Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner-elect Adam Putnam has his new team ready to go with less than two weeks until he takes office on Jan. 4.

Putnam has hired Sterling Ivey, who’s been Gov. Charlie Crist’s spokesman since Crist took office, as his press secretary. Ivey also served as spokesman for the Department of State under Gov. Jeb Bush.

Putnam’s tapped more than a dozen long-serving government workers such as his chief of staff Mike Joyner, who spent more than 25 years working for the state including a stint as chief of staff at the Department of Environmental Protection.

And Putnam’s hanging on to several of current Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson’s employees, many of whom have worked in the department for years.

See who’s on Putnam’s administrative team after the jump. (more…)

Gov. Charlie Crist and state CFO Alex Sink as support a constitutional ban. Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson is against it.

Attorney General Bill McCollum is somewhere in the middle. He says he would “never” support offshore drilling, but in the same sentence says he wants a caveat in an amendment to allow for “new developments in science.”

The state Agriculture & Consumer Services Department, the clearinghouse for consumer complaints in Florida, received 38,000 written complaints in 2009, about 1,800 more than last year, Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson announced today. The department used the complaints to obtain nearly $5.9 million in goods, services or cash refunds for consumers in 2009.

Here’s the list of the most frequent complaints:

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Democratic Agriculture Commissioner candidate Scott Maddox’s campaign didn’t get off to a slow start although he didn’t begin collecting money until yesterday.

The former head of the state Democratic Party put off raising campaign cash until Sept. 1 – nearly two months after he jumped into the race – for a reason: that’s when matching public money kicks in.

“But today is not just the first day of our fundraising campaign, today also marks the first day that you can more than double your impact! If you contribute today, the State of Florida will match your donation on a 2 to 1 basis up to $250! If you give $50 dollars, the state will match with an additional $100. If you give $100, the State will match an additional $200, and if you give $250, the match will be an additional $500! Please help us take on this challenge and make a difference for Florida’s consumers…and watch your donation grow!” reads an e-mail Maddox sent to supporters yesterday.

Maddox is faces two other contenders in the Democratic primary. Former state Rep. Rick Minton, a Ft. Pierce realtor, and former Suwanee County Commissioner Randy Hatch both want the job. Audubon of Florida lobbyist Eric Draper dropped out of the race after Maddox stepped in.

Republican U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, also a former state House member, from Bartow is the favorite in a GOP primary. Putnam was one of the youngest politicians elected to Congress in 2001 at the age of 26. Opponents in the primary include state Sen. Carey Baker, a gun shop owner from Eustis.

Current Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles Bronson is leaving office because of term limits.

Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles Bronson last week asked folks to stop giving pork a bad rap by calling the H1N1 virus “swine flu” because of the devastating impact it’s having on the pork industry.

But the threat of spreading the virus between pigs and people is a real threat, according to yesterday’s New York Times.

Not in the way most might think, however.

Vets fear that humans will spread the virus to the animals and are instituting precautions at state fairs and other places where the porcine creatures come into contact with those higher up on the food chain.

“When the Oregon State Fair opens next week, the pigs will be kept behind an elaborate configuration of plastic and ribbon barriers, taller-than-usual fences and off-limits walkways. The state veterinarian is also urging visitors to stay six feet away.

The worry? The spread of swine flu, but with a twist: state officials hope to insulate the pigs from sick people.

‘Help us protect the piggies,’ signs at the fair will read in pink,” the story begins.

“The whole idea of the animals getting sick from people is a foreign concept to people, but that’s what we’re looking at here,” said Iowa state veterinarian David E. Marshall said in the story.

Pork producers are being devastated by the H1N1 pandemic, commonly known as “swine flu,” which is responsible for the deaths of 59 deaths in Florida, including five in Palm Beach County.

Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles Bronson wants officials to quit using the term “swine flu” to get the public to separate the virus, unrelated to the consumption of meat, from things like pork chops.

“It is unfortunate that pork producers and processors have been impacted so negatively by the inaccurate characterization of this virus,” Bronson said in a press release issued today. “But the fact is there have been no detections of swine flu in any swine herds in this country, and people cannot get this flu from eating pork.”

The virus is continuing to spread and health officials fear it a resurgence of it as schools re-open after the summer break. Gov. Charlie Crist traveled around the state this week to warn school officials to heed safety precautions, including frequent hand washing.

A 12-year-old Palm Beach County girl died yesterday from complications from the virus.

A Mason-Dixon poll shows Gov. Charlie Crist with at 53%-18% over former House Speaker Marco Rubio in a primary for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination.

Republican Bill McCollum has a 39%-12% advantage over Charles Bronson in a hypothetical GOP primary for governor, but 49% of Republican voters are undecided.

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Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson is one of three state Cabinet members considering a run for governor. Here’s what he said this morning about a possible Republican primary with Attorney General Bill McCollum, who is expected to announce his plans next week:

“To get some of issues of the state really talked about I just felt like there needs to be a discussion there. And a primary is the best way to get that discussion out,” Bronson said.

“I don’t know that will happen unless we can get a real race going that’s meaningful in this thing. I’ll wait until I finish up all my phone calls.”

Bronson said he’d make his decision “early next week.”

With a potentially bloody GOP primary between Gov. Charlie Crist and former House Speaker Marco Rubio for U.S. Senate, a number of Republican heavies are lining up behind McCollum in hopes of focusing time and energy on a campaign against state CFO Alex Sink, the Democratic front runner for governor.