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.”

Fifty-one companies in Martin County will create 261 new jobs using federal stimulus dollars.

Companies, which applied for the money through the Florida Back to Work program, may use the positions to expand or replace workers trimmed during cutbacks.

The jobs, while a boost to a county struggling with double-digit unemployment rates, could be temporary. The federal government will pay the salaries for the new positions for nine months, but after that the companies are on their own.

Story here.

“Unfortunately, that gets a lot of attention.”

That quote from Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio wasn’t about this embrace or this sign of affection, he was talking about this one.

Rubio said on CNN on Thursday that “the hug” between Gov. Charlie Crist and President Obama gets too much attention. Crist’s support of the stimulus plan was what was really important, he said.

It was the Rubio campaign, however, that called a picture of Obama and Crist the “MOST POWERFUL ONLINE FUNDRAISING SITE IN FLORIDA HISTORY” in November.

The site is no longer active, but the picture is on a fund-raising page on Rubio’s campaign Web site. A money bomb for Rubio features Crist and Obama embracing.

Today, Rubio is announcing that he’ll return to the site of the Fort Myers rally on Wednesday - the one-year anniversary of the Obama-Crist get-together.

The event, coordinated by FreedomWorks PAC, will feature former House Republican Leader Dick Armey.

From Rubio’s press release today:

“Every day, I am encouraged by the growing support I see for limited government principles throughout Florida and our nation,” said Rubio. “February 10 marks the first anniversary of Governor Crist’s embrace of a failed stimulus policy that has neither stimulated our economy, nor prevented the dramatic job losses that have taken a toll on over 1 million Floridians and families.”

Palm Beach County schools Superintendent Arthur Johnson said he is considering a cut of 1,600 non-instructional jobs to deal with an expected “dramatic reduction in stimulus funding at the end of next year.”

In his latest “economic update,” Johnson cites the anti-spending political winds, embodied by the so-called “tea party” movement.”

“There are a growing number of American citizens, via the Tea Party movement, who are committed to cutting government spending and taxes,” wrote in his update.

A discussion of Johnson’s memo is underway here.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio penned an editorial in the National Review this morning laying out his opposition to President Obama’s bank tax, which we wrote about here and here.

Rubio has said he opposes the federal stimulus program, which the bank tax is supposed to help recoup. But Rubio has also said that he, like Gov. Charlie Crist, would have used the state’s share of stimulus to help fill budget holes. From the column:

No one should be fooled by the spin. President Obama’s bank tax is not about recouping money for the American taxpayer. If President Obama were truly serious about that, he would call on Congress to repeal his failed stimulus program tomorrow so that future generations won’t be saddled with its crippling debt.

Could a special session bill that few people can easily explain help launch a gubernatorial campaign? That’s what state Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, is hoping.

Dockery

Dockery has consistently derailed plans from Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, and Gov. Charlie Crist for a Central Florida commuter line known as SunRail.

Now she’s attempting to use the issue to capitalize on the anti-tax “Tea Party” movement that has helped buoy Republican Marco Rubio’s insurgent U.S. Senate campaign against Crist. Dockery is hoping to unhinge the campaign of Attorney General Bill McCollum, the favorite to win the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

More here.

Updating the news from this morning that Republican Gov. Charlie Crist wanted to meet in his office with the four Republican swing votes on the special session bill…

Turns out he could only get three, including Dennis Jones of Seminole who says he initiated the meeting to talk about some local college appointments. That means the fourth Republican either declined to meet with the governor or refused to clear his or her schedule.

Meanwhile, Crist got good news from at least two of the lawmakers: Jones says he’ll change his vote from ‘No’ to ‘Yes’ if leaders can show there are no general revenue dollars in the proposal and that the rail lines will benefit the Tampa Bay Regional Transportation Authority.

Nancy Detert of Sarasota told Crist she’s already planning to change from ‘No’ to ‘Yes’.

“If it’s part of a huge rail piece where we can access federal dollars and use that money to put people back to work, and to put rail all across the state as we’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t afford then I am a ‘Yes,’” Detert said.

“If we cannot access federal funds then it changes the game.”

The third Republican, Durell Peaden of Crestview, said he was firmly against it, noting that it would be difficult for him to run for any Panhandle office if he supported the bill.

“The people in my area think we need more asphalt,” he said.

UPDATED: Crist’s schedule has been updated to included meetings today with Republican Sens. Durell Peaden of Crestview (12:55 p.m.), Nancy Detert of Venice (3:15 p.m.) and Dennis Jones of Seminole. (3:30 p.m.)

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist said he’s planning to meet with four state senators this afternoon - presumably all fellow Republicans - in hopes of securing a positive vote on the SunRail bill scheduled for a vote this week.

“I’m going to meet with some of them this afternoon and encourage them to do the right thing,” Crist said.

Crist wouldn’t define the meetings as arm twisting.

