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  • "Big hair and an eager-to-please partisan edge"

    Wingnut State Senator Mike "Haridopolos is slated to be officially designated as the 2010-12 Senate president this Tuesday in Tallahassee, but he is already the face of what he calls the 'New Senate' — a chamber shifting toward the right thanks in part to term limits.""This is what it's all" [...]
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    Posted: December 06, 2009, 10:26am EST

  • "Behind closed doors"

    "With the House poised next week for a floor vote, most of the real work in a special session on rail issues disappeared Friday behind closed doors." "Success of rail deal is far from certain"."Florida lawmakers dug into a 49-page bill Friday that conjures a future of passenger trains zipping" [...]
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    Posted: December 05, 2009, 11:58am EST

  • Rail fight begins

    "A special session on rail issues got off to a bumpy start Thursday, with the high-profile defection of a former Senate transportation chairman." "Session sees bumpy start".Jim Saunders: "Lawmakers started a fast-moving special session devoted only to rail projects, as supporters of the Central Florida system tried to overcome Senate" [...]
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    Posted: December 04, 2009, 7:28am EST

  • Rail war

    Updated: "A special session on rail issues raced out of the station this morning, and one of the chief engineers had his eyes fixed firmly on the horizon." "Updated: Lawson: Fate of special session could hinge on backroom negotiations"."Senate President Jeff Atwater says he's confident his chamber will reverse its" [...]
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    Posted: December 03, 2009, 5:54pm EST

  • LeMieux Redux

    LeMieux has "formed a political action committee called Protect America's Future, a sign LeMieux is looking to his own future.""I haven't ruled anything in or anything out of our future," says LeMieux, who simply laughed when asked about the possibility of serving with Crist in the Senate. LeMieux earlier this' [...]
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    Posted: December 02, 2009, 7:35am EST

  • Cretul snubs black legislators

    "House leaders stuck today to their schedule for a special legislative session starting on Thursday, despite complaints that it conflicts with a major conference for black legislators."House and Senate leaders are calling their members back to the Capitol that morning to begin a special session on state support for commuter [...]
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    Posted: December 01, 2009, 7:18pm EST

  • Subsidies for me, but not for thee

    "Top Florida lawmakers are balking at Congress' plans to help more poor people get healthcare, though they've protected an entitlement of their own: free insurance premiums." Taxpayers have been stuck with covering the premiums -- at a cost of about $45 million a year -- even while lawmakers pledged to [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 7:46am EST

  • "Not pretty times for Crist"

    "Google the words Charlie Crist and vomit and you'll find an item that illustrates just how badly things have been going for Florida's governor and aspiring U.S. senator."It's not a pretty image, but these are not pretty times for Crist.A 2010 primary expected to be a cakewalk for the governor' [...]
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    Posted: November 29, 2009, 12:23pm EST

  • "2.4 million Floridians living in poverty in 2008"

    Paul Flemming: "Let we, who are able, be thankful we don't figure in poverty estimates released earlier this month by the U.S. Census bureau."There were 2.4 million Floridians living in poverty in 2008, a definition that depends on family size. For a family of four with two children, for instance,' [...]
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    Posted: November 28, 2009, 10:39am EST

  • "Cheers of 'President Palin.'" in Orlando

    "Former Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin rolled through Central Florida on Tuesday, finding raucous fans in a conservative retirement community before ending her day in Orlando to Former Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin rolled through Central Florida on Tuesday, finding raucous fans in a conservative retirement community before ending her" [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2009, 9:56am EST

  • Crist seeks to "revitalize" his campaign

    "Crist sought to revitalize his U.S. Senate campaign in a visit to the Broward Republican Party."In a widely anticipated speech to the Broward Republican Party, Gov. Charlie Crist sought to regain momentum in the U.S. Senate race Monday by portraying his surging Republican competitor as all talk and no action.Crist [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 7:49am EST

  • A "guy perceived ... as having no principles"

    "Crist has capitalized on huge campaign finance advantages to win three statewide elections in the past decade, and he's off to a quick start in his latest campaign."But could Crist's prodigious fund raising, which strategists agree has been a key to his decade of electoral success, prove to be the [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 8:26am EST

  • The AIF and Florida Chamber's "stagnant lakes and estuaries"

    "After losing on the legal front, a powerful coalition of agriculture and business interests, wastewater utilities, water managers and tax watchdogs is mounting a lobbying assault on pending federal rules that could force Florida to clean up pollution fouling lakes, canals, streams and beaches statewide." The target: A settlement a [...]
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    Posted: November 22, 2009, 8:03am EST

