The municipal pension rewrite now advancing in the House — and headed to the Senate Budget Committee next week — has a history rooted in Republican politics, having emerged as a payback to unions that supported Gov. Jeb Bush in 1998.

But the political wind in Tallahassee has shifted sharply this spring.

And for Florida’s police and fire unions, one-time allies are now enemies, with the pension overhaul the latest in a series of what labor sees as union-busting moves by the GOP leadership.

“Did we go too far? Yeah, maybe we did,” said Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, who as House Speaker in 1999 led the legislation sought by Bush. “But we were pretty flush back then. We can’t afford this now.”

As for Bush, he’s apparently changed, too. In January he and presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich co-authored an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times. In it, the pair urge that states consider declaring bankruptcy to reorganize their troubled finances.

Why do they need to take such a drastic step?

To get out from under sweetheart pension deals for greedy unions, the former deal-maker turned reformer now writes.

Lanny Wiles – Gov. Rick Scott’s right-hand-man on the campaign trail – is joining The Advocacy Group at Cardenas Partners lobbying firm headed by former Republican Party of Florida chairman Al Cardenas.

Wiles, who is married to Scott’s campaign manager Susie Wiles, will be “senior counsel” at the lobbying firm, which has offices in Tallahassee, Miami and Washington.

Wiles was a constant presence on Scott’s campaign and in the transition, often whispering into an earpiece to coordinate with Scott’s advance team.

Wiles has a long history of working closely with Republican politicians, beginning with President Reagan’s 1976 presidential bid.
a full range of governmental advocacy services and has built a strong foundation of core budgeting and legislative processing skills that allows successful navigation of issues of interest to their clients.

Wiles will join the firm’s other Tallahassee lobbyists, Slater Bayliss and Stephen Shiver. Bayliss, one of Gov. Jeb Bush’s aides, served as a special advisor on Scott’s inaugural committee. Shiver is a long-time GOP operative with close ties to the Florida legislature.

ORLANDO _ Florida GOP political icon Jeb Bush pumped up support for the Republican statewide candidates at a rally in Orlando this morning.

About 150 supporters crowded into a hangar at a private airport in Orlando to cheer on gubernatorial candidate, who made the Orlando event his first on the fifth day of his week-long statewide bus tour.

“There’s a cloud on our state. I think there’s a lot of pessimism in our state right now. I think we need a can-do leader that lifts the cloud,” Bush said in his introduction of Rick Scott. “I want a tax cutting, budget cutting, job creating governor and Rick Scott is the one.”

The rally was the first event on the fifth day of Scott’s week-long statewide sweep leading up to Election Day.

Bush and his lieutenant governor pumped up the crowd for the GOP Cabinet slate, who also joined Scott on the platform with Bush and his former lieutenant governor Toni Jennins.

Scott kept to his jobs, jobs, jobs theme in a brief speech before heading to a Tea Party rally in Jacksonville.

“All of us up here know we create jobs by getting government out of your life…and an attitude that business people are the lifeblood of the country,” he said.

Bush praised Scott to reporters after the brief event.

“I think he’s the right guy for the right time,” he said.

Bush said he was disappointed in Gov. Charlie Crist, who abandoned the GOP to run as an independent in the U.S. Senate race against Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Kendrick Meek.

“He responds to heat and light” rather than being true to his core convictions, Bush said.

Scott’s Democratic opponent Alex Sink is slated to be in Orlando later this morning.

The Democratic Governors Association gave Florida Democrats a $2 million cash infusion to aid Alex Sink in her race against Rick Scott, Politico is reporting this morning.

According to Politico, the DGA wired the cash into the Florida Democratic Party’s account and will be spent on television ads.

Democrats nationally are eying the Florida race with the hope that Chief Financial Officer Sink can score a coup for Democrats, who’ve been out of the governor’s mansion since former Lt. Gov. Buddy McKay lost to Jeb Bush in 1998. Sink’s husband Bill McBride made a losing against Bush four years later.

Scott spent more than $50 million of his own money – much of it on advertising – to defeat Attorney General Bill McCollum in the GOP primary last month.

Here’s one way: Give $1.4 million $1.6 million to the committee slamming Rick Scott, Bill McCollum’s Republican gubernatorial rival.

