Gov. Charlie Crist has a week to decide if the controversial teacher merit pay bill is a “sucker-punch to the gut of the teaching profession” or a visionary reform now that SB 6 has reached his desk.

The “teacher tenure” bill poses a conundrum for the U.S. Senate candidate framed in the old Pete Seeger union song, Which Side Are You On?

The self-described “People’s Governor” is facing mounting pressure from fellow Republicans to sign SB 6 into law and from Democrats demanding that he kill the bill.

Crist originally said he thought the merit-pay proposal was a good idea. But after tens of thousands of teachers, parents and students inundated lawmakers’ offices and his own with phone calls and e-mails blasting the plan, his enthusiasm may be waning.

“The more you listen, the more you learn,” Crist told reporters Thursday morning. “There are things I like and things that give me some concern,” in the bill. “I’m listening to the people of Florida — my boss.”

After the House passed the bill at 2:30 this morning, Speaker Larry Cretul urged the governor to keep his word.

“I believe we have passed legislation this morning that is important,” Cretul, R-Ocala, said. “It is legislation I believe the governor should want to sign. I take him at his word that he will.”

But even before the measure reached Crist’s desk shortly after noon today, Democrats ramped up demands that Crist to put his red pen to use.

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, a Democrat running to replace Crist, called on the governor to “stand with the people of Florida against this attempt by Tallahassee politicians to take control away from our local schools.”

Her campaign this morning launched an online petition for Floridians to sign to request the veto.

Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson said in a statement “our governor needs to stand his ground” and veto the bill Lawson called a “sucker-punch to the gut of the teaching profession.”

Read the full story here.

Senate President Jeff Atwater launched his opening day remarks with an attack on his federal counterparts for wanton spending, then laid out a pro-business agenda for the 2010 session and a push to water down class size restrictions put into the Florida Constitution in 2002.

“Over the next sixty days you will each search your souls, come to your own personal decisions, but for my part, I will not participate in the evisceration of the American dream, I will not lower my vision, I will not choose the easy path, and I will not stand idly by while Congress smothers the next generation with its self indulgence and irresponsibility,” Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said early in his speech.

Atwater, who is leaving office this year to run statewide for chief financial officer, also recognized seven senators leaving office this year because of term limits, including Alex Villalobos of Miami. Villalobos would have been at Atwater’s place at the podium today were it not for a coup that Atwater and his supporters staged more than two years ago.

Atwater, a descendent of Florida Gov. Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, was joined by other family members in the audience who were in town for the opening of an exhibit on Broward at the Old Capitol.

Listen to Atwater’s speech here.

Or read the text of his speech here.

MIAMI — Air Force One just landed here as President Obama prepares to attend a fund-raiser in Miami Beach for Democratic Senate and House candidates.

Obama stepped off the plane about 5:30 p.m. with Sen. Bill Nelson and greeted a passel of Democratic elected officials on the tarmac at Miami International Airport: Chief Financial Officer and gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink; U.S. Rep. and Democratic Senate frontrunner Kendrick Meek of Miami; U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston; Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and state Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach.

Obama is to attend a fund-raiser at the Fountainebleu Hotel, then go to a solar energy plant in DeSoto County on Tuesday.

Gov. Charlie Crist called for a statewide grand jury to investigate political corruption in South Florida and around the state. Crist said he has removed 30 public officials from office around the state since he’s been governor.

“A recent rash of crimes committed by public officials in South Florida has led to a crisis of confidence among those who have elected them to office,” Crist said. “Today, I have petitioned the Florida Supreme Court to impanel a Grand Jury to investigate these crimes, bring indictments and provide specific recommendations to address fundamental problems within the system that may be cultivating a culture of corruption.”

Read the petition here.

Crist’s request for a grand jury comes after in the wake of the indictments of several Broward County elected officials on federal charges including bribery, money laundering and wire fraud. And prominent GOP fundraiser Alan Mendelsohn, a lobbyist who served on Crist’s transition team, was indicted last week on charges that he diverted at least $350,000 from campaign contribution and clients’ fees to pay for his mistress’ love nest, a luxury car and his kids’ private school tuition.

Palm Beach County led the public corruption scandal sheet in 2006 that resulted in three county commissioners and two West Palm Beach officials going to prison.

The corruption isn’t limited to South Florida, Crist said. He’s asked the grand jury to begin work by focusing on Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Palm Beach, Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Lee and Hendry counties.

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Gov. Charlie Crist appointed two new utility regulators to the Public Service Commission, snubbing current Chairman Matthew Carter and Commissioner Katrina McMurrian.

Crist tapped former newspaperman David Klement and Escambia County Sheriff’s Office CFO Benjamin “Steve” Stevens and shaking up the status quo at the regulatory panel mired in controversy in the process of deciding on a proposed $1.3 billion Florida Power & Light Co. rate hike.

The ouster of McMurrian and Carter makes it likely that renegade Commissioner Nancy Argenziano, an outspoken critic of the PSC who accuses regulators of being too close to the utilities they oversee, will take over as chairwoman of the panel next year.

