Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi will co-host the GOP presidential debate on Fox News this weekend, according to a press release distributed by the Republican Party of Florida this morning.
Bondi, a Fox fave who often appeared on the news channel as a legal analyst before her election in January and a frequent guest star since, will join fellow Republican attorneys general Ken Kuccinelli of Virginia and E. Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma on former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s show Saturday night at 8 p.m.
Bondi is leading the charge in the multi-state federal health care lawsuit, launched by her predecessor Bill McCollum, now before the U.S. Supreme Court. Undoing the health care law is among the GOP presidential wannabes’ top campaign pledges.
“This forum is an excellent opportunity to engage each of the candidates in a candid conversation about issues that are important to voters in our state and across the nation,” Bondi said in the press release. “This will be a historic election, and I am excited to play a part in helping voters gain a better understanding of candidates’ beliefs on fundamental issues such as constitutionalism and the role of government.”
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum have all agreed to participate in the forum, according to the release.
With his popularity on the rise, conservative iconoclast Newt Gingrich will address a tea party crowd at The Landing in Jacksonville this afternoon.
The event takes place as Gingrich is on the defensive for his relationship with Freddie Mac. Bloomberg News reported this week that the former U.S. House Speaker earned at least $1.6 million over nearly a decade as a consultant for the beleaguered government-backed mortgage company. His GOP opponents in the presidential primary have hammered Freddie Mac for its role in the mortgage meltdown and the mortgage giant has symbolized for conservatives government overreach.
Gingrich himself has blamed Freddie Mac for the housing collapse.
Meanwhile, Gingrich’s star is on the rise among GOP voters, according to two recent national polls. One poll found that Gingrich has the best chance among GOP voters to defeat President Barack Obama next year. And another showed Gingrich’s popularity jumped 8 points from last month, trailing Mitt Romney by just two percentage points and making the race a statistical dead heat.
The First Coast Tea Party event in Jacksonville begins at 2 p.m. and was moved to riverfront site because of “the size of the event,” according to the Zamar Conference Center, where the gathering was originally scheduled, website.
UPDATE: Florida Republicans call the Dems new website “desperate.” This from Republican Party of Florida spokesman Brian Hughes: “With the most recent state reports showing RPOF outraised Florida Democrats by 5-to-1, it’s no surprise they are desperate to raise money. But this lame website demonstrates a level of desperation that is even worse than we thought possible. Instead of touting their anointed leaders, Barack Obama or Debbie Wasserman Schultz, they recycle ridiculous, cheap attacks. This tactic is more evidence why Floridians reject Democrats on Election Day.”
The Florida Democratic Party launched a new website today blaming Gov. Rick Scott and his fellow Republican lawmakers for the state’s dire economic straits.
The website accuses “Rickpublicans” of ethical lapses and causing teacher layoffs, among other things, and blasts Scott for “backsliding” on his campaign pledge to create 700,000 jobs over seven years as governor.
And the Dems remind viewers that Republicans have had a stranglehold on the state legisalture and governor’s mansion for more than a decade.
The site gives this definition of a “Rickpublican:” [rick-puhb-li-kuh´n]
noun
1. Proper name for Florida Republicans wrought with greed and corruption who are hell-bent on selling out to the corporations and special interests while leaving Florida’s middle class families out-to-dry.
The Dems also use “Six Degrees of Separation” to link half a dozen GOP politicians – including Palm Beach County’s Adam Hanser and U.S. Rep. Allen West – to Scott, whose popularity among voters remains dim.
Gov. Rick Scott invoked history to prove the significance of Florida’s GOP presidential straw poll this weekend in Orlando.
Two of the winners of the Sunshine State’s three GOP straw polls in the past three decades went on to become president and the third became the party nominee, Scott pointed out to reporters early Wednesday afternoon.
Ronald Reagan, who won the straw poll in 1979, and George H.W. Bush, who won in 1987, both went on to the White House. In 1995, Bob Dole was the winner and became the nominee but was defeated by Bill Clinton in the general election.
