Obama to Miami anchor: Hugo Chávez has not posed 'serious' national security threat

UPDATE: Read full story here.

Oscar Haza, a well known Miami Spanish-language broadcast journalist and anchor, scored an interview this week in Washington with President Barack Obama in which Obama said Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has not posed a "serious" national security threat to the United States.

The full interview aired Tuesday night on A Mano Limpia, Haza's nightly show on WJAN-Channel 41, better known as América TeVe. The show had shown portions of the interview Monday night, with Haza live in D.C., and teased to the president talking about Cuba and Venezuela.

The Dominican-born Haza, who also hosts a daily morning radio show that recently moved to Univisión's WAQI-AM (710), better known as Radio Mambí, said he was one of eight journalists from eight swing states invited to the White House -- the only one from Florida -- to speak to the president and other administration officials as Obama pushed his plan to keep some Bush-era tax cuts but eliminate them for incomes greather than $250,000 a year.

Most noteworthy from Haza's interview with the president -- no surprise here -- were questions on Cuba and Venezuela, key issues for South Florida's Hispanic audience (and voters). "If I don't ask you about Cuba, I can't get back to Miami," Haza quipped, in English, before asking the president about a "perception" that he intends to further embrace relations with Cuba in a potential second term.

Mitt Romney 46%, Barack Obama 45% in Florida, Rasmussen poll says

Rasmussen Reports July 9 Florida poll (margin of error +/- 4.5%):

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Florida Voters finds Romney with 46% support to the president’s 45%. Five percent (5%) prefer someone else, and four percent (4%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The survey of 500 Likely Voters in Florida was conducted on July 9, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

--ADAM C. SMITH

Michelle Obama rallies supporters at Miami Lakes campaign stop

First Lady Michelle Obama campaigned Tuesday at a Miami-Dade high school, where cheering supporters beat the steamy summer heat to welcome her.

It was the first of two campaign stops in Florida for Obama on Tuesday.

The event was organized to rally Obama supporters and thank volunteers in the swing state of Florida. It drew a dust-up Monday when two Miami-Dade School Board Members decried the use of a school facility for a purely political event.

At Barbara Goleman Senior High in Miami Lakes, about 2,800 people packed the gym and chanted “four more years” and “Fired Up, Ready to Go” as they waited for the First Lady.

“Thank you for everything that you do,” she told them. “I know the work you do isn’t easy.”

She told them their work was based on shared values, like good schools, middle class security and a dignified retirement for people who’ve worked hard their life.

“We believe that responsibility should be rewarded and that hard work should pay off,” she said, later adding, “That fundamental promise of no matter who you are, if you work hard, you can build a decent life for yourself and an even better life for your kids. That is the American dream.”

Obama essentially gave supporters a talking points memo, covering highlights from her husband’s administration, from education, job creation, health care reform, the ending of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the installation of new U.S. Supreme Court justices.

Obama was slated to speak later Tuesday in Orlando. She has visited Florida before as the First Lady, but this trip marks the first as part of the 2012 presidential campaign. 

More from Laura Isensee here.

Mitt Romney raises nearly $8 million in Florida in June, asks for more

Mitt Romney/Romney Victory and the RNC raised $106 million June (vs. $71 for Obama and Co.) and close to $8 million of that came from Florida, according to a campaign source. More than 42,000 Floridians donated.

Romney isn't letting up. Starting last week, Republicans in Florida were getting this letter (read page one here and page two here) asking for urgent donations.

"It's essential you respond right away," Romney writes. "Our most cherished values and ideals are on the line this election."

Sounding decidedly conservative, Romney warns about Democrats raising "money hand-over-fist from Big Labor Bosses, Hollywood stars, and the Washington liberal elite They will use that money to flood airwaves and mailboxes in key battleground states with their liberal rhetoric and attacks."

At the same time arrived a letter from the Republican Party of Florida Chairman Lenny Curry, who said he "must" raise $170,000 in 21 days.

"You and I both know that this might be our lat chance to stop the socialist Obama agenda of more spending, higher deficits, bigger government and less freedom," Curry writes. "Florida isn't just a battleground state. It's THE battleground state which will determine who wins the White House ..."

--ALEX LEARY

List of 180,000 suspect Florida voters to be made public

After weeks of declining to make it public, Gov. Rick Scott's administration now says it will release a much larger list of more than 180,000 voters in Florida whose citizenship status is in question.

Secretary of State Ken Detzner said two weeks ago that he would seek an advisory opinion from Attorney General Pam Bondi as to whether the database was public record under Florida law -- a political hot potato if ever there was one. Detzner did not request the opinion, and his spokesman, Chris Cate, says: "Our conclusion is that the set of 180,000 names is a public record. We are in the process of redacting it now so that it can be provided to everyone who has made a public records request."

