TALLAHASSEE — Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer is declaring he has no plans to resign and has booted one of his critics off the grievance committee so it can hear a complaint filed against another party leader seeking his ouster.
That’s right. As Orlando GOP malcontent and political activist Doug [...]
By John Kennedy, The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — Children’s health care programs in Florida could attract millions more in federal dollars with a few changes aimed at easing enrollment.
But a new report warns that the cost to state taxpayers of revamping the existing Florida KidCare network could [...]
By Josh Hafenbrack, Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE — Associated Industries of Florida is touting the results of a new Zogby poll as proof that Floridians overwhelmingly oppose Gov. Charlie Crist’s U.S. Sugar land purchase in the Everglades.
One problem: The poll question itself steered respondents to a predictable answer.
“Do you support or oppose [...]
By William Gibson, Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — The Senate’s health-care reform bill gets mixed reviews from Florida leaders as it heads toward final passage.
Bill Nelson mostly likes it. George LeMieux deplores it. And Charlie Crist says it would “cripple state economies.”
“I firmly believe this legislation will provide more affordable coverage for [...]
TALLAHASSEE — With slightly more verbiage than his GOP primary rival, U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio is also taking aim at the health care bill in Congress.
Here’s his release:
“Early this morning, Senate Democrats took the first of four significant votes this week to approve their disastrous health care policy. Especially [...]
TALLAHASSEE — Although he still insists the $2.2 billion in new taxes and fees used to balance Florida’s budget were not taxes at all, Gov. Charlie Crist is blasting the federal health care bill steaming toward passage in the U.S. Senate.
Senate Democrats marshalled the 60 votes needed to aovid a [...]
This is not a good time to go green in Florida politics.
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 support environmental issues like “cap-and-trade?”
Slim to [...]
TALLAHASSEE — With Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer facing mounting pressure to step down, Dixie County executive committee member John Friskey is coming to his aid – filing a grievance against vice-chairman Allen Cox for leaking internal budget records to the media.
Cox is one of more than 50 executive committee members [...]
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 [...]
From the state’s Agency for Workforce Innovation:
Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for November 2009 is 11.5 percent. This represents 1,056,000 jobless out of a labor force of 9,202,000. The unemployment rate is up 0.2 percentage point from the revised October rate of 11.3 percent, and up 4.3 percentage points from the [...]
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 Peter Franceschina, Sun Sentinel
In his most detailed comments yet about $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme suspect Scott Rothstein, Gov. Charlie Crist said Thursday he had heard the rumors swirling about the mysterious source of Rothstein’s sudden wealth but saw no reason to investigate him or refuse his big [...]
By Leslie Postal, Orlando Sentinel
Florida’s largest teachers union Thursday called efforts to win federal grant money by overhauling teacher pay plans “fatally flawed” and urged local unions not to take part in the state’s bid to win as much as $700 million.
The Florida Education Association’s announcement could make [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
By Dan Tracy and Aaron Deslatte, Orlando Sentinel
With an old steam engine and the planned site of a depot just yards away, Gov. Charlie Crist signed a bill into law Wednesday that should lead to the construction and operation of SunRail, Central Florida’s first commuter train.
The downtown Orlando ceremony, repeated [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
From Gary Fineout’s The Fine Print blog:
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 [...]
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 [...]
By Mark K. Matthews, Orlando Sentinel
WASHINGTON — Few members of Congress are as relentless at self-promotion as U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson.
Since January, the Orlando Democrat has flooded inboxes and mailboxes in his four-county Central Florida district with glowing accounts of his first year in Congress, even quoting the mayor of [...]
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 [...]
By Dan Tracy and Mark Matthews, Orlando Sentinel
SunRail was banished to a side track in May when the state Senate voted down the Central Florida commuter train.
Everything was shuttered. No contracts were signed, nor were land deals negotiated or equipment purchased.
Now, it’s full steam ahead, thanks to lawmakers’ approval last [...]
The fallout from the 2007 meltdown of Florida’s Local Government Investment Pool is leaching into the political campaigns of two of the fund’s trustees.
Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum and Democratic Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, gubernatorial rivals, are quietly slugging it out in Tallahassee over who should have control over [...]
TALLAHASSEE — CFO Alex Sink makes no secret she thinks politics is why the two fellow Cabinet members who help oversee Florida’s pension fund are holding up her financial reforms – and she quickly made political use of this week’s showdown herself.
Sink tried unsuccessfully on Tuesday to get Gov. Charlie Crist and [...]
TALLAHASSEE — Don’t know if you get hash browns and coffee with this deal, but Bill McCollum’s gubernatorial campaign is hosting a $50-per-person breakfast with the candidate next week at the Perkins Restaruant and Bakery in Tampa.
Here’s the invite:
Dear Friend:
I’d like to sit across the breakfast table from you and [...]
From Gary Fineout's The Fine Print:
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, [...]
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Charlie Crist has sent a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, just dropping word that the Florida Legislature has passed its rail bill and reminding him about those high-speed rail stimulus dollars the state sure was led to believe it could land.
Think it was something like [...]
