The Fine Print

Rick Scott's long list of challenges

A beaming Governor-elect Rick Scott and his wife, Ann, showed up at the governor’s mansion on Monday night where they joined Gov. Charlie Crist and First Lady Carole Crist for a symbolic menorah lighting ceremony.

Scott helped 11-year-old Mendy Oirechman light the candles of a large menorah that was placed up against one of the front windows and he later held hands with Crist as they briefly danced with some of the rabbis in attendance.

The ceremony, which was started under former Gov. Jeb Bush, was a tangible sign of some of the many social responsibilities that come with being governor. But it also could be seen as a prelude of many of the large and small challenges that will confront Scott once he is sworn into office in early January.

During the half-hour ceremony, he was reminded of Florida’s insurance problems when he was asked whether he planned to follow Crist’s footsteps. Crist went to Jerusalem and placed a prayer in the Wailing Wall where he asked God to spare Florida from hurricanes.  Rabbi Schneur Z. Oirechman politely asked whether or not the mezuzah that now sits on the door jamb into Crist’s office would remain once Scott becomes governor. Crist back in 2007 took some heat from groups such as the ACLU for placing the religious symbol in his office.

But there are many other large challenges that are looming for the rookie governor whether it's the state budget mess, the dismal economy, Medicaid and even the brewing leadership battle for the Republican Party of Florida.

The complete rundown on Scott's challenges can be found here at the Florida Tribune.

Whose budget pork is it anyway?

This got some quick attention earlier this week but it merits a bit of discussion.

Florida legislative leaders announced that for the third year in a row that they won't allow fellow legislators to put in community budget requests -- or the Tallahassee version of earmarks.

The rationale from House Speaker Dean Cannon and Senate President Mike Haridopolos was that the state's ongoing fiscal crisis means that allowing members to file in such requests would "create unrealistic funding expectations for the coming year."

There's no doubt that the coming year will be tough again. Lawmakers will head into the spring session with a projected budget shortfall that could range anywhere from $2.5 billion to as small as $828 million depending on what legislators decide to fund.A key factor is that chunks of the federal stimulus will drop out of the budget.

State law allows for community budget issue requests. This is a process where cities, counties as well as private and non-profit organizations can request funding for items like, oh, astroturf for a South Florida flag football league.

But local projects can still get funded without these community budget requests, even in tough budget years. There were several local projects that were placed in the state budget by powerful legislators during the 2010 session.

The only difference is that without the community budget requests it's much harder to figure out where they came from and who wanted them.

CBIR's as they are also known usually require a lawmaker to list the background of a project and even the names and phone numbers of those who are asking for the money. The item is also supposed to include whether it was requested by a state agency or has local matching money.

The one caveat, however, is that top leaders, including House speakers and Senate presidents rarely attach their name to CBIR's even though they wind up being instrumental in getting millions set aside to their own pet projects.

During the 2010 campaign season Democrat Loranne Ausley, a candidate for Chief Financial Officer, said that the Legislature should reinstate the system of requiring the community budget requests so that "politicians must own their pork spending." She ripped then Senate President Jeff Atwater for jettisoning community budget issue requests.

When asked about it this fall, Atwater was fairly dismissive of Ausley's ideas.

He noted that back in 2007 - the year that former Rep. Ray Sansom put in money for a $6 million hangar and the year that lawmakers put together a controversial bond deal for the First DCA Courthouse - that the Legislature did use the community budget requests but that things got in the budget anyway.

The hangar, of course, led eventually to Sansom's indictment while the courthouse continues to generate headlines.

Atwater contends the changes that lawmakers used during the last two sessions are superior. This included unveiling budget conforming bills in public meetings and forcing university officials to appear at a public hearing to make requests for construction dollars.

The question is whether or not Cannon or Haridopolos will retain these practices. The new Senate and House rules passed last week were silent on how lawmakers will handle the budget conferences during the 2011 session.

House and Senate staff have suggested that they will likely handle it as they did this past spring, but there's been no official word yet.

 

 

Which lame duck will break on through for Gov. Charlie Crist?

Gov. Charlie Crist this week said he would go ahead and push to issue a posthumous pardon to the late Jim Morrison. That decision brought national and international exposure to Crist in the waning days of his governorship, and for now, his political career.

Crist has already started the wheels in motion and late Wednesday the governor's office requested that the Florida Parole Commission officially launch an investigation into whether the dead rock singer deserves a pardon from his 40-year-old conviction for indecent exposure.

As noted here in today's N.Y. Times, Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle does not plan to contest the pardon. “While I can never condone Morrison’s actions of exposing himself to an audience I will not waste my lawyers’ time in an effort to fight an attempted pardon,'' she said in a statement.

But former Gov. Claude Kirk - who was in charge of the state when Morrison's antics made headlines - questioned the need for a pardon, saying that the state didn't do anything to him and that "Morrison died in the condition he elected to die."

Crist, however, can't give a pardon out by himself. He needs the votes of at least two other members on the Cabinet, which will meet as the clemency board on Dec. 9. Of course, like Crist, all three members of the Cabinet are leaving office in January.

Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson has already said that he is open to a pardon. But there's no guarantee that either Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink - who last year said she didn't know who Jim Morrison is - or Attorney General Bill McCollum would go along.

When asked about this week, McCollum made it clear that while he was "open" to reviewing the case that doesn't mean he will go along with a pardon.

"I want to see the case again kind of refreshed before I make any determination," said McCollum. "I'm going to have to review it."