“So there’s only been three straw polls and in each time the winner has been the Republican nominee and two out of three times has been the winner of the presidency. So this is significant,” Scott said.
Scott said again Wednesday that he does not currently plan to endorse one of the GOP contenders before Florida’s primary – but he left the door open.
“I might change my mind. But right now I don’t’ have a plan (to endorse),” he said.
And he repeated his contention that the country’s next president will be the candidate with the best jobs plan.
“I’d like them to have to explain to the public about what their plan is for job creation. Every candidate has different things they have to explain but I think the winner’s going to be, for the presidency next year, not just for the primary in Florida, is job creation,” said Scott, whose campaign for governor focused on creating 700,000 jobs in seven years. “Who’s got the right plan. It’s the biggest problem we have in the country. I think there’s secondary issues, you know balance the budget, things like that. But the biggest issue is jobs. It is a real problem. People are scared to death about jobs right now.”
U.S. Rep. Allen West has officially shut the door on a U.S. Senate run and will instead seek reelection to his current seat, West said in a statement issued today.
The outspoken West, a tea party idol from Plantation and the only Republican in the Congressional Black Caucus, recently made news when he called himself a modern-day Harriet Tubman during an interview with FoxNews’ Bill O’Reilly.
“Over the last several weeks, numerous leaders of the Florida Republican Party, including current and past elected officials, have spoken to me about the race for the United States Senate. Out of respect, I was willing to listen,” West said in the release.
“I have been given one of the highest honors to serve in the House of Representatives and I will continue to serve the citizens in that capacity. I will not seek the Republican nomination for the United States Senate in 2012. With regard to my future, the only goal I have is to do my very best to represent the constituents of the Congressional District and to restore the exceptionalism of our nation.”
Last week, West told reporters the door was open “a crack” to the possibility that he would run, saying it would be disrespectful to supporters to “slam the door in their face.”
Barry Richard, the lawyer who was instrumental in keeping Al Gore out of the White House a decade ago, is hosting a fundraiser for President Obama at his Tallahassee home on Wednesday.
Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Congresswoman from South Florida, will be the guest star at the fundraiser (suggested donations are $100) at the home of Richard and his wife Allison Tant. Wasserman Schultz served in both the state House and Senate before going to Washington.
Richard, a silver-haired Democrat, was a key figure in the historic recount legal battle known as “Bush vs. Gore,” arguing on behalf of George W. Bush all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is backing George LeMieux in a heated GOP primary for U.S. Senate.
Barbour, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee who briefly considered running in the 2012 presidential race, called LeMieux a “solid conservative” in a statement released this morning by LeMieux’s campaign.
“I am honored to earn the support of a principled conservative like Haley Barbour. When Governor Barbour was RNC Chairman, he helped orchestrate the Republican Revolution in 1994 that built the type of conservative majorities we need to turn our country around,” LeMieux said in the release. “More importantly, from his leadership during hurricane Katrina to his work passing key pro-life legislation, Governor Barbour is a case study in effective conservative governance.”
LeMieux is struggling to shake off his ties to Gov. Charlie Crist, who appointed LeMieux to replace former U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez when he resigned mid-term. LeMieux, a one-time close ally to Crist whom the former governor called “The Maestro,” did not seek reelection to the seat, which now-U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio won after Crist quit the GOP and ran against him as an independent.
LeMieux will face off in the primary against Delray Beach’s Adam Hasner, a former state House member who also served as the chamber’s majority leader.
Wealthy Delray Beacher Nick Loeb is toying with entrée into the race but is waiting until gal pal Sofia Vergara, star of Modern Family, gets past the Emmy Awards next month. Chris Ruddy, another Palm Beacher and CEO of the influential West Palm Beach-based conservative publication NewsMax, has ruled out getting into the candidate fray.
A Quinnipiac University poll last week showed that 53 percent of Republican voters remain undecided in the Senate primary but found Plant City tree farmer and retired Army Reserve Col. Mike McCalister leading the current four-candidate field with a meager 15 percent.