Crist put Argenziano, a former state senator, on the board two years ago to represent consumers and his picks today of two new commissioners who have no ties to utilities mark a decided shift from a PSC that has up until now been viewed as utility-friendly.

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the presumptive Democratic gubernatorial candidate, gave her likely GOP opponent Attorney General Bill McCollum a taste of his own medicine by calling him out on his Congressional voting record on health care.

Sink’s campaign issued a press release responding to McCollum’s challenge this morning to join him in opposition to President Barack Obama’s and Congressional Democrats’ health care plan.

“During his twenty years in Congress, McCollum voted eight times to cut Medicare by at least $650 billion, voted to raise the eligibility age for Medicare and Social Security, and voted to make it harder for government to crack down on health care fraud,” Sink’s campaign manager Paul Dunn wrote.

“Bill McCollum is in no position to question anyone else until he answers for his decades-long record undermining Medicare, Social Security, and affordable health care,” Dunn concluded.

Prominent lobbyist and former Florida Supreme Court justice Wade Hopping died today from complications from a stroke and esophageal cancer.

Hopping died a day before his 78th birthday and on the 30th anniversary of founding the Tallahassee law firm Hopping Green and Sams.

Hopping served as a Cabinet aide to Gov. Claude Kirk, who appointed him to fill an opening on the Supreme Court in 1968 but he lost reelection the following year. Supreme Court justices are now appointed by the governor and remain in on the bench by a merit vote.

Kirk, the first Republican governor elected since Reconstruction, credited Hopping and environmentalist Nathaniel Reed with helping to create both the state and national environmental regulatory agencies.

“I didn’t know how to spell conservation or environment but we learned about it,” Kirk, who lives in West Palm Beach, said. “Wade was in the middle of all of that with Nat Reed. With Wade’s help and Nat’s help we got (former President) Nixon to create the President’s Council on the Environment.” The council was the basis of what later became the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Kirk said.

The white-haired, white-bearded lobbyist was an institution in the halls of the Florida Capitol throughout his thirty years of working on behalf of businesses including Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the Sugarcane Growers Cooperative of Florida and the Florida Marine Industries Association.

Recently, Hopping was instrumental in the state’s $310 million purchase of the 74,000-acre Babcock Ranch Preservation Area in Southwest Florida. The 2006 deal was the largest conservation lands purchase in Florida history.

He frequently drew swords with environmentalists but was a willing and capable compromiser, said Audubon of Florida policy director Eric Draper, who frequently worked against Hopping in issues before the legislature.

“Wade has been a fixture at the capitol for as long as I can remember. He was always pushing firmly with his clients’ agenda but always in a friendly and good-humored way. He was one of the business lobbyists that conservationists were most willing to work,” said Draper, who is running for Agriculture Commissioner. “It’s hard to imagine working on environmental issues without him on the other side.”

Hopping is survived by his wife of 38 years, Mary Hopping of Tallahassee. He is also survived by children Hank and Margaret Hopping of Chattanooga, Jud and Jackie Hopping of Fort Lauderdale, Kiff and Lynn Mendoza of Tallahassee, and Beth Mendoza and Maureen Murphy of Atlanta.

A funeral service is scheduled Thursday at the Faith Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee.

People in Florida and national politics reacted today to reports of U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez’s impending resignation:

“Mel Martinez’s life is a testament to the boundless promise that exists in America, where a young Cuban exile can come to the United States without his parents and rise to become a Cabinet secretary and U.S. senator. As he looks ahead towards the next phase of his life, I wish him and his family all the best.
“As Governor Crist considers who he will appoint as Florida’s next U.S. senator, I urge him to take great care in his selection. Florida deserves an interim senator who will go to Washington and serve as a true check on President Obama’s push for more wasteful government spending, government-run health care and cap-and-trade. The last thing Florida needs is a U.S. senator that will stand with President Obama instead of challenging the wrong direction he is leading our country and offering constructive conservative solutions moving forward.”
— Republican former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, a 2010 candidate for Martinez’s seat

“Senator Mel Martinez made history when he was elected to the U.S. Senate and I wish him only the best in his future endeavors. It is fitting that one of Senator Martinezs final votes was to confirm a history-making Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor and I am so pleased that he cast this vote one that I wholeheartedly support.”
— Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, a 2010 candidate for Martinez’s seat

“Mel has been a good Senate colleague of mine, as well as a personal friend. He also has been a dedicated public servant for Florida. I look forward to our continued friendship — and to having the same bipartisan working relationship with his successor.”
— U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida

“I have a great deal of respect for my good friend Mel Martinez. I know this decision was a difficult one for him, but I think he is doing what he believes is right for him and his family. We will immediately begin the process of selecting an appropriate replacement to serve the remainder of Senator Martinez’s term and I look forward to making an announcement in the coming weeks.”
— Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican candidate for Martinez’s U.S. Senate seat
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Correction: Because of reporting errors, a previous version of this story indicated that Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink had approved a pardon for Gerald McCranie, who had been listed as a sex offender. Gov. Charlie Crist, Attorney General Bill McCollum and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson approved the pardon. According to a spokesman, Sink did not sign the pardon.