  • Thank the Chamber and AIF

    The Saint Petersburg Times editorial board: "No employer can be happy with Florida's nearly 12-fold increase in unemployment compensation taxes next year. It will hit nearly 500,000 of them at a time when they can least afford it. But it's the direct result of Florida's decadeslong addiction to a tax" [...]
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    Posted: November 21, 2009, 9:53am EST

  • RPOF "in a fix"

    Aaron Deslatte: "For decades, Floridians have essentially bought government on the cheap, satisfying a swelling appetite for expanded services with taxes paid in large measure by visitors and newcomers."But the idea that the Sunshine State can keep buying happiness on the backs of an exploding population has all but vanished [...]
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    Posted: November 20, 2009, 7:15am EST

  • Crist in "free-fall"

    Adam Smith: "Crist, 53, is in a free-fall among likely Republican voters, say Crist supporters and detractors alike, while Rubio's trajectory is heading straight up. Crist's credibility among hard-core Republicans is practically gone, they claim, while the contest's ever-growing national attention ensures Rubio won't be as overwhelmingly outspent." It's nine' [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 8:02am EST

  • Crist to bare his fangs

    William March: "Faced with an onslaught of bad news for his U.S. Senate campaign, Gov. Charlie Crist is starting to fight back."Crist allies say he will begin taking a more aggressive approach to his Republican primary opponent, former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, who has seized the momentum in their [...]
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    Posted: November 18, 2009, 7:52am EST

  • Club for Growth continues attack on Crist

    Chris Chocola, president of the Club for Growth in Washington, D.C. asks this morning "what is a 'Charlie Crist Republican' anyway?"Honestly, do you know how Charlie Crist would vote on a federal takeover of health care, on a cap-and-trade energy tax, on massive new spending bills, or on another stimulus [...]
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    Posted: November 17, 2009, 7:01am EST

  • Sink supports gay adoption

    "Alex Sink, Florida's chief financial officer and the leading Democratic candidate for governor," told the state's largest gay rights group Sunday that homosexuals should be allowed to adopt if it's in the children's "best interest.''Florida is the only state with an outright ban on adoption by lesbians and gay men." [...]
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    Posted: November 16, 2009, 6:32am EST

  • RPOF "going to implode"

    Aaron Deslatte: "Crist for all his recent missteps -- showed Republicans one way to keep winning statewide elections, by moderating the social issues with pragmatism, emphasizing fiscal restraint and playing to the cameras like no other."Crist said Friday he had "full confidence" in Greer, who he said "is doing a" [...]
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    Posted: November 15, 2009, 2:25pm EST

  • RPOFer "'emergency' meeting"

    William March: "In another political blow to Gov. Charlie Crist, dissension in the state Republican Party broke open Thursday as a group of party officials demanded an 'emergency' meeting to discuss party problems, apparently including grievances against Chairman Jim Greer."The demand for the meeting is the strongest sign so far [...]
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    Posted: November 13, 2009, 6:56am EST

  • Crist leaving Floridians an "economic disaster"

    Our digest of, and commentary on today's Florida political news and punditry follows.Crist leaving Floridians an "economic disaster""Florida is among nine states barreling toward an economic disaster similar to California's ongoing fiscal crisis, a new study warns." "Report: Florida among 10 states facing budget disasters"."Florida ranks near the bottom of" [...]
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    Posted: November 12, 2009, 6:48pm EST

  • RPOF "could not have failed more"

    "Florida Republican leaders worked hard to thwart any costly and potentially divisive primaries in this busy election cycle. They could not have failed more and looked less disciplined if they were Democrats."Look at almost every statewide race and you'll see contests for the Republican nomination.• U.S. Senate: Former Florida House' [...]
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    Posted: November 11, 2009, 6:29am EST

  • Club for Growth endorses Rubio, Pinellas GOPers next?

    "The influential Club for Growth, which helped push Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter into the Democratic Party and recently spent about $1 million to defeat a liberal Republican in an upstate New York congressional election, on Monday formally endorsed Rubio.""After picking up [that] key endorsement Monday that could pump big money" [...]
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    Posted: November 10, 2009, 7:39am EST

  • Crist protests: It ain't me ...