That’s the total so far that Republicans Mike Haridopolos and Dean Cannon, the likely next Senate president and House speaker, have pumped into McCollum’s Florida First Initiative group, which is airing the above TV ad right now. Haridopolos gave the group another $100k on Monday, the same day he and Cannon joined McCollum and former Gov. Jeb Bush on a made-for-TV campaign swing through Miami, Jacksonville and Tampa.

In the good old days before Scott cannon-balled into the deep end of Florida Republican politics, the GOP establishment was successfully mowing down McCollum’s primary challengers. It doesn’t take too much imagination* to think that at that point Haridopolos and Cannon were probably planning to spent their money protecting the GOP majorities in the state House and Senate or maybe even trying pick off a handful of Democratic seats that Republicans need to own veto-proof majorities in both chambers.

Instead, the money is being used to defeat Scott, who is campaigning on all the same issues — reforming Medicaid, cutting taxes, ending teacher tenure, making abortions harder to get — that Cannon and Haridopolos want to pass in the next two years. But instead they’re helping fund a primary fight so nasty that Democrat Alex Sink is virtually tied in the polls with either GOP candidate without having spent a dime on TV and Republican voters are practically begging the campaigns to disarm.

So watch for plenty of second-guessing of the two Orlando area lawmakers if Sink topples the bloodied Republican nominee in November and leaves Haridopolos and Cannon with little more than to recycle the same stinging quotes they used when Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed their bills this year.

(more…)

Just moments after former Gov. Jeb Bush said Florida needs a governor who won’t vacillate on important issues, Bill McCollum, Bush’s choice for the office, highlighted the nuance in his support for an Arizona-style immigration law in the state.

“We won’t bring exactly Arizona’s law to Florida,” Republican Bill McCollum said. “We’re two different states.”

About 11 percent of the state’s 4 million Republican voters are Hispanic and many pollsters and operatives are watching to see how the immigration issue will sit with them this year. A Wall Street Journal/NBC national poll in May showed 70 percent of Hispanics opposed Arizona’s law.

(more…)

Remember when former Gov. Jeb Bush said it was “wrong” for Republicans in the U.S. Senate to make endorsements in Florida’s GOP Senate primary?

Well, Florida Republicans don’t have much of a Republican primary left and Bush apparently no longer thinks primary endorsements are inappropriate. ABC News has a takeout today on Bush’s endorsement of Scott Walker, a Republican running for governor of Wisconsin.

From the story:

Walker is one of five Republicans whom Bush is backing in competitive gubernatorial primaries: the others are former eBay CEO Meg Whitman in California, former state Sen. Bradley Byrne in Alabama, Attorney General Tom Corbett in Pennsylvania and Attorney General Bill McCollum in Florida.

Looks like the Foundation for Florida’s Future — former Gov. Jeb Bushs education group — has modified their original television ad to include fellow Republican Gov. Charlie Crist’s phone number and e-mail. Bush and his group are big supporters‘ of the bill that Crist might veto this week.

UPDATE: Gov. Charlie Crist reconsidering his support for the controversial bill.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush stepped his efforts today to rewrite the way public school teachers are paid with a recorded phone call urging Floridians to call their local lawmaker. (Thanks to our partners at WOKV for the tip).

Listen to the call here.

In the 55-second message, Bush says the bill will improve education in Florida, but the its the target of “a massive misinformation campaign.”

Bush says the bill will “close the achievement gap once and for all” and tells the listeners to call their lawmaker and tell them to support the bill, which will be discussed on the House floor today and receive a final vote tomorrow.

The proposal has ignited a political food fight between some of the heaviest names in the Florida Capitol: The AFL-CIO & the Florida Education Association on one side (see their television ad here) and Jeb Bush and the Florida Chamber of Commerce on the other (see their ads here and here.).

The spot, released today, is from Foundation for Florida’s Future, the education group former Gov. Jeb Bush formed after leaving office. The ad is at least partly in response to this commercial, which hammers Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, for pushing the measure.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush leveled his harshest criticism yet of fellow Republican Gov. Charlie Crist in an interview with Newsmax, saying Crist’s support of President Obama’s stimulus plan was an “unforgivable” mistake.

