Rumors fly that Norman plans to drop out of Senate race

Politicos around the state were abuzz Monday with talk that state Sen. Jim Norman, R-Tampa, will abandon his reelection campaign as he faces three primary challenges with a gift house allegation swirling over his head. The scuttlebutt had it that Norman would make an announcement as soon as Tuesday.

Norman could have put an end to the talk but did not return calls or a text to his cell phone Monday evening. Several of his closest advisors also did not return calls.

Norman is facing primary challenges from state Rep. John Legg, who has already picked up several key endorsements; former state Rep. Rob Wallace; and security consultant John Korsak. The election follows him pleading guilty to an ethics charge centered around his wife buying a lakefront Arkansas home with the help of $500,000 from one of Norman's political benefactors, the late Ralph Hughes.

-- Bill Varian, Tampa Bay Times

And then there were 141 -- noncitizens on the voter rolls, that is (47 may have cast ballots)

After a quick canvas of county elections supervisors and some new data from the state, it looks like 141 noncitizens were on Florida's voter rolls and have since been removed.

The state earlier today provided us a list of 86 noncitizens on the rolls, 47 of whom may have cast ballots. A dozen other counties not on the state list provided 54 more names of noncitizens on the rolls. It's unclear how many of them have actually cast ballots (we only have the voter IDs of 87 of them).

Here's how they break down by race compared to the overall voter rolls

Race	Purged %	Rolls %
Hispanic	38%	13%
White (NH)	36%	68%
Black (NH)	9%	13%

 

American Indian or Alaskan Native	2	3%
Asian Or Pacific Islander	2	3%
Black, Not Hispanic	7	9%
Hispanic	28	38%
White, Not Hispanic	27	36%
Other	2	3%
Unknown	5	7%

Here's how they break down by party compared to the overall voter rolls

 

Party	Purged %	Rolls
DEM	41%	40%
REP	31%	36%
NPA/Oth	27%	20%

 

Understand, this is a small sample size and the numbers are constantly changing. Of course, each side will use what data it can to advance its point and ignore the data that inconveniences its particular theory.

But the higher the noncitizen number gets, the more it tends to help the more conservative argument that the hunt and purge need to continue. That's assuming that a lawful voter doesn't get booted from the rolls. That hasn't happened yet. Although the case of Battle of the Bulge vet Bill Internicola shows that an inconvenienced voter who feels hassled by this program can really stick it to the state.

Still, here's a numbers game to consider: 141 is 4.7% of 3,000 (the size of the state's potential noncitizens list sent to election supervisors and then some). If that noncitizens match-rate held true, guess how many noncitizens would be found if the state sent the counties 11,425 more names?

Answer: 537. That's the number of votes that George Bush beat Al Gore by in 2000 in Florida (yeah, he really beat him by just one vote on the Supreme Court). Now remember that the state's initial list of potential noncitizens is 182,000. The state has refused to release the list. So who knows what's in it?

Again, this is an "if" situation and nothing more. Overall, the samples are just too small, unknown and unstable to extrapolate any meaningful conclusions about how many actual noncitizens are on the rolls. So consider the above exercise a math game. But understand, some people will be deadly serious about playing it nonetheless.

Newcomer to Senate race beats Mack, LeMieux in Pinellas County straw poll

Little-known but fiery U.S. Senate candidate Marielena Stuart earned a surprise victory in a straw poll of Pinellas County Republicans on Monday, wowing the crowd with tea party rhetoric and demonstrating just how volatile the race to unseat Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson is two months before the Aug. 14 primary.

“I am very excited,” Stuart said after the announcement. “I am on my way to Washington.”

Straw polls don’t often carry much weight — take Herman Cain’s sizable win during Florida’s Presidency V straw poll in September. But the Pinellas group got it right early on in the 2010 Florida Senate race, choosing Marco Rubio over hometown Gov. Charlie Crist months before Crist left the Republican Party.

Stuart nabbed 110 votes, former Sen. George LeMieux took 69, and frontrunner Rep. Connie Mack -- who didn’t show for the poll -- took 12. Former Rep. Dave Weldon got five votes, and retired Army Col. Mike McCalister, who also didn’t attend, got four.

LeMieux was the only candidate who attacked Mack for missing the straw poll.

Mack, the four-term congressman who received a slew of recent endorsements from the GOPestablishment, has declared himself the clear choice to face Nelson but has not fared well in straw polls.

The other candidates are polling in only single digits, but they’re not ready to concede before the primary.

"He won’t come before you because he wants to just be crowned for this election. Well, we’re not going to have a coronation in Florida. We’re going to have an election,” LeMieux said.

DOJ will sue Florida, says it created its own problems with noncitizen voter purge

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas E. Perez said the Department of Justice will sue Florida over its noncitizen voter purge, which he called unlawful.

