The Political Whore

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist

Well, for one the now State Sen. Victor Crist, who has an eye on Ken Hagan’s county commission seat in a game of musical sprawlers and  just voted to throw Hillsborough under the bus by gutting what meager growth management laws we do have. Yep, he voted YES on the deplorable bill SB 360 denounced by environmentalists, smart growth advocates and anyone with two brain cells that touch (who aren’t in the pockets of developers).

[EDITOR'S UPDATE: Legislative records show that Crist changed to a "No" vote on the bill. In an interview with PoHo, Crist said he was off the floor in a budget conference meeting during the vote in question and another Senator "voted his button," a fairly common practice in the Legislature. Crist said he noticed the yes vote and changed it by the end of the day. More from Crist in the comments section. The Senate floor vote record is here.]

Remember that in 2010 when we have the “special election“ experts think is going to occur for Hagan’s seat. I didn’t know anything about Crist one way or the other before this, but voting yes on SB 360 tells me all I need to know. Looks like some of his constituents aren’t all that happy with him either regarding past issues. You can contact Crist here and tell him what you think.

Read the rest of this entry »

Adam C. Smith, political editor over at the St. Petersburg Times and chief Buzz-ster, asks an intriguing question in light of the party switch of Penn. Sen. Arlen Specter:

Can the stimulus-lovin’ Charlie Crist possibly find a home in the increasingly right-wing GOP?

From the Times:

It’s a crazy question, considering the GOP these days is only marginally more popular than the flu, while the Republican governor of America’s biggest battleground state enjoys astronomical approval ratings.

But it’s worth pondering now that moderate Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has become a Democrat, and the political world is convinced that the moderate Florida governor is about to run for the U.S. Senate. If Crist runs and wins, he will join Maine’s Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe – a pair reviled by many conservatives – as the only Republican senators who supported President Barack Obama’s stimulus package.

“If you agree with Susan Collins or Olympia Snowe on some of these issues, you might as well become a Democrat,” said former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, a Republican who is likely to run for the Senate, whether or not Crist does.

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist

Looks like maybe Dr. Richard Garrity might be a PoHo fan because my post questioning his activities as Executive Director of the EPC Wednesday morning wasn’t up very long at all before I heard from several sources regarding emails he sent listing documents regarding his recent activities. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Read the rest of this entry »

The 2009 Legislative Session passed the 60-day mark on Friday, extended for one more week. The only thing left to do is pass the budget, with tobacco taxes and the Seminole Gaming compact — and the revenue they generate — included.

And so, the next thing for Florida politicos to discuss: Will Governor Charlie Crist run for re-election or for the United States Senate? And when?

So today on Twitter, there is a new #cristcountdown discussion.

What do you think? Post your tweet on Twitter:

RT @StateOfSunshine @jaketapper @markknoller #cristcoundown | Date and office

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Swine, errrr, H1N1 flu worries will keep kids out of three public schools in Hillsborough County this week, after students reported symptoms that health officials believe are from the fast-spreading influenza.

From ABC Action News:

An 18-year-old male student at Freedom High School and an 11-year-old male student at Wilson Middle School are among the latest suspected cases of the H1N1 virus reported to the Florida Department on Health.

Both schools will be closed starting Monday, and will not reopen until next week. Liberty Middle School will also close, since it shares its cafeteria with Freedom High School, officials said.

Students are being asked to stay home and avoid public places like shopping malls or movie theaters.

None of the five Hillsborough victims of the flu have been hospitalized, and all are recovering.

Adam Smith, the knowledgeable political editor over at The Buzz, tweets this:

Roger Stone predicts; Mel Martinez resigns soon; Crist appoints caretaker – Jim Smith – and announces his candidacy for Sen.

Stone, of course, is a legend for behind-the-scenes hijinks, like his work against NY Gov. Eliot “Bring me another hooker” Spitzer.

For better or for worse (and there are some who say it bodes poorly for efforts to get rail transit here in Tampa Bay), but Orlando’s five-year effort for a light-rail system using CSX freight tracks appears finally dead.

A floor vote in the Senate yesterday that could have helped switch more votes to its side failed. From the pro-SunRail Orlando Sentinel:

SunRail proponents could try to bring up the measure again today – the last day of the regular session – but its chances of success are low because it would take 27 votes to do so.

“It’ll take some maneuvering to get it done. I think the forces of evil have won,” said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer.

He was among the dozens of supporters who tried in vain to corral the 21 votes necessary for SunRail to prevail. But he lost two members of the Central Florida delegation: Sens. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, and Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach.

