UPDATED: Story reflects version published in the Feb. 18 print edition of The Palm Beach Post.

Locally affected special districts:

South Florida Water Management District

Health Care District of Palm Beach County

Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County

Children’s Services Council of Martin County

St. Lucie County Fire District

Source: Florida Community Affairs Department

TALLAHASSEE — The power to raise property taxes would rest solely with elected officials under a constitutional amendment proposed for the November ballot.

The amendment would revamp the supervision of hospital and children’s services districts across the state and make the South Florida Water Management District, which covers 16 counties and includes about 7 million people, the biggest voting district in the state and among the largest in the country, according to the National Association of Election Officials.

“It’s something called ‘no taxation without representation,” said state Rep. Carl Domino, a Jupiter Republican sponsoring the amendment (HJR 493) discussed Wednesday in the House Governmental Affairs Committee.

Objections were raised Wednesday by the special district officials who argued the districts were created — in most cases voter-approved — specifically to avoid electoral politics.

“You will change fundamentally how these water management districts operate,” Audubon of Florida’s Eric Draper told the committee.

Draper reminded the House panel that another Palm Beach County lawmaker, former Senate President Phil Lewis, D-Riviera Beach, led an “extraordinarily thoughtful legislative process” that asked voters to approve water districts along hydrological lines instead of political boundaries.

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State Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, finally cranked up his fund-raising operation for his GOP Senate primary against state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, during the final quarter of 2009. But Bogdanoff still outraised Domino 2-to-1 during the quarter and has a $336,626-to-$48,965 lead in overall contributions.

Domino has also put $110,000 of his own money into the primary to succeed Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach. Atwater is running for chief financial officer.

In another closely watched GOP Senate primary, Wellington Councilwoman Lizbeth Benacquisto raised $33,810 during the fourth quarter while Republican rival Sharon Merchant raised $14,449. Benacquisto has an overall money edge of $150,040 to $72,099.

Benacquisto and Merchant are running for the seat of attorney general candidate Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres. Democratic Senate hopefuls Peter Burkert and Kevin Rader hadn’t turned in their fourth-quarter reports late this afternoon.

The proposal from Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, would require the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee to investigate the application for an economic incentive package that Wyndcrest Holdings submitted to Gov. Charlie Crist’s office.

Wyndcrest owns Digital Domain, a special effects company that has won awards for its work but also lost millions of dollars in 2008. It’s application is not considered a public record.

The bill would require the committee to review the vetting process from Crist’s Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development and determine whether the office’s questions “were answered truthfully.”

Domino hopes the legislature will take up the bill during a special session devoted to passenger rail issues scheduled to start Thursday. At this point, he would need a unanimous vote from the House and Senate to waive the rules and take up the bill.

Read the draft of Domino’s bill here.

Fort Lauderdale attorney Scott Rothstein and Gov. Charlie Crist

State Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, doesn’t sound eager to make an issue of the $21,750 or more that GOP state Senate primary rival Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, has received over the years from alleged investment swindler Scott Rothstein.

“There but for the grace of God….” Domino said last week when asked about Bogdanoff’s Rothstein money and his apparently Rothstein-free portfolio.

Read about it in this week’s Politics column.

And click here to read Dara Kam’s account of the Rothstein-inspired unease in Tallahassee.

Also, esteemed business columnist Alexandra Clough pondures the allure of the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm.

State Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, has asked Gov. Charlie Crist’s office to stop payment on a $20 million cash incentive awarded to an animation company hoping to open a Port St. Lucie studio, according to a letter obtained Thursday by The Palm Beach Post.

Domino, an investment manager, said the state’s money was at “significant risk” with Wyndcrest Holdings, the parent company of Digital Domain, a private California-based studio that specializes in movie effects.

Domino lost money in an investment deal with Wyndcrest CEO John Textor about 12 years ago, but Domino said the letter to Crist was not retribution. He also acknowledged he had not read the company’s application for the money. While the records are confidential, lawmakers can receive a briefing about specific economic development projects.

Rest of the story here.

Domino’s letter is here. The full response from Wyndcrest Holdings, the company that was awarded the money, is here.

Palm Beach County voters can expect two blockbuster state Senate races if trends from recent campaign finance reports hold up.

In two primary battles among candidates hoping to replace Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, the candidates combined to collect more than $305,000 during the third quarter. The four have a total of $826,000 on hand, more than 10 months away from the August primary.

In the race to replace Sen. Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, collected $132,921 from July through September. About 20 percent came from insurers and attorneys.

Read the rest here. The story was printed in the Oct. 15 edition of The Palm Beach Post.

To see how all the bankrolls are shaping up for candidates in contested races on the Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast, click here.