Behind McCalister in the poll were both LeMieux, with 12 percent, and Hasner, with 6 percent. Former Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse CEO Craig Miller weighed in with 8 percent support.
Nancy Argenziano, a former chairwoman of the Public Service Commission and lifelong Republican, is running against incumbent freshman U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland – as a Democrat. Southerland, a Panama City Republican, ousted Congressional veteran Allen Boyd, a Democrat, from his North Florida District 2 seat in November.
Argenziano, who earned a reputation as a maverick during her tenure in both the state House and Senate, will formally enter the race for the North Florida Congressional seat within two weeks, Argenziano said.
Argenziano sent a letter to supporters declaring her intention to run as a Democrat, saying she needs at least $200,000 to be taken seriously as a candidate and to get the Democratic National Congressional Committee to throw some money her way.
Argenziano has been an outspoken critic of GOP leaders as a legislator and as a utility regulator, appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist, and unleashed her sharp tongue in her message to supporters, explaining why she is switching parties. Crist also abandoned the GOP in a failing bid as an independent against now-U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.
“Current Republican leaders have neither patience with nor allowance for honest elected officials, and they demand that members of the various legislatures – who, after all, have sworn to uphold the Constitution – instead just follow the hijacked party line and shut up,” Argenziano wrote. “While I am of the opinion that Americans are not ready to vote in a third party, greater parity of the two parties in state legislatures would allow for far better public policy. When one party – or one intransigent, ideological arm of a party – controls governmental and political policy, as in Florida, it breeds a dangerous hubris and promotes the worst kind of extremism and acceptance of those whose public service is merely a well paid hobby.”
Senate President Mike Haridopolos is the big cheese in his chamber but apparently not so much on conservative talk show host Ray Junior‘s turf.
Junior cut short a telephone interview with Haridopolos, who is running for U.S. Senate in what could be a brutal GOP primary, because the Merritt Island Republican refused to answer whether he would vote for U.S. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget if elected.
As he did with The Palm Beach Post’s reporter George Bennett earlier this week, Haridopolos sidestepped questions about how he would vote on Ryan’s controversial spending plan.
Among the non-answers Haridopolos gave: “I’m not in the U.S. Senate but I am in the Florida Senate.”
After repeatedly asking Haridopolos to answer the question, an exasperated Junior wound up the interview.
“Get him off my phone. I don’t want anything to do with this guy. Get rid of him,” he told an aide.
The GOP U.S. Senate primary campaign is heating up as former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton came out swinging today against former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux.
“Conservatives across Florida and the country shouldn’t just be outraged, we should be insulted. This is the same George LeMieux that once proudly said, ‘I describe myself as a Charlie Crist Republican’ and said he was Crist’s ‘junior partner,’” Hasner said in the fundraising memo entitled “Unbelievable.”
Crist appointed LeMieux to the U.S. Senate to fill in a vacancy created by Mel Martinez, who retired before his term was up. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio now holds the post.
Team Hasner has also launched a “Charlie Crist Republican” website featuring an image of Crist and LeMieux that’s reminiscent of the Crist-President Obama man-hug picture that Marco Rubio used against Crist in the 2010 Senate primary.
GOP leaders in South Carolina and Iowa are pushing national Republican leaders to yank next year’s convention from the Sunshine State unless lawmakers change the presidential preference primary date.
South Carolina GOP Chairwoman Karen Floyd sent a letter to members of the Republican National Committee this morning saying Florida is “thumbing its nose” at the committee’s rules, Politico http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/52303.html today.
“Simply put, if Florida does not respect the process by which our primary calendar was set, the RNC should not be bound to the process by which the convention site was selected,” Floyd wrote.
Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawn sent out a statement backing up Floyd.
Florida’s 2012 primary is currently set for Jan. 31, a violation of both parties’ rules requiring the primary to be held no earlier than in March.
Florida GOP leaders aren’t backing down. They say they’re doing what they can to ensure that Florida plays an integral role in the selection of the 2012 Republican presidential nominee.
