House Democratic Leader Ron Saunders came up with a way to add $105,000 to the Alzheimer’s Mobil Network: Do away with the Department of Elder Affairs deputy secretary/chief of staff position.

Saunders, D-Key West, said “no one can seem to tell me what the position does.” He offered an amendment doing away with the unnamed person’s post and shifting the money during debate on the state budget just before this evening’s floor session ended.

Who holds the job that isn’t listed on the position agency’s “Other Key Department Staff” page?

Ron Whitaker, former Republican Party of Florida executive director.

Saunders brought Whitaker’s resume with him onto the House floor, but said the Alzheimer’s advocacy folks asked him to withdraw the amendment for fear that it would get their funding cut in House-Senate conference.

“I think the point was made,” Saunders said, although he conceded “nobody was paying attention” as the budget debate dragged into the evening.

- The Orlando Sentinel’s Aaron Deslatte contributed to this blog.

Republicans hold super-majorities in the state House and Senate, and Republican Gov. Rick Scott will get to deliver his first State of the State speech on the Legislature’s opening day.

But House Democrats have still found a way to bring a little drama to March 8. They’ve got a contested race for the caucus’ top leadership spot in 2012 — and they’ll choose their champion about an hour before the scheduled start of the legislative session.

The contenders: Reps. Joe Gibbons of Hallandale Beach, and Perry Thurston of Plantation.

It’s an intra-Broward County contest that will be decided by the House’s 39 Democrats. Current Democratic Leader Ron Saunders of Key West called the election Friday. If it counts for anything in handicapping, Gibbons is the current Democratic leader pro tempore.

Technically, the winner is the party’s designee for House speaker. But given that Democrats have a long way to go to gain a majority, “leader” may be the fanciest monicker the eventual winner ever gets.

A proposed statewide referendum that wouldn’t really do anything to balance any budget but would send a statement to Congress generated a lot of heat in the House Rules committee this morning.

“Basically House memorials are meaningless. They’re like toilet paper,” House Democratic leader Ron Saunders said of the proposal.

The “nonbinding statewide advisory referendum,” pushed by GOP leaders including Senate President Jeff Atwater and already passed by the Senate, would ask voters the following question:

In order to stop the uncontrolled growth of our national debt and prevent excessive borrowing by the Federal Government, which threatens jobs, robs America and our children of their opportunity for success, and threatens our national security, should the United States Constitution be amended to require a balanced federal budget without raising taxes?

“This sends a message today that federal spending is out of control and we need to have a balance,” House budget chief David Rivera, R-Miami, told the Rules Committee this morning.

But Saunders and other Dems objected to the strongly-worded proposal as election-year “propaganda,” “incendiary” and “hypocritical” because lawmakers raised millions of dollars in drivers “fees” and cigarette taxes to balance the budget last year.

“The language here is unnecessary and just an opportunity to demagogue,” said Saunders, D-Key West, who offered an amendment changing the language to “Should the U.S. Constitution be amended to require a balanced federal budget?”

His amendment failed, and the referendum passed along partisan lines.

In a tongue-in-cheek hint of what will likely take place during a budget debate on the floor tomorrow, House Democratic Leader-to-be Ron Saunders filed an amendment on a transportation bill that sweeps nearly $150 million from road projects to fill a $3.2 billion spending gap.

The veteran Key West lawmaker’s amendment renames the transportation bill the “Job Killer Act of 2010.”

Look for Democrats to try to amend the budget mainly in the House but without much success.

As evidence, House Majority Leader Adam Hasner offered his own amendment to counter Saunders’.

Hasner, R-Delray Beach, wants to name the bill (HB 5503) the “Protecting Healthcare and Education Funding Act of 2010.”

The Senate is expected to debate and amend its budget and pass it out so they can cancel session on Thursday and get in a longer Easter weekend.

House Rules Committee Chairman Bill Galvano dismissed a Tea Partier’s complaint against Democrat Ron Saunders on Wednesday.

James K. Barnes of Coral Springs alleged that Saunders, a veteran lawmaker from Key West, charged the state for travel money for trips to Tallahassee from his home in the Florida Keys while also filing for reimbursement for official and campaign work while in his Keys district.

Galvano ruled that the complaint had “numerous deficiencies” and found no evidence that Saunders broke a variety of House rules as Barnes alleged.

Saunders did not break House rules two years ago by soliciting campaign contributions during the legislative session, Galvano, R-Bradenton, decided. Saunders deposited several campaign checks on the first day of the 2008 session but that is permitted, Galvano wrote in a letter to Barnes.

Barnes also filed similar complaints with the state elections commission and ethics commission.

Although the Tea Partier filed the complaints against Saunders, Republicans have targeted Saunders, slated to become House Democratic Leader later this year, in his reelection bid in November.