DELRAY BEACH — Saying he can’t run for office while going through a divorce, Nick Loeb is terminating his state Senate bid and pledging to spend more than $100,000 of his own money to give full refunds to everyone who contributed to his campaign.

Loeb, a Republican who had former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani come to Palm Beach County to headline a May fund-raiser, said he collected more than $300,000 in contributions and spent more than $100,000 on his campaign for the Palm Beach-Broward legislative seat of Senate President Jeff Atwater, who’s running for chief financial officer in 2010.

Loeb’s wife, Anna, filed for divorce this month. Nick Loeb said he and his wife have been separated since July, when he said Anna Loeb reconnected with an old boyfriend while she was visiting her native Sweden.

Anna Loeb’s attorney, Michael Walsh, was not immediately reachable this afternoon to comment on Nick Loeb’s version events.

“I wish things could be different. This is not what I wanted. I have tried to reconcile but this is what she wants,” Nick Loeb said.

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For years, Broward eye doctor Alan Mendelsohn wrote checks and raised money for a host of elected officials from both parties and funneled big bucks into campaigns through shadowy “527″ political committees.

Then the ophthalmologist/moneyman was hit with a 32-count federal indictment accusing him of siphoning much of the committee money for his personal use and directing $87,000 in concealed payments to an unnamed former public official.

Mendelsohn has pleaded not guilty, but the verdict is already in from the former recipients of Mendelsohn’s largesse. They’re distancing themselves from the former money spigot.

Click here to read about Mendelsohn and local pols in this week’s Politics column.

Former Republican U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw of Fort Lauderdale is listed on the host committee for an Oct. 13 fund-raiser in West Palm Beach and an Oct. 15 event in Deerfield Beach for the state Senate campaign of state Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter.

Shaw was also on the host committee for an Aug. 28 fund-raiser in Boca Raton for one of Domino’s GOP primary rivals, state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale.

The invitation to Domino’s Oct. 15 fund-raiser also lists Broward County GOP Chairman Chip LaMarca as a host committee member. But LaMarca has endorsed Bogdanoff in the Republican Senate primary.

What gives?

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Whether they’re running for president or a state House seat, Republicans in need of campaign cash often find their way to Bill Diamond’s Palm Beach home.

Florida Attorney General and 2010 governor candidate Bill McCollum will be the latest GOP office-seeker to belly up to Diamond’s political ATM when he attends a fund-raising lunch there Wednesday.

A veteran of New York City Republican politics, the 73-year-old Diamond co-owns a real estate business and was elected to the Palm Beach town council this year.

He was a regional administrator for the U.S. General Services Administration under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, then was former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani’s commissioner of administrative services from 1994 to 2001.

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In an industry known for its prevailing liberalism, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Boca Raton resident Dion DiMucci is truly The Wanderer.

DiMucci — better known simply as Dion from his chart-topping Teenager In Love/Runaround Sue/The Wanderer days — turned 70 this year and is a registered Republican who has developed an admiration for conservative GOP congressional hopeful Allen West. West lost a challenge to U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, last year and is gearing for a 2010 rematch.

In a type of gig Dion says he hasn’t done before, he’s scheduled to introduce West at a Boca Raton Republican Club meeting this month and then perform a not-yet-determined number after West speaks.

Dion was part of Buddy Holly’s ill-fated 1959 Winter Dance Party tour (he skipped the doomed plane ride with Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson), and his likeness is included in the iconic crowd shot on the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover (he’s right behind Tom Mix and Oscar Wilde).

To the extent he’s ever been identified with politics in the past, it’s for his 1968 recording of Abraham, Martin and John, which associated him with the folky progressivism of the era.

“I still believe in it,” Dion says of the song. But in other ways, he says, he doesn’t understand the dominant liberalism of the recording industry.

“It’s puzzling to me because I’m a rock ’n’ roller and rockers believe in truth and freedom. I don’t believe a lot of them know what the two words mean,” says Dion. “I think a lot of them have confused it (freedom) with license — giving you permission to do anything you want without regard to the consequences.”

Dion describes himself politically as “kind of an independent. … I’m liberal with my love but conservative with my thinking.”

* * *

West Boca Community Council President Sheri Scarborough is said by well-placed sources to be considering a run for the school board seat of 21-year incumbent Sandra Richmond. One of the council’s vice presidents, Frank Barbieri, was elected to the school board last year.

As attentive readers of the Politics column undoubtedly recall, Democratic activist and former teacher/principal/school administrator Marcia Andrews is also looking at a run for Richmond’s seat. Richmond hasn’t opened a campaign, but has said she’ll “probably” seek reelection next year.

