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.
“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.
UPDATE II:A response from Rubio’s campaign, too: “No one should be fooled by Charlie Crist’s latest attempt at an extreme makeover. President Obama is now in a position to execute an expensive government takeover of our health care system because Charlie Crist helped him achieve an early big government, big spending victory on the failed stimulus package. Charlie Crist has about as much credibility on health care and fiscal restraint among Republicans as President Obama does. After all, there are plenty of reasons Charlie Crist is Barack Obama’s favorite Republican governor.”
Republican Gov. Charlie Crist is asking for your help to “stand up to President Obama and his back-room health care deals” on his re-designed campaign site. (Press release here.)
UPDATE:The Crist campaign argues that none of the three examples Florida Democrats give qualify as “backroom deals.” And they make some good points, including all of the documents from the gambling deal are subject to the state’s open records law. For now, we’ll save most of the back-and-forth for a deeper story on this issue a little later.
The new CharlieCrist.com site — which prominently features an embarrassing video of his primary opponent, former House Speaker Marco Rubio — also includes an “On the Issues” page that outlines his positions on a dozen topics. We haven’t had a chance to comb through them yet, but feel free to leave a comment if you see anything interesting…
Former Florida Christian Coalition leader Dennis Baxley confirmed he is running for re-election to the state House.
Baxley, a conservative Republican from Ocala, served in the state House from 2000-2008 and as the executive director of the Christian Coalition until May.
The funeral director raised eyebrows prior to the presidential election when he told The Miami Herald how he and other Christians perceived then-candidate Barack Obama: “He’s pretty scary to us.”
Baxley is running for his old District 24 seat because incumbent Rep. Kurt Kelly has jumped into the race against incumbent U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, a liberal Democrat who defeated a four-term incumbent Republican in his election to Congress last year.
Grayson catapulted to national fame with his tongue-in-cheek characterization of the GOP health care reform as “Don’t get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.”
Republicans are hoping to win Grayson’s seat back and the race for Congressional District 8 seat is likely to be one of the most closely watched in 2010.
“It’s a big challenge. Congressman Grayson’s become very visible and very positionable. I’m very proud that Kurt’s willing to take on that challenge to try to win that seat back for the Republicans,” Baxley said in a telephone interview this afternoon. “If he can go and accomplish something that difficult I ought to go back to work and try to help our economy again.”
Baxley said his main priority will be job creation to help the state’s out-of-work residents like the 18,000 in his district.
“We really need a primary focus on making an economic climate change for Florida,” he said.
Greg Langowski, director of the Palm Beach County GOP executive committee, was named chairman of Attorney General Bill McCollum’s Palm Beach County team today.
Other members from Palm Beach County after the jump. And to see the statewide team, click here.
That’s the headline in thisWall Street Journal story today that, of course, mentions the GOP primary between Gov. Charlie Crist and former House Speaker Marco Rubio.
In Florida, Republican leaders were elated when popular Florida Gov. Charlie Crist agreed to run for the Senate. He has adopted policies such as an aggressive approach to global warming that appeal even to Democrats. Those very policies infuriated conservatives, as did Mr. Crist’s decision to campaign with President Barack Obama on behalf of the president’s $787 billion stimulus package.
“He was Judas to the Republican Party in the state of Florida and across the country,” says Robin Stublen, 53, of Punta Gorda, co-state coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, a loose national coalition. “He sold us out for 13 pieces of gold.”
Republican Marco Rubio said today he collected $1,010,980 for his U.S. Senate campaign during the third quarter of the year. Rubio, running an underdog campaign against Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, said earlier this month that his total was just under the $1 million mark.
Rubio’s campaign reports they have about $900,000 cash on hand after raising a total of $1.6 million for the entire year. Crist has raised more than $6 million in about half of the time.
“This is nothing less than a strong statement about the direction people believe our Republican Party, our state and our nation should take,” Rubio said in a prepared statement. ” I am thankful for this outpouring of support from those who believe principled conservative leadership is needed to maintain America’s greatness. With their help, we are laying and expanding the foundation for success in 2010.”
Marco Rubio greets then-Gov. Jeb Bush on his way to being sworn in as House speaker in 2006. (AP Photo)
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.