And despite the support of Republican Gov. Charlie Crist and numerous Central Florida business leaders, 15 Republicans voted against the measure.

By Jim Johnson
PoHo Contributor

Jim Johnson is the creator of The State of Sunshine blog.

Today is the 60th day of the 2009 Legislative session.

Ordinarily, today would be the last day of the session; however, the House and Senate have not passed a budget for the 2009-2010 Fiscal Year. Therefore, later today, both the House and Senate will vote to extend session into next week. Essentially, both houses have decided the only bill next week will be the budget, so today will be the last day of major policy votes.

The House and Senate are still meeting in Session today to consider passage of bills that have completed the committee process. Bills heard “on the Floor” are on first placed on a “Special Order Calendar” where they are read (for the second time), debated, and amended. Bills taken up on Special Order move to “3rd reading.” The Florida Constitution requires bills to be read three times before a chamber can pass the bill.

Here are the highlights from their Calendars:

Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Johnson
PoHo Contributor

Jim Johnson is the creator of The State of Sunshine blog.

Today is the 59th day of the 2009 Legislative session.

The House and Senate are still meeting in Session today to consider passage of bills that have completed the committee process. Bills heard “on the Floor” are on first placed on a “Special Order Calendar” where they are read (for the second time), debated, and amended. Bills taken up on Special Order move to “3rd reading.” The Florida Constitution requires bills to be read three times before a chamber can pass the bill.

Here are the highlights from their Calendars:

Read the rest of this entry »

Why wait, I always say. Actually, given Charlie’s continuing tremendous popularity ratings, starting to whittle him down to size is a good tactic for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which released the ad today.

Full video after jump:

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By Jim Johnson
PoHo Contributor

Jim Johnson is the creator of The State of Sunshine blog.

Today is the 58th day of the 2009 Legislative session.

The House and Senate are still meeting in Session today to consider passage of bills that have completed the committee process. Bills heard “on the Floor” are on first placed on a “Special Order Calendar” where they are read (for the second time), debated, and amended. Bills taken up on Special Order move to “3rd reading.” The Florida Constitution requires bills to be read three times before a chamber can pass the bill.

Here are the highlights from their Calendars:

Read the rest of this entry »

Daytona Beach News-Journal columnist (and early media blogger) Mark Lane is money in his latest column about Gov. Charlie Crist and how the sun-tanned one embodies the finest principles of Taoism:

Charlie Crist is Florida’s Taoist governor.He strives by not striving. He wins by not playing.

He is the uncarved block upon which independent voters can visualize their wishes.

Crist does not react to the flow of public opinion; he is one with the flow of public opinion.

Sen. Dan Gelber, a candidate for the U.S. Senate and a Democrat, warns of a rumor to that regard. From his Twitter account earlier today:
Read the rest of this entry »

Not to surprising but the tone was amazing. Today in the Florida House of Representatives, Republicans led a hog-slaughtering of Florida’s growth management laws and opened vast areas of rural property to sprawl by approving its version of the controversial SB 360.

The bill was so bad that the Republican governor’s top growth management official, Tom Pelham, said yesterday that it would “seriously undermine Florida’s growth management laws.”

And that pissed off Republican leaders:

Read the rest of this entry »

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist

Since bad bills like SB 360, legislation to weaken severely growth management laws, and other developer dreams are still alive and well in Tally at the last hour, I wondered what our eight paid lobbyists for Hillsborough County are doing with their time. As legislators attempt to rob a fund to clean up polluted water sources from petroleum leaks (one is in my neighborhood). I wondered where Hillsborough’s Environmental Protection Commission is. I am still wondering. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Johnson
PoHo Contributor

Jim Johnson is the creator of The State of Sunshine blog.

Today is the 57th day of the 2009 Legislative session.

Today is the deadline for having the state budget completed. The Florida Constitution requires the final budget be available to legislators and the public for 72 hours before they legislature can officially vote on it. With the 2009 Regular session scheduled to end on Friday, the budget must be “on the desk” before 11:59 tonight. Media reports have indicated that will not happen.

However, the House and Senate are still meeting in Session today to consider passage of bills that have completed the committee process. Bills heard “on the Floor” are on first placed on a “Special Order Calendar” where they are read (for the second time), debated, and amended. Bills taken up on Special Order move to “3rd reading.” The Florida Constitution requires bills to be read three times before a chamber can pass the bill.

Here are the highlights from their Calendars:

Read the rest of this entry »

I will be joining a panel discussing the accomplishments/lack thereof in the 2009 Florida Legislature on Fox 13’s Your Turn show with Kathy Fountain. Phone or e-mail your questions in, yourturn@wtvt.com or call 813-875-8255 or 800-826-4434 (according to the Fox website.)

