Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, filed a bill that would continue the crackdown on “pill mills,” pain management clinics dealing prescription drugs that law enforcement officials say are worse than crack cocaine.
Fasano’s bill would enhance penalties for pill mill operators that don’t comply with state laws and require the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) to conform with national standards.
The drug database has been on hold because of a lack of funding and a bid dispute.
Attorney General Pam Bondi is launching a new assault on the pill mills with a team led by state drug czar Dave Aronberg. Bondi called Florida “the epicenter of the country” for prescription drug abuse because busloads of drugsters travel to the state from Kentucky, Ohio and other places to get prescriptions from the rogue clinics.
Seven Floridians each day die from overdoses of prescription drugs.
GOP chair hopeful Ed Lynch (left, with guitar) says he was doing a sound check -- not performing -- when he appeared in 2008 with Democratic state House candidate (now state Rep.) Joseph Abruzzo and former Democratic state Sen. Dave Aronberg.
In his bid for Palm Beach County GOP chairman, two-time congressional candidate Ed Lynch is mounting a more-Republican-than-thou challenge of incumbent Sid Dinerstein. Among other things, he has ripped Dinerstein for allowing BIZPAC Chairman John R. Smith to be a non-voting member on the county GOP executive board when Smith contributed to Democratic state Rep. Joseph Abruzzo.
So Dinerstein supporter Jack Furnari is making hay of photos from 2008 that show Lynch wielding a guitar at a joint event for Democrats Abruzzo and former state Sen. Dave Aronberg. Lynch is wearing a “Team Aronberg” T-shirt in the pics, which conservative activist Furnari posted today on his blog.
Lynch says he donned Aronberg T-shirt after barbecue sauce mishap.
Lynch today called the guitar issue a sign his opponents are “desperate.”
Lynch says he merely loaned his sound system to a friend who played at the event. He says he picked up the guitar, which he says wasn’t his, to do a sound check and didn’t actually perform. Abruzzo said he thinks he remembers Lynch playing at the event, but can’t be absolutely sure. He said he remembers feeling a little uncomfortable about it because he supported Lynch’s opponent at the time, former Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler. Aronberg said he wasn’t 100 percent certain either, but thinks Lynch’s sound-check story is “probably right.”
And that Aronberg T-shirt? Lynch said he spilled barbecue sauce on his own shirt and donned the Democratic garment as an emergency substitute.
Attorney General-elect Pam Bondi enlisted two losing attorney general primary candidates to her transition team, which will be chaired by former St. Petersburg mayor Rick Baker,her predecessor Attorney General Bill McCollum and former House Speaker Larry Cretul.
Bondi tapped former state Sen. Dave Aronberg, a Greenacres Democrat who lost his AG bid in the primary to former state Sen. Dan Gelber who lost to Bondi, to serve on her pill mills and prescription drug team.
And Bondi recruited former state Rep. Holly Benson, her one-time opponent in the GOP primary, as one of her Medicaid fraud advisers. Benson formerly served as secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration and the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
The former Tampa prosecutor also asked her transition team members to sign an ethics pledge that includes a one-year ban on lobbying her office.
Bondi’s full list of transition team appointees follows.
Dave Aronberg said he was proud today to endorse his Democratic primary opponent, Dan Gelber, in the attorney general race against Republican Pam Bondi. “Dan will bring needed reform to this office and restore its original mission of protecting Floridians,” Aronberg said in a statement.
Gelber said in a statement that he was “proud to have the support of my friend.”
In an e-mail addressed to friends Thursday night, Aronberg said he “will be taking a break from elected office…but this is not farewell. I will be back at the right time and the right opportunity to make a real difference on issues of public safety and consumer protection.”
The Democratic candidates for attorney general spent the day in opposite parts of the state waving signs and knocking on doors in a last-ditch effort to win votes in Tuesday’s primary election.
State Sen. Dave Aronberg is spending the day in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. His opponent, Dan Gelber, is stumping in North Florida with stops in Tallahassee and Pensacola.
Gelber topped all of the attorney general candidates – including the three Republicans in a tight primary – in campaign contributions. He edged out opponent Aronberg, who led the raise in fundraising until this month, by just $11,000.
Like the Republican primary, the Aronberg and Gelber race is too close to call.
“With 43 percent undecided this is anyone’s game right now,” Aronberg said while going door-to-door in South Florida.
Democratic state senator and attorney general hopeful Dan Gelber is kicking off a down-to-the wire bus tour beginning tomorrow in Miami.
Gelber, in a primary against Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres that’s too close to call, will make stops in Delray Beach and Boca Raton tomorrow afternoon with PBC tax collector Anne Gannon, who formerly served alongside Gelber in the state House.