U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio pilloried GOP primary opponent Gov. Charlie Crist’s recent interview on CNBC in which Crist said that nearly 60,000 Floridians leaving the state - the first population decline in more than three decades - is “not that big a deal.”
The former House Speaker features Crist’s interview in a web video attack released today.
Gov. Charlie Crist added three more Florida politicians to his possible appointees to fill U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez’ soon-to-be-vacated seat.
Former U.S. Reps. Mike Bilirakis, Lou Frey and Clay Shaw are now among the candidates Crist is considering, bringing his list to ten.
Shaw, a Fort Lauderdale Republican, served in Congress for more than 25 years. His district includes part of southern Palm Beach County.
Last week, Crist asked conservative favorite former House Speaker who later became a powerful state senator Daniel Webster to apply for the post. Crist is also considering former chief of staff George LeMieux, who ran Crist’s gubernatorial campaign and remains a close ally.
Crist said this weekend that he wants to fill the post by Sept. 8, the day when Congress reconvenes after a summer break.
Tomorrow, Crist will interview Shaw in South Florida, Bilirakis and former U.S. Rep. Bill Young in Tampa. He’ll also meet with Frey and former Florida Cabinet member Jim Smith, a Tallahassee lobbyist who served as both attorney general and secretary of state, in Tallahassee tomorrow, according to Crist spokeswoman Erin Isaac.
Crist, who is running in a GOP primary against former House Speaker Marco Rubio to replace Martinez, said previously “it is understood” that he’ll appoint someone who will not run against him next year.
Allen West, the Republican challenger to U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, said the government needs to fix its current health care programs before rolling out a new one.
West will host his own town hall meeting on health care tonight at 7 p.m. at South Florida Bible College in Deerfield Beach.
West says reform efforts should begin by properly identifying what inflates costs in the current system. He said reforms should reduce lawsuits, encourage employers to offer coverage to workers and address coverage for illegal immigrants, whose trips to emergency rooms incur costs that are ultimately passed on to the rest of us.
“When people talk about a public option, we already have a public option - in Medicare, Medicaid and the SCHIP option,” said West. “The federal government needs to show that it can effectively run those programs.”
The first television ad in a competitive state Senate special election race in Duval County attempts to capitalize on the energy surrounding the health care debate in Florida and across the country.
In the 30-second spot above, conservative activist Dan Quiggle pulls a clip from his April speech at a local tea party. “We are up against stimulus packages, socialized health care, bailouts. My friends, freedom and liberty are under attack and our politicians are out of control.”
The election, called after the passing of Republican Sen. Jim King, will be worth watching if only for the fact that it is unfolding during such a highly-charged moment in state and national politics. Plus, the GOP primary for this seat in 2010 was already competitive: King’s would-be successors had combined to raise more than $750,000 for the race by June 30.
Now that a special election is needed, the Republican race — featuring Quiggle, former House Speaker John Thrasher, Jacksonville Commissioner Art Graham and former state Rep. Stan Jordan — will be take days, not months, to unfold: The primary is Sept. 15.
Thrasher’s campaign says it will join Quiggle on North Florida airwaves “very shortly.” today.
Meanwhile, Jordan, who only entered the race on Tuesday, said he wasn’t too concerned about the financial gap he faces: His three opponents already have six-figure campaign accounts.
“I’ve done this many times,” he said. “I’m probably the most economical candidate in the state.”
And if you thought the health care battle hasn’t reached North Florida, think again. On Wednesday, 400 people packed into a Live Oak room designed for 136 people. And while there was no violence, it wasn’t pretty: video from ActionNewsJax.com here.
RPOF Chairman Jim Greer stood by his assertion that President Barack Obama’s health care reforms could lead to “forced, taxpayer-funded abortions.”
Greer held a roundtable with reporters at GOP headquarters this morning, covering a range of issues including the hijinks at town hall meetings throughout the country, including one in Tampa that erupted in physical violence.
Opponents of Obama’s health care package claim that the changes would create “death panels” that would pull the plug on Grandma to save government spending.
“I don’t like the term death panels,” Greer said.
