The Fine Print

LeMieux: America and Florida first, party second

George LeMieux - Florida's newest United States Senator - says he's a "Charlie Crist Republican."

So what exactly does that mean? LeMieux says it means he's a "common sense conservative" and a "problem solver" who still believes in limited government, less spending and lower taxes. Some of his critics suggest that this means that LeMieux will be willing to vote across party lines at a time when there are controversial and critical issues confronting the Senate.

But given LeMieux's history it could also mean that he will act cautiously and pragmatic in his new position of power.

When asked about it on Saturday, LeMieux said  "my view is that we are all Americans first and Floridians first and then comes party.''

LeMieux added that he would stick to his "principles" once he goes to Washington D.C. but that would he "work with anyone" to solve the many problems confronting the nation.

More here.

Big money contract dispute gets settled

Here's a story that I did for The News Service of Florida:

A contentious battle over a nearly $80 million advertising contract with the Florida Lottery has been quietly settled.

The end result is that lottery officials on Wednesday signed a new 3-year contract with St. John & Partners Advertising and Public Relations to create and place the ads meant to entice people into playing the various games offered by the Florida Lottery.

The Jacksonville company had been named the winning bidder earlier this year, but the contract had been put on hold because rival firm Zimmerman Advertising contended that lottery officials mishandled the bidding process and should have disqualified St. John.

"We always stood behind our decision,'' said Jackie Barreiros, the public affairs director for the Lottery who was one of the three officials who ranked the bidders. "At the end of the day this was wrangling between two competitors. We're glad it's over.''

Why the bid dispute has ended isn't quite clear. The ongoing legal challenge over the contract was withdrawn on Wednesday. The court documents state that Zimmerman and St. John "have agreed to amicably resolve and settle this matter" but it provides no further detail.

Barreiros said that the Florida Lottery has not changed the terms of its contract with St. John and said that the Lottery has not been asked to let Fort Lauderdale-based Zimmerman become a subcontractor on the contract.

Michael Goldberg, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Zimmerman, would not say much about the settlement either, saying he could provide no details other than "we have resolved our dispute" and that the legal challenge had ended.

Zimmerman has been represented in Tallahassee the last few months by the high-powered lobbying firm of Smith & Ballard, which was paid as much as $10,000 to represent the firm during the last quarter, according to recently-filed lobbyist disclosure forms. St. John & Partners hired David Rancourt of Southern Strategy Group just days after Zimmerman filed its bid dispute back in July.

The dispute heated up quickly because attorneys for St. John & Partners demanded the law firm first hired by Zimmerman be thrown off the case. Law firm Foley & Lardner agreed to bow out a few days later. Other court documents showed that law firms hired by both companies sparred over a whole host of evidence.

The ad contract is an important one for the Florida Lottery during a time when it is battling declining sales in many of its games other than Powerball. This year the Lottery was given $30.2 million to spend directly on advertising, which includes TV, radio and print advertising in both English and Spanish. St. John was selected to oversee the main contract worth up to $24 million this year. State legislators set aside an additional $3.48 million which can be spent directly on ad agency fees.

So who's responsible for these Republican Party expenses?

Republican Party of Florida chairman Jim Greer tried hard over the weekend to put an end to the ongoing uproar over the use of RPOF credit cards by cutting his own American Express card in front of the party faithful.

Greer then told reporters that he had no intention of making public other credit card statements now that Rep. Ray Sansom's own bills had become public due to the ongoing criminal investigation with the former House Speaker. Sansom racked up nearly $200,000 over a two year period. The party itself has spent $3.6 million on credit card bills from January 2007 to June 2009.

But just like the Rosetta Stone helped unlock several languages the Sansom bill can be used to finally separate some of the expenses. So now that the public knows what Sansom did use his card for over a two-year period, the question is who's responsible for the following RPOF expenses:

$20,019 - Sheraton Park Tower Hotel, Knightsbridge, London, England - August 2008.

$18,450 - Inn on the Biltmore Estate, Asheville, North Carolina - August 2008.

$8,709 - The Original Wharf, Tallahassee, Florida - February 2007.

$7,640 - Best Limousine, Toms River, New Jersey - September 2007.

$7,373 - Best Limos, New York City - October 2008.

$6,981- Awards4U - Tallahassee - April 2007.

