How George LeMieux's fellow Rs got shived for him to become interim Senator

George LeMieux is an old hand running political campaigns, but he wound up in the U.S. Senate by ferociously campaigning for just one vote: Gov. Charlie Crist’s.

How LeMieux pulled it off — tapped to serve a vacant Senate seat in 2009 by a governor who had reservations about his former chief of staff — speaks volumes about LeMieux’s ambition, savvy and knack for bare-knuckle politics that’s again playing out as he campaigns to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

"He really wanted to do it. So he was going to do everything he could," former Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp said. "He really, really wanted to do it."

Kottkamp had been told he would be picked. Other top contenders included former Secretary of State Jim Smith, U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, former U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw and Board of Education member Roberto Martinez.

University of North Florida President John Delaney was told he could start looking for a place to live in D.C. The job was his.

But then LeMieux allies created an anonymous website attacking Delaney. It noted that when Delaney was Jacksonville mayor in 2008, he had publicly opposed a property-tax initiative promoted by Crist. The Senate offer was promptly yanked.

It was a tactic repeated again and again as potential picks gained steam.

"I’ve got to salute him. He was playing politics, and the rest of us weren’t," Delaney said of LeMieux. "We were playing by Marquess of Queensbury rules. He got what he wanted."

More here

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/22/2812589/george-lemieuxs-aggressive-campaign.html#storylink=cpy

DNC Chair Wasserman Schultz breaks with Obama (and Bush) over Castro visa

First, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson opposed the Obama Administration's decision to award a visa to the niece of Fidel Castro. Now comes Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Broward Congresswoman who -- like Nelson -- is tough on Cuba and was put in quite a spot by the decision of Obama.

Trying to straddle both worlds of Obama loyalist and Cuba hardliner, Wasserman Schultz noted that Mariela Castro had three times visited the United States when President Bush was in office in 2001 and 2002. And there was nary a peep of protest. But back then, it appears, no one really knew about it.

Still, it's clear she opposes the decision now as she would have then.

Here's a statement from her congressional office: “The Bush Administration set a bad precedent by granting Mariela Castro a waiver in 2001 and 2002, as I believe that such visa requests should not be accepted because of the ongoing human rights abuses in Cuba. While I respect my colleagues, it's important to note they did not criticize President George W. Bush for granting Ms. Castro a waiver in 2002. Politics has no place when we are standing up for human rights."

This isn’t the first time that Wasserman Schultz’s South Florida-infused Cuba policy has conflicted with her fellow Democrats over Cuba policy. A May 2011 story noted that, though Obama and Wasserman Schultz are friends, they differ on Cuba policy

“Obama has backed greater engagement with Cuba; Wasserman Schultz opposes easing restrictions on the Castro government and as a freshman legislator helped found the Cuba Democracy Caucus, a bipartisan group of pro-embargo legislators that works to thwart efforts to ease the embargo.

“It’s not going to be something that creates any daylight between the president and myself,” she said. She’s not talked Cuba policy with Obama recently, she said.”

In November 2009, Wasserman Schultz rallied 52 other Democrats in the House to oppose lifting the Cuba embargo. They sent a letter to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi supporting current Cuba policy, which embargo-supporters said effectively killed a bill to open Cuba to tourists.

Also, in 2008, Wasserman Schultz’ relationship with fellow South Florida Reps and Cuba hardliners Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart and Lincoln Diaz-Balart left the Democrat on the sidelines when she was supposed to be helping to raise money to support the Republicans’ opponents.

Bill Nelson disses Obama admin': Mariela Castro visa "makes no sense."

Add Sen. Bill Nelson to the chorus of elected officials who are bothered by the decision to grant Mariela Castro a visa to visit the United States. The niece of Fidel and the daughter of Raul Castro, she's a face of the regime, which has jailed American contractor Alan Gross on trumped up charges.

“Allowing Raul’s daughter to come to the U.S when the regime still holds Alan Gross makes no sense,” Nelson said in a written statement.

Uh-oh. Looks like Nelson's running off the Democratic reservation. The party has been actively battling Republican attacks on Obama for allowing the Castro visa. They note that George W. Bush's administration allowed Castro to visit the United States three times.

But Nelson, who likely will face a tough re-election challenge, likely has no interest in invoking George Bush as a defense of Obama -- especially if the administration makes a move that just doesn't help with the Florida electorate at large and that hurts with the Cuban-American electorate in specific.

Minorities, Democrats most likely to be purged from voter rolls due to felony convictions

With attention focused on Florida's effort to remove non-citizens from the voter rolls, another procedure continues as well: the purging of convicted felons from the rolls. Under Florida law, a convicted felon loses his or her right to vote and must petition the governor and state Cabinet for the restoration of civil rights, a process that can take up to seven years. 

A Times/Herald analysis of four months' worth of data from the state Division of Elections shows that 6,934 people were removed from the rolls in the first four months of 2012 following felony convictions, and that Democrats were three times more likely to be removed than Republicans. 

Of that total, 3,550 or 51 percent were registered as Democrats, and 1,206 or 17 percent were registered as Republicans. Another 1,614, or 23 percent, were registered with no party affiliation.

Here's the racial breakdown of felons removed from the voter database in 2012: Whites accounted for 3,018 or 44 percent, and blacks accounted for 2,956 or 42 percent. Hispanics accounted for 608 or 9 percent.

The five zip codes that accounted for the largest number of civil rights revocations were in Jacksonville and Tampa.  Jacksonville, the state's largest city, had the most purged felons (928). Tampa had 797, Miami 367, Orlando 222, and St. Petersburg 174.

"Obviously, we're not targeting demographic groups," said Chris Cate, a spokesman for the Division of Elections. "The only category we're concerned about is, are they ineligible? If they're ineligible, they need to be removed."