But, he added, “I do believe that trying to pass legislation such as this will provide opportunity for certain types of medical procedures that in some cases Americans would not be aware of or in most cases Americans would not want taxpayer funds to help facilitate.”
The chairman was apparently referring to abortions. Greer yesterday circulated a memo questioning the health care bill and whether it would “work to systematically ‘increase birth intervals between pregnancies,’ opening the very real probability of forced, tax-payer funded abortions.”
He stood by his characterization of the bill this morning.
“If the procedure is financed by taxpayer funds, then in fact the word forced or mandated would be appropriate,” Greer said.
The portion of the bill Greer refers to deals with home visitation services.
The full text follows:
“The term ‘nurse home visitation services’ means home visits by trained nurses to families with a first-time pregnant woman, or a child (under 2 years of age), who is eligible for medical assistance under this title, but only, to the extent determined by the Secretary based upon evidence, that such services are effective in one or more of the following:
(1) Improving maternal or child health and pregnancy outcomes or increasing birth intervals between pregnancies.”
Greer decried the outbursts at town hall meetings but blamed Democrats for spinning the events and not being able to answer questions about the health care bill.
Gov. Charlie Crist and top GOP officials didn’t know of U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez’s decision to resign early until the senator issued a press release on Friday, Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer told reporters this morning.
“There is no one who actually knew the event was actually going to take place until immediately prior to or immediately surrounding that statement,” Greer said.
Although rumors that Martinez would step down early circulated for more than six months prior to his resignation, Greer said Martinez repeatedly assured him he was not quitting. Sort of.
“He would say, ‘No I’m not resigning. Tomorrow,” Greer said.
And despite speculation that Martinez quit early to make it easier for Crist to succeed him, Greer said the senator quit to spend more time with his family and not to help the governor.
Gov. Charlie Crist speaks opens his first Florida Summit on Global Climate Change at the Miami InterContinental Hotel in July 2007. | Post photo
This story was printed Aug. 12 on page 1A of The Palm Beach Post.
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Charlie Crist’s plans for a third high-profile climate summit have been indefinitely postponed as the Republican weighs the political cost of the event’s expensive price tag.
But Crist’s reluctance to appear out of touch with financially frustrated Floridians — and perhaps his party’s conservative base — has not stopped him from asking the event’s sponsors to help fund his U.S. Senate campaign.
Campaign finance reports show Crist has collected $106,500 from individuals and companies tied to past sponsors of his climate summits. That total is 40 percent of the costs of his 2006 summit and nearly 20 percent of the expenses of last year’s event.
Postponing the summit has also raised questions about whether Crist, who is facing an aggressive primary challenge and a restless base in the state GOP, is backing away from the environmental issues that marked his first two years in office.
Prominent lobbyist and former Florida Supreme Court justice Wade Hopping died today from complications from a stroke and esophageal cancer.
Hopping died a day before his 78th birthday and on the 30th anniversary of founding the Tallahassee law firm Hopping Green and Sams.
Hopping served as a Cabinet aide to Gov. Claude Kirk, who appointed him to fill an opening on the Supreme Court in 1968 but he lost reelection the following year. Supreme Court justices are now appointed by the governor and remain in on the bench by a merit vote.
Kirk, the first Republican governor elected since Reconstruction, credited Hopping and environmentalist Nathaniel Reed with helping to create both the state and national environmental regulatory agencies.
“I didn’t know how to spell conservation or environment but we learned about it,” Kirk, who lives in West Palm Beach, said. “Wade was in the middle of all of that with Nat Reed. With Wade’s help and Nat’s help we got (former President) Nixon to create the President’s Council on the Environment.” The council was the basis of what later became the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Kirk said.
The white-haired, white-bearded lobbyist was an institution in the halls of the Florida Capitol throughout his thirty years of working on behalf of businesses including Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the Sugarcane Growers Cooperative of Florida and the Florida Marine Industries Association.
Recently, Hopping was instrumental in the state’s $310 million purchase of the 74,000-acre Babcock Ranch Preservation Area in Southwest Florida. The 2006 deal was the largest conservation lands purchase in Florida history.
He frequently drew swords with environmentalists but was a willing and capable compromiser, said Audubon of Florida policy director Eric Draper, who frequently worked against Hopping in issues before the legislature.