By Jim Johnson
PoHo Contributor

Jim Johnson is the creator of The State of Sunshine blog.

Today is the 56th day of the 2009 Legislative session.

The last week of the 2009 Regular Legislative Session has arrived. The House and Senate are meeting in Session today to consider passage of bills that have completed the committee process. Bills heard “on the Floor” are on first placed on a “Special Order Calendar” where they are read (for the second time), debated, and amended. Bills taken up on Special Order move to “3rd reading.” The Florida Constitution requires bills to be read three times before a chamber can pass the bill.

Here are the highlights from their Calendars:

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a good review from the Tallahassee Democrat of just how the petroleum industry and its lobbyists sprung their 11th-hour surprise to end a 20-year ban on offshore oil drilling on the House of Representatives.

From the Democrat’s Florida Capital News website:

With a little less than an hour’s discussion, and a quick, mostly party-line vote, every conservationist’s worst nightmare was headed for the House floor. The House gave preliminary approval on Friday.

“This is like a Carl Hiaasen novel,” laments Janet Bowman, a lobbyist for the Nature Conservancy.

But unlike the colorful characters who scheme to sell out Florida’s natural wonders in Hiaasen’s works of fiction, the supporters are very real. Their ranks also include some respected names, including Martha Barnett, a former president of the American Bar Association.

Former House Speaker John Thrasher, a lobbyist who is also pushing the measure, smiles broadly and praises Cannon’s master stroke.

“He’s a rising star,” Thrasher said. “We needed to look at this, not just pull it out and have everyone just say no. It’s been amazing to see the pent-up energy for this.”

By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.

Florida universities face serious budget cuts if the proposed House of Representatives budget (here’s a .pdf of its appropriations) for higher education goes through. The budget would cut $500 million in basic budget support and an additional $100 million in salaries.

What does this mean for our Florida Universities?

Here is the video, after the jump

Read the rest of this entry »

By State Rep. Rick Kriseman, D-St. Petersburg
PoHo contributor
Kriseman is blogging throughout the Florida Legislature’s 60-day session.

There is certainly no shortage of blogworthy material in Tallahassee these days. The indictment of our former speaker, Rep. Ray Sansom, has been greeted by mostly silence in the Capitol, with even my Democratic colleagues preferring to focus on the business at hand rather than score easy political points. I had thought the strong language contained in the grand jury’s indictment and the damning assessment of our legislative process would temper the culture of secrecy, but that hasn’t been the case. Participation in the budget process has been restricted to just a few Republicans, a late-filed amendment to allow oil drilling in the Gulf just a few miles off our shores was heard with almost no notice given to the amendment’s likely opponents, and a broader energy package is expected to come before the full House without prior committee or council vetting.

There’s more.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Johnson
PoHo Contributor

Jim Johnson is the creator of The State of Sunshine blog.

Today is the 52nd day of the 2009 Legislative session.

The House and Senate are meeting in Session today to consider passage of bills that have completed the committee process. Bills heard “on the Floor” are on first placed on a “Special Order Calendar” where they are read (for the second time), debated, and amended. Bills taken up on Special Order move to “3rd reading.” The Florida Constitution requires bills to be read three times before a chamber can pass the bill.

Here are the highlights from their Calendars:

Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Johnson
PoHo Contributor

Jim Johnson is the creator of The State of Sunshine blog.

Today is the 51st day of the 2009 Legislative session.

The House and Senate are meeting in Session today to consider passage of bills that have completed the committee process. Bills heard “on the Floor” are on first placed on a “Special Order Calendar” where they are read (for the second time), debated, and amended. Bills taken up on Special Order move to “3rd reading.” The Florida Constitution requires bills to be read three times before a chamber can pass the bill.

Here are the highlights from their Calendars:

Read the rest of this entry »

By Catherine Durkin Robinson
PoHo contributor
Catherine Durkin Robinson is a “feminist mother of twins” and a political blogger, working under the title Out in Left Field.

In a long list of Republicans who eschew science and reason at every turn, Gary Kompothecras, a self-proclaimed “rainmaker” with his “Ask Gary” referral hotline and TV commercials, is using his money and influence to change how our children are vaccinated.

All because his children are autistic. Otherwise, I doubt he’d give a shit.

Why do people suffer a tragedy and then turn into douchebags? (Eds. note: Or, in the case of once-comedic Jim Carrey, why do people let their spouses screw the funny out of them and replace it with nutty activism?)

Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Johnson
PoHo Contributor
Jim Johnson is the creator of The State of Sunshine blog.

Today is the 50th day of the 2009 Legislative session.

The House and Senate are meeting in Session today to consider passage of bills that have completed the committee process. Bills heard “on the Floor” are on first placed on a “Special Order Calendar” where they are read (for the second time), debated, and amended. Bills taken up on Special Order move to “3rd reading.” The Florida Constitution requires bills to be read three times before a chamber can pass the bill.

Here are the highlights from their Calendars:

Read the rest of this entry »

Just got off a conference call arranged by a Tallahassee PR agency along with Associated Industries of Florida (a pro-business insurance interest) that was pitching heavily for a surprise move in the Florida Legislature to end a 20-year ban on offshore drilling and oil/gas exploration.

HB 1219’s explosive provisions came up all of a sudden, in the last two weeks of the session, clearly a strategic move to limit public discussion on the controversial issue. 20 years of protecting Florida’s beaches from oil spills could be gone in a matter of days in the blitzkrieg, but the oil production advocates on the phoner said that’s not important. What does matter is that Florida is losing out on millions in revenues from state and federal oil leases that could materialize. (And more importantly, lawmakers might miss out on the more than $1.1 million in campaign contributions that petroleum interests have made in the past 15 years.)

It’s about “hard cold cash” for the state “as opposed to political rhetoric,” said Barney Bishop, the head of AIF, who wouldn’t reveal the oil production members of his association who are pushing the legislation. “We’ve never identified who our members are. Our members just brought this idea to us. It was a unique idea. The fact that it was a 20 year [prohibition], that doesn’t mean a doggone thing. That’s really a non-issue.”

Orlando economist Hank Fishkind put the state’s proceeds at more than $1.5 billion a year for 20 years, or $31 billion.

Yes, they flat out dangled lots of cash. Want to fix your budget crisis, Florida? Just drill, baby drill. Pretty odious stuff, especially the shadowy timing of this and the use of Dean Cannon, the next speaker of the House, to introduce the bill and push it through a House council vote along party lines, 17-6. The change in state policy would allow the Cabinet to consider proposals for oil drilling from zero to 10.35 miles offshore. The federal moratorium from 10.35 miles to 200 miles out likely would fall, too, if the state lifts its ban.

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By Jim Johnson
PoHo Contributor

Jim Johnson is the creator of The State of Sunshine blog.

Today is the 49th day of the 2009 Legislative session.

The budget conferences are not meeting yet, even with 11 days remaining in session. House and Senate leadership are having trouble agreeing on the amount of total revenue the budget will contain — the Seminole Tribe Compact, tobacco tax, stimulus funds, and other policy decisions have a significant impact on the total revenue. Until the leadership can agree on these policy issues, the budget is hanging in limbo. The Florida Constitution requires the appropriations act be on the desks of legislators 72 hours before it is finally passed. This means if they want to vote on the budget before 5 p.m. one week from Friday, the budget must be on the desks by 5 p.m. next Tuesday. It takes about a day to print the budget, so the leadership and conference committees have until Monday to agree or there won’t be a budget passed during this session.

Also today is the the last scheduled policy committee meetings in either chamber for the 2009 Legislative Session. The remaining committees, if any, will be the rules and calendar committees responsible for setting the Special Order Calendars for each chamber.

Here are the remaining highlights from today’s agendas:

Read the rest of this entry »

The Republicans have gone back to their old ways when it comes to trying to regain power: rig the election process rather than appeal to the majority of voters.

This time it is a Senate bill (SB 956) that is the target of just about every voting rights and civil rights group in the state. The bill would make it harder for older voters to cast ballots (by outlawing two alternate forms of ID they often use to register and vote), make it harder to gather petition signatures for candidates and referenda, force people who move within 29 days of Election Day to cast provisional ballots and install other vote-blocking reforms in the name of voting security.

From the Times:

Gov. Charlie Crist on Monday strongly hinted that he would veto a proposed rewrite of Florida’s election laws as a broad array of grass-roots groups launched an all-out assault on the legislation.

“What is it we’re trying to cure?” Crist asked in a Times/Herald Tallahassee bureau interview. “The more opportunity you give people to vote, the better it is for democracy. So that aspect of it concerns me.”

“It always seems to me that when there may be legislation that attempts to sort of make it harder for people to do something — the people we work for — generally that’s not good,” Crist said. “I don’t look on that in a favorable light and that is true of this particular part of this legislation.” Asked if he would veto it, Crist said: “I don’t like to use the V word … but I’m not fond of that provision. It concerns me.”

