The Fine Print

So where did it start to go wrong for Charlie Crist?

With the New Year right around the corner, there will likely be several stories looking back at Gov. Charlie Crist's past year.

And there's no doubt that - if polls are to be believed - that Crist's seemingly upward political trajectory has reached its apex and is heading in the other direction.

There can be lots of theories about how this happened: The reality of Florida's dismal economic situation finally catching up with the perpetually-optimistic Crist, the constant pounding of criticism from U.S. Senate rival Marco Rubio (and Crist's decision not to return fire until maybe too late), his embrace of President Barack Obama, or even the decision to run for the U.S. Senate in the first place.

But if you look closely the press coverage began to change during the summer of 2008. This is when Crist went on a trade mission to Europe and Russia where he did things like discuss climate change with the Prince of Wales. At a time when the state's economy was already souring, this was the first time that it was suggested that Crist's political radar had malfunctioned. The trip abroad came of course at a time when Crist's inner circle was hoping that he would wind up as the vice-president nominee to U.S. Sen. John McCain, so maybe there was a thought it would help offset Crist's lack of foreign policy experience.

Yet it's worth noting that no news organizations could afford to go on the trip with Crist since many of them were already laying off employees. When Crist returned, there was the first of many attempts by the Crist administration to focus on the economy, i.e. "Accelerate Florida," "economic gardening," workforce center visits, and all the way up to the recently-concluded special session on rail projects that the governor said would create "jobs, jobs, jobs."

The Monday morning quarterbacking that will eventually go on is whether enough time and energy were spent on economic issues. It's worth noting that Crist's poll numbers didn't begin to dip until 2009 when the full force of the economic downturn began to grip the state and the unemployment rate surged higher and higher. (One caveat - there's nothing to suggest that Crist can't change this trajectory next year, especially since he will be able to spend millions during his Senate campaign.)

On the jump there is a timeline of Crist's last 18 months.

Political grandstanding or making sure that "justice" is done?

The battle to become Florida's next Attorney General may hinge on one simple question: What is the proper role for the state's top legal officer?

It is not just a semantic exercise, because it could have deep ramifications if the next Attorney General takes a more activist - and confrontational tone - against others in state government.

State Sen. Dan Gelber, a candidate for Attorney General, last week published a provocative piece where he sharply criticized Attorney General Bill McCollum - and former Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Holly Benson- for defending the state in an ongoing lawsuit over Medicaid reimbursement rates. (Benson is one of the Republican candidates seeking to replace McCollum in 2010.)

The class action lawsuit filed by the Florida Pediatric Society and the Florida Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and on behalf of Floridians under 21 asserts that the state is violating federal requirements because its low reimbursement rates has resulted in many doctors refusing to treat Medicaid patients.

Gelber - who is running for Attorney General - contends that by taking the case to trial that McCollum and Benson are "fighting to block access to care for children."

"If he wanted to, our Attorney General could concede that is morally repugnant that Florida has the second highest rate of uninsured children in the nation,'' Gelber wrote. Gelber said that instead of fighting the case that McCollum should have settled it and forced the Legislature to spend more money on Medicaid.

This marks the second time that Gelber has threatened to fight the Legislature. Back in October he said that if he were Attorney General he would sue them over education funding.

Ryan Wiggins, a spokeswoman for McCollum, said it wasn't the job of the Attorney General to decide the policy of Medicaid reimbursement rates. Instead the Attorney General has a "obligation" to defend the state in lawsuits.

"Barring conflicts, it is the responsibility of the Office of Attorney General to represent the state, an obligation Attorney General Bill McCollum takes very seriously,'' said Wiggins. "Furthermore this is a policy issue that should be addressed by the Florida Legislature, not litigated in the courts."

The Republican candidates for Attorney General so far have stressed issues such as cybersafety and battling gangs as among the top priorities for the job. Benson on her website says she will fight government regulation on behalf of businesses.

State Sen.Dave Aronberg, a former assistant Attorney General who is challenging Gelber in the Democratic primary, said the job calls for a balancing act.

"As a former Assistant Attorney General, I watched as Bob Butterworth sometimes had to defend laws that he disagreed with,'' said Aronberg. "Other times, however, the Legislature can act so egregiously and in a way that will hurt the people of the state, that the Attorney General must refuse to go along. The key is to find the right balance without being either a rubber stamp for the Legislature or a political grandstander."