Crist, whose support for the stimulus helped plug a $5 billion hole in the state budget this year but also helped launch his rival’s primary campaign, laughed when asked about the quote. “Well, it’s certainly unforgettable. I don’t know if it’s unforgivable.”

Bush condemned Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate for endorsing Crist in his primary with former House Speaker Marco Rubio. But Bush for months has been thinly veiling his support for Rubio, one of the “farm team” members that Bush recruited to preserve his legacy in Tallahassee.

“It’s fine,” Crist said. “I have enormous respect for my predecessor and respect for his right to voice his views. So it doesn’t bother me at all.

“What would bother me is if 20,000 educators were out of work. What would bother me is if 87,000 fellow Floridians didn’t have gainful unemployment because we hadn’t utilized those in a prudent, responsible way.”

There’s a report from the Fort Myers CBS affiliate WINK about a curious exchange last night between former President George W. Bush and former Gov. Jeb Bush. The Naples and Fort Myers newspapers don’t mention this exchange and the CBS reporter notes that the Bush’s didn’t allow cameras in the town hall event.

…the Bush brothers disagreed on the Senate race between Marco Rubio and Charlie Crist. Jeb Bush says he is officially neutral, but is disappointed in Crist’s embrace of the stimulus bill. George W. Bush joked “who the hell is Marco Rubio”…

Former Gov. Jeb Bush continues to thinly veil his support in the U.S. Senate race. From his interview today with WGCU in Fort Myers:

“I’m proud of what Marco has been able to accomplish in the campaign, but there’s a long, long way to go.”

Former Gov. Jeb Bush is supporting Senate President Jeff Atwater in his statewide run for chief financial officer, even though Atwater has a Republican opponent in the primary.

Atwater’s campaign released the announcement Wednesday, along with a link to a YouTube video in which Bush, still influential in GOP politics in Florida, says of Atwater, “It’s his life experience of being a committed family person, of being a successful businessman and also having served in positions of increasing responsibility in the Florida Legislature that have made Jeff uniquely qualified to handle this job.”

(more…)

The day after she officially joined the governor’s race, Sen. Paula Dockery lobbed a shot at the state GOP political machine that seems to be doing its best to ignore one of its own.

The front page of the Republican Party of Florida’s website has no mention of Dockery, a lifelong Republican from Lakeland, but does prominently feature a press release from her GOP opponent Attorney General Bill McCollum touting Jeb Bush’s support for him.

After Dockery announced she was running for governor, the Republican Party of Florida issued a release on behalf of McCollum’s campaign highlighting his GOP endorsements.

That earned this jab at RPOF Chairman Jim Greer from Dockery today.

“Just today, the controversial and embattled head of Florida’s Republican Party told the Orlando Sentinel that the state party would spend no money to help my opponent in the gubernatorial primary.

“Hours later, he used the party’s resources to send out an email of support for my opponent, Attorney General Bill McCollum.

“This is exactly the kind of double-speak that, under Greer’s leadership, has disenfranchised grassroots Republicans from the state party.

“Party bosses shouldn’t tell the people what to do. That didn’t work for the Politburo and it won’t work for the Republican Party of Florida,” Dockery said in a press release entitled “What are they afraid of?”

RPOF spokeswoman Katie Gordon said McCollum’s campaign was using a service that’s also available to Dockery.

“The RPOF has a long-standing policy of distributing campaign press releases to our subscribers thru the RPOF blast e-mail system at the request of any of the statewide candidates. At this point, Sen. Dockery has not requested that RPOF resources be utilized to distribute her press releases to our subscribers,” Gordon said.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush weighed in Friday on the Republican primary battle between Gov. Charlie Crist and former House Speaker Marco Rubio, saying national party leaders should let the two hammer it out with voters.

“The idea that the national party would pick a winner a year and a half before an election is the wrong way to go.”

But Bush either really likes Rubio in this race or he doesn’t care about the apparent contraction he made in the same speech by encouraging a similar crowning of Bill McCollum’s gubernatorial campaign. The attorney general became the front-runner for the party’s nomination after a slew of GOP heavies signed on this summer and drove off potential challengers, such as Agricultural Commissioner Charles Bronson.

