With his popularity on the rise, conservative iconoclast Newt Gingrich will address a tea party crowd at The Landing in Jacksonville this afternoon.

The event takes place as Gingrich is on the defensive for his relationship with Freddie Mac. Bloomberg News reported this week that the former U.S. House Speaker earned at least $1.6 million over nearly a decade as a consultant for the beleaguered government-backed mortgage company. His GOP opponents in the presidential primary have hammered Freddie Mac for its role in the mortgage meltdown and the mortgage giant has symbolized for conservatives government overreach.

Gingrich himself has blamed Freddie Mac for the housing collapse.

Meanwhile, Gingrich’s star is on the rise among GOP voters, according to two recent national polls. One poll found that Gingrich has the best chance among GOP voters to defeat President Barack Obama next year. And another showed Gingrich’s popularity jumped 8 points from last month, trailing Mitt Romney by just two percentage points and making the race a statistical dead heat.

The First Coast Tea Party event in Jacksonville begins at 2 p.m. and was moved to riverfront site because of “the size of the event,” according to the Zamar Conference Center, where the gathering was originally scheduled, website.

UPDATE: Florida Republicans call the Dems new website “desperate.” This from Republican Party of Florida spokesman Brian Hughes: “With the most recent state reports showing RPOF outraised Florida Democrats by 5-to-1, it’s no surprise they are desperate to raise money. But this lame website demonstrates a level of desperation that is even worse than we thought possible. Instead of touting their anointed leaders, Barack Obama or Debbie Wasserman Schultz, they recycle ridiculous, cheap attacks. This tactic is more evidence why Floridians reject Democrats on Election Day.”

The Florida Democratic Party launched a new website today blaming Gov. Rick Scott and his fellow Republican lawmakers for the state’s dire economic straits.

The website accuses “Rickpublicans” of ethical lapses and causing teacher layoffs, among other things, and blasts Scott for “backsliding” on his campaign pledge to create 700,000 jobs over seven years as governor.

And the Dems remind viewers that Republicans have had a stranglehold on the state legisalture and governor’s mansion for more than a decade.

The site gives this definition of a “Rickpublican:”
[rick-puhb-li-kuh´n]
noun
1. Proper name for Florida Republicans wrought with greed and corruption who are hell-bent on selling out to the corporations and special interests while leaving Florida’s middle class families out-to-dry.

The Dems also use “Six Degrees of Separation” to link half a dozen GOP politicians – including Palm Beach County’s Adam Hanser and U.S. Rep. Allen West – to Scott, whose popularity among voters remains dim.

In his State of the State speech, Gov. Rick Scott made a passing reference to his push to eliminate teacher tenure and introduce performance-based pay over opposition from the state’s largest teachers’ union.

The Republican governor conceded, he loves teachers. But….

“Great educators are priceless. Every one of us has a teacher in our past who made a lifelong difference in our lives,” Scott said.

“Educators, like other professionals, should be rewarded based on the effectiveness of their work, not the length of their professional life. That’s why Florida needs to pay the best educators more and end the practice of guaranteeing educators a job for life regardless of their performance.”

Gov. Rick Scott drew cheers from a tea party rally on the steps of the Old Capitol when he pledged, “the right things are happening,” and urged the 300 activists to keep the heat on Tallahassee.

“We’ve got the next 60 days,” Scott said on the Legislature’s opening day, as a similar crowd opposing his budget proposal rallied across the street. “We’ve got to make sure we finish strong. Show up every day, and let everyone know what you believe in. Don’t be hesitant, don’t be shy.”

Scott hinted he needed help from the crowd of conservative activists to get his pension-cutting, government-shrinking budget approved by fellow Republicans in the Legislature. The crowd roared.

“Thanks for working for us,” shouted Jack Pritchard, 70 a retired mechanical contractor from Marion County.

Scott kept talking, “The right things are happening because of you,” the governor said.

Facing the worst budget year in memory, new Republican Gov. Rick Scott and the GOP-packed Florida Legislature begin the 2011 session this week, pledging to slash spending and make good on campaign pledges that powered them last fall.

With the approach of the opening day Tuesday, unions, teachers and scores of groups in the cross hairs of budget cuts have been rallying against Scott and fellow Republican leaders who, in turn, are pulling support from tea party loyalists eager to shrink government.

Though it hasn’t commanded the national attention of Wisconsin and other partisan battlegrounds, purple state Florida is in for a bruising spring, with lawmakers looking to close a $3.6 billion budget hole and revive an economy flat-lined by an almost 12 percent jobless rate.

“Priority number one is the budget,” said House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park. “Everything else is number two.”

But it’s not a simple numbers game.

