Capitalizing on the scandal erupting over the state GOP’s credit card spending, national Democrats released a video take-off of the MasterCard “Priceless” television campaign.

The spoof highlights some of the Republican Party of Florida-issued credit card charges now-U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio made when Florida House Speaker, including $1,000 in repairs to his family mini-van.

“Getting your personal bills paid for by the Republican Party of Florida like Marco Rubio: Priceless,” the Democratic National Committee video mocks.

The state GOP may get some unwanted mail as a result of the “Priceless” satire.

“Want your bills paid for by the Republican Party of Florida? Just send them in. 420 E. Jefferson Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32301,” it concludes.

The DNC ad targets Rubio at a time when the once-long-shot candidate’s popularity is soaring while his GOP primary opponent Gov. Charlie Crist’s is on the wane.

The Florida Democratic Party and Republican Marco Rubio have enjoyed an uneasy alliance in the past few months over a common enemy. Numerous times, Rubio and the Democrats have sent out e-mails within minutes of each other with mirror-image attacks on Republican Gov. Charlie Crist.

But today Democrats are turning their sights on Rubio, whose primary campaign against Crist been gaining momentum. By our count, it’s the first Democratic press release dedicated solely to Rubio since May 5, when Rubio formally announced his candidacy (just a few days before Crist’s own announcement).

The press release today hammers Rubio for receiving a $135,000 equity loan from a politically-connected bank. The loan came after Rubio bought a West Miami home for $550,000 in 2005 and had it valued at $735,000 a month later. The peg for the release is Rubio’s opposition to President Obama’s so-called Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee.

The aim of the White House plan is to recover projected losses from the government’s bank bailout. Rubio called it a “bank tax.”

We’ve got a feeling Rubio’s camp is giddy about the turn of events. From Rubio spokesman Alex Burgos:

“When the time comes to debate Democrats, we will have had plenty of experience highlighting the policy deficiencies they share with Charlie Crist on out-of-control stimulus spending, cap-and-trade, higher taxes and policies that trade individual freedom for more government.”

Biden

Florida, Arizona and California, Biden said, “got killed when this bubble burst, and you’re still getting killed.”

But nationally, Biden said the economy was improving, according to a pool report of the fundraiser.

“We’re getting to the end of this toboggan run,” Biden said. “We’re no longer talking about a depression. We’re talking about the shape of a recovery.”

“We inherited a God-awful mess,” he said

Biden spoke for about 30 minutes and then took questions behind closed doors for another half-hour

Among the crowd of about 60 people — who paid between $1,000 and $30,000 to attend — were state Sens. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, and Jeremy Ring, D-Parkland; Fort Lauderdale attorney Mitchell Berger; and Palm Beach County Democratic Chairman Mark Alan Siegel.

The fundraiser, for the Democratic National Committee and Organizing for America, was held at the home of Mark Gilbert.

President Barack Obama tapped Palm Beach Democratic supporter and Hillary Clinton pal Elaine Schuster to represent the U.S. at the General Assembly of the United Nations.

The nomination must be approved by the U.S. Senate.

The Schusters, who also own a home in Boston, are philanthropists who have held fundraisers for Democratic candidates at their Jungle Road home. In 2007, they donated $5 million to Brandeis University’s Institute for Investigative Journalism, which was renamed after them.

U.S. Reps. Robert Wexler of Delray Beach, Alcee Hastings of Miramar, Kathy Castor of Tampa and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Pembroke Pines are among 92 House Democrats who have co-sponsored the “Respect for Marriage Act,” a bill introduced Tuesday to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. That 1996 law bars some benefits from same-sex couples.

From the South-Florida Blade:

Absent from the sponsorship of the bill is Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), an openly-gay and usually vocal proponent of GLBT rights. Both Pelosi and Frank believe the bill has little chance of passage, and prefer to implement legislation that would take gradual steps to repeal DOMA.

