The Political Whore

Today is your last shot at registering to vote in the Nov. 4 election. Florida, being backwards and all that, is like about half the country in its prohibitively long lead time in closing the voter registration books in advance of an election.

To register, you just need a picture ID and a completed voter registration form — and then pray that your spelling and name match those in a government database or you could fall victim to the “No Match, No Vote” law.

Here’s info on how to register in Pinellas or Hillsborough today. Here’s detailed instructions and the voter registration form.

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Answer: The Ecology Party! (It has 40 registered voters in the state of Florida, in case you didn’t know; there’s one in Pinellas and two in Hillsborough.)

Here’s the latest news about the man who cost us eight years of W:

ECOLOGY PARTY OF FLORIDA NOMINATES RALPH NADER, URGES OBAMA TO DEBATE

The Ecology Party of Florida is proud to announce that Ralph Nader, legendary environmental, consumer, and anti-corporate activist has accepted our ballot line and will be on  with running mate Matt Gonzalez in Florida this November. No other candidate better represents the principles the Ecology Party espouses. Mr. Nader, well known for his environmental record, was instrumental in the passage of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, as well as in the creation of the EPA. His energy policy, spurred by an intelligently designed carbon tax, paves the way for an economy 100 per cent free of carbon and nuclear power, and his commitment to curb corporate abuses will ensure citizens’ voices are heard. A Nader administration will give our environment the priority it deserves.

Mr. Nader is just as happy to be allied with the Ecology Party. “This country needs new political energies to accomplish quickly what should have been done four decades ago. We are at the brink of an environmental crisis, which was avoidable and is now reversible. We need to support groups like the Ecology Party, who will stand up to the corporate toxicrats who seek to exploit the environment and its denizens for financial gain,”  said Ralph Nader, adding that the Ecology Party ballot line is the place for high expectation voters to be on Nov. 4, 2008.

Cara Campbell, Chair of the Ecology Party, is thrilled with Nader and has harsh words for Barack Obama. “I am honored and excited that Mr. Nader has accepted our ballot line. We’re a new and growing party and look forward to having Ralph Nader as our standard-bearer. Americans deserve to hear alternative political viewpoints and that can only be accomplished by having fair and open debates. Unfortunately, Barack Obama seems only concerned with spouting sound bites and platitudes and is unwilling to face candidates who offer real alternatives to the corporate parties.”

While John McCain has agreed to debate outside of the Commission on Presidential Debates, Obama insists on debating only within the narrow confines of the duopoly- controlled press conferences that now pass for “debates.”  When the CPD took over in 1987, the president of the League of Women Voters, the organization that had previously sponsored the debates, had this to say:
“The League of Women Voters is withdrawing its sponsorship of the presidential debates . . . because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become clear to us that the candidates’ organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The league has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.”

The LWV’s prediction has come frighteningly true. We are appalled that Barack Obama has refused to participate in real debates. The American people deserve the opportunity to hear a vigorous, no-holds barred debate with ALL candidates on enough state ballot lines to win the election. Americans are being denied exposure to vital ideas, opinions, and solutions that will not be presented at the two-party controlled sound bite meetings. The Ecology Party urges candidates and voters to support the non-partisan Citizen’s Debate Commission.

The Ecology Party was founded by environmentalists who believe the corporate controlled major parties will never adequately address burning planetary issues.

On May 4, Obama told Tim Russert on Meet the Press that he was willing to debate with “any of my opponents about what this country means, what makes it great.”

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Pretty stunning news in this morning’s Times that Doug Tuthill, who was a corporate exec at Creative Loafing in Tampa for three years, and St. Petersburg Times editorial writer Jon East, are joining the state’s No. 2 school-voucher advocate (behind only Jeb!), John Kirtley, in the Florida School Choice Fund.

The fund raises corporate dollars that are used as part of a state program that awards private-school vouchers. Tuthill, CL’s former chief operating officer, will be president of the Fund; East becomes its communications director.

Both had been anti-voucher in the past but told the newspaper that their new jobs do not amount to a flip-flop on the issue:

People say, ” ‘Gee, Doug, you suddenly flipped your position on school choice.’ That’s not true,” Tuthill said.

Tuthill said he heard many of the same arguments now raised against vouchers when he helped set up the International Baccalaureate program at St. Petersburg High School in the early 1980s. “Our argument was all we’re trying to do is create more learning options (for kids),” he said.

