The Fine Print

Could this become an issue in Mack vs. Hasner vs. LeMieux race?

Put this in "Will this become an issue in the U.S. Senate race?" file.

Sometime next year motorists across Florida will begin paying higher tolls to use nearly 600 miles of highway according to information recently released by the Florida Department of Transportation.

The average toll increase will be about $.25 and it will affect major roads such as the Florida Turnpike, Alligator Alley, Sunshine Skyway bridge, the Veterans Expressway and the Beachline Expressway in Central Florida.

This toll hike was authorized by HB 985, a major transportation bill that was approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature during the 2007 session. It mandates that the tolls be raised at least once every five years to keep pace with inflation.

The bill since then has become known as the legislation that authorized the millions used to construct the controversial First District Court of Appeal or the "Tallahassee Taj Mahal."

But while that provision was slipped into the legislation in the waning days of the session the toll provisions were hotly debated on the floor of the Florida House.

The House ultimately approved the bill by a 68-49 margin with Rep. Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton and current U.S. Senate candidate voting for it. Other Republicans who voted yes include House Speaker Marco Rubio and Sen. Mike Haridopolos.

But the legislation did not draw in universal support from GOP lawmakers. Legislators such as Rep. Dennis Ross (who is now in Congress) and current Senate Majority Leader Andy Gardiner were among those who voted no on the bill.

So why could this bill become an issue?

Because U.S. Rep. Connie Mack - and who is expected to jump to join the list of GOP contenders in the U.S. Senate - is among those who has spoken out loudly about raising tolls on Florida roads. Mack, for example, staunchly opposed a proposal to add tolls to Interstate 75 in southwest Florida to help finance a widening of the road.

"Tolls never go away," Mack told Lee County Commissioners back in 2008 according to the Naples Daily News. "They're an added tax. The easy thing to do is say 'Let's toll.'"

Former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux had nothing directly to do with the tolling bill. But LeMieux was chief of staff when then-Gov. Charlie Crist signed the legislation into law.

The toll increases are expected to generate $1.8 billion and while some of the money will be used to expand existing toll roads it will also be used to build the Wekiva Parkway in Central Florida.

It may be the toll increases will not become a campaign issue but the hikes will likely take effect shortly before the August Republican primary - meaning it could be fresh upon voters minds when it comes time to vote. And that means some campaign consultant could find it an issue to jump onto.

 

Angry Republicans lash out at Florida GOP leaders over primary move

Top Republicans in Florida late last month pushed to have the state move up its presidential primary to Jan. 31.

The argument this year - as it was in 2008 - is that this would ensure that presidential candidates would pay attention to Florida.

The latest news is that the Republican National Committee has signed off on a plan to allow the primary to be a winner-take-all contest. This means even though Florida is still losing half of its delegates to the 2012 Republican National Convention the 50 delegates up for grabs remains a valuable prize to the GOP presidential contenders.

More on that here.

But it is also clear that many of the "grassroots" Republicans aren't happy about the decision by top Republicans to buck RNC rules.

It has already been reported that National Committeeman Paul Senft loudly protested the move shortly before the vote.

But emails obtained on behalf of the Associated Press show that Senate President Mike Haridopolos was hit up with lots of angry messages about the potential primary move, which some saw as a way to help some of the candidates, including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, although House Speaker Dean Cannon is backing Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Take this email from Lakeland Tea Party leader Mark LaMons and his wife Alison:

"We do not appreciate living in a state, that on more than one occasion, has become a laughing stock as it pertains to elections," their email says. "But that is minor compared to the outright subversion of the will of the people. It is one thing to have the Democrats try to steal an election but to have our own party manipulate the system to advantage a particular candidate is unconscionable."

Here's some of the other sentiments:

Rebecca Walker of Fernandina Beach wrote Haridopolos and ticked off many reasons, including that it was "plain rude" to break RNC rules after the convention was awarded to the state.

"It is breaking the rules and that is just wrong,'' Walker wrote. "I feel like doing this will give the RPOF a black eye in the eyes of the nation. It is wrong, and if the RPOF does this, I for one will be embarrassed and ashamed of our party."