While the purging process might be color- and party-blind, the results highlight the fact that the justice system might not be. About half of Florida's prison population is black in a state that's 14 percent African American -- who are overwhelmingly Democratic voters as well.

So any voter purge of felons is bound to disproportionately affect African Americans and Democrats.

-- Steve Bousquet

Florida sends $33.4 million in foreclosure settlement money to general revenue

Out of $334 million in cash payments sent to Florida in a multi-billion dollar mortgage settlement with major banks, about $33.4 million will go to help bolster the state’s budget.

Florida is one of several states taking a portion of the $2.5 billion in cash payments from big banks and using it for programs not directly related to the foreclosure crisis, ProPublica reports.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Pam Bondi—who negotiated the settlement-- confirmed that 10 percent of the cash has been sent to the general fund.

“Ten percent went to the state of Florida as a penalty,” she said. “That money goes to GR (general revenue).”

Florida’s total take in the overall $25 billion settlement—which includes principle writedowns and mortgage modifications--is worth about $8.4 billion.

Capitol Hill Cubans: Two Castro-visa wrongs don't make a right. And why Obama's is worse

From the Capitol Hill Cubans blog on today's Castro-visa controversy (hypertext links are mine):

Today, national Republicans criticized the Obama Administration for granting a U.S. visa to Cuban dictator Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela. Democrats have responded by pointing to the Bush Administration, which gave Mariela Castro a visa in 2002.

The fact is that two wrongs don't make a right -- both the Bush and Obama Administrations erred in doing so.

But it's actually worse now. Prior to Raul Castro becoming dictator-in-chief in 2006, few non-Cuba observers even knew that Raul had a daughter (let alone two). Since that time, the Cuban dictatorship has turned Mariela Castro into its most prominent public relations figure.

More here

Democrats, blacks most likely to lose voting rights

With attention focused on Florida's effort to remove non-citizens from the voter rolls, another procedure continues as well: the purging of convicted felons from the rolls. Under Florida law, a convicted felon loses his or her right to vote and must petition the governor and state Cabinet for the restoration of civil rights, a process that can take up to seven years. 

A Times/Herald analysis of four months' worth of data from the state Division of Elections shows that 6,934 people were removed from the rolls in the first four months of 2012 following felony convictions, and that Democrats were three times more likely to be removed than Republicans. 

Of that total, 3,550 or 51 percent were registered as Democrats, and 1,206 or 17 percent were registered as Republicans. Another 1,614, or 23 percent, were registered with no party affiliation.

Here's the racial breakdown of felons removed from the voter database in 2012: Whites accounted for 3,018 or 44 percent, and blacks accounted for 2,956 or 42 percent. Hispanics accounted for 608 or 9 percent.

The five zip codes that accounted for the largest number of civil rights revocations were in Jacksonville and Tampa.  Jacksonville, the state's largest city, had the most purged felons (928). Tampa had 797, Miami 367, Orlando 222, and St. Petersburg 174.

"Obviously, we're not targeting demographic groups," said Chris Cate, a spokesman for the Division of Elections. "The only category we're concerned about is, are they ineligible? If they're ineligible, they need to be removed."

-- Steve Bousquet

Rick Scott personally launched noncitizen voter hunt in FL

AP:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida's quest to identify and remove non-U.S. citizens from the voter rolls was started at the direct urging of Gov. Rick Scott, the state's former top elections official said.

Ex-Secretary of State Kurt Browning, who resigned this year, told The Associated Press that Scott asked him whether or not non-U.S. citizens were registered and if those people were voting. Browning explained to the governor during a face-to-face meeting last year that people who register and falsely claim they are citizens can be charged with a crime.

"He says to me - well, people lie," Browning recalled this week. "Yes, people do. But we have always had to err on the side of the voter."

Browning said the conversation prompted state election officials to begin working to identify non-U.S. citizens. The state's initial list - compiled by comparing driver's licenses with voter registration data - showed that as many as 182,000 registered voters were eligible to be in the country but ineligible to vote.

But Browning said he decided against telling local election supervisors right away because he wanted to make sure the information was accurate in order to avoid a "firestorm of press" and criticism. Florida then spent months trying to get access to a federal database that tracks non-U.S. citizens in the country, but the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would not allow it.

"We were not confident enough about the information for this secretary to hang his hat on it," said Browning, who resigned after the Jan. 31 presidential preference primary.

More here

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/22/2811941/fla-gov-started-push-to-remove.html#storylink=cpy

PolitFact checks Romney's debt claim

When Mitt Romney traveled around the country campaigning recently, he brought a debt clock with him showing the rising national debt.

The total is a mind-boggling, massive number. In St. Petersburg, Fla., on May 16, 2012, Romney explained what the debt and "unfunded liabilities" means for every household.

Romney said unfunded liabilities "means promises made by the federal government where there is no money behind it to pay it. … So it's the liabilities (that) add up to, think about this, $520,000 per household. …And this president hasn’t stopped it; he has added to it."

Wow -- every family owes more than a half-million? Forget about ever paying that off -- right?

PolitiFact checks to see if Romney, the presumed Republican nominee for president, was correct that the amount of debt plus unfunded liabilities equals about $520,000 per household.

Super PAC ad attack. Pro- and anti-Obama/Romney committees announce new FL ads

Another day, another announcement of Super PAC ads bashing and/or supporting President Obama and/or Mitt Romney.

Here's the anti-Obama Crossroads GPS, which says it'll spend $2.4 million on this minute-long ad in Florida for the next three weeks: And here's the anti-Romney Priorities USA, which says it'll air this ad (no mention of size of the buy, though) in Florida: