Syndicated columnist and conservative talking head Star Parker wowed a group of tea partiers in the Capitol this afternoon on the opening day of session before making a recruiting stop at Lt. Gov Jennifer Carroll’s office.

Parker finished her half-hour informal speech with high praise for Carroll, a former state House member and retired Navy office whom Parker said she’s met once before.

“I’m hoping that she is in agreement with all of the ideas of limited size and scope of government because if she is I wanted to rumble out her name as we’re going around the country thinking that we need to find somebody ethnic to be the vice president – Republicans are going to win and all. She would be a better pick, would be my opinion,” Parker said, who met with Carroll for about five minutes, according to Gov. Rick Scott’s staff. Parker was in town briefly and flew into Tallahassee for a South Georgia meeting, she said.

“This is a quality person, decorated military, worked her butt off to get to the state House and now as lieutenant governor is the first in the country. We’ve never in this country had a black, conservative, female lieutenant governor. I think that is worth a couple of news stories,” said Parker, a syndicated columnist and FoxNews pundit.

As an added bonus, Parker said, “she’s from one of our critical states.” Florida, of course, is a key swing state in this year’s presidential election.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio is back in the (state) Capitol in a new office more than a dozen floors above his old digs in the Speaker’s office this morning, hours before state lawmakers kick off the 2012 legislative session.

Rubio, a Miami native and former House Speaker who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, said he set up shop in the Capitol to stay close to what’s going on in the state.

“There’s no doubt about it. We don’t want to lose touch with the state. From my experience as the speaker and as a legislator, there are a lot of issues that the state is facing that…overlap with federal issues” including the Everglades and the space program, Rubio said. “I think being here is going to allow us to have a person on the ground especially during the legislative session but throughout the year that’s literally just a few doors away from key decision makers at the state level.”

Rubio shook hands with lobbyists, well-wishers and Capitol staffers but also got an earful from a group of tea partiers unhappy with his votes supporting the Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that some critics believe gives the federal government the ability to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens accused of terrorism.

Rubio – whose tea party support helped clinched his U.S. Senate victory – argued that the law does not do that.

“I would never have voted for a bill that allows them to detain innocent American citizens in military tribunals. It’s just not true. We looked at that issue back and forth, left and right, up and down. It’s just not true. I would never support it if it did,” Rubio insisted.

But Paul Henry, a Monticello tea party activist and former state trooper, disagreed.

“What Sen. Rubio’s not aware of is this exact language that’s in there,” Henry said later.

One section of the law reads: “The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States.”

“But that does not prohibit them (from doing it),” Henry said. “I’m not required to drive a car. I could walk.”

Rubio’s votes disappointed some members of the dozens of tea party groups gathering in the Capitol for the session’s opening day, but they insisted they’re not giving up.

“We helped get the Republicans in the House and they still voted for the debt ceiling. We helped get so-called conservatives get elected and they vote for the Patriot Act. I think you are seeing a lot of widespread discouragement of all the energy spent to get to this point and we still have to go back and tell them what being a conservative means,” said Henry Kelley, a Tea Party Network leader from Fort Walton Beach.

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.

South Florida Tea Party Chairman Everett Wilkinson is relaying word that Donald Trump will pay more than $6,000 that Boca Raton says it is owed for police officers and barriers that were deployed for an April South Florida Tea Party rally that Trump keynoted.

Wilkinson questioned the charges said his group didn’t have the money in its coffers to cover them.

“We’re working on paying it,” Wilkinson said earlier this month. “We don’t have the money right now, but we’re good at paying our bills.”

Here’s a statement from Trump adviser Michael Cohen as reported in Politico:

“An unexpectedly large number of citizens peaceably assembled at the Boca Tea party event, hosted by Everett Wilkinson, that drew a crowd in excess of 5000 people. Mr. Trump is honored that so many people came to hear him speak on important political and social issues. Mr. Trump does not want any citizen group to be disparaged or burdened for exercising their first amendment right and has agreed to personally cover the full obligation to the City of Boca Raton.”