“My core values are the same,” said East, the former Times editorial writer. But, “I sincerely feel that (tax credit vouchers) don’t compete with or undermine public education, which is different than the way I used to feel.”

One wag in Pinellas who has often disagreed with the Times editorial board called me to smirkingly offer this “translation” of East’s quote: “My core values are the same; it’s just paying my bills makes my core values a luxury that I can’t currently afford.”

Ouch.

I like and respect East, who was one of the most thoughtful and informed editorial writers on that board over the past two decades, and worked directly with Doug here at CL and respect his knowledge and commitment to education. They are good guys; their move to the Fund and onto the side of tax-credit vouchers is less testimony to a flip-flop than a signal (as Ron Matus points out in his excellent story) that perhaps we’re closing in on a middle ground in Florida education reform where smart folks on both sides of the voucher issue can get something good done.

(UPDATE: East contacted me and offered a correction to the Times story, pointing out that he did not retire and take the buyout package at the newspaper and left to take this new job. “I came here not because I needed a new paycheck, but because I decided I needed a new cause,” he wrote in an e-mail.)

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Amendments 7 and 9, both pushed onto the ballot via the shadow government that Jeb Bush left in place after he departed the Florida Governor’s Mansion in 2007, were removed from the ballot officially and finally today after the Florida Supreme Court declined to overturn lower court decisions striking them from the November election.

This, of course, has left the Brother of W very, very upset, as he vented in this news release just out:

“It is extremely disappointing the Florida Supreme Court ruled today to deny millions of Florida voters the right to make their voices heard on improving the quality of education in our state.

“Florida is facing serious challenges.  Our economy experienced its first quarter of negative growth in 16 years.  Tax revenues are declining.

“Now, more than ever, Floridians should have a voice in determining – not just how much they are taxed – but how their tax dollars are spent.  Amendment 9 would have empowered Floridians with the ability to ensure their tax dollars were spent in the classroom on people and programs that make a difference in student achievement – a principled fiscal policy that becomes increasingly important during these tough budget years.

“Perhaps even more heartbreaking is the realization that Floridians will not have the opportunity to protect important programs, including the McKay Scholarship for students with developmental disabilities and Corporate Tax Credit Scholarships for students in low-income families.  These programs, as well as 350 charter schools in our great state, will remain in limbo, under the real threat of litigation from individuals who want to centralize all education decisions within government bureaucracies.”

The amendments would have allowed school vouchers for private schools with public dollars and wiped out a prohibition in the Florida Constitution against aiding religious institutions. You know, the whole separate of church and state thing upon which this country was sort of built.

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It’s so dumb that more than half of its residents believe Gov. Charlie Crist is doing a good or excellent job.

The exact number is 57 percent, according to the latest Mason-Dixon poll.

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Sarasota’s favorite 2008 campaign rematch — incumbent Republican Congressman Vern Buchanan vs. Democrat Christine Jennings — now ranks up there with the likes of the Elizabeth Dole and John Sununu races as a target for progressive Democrats to take down Republicans. EMILY’s List, a powerful pro-choice funding machine, has long kept this one on its members radar screens but today sent out another fundraising appeal, putting the Sarasota race.

Here’s how they characterized it:

U.S. House, Florida - District 13 - Christine Jennings
Republican to defeat: Vern Buchanan

A far-right congressman with ethical issues, Vern Buchanan voted against federal funding for stem cell research and against setting a timetable for bringing troops home from Iraq. And he has reiterated his extreme opposition to abortion, even in cases of rape or incest. Buchanan continues to make headlines with his ethical and legal problems resulting from past campaigns, jilted franchises, defaulted loans, and unpaid taxes.

In 2006, after weeks of dispute, Jennings lost by just 369 votes to Buchanan. Between Buchanan’s right-wing record and Jennings’ bipartisan appeal, this district is ripe for takeover. Jennings must raise $3.5 million to oust Buchanan.

Buchanan’s legal problems arise once again just on cue as a former employee filed a lawsuit against him in the past week.

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… in the Veep Sweepstakes, apparently. The St. Pete Times deduces (”It’s elementary, my dear Watson”) that John McCain isn’t serious about choosing Chain-Gang Charlie as his vice presidential nominee because the public records needed to vett such a candidacy haven’t been requested from state government.

Things are looking so bad, in fact, that Florida Democrats are even calling out McCain, nee, begging the cranky old man to choose Crist. This from Florida Politics:

 C’mon Johnnie, I challenge you to go with the empty suit.