When asked whether or not he runs the risks of being viewed as a grandstander, Gelber responded that he believed the state's position on the Medicaid lawsuit was "contrary to the interests of Florida citizens" and that the state should have settled it "years ago." Gelber also said that the "failure of the Legislature" to provide a high quality system of education as required by the state constitution "violates the rights of the citizens."

"As the AG I am not the representative of an ordinary party to a controversy,'' said Gelber. "My obligation is not simply win a matter, but to make sure justice is done. I do have a much different vision of the office than the current AG - and I do intend to use the office to stand up for everyday Floridians even it inspires the ire of the Legislature."

Records link Rubio to spending items in state budget

On the website for former House Speaker Marco Rubio, you can find the following words: "This earmark was not requested by Rubio. During Rubio's last four years in the House, he did not file any individual budget requests." The U.S. Senate candidate is referring to a $800,000 item that was tucked in the state budget that would have replaced playing fields in South Miami where he played flag football.

But as reported by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune here, the Office of Policy and Budget annually drew up spreadsheets of items in the state budget that associate Rubio with specific line items every year he served in the Florida Legislature. That includes time that both Gov. Charlie Crist and former Gov. Jeb Bush were in office.

Some of the line items during Rubio's last four years include:

* $15 million for a hurricane center at Florida International University.

* $2.5 million for the Sylvester Cancer Center at the University of Miami.

* $80 million for a human genomics institute at the University of Miami.

* $50,000 for a Coral Gables exhibition center.

* $50,000 for repairs at the historic Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables.

* $300,000 to the Professional Golf Association of America, which would use the money to purchase programs on the Golf Channel to advertise golf courses in Florida.

* $25,000 to buy a new trolley car for the city of South Miami.

* $478,000 for an invasive species exhibit at the Miami zoo.

* $100,000 for the Bays of Pigs museum.

* $35,000 to a Little Havana center to pay for delivering meals to elderly residents in Miami-Dade County.

* $200,000 to help the South Miami Panthers and the city of South Miami purchase a building for the South Florida Sports League.

* $250,000 for a playground in the Village of Palmetto Bay.

* $150,000 for the master plan of a city bike path in South Miami.

* $80,000 to fund the salary of a communications center manager for the fire communications center in Hialeah.

* $750,000 for the Miami Performing Arts Center.

These lists were drawn up by the OPB staff as part of the annual review process done by the governor prior to signing the annual state budget. The information was utilized by the governor to help him decide whether or not to veto the line items.

And some of the items listed above - such as the money for the Biltmore, the Professional Golf Association, the Coral Gables exhibition center, the trolley car, the communications center manager, the Palmetto Bay playground - were vetoed by both Bush and Crist.

Here are the Excel spreadsheets:

Download Marco Rubio Member Issues 2008

Download Marco Rubio Member Issues 2007

Download Marco Rubio Member Issues 2006

Download Marco Rubio Member Issues 2005

Jobs, Sunrail and the new math

Gov. Charlie Crist will shuttle around the state today to celebrate the signing of a sweeping measure to create a statewide rail system.

Crist will no doubt repeatedly praise the billions that will be spent on rail projects as a boon to the economy.

But it turns out trying to figure out many jobs that could come with the 3 main projects is an inexact science. You can read more about it here at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Some key points:

Cynthia Lorzenzo, the head of the Agency for Workforce Innovation, used a figure of 14,000 jobs when she praised the rail projects a couple of weeks ago. Lorenzo got that number from the Department of Transportation.

DOT, which says the actual total is 14,930, did the math this way:

330 "saved" jobs from Tri-Rail in South Florida, or in other words jobs already there that are being protected by the extra funding now coming their way.

8,000 jobs for SunRail, the 61-mile commuter rail project for Central Florida. This is broken up between 5,000 construction jobs and 3,000 operations and maintenance jobs.

6,600 jobs for the high speed rail leg between Orlando and Miami. This includes 5,000 construction jobs and 1,100 operations and maintenance jobs.

Ok, so why are their more operations jobs at SunRail? DOT officials say it's because their will be more stations along that line.