Cindy Kucharski of North Fort Myers wrote a lengthy email to Haridopolos where she says that "whoever came up with this lame idea of moving the primary up is not working for the best interest of the party or the current and future candidates....It's almost as though our party has been infiltrated by an element who wishes to destroy the democratic process."

She also wrote this: "I am a political activist. It is a rare day that I do not send a letter to a legislator - not only elected officials from Florida, but from all over the country. I pay attention. I watch CSPAN. I listen to talk radio. I research candidates on the Internet. I go to hear them speak when making my mind who to vote for. However half the people I meet are ignorant of the issues, too lazy to go out to a candidate forum, many too lazy to even request an absentee ballot and send it in.

You know the electorate is alarmingly apathetic and it takes a lot of motivation to get out the vote. By moving the primary date you decrease the time possible the motivate the unwashed masses."

Later she continues: "My disappointment in the Republican Party continues. I basically refuse to financially support RPOF or RNC. However, I work tirelessly for a candidate I support and have been very pleased at the victories of Marco Rubio and Rick Scott - in spite of their initial lack of support from their own parties. I was so disgusted with the Republican Party that I was ready to change my voter registration from Republican - and only stayed in the party because I realized candidates like Marco need the support of conservative primary voters."

Rick Hartley a Republican State Committeeman from Duval County wrote to Haridopolos and said: "Do not hijack the primary for Romney! This stinks."

Bill Landes from Polk County wrote Cannon, Haridopolos and members of the panel that was voting on the primary date: "I personally feel this sounds as a personal political move for self personal gain."

Carole Reid, a state committeewoman from Putnam County, wrote: "The Republican Party and its legislative leaders remind me of children who don't play by the rules but whine when they are penalized. It is time for these leaders to understand that, as adults, we do not pick and choose rules and laws we wish to adhere to, but rather work to change those with disagree with."

 

 

Florida's wild expensive election could have big stakes

Florida's bitter, expensive and wild election season will finally lurch to a close on Tuesday.

Voters, besieged by a barrage of political ads, could be forgiven for thinking that the main issues are Medicare fraud, lockstep devotion to President Barack Obama and reckless plans to raise taxes.

But the election's impact on a state with a million residents out of work and hundreds of thousands of homes in foreclosure looms far more prominently than all that campaign vitriol filling airwaves and mailboxes.

"I think that Florida is at a crossroads and so is our country, and the Florida election can make a determination of the future of America," said Gov. Charlie Crist, running as an independent for U.S. Senate.

Crist's decision to leave office after just one term to run for a Senate seat helped spark a frenzied run for governor and marked the first time in more than 100 years that both the governor and all the seats on the Cabinet were open at the same time.

Democrats hope to win back the governor's mansion after 12 years of Republican control and begin to chip away at GOP dominance of the Florida Legislature.

"There's an opportunity here in this election to bring some balance back," said Karen Thurman, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party.

Florida voters could help decide the direction of the country and the state. They could help Republicans seize the U.S. House, give the Legislature a veto-proof majority, or pass amendments that could alter the state's political makeup.

A longer look at Florida's high-stakes election can be found here.

Crist's demise leaves an uncertain legacy

With polls showing that he continues to lag behind rival Marco Rubio, the hour that Gov. Charlie Crist spent with David Gregory at Tuesday night’s U.S. Senate debate might be his final time in the national spotlight.

Crist, who had successfully climbed from the ranks of the state senate into the governor’s mansion, is now confronted with the prospect that his political career for now is over. His decision to bolt the Republican Party and run as an independent means that he will have few options after this year.

His political ascent was marked by several twists and turns and it is hard to imagine that the man now preaching about independence and moderation once accused Democrats of dirty tricks in getting then-Gov. Lawton Chiles elected over Jeb Bush back in 1994.

But as Crist exits the stage, he leaves behind an uncertain – and largely incomplete – legacy as Florida’s governor. Crist became the first governor to voluntarily give up the post after one term in the 40-plus years that governors have been allowed to seek re-election.

Lance deHaven-Smith, a professor of public administration and policy at Florida State University, said Crist’s legacy actually depends on how the election turns out next week.