“Given that there is zero chance of this bill becoming law in the near future, it is a mistake to explicitly introduce this crossing state lines issue,” Frank said. “The controversy now will not be about whether we should have the federal government treat people fairly in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, etc., but whether we should export [marriage recognition] to Ohio and Florida.”

Actblue.com launched a website to urge contributors to give to Democratic Congressmen who back a public health care option despite the toll the health care reforms have taken on President Barack Obama’s popularity here in Florida.

The organization’s website Actblue.com claims to have raised nearly $250,000 from more than 4,000 supporters for Democrats.

“Democratic members of Congress need to understand that a healthcare reform bill with a Public Option is simply not an option– it’s a requirement. The congressmembers on this list have said in no uncertain terms that they will not vote for a bill without a public option all the way through Conference. That takes courage, and we need to show them how much we appreciate them for doing so,” the website urges.

Recipients include Floridian U.S. Reps. Robert Wexler of Delray Beach, Corrine Brown of Jacksonville and Alcee Hastings of Miramar. Wexler and Hastings held a jam-packed health care town hall meeting in Delray Beach today.

Wexler received $3,610 from the site. Brown pulled in $3,306 and Hastings $3,195.

Florida Democratic Chairwoman Karen Thurman pitched the party faithful this morning on the Dems state conference by highlighting the scheduled debate between state Sens. Dave Aronberg and Dan Gelber, both candidates for state attorney general.

” want to make sure you’ll be at our State Conference, where we’ll get the chance to see our next Attorney General in action. Florida Democrats will have the opportunity to see State Senators Dave Aronberg and Dan Gelber - one of which I am sure will be our next Attorney General - debate their vision for Florida’s future,” Thurman wrote.

The conference is scheduled for Oct. 9-11 at Disney’s Yacht and Beach Club in Orlando.

State Attorney General candidate Dave Aronberg today announced a “Hillsborough County Steering Committee.” The announcement marks the first significant movement into the critical Central Florida area for the Greenacres Democrat.

Aronberg and his primary opponent, fellow state Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, both have strong constituencies in South Florida, which makes securing the Interstate 4 Democrats from Orlando to Tampa pretty important to both campaigns.

So far, Gelber has held an edge in this area of the state if you put anything in endorsements: he was backed by a group of Democrats he once served with in the state House as well as Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa - the only Dem in the state Senate to publicly weigh in on the race.

The list of Aronberg’s Hillsborough group is after the jump.

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Check out the Florida House Democratic Caucus’ new page here.

Democratic House Leader Franklin Sands of Weston explains the new site above.

Infighting within the state GOP has weakened the party so badly that it is verging on irrelevant, a former party chairman says — despite its overwhelming dominance in the legislature and its decade-long lock on the governor’s office.

Other Republican leaders charge that current party Chairman Jim Greer and, by default, Gov. Charlie Crist are out of sync with what grass-roots Republicans want.

“It would be hard to imagine us being any more impotent than we appear to be right at this point,” said former state Republican Chairman Tom Slade, who headed the party from 1993 to 1999. That was a period when the GOP took over the state House and Senate and sent Jeb Bush to the governor’s mansion.

Greer flexed his political muscles this year when he tried to use a parliamentary procedure to hamper former state House Speaker Marco Rubio’s candidacy to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez. Crist had jumped into the Senate race in May, garnering Greer’s support immediately.

That transformed what had been a whisper campaign against Greer into public criticism from county leaders and others throughout the state, who said the chairman had gone too far.

Rubio later characterized the Senate GOP primary as a battle for the “heart and soul” of the Republican Party in Florida.

But Greer, hand-picked by Crist, says the party is doing just fine and blames reports of its demise on a few disgruntled but vocal outliers.

“I don’t think that the party has anywhere near the problems that some are promoting in the state. In fact, I think this party in Florida is very strong and I see it each and every day,” Greer said in a telephone interview.

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Fueled by a recent Orlando Sentinel column advising that the state GOP wise up or continue to lose its domination of Florida politics, the RPOF is striking back.

National committeeman Paul Senft penned a rebuttal to Jane Healy’s column asserting that the Republican Party of Florida is just fine, thanks very much.