***

College student Gary J. Lew is one of three candidates who have filed for the Democratic nomination to succeed term-limited state Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, in 2010.

But Lew is a registered Republican. He says he signed up with the GOP because of an interest in libertarian-leaning Ron Paul, but avers that “I have never in my life voted Republican.”

He says he’ll switch his registration to Democratic.

Gary J. Lew, a college student and manager of a vitamin store at a holistic health center, filed as a Democrat back in January for the state House District 83 seat that’s up for grabs in 2010. He’s one of three candidates who have opened campaigns for the Democratic nomination to replace term-limited state Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter.

But Lew is a registered Republican.

Lew said he signed up with the GOP when he registered to vote in 2006 because of an interest in libertarian-leaning U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Tex., who eventually sought the GOP nomination for president in 2008.

“Registration does not limit your ability to vote for a specific party in the general election here in Florida. I have never in my life voted Republican,” said Lew, who said he plans to switch his registration do Democrat.

“I feel like an independent. But in the eyes of the public, you have to choose a side. I feel like my politics coincide with the Democrats,” said Lew. He said he’s conservative in some areas, but “generally at heart I’m a liberal.”

Pat Rooney Jr. — the president of the Palm Beach Kennel Club dog track, restaurateur, attorney, radio personality, South Florida Water Management District board member and older brother of Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney — says he’s leaning toward running for a northern Palm Beach County state House seat next year and will announce his plans in September.

Rooney, a Republican, is eyeing the state House District 83 seat of state Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, who faces term limits in 2010 and is running for state Senate.

Republicans already in the race: Nancy Cardone, Francisco Rodriguez and Nick Wukoson. Former Palm Beach Gardens Councilman Hal Valeche — who ran against Tom Rooney in the 2008 GOP congressional primary — is also looking at the race. Democrats Tony Arena, Gary Lew and Mark Marciano have also filed for the District 83 seat.

Barry Carson’s brief trip to the men’s room spared Gov. Charlie Crist the embarrassment of being censured by Palm Beach County’s Republican Party last week.

Carson, a Republican Executive Committee member from Jupiter, was out of the room and missed the vote when the rest of the committee split 65-65 on a resolution Wednesday night to rebuke Crist for his various departures from GOP orthodoxy.

The tie vote means the resolution failed.

Carson said he would have voted for censure.

But after hours of debate and an earlier vote on whether to table the censure resolution, Carson went to the men’s room. When he got back, his name had been passed in the roll call of Republican committee members.

Carson said he told party leaders he was back and wanted to vote before the roll call was complete, but was ignored by county GOP Chairman Sid Dinerstein and others who opposed censure.

“Sid didn’t want the resolution and because of my prostate problem he found a way to get it (defeated),” Carson told the Politics column.

Dinerstein said he didn’t know of Carson’s wish to vote until it was too late.

“This guy didn’t say a word until our vote was finished and recorded,” Dinerstein said. “To me it was a little like sending in your absentee ballot late.”

****

The Republican Party of Florida, which is chaired by close Crist ally Jim Greer, took an interest in the censure vote. Carla Rivera, a field rep from the state GOP, attended the meeting and videotaped the county GOP’s deliberations.

“We do that a lot of times when we go to events,” state GOP spokeswoman Katie Gordon said. “It’s not sort of Big Brother overseeing what the local parties are doing. We’re all on the same team.”

****

State Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, is bolstering her Palm Beach County support as she runs for the Palm Beach-Broward state Senate district now held by CFO-seeking state Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach.

Bogdanoff is already backed by House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach. And the hosts for a Bogdanoff fund-raiser later this month include some big Boca Raton names: Mayor Susan Whelchel, Boca Councilwoman Susan Haynie, GOP activist Jack Furnari and former county Republican Chairman Tom Sliney.

Bogdanoff faces two Palm Beach County rivals — state Rep. Carl Domino of Jupiter and businessman Nick Loeb of Delray Beach — in a Republican primary in which about 64 percent of Republican voters live in Palm Beach County.

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Retired educator Vincent Goodman, a Republican who was one of Crist’s four finalists for the Palm Beach County commission appointment that eventually went to Democrat Priscilla Taylor, has opened a campaign to run for the seat in 2010. Democrats have a 4-to-1 registration edge over Republicans in Taylor’s minority-dominated District 7.

State Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, says he’s not worried that he raised only $3,147 from contributors in the first six weeks of his campaign for the state Senate District 25 seat while Republican primary rivals Nick Loeb ($225,105) and state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff ($122,575) have piled up far more.