$5,879 - Best Limousine, New York City - January 2008.

$5,222 - Food Glorious Food, Tallahasee - April 2007.

$4,357 - Fired Up (pottery), Santa Rosa Beach - January 2009.

$3,751 - Seminole Cigar, Gainesville - September 2008.

$1,461 - Evan Evans Tour, London, England - August 2008.

$865 - Mr. Chow, London, England - August 2008.

$722 - American Watch Company, Los Angeles, California - January 2009.

$77 - Historic Royal Palaces Tower of London, London, England - August 2008.

There are of course hundreds of other expenses, many of them meals, catering and hotel bills from across the state. They range all the way from an Arby's in Monticello to Bern's Steakhouse in Tampa. There are also expenses that appear to be associated with various fundraisers that have been held over the years.

Greer before the Sansom spending records emerged insisted that that with "few exceptions" that the spending on party credit cards were legitimate. That means these expenses could be connected to fundraisers or campaigning. But the uproar over the spending isn't just coming from the media. It's also coming from Republicans who don't like Greer. An ongoing story in the months to come is whether this divide will continue to hound the party.

Illegal campaign contributions flowed to Florida politicians

WellCare Health Plans gave illegal campaign contributions to dozens of Florida’s legislators and top officials, including the current attorney general and top health regulator, between 2005 and 2007, according to a Florida Elections Commission report.

In addition to now-Attorney General Bill McCollum and Holly Benson, secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration, recipients included current Senate President Jeff Atwater and House Speaker Larry Cretul.

There is no indication in the Elections Commission report, released Wednesday afternoon, that any of the public officials knew the contributions were illegal. McCollum, Benson and Cretul could not be reached for comment.

Atwater’s campaign advisor Rick Wilson said that while he was not familiar with the WellCare case, in the past the Senate President has returned questionable donations. 

“Jeff Atwater has very high standards and a very high standard of making sure campaign donations are appropriate and legal,’’ said Wilson. But little can be done now, he said, since the campaign account for the 2008 election is closed. More here at Health News Florida.

The long list of legislators who took in questionable donations includes House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, Sen. Dan Gelber, Rep. Betty Reed, Rep. Yolly Roberson, Rep. Will Weatherford, Rep. Dean Cannon, Rep. David Rivera, State Sen. Ronda Storms, former House Speaker Ray Sansom, former House Speaker Marco Rubio, former Senate President Ken Pruitt, Rep. Juan Zapata, Rep. David Rivera, Sen. Mike Haridopolos and Sen. Don Gaetz.

The entire list is included here in the final pages of the consent order reached between the Florida Elections Commission and WellCare. Download Consent order

Hurricanes and the big casino

If you like playing the odds, here's a number to remember: 5.3 percent.

That's what a recently-concluded overview of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund pegs as the probability this hurricane season that the state-created reinsurance fund would exhaust all of its financial resources.

In other words, there about a 5 percent chance that the Cat Fund goes broke, creating a financial crisis in the state and forcing the fund to use its broad power to place assessments on insurance policies in order to pay off bonds that would be needed.

The health of the Cat Fund is worth noting in a week when for a few minutes it looked like Florida was about to get pounded again by storms. Its exposure was increased back in 2007 by the Legislature and Gov. Charlie Crist as a way to deal with rising insurance rates.

There is some good news about the Cat Fund. The combination of a new law and movement in the marketplace has actually greatly reduced the projected shortfall that exists in the fund. If a major storm were to hit Florida, the fund could have losses up to $7.1 billion that it could have trouble paying off right away. But this is sharply down from earlier this year when that shortfall was a whopping $18.5 billion.

The reasons for the drop? One was that state lawmakers scaled back the exposure of the Cat Fund by $2 billion. Under a comprehensive insurance package signed into law by Crist the top layer of the Cat Fund will be gradually eliminated by 2014.

The other reason for the drop was that many insurers in Florida - including State Farm Florida, USAA and Allstate Floridian - opted against purchasing coverage from the so-called Temporary Increase in Coverage Limit portion of the Cat Fund. This layer is optional to begin with but the new insurance law gave insurers more leeway to pass along rate hikes associated with buying reinsurance outside of this layer.

While there was $10 billion of capacity available in this higher layer, only $5.5 billion was purchased. Of that total, $3.5 billion of coverage was bought by Citizens Property Insurance Corp.