“Crist tried to move his party and the state back toward the middle after eight rather polarizing years under Jeb Bush,'' notes deHaven-Smith said in an e-mail. “He did not accomplish much policy-wise compared to many other governors, but he contributed to significant improvements in the state’s civic culture.  If he is elected to the Senate, Florida is likely to see a continuation of this moderation in public office for both parties.  If he loses, well, his legacy of compromise and pragmatism may be short-lived."

David Colburn, a professor of history at the University of Florida and a long-time scholar of state politics, said that Crist clearly tried to work with both political parties and was not ideological in how he approached problems. An example of this, of course, was Crist's decision to embrace the federal stimulus in order to help ease Florida's budget woes.

“I think it is easy to dismiss Crist as a politician who is only interested in getting and holding office and that there really is not much to him,’’ Colburn said in an e-mail.  “Clearly he is not ideological and he made clear to more than one state political leader that "he was not Jeb Bush." By that he meant that he was willing to work with both parties to find solutions to critical issues facing Florida and that he did not dismiss government's role in improving the quality of life for Floridians.”

But Colburn also made it clear that Crist is unlikely to leave the same kind of impact that other governors left.

A full look at Crist's uncertain legacy can be found here at the Florida Tribune.

Charlie Crist's defection from GOP could still leave a mark

If you believe the multitude of polls out there right now, the consensus is that Gov. Charlie Crist's bid to become Florida's next U.S. Senator is doomed.

Crist bolted the GOP last April to run as an independent candidate after it was clear that Marco Rubio would defeat him in a Republican primary. At first he surged ahead in the polls but now all of them having him trail Rubio by double-digits.

Yet Crist's decision to leave his party could still have a ripple effect after he's gone.

That's because a new report released this week by the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee recommends making it harder for candidates to switch parties and avoid primaries. While there is no guarantee that a bill will be filed, committee reports are often seen as a precursor to future legislation.

The report suggests that Florida lawmakers should change the law so that candidates cannot change their parties less than a year before qualifying begins. It notes that "requiring a candidate to make an ultimate decision on party membership or NPA status 16-18 months before the general election would effectively eliminate or drastically reduce last-minute, self-serving decisions regarding candidacy."

The same report also suggests that Florida needs a “sore loser” law that would ensure that no future candidate could lose a primary and then still show up on the general election ballot. The Senate report says that a close look at the existing law shows that there is no actual “prohibition” on a candidate running as someone with no party affiliation following a primary defeat. U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman in Connecticut ran as a third-party candidate in 2006 after he was defeated in the Democratic primary.

You can read more about the report here at the Florida Tribune.

 

 

Rubio: I am not under investigation nor will I ever be

The furor over the still unreleased Republican Party of Florida audit this past weekend prompted the campaign of U.S. Senate candidate Charlie Crist to take several shots at rival Marco Rubio. After a closed door session on Saturday, the party said it may sue to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars that Crist and former chairman Jim Greer spent on non-party related travel expenses.

Danny Kanner, a spokesman for Crist, said the party should worry about whether or not Rubio is under investigation for the way he used his Republican Party of Florida issued credit card instead of inferring that Crist may need to pay back thousands of money to the party. The Crist campaign says the move by the party is a political payback aimed at Crist, who bolted the party to run as an independent.

Rubio, however, flatly insisted on Friday that he is not under investigation by either the FBI and IRS - and he boldly predicted that he never will be.

"It's just not true,'' said Rubio following his well-received speech at the 2010 Victory Dinner at Walt Disney World. "I have never been contacted by anyone. I'm not going to because it's not true."

Rubio continued to insist that he used his RPOF credit card for “political purposes” and that the “few instances” that it wasn’t that it was “paid back at the time.”

It's clear, however, that there is some type of investigation into party finances that has been underway for some time now. And Al Hoffman, a former U.S. ambassador and top fundraiser for the party, said at the Saturday RPOF meeting that he has been questioned by both the FBI and IRS about party spending matters.

It's just another reminder that despite RPOF chairman John Thrasher's bold statement before donors and party faithful on Friday night that the "dark period" of the party is over there is still plenty of fallout that could come from Jim Greer-credit cards-Ray Sansom series of scandals.

Now it's unclear how much of this will unfold before Election Day. The trial of Sansom - the former House speaker charged with using his power as budget chairman to steer money to a political donor and developer - has now been scheduled for early next year.

