RPOF uses voter purge as pro-Scott message

With a heady surge of voter approval over his handling of the voter purge, and a recent decision by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to give the state access to its immigration list, the Republican Party of Florida sees a message moment.

They want Floridians to spread the word that Gov. Rick Scott, whose approval ratings have been like quicksand, has had a victory.

In a letter to RPOF supporters today, Gov. Rick Scott does something rare in politics. He doesn't ask for money. Instead, he touts the "significant victory for the integrity of our election system" and asks people to spread the word on social media.

Mark Ferrulo of Progress Florida sees the message as something else. "That certainly removes whatever veneer of non-partisanship was left on this affront to democracy and blatant attempt to disenfranchise voters they’d prefer not vote,'' he said in a statement.

Here's the email:

Prisons will move forward with health outsourcing

The Florida Department of Corrections said Tuesday it will move ahead with plans to privatize all health care for the nation's third-largest prison system, even after a stalemate in court and the expiration of legislative budget language that authorized the sweeping change.

Corrections Secretary Ken Tucker issued a late-afternoon statement calling the decision "best for the Department and taxpayers." "This step will allow us to provide the same services we currently havem which meet state and federal standards, while saving money for the taxpayers."

The action could trigger a new round of litigation by a labor union that represents nurses who work in the system.

Rubio: Treat people who've been trafficked as victims and not perpetrators

WASHINGTON -- More than a century after abolition, slavery is still a problem in the United States, actress Jada Pinkett Smith told a Senate committee that is deciding whether to renew a law designed to combat human trafficking.

In a hearing Tuesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Pinkett Smith and other witnesses urged members of Congress to reauthorize a 2000 law – the Trafficking Victims Protection Act – that seeks to curtail the buying and selling of humans. The law expired in 2011.

Pinkett Smith, on hand with her actor husband Will Smith, said she was motivated by her 11-year-old daughter, Willow, who had researched child slavery. That inspired her to found an organization this year called Don’t Sell Bodies.

"Let it be our legacy to deliver on emancipation’s promise – making freedom a reality for all who have been victimized," Pinkett Smith said.

Between 200,000 and 300,000 U.S. children are at risk of being trafficked into commercial sex, David Abramowitz, vice president of policy and government relations at the human rights group Humanity United, told the committee. The United Nations has reported that human trafficking yields $32 billion a year worldwide, he said.

Pinkett Smith said her interactions with former victims of trafficking showed her the importance of renewing the protection act. She introduced three American victims of human trafficking: Monica, who was kidnapped by seven men at age 15 and forced into prostitution; Jamm, who was arrested at the same age after she stole the phone of her aunt in an attempt to get out of forced prostitution; and Minh, whose parents sold her body to men starting at age 11 even as she continued to attend public school and receive straight As.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., emphasized the importance of treating people who have been trafficked as victims and not perpetrators. "When you interact with a victim, they’ve been so battered that they act like a willing participant," he said.

Gov. Scott to Congress: Find out how much Libor scandal has cost Floridians

Gov. Rick Scott has fired off a letter to Florida’s representatives in Congress, asking them to turn up the heat on an investigation into an international banking scandal he says has impacted Floridians.

Last month, Barclays Capital was fined more than $450 million over allegations that it fraudulently manipulated the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor. There are signs that more banks could be involved in the scandal over Libor, which sets interbank lending rates in ways that trickle down to impact nearly every consumer’s cost of living.

“The potential impacts on the income, retirement savings and costs of living for so many Floridians deserve immediate attention to ensure that they have not and  will not suffer unfair consequences as a result of this severe breach of trust,” Scott wrote in a letter to Florida's congressional delegation.

Elton John complained to Gov. Scott about funding cuts, was told to do a concert

Gov. Rick Scott has made his way into the pages of a new memoir by singer-songwriter Elton John.

A year ago, Sir Elton, as he is formally called, penned a letter to Florida's governor complaining about the administration's plans to change the eligibility requirements of Florida's Aids Drug Assistance Program, suggesting it would "eliminate access to life saving medication for thousands of low income Floridians living with HIV/AIDS."