Meanwhile, AG wannabe Pam Bondi launched the Republican version of the attorney general primary bus tour today. She’s visiting GOP strongholds like The Villages after a last-minute fundraiser tonight in Jacksonville hosted by Steve Halverson, chair of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, and Ericka Alba, chairwoman of Associated Industries of Florida.
The fundraising deadline for the Tuesday’s primary election is midnight tonight, causing candidates like Bondi and Gelber to frantically dial for dollars and send e-mails seeking contributions.
Gelber didn’t have to launch a bus tour to get on Bondi’s radar screen, however.
At several speeches today, Bondi repeatedly referred to Gelber as the Democratic nominee who she’ll be facing off against in November.
“Looks like it’s going to be Dan Gelber in the general,” Bondi told supporters at the Florida Chamber of Commerce this morning. “The more we hear about Dan Gelber, the more we learn, the last thing we need is an Eliot Spitzer attorney general.”
Gelber’s sweep across the state includes stops in Tallahassee, Pensacola, the Tampa Bay area, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Gelber’s opponent, Sen. Dave Aronberg, is conducting his own RV tour this weekend in South Florida. He’ll make stops in Delray Beach, Ft. Lauderdale and Coconut Grove on Saturday.
After agreeing to not air television ads in the Democratic attorney general primary because of its potentially misleading name, a fund-raising committee known as Florida Mainstream Democrats has shifted much of its money to a predominately Republican group, which has paid for a TV spot scheduled to air Wednesday in West Palm Beach.
The ad supports state Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres in his Democratic primary race against fellow Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach.
Aronberg has helped Mainstream raise more than $242,000 in the past eight weeks, according to state election records and the group’s website. On Monday, the group transferred $180,000 to another political committee, known as Voters Response, which will pay for the ad.
State Sen. Dan Gelber gets defensive in his first television ad in the race against fellow senator Dave Aronberg in the Democratic attorney general primary.
With absentee voting already underway, Gelber, a Miami Beach lawyer and former federal prosecutor, highlights his years in the courtroom and accuses Aronberg of “political games” and “dishonest attacks” in a series of mailers in which Aronberg accuses Gelber of a potential conflict of interest. Aronberg’s made a big issue out of Gelber’s former law firm going to work for BP to defend the oil giant in any Florida lawsuits.
State Sen. Dave Aronberg agreed to his colleague Sen. Dan Gelber’s request for debates before the primary election…sort of.
Aronberg and Gelber are in a heated Democratic primary for attorney general, and Aronberg’s taken off the gloves and attacked his opponent for Gelber’s former law firm’s representation of BP.
Gelber says he resigned from Akerman Senterfitt, the state’s largest law firm that recently was retained by BP, days before Aronberg demanded it.
Gelber then sent Aronberg a letter asking for 11 debates before the Aug. 24 primary.
Aronberg responded today calling a request for that many debates – nearly three a week – a “political stunt” and dragging BP into the debate arena.
“The next Attorney General will probably spend the better part of this decade involved in litigation of the state versus BP, Halliburton and other parties who might share liability for this disaster. Therefore, as we work together to agree on our debate schedule, I want to insist that at least one of the debates be held there so the citizens of that region can hear our plans for fighting for them as their Attorney General,” Aronberg wrote in a letter to Gelber.
Aronberg also agreed to a debate outside of South Florida, home to both Democrats, in Tampa Bay or Orlando.
With a stroke of his pen, Gov. Charlie Crist just accomplished what lawmakers refused to do earlier this year – give long-time jobless Floridians the ability to get extended unemployment compensation benefits approved by Congress yesterday.
Democratic lawmakers, including Palm Beach County’s Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres and Rep. Kevin Rader of Boyton Beach, were among those who pushed their colleagues to extend the June 5 deadline for the benefits during the regular session that ended in May. That didn’t happen.
Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, worked behind-the-scenes with Crist on the executive order granting the benefits to about 100,000 Floridians whose unemployment benefits have run out and others whose benefits will dry up before Congress’ reauthorization ends.
“Unemployed Floridians are struggling in this challenging economic climate, trying to figure out how to pay their bills and support their families. We simply cannot desert the 250,000 Floridians who qualify for the extended federal assistance signed into law yesterday. I am committed to exercising my Constitutional duty to authorize the use of available federal funds to help out-of-work Floridians who qualify for this help,” Crist wrote in a release this afternoon.
Congress initially established the extended benefits program in 2008 to provide federal funds for jobless workers who exhausted their state unemployment benefits. Congress has since reauthorized the program several times.