Political ideology is shading most of the exchanges between Republicans in power and Democrats pushed to Florida’s fringe by the November elections.

Read full story here:   http://bit.ly/fY27Vb

Organizers across the political spectrum Friday began taking aim at the state Capitol for next week’s opening of the two-month legislative session.

The Facebook-drive Awake The State protest has about 30 rallies planned Tuesday from Key West to Pensacola — with critics of Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-led Legislature’s budget-cutting the focus.

 Teachers, government employees, cops and firefighters form the core of those pushing back against proposed pension overhauls, but expected reductions in schools and health-care programs are drawing more opponents, said Damien Filer of Progress Florida.

“I’ve heard from a lot of people who say, `this is going to be my first rally of any kind,’” Filer said. “I’ll be interested to see what kind of momentum remains among people after next week.”

A West Palm Beach rally is planned from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesday, in the 100 block of Clematis Street.

Tea Party activists expect to counter-punch, with several thousand Scott supporters expected in Tallahassee. (more…)

Gov. Rick Scott made an early morning stop Wednesday at Fox & Friends’ New York studios and — again– said he’s not interested in $2.4 billion in federal cash for high-speed rail.

“The federal government gives you all this money, and you have to pay for it down the road,” Scott said, adding that he disputed ridership and job-creation statistics touted by rail promoters.

South Florida’s Tri-Rail doesn’t help convince him. Scott said Tri-Rail costs about $65 million annually to operate, but pulls in only about $10 million from fares.

A high-speed train linking Tampa to Orlando, “just doesn’t make sense for the taxpayers,” he concluded.

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A month after firing his predecessor, Gov. Rick Scott on Monday named a Mississippi economic development executive to lead the public-private partnership, Enterprise Florida.

“Bringing new energy and expertise to Florida’s economic development activities is an ideal task for which Gray Swoope is well suited,” Scott said.  “I am excited to have him leading the job creation and economic development mission in Florida.”

Scott last month abruptly fired Enterprise Florida’s CEO, John Adams, shortly after concluding the agency’s annual meeting. Scott gave no reason publicly. But the new governor clearly has ideas about how the state’s job recruitment should be conducted — beginning with his proposal to establish an economic development agency controlled by his office.

How Swoope figures in those plans wasn’t clear from Scott’s announcement Monday. But Scott may have hinted he plans to maintain a commanding role in bringing industries to Florida when he concluded that Swoope “will be a tremendous complement to my efforts as governor.”

In Mississippi, Swoope worked for Gov. Haley Barbour, and is credited with having helped woo such manufacturers as Toyota and GE Aviation to the state. Swoope also was part of a redesign of Mississippi’s package of economic incentives and help cut the workforce and budget of the Mississippi Development Authority, sure to draw raves from his new Florida boss.

The state’s pension fund has consistently met its investment goals – fairly average compared to other states– but also is “financially sound,”  a report released Monday shows.

The state’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) gave the $114 billion Florida Retirement System generally satisfactory marks in its review of the fund, which covers almost 1 million government workers and retirees. 

 The pension fund is a big target for lawmakers this spring, with Gov. Rick Scott proposing that employees contribute 5 percent of their paychecks to help finance their retirement benefits — saving the state $1.3 billion.

 The money could help lawmakers patch a budget shortfall of at least $3.6 billion. But it also could help Scott make good on his campaign promise to reduce property taxes by $1.4 billion, something the GOP governor says he’ll do over the next two years.

As part of his push for changing the fund, Scott warns that the pension fund is on shaky financial footing.

 OPPAGA disputes that. Anaysts acknowledge  the FRS has a so-called funding ratio of 87.9 percent and currently does not have ”sufficient assets to pay current and future expected benefits for participants and their beneficiaries.”

But, OPPAGA points out, “experts generally consider public pension plans with funding ratios at or above 80 percent to be fiscally sound.”  

Gov. Rick Scott will lead a two-day tour of  ‘Sunshine Ambassadors,’ barnstorming across five cities in two days this week to prod tourists toward visiting Florida.

Scott, a relatively recent transplant to Florida, himself, regularly punctuates his speeches with praise for the state’s weather. But beginning in Orlando on Tuesday, Scott will lead an entourage of Visit Florida officials touting Florida’s vacation potential during planned stops in Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia and Chicago.

“We know that every 85 visitors create one Florida job, so I urge all Floridians to join with me in supporting this effort to increase jobs and grow the state’s economy,” Scott said Monday.

During the two-day tour, the Floridians will be giving away prizes and vacation packages to the state during promotional events. The trip’s last stop will be at Chicago’s Midway Airport, where Scott will board a charter flight with 120 prize winners en route to a four-day stay in Orlando.