“Please immediately cease this unlawful conduct,” Perez wrote. “Because the State has indicated its unwillingness to comply with these requirements, I have authorized the initiation of an enforcement action against Florida in federal court.”

Perez responded to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner’s request last week that the DOJ explain why it’s not misreading federal law and that it explain why the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has refused Florida access to an immigration database that would help with the purge.

Said Perez: The database wouldn’t help. And Florida messed up the purge all by itself.

“In short, your claim that the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security have worked in concert to deny Florida access to the SAVE Program is simply wrong,” Perez wrote. “The significant problems you are encountering in administering this new program are of your own creation.”

Download 2012-06-11 ltr-1 Some excerpts:

Movers & Shakers: University turnover, new hires at DEO

Bernie Machen to retire as UF president

Lots of changes in the university system announced this week.

For starters, University of Florida President Bernie Machen announced his plans to retire in 2013.

The 68-year-old Machen, president of The Gator Nation since 2004, will stay at UF as a professor of dentistry, according to a university press release.

He announced the news during a meeting Friday, when he also announced he would ask for a 9 percent tuition hike—short of the 15 percent increase the university can seek under state law.

The university will begin its search for Machen’s replacement next month, a process expected to take six months to one year. Machen, who earns a salary of $433,000, said he will stay on until his successor is selected.

UF College of Journalism and Communications hires dean

Today, Machen made another important announcement: Diane McFarlin will be the new dean of UF’s College of Journalism and Communications.
 
The UF graduate was managing editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune by 31. She moved to The Gainesville Sun to fill the role of executive editor in 1987 and returned to the Herald-Tribune in 1990, where she served as executive editor and then publisher, according to the university press release.

“Diane has a comprehensive view of the rapidly changing media industry and the challenges it faces,” Machen said. “As the publisher of a major media operation, she understands not just journalism but also advertising, broadcast media, online media, public relations – everything represented in the College of Journalism and Communications.”

Current Dean John Wright plans to leave his position to return to faculty in 2013, the release states. Wright earns $233,522.

Allan Bense named new chairman of FSU Board of Trustees

The Florida State University Board of Trustees elected Trustee Allan Bense as chairman of FSU’s board of trustees.

Bense, a former House speaker and prominent businessman, will replace Wm. Andrew Haggard, who was first appointed to the Florida State Board of Trustees in 2002 by Gov. Jeb Bush and served as vice chairman from 2004-2005. Bense was re-appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist in 2007, according to the FSU website.

New hires at DEO

Carolyn Gosselin will replace Nancy Blum-Heintz as chief communications officer for the Department of Economic Opportunity.

Gosselin has more than 25 years of marketing, crisis communications, media and government relations experience, according to the agency.

She also served as senior vice president and chief communications officer for CNL Financial Group, Inc., a real estate investment company in Orlando, and spent 10 years in marketing and public relations at SunTrust Bank.

DEO also hired Joe Maleszewski as its inspector general. He replaces James Mathews.

Maleszewski is a 20 year veteran of state government and spent the past six years as audit director and interim inspector general at the Department of Transportation. There, he oversaw 7,425 state employees, a $6.5 billion budget, and a $33.8 billion five-year construction work program, according to DEO.

Gosselin will earn $100,000 per year in the new position and Maleszewski will earn $108,222.

Weatherford hires Mears, Duffy

Incoming House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, named Kathy Mears as his chief of staff.

Mears, who comes from her post as vice president of On 3 public relations in Tallahassee, is an experienced player in state government. 

She served high-level positions under former House Speaker Daniel Webster and former Senate presidents Tom Lee and Ken Pruitt. She was also deputy chief of staff and legislative director for former Gov. Charlie Crist.

“Kathy is a true professional with invaluable experience in the highest levels of state government and the private sector,” Weatherford said in a news release. “As my chief of staff, she will play a central role in helping the Florida House develop solutions to address the many challenges facing our state. 

Weatherford also named Ryan Duffy as his press secretary. Duffy has handled press for the Florida House, and written speeches for former Gov. Jeb Bush and former U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez.

Movers and Shakers is a weekly roundup of personnel changes in politics and state agencies. Send tips to bdavis@tampabay.com or via twitter at britt_alana.

Rick Scott: I'm suing Homeland Security over database stonewalling in noncitizen-voter purge

Gov. Rick Scott’s top elections official sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Monday, accusing the agency of unlawful “recalcitrance” for refusing Florida access to a database that could help the state spot and remove noncitizens from the voter rolls.

"We have a right to this database,” Scott said late Monday on Fox’s Your World with Neil Cavuto. “It's supposed to be used for voting registration. I look forward to them giving us the database but, again, we don't' have a choice but to sue them this afternoon.”