Kevin Cate, a spokesman for Sink, said the CFO was also reserving final judgment until she saw the results of the Parole Commission's investigation.

"CFO Sink is open to a pardon of Jim Morrison and will make her decision after evaluating the report from the Parole Commission,'' Cate said.

 

 

 

 

Break on through for Mr. Mojo Risin? Not so fast.

After several years of refusing to give a definitive yes or no about a posthumous pardon for Jim Morrison, Gov. Charlie Crist this week said "why not?" when discussing the matter with members of the press corps.

This was as close to anything resembling a yes that Crist has said in the nearly four years since he was first asked about whether the dead singer deserves a pardon stemming from his arrest for a notorious 1969 concert in Coconut Grove. His conviction was on appeal when he died in a bathtub in a Paris bathroom in 1971.

And this past week there has been a media frenzy regarding the possible pardon of the Florida native and alumnus of Florida State University.

But Crist had an important caveat about whether he would pursue a pardon: It all depended on support from other Cabinet members, including outgoing Attorney General Bill McCollum and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink. (It takes a vote by both the governor and two of the three members of the Cabinet to grant a pardon.)

Sink, as you may recall, said a year ago she didn't know that Morrison was the lead singer of The Doors although she says she now knows who he is.

Both Sink and McCollum did say this week they were open to considering a pardon. Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson has previously said he was willing to consider it.

But there are both bureaucratic and yes, even political hurdles, that may stop any of this from happening.

First of all, either Crist or a Cabinet member has to officially request to place Morrison's name on the agenda for the December meeting of the clemency board under what is called Rule 17.Then there's a question of whether there would be time for the Florida Parole Commission to conduct an investigation in time for that meeting. It is routine for the commission to look at the actual case files - and to also try to talk to people associated with it - before issuing a recommendation.

And who knows what that confidential investigation may conclude.

There could be arguments that the main allegation against Morrison - that he exposed himself - was never decisively proven since there is no photographic evidence of that happening.

But on the other hand, it can be argued that Morrison never showed any remorse for his actions and that his decision to move to France was evidence that he was prepared to live as an exile if his appeal was not granted. Even Morrison's own attorney told the N.Y. Times this week that Morrison acted stupidly and that being an artist doesn't justify antisocial behavior.

The political reality is that McCollum and Sink may conclude that they have no desire to revive the cultural wars of the late '60s, especially if either one of them has aspirations of future office.

There also could be those who argue that this case isn't important enough to take up at this time.

Doors fans who have pursued the case, however, have their own ammunition, including that potential 2012 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee granted a pardon to Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards for a reckless driving charge back when Huckabee was governor of Arkansas.

What does seem certain at this point is that this may be The End, one way or the other, on this matter.

Given the amount of media attention generated this past week it's hard to imagine that Governor-elect Rick Scott or his fellow Cabinet members will want to have anything to do with this case in 2011.

 

 

 

Lesson No. 1 from 2010: "It's all about the base."

Current Republican Party of Florida Chairman John Thrasher had a mantra that he used over and over again during the 2002 re-election campaign of Jeb Bush.

"It's all about the base,'' Thrasher would say and then smile. "Remember, it's all about the base."

If there is any lesson about 2010 for Florida Democrats that may indeed be it.

For the last four gubernatorial cycles, Democrats have been unable to field the type of candidate who would inspire their base - from teachers, union workers, African-Americans or you name it - to defeat the Republican candidate on the ballot.

Alex Sink, who despite the GOP attacks on her, was actually a cautious and at times moderate politician. Sink, who went out of her way to not be seen on President Barack Obama, now joins a list of other middle-of-the road Democrats who could not find a path to victory.

That list includes her husband, Bill McBride, who was embraced eight years ago on the grounds that he would be more electable than Janet Reno, despite her strong following in South Florida. The feeling among many Democratic leaders was that Reno was too liberal and would lose to Bush.

Two months ago Steve Schale, the Democratic operative who led Obama's successful effort in Florida in 2008, contended that the 600,000 edge in voter registration between Democrats and Republicans was enough to provide a wall to an impending GOP tide. That's why it made sense, he argued, to have a candidate who could appeal to the independent voters of the state.

Democrats also made a decision this campaign cycle to attack Republicans over their series of financial scandals - including the indictments of Ray Sansom and Jim Greer - as opposed to either focusing on the economy or on wedge issues that could have helped with the Democratic base.

Well, you can see the result: A sweep in the Cabinet, a veto-proof majority in the Florida Legislature and the election of Rick Scott, a candidate who was initially deemed unelectable by many members of the Republican establishment.

Overall, turnout on Tuesday was greater than it was four years ago. More than 5.3 million votes were cast compared to 4.88 million in the race that Jim Davis lost to Charlie Crist.

Sink will go down as a candidate who did better than the three previous candidates for governor. And did get a higher number of votes in several Democratic leaning counties including Broward. She also did exceptionally well in Miami-Dade where in the closing days she ran a hard-hitting radio ad going after Scott on his immigration policy.

But take a closer look: She did no better than Davis did in Palm Beach County. The presence of Rod Smith, a Gainesville prosecutor and another moderate, only added about 5,000 votes in Democratic-leaning Alachua County.

Now take a look at Scott's numbers: He did better in GOP strongholds then Crist did back in 2006, such as Bay, Brevard, Collier, Escambia, and Lee. Scott also picked up nearly 17,000 more votes in Miami-Dade County than Crist did four years earlier.

So Lesson No. 1 again - it's all about the base.