Get over it, Senate President Mike Haridopolos suggested in a statement. The Merritt Island Republican and U.S. Senate candidate wants the Sunshine State to be fifth in the primary lineup, after New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada.
Read Haridopolos’ and House Speaker Dean Cannon’s reactions after the jump. (more…)
Ft. Lauderdale businessman Patrick Murphy, a Democrat, is running against U.S. Rep. Allen West, a tea party favorite who unseated U.S. Rep. Ron Klein in November.
“I love my country. I love South Florida. I’m not going to stand by while right wing extremists like Allen West divide us,” Murphy, vice president of Coastal Environmental Services, said in a press release today announcing his candidacy for District 22, which includes parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties.
National Democrats have targeted West in next year’s elections.
“South Florida simply deserves better than what it’s now getting out of Washington. If we’re going to actually create jobs and protect families, we need representation that isn’t looking backwards,” Murphy said.
Murphy’s company specializes in disaster relief and environmental cleanup, and last year, the native Floridian spent six months in the Gulf of Mexico doing clean-up work after BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. West, who lives in Plantation, supports offshore oil drilling.
The day after a bipartisan coalition of his members pleaded with the federal government for more time to work an end-run around Gov. Rick Scott’s rejection of $2.4 billion for high-speed rail, Senate President Mike Haridopolos joined the governor in saying “no thanks” for the dough.
“The federal government has earmarked $2.4 billion to finance part of the cost of construction of the proposed Florida high-speed rail project. But to do so, Washington would borrow 100% of that money, which would be financed in large part by foreign, non-democratic governments,” Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, said in a statement released this morning.
Haridopolos is running statewide for U.S. Senate in what is expected to be a crowded GOP primary.
High-speed rail projects backed by President Obama’s federal stimulus funds have become a hot-button issue for tea partiers for whom the trains symbolize wasteful government spending.
The Capitol will soon be the stumping ground for GOP White House hopefuls, according to Senate President Mike Haridopolos, who called the Sunshine State “the most important state in the presidential election.”
Haridopolos, who’s seeking the national spotlight himself as a U.S. senate candidate, said the unidentified candidates have “reached out to me” and “I’ve reached out to them” and will announce soon who’s coming to Tallahassee.
“I think it will be beneficial for Florida to find out some of the ideas because we face a multitude of problems in the state and if a person is seeking the presidency I think they should come to Florida and let us know what they think,” Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, told reporters at his weekly Q-and-A this morning.
Haridopolos and what is expected to be a host of others have targeted U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, the state’s statewide-elected Democratic holdout. Others who’ve expressed an interest in running against Nelson include former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, an attorney with the West Palm Beach-based Gunster law firm and former aide to Gov. Charlie Crist.
Republicans swept the governor’s seat and the Florida Cabinet and nailed down veto-proof majorities in the state House and Senate in the November elections.
Mitt Romney will headline a Coral Gables fund-raiser for Attorney General and Republican governor candidate Bill McCollum tonight. McCollum, state chairman for Romney rival Rudy Giuliani during the 2008 presidential race, finds himself trailing his GOP primary race against millionaire Rick Scott.
U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, and Senate President and Chief Financial Officer candidate Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, are among the candidates getting Romney endorsements.
Romney will also be in Jacksonville Tuesday to raise money for state Sen. and state GOP Chairman John Thrasher.
Romney says he’ll decide after the 2010 elections whether he’s running for president in 2012. If he makes a White House bid, he’ll want to have Republican friends in Florida.
Mitt Romney will stump with Marco Rubio in Tampa on Monday, Rubio’s U.S. Senate campaign announced today.
Former Florida House Speaker Rubio is likely trying to capitalize on GOP outrage over his primary opponent Gov. Charlie Crist’s veto of SB 6, the contentious teacher merit pay bill.
Rubio’s garnered the endorsements of both Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, whom Rubio threw his support behind in the 2008 presidential campaign.
Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC is also giving the maximum $5,000 contribution to Rubio, according to his campaign.
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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