The Central Florida light rail plan known either as SunRail or the CSX deal remained alive in the Florida Senate, barely slipping by an important committee vote yesterday.

The Orlando Sentinel reports:

The $1.2 billion project may need to go before another committee, or it could end up on the Senate floor for a vote that would determine its fate. With nine days left before the session’s scheduled adjournment May 1, supporters want to go to the floor soon, though it is not certain they have the 21 votes necessary to win in the 40-member chamber.

The would-be train eked out a 4-3 vote in the Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee, but the swing vote – cast by Sen. Chris Smith, D- Fort Lauderdale – was less than enthusiastic.

Smith’s vote came only after sponsors allowed him to attach a local-option rental-car surcharge, a $2-a-day levy that would require approval by a county commission supermajority and a county’s voters in a referendum. South Florida legislators are hoping the tax could raise as much as $40 million to support their Tri-Rail commuter system.

SunRail has been opposed by some because it would pay hundreds of millions to CSX for 63 miles of track. Some Lakeland residents oppose it because CSX would then re-route its freight traffic hub through downtown Lakeland.

This week I was joined by ABC Action News anchor Brendan McLaughlin and Democratic consultant Ana Cruz. We discussed, according to my pre-production notes and links:

1. Charlie Crist: will he run for the Senate? is he the shoo-in that many believe he is? Who becomes our next governor? http://www.tampabay.com/news/perspective/article993121.ece
2. Is Obama a wimp? The NYT questions Obama’s determination for a good fight and details how he has compromised and capitulated. And is Obama too enamored with being on TV and being a star and not enough on producing the change he promised? What about this handshake with Hugo Chavez? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/us/politics/19lobby.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
3. Cuba: Are we on the verge of a major shift in US policy toward Cuba? And isn’t it about freaking time? http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jnp5o6f7sbCCvHBAVdsf38VK0CxgD97LLCIG0 and http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/apr/18/tampa-has-thirst-cuba-trade-travel/news-money/

Download it or listen on the player after the jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

The Ledger reports that former House speaker pro tem Marty Bowen is dropping out of her two-year campaign for the Commissioner of Agriculture in 2010. It cites “pressing business and family obligations,” but I’m guessing the real reason is that nobody knew she was running.

From the Ledger:
After nearly two years as an active candidate, Bowen said she is leaving the race because of pressing business and family obligations. But the Republican, who splits her time between homes in Tallahassee and Haines City, said she is by no means out of politics.

Bowen, U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam of Bartow and state Sen. Carey Baker of Eustis were headed for a Republican primary for the commissioner’s post next year when the current commissioner, Charles Bronson, leaves because of term limits.

By Jim Johnson
PoHo Contributor

Jim Johnson is the creator of The State of Sunshine blog.

Today is the 48th day of the 2009 Legislative session.

The House and Senate passed their versions of the budget last week, and will start meeting this week in a conference committee to iron out the differences. Conference committee meetings for Monday have been cancelled. Here are the remaining highlights:

Read the rest of this entry »

This was the man that almost all of the Republican House members didn’t want to abandon even when it was clear he done wrong. From the Miami Herald:

A grand jury Friday indicted former House Speaker Ray Sansom, saying he falsely secured $6 million in taxpayer money to construct and aircraft hangar for a friend and major Republican donor.

The grand jury also indicted Bob Richburg, the Northwest Florida State College president whose school got the money and has been pursuing plans for what the college has insisted is a college emergency management operations center.

“The present system has the potential to breed corruption and create an unfair advantage for those who have money to leverage influence on the Legislature,” the grand jury report said.

By Jim Johnson
PoHo Contributor

Jim Johnson is the creator of The State of Sunshine blog.

Today is the 46th day of the 2009 Legislative session.

The Senate passed it’s version of the budget yesterday and has a light agenda, the House will debate the budget today:

Read the rest of this entry »

This is why the Sunshine State will never be competitive for real hi-tech or biomed industries: as other state’s invest in higher education despite a recession, Florida treats the raw material for its future work force like dog meat. From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

Florida’s state universities may look dramatically different this fall, with larger classes, fewer employees and fewer courses and degrees offered to students.

The University of Florida, the state’s flagship university, unveiled a list of $108 million in possible cuts today, joining a growing number of the state’s 11 schools drafting plans to deal with Florida’s unprecedented economic downturn.

UF may lay off 378 employees, eliminate degree programs such as geological sciences and religion and force employees to give up payments for unused sick time.