Greer's trial on charges that he steered party money to a shell company that he set up with former executive director Delmar Johnson was initially scheduled for October. But Damon Chase, an attorney for Greer, said the case will not move forward until the defense team has had a chance to put under oath Thrasher, incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, and incoming House Speaker Dean Cannon. They all signed a proposed severance package back in January that says that what Greer did as chairman was "proper, lawful and appropriate."

"I can't wait for the depositions where you sit them down and ask them questions," Chase said this past week. "We're going to walk into court, and go, boom, boom, boom, with the testimony."

Haridopolos, Cannon and Thrasher said they aren't bothered by the prospect of giving a deposition.

"I look forward to justice being done in that case and look forward to cooperating anyway I can,'' Cannon said.

The LeMieux-Rubio lovefest

Something worth noting:

When George LeMieux was appointed to the U.S. Senate last August, this was how he articulated his political philosophy:

 "I describe myself as a Charlie Crist Republican," LeMieux said at the time.

When asked what that meant, LeMieux said he planned to back the principles of his party, including lower spending, but that he would "work with anyone" who wanted to solve problems. He also said last year that "my view is that we are all Americans first and Floridians first and then comes party."

Flash forward to this year.

Crist bolted the Republican Party after it became apparent that he could not win the GOP primary for U.S. Senate against Marco Rubio. Despite LeMieux's deep ties with Crist - campaign manager, chief of staff and architect of some of Crist's policy initiatives - he opted against backing Crist in the race.

When LeMieux appeared at the quarterly meeting of the Republican Party of Florida earlier this month, he went even further and urged GOP leaders to "work hard" to elect Rubio and praised him for the "courage of his convictions."

LeMieux said he wouldn't "say anything bad about my friend the governor," but he then proceeded to explain that Rubio was needed in the U.S. Senate because he is a "principled conservative."

"Marco is a principled conservative and I have been there and I have seen what it takes, we cannot have people who are going to just go along and get along,'' LeMieux said. (This of course echoes one of the constant criticisms of Crist, which is that he changes his policy positions based on the prevailing mood of the moment.)

LeMieux then added this about Rubio: "He will be a great senator and he will not only be a solid conservative vote but he will be a solid conservative idea person."

LeMieux's statements are even more interesting given what Rubio said about him some 10 months ago:

"This is a disappointing appointment for Florida,'' Rubio said in a statement. "George LeMieux is a talented political operative and the governor’s best friend, but that doesn’t make him the right choice to represent Florida in the Senate."

So then what did Rubio say about LeMieux at a Tampa breakfast earlier this month with the GOP faithful?

"He has done more in the last 9 months in the U.S. Senate that some people do in six years,'' Rubio told the GOP faithful.

Rubio added that he was "grateful for his service."

Here's one Democratic stronghold that could go for Crist

It probably didn't get much notice outside of Leon County, but Gov. Charlie Crist did something last week that may have given him an edge in at least one Democratic stronghold.

Crist on Friday vetoed a state retirement bill that would have reduced the interest earnings paid to state workers who enter a special kind of program known as the Deferred Retirement Option Program or DROP. This program is basically designed to offer additional retirement benefits to veteran state workers with the catch that most of them have to retire within 5 years of entering DROP. (The logic behind offering this benefit is that once veteran workers get close to retirement they have maxed out their benefits in the normal retirement system and have no reason to keep working. It's attractive because workers can either get a lump-sum payment or can roll it over into other retirement accounts.)

The governor's veto of this bill got a huge front-page headline in the Tallahassee Democrat on Saturday. This now marks the second year in a row that Crist has taken an action that spares state employees. Last year he vetoed a proposed pay cut for workers earning more than $45,000 a year.

Leon County is nowhere near the size of Democratic strongholds like Palm Beach or Broward counties. But it has more than 100,000 registered Democrats and it has more than a two-to-one registration edge over Republicans. There are also nearly 24,000 registered independents. In a divided three-way race the vote in this county could be crucial especially if the path for victory for an independent Crist is to siphon off votes from the winner of the Democratic primary between U.S Rep. Kendrick Meek and Jeff Greene.