On the same day Gov. Rick Scott fretted about the state’s rising tide of red ink, Florida lawmakers Tuesday sent him the $69.7 billion budget they approved earlier this month.

Scott has until June 1 to sign it and issue his vetoes — which he hinted Tuesday he plans to do, maybe with some gusto.

“I can tell you, though, there will be additional savings,” Scott said – hinting at vetoes that pour more money into state reserves, already at the $2.2 billion level.

 “In these economic times, we must ensure that every hard-earned tax collar is used wisely in a way that we get Florida back to work.”

State government debt climbed to $28.2 billion last year – up almost $2 billion from a year earlier and double what it was in 2000, according to the state’s Division of Bond Finance.

While lawmakers struggled to close an almost $3.8 billion budget shortfall – enacting deep cuts to schools and health and social services programs – almost $2.1 billion had to be taken from the budget just to finance the state’s debt.

 Since former Gov. Jeb Bush took office in 1999, ushering in a dozen years of Republican leadership, Florida’s borrowing has climbed by $12 billion. 

Those who helped write this year’s spending plan know the governor has the ball now.

 

“I suspect there will be some vetoes, but we have a responsible budget,” said House Appropriations Chair Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring.

 ”The governor will come in and look at different issues, different items. He’ll bring a fresh eye to it.

Gov. Rick Scott was scheduled to meet for half an hour this morning with ormer Massachusetts governor – and almost certain 2012 presidential candidate – Mitt Romney.

But the meeting between GOP governors past and present never took place because, Scott’s staff said, of the weather.

As anyone familiar with springtime in Florida’s hilly capital city, fog frequently makes flying in and out in the morning a crapshoot.

Scott’s a premium stop on the GOP presidential wannabes’ Sunshine State rounds.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty met with fellow tea party fave Scott last month.

Protests planned on tomorrow’s opening day of the 2011 legislative session by unions and tea party activists are “exciting,” Senate President Mike Haridopolos told reporters this morning.

“This is America. People have every right to protest, positively or negatively. I think it’s exciting that people are taking such an interest in their government and they want to be vocal about where they stand,” the Merritt Island Republican, running for U.S. Senate, said. “If there are protests on either side, welcome to America.”

Asked if the protests might reach the heated level as Wisconsin, where union activists have camped out for weeks in the Capitol, Haridopolos shrugged.

“It might happen. If I was a protester and I had the choice of going to Wisconsin or Florida, I’d probably come here too,” he quipped.

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The Florida Supreme Court ordered oral arguments tomorrow at 3 p.m. on a lawsuit filed by two senators against Gov. Rick Scott over his nixing of a high-speed rail project.

The suit, filed by Sens. Thad Altman, R-Rockledge, and Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, accuses Scott of overstepping his authority when he rejected $2.4 billion in federal stimulus funds for a Tampa-to-Orlando rail project already approved by the legislature and his predecessor Charlie Crist.

Scott argued in his response that it was his privilege to turn down the money and that, at best, the court could order him to spend the $130.8 million already appropriated by the legislature for the project “to build a few miles of railroad for no apparent purpose”

If they did that, the “Court will have created the high-speed railroad to nowhere,” Scott’s response reads.

Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature’s ruling Republicans have kicked over a political hornet’s nest by promoting budget cuts, pension overhauls and civil justice changes, which are now emerging as targets for statewide rallies by Democratic-allied organizations.

The GOP’s tough medicine for a state pocked by foreclosures and almost 12 percent unemployment may be breathing life into a Florida Democratic Party, virtually left for dead after wholesale election defeats last fall. It also may effectively prove the opening round of the 2012 presidential contest in the nation’s biggest battleground state.

“Democrats last fall were down and outspent,” said Susannah Randolph, campaign manager for defeated Orlando Democratic U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson and now an organizer of the March 8 rallies.

“Now we’re seeing that we have to respond to a threat level like DEFCON 1,” said Randolph, who also is a leader of Florida Watch Action. “And sure, we want to keep this energy going.”