Virgil McCranie is ecstatic. After more than a decade of marriage to his “Romeo and Juliet” sweetheart, the stigma of being branded a sex molester has finally been lifted.

The Board of Executive Clemency, comprised of Florida Cabinet members Gov. Charlie Crist, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, Attorney General Bill McCollum and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, granted McCranie a full pardon this week after leaving the Panama City Beach resident in limbo after the last clemency meeting in June.

“It sat there for two hours before I opened it,” McCranie said in a telephone interview today.

McCranie, now 34, and his wife Misty, now 28, fell in love when was he was 19 and she was 14. Since then, they’ve raised four children while struggling to make ends meet.
But their story is no fairy tale.

Misty and her father pressed charges against Virgil, accusing him of raping the minor. The rape charge was dropped but he was charged with lewd and lascivious acts against a minor and was sentenced to two years of probation.

That’s when the father of four’s nightmare began, McCranie told the clemency board in June.

He was placed on the state’s sex offender web site and has been unable to hold down a job or attend his daughter’s dance recitals, he said as he and his wife pleaded with the board to grant him a pardon.

The board took his case “under consideration,” leaving the couple in limbo.

The fact that three of the four clemency board members are running for statewide office – Crist for U.S. Senate and Sink and McCollum for governor – added to the pair’s worries.

That changed when they finally opened the letter containing the governor’s executive order and a copy of the certificate of clemency.

“I hadn’t felt that good since I was 19. I felt clean,” McCranie said.

McCranie said he hasn’t been able to hold down a job because of his sex offender status. Now he won’t have to wonder “if it was me not being good enough to do something or just me getting a bad shake from what I did,” he said. “I’m happy.”

Prominent Fort Pierce artist James Gibson is one of eight National Governors Association winners for Distinguished Service to State Government.

Gibson is one of the self-taught “Florida Highwaymen,” a group of self-taught black artists trained by Fort Pierce artist Bean Backus and who sole their vivid portrayals of Florida beach scenes, sunsets and flora out of the trunks of their cars by the side of the road.

Gibson’s a favorite of Gov. Charlie Crist, who’s decorated the mansion and his Capitol offices with Highwaymen paintings and selected this painting by Gibson as his holiday card last year.

Gibson, 71, is a member of the Florida Artists Hall of Fame estimates he’s created about 10,000 paintings since he began in the 1950s. He contributes to charitable events and is active in youth crime prevention programs.

Gibson will receive the award at the NGA annual convention in Biloxi on July 18.

Democratic state Rep. Priscilla Taylor, one of four finalists for the gubernatorial appointment to fill a Palm Beach County commission vacancy, will make “a significant announcement regarding her political plans for 2010″ at a news conference Thursday at the county governmental center, according to an e-mail from her political consultant.

Gov. Charlie Crist does not expect to announce an appointment this week, said Eric Eikenberg, the governor’s chief of staff. Crist has interviewed Taylor, businessman Randy Johnson, Riviera Beach Councilwoman Billie Brooks and retired educator Vincent Goodman for the seat.

Regardless of whom Crist appoints, the commission seat will be on the ballot next year, so it’s possible Taylor will announce the opening a 2010 campaign.

Taylor wasn’t immediately reachable this afternoon.

Stay tuned.

Something good has come out of the state’s dire financial straits.

At least according to Florida TaxWatch.

The business-backed government spending watchdog organization found just $15 million in budget “turkeys” this year, the lowest amount except for two years in more than two decades.

Last year, TaxWatch identified $110 million in turkeys – projects which are slipped into the budget at the last minute or without the usual review. The year before, the group targeted more than $250 million in projects they targeted for vetoes.

TaxWatch President Dominic Calabro said the state’s dire economy is the reason behind the shrinking budget bonanza.

But with $2 billion in tax and fee hikes and more than that in stimulus money added to the budget, he said he was surprised lawmakers restrained themselves from finding more ways to bring home the bacon.

“There’s nothing more delicious than spending OPM – other people’s money,” Calabro said.

He also said it was difficult to identify some potential projects that might fit into the budget category because of the stimulus funds. For example, more than $20.3 million is being spent on state transportation projects for “economic development.” But those projects have not yet been named.

The group performs the annual exercise before the governor signs the budget and exercises his veto authority, which Gov. Charlie Crist will do this week.

The Senate approved its version of a trying to help horse and dog tracks but the fight over gambling is far from over.

In fact, it’s just beginning.

The Senate stripped the House’s bill and replaced it with its own language that would give horse and dog tracks throughout the state the ability to operate slots-like machines.

The House version does not include that provision but raises the stakes in card games like Texas Hold ‘Em.

But the bill’s passage means next to nothing.

A bicameral committee charged with ironing out differences between the two chambers regarding pari-mutuel gaming and a deal with the Seminole Tribe of Florida held its first – and brief – meeting this morning.

They opened the ante at square one. The House wants no card games for the Seminoles but limit them to Las Vegas-style slot machines. The Senate offered to let them keep the blackjack and other card games they now have plus give them roulette and craps.

The House is likely to say no dice to the roulette and craps but may cave on blackjack.