    "Crist blames economy (and that now-famous photo) for hurting him with conservatives".Same-sex registryThe Daytona Beach News Journal editorial board: "The Hollywood image of the nuclear family -- with Mom vacuuming in pearls, Dad presiding over the grill and a marriage certificate lovingly tucked into a brocaded album -- is inviting." [...]
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    Posted: November 09, 2009, 6:58am EST

  • Crist: "The Man Who Can Do Nothing Right"

    Mark Lane: "Recall that when he ran for governor in 2006, Charlie Crist was considered as a vague lightweight with a love of vaporously symbolic, law-and-order-sounding nonissues. A nice guy out of his depth."After running flawless campaigns against Republican Tom Gallagher and Democrat Jim Davis, Crist was transformed into a [...]
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    Posted: November 08, 2009, 7:12am EST

  • Crist not so sunny these days

    Beth Reinhard: "The press release from the Florida Democratic Party called Thursday""Charlie Crist's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.''The description also applied to Wednesday. And Tuesday. And Monday. And to the week before that. And to the entire month of October.Let's be clear: The governor/would-be U.S. senator from Florida" [...]
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    Posted: November 07, 2009, 6:35am EST

  • "Epic struggle for the soul of the" GOP

    Update: The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza writes this morning that the "new ad being run in Florida by the Club for Growth should send shivers down Gov. Charlie Crist's (R) spine." "Crist and the Club for Growth".The Miami Herald editorial board: "For Floridians, the most significant news to emerge from" [...]
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    Posted: November 06, 2009, 7:15am EST

  • Crist "entangled with trio of scandals"

    Updated: "Crist downplays ties to Rothstein""Is Something Rotten In The State Of Florida?"[T]here are now three Crist moneymen caught up in alleged criminal or extremely shady activity.Crist, whose career has been fueled by his skill as a fundraiser, finds himself entangled with the trio of scandals just as his U.S. [...]
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    Posted: November 05, 2009, 6:46am EST

  • Dockery makes a RPOFer mess of it

    "Casting herself as a 'fresh face' not connected to what she calls a troubled Republican establishment, state Sen. Paula Dockery of Lakeland jumped into the race for governor Tuesday."Dockery's maverick style will attract followers from voters fed up with politics as usual. But her criticism of the state's political culture, [...]
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    Posted: November 04, 2009, 6:57am EST

  • Another fine fundraiser biting the dust

    "The politically influential Fort Lauderdale law firm that Scott Rothstein created just a few years ago has attempted to oust him amid a criminal investigation into his business dealings, sending shock waves through political campaigns that took fat checks."The investigation into Rothstein, a major fundraiser for Gov. Charlie Crist, Chief [...]
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    Posted: November 03, 2009, 7:36am EST

  • "Bottom is falling out" of Crist campaign

    "Crist's political troubles are reflected in new poll numbers that show even most fellow Republicans don't like the job he's doing in Florida."The bottom is falling out from under Florida's once hugely popular governor. Really, precisely what has Charlie done ... except not being "Jeb!" And that ain't enuf'.The "new'" [...]
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    Posted: November 01, 2009, 10:06am EST

  • Crist, Rubio race "suddenly sizzling" and nasty

    "An anonymous Web site aimed at embarrassing Republican Gov. Charlie Crist's political rival appears to have backfired after one of Crist's top political advisers admitted that he helped develop the site."This latest twist in a suddenly sizzling primary race is at least the second time Rich Heffley, a powerful Republican [...]
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    Posted: October 31, 2009, 8:19am EDT

  • Young under ethics investigation

    "About half the members of the House subcommittee in control of Pentagon spending are under investigation by the House ethics committee and the Office of Congressional Ethics, a new investigative arm of Congress, for possibly accepting contributions or other items of value from the PMA Group in exchange for official" [...]
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    Posted: October 30, 2009, 8:04am EDT

  • The best they can do?

    "National Republicans met with two potential challengers to U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson on Wednesday as the GOP establishment continued to search for a candidate who can topple the outspoken freshman Democrat from Orlando."State Rep. Eric Eisnaugle, R-Orlando, and businessman Bruce O'Donoghue sat down with GOP lawmakers and strategists from the' [...]
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    Posted: October 29, 2009, 8:08am EDT

  • That's our Charlie ...

    "It was a bizarre Tuesday for Charlie Crist."He began by burnishing his reputation as being dumb as a box of rocks by sayinghe didn't know where President Barack Obama was in his state Monday. And he laughed off a report suggesting he might be "America's worst governor.'' ...On Monday, Forbes.com'" [...]
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    Posted: October 28, 2009, 10:04am EDT

  • Charlie smashing "most overrated Governor" poll results

    On the heels of being declared "America's Worst Governor?" in Forbes, he's leading in the Washington Post's poll for "most overrated Governor in the country". Go vote now. See "Poll: The most overrated Governor in the country". See also "One poll Crist doesn't want to win: 'most overrated' gov".Meantime ......' [...]
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    Posted: October 27, 2009, 4:59pm EDT

  • "Charlie is becoming the new Tom Gallagher"

    Adam Smith: "When people talk about the threat Marco Rubio poses to Charlie Crist's Senate plans, Crist backers tend to invoke two words: Tom Gallagher. He was the last Republican who tried to win a GOP primary by hailing conservative principles and trying to depict Crist as too moderate.""It's hard" [...]
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    Posted: October 26, 2009, 12:50pm EDT