Bush praised Republican candidate for governor Bill McCollum as a person “who I think is a fantastic guy and is worthy of your support.”

Original reporting of Bush’s speech can be found here from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Gov. Charlie Crist will meet with Bobby Martinez, not the former governor, tomorrow afternoon at the Miami airport.

Martinez is on Crist’s short list to replace outgoing U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, who is stepping down 15 months before his term ends in November.

Martinez (Bobby) is a former U.S. prosecutor who sits on the state Board of Education and was a chief transition aide to both Crist and Jeb Bush when they took over as governor.

Last week, Crist asked Martinez (Bobby), U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and former Attorney General and Secretary of State Jim Smith, now a top-tier Tallahassee lobbyist, to apply as Martinez’ fill-in for the next 15 months.

Crist is leaving office next year after just one term to run for the post himself.

Bobby Martinez is considered by some GOP operatives to be the likeliest candidate to replace Mel Martinez, and not because they share the same surname.

Sources close to Diaz-Balart say that he today withdrew his name from consideration for the post.

And Smith’s lobbying career could make him vulnerable to criticism, although he’s considering retiring. Quitting his lobbying job may not quell objections, however. His partner Brian Ballard, one of Crist’s closest advisers, is also his son-in-law.

GOP Senate candidate Joe Negron is ramping up efforts to secure an Aug. 4 special election win in response to Moveon.org’s entry into the race to replace retiring Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie.

Negron sent an e-mail appeal to supporters today asking for cash to fight back against the organization which he said “has sent operatives” into District 28 to help turn out the vote for his Democratic opponent Bill Ramos.

“Thanks to your hard work and support, my campaign is doing very well and I am confident that we will win the race on August 4. However, I am not taking anything for granted, particularly in a special election with an expected low turn-out. I take MoveOn.org seriously because I saw first hand how effective they were in helping President Obama win Florida in the 2008 Election,” Negron wrote.

Negron, a former House member from Stuart, is going to spend about $50,000 to collect the absentee ballots “from my supporters” and includes a letter from former Gov. Jeb Bush along with door-to-door canvassing and phone banks, according to the e-mail.

Negron’s collected nearly $387,000 so far and spent about $236,000.

Ramos, who made the ballot by collecting signatures instead of paying the qualifying fee, collected just over $24,000 and spent nearly $19,000 thus far.

The Jensen Beach mortgage broker today volunteered information about a 1989 guilty plea for theft when he was a young postal worker.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush told the L.A. Times in January that he was impressed with President Obama and called the Democrat “smart, disciplined, not rash.”

But in an interview with Esquire magazine published today, Bush accuses Obama of having a “secret plan” he kept from voters in the campaign:

“He would not have gotten elected if he’d said, “My idea is to create a $1.8 trillion deficit for the next fiscal year. My idea is to spend $750 billion [the president's budget estimate puts this figure at $630 billion] over the next ten years on a government-sponsored, government-subsidized health-care policy. My idea is to create a massive cap-and-trade system [based on the idea] that CO2 is [a] pollutant and we need to tax it in a massive way to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.” … Had he said what he was going to do as a candidate, [Obama] would have lost.”

Bush goes on to compare approval ratings of his brother, former President George W. Bush, and Obama.

(more…)

Jose Lorenzo, a Department of Education lawyer who filed an ethics complaint today against Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink for her use of the state plane, is an appointee of Republicans Gov. Charlie Crist and his predecessor Jeb Bush.

Bush appointed Lorenzo to the 2nd judicial circuit nomination commission in 2004. Crist reappointed him for another four-year term in September. Lorenzo is the chairman of the commission, which make recommendations for judicial appointments.

Lorenzo also contributed $550 in total to Bush and Crist since 2001, according to state elections records. His most recent contribution was a $50 check to Crist’s gubernatorial campaign in 2006.

Sink, a Democrat, is running for governor in 2010. Attorney General Bill McCollum, a Republican, is also in the race for the post.

Neither Crist nor Bush have officially endorsed McCollum – yet. But Bush is highlighting a fundraiser for McCollum at the Biltmore Hotel in Miami tomorrow night.