A South Florida Tea Party activist has filed ethics complaints against state Rep. Ron Saunders accusing the Key West Democrat of double-dipping on travel expenses and violating state campaign finance rules.

James K. Barnes of Coral Springs filed complaints with both the state elections and ethics commissions as well as the House of Representatives.

Barnes alleges that Saunders, a veteran lawmaker who returned to the House, charged the state for travel money for trips to Tallahassee from his home in the Florida Keys while also filing for reimbursement for official and campaign work while in his Keys district.

The complaints also allege that Saunders accepted campaign contributions during the legislative session, a violation of state law and that Saunders “requested reimbursement for travel expenses from more than one source for the same travel and has claimed per diem amounts for which he is not entitled.”

“Corruption is running rampant in both Florida parties, from Ray Sansom’s ethical lapses to party credit card abuse to Saunders’ multiple violations,” Barnes said in a press release. “If the Florida Legislature wants to rebuild trust with voters today, Saunders’ apparent violations must also be fully investigated and, if true, punished.”

Read the Barnes ethics complaint here, the elections complaint here, and the House complaint here.

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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If you missed it yesterday, House Rep. Doc Renuart, R-Ponte Vedra Beach, took a shot at Designated House Democratic Leader Ron Saunders, who, along with about one-third of the chamber, is skipping the first two days of special session to attend the National Black Caucus of State Legislators annual conference in Fort Lauderdale.

Saunders, who is white, said he was attending the conference because black voters account for about 4 percent of his Monroe County district. Renuart pointed out that 40 percent of Saunders’ district is Republican and invited the Key West Democrat to join the Republican caucus.

Saunders responds today: “I’d definitely join. But they vote for too many tax increases and fee increases. I’m too conservative to join the Republican caucus.”

After considering making a political maneuver on the bills, Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the cigarette tax hike, 85-30, and the gambling bill, 82-35.

Democrats who opposed the cigarette tax bill were Leonard Bembry of Greenville, Debbie Boyd of Newberry, James Bush and Luis Garcia of Miami and Kevin Rader of Delray Beach. Republicans Brad Drake, Ed Homan, Paige Kreegel, Bryan Nelson and Baxter Troutman did not vote.

On the gambling bill, Democrats opposing the bill were Boyd, Bembry and Bush. Republicans Will Weatherford, Ed Homan and Doug Holder did not vote.

Rep. Ron Saunders, D-Key West, said he abandoned a strategy on the gambling bill out of respect for Rep. Bill Galvano.

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Rep. Ron Saunders of Key West, the designated House Democratic leader in 2011, put the screws to Republican leaders in the chamber Monday afternoon for what he said was a pattern of “abusing” the process.

Saunders said he was willing to give Republicans a pass for supporting a substantive amendment filed in the final days of session by Rep. Dean Cannon of Winter Park. Cannon, who is the designated Republican leader in 2011, unveiled the measure to open Florida water to offshore drilling.

But Saunders said there was a developing trend of GOP leaders “circumventing” the committee process that included the controversial elections bill introduced last week.

He implied top House Republicans were even willing to steamroll their own members.

“Ask Rep. Atkins how she felt when something mysteriously appeared,” Saunders said. “Ask Rep. Zapata how he felt when something mysteriously disappeared. We have 100 members of this body on the appropriations conference committee that has not even met yet.

“At a certain point in time, whether it’s this year or in the next three years, we have to start respecting the committee process.”

Listen to Saunders’ floor speech here.

The content of the podcast informed this story that was published Sunday. The interviews are still timely and, by at least one account, still entertaining.

The first 14 minutes is an interview with designated House Democratic Leader Ron Saunders of Key West talking about how Republican leaders are more interested in “hijacking” bills than fulfilling their responsibilities. He admires Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, for her “blatant partisanship,” anticipates the next “memo” from House Republican Majority Adam Hasner, apologizes on behalf of the Democratic caucus “for not being stupid,” and says he’s going “do my best” to flip the 76-44 majority the GOP enjoys in the chamber.

“We are the minority party,” Saunders says. “We are their conscience.”

The 12 minutes that follow is a separate interview with Hasner, R-Boca Raton, who gets in his own jabs. He says the House Democrats “have become a party of no” — just like Republicans in the U.S. House. He says their a “continental divide” in the minority party and that the stimulus will “potentially create more problems in the future than it solves.”

Listen to the podcast here. (Right click on the link to download)

There are few big votes in the state Capitol where the outcome is uncertain. One happened this morning moments before the session even started.

In a secret ballot, House Democratic members voted Ron Saunders of Key West to as caucus leader in 2010 and 2011. Saunders will lead the caucus into the important 2010 elections, when Democrats hope to close in on the Republicans 76-44 majority in the chamber.

Saunders won the election by two votes over Perry Thurston of Plantation for the leadership position. Saunders named Priscilla Taylor of West Palm Beach his leader pro-tempore, the No. 2 position in the caucus.
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