Romney.

Foley, once a Forum Club regular, hasn’t been back since he resigned in a 2006 Internet sex scandal.

“People have been begging me to come back to the Forum Club,” Foley said as he worked the Kravis Center ballroom before the lunch.

McCarty was released in January after serving eight months in federal prison for failing to report wife Mary McCarty’s honest services fraud as a Palm Beach County commissioner. She’s serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence. Kevin McCarty declined to comment.

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.

Dockery

So, while this project is being sold as Everglades restoration, it would delay actual restoration efforts by using needed money for land acquisition, while U.S. Sugar would retain the more significant tracts in the natural flow-way. Making matters worse, the deal would give U.S. Sugar an exclusive right to lease back the acreage at below-market rates for 20 years.

I’m asking board Chairman Eric Buermann to be forthcoming about the consequences, including tax increases that will be needed and opportunities that will be lost. Continuing to pursue this purchase is not just fiscally irresponsible; it is nothing short of reckless.

The New York Times profiled the deal on Sunday, concluding that the immediate beneficiaries are U.S. Sugar and U.S. Sen. George LeMieux’s former law firm, Gunster Yoakley.

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.

Santamaria

Damone

“He should have been here. It was disappointing,” Damone said of Santamaria.

Read more in this week’s Politics column.

Movies and TV shows with gay characters could be ineligible for a “family-friendly” tax credit in Florida under a little-noticed provision tucked into a $75 million incentive package that Republican House leaders hope will attract film and entertainment jobs to the state.

The bill would prohibit productions with “nontraditional family values” from receiving a so-called family-friendly tax credit. But it doesn’t define what “nontraditional family values” are, something the bill’s sponsor had a hard time doing, too.

“Think of it as like Mayberry,” state Rep. Stephen Precourt, R-Orlando, said, referring to The Andy Griffith Show. “That’s when I grew up — the ’60s. That’s what life was like. I want Florida to be known for making those kinds of movies: Disney movies for kids and all that stuff. Like it used to be, you know?”

Story here.

U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, R-Fla., who was a just another chairman of a major Florida law firm last summer when health care town halls were all the rage, looks to get into the fun Monday when he holds his own in Fort Lauderdale. The event starts at 2:30 p.m. at the Beach Community Center, 3351 NE 33rd Ave.

LeMieux, who Republican state lawmakers hope will bring home a re-up of about $1.2 billion in extra Medicaid money for Florida’s budget hole, has been opposed to President Obama’s suggestions for reducing costs and increasing access to health insurance coverage. From a press release this week:

“This proposal still seeks to cut half a trillion dollars from Medicare. That’s a direct cut in health care benefits for seniors” LeMieux said. ”The proposal fails to achieve its main goal which is to lower the cost of health care for Americans.  It takes money from programs, like Medicare, and seeks to create new federal programs. It is clear that the American people do not support this bill.”