Scott may seem an unlikely sunshine ambassador these days in his home state.

 His $65.9 billion budget proposal cuts $4.6 billion in state spending and 8,681 jobs. Scott’s rejection of $2.4 billion in federal money for high-speed rail also prompted Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich of Weston to claim that instead of being on path to create 700,000 new jobs, the new Republican governor was imposing more damage on Florida’s economy in his first weeks in office.

Attorney General Bill McCollum and his successor Pam Bondi are urging fellow Republicans throughout the country to join his lawsuit against the federal government over the new federal health care law.

McCollum and Bondi, who will take over on Jan. 4., sent a letter to 13 Republicans who won election this month as attorneys general or governor hoping to shore up support for the lawsuit now working its way through the federal courts.

“Having a majority of the states litigating our constitutional rights is a powerful message,” they wrote.

Oral argument on the case is set for Dec. 16 in Pensacola.

After getting trounced in the Florida House and Senate races and a GOP sweep of the Cabinet, state Sen. Jeremy Ring is demanding that Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Thurman resign.

“With the momentum of all the losses on the Democratic sides, there needs to be new leadership. Karen Thurman needs to resign. Immediately,” Ring, D-Margate, said of the Florida Democratic Party chairwoman early today.

Republicans swept the Cabinet seats and won a veto-proof majority in both the state Senate and ultimately recaptured the governor’s seat after Palm Beach County’s election returns left Rick Scott’s victory in the lurch overnight.

Ring, a moderate Democrat who frequently votes with Republicans, said the “election activities of the Republicans trumping the Democrats” at polling places he visited on Election Day demonstrate that his party is in a shambles.

“Whether it was hundreds of more signs and volunteers and palm cards and all the precincts covered, I didn’t see any coordinated effort on the Democratic side yesterday,” Ring said.

Ring was among several prominent Democrats who tried to oust Thurman when she was reelected as chairwoman two years ago.

Those efforts failed because no replacement could be found, Ring said.

He blamed Thurman for that.

“Part of any leader’s job is not to only raise money and recruit candidates but they should recruit their successor…part of her job is to have a succession plan. Clearly there isn’t one,” he said.

After more than two months since GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott defeated him in a brutal primary election, Attorney General Bill McCollum finally came out in support of his one-time foe.

“Florida is facing a critical time. Our state needs conservative leaders who will grow our economy and create jobs. We need merit pay and an end to teacher tenure in our public schools, major litigation reform, smaller government, low taxes and a repeal of Obamacare. With this in mind, I will cast my vote for Rick Scott for Governor. It’s the better choice for Florida,” McCollum’s less-than-enthusiastic statement, released by the Republican Party of Sarasota, read.

McCollum, at one point a shoe-in for the nomination, lost the GOP primary after Scott spent $50 million of his own fortune on campaign ads attacking the former Congressman for being a Washington insider.

McCollum said recently he would not endorse Scott’s Democratic opponent Alex Sink, in part because she supports the federal health care law over which McCollum has sued the federal government.

A federal judge recently allowed McCollum’s lawsuit to proceed.

McCollum was the final holdout among state GOP leaders who at one point pilloried Scott, who was forced out of the hospital chain he founded shortly before Columbia/HCA was forced to pay $1.7 billion in fines to the federal government for Medicare fraud.

All but a baker’s dozen of GOP state House and Senate members are backing Republican gubernatorial nominee Rick Scott, who ran as an “outsider” in a brutal GOP primary against Attorney General Bill McCollum.

Scott released a list of campaign co-chairmen that included nearly all of the state legislature’s Republicans, some of whom backed McCollum in the primary and objected at the time that Scott, who spent $50 million of his own money in the primary, couldn’t be trusted.

McCollum has refused to endorse Scott in the general election against Democrat Alex Sink.

The list of GOP legislators who haven’t signed on either, according to the campaign document, include:

Senate Majority Leader Alex Diaz de la Portilla, Sens. Victor Crist, Nancy Detert, Rudy Garcia, Steve Oelrich, and Alex Villalobos, who publicly endorsed Sink this week.

Also missing was Ft. Lauderdale Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, who’s running against Democrat Rep. Kelly Skidmore in the race to replace Senate President Jeff Atwater. Atwater’s stepping down to run for chief financial officer.

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the Democratic nominee for governor, is continuing her efforts to make inroads with Republicans with the support of term-limited state Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami.

Villalobos previously broke ranks with his party by endorsing Republican-turned-independent Gov. Charlie Crist in his bid for U.S. Senate.