Now it is worth noting that all of the TICL layer falls within the Cat Fund $7.1 billion shortfall. That means that Citizens and a handful of other domestic carriers concluded it was worth the odds to purchase public reinsurance than to go out into the private market.

Citizens officials gave several reason for their logic, including it would be easier if only one state-created entity was forced to borrow money following a large storm and that the Cat Fund has the ability to stagger its assessments on insurance policies over several years while Citizens must charge a one-time assessment.

Who does Crist need more? Primary or general election voters?

If you want to summarize the dilemma that confronts Gov. Charlie Crist over picking a new U.S. senator to fill out Mel Martinez's term, the central question to ask is who does the governor - need, care, choose your word - more?

Is it the primary voters from the Republican Party of Florida? Or is it the 2010 general election voters who will ultimately decide the next senator for six years? Does Crist believe Florida is in fact trending Democratic, or does he have to reestablish himself with the party faithful?

Right now, there is a sense of urgency building about Crist's shaky status with the conservative flank of the party witnessed by accounts here and here. While Tom Gallagher tried to raise the issue of Crist's conservative bona fides in the GOP primary, it wasn't enough to prevent Gallagher from getting crushed back in 2006.

But Crist's embrace of the stimulus package - which of course was embraced in a quieter way by all the Republicans in the Legislature who used it to plug a budget deficit - has become item number one on a long list of transgressions. This has led to expectations that former House Speaker Marco Rubio could defy the odds and knock off Crist in next year's primary for the U.S. Senate.

So if Crist decides that the primary becomes his number one concern then he will pick someone that will hopefully quiet his conservative critics. He will go with someone in the words of one conservative that I talked to "won't be a vote" for President Obama. That could be someone like former House Speaker Dan Webster, an Orlando Republican whose conservative streak is well known but isn't especially close to Crist.

But can Crist afford to pick a caretaker for the U.S. Senate whose votes could be starkly different than his own? Because Crist will no longer have to worry about just his own record as governor, but he will also be called on to explain whether he agrees with a vote taken by the person he picked personally. Let's take any vote regarding climate control for example. Crist could be placed in the awkward position of having to either defend - or disagree with - the votes taken by someone he has no control over.

This pick wind up as the defining moment for Crist's short time in office and may do more to establish his legacy than other things he has done. That's because this pick will get lots of national attention and national TV time.

Crist for his part is refusing to go along with any talk about how this affects his own future. When asked Thursday about whether his appointment needed to be a political statement, Crist had just one word to offer. "No,'' he said.

But even if he doesn't view that way others are already trying to frame it in that context, whether it's Rubio or someone from the Democratic side. They are all waiting eagerly to see what Crist winds up doing. Rest assured, someone won't like it.

Alex Sink's cold war with the insurance commissioner

Gov. Charlie Crist and two members of the Cabinet voted on Tuesday to select a new person to head the Office of Financial Regulation, the arm of state government charged with investigating financial fraud.

But in the two-and-a-half years since a new administration took over there has never been a vote to confirm Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty, who was picked for his job when former Gov. Jeb Bush was still in office. And as long as Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink remains in office that won't likely change.

While McCarty has constantly been praised by Crist, it's clear that Sink has a completely different viewpoint. Sink has faulted McCarty on a number of times since entering office in 2007. Her displeasure flared up again at Tuesday's Cabinet meeting when McCarty presented a report on the entry of new capital into the property insurance market.

McCarty made the presentation at the request of Sink, who was following up on complaints from lawmakers who pushed the insurance deregulation or a.k.a the "State Farm" bill. These lawmakers have contended that McCarty misled Crist before he vetoed the legislation and there remains a quiet effort to get the Legislature to pass a new version of the bill if there is a special session later this year. The bill in essence would allow large capitalized carriers to have unregulated rates. (Sink refused to say Tuesday whether Crist should have signed or vetoed this bill - saying that was "the governor's decision" to make.)

McCarty for his part has refuted the suggestion he misled anyone, saying he and members of his office have been "candid" that a big chunk of new capital in Florida has come from unregulated surplus lines carriers which do not usually cover those in the residential homeowners market.

Sink on Tuesday morning chided McCarty for failing to get her the information she requested earlier, saying "it still stuns me" that his office was unable to get the information to her sooner. She added "It's really disturbing" and "I find it insulting."

