By Josh Hafenbrack, Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE — Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, said she’s frustrated with a lack of action on the long-simmering casino gambling issue and is drafting her own proposal: the “Gaming Equalization Act.”
Bogdanoff, a ranking Republican in the House, said she’d like to see additional games (blackjack, craps, [...]
TALLAHASSEE — With some uber-somber mood music playing in the background, the Florida Demcoratic Party has put out a video taking Attorney General Bill McCollum to task for arguing his support of deregulatory efforts in Congress aimed at investment banks didn’t set the stage for today’s financial collapse.
McCollum has gone [...]
By Josh Hafenbrack, Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE – In his last year in office, Gov. Charlie Crist wants to score a final tax-cutting victory with a plan to slash Florida’s corporate income tax, which generates $1.7 billion annually.
The move could help solidify the governor’s conservative credentials in his 2010 campaign for U.S. Senate, but [...]
By John Kennedy, The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — The new year may bring a new candidate for the Chief Financial Officer’s race – with former Democratic state Rep. Loranne Ausley saying she will spend the holidays weighing a run.
Ausley, who has been in the race to succeed term-limited Sen. [...]
By Aaron Deslatte and Josh Hafenbrack, Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE – Embattled Florida Republican chairman Jim Greer is facing a coup from disgruntled party leaders enraged that he took sides in the state’s U.S. Senate primary and who are now accusing him of causing “irreparable harm” with the party check book.
In a [...]
TALLAHASSEE — Really, though.
If Gov. Charlie Crist was too nervous to hold a climate change conference this year, what were the odds that Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum would try to expand the GOP base and soften on environmental issues like cap-and-trade?
The answer is slim to none. Citing a report by [...]
By Josh Hafenbrack, Tallahassee Bureau
Gov. Charlie Crist has been in a nasty slump lately, with his administration a little adrift and his poll numbers falling. The governor seemed very much on top of his game in an hour-plus interview with the Sun Sentinel editorial board, however, providing more detailed answers [...]
By Josh Hafenbrack, Tallahassee Bureau
Gov. Charlie Crist said Thursday he’s “proud” of his stand on President Obama’s stimulus package, in a wide-ranging interview with the Sun Sentinel editorial board.
Asked how he would counter campaign attacks over his support of the $787-billion stimulus, Crist said: “I don’t know if you do [...]
TALLAHASSEE — All the anti-establishment conservatives might not be crazy about the latest Associated Industries of Florida/Zogby poll, which shows Gov. Charlie Crist still holding a 9-point lead over U.S. Senate rival Marco Rubio.
The same poll shows Republican gubernatorial candidate and Attorney General Bill McCollum with a 38 percent to 8 percent [...]
TALLAHASSEE — Florida U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s office just sent out another letter signed by much of the state’s congressional delegation to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, asking for the much-hyped$2.5 billion in high-speed rail funding the state has requested.
In an e-mail to reporters, the Democrat’s office suggests that “an [...]
Former Tallahassee state Rep. Loranne Ausley is said to be close to a decision on whether she'll be the Democrats' nominee for chief financial officer, the powerful Cabinet position being vacated by Democrat Alex Sink, who is running for governor.
Ausley, who was termed limited out of the state House in 2008, is [...]
UPDATE: Former Tallahassee state Rep. Loranne Ausley said she will decide after the holiday whether she'll seek the Democratic nomination for the chief financial officer, the powerful Cabinet agency being vacated by Democrat Alex Sink, who is running for governor.
Ausley, who was termed limited out of the state house in 2008, is now' [...]
By Josh Hafenbrack, Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE — Eric Miller, a Republican Party state committeeman from Martin County, just sent a letter blasting state party chairman Jim Greer as the GOP “continues to erode from the inside out.”
Miller is teed off over Greer’s decision to oust RPOF Vice Chairman Allen Cox. Greer’s [...]
Speaking of an unwillingness to support Florida's bid for up to $700 million from the Obama Administration's Race to the Top, did you catch the Florida Education Association's open letter to education commissioner Eric J. Smith this morning?
Published as an ad in the Tallahassee Democrat, FEA president Andy Ford's letter [...]
By John Kennedy, The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Lottery has tentatively awarded a five-year, $3.7 million contract to Mike Vasilinda Productions, the video production firm owned by the veteran Capitol newsman and spouse of Democratic Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda.
Vasilinda has had the Lottery contract since [...]