“I never describe it as arm twisting,” he said laughing. “Encouragement.”

Crist said he was “encouraged” by the House vote this morning.

“Strong vote,” he said. “That’s great. It’s great for jobs and that’s what this is really all about. We’re hopeful the Senate will follow suit.”

The Florida House today passed the special session bill, 84-25, aimed at expanding the state’s commuter railroad system. The bill now moves to the Senate.

House Speaker Larry Cretul noted the bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate and told his members to “stay close” for a potential final vote at any moment before the Friday noon deadline.

“We really don’t know exactly what will happen in the Senate,” Cretul said.

While Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, scrambles to collect 21 votes in the 40-member Senate, a coalition of taxpayer groups are planning a noon press conference and 4 p.m. rally outside the Capitol to urge lawmakers to kill the projects. With Republican Sens. Paula Dockery, a Republican candidate for governor, and Rhonda Storms speaking at the events, it further highlights the problems the issue is causing Republicans.

In the House, most of the opposition came from Democrats and Miami-Dade Republicans, although the vote split party and geographical lines.

Opponents included Reps. Adam Fetterman, D-Port St. Lucie; Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach; and Kevin Rader, D-Delray Beach.

The bill is targeted at winning $2.5 billion from the pot of federal stimulus money to build a high-speed rail system in the state. State lawmakers believe the best way to do that is to impress the feds with their commitment to a state rail system: the special session bill would earmark $15 million per year to subsidize the struggling South Florida Tri-Rail line and spend $432 million to buy 61 miles of track from CSX for a Central Florida commuter line, known as SunRail.

Some quotes from the House debate this morning:

(more…)

Florida House Speaker Larry Cretul called lawmakers to the Capitol last week to clear a path for high-speed rail. The move came six years after he cast a ballot to repeal a voter-approved mandate for high-speed rail.

From the campaign trail, Republican Gov. Charlie Crist condemns federal spending. In radio ads for his U.S. Senate race, he tells President Obama, “Enough is enough.”

But in Tallahassee, Crist is the leading supporter of the special session bill aimed at securing $2.5 billion in stimulus money for the state to build a bullet train. That money would be in addition to the $5.2 billion in stimulus funds propping up the state budget Crist approved in May.

“Anybody who wants to help us, we’re more than eager to accept it and to make sure that we put people before politics,” Crist said.

For Florida Republicans, who have controlled the state House, Senate and governor’s office since 1999, the federal stimulus plan has proven to be a thorny issue in a high-stakes political year that includes open races for U.S. Senate, governor and all three Cabinet jobs. Doubly so when it’s for the creation of public transportation, a campaign promise of Democratic President Obama’s and not a typical Republican issue.

“It’s hypocrisy,” designated House Democratic Leader Ron Saunders of Key West said. “They’re campaigning one way and governing another.”

Rest here.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio, who voted against repealing a constitutional mandate for high-speed rail (the one then-Gov. Jeb Bush called a “$25 billion mistake”), issued a warning to state lawmakers considering a plan to convince the federal government to spend $2.5 billion to build a bullet train in the state.

“We should be wary of all the promises floating around Tallahassee about how this latest round of government spending will create lasting jobs and prosperity. Rail projects have merit as transportation and infrastructure policy. But selling SunRail as a jobs issue, as Charlie Crist has chosen to do, is a stretch. If the nearly $800 billion Obama-Crist stimulus plan didn’t create the jobs they promised, how can we believe a new train system is going to live up to its promises?

“In addition, I disagree with Governor Crist’s claim that he doesn’t care where the money comes from to pay for this project. I care a lot, because it’s coming from borrowed and printed money that is ultimately coming from my children and their generation.”

Lawmakers in the House are debating the 49-page proposal that would pave the way for a $2.2 billion Central Florida commuter rail system, create a statewide rail authority and keep Tri-Rail rolling.

GOP House leaders - who have been heated critics of President Barack Obama’s stimulus spending - say they’re doing all that to increase Florida’s chances of getting a slice of the $8 billion in federal stimulus funds for high-speed rail projects being doled out in January. The state’s applied for four projects totaling about $3.7 billion.

After 20 years of Tri-Rail’s operating in the red, why the rush to bail out the South Florida commuter line - the state’s only existing one - now?

Because U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said so.

“There’s a commitment at the federal level to get into the passenger rail business like it never has before,” LaHood told SunRail supporters in Orlando in October. “But, the only way it will pay off is if the State Legislature gets its act together.”
(more…)

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist at a Thursday afternoon press conference urging lawmakers to approve a bill that will help the state receive $2.5 billion in stimulus money for a high-speed rail project:

“Anybody who wants to help us, we’re more than eager to accept it and to make sure that we put people before politics.”

Crist, later that night, at a Republican Party fundraiser in Escambia County:

“What I see happening in Washington troubles and disturbs me.”

