Could a special session bill that few people can easily explain help launch a gubernatorial campaign? That’s what state Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, is hoping.

Dockery

Dockery has consistently derailed plans from Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, and Gov. Charlie Crist for a Central Florida commuter line known as SunRail.

Now she’s attempting to use the issue to capitalize on the anti-tax “Tea Party” movement that has helped buoy Republican Marco Rubio’s insurgent U.S. Senate campaign against Crist. Dockery is hoping to unhinge the campaign of Attorney General Bill McCollum, the favorite to win the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

More here.

Updating the news from this morning that Republican Gov. Charlie Crist wanted to meet in his office with the four Republican swing votes on the special session bill…

Turns out he could only get three, including Dennis Jones of Seminole who says he initiated the meeting to talk about some local college appointments. That means the fourth Republican either declined to meet with the governor or refused to clear his or her schedule.

Meanwhile, Crist got good news from at least two of the lawmakers: Jones says he’ll change his vote from ‘No’ to ‘Yes’ if leaders can show there are no general revenue dollars in the proposal and that the rail lines will benefit the Tampa Bay Regional Transportation Authority.

Nancy Detert of Sarasota told Crist she’s already planning to change from ‘No’ to ‘Yes’.

“If it’s part of a huge rail piece where we can access federal dollars and use that money to put people back to work, and to put rail all across the state as we’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t afford then I am a ‘Yes,’” Detert said.

“If we cannot access federal funds then it changes the game.”

The third Republican, Durell Peaden of Crestview, said he was firmly against it, noting that it would be difficult for him to run for any Panhandle office if he supported the bill.

“The people in my area think we need more asphalt,” he said.

UPDATED: Crist’s schedule has been updated to included meetings today with Republican Sens. Durell Peaden of Crestview (12:55 p.m.), Nancy Detert of Venice (3:15 p.m.) and Dennis Jones of Seminole. (3:30 p.m.)

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist said he’s planning to meet with four state senators this afternoon - presumably all fellow Republicans - in hopes of securing a positive vote on the SunRail bill scheduled for a vote this week.

“I’m going to meet with some of them this afternoon and encourage them to do the right thing,” Crist said.

Crist wouldn’t define the meetings as arm twisting.

“I never describe it as arm twisting,” he said laughing. “Encouragement.”

Crist said he was “encouraged” by the House vote this morning.

“Strong vote,” he said. “That’s great. It’s great for jobs and that’s what this is really all about. We’re hopeful the Senate will follow suit.”

The Florida House today passed the special session bill, 84-25, aimed at expanding the state’s commuter railroad system. The bill now moves to the Senate.

House Speaker Larry Cretul noted the bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate and told his members to “stay close” for a potential final vote at any moment before the Friday noon deadline.

“We really don’t know exactly what will happen in the Senate,” Cretul said.

While Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, scrambles to collect 21 votes in the 40-member Senate, a coalition of taxpayer groups are planning a noon press conference and 4 p.m. rally outside the Capitol to urge lawmakers to kill the projects. With Republican Sens. Paula Dockery, a Republican candidate for governor, and Rhonda Storms speaking at the events, it further highlights the problems the issue is causing Republicans.

In the House, most of the opposition came from Democrats and Miami-Dade Republicans, although the vote split party and geographical lines.

Opponents included Reps. Adam Fetterman, D-Port St. Lucie; Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach; and Kevin Rader, D-Delray Beach.

The bill is targeted at winning $2.5 billion from the pot of federal stimulus money to build a high-speed rail system in the state. State lawmakers believe the best way to do that is to impress the feds with their commitment to a state rail system: the special session bill would earmark $15 million per year to subsidize the struggling South Florida Tri-Rail line and spend $432 million to buy 61 miles of track from CSX for a Central Florida commuter line, known as SunRail.

Some quotes from the House debate this morning:

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Florida House Speaker Larry Cretul called lawmakers to the Capitol last week to clear a path for high-speed rail. The move came six years after he cast a ballot to repeal a voter-approved mandate for high-speed rail.