TALLAHASSEE — Florida Democratic strategist Steve Schale has a new master’s degree and a new blog: and on it, he asserts today that Gov. Charlie Crist’s poor showing in the Rasmussen poll is owed to the fact that Republican governor has never had a political base.
“To me, the real story surrounding the [...]
By Josh Hafenbrack, Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE – Game on.
Gov. Charlie Crist’s steady slide in the polls hit a new low Wednesday: A Rasmussen survey showed him tied with his once long-shot rival, former House Speaker Marco Rubio, 43-43 among likely Republican primary voters.
The poll – an automated telephone survey of 431 [...]
Senate Republican leader Alex Diaz de la Portilla wants a divorce, and he says the assets accumulated during his six-year marriage to a Tallahassee lobbyist should be equally distributed. But Claudia Diaz de la Portilla, in her own court filing, depicts the South Florida lawmaker as a husband who spends her money and [...]
By Josh Hafenbrack, Tallahassee Bureau
Gov. Charlie Crist had high praise for the deal brokered by his Office of Insurance Regulation that ensures that State Farm will remain in Florida, but with higher homeowner rates and fewer customers.
Crist said State Farm originally had sought between a 47 percent and 60 percent [...]
Just in time for the holidays Florida’s Republican Party trots out another example of idiocy that makes one wonder how these mouth-breathing knuckle-draggers can stay in power in Tallahassee. Wait! Don’t answer that!
You’d think from the way party boss Jim “Big Jim” Greer talks, this here is [...]
By Josh Hafenbrack, Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE — State Farm isn’t leaving Florida, after all.
The state Office of Insurance Regulation just announced a deal that will keep State Farm in Florida – albeit with a smaller footprint.
The state’s largest private insurer won the authority to drop up to 125,000 customers and impose [...]
By Kathleen Haughney, The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — An appeals court has ruled that a group advocating for the separation of church and state may have a case to make against Florida’s use of faith-based groups for substance abuse rehabilitation programs and sent the question back to a lower [...]
TALLAHASSEE — In case you haven’t figured it out, Democratic CFO Alex Sink is running her gubernatorial campaign much like she isn’t an incumbent in Tallahassee.
It always makes sense to run as an outsider appalled to suddenly discover the ways of Tallahassee. Sink has been pushing for reform over state pension oversight and [...]
TALLAHASSEE – In a brief appearance without his transportation secretary, Gov. Charlie Crist on Wednesday signed the sweeping transportation package clearing the way for the $1.2 billion SunRail commuter train to get rolling through Orlando.
Crist called the bill passed by the Legislature last week a glimpse of ” Florida’s transportation [...]
TALLAHASSEE — This Wafflegate update just came in from the officeof state Sen. Paula Dockery:
“Governor Crist’s call for an investigation of the Florida Department of Transportation’s secret negotiations with CSX Railroad is most welcome. For three years, the agency has been stonewalling citizens trying to examine this back-room deal. Given the [...]
TALLAHASSEE — Florida CFO Alex Sink wants Gov. Charlie Crist to order an inspector general inquiry into the Department of Transportation e-mails that SunRail critics are calling “Waffle-gate.”
We wrote a story about it here.
“If anyone deliberately attempted to subvert our state’s sunshine requirements, they should be held accountable,” Sink wrote. “An [...]
TALLAHASSEE – SunRail critics have slapped it with the incriminating nickname “Wafflegate.”
To Florida Department of Transportation administrators, it was just a cute attempt to keep things light in the frantic days before a special legislative session — but one that has admittedly blown up in their faces.
State Sen. Paula Dockery, [...]
By John Kennedy, The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — Two of Florida’s largest universities are throwing their weight behind a proposal requiring students to have health coverage – likely boosting costs for thousands of uninsured students but potentially saving big money for cash-strapped state schools.
The University of Florida and University [...]
TALLAHASSEE –State Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, and one of her staunchest grassroots supporters, Orlando consultant Doug Guetzloe, are blasting the state Department of Transportation over what they are calling “Wafflegate.”
To recap, The Palm Beach Post reported today that FDOT officials were using breakfast terms as code words to discuss recent rail legislation [...]
TALLAHASSEE — The Palm Beach Post had a juicy story today that basically suggested the Florida Department of Transportation was using breakfast terms as code words to discuss its recent rail legislation — in order to avoid public records requests.
It makes me hungry every time I read the story. I [...]