Using a Facebook page, “Awake The State,” organizers are planning events in most major Florida cities on the legislature’s opening day. Although locations are still being determined, teachers and public employees’ unions, including police and firefighters, are forming the core of those protesting expected cuts in education, pensions and government workforces.

Counter-punching, tea party supporters are rallying behind Scott, and looking to converge on the state Capitol for the session’s launch, which coincides with the new governor’s first State of the State address.

Florida’s spring training season goes beyond baseball.  The parties are gearing up for the 2012 campaigns by energizing their political bases around Scott and the Legislature’s plans.

Sen. Arthenia Joyner of  Tampa and Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich of Weston on Friday renewed Democratic call for Attorney General Pam Bondi to drop her push to tighten Florida’s standards for restoring civil rights to felons after they completed their sentences.

 ”With a staggering unemployment rate of 12 percent, I’d think the attorney general would want to support any effort to help Floridians who have fully paid their debts to society, to find work,”  Rich said.

In a shocker for civil rights advocates and Democrats, Attorney General Pam Bondi is looking to undo Florida’s limited automatic restoration of rights for felons. Bondi said she was likely to have a proposal to put before Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet next month.

“I don’t believe any felon should have an automatic restoration of rights,” the Republican Cabinet member told reporters Thursday morning. “I believe you should have to ask, and there should be an appropriate waiting period” of three to five years.

Joyner, though, said she felt Bondi’s move was aimed at placating tough-on-crime tea party advocates.

“From fighting Floridians access to family doctors, to withholding civil rights, it seems the Republican politicians are more interestedin hurting Florida than helping her,” Joyner said Friday.

U.S. Rep. John Mica has come up with a plan to thwart Gov. Rick Scott’s refusal of $2.4 billion for a high-speed rail project connecting Tampa and Orlando.

Mica, GOP chairman of the House Transportation Committee, is proposing that a “partial project rescue plan” that would substitute Orange and Osceola counties and Orlando for the state and allow the local governments to move forward with the initial 21-mile stretch.

“The first 21-mile section of the proposed corridor from the Orlando Airport to the Convention Center and Disney World holds the potential for not only being a viable project, but one that could turn a profit with a qualified private operator,” Mica said in a statement.

Mica’s plan would work like this:

· The initial operating segment would consist of 21 miles.

· The sub-grantees would consist of Orange, Osceola and the City of Orlando.

· The inter-local agreement would be crafted with these three initial participants, with the potential for additional future partners.

· The federal government would provide financial support for construction of the first segment, up to an agreed upon funding amount.

· The inter-local parties would solicit private sector proposals to finance, design, construct, operate, and maintain the project.

· All parties would agree to proceed only if the project is financially viable and they had unanimous consent regarding the terms of ownership, development and operation of the project.

Earlier this week, tea party-backed Scott stunned fellow Republicans as well as Democrats by refusing highly sought-after federal government’s $2.4 billion in stimulus funds – 90 percent of the project’s total cost. Scott said he did not believe the rail ridership would support the project, potentially putting the state on the hook for future expenses.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood gave Florida’s Congressional delegation until Thursday to come up with an alternate plan that would alleviate the state’s responsibility for the remaining $280 million and any potential cost overruns.

According to the press release, Mica is awaiting a response from local officials.

“The ridership numbers for this 21-mile corridor would be some of the best in the United States and the world, and I believe could also return revenue to each of the participating partners,” Mica said.

It remains unclear whether Scott ultimately would have to sign off on the plan.

The day after a bipartisan coalition of his members pleaded with the federal government for more time to work an end-run around Gov. Rick Scott’s rejection of $2.4 billion for high-speed rail, Senate President Mike Haridopolos joined the governor in saying “no thanks” for the dough.

“The federal government has earmarked $2.4 billion to finance part of the cost of construction of the proposed Florida high-speed rail project. But to do so, Washington would borrow 100% of that money, which would be financed in large part by foreign, non-democratic governments,” Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, said in a statement released this morning.

Haridopolos is running statewide for U.S. Senate in what is expected to be a crowded GOP primary.