But wait, there's a little catch. The operations and maintenance jobs aren't jobs that are occurring all at once. Instead DOT took the number of jobs - up to 200 once SunRail is fully operational - and counted them again and again over a 30 year period.

In regards to both high speed rail and commuter rail, there are lots of other numbers floating around as well. For example, an economic study released right before the 2009 regular session had higher numbers associated with SunRail, while a study of high speed rail from 2002 use considerably higher numbers that appear to include jobs that are not directly related to the project itself.

Alex Sink: Who's Jim Morrison?

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink doesn't have much to say about whether Jim Morrison, the deceased singer of The Doors, deserves a posthumous pardon.

The reason? Sink, who is 61 and would have been in college at the time that The Doors were making records, said she has never heard of the Florida native. Sink is one of four state officials who sits on the Board of Executive Clemency.

Watch it here.

Mr. Mojo Risin and the Governor

This morning will mark the last meeting of the Clemency Board for 2009. And once again there's no sign that Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet members who serve on the board have any intention of taking up the lingering pardon request of Jim Morrison, the Florida native and long-deceased rock star. Morrison fans have been asking for years now that state officials pardon Morrison's conviction for indecent exposure 30 years ago. (Background here.)

Crist was asked earlier this week about Morrison and Crist admitted that he just seen on TV last weekend a show that talked about The Doors appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show back in 1967 where Morrison refused to alter the lyrics of "Light My Fire."  But when asked if he ever planned to go along with a posthumous pardon for Morrison, Crist smiled and said "Maybe."

Of course, in order to win a pardon Morrison would also need to win over the support of two other members of the Clemency Board. Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson says he is willing to consider it, while Attorney General Bill McCollum said he can't discuss any case that may come before the Clemency Board. McCollum also doesn't seem to recognize Morrison's name.

After today the Clemency Board will meet four more times in 2010. Then a totally new board - with a different governor - will take over in 2011. 

Next Senate President: Bring back leadership funds

  

Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, will be officially designated on Tuesday by the Republican Caucus to become the next Senate president starting after the 2010 elections.

He is expected in his remarks accepting the designation to touch on the need for transparency in politics and government.

And one way that could happen says Haridopolos is the re-establishment of so-called leadership funds, a provision that was included in last session's controversial election bill.

"One way you can build trust in government is to be more transparent,'' said Haridopolos.

Leadership funds - or separate accounts maintained by legislative leaders - were outlawed 20 years ago. They came under fire after suggestions that legislators were taking money from the same people who needed help getting something passed by the Legislature. When the idea came up briefly this past session it was criticized again by some groups such as Common Cause and by senators such as Sen. Charlie Justice, D-St. Petersburg.

Critics of the current ban argue that since the funds were banned that there has been an explosion of other fundraising vehicles - including committees of continuous existence and 527s - that has rendered the existing law meaningless.

But there are limits on using money from CCEs and 527s directly to help other candidates. CCE's, for example, can only donate $500 per candidate. Right now legislative leaders raise money for the political parties but under the law they cannot not have any say over how that money is spent. That decision legally can only be made by party leaders.

Leadership funds, however, would allow an incoming Senate president raise the money, and then spend the money on the candidates that they want to help.

Haridopolos stressed that his support of leadership funds is not related to the ongoing controversy surrounding Republican Party of Florida chairman Jim Greer and his handling of party finances.But Haridopolos said he supports leadership funds so that regular citizens would be able to see how much money leaders have raised, and just as important, who that money is from. Haridopolos noted how no one still knows the source of all the 527 money used against his "friend" John Thrasher in a contentious special Senate election earlier this year.

There were rumblings that legislators planned to consider a bill during this special session to consider leadership funds, but Haridopolos would only say that he had heard some "rumors" to that effect. So for now, the idea will have to wait until the spring session.

Rubio says legislators should be wary of rail deal but Crist camp says "talk is easy"

After being asked about it former House Speaker Marco Rubio has weighed in on the ongoing special session.

Rubio, who during his campaign for the U.S. Senate has been highly critical of the use of the federal stimulus package to create jobs , said that legislators should be "wary" of promises that the rail deal will create lots of new jobs. The legislation that was debated in the Florida House today is being pushed in part by the promise of billions in federal aid. Gov. Charlie Crist, who supports the package that would help commuter rail in Central Florida as well as assist Tri-Rail, said on Thursday that he didn't care if the money was coming from the stimulus. Crist added that voting against the rail legislation would be "indefensible" because it would generate needed jobs for Florida.