Sink’s banking on her business background and reputation as a fiscal conservative to sway Republican voters away from her GOP opponent Rick Scott who defeated Attorney General Bill McCollum in a nasty primary last month.

Villalobos has plenty of reasons to shun his party. Former Gov. Jeb Bush joined Villalobos’ fellow GOP senators four years ago in a campaign to unseat the incumbent by backing his opponent in a brutal primary. Villalobos won.

Gov. Charlie Crist says he’s in the dark about state GOP leaders’ demands that he pay them back for travel expenses unassociated with party business.

“It’s the typical political season stuff that we’re going to see. I think it’s sad and just indicates how partisanship gets in the way,” Crist told reporters this morning after a memorial service for missing children at the Capitol.

Republican Party of Florida Chairman John Thrasher threatened Friday to sue Crist and Jim Greer, Crist’s hand-picked party chairman, to get reimbursed for hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel costs. The expenses in question were charged to Greer and former party executive director Delmar Johnson. Crist did not have one of the party American Express cards in question.

Greer resigned in January and was charged in June with fraud, theft and money laundering for his alleged misuse of party money. Greer has pleaded not guilty. Greer maintains he is innocent.

Thrasher and other GOP leaders huddled for hours over an internal audit Friday at their annual meeting in Orlando but refused to release the audit to the public. Thrasher, a former House Speaker who is also a state
senator from St. Augustine, said he may take Crist, Greer and Johnson to court to get the money back.

“I don’t even know what they’re talking about. As you know, they haven’t been transparent. They haven’t
released any of the report. So it’s hard to even know what they’re talking about,” Crist said.

Crist, who abandoned the GOP this spring to run as an independent in the U.S. Senate race against Republican Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, a Democrat, said Thrasher has not asked him for reimbursement of the alleged charges.

“We don’t even know what they are. Neither do you. They won’t show us the report,” Crist said.

Bill McCollum appears no closer to uniting behind Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott than he was last week.

Some have compared it to the 2004 Republican U.S. Senate primary, when Bill McCollum waited two weeks to endorse fellow Republican Mel Martinez. Back then, McCollum was upset about Martinez’s decision to run an ad calling McCollum “the new darling of the extreme homosexuals.”

But apparently dropping outlandish campaign ads (the attack related to McCollum’s support of a hate crimes bill) is not a reflection of character or integrity.

Here’s what McCollum told WESH in Orlando over the weekend:

“I never had any questions raised either before or after the election about Mel’s integrity or honesty or character, and I’ve had those questions raised about Rick Scott and they were raised very seriously. And it’s not something that would just idle in the campaign.

“There are still questions that are out there, I think unanswered questions that trouble me a great deal from his past, particularly at Columbia/HCA.”

It’s been a tough few months for Florida Republicans.

In the GOP gubernatorial primary, Rick Scott turned the scandals of his own party into a campaign issue. Bill McCollum won’t say if he’d support Scott as the party’s nominee.

So it shouldn’t be too surprising that the state party has abandoned plans for a unity event they were attempting to hold tomorrow in Tampa.

“We tossed around the idea for a couple unity events tomorrow, but it never came to fruition,” state party spokeswoman Katie Betta said. “It was too difficult to pull together not knowing what was going to happen tonight and where the candidates were going to be tomorrow.”

Betta stressed that it was a logistical issue and had nothing to do the potential of the bevy of state party leaders having to eat crow if their candidate, McCollum, loses to Scott tonight.

“Our responsibility is to elect Republican candidates,” Betta said. “We’ve opened our Victory offices and have the resources in place to help all of our candidates after the primary. At this point, Scott has chosen to not participate in that.

“But we hope to have a working relationship with whoever the nominee is,” she said.

Instead of a unity event tomorrow, the party will present its slate of statewide candidates at its fund-raising dinner in Sept. 10 in Orlando, where Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour will be the keynote speaker

If Republican bosses are upset about Rick Scott’s TV ad that attempts to tie his Republican gubernatorial primary rival Bill McCollum to former state party chairman Jim Greer, they’re not going to be too happy with this mailer.

We’re told it was dropped in the mail on Monday and sent to about 800,000 households.

The Republican Governor’s Association and the Republican Party of Florida are asking Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott to pull a TV ad that accuses primary rival Bill McCollum of helping former state party chairman Jim Greer “hide financial irregularities.”

There is no evidence linking McCollum to the corruption charges that landed Greer in jail earlier this summer. But McCollum did play a role in the secret negotiations to force Greer’s resignation and publicly said afterward that the party should not disclose the internal financial records in question.

McCollum now says he will support releasing the forensic audit of the party.

Here are the statements from state Sen. John Thrasher, the state party chairman, and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, the RGA chairman.

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