Democrat Jim Davis - who ran against Crist for governor in 2006 - took just eight counties statewide and four of them were in the shadow of Tallahassee: Leon, Gadsden, Jefferson and Madison. Davis took Leon by more than 22,000 votes.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson won Leon County by nearly 45,000 votes during that same election when he was challenged by former Secretary of State Katherine Harris.

This year isn't a presidential year - but suffice to say Democratic candidates for president including Barack Obama, Al Gore and John Kerry won Leon County in the last decade. Former Gov. Jeb Bush lost Leon County by more than 32,000 votes in the 2002 governor's election.

Crist said on Monday that his decision to veto bills that would have affected state employees has nothing to do with trying to win votes in Leon County.

"The rationale behind it was not motivated by that factor, but rather again the economy,'' said Crist. "It just seems to me that when you are at a time when everybody is struggling, everybody has got to eat the last thing I want to do is make it harder for them to survive."

Crist - noting that the DROP change would also have impacted all sorts of retirees including police officers - said that the bill he vetoed "just seemed like it was too dramatic, bordering on Draconian."

The governor did let stand last Friday another change that would require roughly 27,000 state workers - including legislators and legislative employees - to pay a health insurance premium for the first time. The charge is relatively small: Just $100 annually for single coverage, $180 a year for coverage including a spouse or $360 a year for family coverage.

"I didn't think that it was unreasonable,'' said Crist.

These actions still may not ensure Crist a victory in Leon County, especially since Meek has long-running ties to the area, including a stint on the Florida A&M University football team as a star linebacker. Plus black voters do make up a sizable chunk of the registered voters in Leon, Jefferson and Madison.

But Crist could have done enough to neutralize whatever Democrat does win. And if Greene pulls off the upset of Meek then it would be easy to see a scenario where the governor does exceedingly well in Leon.

Is Crist making a turn back to the middle?

Behind in the polls and marginalized by the GOP-controlled Legislature, Gov. Charlie Crist this week turned back to the populist tone that has defined his time in office.

Crist vetoed an elections bill sought by Republican leaders, threatened to veto any bill that raises property insurance rates, and has now backed away from a controversial bill to strip job protections from teachers.

"I'm listening to the people of Florida, my boss," Crist said.

Legislators say he may be listening more to polls that show him losing to Marco Rubio in the Republican U.S. Senate primary.

"It could be he's given up any hope of winning the Senate race," groused Sen. JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales. "He's defaulting to a moderate position and at least preserve some sort of future. He was perhaps trying to be more conservative for a while. He's going back to his roots."

Read more here at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

The Crist-Rubio drinking game

It's almost a shame that the Fox News debate between Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio is scheduled to air at 9 a.m. on Sunday.

It would have been much better if this debate has been set during prime-time, or least in the early evening hours. Because then viewers could play the Crist-Rubio drinking game where they could take a drink every time certain words are said.

That's because according to Chris Wallace "there will be no rules...we'll have everything but the steel cage."

So that means we can expect to hear the following words a lot:

"Lobbyist."

"Obama."

"Stimulus."

"Unemployment."

"Credit card bills."

"Character."

Others that may get slipped in there could be "man hug" and "lavish lifestyle." We might also hear a bit of a dust-up over taxes, as in who voted for them, who didn't. Was that $1 a pack a cigarette tax hike signed by Crist really a tax hike? How can Rubio say he didn't support a tax hike when he voted for budgets where the state relied on increased property taxes to pay for schools?

You get the picture.

Those are the narratives that the two campaigns are now relying heavily on. It will be interesting to see whether or not the debate does delve into other substantive areas including Cuba, the nation's relationship with Israel, financial regulation, and immigration reform. You could include health care, but there the argument is over whether Crist was forceful enough in saying he opposed federal health care reform. Both men are now saying they support the lawsuit filed by Attorney General Bill McCollum to try to block it.

Perhaps the correct question should be "Is there anything in the federal health care reform bill you could support?"

A handful of other potential questions could be:

Should Congress pass an extension of the higher matching rate for Medicaid? Gov. Crist has included it in his budget, and now has the Florida Senate.

Could you explain exactly what type of offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico you do support? Should it be allowed in state waters, should it be limited to federal waters, is there a limit to how close it should be to the shores of the state?

Given that Florida has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation, should the federal government do anything more to help homeowners? What do you think about the latest plan announced this past week by President Obama?