“Wade has been a fixture at the capitol for as long as I can remember. He was always pushing firmly with his clients’ agenda but always in a friendly and good-humored way. He was one of the business lobbyists that conservationists were most willing to work,” said Draper, who is running for Agriculture Commissioner. “It’s hard to imagine working on environmental issues without him on the other side.”
Hopping is survived by his wife of 38 years, Mary Hopping of Tallahassee. He is also survived by children Hank and Margaret Hopping of Chattanooga, Jud and Jackie Hopping of Fort Lauderdale, Kiff and Lynn Mendoza of Tallahassee, and Beth Mendoza and Maureen Murphy of Atlanta.
A funeral service is scheduled Thursday at the Faith Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee.
Al Cardenas, who was a mentor for former House Speaker Marco Rubio, is backing Rubio’s Republican primary opponent, Gov. Charlie Crist, in the race for U.S. Senate.
From Cardenas:
““I witnessed Charlie’s energy, focus, and leadership as he went on to become our Commissioner of Education and Attorney General. Governor Crist re-energized the state’s top lawyer office and took that momentum to the Governor’s Mansion. He remains one of the most popular governors in our state’s history.”
“I have a long history with Speaker Marco Rubio; personally, professionally, and politically- along with a great respect for his passion and his ability to articulate the conservative principles that we share. I believe Marco has waged a spirited campaign and whichever path Marco chooses he has earned and deserves our respect.”
Cardenas served two terms as Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida under then-Gov. Jeb Bush.
Former Republican House Speaker Marco Rubio, who has positioned himself as the arch-conservative candidate in a U.S. Senate primary against Gov. Charlie Crist, told a group of activists this weekend that he is surprised to find himself running an “insurgent campaign” from the ideological right.
The video above is from Atlanta, where Rubio spoke at the RedState Gathering - a convention of conservative bloggers and activists.
“Just to tell you about the politics of my race. It’s pretty simple: 1.2 million Republicans will vote in this election. No one in the world can convince me that there aren’t 600,000 or 700,000 conservative Republicans in Florida. No one in the world can convince me it costs $15 million to reach them.”
Florida Republicans, who disobeyed their national party’s presidential primary calendar last year, will now have one of their own shaping the schedule for 2012.
State Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer won the coveted position of the national party’s rules chairman on Thursday, but he immediately dismissed the possibility that he would sway the calendar to benefit Florida voters or a possible presidential run by Gov. Charlie Crist.
Moody’s Investors Service removed Florida from its list of potential downgrades Tuesday, saving the state hundreds of millions of dollars in potential interest payments.
The company reaffirmed Florida’s top rating, Aa1, citing the state budget that cut $3.6 billion in expenditures while raising $2.4 billion in taxes and fees.
The roughly $1 billion left in reserves gave ratings analysts comfort that the state would not default on its debt.
But the ratings company noted that Florida’s immediate economic future remains bleak.
Analysts said there was little hope the state would turn around its double-digit unemployment rate, struggling housing market and minimal population growth before the end of 2010.
Florida’s bond rating was politicized during a 10-day budget standoff this spring between House and Senate Republicans. Each side claimed its budget would satisfy concerns from the ratings company.
On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton, said the company’s action reaffirmed his chamber’s position to hold more money in reserves.
Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Marco Rubio announced today he collected $340,000 in contributions during the second quarter. More than 40 percent of that total came from online contributions. Rubio said he received a donation from each of the 50 states.
A quick note on that total: it’s more than the $255,000 he raised in the exploratory phase of his campaign in the first quarter, but less than the $363,000 that Democrat Dan Gelber raised for his U.S. Senate campaign during the first three months of the year. Gelber, who was in the state legislative session for a month of that time, was competing for dollars against U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek. Meek reported $1.5 million during the same time and Gelber later stepped away from the race and is now running for state attorney general. (Meek told us last night he’ll report about $1.2 million for the second quarter)
Of course, Rubio is running against a popular sitting governor, which makes his task considerably more difficult. (more…)
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Sentenced to die for crimes judged heinous and cruel, inmates await execution in a 9 feet by 6 feet cell.
