UPDATE: From Rep. Adam Hasner’s House Majority Office via Twitter: Unbelievable. Incomprehensible tragedy and FL Dem Ron Saunders plays politics with Haiti earthquake. Zero class.

If Republicans support a corporate income tax cut, they should be able to find some cash to help disaster victims in Haiti, said Florida Rep. Ron Saunders, D-Key West.

“They know where all the secret stashes are,” Saunders said. “I used to know where they were when I was budget chairman.”

Saunders, who hopes he can lead House Democrats to overcome a 76-44 disadvantage to Republicans this year, said he wasn’t playing politics with the tragedy unfolding in Haiti. “If I wanted to play politics, I’d say we should use the $6 million Republicans misspent on an airplane hanger,” Saunders said. “But I’m not going to bring that up.”

House budget chairman David Rivera, R-Miami, responded: “The speaker is looking at options to assist the victims of the disaster in Haiti.”

The earthquake in Haiti has hit home for a number of South Florida state lawmakers, including Rep. Mack Bernard, D-West Palm Beach, who was born in Port-au-Prince and lived there until he was 10 and moved to Delray Beach.

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The seminar will include bank officials, lawyers and real estate brokers who will be available to talk with homeowners and condo association officers about foreclosure, state Rep. Maria Lorts Sachs, D-Delray Beach, said in a press release today.

“It is time to shed light on how foreclosures are impacting condominium and homeowners associations,” Sachs said. “We need to alleviate the heightened fees that remaining residents are facing, which are being imposed by associations to make up for lost revenue from foreclosures.”

Sachs said she has hosted five foreclosure workshops.

The details of the event:

Time: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Date: Friday

Place: Sachs’s Delray Beach Office, 203 NE 1st Avenue Delray Beach, 33444

Several Democrats say state Rep. Kevin Rader, D-Delray Beach, has decided to drop his 2010 bid for the state Senate seat of Sen. and attorney general candidate Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres.

Rader didn’t return calls late Thursday and this morning.

At a Florida Alliance for Retired Americans meeting in West Palm Beach this morning, Alliance President Tony Fransetta and Senate hopeful Peter Burkert said Rader is dropping out of the race for Aronberg’s seat and will instead seek the seat of Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, who’s running in a special congressional election to replace retiring Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler.

Burkert said Rader told him two days ago of his plans.

If in fact Rader pursues Deutch’s Senate seat, it could create internal Democratic tumult. Several big-name Dems, including Wexler and County Commissioner Burt Aaronson, have endorsed state Rep. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, for Deutch’s Senate seat if Deutch wins an April 13 special congressional election.

“I’ve urged him (Rader) to stay in his House seat,” Aaronson said this morning.

With some local Democratic elected officials in open revolt over his record on Israel, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, has withdrawn as keynote speaker for next week’s Palm Beach County Democratic Party fund-raising dinner.

He’s the second Democratic keynoter to be scratched this week. The party dumped Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu on Tuesday because local activists were upset by her refusal to commit to blocking a Republican filibuster of health care overhaul legislation.

After Kucinich was announced as the replacement speaker, state Rep. Kevin Rader, D-Delray Beach, threatened a boycott and state Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, County Commissioner Burt Aaronson and state Rep. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, voiced disapproval today.

Kucinich has a long history of criticizing the actions of the Israeli government, voting against congressional resolutions in support of Israel and opposing sanctions against the anti-Israel government of Iran.

His critics have “falsely characterized” those stances as being anti-Israel, Kucinich said this afternoon in an e-mail to Palm Beach County Democratic Chairman Mark Alan Siegel. While defending his position, Kucinich said he didn’t want the controversy to hurt the local party’s money-raising efforts.

Read his complete statement to Siegel after the jump….

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State Rep. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, has lined up an all-star cast of Democratic endorsements if she runs for the state Senate seat of Ted Deutch sometime next year.

Deutch, D-Boca Raton, is running in the not-yet-scheduled special election to replace U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, who’s leaving office in January to head a Middle East think tank. If Deutch wins, his Palm Beach-Broward Senate seat will be open. Depending on the timing of the congressional election, it’s not clear if a state Senate vacancy would be filled by another special election or if the seat would remain open until the fall 2010 elections.

While those scenarios unfold, Sachs has secured big-name backing for her potential Senate bid, including Wexler and U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton; Democratic County Commissioners Burt Aaronson, Shelley Vana, Jess Santamaria, Priscilla Taylor and Jeff Koons; state Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton; and two dozen Democratic club presidents and activists.

State Rep. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, today made it as official as possible: she’s running for the state Senate seat of Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, if Deutch wins the special congressional election to replace U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton.

Because of a 2007 change to Florida’s resign-to-run law, Deutch doesn’t have to give up his Senate seat to run for Congress unless he wins the special election expected in early 2010. If Deutch wins, Sachs said she’ll run for his Senate seat. Sachs said she’s hired a political consultant for the potential Senate race: Eric Johnson, who is Wexler’s chief of staff and political consultant and who is consulting for Deutch’s congressional bid.

With U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, resigning in January, state Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, has announced he’ll run in the special election to replace Wexler. That has state Rep. Maria Sachs and others eyeing Deutch’s Senate seat — which will only be open if Deutch wins the congressional race.

Read about it in this week’s Politics column…..