Sir Elton, along with his civil partner, Elton John AIDS Foundation Chairman David Furnish, warned the governor that lowering income eligibility could cause as many as 1,600 people to lose their assistance in obtaining antiretroviral medication as well as the 3,900 people on the waiting list -- the longest in the nation.

They received a letter back from then-Surgeon General Frank Farmer, who responded that while Scott's budget proposed full funding of the program the Legislature hadn't allocated any additional funds and the demand for the drugs were exceeding the resources, forcing the cutbacks.

"We welcome any suggestions or ideas you have to help us do more with our existing funding,'' Farmer wrote. Then he made his own suggestion: "I once again cordially invite you to consider an ADAP fundraising concert series in Florida. I know you have a big fan base here and we would love to welcome you to the Sunshine State." Here's the exchange: Download Elton John letter 1  Download Elton John letter 2

Sir Elton didn't take kindly to the idea that the pop star should make up for where the government fell short. In an interview on National Public Radio's Morning Edition today, he told host Steve Inskeep he included the exchange in his memoir, Love is the Cure, to make a point. 

"It's not my job to [fund a state's AIDS program],'' he told It's the government's priority to do that. I can't do benefit concerts for Florida, for the people with AIDS in Florida. It's their responsibility; they need to do what's right. And cutting funding for the people that [can] least afford it is criminal."

Gambling lobbyist Dunbar praises Tom Lee, who fires back

Tallahassee gambling lobbyist Marc Dunbar wrote a fund-raising letter to his clients on the letterhead of his law firm (Pennington Moore Wilkinson Bell & Dunbar), urging them to support former Sen. Tom Lee in his Republican Senate primary against Rep. Rachel Burgin in East Hillsborough's District 24.

Calling the race "a clear choice between a pro-gambling moderate (Lee) and a stark anti-gambling conservative (Burgin)," Dunbar extolled the many occasions in which Lee came to the rescue of the parimutuel industry, including siding with Democrats Steve Geller and Debbie Wasserman Schultz to implement voter-approved slot machines in South Florida. Lee was Senate president when that occurred in 2005.

Dunbar is an astute lobbyist who has to know that Senate District 24 has many church-going social conservatives who oppose gambling and that being lumped in with liberals such as Geller and Wasserman Schultz is probably not the ideal way to garner Republican votes (read the Dunbar letter below).  

A closer look also reveals a troubled history between Lee and Dunbar. In 2005, three senators went off on a $48,000, two-day, all-expense-paid trip to Canada, courtesy of Magna Entertainment Corp., a gambling company, whose lobbyist was Marc Dunbar. When the Republican Party stepped in to pay for the trip and spare the senators an ethics problem, Lee ordered an investigation (story is here).

Sens. Mike Bennett, Dennis Jones and the late Jim King took that trip, as did then-Rep. Frank Farkas, R-St. Petersburg.

Asked to comment on Dunbar's letter, Lee called Dunbar "a political operative to the Rachel Burgin campaign," and said: "The letter is clearly designed to become an instrument of the Burgin campaign in an effort to mislead the voters about the expansion of gambling in Florida. I do not support the expansion of gambling in Florida."

Burgin said she's the only one in the race who's completely opposed to gambling, and cited her no vote in 2009 against the deal that allowed casino gambling on Seminole Indian reservation casinos that cost her a committee assignment. Lee fired back that Burgin has gotten money from gambling interests, the Hartman & Tyner parimutuel firm and Save Our Internet Access (internet cafes).

"You can't take away a voting record," Burgin said. "How can it (the letter) be a fabrication?"

Geller, a lawyer in Broward County who was a staunch supporter of gambling interests, described Lee as "ambivalent" on gambling issues. But he did recall that Lee played a role in passing a 2003 bill that expanded cardroom operations at Florida tracks -- one of the bills Dunbar cites in his letter.  

Lee says the tipoff that Dunbar's letter is phony is the lobbyist's repeated use of the word "gambling," when the industry has long preferred the less sinister-sounding word "gaming." Dunbar stands behind the letter but he declined comment. Another mystery: Lee has been raising money for nearly a month, but his campaign report shows nomoney from Dunbar or his clients. Yet Dunbar's June 22 letter says: "Tom needs your support now!"