Despite Barack Obama’s Florida win in last year’s presidential election, Republicans held on to down-ticket seats and picked up a Congressional seat, ousting former Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney from Palm Beach County, Senft pointed out.

And while it’s true that GOP voter registration is slipping, that’s nothing new in Florida, Senft wrote.

So what if the Dems have also reversed their years-long fundraising slump.

Not to worry, according to Senft.

“If Democrats couldn’t produce down-ticket results in a year with more money, resources and momentum than they have ever had, I don’t see how they’ll do it in 2010,” he wrote.

But Senft’s op-ed may do little to quell dissension in a party whose dirty laundry is increasingly being aired in public.

RPOF Chairman Jim Greer has earned the wrath of the right-wing “Liberty Caucus,” a conservative group of libertarians whose leaders are being targeted by Greer for ouster at the upcoming convention.

Like many other conservatives, Greer ticked off the caucus by his early endorsement of pal Gov. Charlie Crist in the U.S. Senate race and his efforts to quash a GOP primary with former House Speaker Marco Rubio.

Meanwhile the St. Johns County GOP are trying to oust the Liberty Caucus’ state chairman, Will Pitts, from the party and remove other critics from their committee posts.

Greer’s strong-arm tactics and dismissal of right-wing darling Rubio coupled with growing dissatisfaction among die-hard Republicans with Crist’s moderate stance have left the party in disarray, critics within the party charge.

They say the party leadership is out of touch with the base and this could hurt them in next year’s elections.

The grievances against the rogue Republicans will be heard this weekend.

The new voters who turned Florida’s electorate younger and more ethnically diverse in 2008 also turned out in droves for Barack Obama’s historic presidential election last year.

Census figures released Monday show that of the 579,000 new voters who participated in Florida last year, nearly all were either Hispanic or black. Turnout among young voters increased from 39 percent in 2004 to 49 percent last year.

Young Hispanics and blacks helped boost the state’s voter rolls by 10 percent and lowered the average age among voters by one full year, to 50, according to a Palm Beach Post analysis.

Meanwhile, turnout among white voters remained stagnant last year while some of the state’s oldest voters stayed home: Turnout among voters 75 and older dropped from 72 percent in 2004 to 69 percent in 2008.

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Republican Gov. Charlie Crist is getting it from both ends of the political spectrum.

First, Crist’s GOP primary opponent Marco Rubio blasted Crist in a press release, challenging Crist to an online debate if the governor is too busy to find time to debate. Rubio has asked Crist to participate in 10 debates before their primary election next year. But Rubio’s campaign noted that while the governor has not responded, he does have time to attend a fundraiser this weekend at the home of Real Housewives of New York television star Jill Zarin.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has unveiled the above web ad. The group says its hoping to show that Crist “put his own political ambitions ahead of his constituents. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and New Hampshire Attorney General Jill Ayotte are also featured in the spot.

“Republicans seem to be making a habit out of abandoning their posts when the times get tough,” DSCC Communications Director Eric Schultz said in a statement. “Charlie Crist created an enormous economic mess in Florida, and is now fleeing at the first chance he gets.”

Republicans respond:

“First it was President Bush, now it’s Governor Palin – when will the Democrats stop trying to turn Republican candidates into other people and finally focus on the critical issues facing America, like bipartisan health care reform and skyrocketing unemployment?” said National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman Amber Wilkerson.

“Obviously the Democrats are nervous about Governor Crist’s candidacy if they’re spending this much time lobbing these pathetic attacks instead of figuring out how to turn our nation’s economy around. Perhaps they should redirect their energies toward accomplishing something positive for the American people.”

Florida Democratic Party Executive Director Joseph Leonard is going to work for President Barack Obama’s administration.

Joseph, 34, is taking over as chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security Office of Policy.

The Dems tapped a Florida outsider, Scott Arcenaux, to replace Joseph as ED and also serve as political director.