“We raise money in a different cycle,” explained Domino, who has put $110,058 of his own money into the race. Domino, Bogdanoff and Loeb are vying for the Palm Beach-Broward seat of Senate President Jeff Atwater, who’s running for chief financial officer in 2010.

Bogdanoff’s and Loeb’s totals include money they raised for state House campaigns before Atwater announced he was leaving his Senate seat and they switched to that contest. Loeb has put $7,200 of his own money into the race on top of the $225,105 he’s received from others.

Domino says he’ll be financially competitive by the time the GOP primary rolls around more than 13 months from now. He says he doesn’t plan to crank up fund-raising until late September or October.

Wealthy investment manager Domino spent $210,000 of his own money on an unsuccessful 2000 state House bid and $270,000 of his own money on his winning 2002 state House campaign. Since entering the state House, Domino has relied primarily on other people’s money rather than his own checkbook. In 2008, he put $2,094 of his own money into his House reelection bid and raised $319,039 from donors.

On his way to winning the state House District 78 seat last year, state Rep. Kevin Rader, D-Delray Beach, often reminded voters that he actually lived in the district while Democratic primary rival Steve Nichol did not and candidate Steven Perman had merely rented an apartment there while owning a house in Broward County.

Now Rader is entertaining thoughts of running next year in a state Senate district where he doesn’t live.

He has plenty of company.

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Passing over two Republicans from his own county, House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton, is endorsing state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, in the three-Republican primary for the seat of Senate President Jeff Atwater, who’s running for chief financial officer.

Hasner at one point was considered a likely GOP candidate for the Palm Beach-Broward seat, but opted not to run for any office in 2010 when he faces term limits.

About 64 percent of Senate District 25 voters live in Palm Beach County and about 36 percent in Broward County. Hasner’s endorsement of Broward County resident Bogdanoff comes at the expense of two Palm Beach County Republicans — state Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, and Delray Beach businessman Nick Loeb.

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The Republican scramble for the Palm Beach-Broward seat of Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, puts GOP heavyweights and business partners Scott Rothstein and Roger Stone in rival camps.

Attorney Rothstein - who’s raised money for the likes of Charlie Crist, John McCain and George W. Bush - is backing state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, in the Senate District 25 race.
Legendarily dapper bad boy and unabashed Nixon admirer Stone, a partner with Rothstein in a Fort Lauderdale-based consulting biz, is behind Delray Beach businessman Nick Loeb.

Stone said he’s friends with Bogdanoff but has an “antecedent” relationship with Loeb’s family, going back to the days when he and Loeb’s father were early Ronald Reagan supporters. Though he’s known as a creative hitman, Stone says that, in this race, “I’m not here to engage in negative politics.”

Bogdanoff, Loeb and state Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, are in the GOP primary to replace Atwater, who’s running for chief financial officer

State Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton, will enter the 2010 race for the state Senate seat of Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, who is running for chief financial officer.

Skidmore, serving her second House term, does not live in Atwater’s Senate District 25 but said she would have “no problem moving back into the district where I have lived most of my life.”

Palm Beach-Broward District 25 has a Republican registration edge of roughly 38 percent to 36 percent. But Democrat Barack Obama carried the district in November’s presidential election.

Three Republicans have already announced they are running to succeed Atwater: state Reps. Ellyn Bogdanoff of Fort Lauderdale and Carl Domino of Jupiter and businessman Nick Loeb of Delray Beach.

Former Democratic state Sen. Skip Campbell has said he’s interested in running for the District 25 Senate seat.

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Republican state Reps. Carl Domino of Jupiter and Ellyn Bogdanoff of Fort Lauderdale became Senate rivals Wednesday as both announced plans to run in 2010 for the legislative seat of Senate President Jeff Atwater, who is leaving to pursue a statewide campaign for chief financial officer.

Both join a third Republican, businessman Nick Loeb of Delray Beach, in the race for the Palm Beach-Broward District 25 Senate seat.

Atwater launched his CFO campaign Tuesday.

Former Democratic state Sen. Skip Campbell has also expressed interest in Atwater’s seat, and other Democrats could enter as well in a district where Republicans hold a slight registration edge.

Bogdanoff already had opened a reelection campaign for her state House seat and raised $33,750 through March 31. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was recently in Palm Beach County to raise money for Loeb’s campaign for the state House seat of term-limited Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton.

Under state law, Bogdanoff and Loeb must offer to return unspent campaign money to the contributors to their House races. A contributor to the House campaign also has the option of letting the money be used for the Senate campaign. One Domino supporter who gave to Loeb’s House campaign is already demanding a refund.

About 64 percent of Senate District 25 voters live in Palm Beach County and 36 percent live in Broward County.