Two Palm Beach County lawmakers are pushing a measure to implement an expansion of unemployment compensation benefits Congress is expected to pass as early as today. The bill could bring about $270 million in unemployment benefits for about 200,000 long-term unemployed Floridians whose extended benefits dried up on June 5.
But there’s little chance GOP leaders will expand the special session on oil drilling that kicked off at noon and is already coming to a close in the House.
Gov. Charlie Crist called lawmakers into town to pass a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow voters to decide if offshore oil drilling in Florida should be banned.
The Senate wants to pass the measure but the House is expected to convene briefly and adjourn without even voting on it.
Congress appears to have settled its own impasse over unemployment benefits and is expected today to approve another expansion for the long-term unemployed.
But Floridians won’t be able to get the additional funds unless state lawmakers sign off.
Rep. Kevin Rader, D-Boynton Beach, filed a bill that would extend the state’s June 5 expiration date for the long-term unemployed benefits and wrote a letter yesterday asking Crist to expand the session.
More than 35,000 Floridians a week are losing out on the extended benefits, Rader said.
“These are families who need this money because of the economic crisis in our state,” said Rader, who failed to convince lawmakers to pass a similar measure during the regular session to avoid having to come back during a special session to extend the deadline for the benefits.
Jobless workers spend $1.70 for each $1 in unemployment fund they receive, according to some estimates.
“It’s outrageous we would not act so that Floridians get the funds that they are entitled to,” said Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, one of the bill’s co-sponsors. Gelber’s Democratic attorney general opponent, Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres, is also backing the measure. “It’s money for people who need it the most and who will spend it immediately.”
Rader acknowledged it is highly unlikely the session will be expanded but that “I am always hopeful that common sense and reason will prevail.”
Rep. Joe Abruzzo tell us he’s signing up to raise money for the 527 political advocacy group known as Florida Mainstream Democrats and knows at least one Democrat who his money won’t be helping: state Rep. Rick Kriseman.
“Rick Kriseman is about as mainstream as Dennis Rodman,” Abruzzo said.
The group hasn’t spent anything this year beyond consulting and web site management, but clearly it’s created quite a stir.
We wrote this morning that the former head of the now defunct Florida Mainstream Democrats, Rick Kriseman, is upset that Dave Aronberg is using a 527 committee with the same name to help raise money for his attorney general primary campaign.
Well, an anonymous reader commented that Kriseman might not be as neutral as he let on. And that reader was correct: Kriseman recorded a robocall over the weekend on behalf of Aronberg’s primary rival, Dan Gelber. (For the record, we interviewed Kriseman before he recorded the call.)
The mailer is a bruising piece of campaign literature that takes aim at Gelber for working at Akerman Senterfitt, the state’s largest law firm that recently was retained by BP.
It follows a press release that Aronberg, an attorney at Greenspoon Marder, sent out calling for Gelber to quit the firm, although Gelber had toldThe Palm Beach Post editorial board several days earlier that he was resigning from the firm.
The mail piece implies that Gelber was “”defending BP” and that he earned $225,000 per year from “BP’s law firm.”
Some Democrats are crying foul over a group Democrat Dave Aronberg has used to raise $128,000 for his attorney general primary: “Florida Mainstream Democrats.”
Aronberg
If the name sounds familiar, that’s because it should.
It was first coined in 2004 for a group founded by 18 Democratic state lawmakers – including Aronberg, who served as chairman for about three years – to attract conservative voters to the party and support pro-business, moderate candidates seeking political office outside the traditional liberal enclaves in South Florida.
Dave Aronberg issued a late-night press release on Monday calling on Dan Gelber, his Democratic primary opponent in the attorney general race, to resign from Akerman Senterfitt law firm. The powerful law firm was retained by BP after its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and Florida’s next attorney general will likely have to defend the state in a lawsuit with the company.
But Gelber says Aronberg is trying to score political points: Gelber notified his boss of the resignation on Thursday, just hours before he told The Palm Beach Post editorial board that he was stepping down from the firm.
“This is obviously a political stunt. I was literally off the (firm’s) web site yesterday,” said Gelber, who was among the first to call for a special session to write a constitutional ban on offshore drilling in state waters. “He’s using a bona fide tragedy for his own personal ambition. I hope he regrets it.”
Aronberg doesn’t regret it. He’s actually pretty fired up.
“I expected Dan to resign weeks ago,” Aronberg said. “When that didn’t happen, I just thought it was important to speak up.”
Aronberg also says that Gelber’s resignation might not be enough. He said there are “real questions” about whether Gelber would have to recuse himself from a case involving BP because the company was represented by his former firm.