High-speed rail projects backed by President Obama’s federal stimulus funds have become a hot-button issue for tea partiers for whom the trains symbolize wasteful government spending.

U.S. Transportation Department Secretary gave Florida another week to come up with a plan for the $2.7 billion Tampa-to-Orlando project.

Read the rest of Haridopolos’ statement after the jump.
(more…)

Gov. Rick Scott announced this morning he’s rejecting $2.4 billion in federal stimulus money from President Obama’s administration for a high-speed rail project from Orlando to Tampa.

Scott made the announcement at a hastily-called press conference this morning where he blasted the president’s budget.

“You don’t have to be an economics expert to know when you spend more money than you take in you will fail,” Scott said, saying ridership studies were overstated.

Scott’s move will certainly draw cheers from tea party activists who have railed against the high-speed rail project. Scott, who rolled out his budget at a tea party event earlier this month, met privately with two Tampa tea party activists last week. The pair urged him to say no to the high-speed rail project that had the support of powerful GOP legislative leaders as well as Republican U.S. Rep. John Mica, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

“I am deeply disappointed in the decision to not move forward with the Orlando to Tampa passenger rail project,” Mica said in a statement. “This is a huge setback for the state of Florida, our transportation, economic development, and important tourism industry.”

Scott was also asked about Central Florida’s controversial $1.2 billion SunRail project — which critics have called a worse deal for taxpayers than high-speed rail.

“I’m still reviewing SunRail,” the governor said.

House Speaker Dean Cannon issued an ambiguous statement about Scott’s decision to scrap the project that would have brought jobs to his hometown.

“I have not spoken to the Governor regarding today’s announcement, but I watched the Governor’s press conference. I’m encouraged that he is focusing on the practical realities of government programs, and their long-term impacts. As the Constitutional officer charged with carrying out transportation policy, the Governor seems to have determined that at this time he cannot feasibly implement high-speed rail in Florida. I have confidence that he will bring the same level of scrutiny to other issues,” Cannon, R-Winter Park, said.

Tampa tea party activists Sharon Calvert and Karen Jaroch got a 30-minute meeting with Gov. Rick Scott today to tell him about their opposition to the state’s plans for high-speed rail.

The pair, who also attended a tea party rally in Eustis on Monday where Scott rolled out his first-ever budget, said the high-speed rail project is symbolic of wasteful government spending of taxpayers’ money. The federal government has given Florida $2.4 billion for the Tampa-Orlando project, which is expected to cost at least $2.6 billion.

That’s not included cost overruns typical of such projects, the tea partiers pointed out.

“We’ve got to stop the spending,” Calvert told reporters after the meeting with Scott.

As to Scott’s budget, in which he claims to have cut $4.62 billion but in reality reduced spending by closer to $3 billion, the tea partiers were relatively unimpressed.

“We don’t think it went far enough,” Janoch said.

The Florida Liberty Alliance – a coalition of tea party activists – is pushing Senate President Mike Haridopolos to pass a law similar to Virginia’s that would exempt Floridians from the federal health care law requiring individuals to purchase health insurance or pay a fine.

The group wants Haridopolos and the Florida Legislature to pass something similar to Virginia’s “Health Care Freedom Act” and make it one of the first things they do when they convene in March.

Haridopolos has already sponsored a constitutional amendment by the same name that would allow Florida to opt out of the health care law, now under scrutiny by a federal judge in Pensacola.

But the alliance doesn’t want to wait until the 2012 election when the proposal would go on the ballot.

“We respectfully ask that all expeditious measure be taken to introduce legislation to create Florida law, as was crafted so well in Virginia, to secure these protections by statute for Floridians as one of the very first legislative initiatives in the new session,” wrote a group of tea party activists in a letter to Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, released today.

“We believe that if Governor Scott, as one of his first acts on taking office, were to sign such legislation into law, the citizens of Florida would see that our elected Representatives not only take their oath of office to protect the Constitution seriously, but it would send a very strong message to Washington and the entire nation,” the letter goes on.