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

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

Rubio - by the way - voted in 2008 for HB 1399 which included provisions for SunRail.

UPDATE - Crist campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul had this to say about Rubio: "Talk is easy, Governor Crist and the Florida Legislature are focused on actually creating much needed jobs in central Florida.  Despite Marco Rubio at one time voting in favor of and supporting the SunRail project for Central Florida, Governor Crist is pleased to be working with Rubio's former House and Senate colleagues in bringing this important project to fruition."

Will stimulus politics derail the special session?

One of the quickly emerging undercurrents of the latest special session of the Florida Legislature is whether or not it's a good idea for the state to go chasing after more federal stimulus dollars.

Lawmakers on Thursday kicked off a special session to consider legislation that would authorize the SunRail commuter rail project in Central Florida and give a guaranteed source of funding to TriRail in South Florida.

The impetus for acting now of course is the lure of $3.2 billion in federal stimulus money that Florida transportation authorities have asked for. The argument is that by demonstrating its own commitment to commuter rail then Florida will be able to get some of the extra stimulus cash.

But since last spring - when lawmakers used $5.5 billion in stimulus funding to balance the state budget - there has been a growing outcry in the rank-and-file Republican ranks over whether the stimulus was a good idea and whether government intervention will work to help the economy. Chief among the stimulus critics has been former House Speaker Marco Rubio.

It didn't take long on Thursday for Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico and a SunRail critic, to start raising the specter of stimulus funding during a Senate workshop on the rail issue.

Afterwards Storms said there was a connection in her mind to the ongoing debate over the stimulus and this week's special session over rail. She said she remains concerned that the spending on rail will not have a great impact on the economy.

"At the end we have no greater jobs,'' Storms said of the stimulus.

The question is whether Storms attitude will begin to spread among other Republican lawmakers. And it's also worth knowing what Rubio thinks about this special session and whether he's for or against it.

Ethics Commission may ask for more power and steeper fines

Talk about good timing.

On the same week that Gov. Charlie Crist gets rebuffed in his bid to create a statewide grand jury to probe corruption, the state's ethics commission may do something that Crist hasn't done so far: Ask the Florida Legislature for increased investigative power, steeper fines and a different standard to prove that someone has broken the state's ethics laws.

This Friday the commission will revisit its 2010 legislative recommendations. Their discussion comes just four days after the high court dismissed Crist's grand jury request. Crist made the request in the wake of scandals in South Florida.

Some of the ideas that may give more "teeth" to ethics laws, according to Phil Claypool, the executive director of the panel are:

* Giving the commission the ability to launch investigations in limited situations - including allowing the panel to investigate a possible "breach of the public trust" if it is referred to the commission by the governor, the Chief Financial Officer, a state attorney or the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Currently the commission can only launch an investigation if it receives a written complaint.

The recommendation also calls for giving the ethics commission the authority to launch an investigation in the wake of newspaper stories and other public information that is deemed "reliable and publicly disseminated." In either situation it would take a unanimous vote in order to move forward on these cases.

* Beefing up the civil fines that can be imposed on someone who breaks the state's ethics laws. This recommendation calls for increasing the maximum civil fine that can be imposed from $10,000 to $100,000. The commission can only impose fines in limited cases. But the commission can recommend that the governor impose fines in many cases.

* Change the burden of proving a violation of ethics laws from "clear and convincing evidence" to "preponderance of the evidence."

It may not be surprising that the panel is considering such serious changes. In discussions at earlier meetings this year members have said it is more important to recommend "the right thing to do" than to worry about whether or not something will pass.

And there is a chance that none of these changes will pass. The Legislature has shot down past efforts to give the ethics commission greater power, including recommendations that came from an anti-corruption task force set up by former Gov. Jeb Bush.

State Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, said some of these ideas make sense, but he doesn't know if they will get through the Legislature.

"If you want to restore integrity we have had plenty of ideas already,'' said Gelber, who is pushing his own anti-corruption bill for the upcoming 2010 session. "We just need to get them adopted."