edited by: Kay Day,
Florida Editor
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 [...]
Twice in two years, proposed commuter rail in Central Florida died despite backing from powerful political and business leaders.
Both times, Lakeland Republican Sen. Paula Dockery engineered the train wreck. Today, as the Florida Legislature convenes in a special session to consider commuter rail legislation for a third time, Dockery [...]
Reading the latest media accounts of lobbyist excesses, it motivated me to list some of the outstanding lobbyists identified in my book, The Golden Years...The Florida Legislature, '70s and '80s. On my blog, www.goldenyearspoliticalcollection.com, I have a Quorum Call listing the prominent legislators, lobbyists and press included in the book, and have [...]
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 [...]
Lobbyists in Tallahassee still don't appear to be all that affected by the Great Recession.
The latest batch of lobbying compensation reports due last weekend show that the amount of money paid to lobby the Florida Legislature is actually on pace to beat the 2008 totals.
The aggregated income total for 2008 - [...]
Howard Troxler: Imagine trying to explain the Florida Legislature to the proverbial visitor from Mars. "Okay, we have this thing called committee week," we say. "The members of our Legislature go up to Tallahassee now and then, supposedly to work on laws in advance."
"That is very commendable," our Martian [...]
Chapter 10 of my book, The Golden Years...The Florida Legislature, '70s and '80s, includes reflections on campaigns and public service. Among them is number 16, on page 158, which reads in part: "...the certain three influences on political decisions are either, or all of sex, religion and money." I was not [...]
In my book, The Golden Years...The Florida Legislature, '70s and '80s, I remind readers that anything said by an office holder is public record. However, my experience is that voters will forgive almost anything said in public, or even done, including declaring bankruptcy, enduring adultery, and an occassional ill advised vote. But, public [...]