Elections experts say information contained in the state voter file is public record, but there are restrictions on what information can be copied.

Releasing the list could be an election-year nightmare for Scott's administration, which has acknowledged that the database is flawed. But Scott and Detzner have said that it is important for the state to comb its database to ensure that non-citizens are now allowed to "dilute" the votes of legitimate voters. 

The state's release of a much smaller list of 2,700 individuals whose right to vote was in question set off a furor in May and has led to several lawsuits, and county supervisors of elections halted a purge of suspected non-citizen voters, calling the list unreliable. The state has sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, seeking to gain access to a federal citizenship database that would make it easier for the state to track voters' citizenship status.   

The state released a list of 19 organizations and individuals who have requested the list of 180,000 voters. Most are Tallahassee-based reporters but the list also includes the Florida Democratic Party, American Civil Liberties Union, Fair Elections Network, Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, the Advancement Project, and U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton.

--STEVE BOUSQUET

Radio ad backed by Norman Braman attacks incumbent Miami-Dade commissioners

A political committee backed by wealthy Miami auto magnate Norman Braman has put out a radio ad against the four incumbent Miami-Dade commissioners on the Aug. 14 ballot.

Braman, who bankrolled last year's recall of county Mayor Carlos Alvarez, recruited candidates to challenge Commissioners Dennis Moss, Barbara Jordan, Audrey Edmonson and Bruno Barreiro. The minute-long ad on Spanish-language radio is paid for by Braman's electioneering communications organization, Change for Miami-Dade Now.

It highlights commissioners' approval for the new Miami Marlins ballpark, an increase in the property-tax rate (which commissioners reversed last year) and commissioners' office budgets, some of which is used at commissioners' discretion to fund community-based organizations. (The ad refers to that money as "commissioners' bribing funds.")

"In the August 14 elections, say no more to this group of four: Commissioners Barreiro, Edmonson, Jordan and Moss," a man's voice says in Spanish. "It's time to stop complaining and do something about it. Say no more to thise group of four. We have to vote on August 14."

The ad also gives listeners a phone number to call the committee and ask for an absentee ballot. Absentees begin going out next week.

DOH goes on offensive after media reports on TB outbreak

Sunday, the Palm Beach Post published an explosive article about a recent tuberculosis outbreak in Jacksonville. The report accused the state of moving forward with a reorganization of the Department of Health that includes closing the state's TB hospital while not moving quickly enough to contain the outbreak or notify key decision-makers.

The article touched a nerve in Tallahassee, where both DOH and Gov. Rick Scott's office have launched criticism. Steven Harris, the DOH's deputy secretary for health, released a statement today that said the article was inaccurate and refuted the notion that the DOH didn't notify the proper officials when it noticed the spike in TB infections.

The Herald, Tampa Bay Times and other Florida media outlets published versions of the article. And the Post is not backing away from what reporter Stacey Singer wrote.

"We stand by our story," said Joel Engelhardt, Singer's supervisor.

Harris's statement:

A Florida House battle for power -- in 2018 -- features freshman Hialeah state Rep. Jose Oliva

What will you be doing in November 2018?

While you ponder such an odd question, consider this: The race is already underway to choose the speaker of the Florida House in 2018, involving people who haven’t been elected yet.

Bizarre, but true.

Without question, this is one of the most illogical and potentially dangerous side effects of term limits.

House candidates are limited to eight years — four, two-year terms. The instant they hit the campaign trail, they can hear the ticking of that term limits clock.

Consumed with ambition, they run for speaker without first showing the ability to lead. This is the speed-dating version of running for class president, with much more serious consequences.

Why should you care who’s speaker of the House? That person helps decide whether your taxes go up, whether your kids can receive health care or how long you’ll be stuck in traffic.

A speaker could become a U.S. senator, like Marco Rubio, or be driven out by controversy, like Ray Sansom.

With Republicans firmly in control, the next three speakers have been designated by GOP members: Will Weatherford of Wesley Chapel takes over this fall; Chris Dorworth of Lake Mary in 2014; and Richard Corcoran of Trinity in 2016.

But there’s a scramble developing for six years out, with Rep. Jose Oliva of Miami Lakes leading the charge.

Oliva is building friendships with candidates the best way Tallahassee politicians know how: by raising money for them. Oliva, 39, a father of three, is CEO of his family’s cigar business, and said he’s not asking people to support him for speaker. More from Steve Bousquet here.

Absentee ballot requests are way up in Broward

The Broward Supervisor of Elections is sending out more than 83,000 absentee ballots starting today. That's a major increase compared to the last presidential election -- as of this time in 2008 the county had received about 48,000 requests.