From the campaign trail, Republican Gov. Charlie Crist condemns federal spending. In radio ads for his U.S. Senate race, he tells President Obama, “Enough is enough.”

But in Tallahassee, Crist is the leading supporter of the special session bill aimed at securing $2.5 billion in stimulus money for the state to build a bullet train. That money would be in addition to the $5.2 billion in stimulus funds propping up the state budget Crist approved in May.

“Anybody who wants to help us, we’re more than eager to accept it and to make sure that we put people before politics,” Crist said.

For Florida Republicans, who have controlled the state House, Senate and governor’s office since 1999, the federal stimulus plan has proven to be a thorny issue in a high-stakes political year that includes open races for U.S. Senate, governor and all three Cabinet jobs. Doubly so when it’s for the creation of public transportation, a campaign promise of Democratic President Obama’s and not a typical Republican issue.

“It’s hypocrisy,” designated House Democratic Leader Ron Saunders of Key West said. “They’re campaigning one way and governing another.”

Rest here.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio, who voted against repealing a constitutional mandate for high-speed rail (the one then-Gov. Jeb Bush called a “$25 billion mistake”), issued a warning to state lawmakers considering a plan to convince the federal government to spend $2.5 billion to build a bullet train in the state.

“We should be wary of all the promises floating around Tallahassee about how this latest round of government spending will create lasting jobs and prosperity. Rail projects have merit as transportation and infrastructure policy. But selling SunRail as a jobs issue, as Charlie Crist has chosen to do, is a stretch. If the nearly $800 billion Obama-Crist stimulus plan didn’t create the jobs they promised, how can we believe a new train system is going to live up to its promises?

“In addition, I disagree with Governor Crist’s claim that he doesn’t care where the money comes from to pay for this project. I care a lot, because it’s coming from borrowed and printed money that is ultimately coming from my children and their generation.”

Proposed high speed rail line in Florida

Florida voters eventually flip-flopped on the high-speed rail issue before anyone in Tallahassee, but its still worth noting that a handful of the Republicans drumming up support for the special session bill also voted earlier this decade to repeal the constitutional mandate for high speed rail. The special session bill would pay for commuter rail lines in an effort to convince the federal government to spend $2.5 billion building a bullet train in the state.

Some of those who supported the repeal were House Speaker Larry Cretul, Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, House budget Chairman David Rivera, House Economic Development & Community Affairs Council Chairman David Murzin and Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Andy Gardiner, who voted for the repeal four times.

See the votes here, here, here and here.

Lawmakers in the House are debating the 49-page proposal that would pave the way for a $2.2 billion Central Florida commuter rail system, create a statewide rail authority and keep Tri-Rail rolling.

GOP House leaders - who have been heated critics of President Barack Obama’s stimulus spending - say they’re doing all that to increase Florida’s chances of getting a slice of the $8 billion in federal stimulus funds for high-speed rail projects being doled out in January. The state’s applied for four projects totaling about $3.7 billion.

After 20 years of Tri-Rail’s operating in the red, why the rush to bail out the South Florida commuter line - the state’s only existing one - now?

Because U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said so.

“There’s a commitment at the federal level to get into the passenger rail business like it never has before,” LaHood told SunRail supporters in Orlando in October. “But, the only way it will pay off is if the State Legislature gets its act together.”
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Bowing to pressure from federal officials, Sen. Jeff Atwater said today he’d like a December special session to address rail issues.

Gov. Charlie Crist said this afternoon that he would welcome the reconsideration of a controversial commuter rail project that lawmakers failed to pass in the spring and another stab at a gambling compact with the Seminoles.

“That’s a great idea,” Crist said.

Senate President Jeff Atwater, meeting with leaders from Congress and the White House today over Medicaid and rail transit issues said he wants a December special session to show the federal government that Florida needs $2.5 billion in federal stimulus money for high-speed rail.

“The President would like to give the Federal government an answer by the end of the year, December being the earliest we could feasibly have a special session. He plans to talk with the Speaker, Governor and Senate members in coming days,” Atwater’s spokeswoman Jaryn Emhof said in an e-mail.

Here’s our front-page story this morning on some of the issues facing high-speed rail in Florida.

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