"This is just the latest creative and clever attempt to discredit me because of my stance against public corruption in Tallahassee," Lee said. "Marc Dunbar was on that plane." Lee says he'll refuse any campaign money from gambling interests in his campaign. 

However, Lee is a leadership-backed Senate candidate, and the parimutuel industry is a big contributor to political slush funds controlled by Sens. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, and Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, both of whom want Lee to win. Burgin notes that the electrioneering group that is most strongly supporting Lee, the Liberty Foundation of Florida, lists the same street address as Rhett O'Doski, a lobbyist who is representing MGM Resorts International Inc., operator of Las Vegas casinos. 

-- Steve Bousquet

Report: Florida's economy, unemployment face uphill battle

Florida's economy continues to face a number of challenges as it tries to rebound from the Great Recession, according to a report out today from the The Florida Legislature's Office of Economic and Demographic Research.

The report found that while Florida's unemployment rate has dropped from 9.9 percent in December to 8.6 percent in May, most of the drop was due to people dropping out of the labor force. Nearly 70 percent of the decline in unemployment is due to people leaving the state's workforce. 

"If the [labor] participation rate had held steady since 12/11 the unemployment rate would have been 9.5 percent," the report found.

Mitt Romney acting scared regarding Gary Johnson

You probably don’t give a great deal of thought to Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party presidential candidate. Maybe you should. Mitt Romney certainly is.

Romney’s political cronies in Michigan have gotten Johnson kicked off the November ballot there because he was three minutes late in filing some paperwork. With polls indicating the race for Michigan’s 16 votes is a dead heat, Romney’s camp doesn’t want to take any chances that Johnson, a former Republican who served two terms as governor of New Mexico, will siphon off any of his votes.

Romney, however, might not want to start counting his new Libertarian votes yet. Johnson’s lawyers, arguing that one absurd technicality deserves another, say they’ve found a loophole in Michigan law that will keep the Libertarian Party on the ballot if they can just find some other guy named Gary Johnson to take his place.

“And fortunately, I’ve got a pretty common name,” laughs Johnson.

More here

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/16/2898206/gary-johnson-its-not-just-a-two.html#storylink=cpy

South Florida lawmakers slam Citizens board for trying to push up insurance rates

The board of Citizens Property Insurance Corp. received a tongue-lashing from lawmakers and homeowners during a Monday workshop in Miami after unveiling a plan to raise rates by an average of 7.5 percent next year.

The proposed statewide rate increase — which is higher in places like South Florida — translates to about $173 million in higher costs for Florida homeowners, who have already sustained a barrage of cost increases and coverage reductions this year.

South Floridians and their elected officials bashed Citizens’ board for considering raising costs further for struggling homeowners.

“The decisions you make affect people that you may not think about,” said Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami, referring to low-income Miamians who have to choose between housing costs and food. “They don’t get the opportunity to come [meet] in a nice hotel board room, and have food delivered to them.”

Citizens’ board held the public workshop at the JW Marriott in Brickell, with the aim of adding more transparency to its annual rate filing process. About 50 people attended. Next week, Citizens will finalize its rate plan, which includes increases of up to 11.4 percent in parts of South Florida.

Read more here

--@ToluseO 

 

Bye-bye, Marco Rubio from Romney veepstakes?

Sean Hannity sounds beside himself. Reuters seems pretty sure. Same with NBC Nightly News.

All appear to believe that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio isn't at the top of the shortlist to be Mitt Romney's vice presidential. That is, Rubio isn't on the shorter list.

"Why do I keep hearing they're not going to pick Rubio?" Hannity asked with some sense of frustration last night on his Fox show. "I want Rubio... with everybody else."

Well, not quite.

Rubio hasn't really endeared himself to Mitt World. Sure, he helped scuttle Newt Gingrich's campaign, which Gingrich was busily scuttling anyway this January. And Rubio  gave a pretty tepid and late endorsement of Romney on Hannity's show after the Florida primary.

Compare that with the full-throated endorsement and help of former Minn. Gov. Tim Pawlenty (so what if he never won a majority of the vote in his two statewide runs and briefly criticized RomneyCare last year).