The job of insurance commissioner used to be an elected position. But the 1998 reorganization of the Cabinet approved by voters collapsed the job of state treasurer and comptroller into the new chief financial officer position. But lawmakers uncomfortable with handing over all the power to the CFO - primarily Tom Gallagher since he was the main GOP candidate for the new job - placed the hiring and firing of the insurance commissioner under the governor and Cabinet.

But there was a twist in that 2002 law: It would take three votes - including yes votes from both the governor AND the chief financial officer - to either hire or fire the insurance commissioner. Translation: If the governor and the CFO don't agree, nothing happens. Sink has backed legislative proposals to change this, including an effort by Sen. J.D. Alexander to require an annual vote on whether to keep the commissioner, but that hasn't gone anywhere.

When asked on Tuesday whether she had confidence in McCarty, Sink instead repeated that he "didn't complete his assignment on time." When then asked if Sink would keep McCarty if she were elected governor, she said "that's entirely speculative."

She then added: "You always review the people who are there and evaluate their qualifications and then you make a decision."

Interestingly enough, Attorney General Bill McCollum - and Sink's likely rival for the governor's office in 2010 - praised McCarty's report, saying that Floridians should "very pleased" with the amount of surplus lines coverage since it has helped decrease the need to have commercial coverage picked up by state-created insurers.

Shadowy political groups get some advice from state officials

Here's a story that I did on Monday for The News Service of Florida.

State election officials have begun spelling out how Florida's jumbled election laws will work in the wake of a federal ruling that struck down a law aimed at shadowy groups that run attack ads.

Donald Palmer, director of the state Division of Elections, issued a three-page opinion last week that attempts to answer questions about so-called electioneering communication organizations, or ECOs, that are also known as 527s due to the section of federal tax law that covers them.

One clear consequence of the opinion: Lawmakers and other elected officials who run or control their own committees are free to send money that they collect into the coffers of organizations that now do not have to report any details until after Election Day.

Palmer wrote that Florida law "clearly does not prohibit a former ECO from receiving funds from political committees or committees of continuous existence." Political committees and CCEs are two types of political organizations that remain regulated and have limits on either donations or expenses.
But Mark Herron, a veteran elections and ethics attorney based In Tallahassee, said the new opinion means that lawmakers can steer money they collect for their CCEs into these unregulated organizations as long as legislators don't control or solicit money directly for the group. No one will know much about the organization until it files reports with the IRS. IRS guidelines don't require reports for the final quarter of the year until the end of January.

Florida lawmakers first went after electioneering communication organizations in 2004 as an attempt to shine a light on groups that run ads either praising or attacking candidates. These groups did not fall under state laws as long as they did not use the magic words "vote for" or "vote against." A federal judge in May, however, ruled that the law requiring these groups to register with the state and report their donations was a violation of First Amendment rights.

The Division of Elections issued its latest opinion on behalf of Tell the Public the Facts Inc., an electioneering communication organization that has been involved in several legislative races, including the bitter GOP primary between incumbent Sen. Alex Villalobos and former Miami -Dade School Board member Frank Bolanos in 2006. The Miami-based group also sent out mailers to voters last fall criticizing State Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey.

Ron Meyer, a Tallahassee attorney representing the group, said the request was made to state division election officials to clear up "confusion" that existed after the federal ruling. He said that the request came before the state opted against appealing the ruling in late June.

Meyer said none of the items in the opinion surprised him now that the state law has been declared unconstitutional. The Aug. 4 opinion also states that the ECOs are no longer required to file reports on contributions or expenses although it does say that the "state will continue to accept such filings if the ECO desires to file them."

The elections opinion also states that ECOs may terminate their registration with the state upon request.

One big item that the opinion does not address is whether or not candidates are allowed to coordinate with the now unregulated ECOs. A previous Division of Elections opinion stated that there was nothing that prevented those who run an ECO from consulting and planning with a candidate which ads to run and in which media markets to run the ads.

Jennifer Krell Davis, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Kurt Browning, said that since ECOs were now unregulated there was nothing in the law that would change the 2005 opinion.

"It's not going to negate the previous opinion,'' said Davis.

Meyer said he doesn't disagree with the May ruling that the previous law went too far, but he said he believed the Legislature could still come back in 2010 and adopt a narrower set of requirements for ECOs.