Gov. Charlie Crist on whether he thinks the special session bill will pass: “Voting against this, I think, would be absolutely catastrophic. Indefensible.”

Crist said his “motivation” for supporting the bill was the 11.2 percent unemployment rate and an estimated 14,000 new or saved railroad-related jobs that could come from the bill.

So a month after Crist released a campaign ad last month criticizing federal spending, saying “Enough is enough”, is he acknowledging that more government spending is a solution to the unemployment rate?

“It certainly can be a solution as it relates to high speed rail in our state,” Crist said.

Transcript of the first three questions from Crist’s press conference this afternoon after the jump.

(more…)

Aubuchon

The bill dedicates up to $15 million per year from the state’s gas tax collections to pay for shortages in the maintenance or operation of the Mangonia Park to Miami Airport line. The bill says the money will be available until 2014. After that, the same amount will be included in the Florida Transportation Department’s five-year work plan, Aubuchon said.

“Until future legislatures change that amount, we in the state will be obligated for up to $15 million,” Aubuchon said.

While the bill is not expected to be very controversial in the House, Rep. Tom Grady, R-Naples, told The Palm Beach Post, that he is still undecided. Among his concerns: subsidizing Tri-Rail.

“Tri-Rail is a miserable failure,” Grady said. “With 15,000 per day in the largest metro area of Florida, you have to wonder whether we’re throwing good money after bad to continue to fund that. On the other hand, it’s there. And I don’t think we just walk away from it.

“Is there a way to greater encourage use? Is there a way to have some connectivity to the rail system so that people can really take advantage of it? I don’t know the answer to that. … But I think it’s essential in order to make that viable down the road.

(more…)

Here’s the latest video from the Republican Majority Campaign of Florida, a 527 political action committee whose parent group raised more than $4 million during 2008 (most of which was spent campaigning for GOP presidential nominee John McCain). You might also remember the group from a fund-raising e-mail they sent earlier this year warning that Congress wanted to give President Obama “total control of the Internet.”

The web video focuses on the Gov. Charlie Crist’s support of the federal stimulus package, the central theme of former House Speaker Marco Rubio’s campaign against Crist in the state’s U.S. Senate Republican primary.

Crist, meanwhile, is attempting to add some nuance to his feelings about the stimulus package. He told CNN last night that he didn’t endorse the proposal and that he “didn’t even have a vote on the darned thing.” Here’s a fact-check of sorts from the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, click here to listen to Crist explain to reporters this morning his seemingly evolving position on the subject.

Supporters cheer as President Barack Obama speaks at a Democratic fundraiser in Miami on Monday. (AP)

From President Obama’s speech last night at the Democratic fundraiser in Miami Beach:

“Here’s the thing about the Recovery Act people don’t seem to remember. It wasn’t just the most progressive tax cut policy in American history. It wasn’t just emergency relief for states and individuals. It was also — people don’t realize this — the single largest federal investment in education in our history.

“It was the largest investment in clean energy in our history. It was the largest boost to medical research and basic research in our history. It was the single largest investment in infrastructure since Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System back in the 1950s. And that’s putting people back to work all across Florida and all across America.”

The full text of his speech after the jump.

(more…)

Gov. Charlie Crist’s U.S. Senate campaign is running its first two radio ads across the state. Listen to “Out of Control” and “Enough is Enough” here.

The ads are pretty much the same. Read the transcripts and fact check after the jump.

(more…)

Vice President Joe Biden will visit an Orlando middle school on Wednesday to tout Florida’s $3.5 billion share of the economic stimulus package for education.

Biden will be joined by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. They’re scheduled to appear at Jackson Middle School in Orlando at 10 a.m.

Not all of the money is being spent in schools or on teachers, however.

Florida’s three-year education stimulus cash includes money for school lunch equipment, homeless education, independent living programs and services for older blind individuals.

Perhaps the White House duo will receive a warmer welcome than Congressional members touting the president’s health care package at raucous town hall meetings throughout the country.

Officials in Gov. Charlie Crist’s administration responded to a report showing the state last in highway transportation spending by saying that states spend the money in different ways.

“We believe that all state DOTs are doing an outstanding job in implementing the Recovery Act funds,” Crist’s stimulus adviser Don Winstead and state Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos wrote in a letter to U.S. House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn.

Oberstar wrote to Crist on Thursday urging him to speed up highway spending. Crist’s likely U.S. Senate opponent, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, issued a press release today saying Crist is responsible for a series of missteps with the stimulus money that has delayed potential relief for thousands of out-of-work Floridians.

(Crist was also targeted today by his GOP primary opponent, Marco Rubio, who mocked Crist for supporting the stimulus money in the first place.

Winstead and Kopelousos wrote that the report from Congress was “outdated and does a disservice to the tireless efforts of the Crist administration.”

To read the entire letter, click here