Former Democratic state Sen. Dave Aronberg — still the only announced candidate for Palm Beach County state attorney — will get fundraising help next month from U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, and Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, and former Democratic Reps. Robert Wexler, Ron Klein and Harry Johnston.

The congressional quintet and former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth are on the host committee for the March 15 event at the Delray Beach home of Aronberg’s parents. Democratic Palm Beach County Commissioners Burt Aaronson, Shelley Vana and Priscilla Taylor and several Democratic club presidents and municipal officials are among the co-hosts.

With an April 20 candidate qualifying deadline approaching, Aronberg is the only candidate who has opened a campaign to replace State Attorney Michael McAuliffe, who is stepping down March 16 for a private sector job. Gov. Rick Scott will appoint a replacement to fill the remainder of McAuliffe’s term, which ends in January. Scott last week said he hasn’t decided whether he wants an appointee who will also run for the job in the fall.

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink wants Ken Feinberg, appointed by President Barack Obama to administer the BP oil spill claims process, to clarify whether individuals and businesses seeking payment from the oil giant must promise not to sue BP in the future.

Sink’s letter comes on the heels of a scathing analysis of Feinberg’s claims process – revamped nine times since he started the take-over late last month – by a Florida legal dream team tapped by Gov. Charlie Crist and Attorney General Bill McCollum.

One of the legal eagles’ chief worries is Feinberg’s requirement that anyone seeking a lump-sum settlement from BP waive their right to sue – long before the full impact from the devastating oil leak are known.

“With millions of gallons of oil discharged in the Gulf of Mexico, the people who live and work along the Gulf Coast cannot know with any certainty today what the full extent of their damages may be in the future. In order to ensure that the claims process is fair, the payment of any Floridian’s claim, including a final claim, should not be conditioned on the waiver of the claimant’s rights under state or federal law,” Sink, a Democrat running for governor, wrote to Feinberg today.

Former attorneys general Jim Smith and Bob Butterworth sent a letter to Crist and McCollum this week outlining their concerns with Feinberg’s process, chief among them his aim to give BP “total peace” regarding payouts.

“While the current BP claims process has been fraught with delays and has failed to adequately compensate the many victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, we are concerned that the process that is about to replace it has the potential to harm the citizens of the Gulf Region as profoundly and deeply as the spill itself,” Smith and Butterworth wrote.
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Bob Butterworth, a Florida Democratic icon who served as attorney general, is backing Senate President Jeff Atwater’s statewide campaign for chief financial officer.

Atwater’s campaign sent out a press release about Butterworth and other Democratic supporters today, the same day Democrat Loranne Ausley, a former state representative, announced her candidacy.

Butterworth said there may have been some confusion about his endorsement of Atwater. When he wrote a $500 check to the campaign three months ago, Butterworth said, there wasn’t a Democrat in the race and he didn’t specify that it was for the primary.

“I probably should have been clearer with the aide. I don’t blame the campaign,” Butterworth said.

Back in 2002, Atwater, a relative unknown at the time, trounced Butterworth, then on the Cabinet as attorney general, in the election for Senate District 25.

Atwater, a North Palm Beach Republican, also nailed down endorsements from three other Democrats today – James Harold Thompson, Lee Moffitt and Hyatt Brown, all former House Speakers. Moffitt and Thompson are now lobbyists.

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, also a Democrat, is also supporting Atwater.

Butterworth’s latest endeavor places him as the fix-it man for Florida Power & Light Co. The Juno Beach-based utility hired Butterworth to try to repair its image in the wake of reports that company executives, their wives and guests flew on the customer dime on corporate jets. The revelations about the flights and other corporate spending came out as FPL seeks a $1.2 billion rate hike that will be decided on tomorrow.

Atwater’s campaign issued a press release about the Democratic supporters the same day former state Rep. Loranne Ausley, a Tallahassee Democrat, announced she is jumping in the race.

LAKE BUENA VISTA — Democratic attorney general candidates Dave Aronberg and Dan Gelber traded a few elbows over school vouchers and campaign finance this morning but spent most of their time bashing Republicans during a debate before about 1,000 Democratic activists.

The first debate between the primary rivals saw Miami Beach state Sen. Gelber repeatedly stressing his eight-year record as a federal prosecutor while Greenacres Sen. Aronberg, 38, frequently invoked popular former Democratic Attorney General Bob Butterworth, for whom Aronberg worked in two stints between 1999 and 2002.

The debate’s most heated exchange came when Gelber accused Aronberg of supporting private school vouchers.

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PALM BEACH GARDENS — The three leading candidates for Florida attorney general — Republican Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp and Democratic state Sens. Dave Aronberg and Dan Gelber — are here to speak to a Florida Sheriff’s Association lunch.

Also at the conference at the PGA Resort and Spa is Bob Butterworth, the Democrat who served four terms as attorney general from 1987 to 2003 and was sheriff of Broward County in the 1970s. Butterworth was Republican Gov. Charlie Crist’s appointee to head the Department of Children and Families before stepping down last year and going into private law practice in Broward County.

Asked if he’ll take sides in the 2010 race for his old job, Butterworth said, “I’m not sure at this point in time. We have very good people running on both sides of the aisle.” He added that he’s not sure whether all the candidates for AG have entered the race — a reference, no doubt, to former Democratic state Sen. Rod Smith, who’s considering a run for the top legal post.