But Florida Bar rules are fairly clear that there is only a conflict of interest if Gelber was involved with his firm’s client. Gelber says he’s done no work on behalf of BP.
“This could be the biggest lawsuit in Florida’s history and the next AG needs to be an active part of it,” Aronberg said.
Attorney General Bill McCollum is asking BP to put $2.5 billion into an interest-earning escrow account to cover the state’s losses from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
McCollum’s requests is the latest in Florida candidates’ string of demands for cash from the oil giant.
McCollum and the other Florida Cabinet members were less than pleased with some of British Petroleum Vice President Robert Fryar’s Tuesday appearance before the panel.
Fryar told McCollum he did not know if BP has earmarks any funds to pay claims to Florida government, citizens or businesses resulting from the April 20 disaster.
Florida’s largest labor union gave Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Kendrick Meek its full endorsement, The Palm Beach Post has learned.
The Florida AFL-CIO is in a private meeting this morning to consider endorsements for a slate of state and federal candidates.
Meek got a scare from independent candidate Charlie Crist, who has strong support among the state’s teachers unions. But Meek avoided a potential embarrassment with a rousing speech to the group on Saturday. (Today’s print story.)
The union avoided a fight in the competitive Democratic primary between state Sens. Dave Aronberg of Greenaces and Dan Gelber of Miami Beach. The group agreed to endorse the winner of that race.
Aronberg’s camp viewed the split as a victory, but Gelber’s team said the decision lets each campaign battle for local union endorsements.
Gelber did seek the full endorsement, but ran into a roadblock in Pat Emmert, president of the Palm Beach-Treasure Coast AFL-CIO, who led the change internally for Aronberg.
Two Palm Beach County lawmakers hoping to springboard into statewide office are in very different positions, according to a new Mason Dixon poll released this morning.
Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, is up 33 percent to 26 percent over former state Rep. Loranne Ausley, D-Tallahassee, in the likely match up of state chief financial officer candidates.
Technically, Atwater still has a primary opponent in Rep. Pat Patterson of DeLand. But Atwater holds a 30-to-1 fundraising advantage and Patterson has said he will not use Atwater’s support for Senate Bill 6 in the race. Patterson voted against it, but said the education issue wouldn’t be appropriate in a CFO race.
Meanwhile, the poll shows state Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres locked in a dogfight with fellow Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach in the Democratic primary for attorney general . The poll, which has a 4 percent margin of error showed Gelber with 15 percent, Aronberg with 12 percent and undecided with 73 percent.
Florida no longer has a statute of limitations on sex crimes committed on victims between the ages of 12 and 16.
Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law HB 525, ending the three-year statute of limitations that Palm Beach County lawyer Michael Dolce – raped repeatedly by his Maryland neighbor when he was seven years old – has spent six years trying to undo. Studies show that it is often 15 years before victims go public with their accusations.
Powerful Miami lobbyist Ron Book and his daughter Lauren Book-Lim joined Dolce’s crusade this year, taking on the Catholic Church that effectively quashed the effort in the past. Book-Lim was sexually abused and molested by the Book’s nanny over a period of years.
The House and Senate unanimously approved the measure before sending it to Crist, who signed it into law today without comment along with nearly three dozen other bills. The law, which goes into effect immediately, will apply only to new cases.
Greenacres Democrat Dave Aronberg sponsored the bill in the Senate.
State Sen. Dave Aronberg is demanding that BP and two other corporations involved in the April 22 oil rig blast threatening the Gulf Coast shoreline set up a $1 billion escrow account for the state’s recovery costs.
Aronberg, a Greenacres Democrat who is running for attorney general, is chairman of the Senate Military Affairs and Domestic Security Committee that deals with emergency preparedness.
He said the state’s focus on BP for recovery costs needs to be expanded to include Deepwater Horizon rig owner and operator Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton.
The $25 million BP gave Florida to cover immediate clean-up costs “is by no means sufficient,” Aronberg wrote in a letter to Crist asking for the escrow account.
“We are looking at financial consequences of devastating proportions, to say nothing of the potential costs to our wildlife and environmental damages.
While we ready our shoreline as best we can, I urge you to call upon each of these companies to take greater financial responsibility and commit more dollars than the initial pledge by BP,” Aronberg wrote.
Halliburton was performing cement work on the well less than a day before the blast.
“This is especially alarming since Halliburton was also the cementer on the well that suffered a huge blowout last August off the coast of Australia. Tens of thousands of barrels of oil leaked from that well over 10 weeks before it was finally capped. Although the investigation continues, the suspicion is that either the cementing process or the cement itself may have been at fault,” Aronberg wrote.
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