Joseph, who also worked on John Kerry’s presidential campaign, has been at the ED post for about three years and first went to work for the state party in 2005.

Arcenaux was also executive director for the Louisiana state party and was U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd’s national political director in his losing presidential bid.

State Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, picked up an endorsement this morning from Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler. Gelber and fellow Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, are competing in a primary for their party’s attorney general nomination.

Seiler and Gelber were close friends during their time together in the Florida House. Seiler said he prefers to stay out of primaries, but felt compelled to make this endorsement. “We need to make sure that Alex Sink has the right person sitting next to her on the Florida Cabinet,” Seiler wrote in his endorsement, which you can read here.

Gelber’s backers have also been excited about the endorsement last week from state Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa. They point out that Joyner is from the politically crucial I-4 corridor, she’s a long-time civil rights activist and is also the first state senator to pick sides in the battle between the two members of that chamber.

Read Joyner’s endorsement here.

Leave your party togs at home and forget about the cheap wine and finger foods.

A few House Democrats have a different party idea to get contributions than a run-of-the-mill fundraiser: do nothing.

They’re calling the fundraiser a “non-event.”

Reps. Ron Saunders of Key West, Leonard Bembry of Greenville and Debbie Boyd of Newberry sent out a “non-event re-election fundraiser” announcement seeking contributions to their campaigns.

No date, no time, no place. Just make checks payable to one of the campaigns and call it a day.

House Democrats huddle around Rep. Ron Saunders, D-Key West. (Florida House photo)

Sen. J.D. Alexander and Rep. David Rivera — two of the state’s more important budget writers and both Republicans – were chatting last month in a Capitol hallway when Ron Saunders strolled up.

Saunders, one of the top Democrats in the House, suggested that the minority party’s votes might be needed on some budget issues.

Rivera

But one of the final votes of a legislative session scheduled to end in overtime on Friday will be whether to allow new games at Seminole casinos so the state can collect hundreds of millions of dollars to protect its depleted budget.

And Republicans might need some help to do it.

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A judge has given the Green Party the go-ahead to investigate five mysterious candidates who ran as Greens but who some suspect entered legislative races to peel votes away from Democrats.

The Pasco County judge gave Ronald Meyer permission to subpoena testimony and bank records from Sarah Roman, a 23-year-old waitress who ran against incumbent Rep. Robert Schenck, a Republican, and Democrat Jason Melton.
Meyer wants to know how she was able to afford the $2,000 filing fee since she reported her net worth as $5,000. The Green Party tried in vain to track down Roman and the other Green candidates, who also ran against incumbent Sens. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, and Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach.

House Democrats reached into their transitive property bag today to paint Republican Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton as against the federal stimulus package and therefore against Gov. Charlie Crist and Florida’s families.

To do so, Democrats pulled a quote from this Post story, which, ironically, was a report about the bipartisan finger pointing in the House and the chamber’s reluctance (just like Crist) to support deep cuts or new revenues to deal with a $3 billion shortfall.

Hasner, meanwhile, defended his own honor with this press release. He insists Crist and the legislature are on the same page, and that lawmakers are just waiting for the Obama Administration to release details about the federal waiver needed to collect stimulus money for schools. Hasner writes:

“Until the Obama Administration gives their final answer on a federal waiver, the Legislature cannot accept stimulus dollars that have not been offered.”

So does this mean Republican leaders will wait to put $1 billion in stimulus money into their K-12 budget proposal until the stimulus arrives? We’ll find out this week when House lawmakers begin assembling the 2009-10 budget this week.

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Talk about taxing strippers and other XXX-rated activities spawned a few words of caution from Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson during a caucus meeting at lunchtime.

During a presentation on sales tax exemptions — which lawmakers are considering repealing this year — Sen. Eleanor Sobel of Hollywood asked about doing away with the exemption for adult entertainment.

That drew laughs from some of the caucus members and a bit of skepticism on Lawson’s part.

“We may have some frequent users in the legislature,” Lawson, D-Tallahassee, joked. “We might have some resistance to that.”