"I think there's still some room to regulate the field,'' said Meyer.

Kottkamp vs. Benson vs. Aronberg vs. Gelber

If current Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Holly Benson jumps into the race for Attorney General, then voters in Florida will have up to four current and former state legislators competing for one job. (Benson said recently she is "seriously" considering it.)

All four served in the Florida Legislature together at one point making it easy to look at their voting records. So consider this Part 1 of an ongoing examination of some key or interesting votes the foursome made. These are votes taken from the special session in late 2005 and the regular 2006 session, the last time they were all together.

SB 6-B: The so-called gift ban, which made it illegal for legislators to accept anything of value from lobbyists. The legislation also required lobbyists to disclose how much they get paid. Kottkamp, Benson, Gelber and Aronberg - Yes.

HB 145: This bill abolished the concept of joint and several liability for economic damages in negligence cases. This was a top priority of the business community and fiercely opposed by the state's trial attorneys. Benson voted yes. Kottkamp, Gelber and Aronberg voted no.

CS/CS/CS/SB 1980: This was the big comprehensive insurance bill that lawmakers passed in the spring of 2006 only to tear it all apart in the January 2007 special session amid an outcry from Floridians angry at rising insurance rates. It did include a $715 million bailout of Citizens Property Insurance Corp. in an effort to blunt the impact of assessments the carrier would place on all property insurance policies in the state. It also gave more leeway for private insurers and Citizens to raise insurance rates, although it also did set the stage for wind mitigation discounts that have since become controversial. Benson voted yes. Kottkamp, Gelber, and Aronberg voted no.

3-B: Medicaid reform. This bill created the Medicaid pilot project pushed by former Gov. Jeb Bush to remake the Medicaid system into a program that more closely resembled private insurance plans. Benson was the bill sponsor. The idea was to expand this program statewide but lawmakers have refused to do so and many legislators from both parties are skeptical that this program has worked. Benson said recently that she still believes in the concept. Benson and Kottkamp voted yes. Aronberg and Gelber voted no.

SB 1350: This was a big transportation bill that contained a $2 per day surcharge on rental cars that had to approved by a countywide referendum. Bush vetoed the bill when it got to his desk. Despite overwhelming support by the GOP-controlled Legislature, both Benson and Kottkamp voted no. Aronberg and Gelber voted yes.

HB 135: This was a charter school bill that established a new statewide board that could approve or deny charter school applications. This move was widely criticized by local school boards who considered it an illegal usurping of their constitutionally-created powers. That viewpoint was shared by the First District Court of Appeal, which ruled in December 2008 that the law created a "total and fatal conflict" with the state constitution. Benson, Kottkamp and Aronberg all voted yes on this bill. Gelber was the lone legislator among the four to vote no.

Tweeting on state time? Let freedom ring says Crist

In the last few days, there has been a growing crackdown on the use of Twitter as ESPN, the NFL, and the U.S. Marines have cracked down on the use of the microblogging service.

But the use of Twitter continues to grow among those in state government. What started out as tweeting among a handful of state officials and politicians is spreading. Case in point: The Department of Management Services got into the act about two weeks ago and has even started putting "Follow Us on Twitter" at the bottom of DMS e-mails.

So far FloridaDMS has been tweeting primarily about its upcoming matchmaker conference for minority vendors or about upcoming contract bids for the state. A spokeswoman for DMS says their purchasing office sends information to the communication office which then posts it on Twitter. But Cathy Schroeder adds: "We want to expand down the road."

And that is apparently ok with Gov. Charlie Crist, whose U.S. Senate campaign maintains a Twitter account in his name. While Crist acknowledges that he doesn't personally use Twitter or any other social media site, he said this week he has no problem with state agencies using Twitter.

"I think people ought to communicate in a way that's effective for them,'' Crist said. "Let freedom ring."

So far some of the state entities besides the Department of Management Services on Twitter include:

Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission - MyFWC.

Florida State Watch Office of the Divison of Emergency Management  - Florida _ SWO

Attorney General Bill McCollum - myfloridalegal

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink - CFOAlexSink

Florida Department of Agriculture marketing - freshfromFL

Florida Lottery - Fla _ Lottery

This list is by no means all of them, plus there are state employees who also maintain their own accounts on Twitter.