A federal judge in Virginia last week overturned the “individual mandate” portion of the law requiring that individuals and families have health insurance coverage or pay a fine. That case is likely headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson in Pensacola this week heard oral arguments in a challenge filed by Attorney General Bill McCollum and 19 other states. The Florida case also contends that the individual mandate is unconstitutional and that the federal government overreached its authority with sweeping changes to the federal-state Medicaid program included in the law.

More than 100 members of the tea party movement, many of them county leaders, showed up on the day of the special session to learn more about the state legislature and to remind lawmakers that they’re going to hold them paying close attention to how they vote on tax and spending issues.

“We’re here to send a message to the Florida Legislature that we’re serious about holding them accountable,” said Henry Kelley, leader of the Fort Walton Beach Tea Party and organizer of Tuesday’s event.

Several powerful GOP leaders, including Senate President Mike Haridopolos and Sen. John Thrasher, who’s also the head of the Republican Party of Florida, dropped by the group’s meeting in a Senate committee room.

Haridopolos, who pledged Tuesday that lawmakers “will not raise taxes a single dime,” said he had a good talk with the group.

“That’s the kind of energy we need. As a person who strongly believes in the Constitution, I’m glad that they’re leading the fight to make sure we have limited government,” Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, said later.

“We want to have a two-way dialogue with them throughout the year. We want to hear directly from people because sometimes in Tallahassee you get too isolated,” he said.

Gov. Charlie Crist believes he’s the only candidate who can “stop the Tea Party mess” and defeat Marco Rubio in the three-way U.S. Senate race and that a vote for the Democrat – U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek – equates to a vote for Rubio.

“It sure looks like it. Yeah. I mean, you know, regrettably, that would be the case. I think Democrats are reaching that conclusion all across Florida. They tell me that,” the Republican-turned-independent told reporters when asked if a vote for Meek would be the same as a vote for Tea Party favorite Rubio.

Crist denied that his campaign has been pressuring Meek, lagging in the polls behind frontrunner Rubio and Crist, to drop out of the race.

“Number one, there’s no pressure. People should do what they feel is right. But I’m clear about this. I’m the only candidate who can win in November and stop the Tea Party and the mess that Mr. Rubio would bring to Washington,” Crist said.

Crist said it’s up to Meek whether to drop out.
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McCollum — who spoke swiftly, rarely pausing between thoughts — said the state should give a 10-year tax exemption to high-tech, bio-tech or aerospace companies that want to relocate to Florida.

He also called on Gov. Charlie Crist to give back Republican donations for his Senate race that he received before deciding to run as an independent.

“He’s not a Republican anymore,” McCollum said. “If someone wants their money back, and they ask for it, he should return it.”

Story here.

A week after Tea Party operative Doug Guetzloe crashed a press conference of tea party activists (a biased account from the activists is here) a similar skirmish could be in the works tomorrow night in Delray Beach.

Some quick background: Guetzloe’s Tea Party has fielded candidates in 20 state races to target “big spending” Republicans. The South Florida Tea Party is suing Guetzloe’s group in a West Palm Beach federal court, charging they have no right to use the name as a formal political party. The tea party, they argue, is a political movement – not a formal party.

The latest now is that Guetzloe is threatening to bring his band of Tea Partiers to a tea party gathering for an event with GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum at the South County Civic Center.

Guetlzoe was informed that invites for him and 19 of his allies has been rescinded.

“It is a private affair and if you attempt to enter the building you will be met by the Palm Beach Sheriffs Officers to charge you and your group with trespassing,” Tim McClellan, outreach director for the South Florida Tea Party, wrote to Guetzloe.

(We talked with McClellan, who said it’s not exactly a private affair. The public is welcome, but he said his group has the right to bar anyone it wants.)

Guetzloe’s e-mail response to McClellan: “Then it should be a fun event. See you then. Bring lots of police, we have a constitutional right to attend an open even and since I got the invite directly, you don’t have a leg to stand on. … Can’t wait.”

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.