How about the fact that McCain isn’t even running ads in Florida yet? Does that mean he doesn’t put this state in his top-tier concerns? Or that he plans to choose Crist and therefore won’t need those ads anyway? The Gov’s popularity rating is below 50 percent in one poll, and so it remains to be seen if the only thing that Crist had going for him — the ability to deliver FLA — is still viable.

Bonus cut: download the Wisconsin Advertising Project’s report on campaign ad spending, including data for Florida, in .pdf format.

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No great suprises in the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s endorsements for the upcoming Aug. 26 primary election. They’re less interesting in the primary than they are in the general, when the R’s and D’s match up. Here they are anyway:

Tampa Bay Candidates: Marlene O’Toole (House District 42), Phillip Walker (House District 64) and John Wood (House District 65).

Tampa Bay Incumbents: Senator Mike Fasano (Senate District 11), Senator Paula Dockery (Senate District 15), Senator J.D. Alexander (Senate District 17), Senator Michael Bennett (Senate District 21), Representative Robert Schenck (House District 44), Representative Thomas Anderson (House District 45), Representative John Legg (House District 46), Representative Peter Nehr (House District 48), Representative Ed Hooper (House District 50), Representative Janet Long (House District 51), Representative Rick Kriseman (House District 53), Representative Jim Frishe (House District 54), Representative Trey Traviesa (House District 56), Representative Faye Culp (House District 57), Representative Michael Scionti (House District 58), Representative Betty Reed (House District 59), Representative Will Weatherford (House District 61), Representative Rich Glorioso (House District 62), Representative Seth McKeel (House District 63), Representative Baxter Troutman (House District 66), Representative Ron Reagan (House District 67), Representative Keith Fitzgerald (House District 69), Representative Doug Holder (House District 70) and Representative Paige Kreegel (House District 72).

In parts south, the Chamber endorses:

Southwest Florida Candidates: Representative Garrett Richter (Senate District 37) and Tom Grady (House District 76).

Southwest Florida Incumbents: Representative Paige Kreegel (House District 72), Representative Nick Thompson (House District 73), Representative Gary Aubuchon (House District 74), Representative Trudi Williams (House District 75), Representative Denise Grimsley (House District 77) and Representative Matt Hudson (House District 101).

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Some of that old GOP desperation is starting to set into the campaign rhetoric. Two instances in the blogosphere today.

First, GOP Forida Chairman Jim Greer told a hyuk-hyukking crowd of Panhandle sycophants that his son once asked him what the difference between a Republican and a Democrat was:

“Republicans get up and go to work,” Greer said he told the boy. “Democrats get up and go down to the mailbox to get their checks.”

Yeah, that’s fresh and original, Jimbo. The Tallahassee Democrat account of Greer’s old welfare saw points out that the crowd “guffawed” in “a chorus of assent.”

I know lots of Democrats who are out busting their ass in this economy, and plenty of Republicans, too. Last I saw, the national unemployment stats weren’t cross-tabbed by party registration, but maybe that is good idea, right Jim? The reality is that after 10 years of Republican governors and leadership in the House and Senate, Florida consistently is at or near the top of Bad-News Economic Statistics lists these days.

In the second instance, Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp blasted the media (what’s new there?) and seemed to chucklingly long for the day when journalism goes belly up because it is so biased. In a speech to some Miami business owners, Kottkamp said:

… the press exaggerates the state’s economic problems because its own business is in trouble.

“Print media is really archaic,” Kottkamp told the board of the Beacon Council, Miami-Dade’s nonprofit business recruitment agency. “They’re laying off people. Their view of the world is pretty skewed.”

He got called on his comments by a Miami Herald exec in the audience and quickly dissembled:

Kottkamp quickly backtracked, saying he was just advising the print media to look to the future online.

“My message is not that I don’t like you,” he said. “I love you.”

An interesting theory: the media is making Florida’s economy seem worse than it is because we’re all personally affected by the layoffs and cutbacks and it makes us dour and negative.

Any thoughts on that? Or should I spend the rest of the day linking to unemployment stats, housing starts, avg incomes, spending power, consumer confidence, etc.?

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What is it about Max Linn’s campaign videos that make my skin crawl just a bit? I can’t put my finger on it. Here are two he has put together (not embeddable, sorry) for his new fundraising website, Congress Must Change.

Bonus cuts: Here’s video from Linn’s unsuccessful 2006 gubernatorial race, plus our own Max Linn vs. Max Linsky (former CL writer and editor) story from that campaign:

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