  • "Crist appears to be running scared"

    William March thinks Charlie may "be running scared."Rubio has cut his 35-percentage-point deficit to 15 percent, a recent Quinnipiac University poll found. Increasingly, Crist seems out of tune with the hard-edged, talk-show conservatism dominating Republican Party rhetoric nationwide."Marco Rubio has awakened the Republican primary voters and this is a race" [...]
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    Posted: October 25, 2009, 7:50am EDT

  • Charlie's placeholder a drill shill

    "Up until he was appointed as Florida's newest U.S. senator, George LeMieux was advising a secretive pro-oil drilling coalition that is pushing a bill through the state Legislature to open up the Florida Gulf Coast to drilling."But LeMieux, who could have to vote on drilling legislation, refuses to say what [...]
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    Posted: October 23, 2009, 8:03am EDT

  • LeMieux embarrasses himself, Crist and Florida

    The Saint Petersburg Times editorial board: "In his initial floor speech, LeMieux opted for partisan rhetoric over honest debate about the growing federal deficit."Florida's junior senator squandered a golden opportunity to use the bully pulpit he'll command for just 16 months. Wednesday, he sacrificed candor in a predictable play to a' [...]
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    Posted: October 22, 2009, 8:37am EDT

  • Rubio rolling

    "A new poll from Quinnipiac University out today would seem to justify the recent jitters we've seen coming out of Gov. Charlie Crist's camp: upstart U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio has cut the governor's lead in half over the last two months."Crist's lead in late August was 55-26 percent in' [...]
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    Posted: October 21, 2009, 8:58am EDT

  • Billy gettin' desperate

    "Republican Bill McCollum's campaign for governor says Democratic rival Alex Sink is ducking tough issues."McCollum, too, has sought to moderate his image. He declined last month to take a stand on a proposed constitutional amendment that would define a fetus as a person -- thereby outlawing abortion and possibly birth [...]
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    Posted: October 20, 2009, 9:22am EDT

  • Sink's "crossover support"

    "Democrat Alex Sink has handily out-raised Republican rival Bill McCollum in the early stages of what could be the priciest race ever for Florida governor next year. At least part of the explanation: "hundreds of donors who in the past gave to Charlie Crist and other Republicans are rethinking which [...]
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    Posted: October 19, 2009, 6:53am EDT

  • Crist plays "the ingénue"

    The Miami Herald editorial board: "In Florida's political theater, leave it to Gov. Charlie Crist to play the ingénue."He now wants to empanel a statewide grand jury to root out corruption in Florida politics. This comes after the FBI arrests of several public officials and big-money political players and lobbyists [...]
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    Posted: October 18, 2009, 10:22am EDT

  • Crist getting conservative backlash

    "The governor is looking nervous on the campaign trail. He's trying to bolster his conservative credentials, but he's making some questionable claims to do it."Josh Hafenbrack continues:The ads come at a critical time for Republican Crist: His once-bulletproof popularity is showing cracks.And despite having a $6 million campaign account, he [...]
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    Posted: October 17, 2009, 7:23am EDT

  • "Crist's campaign is no longer seen as a sure thing"

    Beth Reinhard: "For the first time since his 2006 election, his job approval numbers fell below 50 percent in an independent poll released this week." And after a string of losses to U.S. Senate rival Marco Rubio in small, local GOP polls, Crist suffered his first setback in a large [...]
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    Posted: October 16, 2009, 8:42am EDT

  • Never mind that Mendelsohn guy

    "On the day he called for a grand jury to investigate public corruption, Gov. Charlie Crist was mum about his ties to indicted political fundraiser Alan Mendelsohn."Mendelsohn held fundraisers at his home for Crist's 2006 governor's race and had used secretive political committees to boost Crist and attack at least [...]
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    Posted: October 15, 2009, 5:31am EDT

  • Rubio no doubt enjoying Charlie's little mess

    "Republican Gov. Charlie Crist released a memo Tuesday showing he approached Republican leaders in the legislature, including Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, before approving $20 million in cash incentives for a Port St. Lucie animation company. Crist did not have to brief the leaders, but the governor said" [...]
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    Posted: October 14, 2009, 7:46am EDT

  • Crist insists he's a wingnut

    "Crist sent a message to his nearest Republican primary opponent for the U.S. Senate during a Lakeland appearance Monday: Don't try to out conservative him."Crist, in an appearance at a Lakeland Yacht Club luncheon sponsored by the Lakeland Republican Club, made it clear to the audience of more than 200' [...]
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    Posted: October 13, 2009, 6:32am EDT
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