Florida’s lawsuit is just the latest high-profile twist in its controversial effort to purge noncitizens from the voter rolls. About 141 noncitizens have been found on the voter rolls – at least 47 of whom may have unlawfully cast ballots.

Download 6.11.2012 DOS vs. DHS, re SAVE Database-1

Tea Party divided over endorsement of Connie Mack

In a heated conference call with dozens of Tea Party supporters throughout the state late Sunday, Florida's disparate Tea Party groups debated whether or not to endorse Republican Connie Mack in the Florida U.S. Senate primary.

The call, organized by Freedom Works, the conservative non-profit based in Washington, D.C., became very heated as several tea party backers urged the group to stay out of the primary while the Freedom Works supporters wanted to endorse Mack of Cape Coral, said Henry Kelley, chairman of the Fort Walton Beach Tea Party.

"The general consensus was not whether we should back Mack or LeMieux but why are we moving into the middle of a primary,'' Kelley told the Herald/Times. He said he supports LeMieux, in part because of Mack's refusal to debate, but expects most Tea Party members to support the Republican nominee. "Why would you jump in when there are only 60 days left?"

Documents written by Easton Randall of the Freedom Works Foundation show that the organization prefers Mack over LeMieux because of his voting record and his "penny plan" to cut federal spending 1 percent a year. Download Tea Party Florida_Senate_Race_Brief Download Tea Party Mack Florida_6-10

To confuse matters further, Mack has been endorsed by the Tea Party of Florida, the Orlando-based third party group started by activist Doug Guetzloe but which is not supported by grassroots tea party activists around the state.

Jeb: my dad, Reagan would struggle in a GOP primary these days

From BuzzFeed:

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said today that both Ronald Reagan and his father George H. W. Bush would have had a difficult time getting nominated by today's ultra-conservative Republican Party.

"Ronald Reagan would have, based on his record of finding accommodation, finding some degree of common ground, as would my dad — they would have a hard time if you define the Republican party — and I don’t — as having an orthodoxy that doesn’t allow for disagreement, doesn’t allow for finding some common ground," Bush said, adding that he views the hyper-partisan moment as "temporary."

"Back to my dad’s time and Ronald Reagan’s time – they got a lot of stuff done with a lot of bipartisan suport," he said. Reagan "would be criticized for doing the things that he did."

Bush cited, in particular, "the budget deal my dad did, with bipartisan support — at least for a while — that created the spending restraint of the ‘90s," a reference to a move widely viewed now as a political disaster for Bush, breaking a pledge against tax increases and infuriating conservatives. It was, Bush said, "helpful in creating a climate of more sustained economic growth."

More here

Adam Putnam could've gotten 4 times the value for family land in taxpayer Everglades deal

Palm Beach Post:

Adam Putnam — former congressman, current commissioner of agriculture and widely viewed as the future of Florida politics — became a very rich man in 2005 when taxpayers spent $25.5 million on 2,042 acres of his family’s ranch that had been valued at $5.5 million a year earlier, The Palm Beach Post has learned.

The South Florida Water Management District needed only 600 acres of the ranch in Highlands County for environmental purposes. But it bought all 2,042 acres and did it in a way that arranged for the Putnams a lucrative tax break, while allowing the family to continue grazing cattle on the land rent-free until the district needed the land. After paying the family’s attorney $3.9 million in legal fees, the total deal cost taxpayers nearly $30 million.

Seven years later the district has used only 150 acres and has no plans for the rest. The Putnam cattle graze on, courtesy of Florida taxpayers.

Putnam, a congressman at the time of the deal, said he was careful to not involve himself in it to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. Congressional ethics rules do not bar such real estate transactions as long as Putnam did not use his position to sweeten the deal. Records show Putnam was not on any committees that would have allowed him to do so. He said his older brother Will negotiated the deal for the family.

“I can’t speak to the details of the transaction because I deliberately stayed away,” Adam Putnam said. His financial disclosure reports show his income from the family business jumped from under $100,000 in 2004 to between $1 million and $5 million after the deal. “If there’s something else I could have done to further remove myself, I don’t know what it was,” he said.

More here

Speaker designate Weatherford endorses Legg in 5-way Senate race

Incoming House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, has endorsed his colleague in the Florida House, John Legg, in his bid a Tampa-area Senate seat.

Legg, R-Port Richey, will square off against current state Senator Jim Norman, R-Tampa, and Rob Wallace, a Republican and former board member of Citizens Property Insurance. John Korsak, a Republican, is also running in the primary for Senate district 17. 

Calling Legg the "true conservative" in the race, Weatherford said Legg has a track record of fighting to create jobs and hold government accountable. 

“John is a fighter for improving education and has the know-how to make sure the families in our local communities and across the state are given more choices and every opportunity to excel in and out of the classroom.  I support John, the true conservative for Senate District 17,” said Weatherford, in a statement.