Anatomy of absentee-ballot fraud, the Hialeah edition

The latest investigation of potential absentee ballot fraud in Miami-Dade County was triggered by a private investigator who went to police with his suspicions that a woman active in Hialeah politics was illegally collecting absentee ballots from voters.

Miami private investigator Joe Carrillo said he first went to Miami-Dade public corruption detectives last week about Daisy Cabrera, who Carrillo said had been handing out business cards to voters offering assistance with their ballots.

Carrillo obtained a copy of one of Cabrera’s cards, decorated with the stars and stripes and a handwritten message in Spanish on the back: “When the ballot arrives you call me. I work every election.”

Then, on Tuesday, Carrillo said he observed Cabrera knocking on doors in a Hialeah neighborhood before visiting the Hialeah campaign office of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who is seeking re-election Aug. 14. Cabrera then went to the Miami-Dade Elections office, and finally the post office, he said. Carrillo videotaped some of Cabrera’s travels.

LG Carroll apologizes for 'wrong and inexcusable' anti-gay comments

 After an online petition drive garnered hundreds of signatures seeking her apology, Lieutenant Gov. Jennifer Carroll on Thursday apologized to the head of an advocacy group saying that her anti-gay comment two weeks ago was "wrong and inexcusable."

Equality Florida, a civil rights group that advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Floridians, launched the online petition campaign this week after Carroll told a Tampa television station on July 14 that "usually black women that look like me don't engage in relationships like that."

Carroll was responding to allegations from former aide Carletha Cole, who, in court documents as part of a criminal case, said she caught Carroll in a "compromising position" with a female staffer. Cole, 51, was charged last October with giving an illegally taped conversation to a newspaper reporter and had been fired her job as a senior program analyst for “conduct unbecoming.”

Carroll has denied the allegations after they emerged in a criminal proceeding against her Cole.

"It is wrong and inexcusable to make a comment that hurts people, and that was not my intention,'' Carroll wrote in a letter to Equality Florida director Nadine Smith. "As a Christian, my faith guides me to love and respect all people. The false charges that have been lodged against me are no excuse for what I have said that may have been hurtful to members of your organization and to other Floridians.

"Please know that I am committed to treating every person with the utmost courtesy, respect and dignity and I hope you will accept my heartfelt apology,'' she wrote. Download Lt._Governor_Carroll_Apology

Florida pharmacists accuse state of shutting them out of Medicaid

The Florida Pharmacy Association announced today that it has filed a lawsuit in Leon County's Circuit Court in an attempt to nullify state procedures they say is beginning to leave Florida pharmacists out of the business of fullfilling prescriptions for Medicaid patients.

The state's Agency for Health Care Administration has been entering into contract with HMOs and managed care companies to provide services to Medicaid patients, and those companies have been requiring clients to use mail-order pharmacies, the lawsuit alleges. That is leaving Florida-based pharmacies out of the equation and causing them to lose thousands of customers, the association said.

“In the last several sessions and special sessions, the Florida Legislature has worked tirelessly to enact multiple laws to assure Florida’s Medicaid program was not handed over to HMOs without strict oversight, regulation and accountability," Lori Weems, general counsel and governmental consultant for the Florida Pharmacy Association, said via a news release announcing the lawsuit.

Sen. candidate Aaron Bean: I didn't vote for illegal immigrant-tuition bill. But he did.

With the entire state Capitol Republican power structure behind Aaron Bean for Senate, perhaps someone could brief him on his votes from his time in the Florida House.

Or perhaps someone could make him read the PolitiJax blog that, two days ago, reported on his May 2, 2005 vote for HB 6005 that could have given in-state tuition breaks to some illegal immigrants. It's the subject of a hard-hitting third-party ad produced by Republican for Floridians for Ethics and Truth in Politics, which is backing opponent and state Rep. Mike Weinstein.

“It’s disappointing when they don’t tell the truth," Bean said this morning on Jacksonville’s WOKV radio (sound here). "You know, just this week, they’re making crazy claims that Aaron Bean is in favor of illegal aliens getting reduced tuition, and nothing, Rich, could be further from the truth. Never have [I] supported that, never will support that, but that’s the claim that the other side is making in our race, and that’s just crazy.”

Crazy indeed.

Bean was the subject of an attack ad about illegal immigration and, by wrongly denying it, ensured the creation of another attack ad that questions his honesty and his diligence as a lawmaker. The folks at Floridians for Ethics and Truth in Politics just got an in-kind contribution. From Bean.

Any other answer probably would have been better. He could have mentioned that other top House Republicans (current U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and current congressmen David Rivera, Sandy Adams and Dennis Ross) also voted for it. So it's ok.

Or he could have pointed out that, under the bill, illegal immigrants aren't expressly named. So it's confusing. (Never mind the press reports at the time).

Or he could have said that only a few illegal immigrant kids could have gotten the tuition break because it was so limited (students had to be here for three years, been enrolled in a public college of some type and filed an affidavit stating that they'd "file an application to become a permanent resident.")

But, instead, Bean did the ole other-guy-is-lying routine.

At this rate, Weinstein doesn't need Floridians for Ethics and Truth in Politics. He might be able to rely on Bean to beat Bean.

Bean's campaign issued a written statement saying: ""Aaron Bean did not believe that the legislation extended benefits to illegal immigrants, and it is evident that he was not the only one that believed this at the time of the vote. "To avoid any future confusion let me be clear, Aaron Bean does not support extending any benefits to illegal immigrants. He did not then, and he does not now."

Secret recording details conversation between RPOF's Jim Greer and Delmar Johnson

Delmar Johnson, former executive director of the Republican Party of Florida, brought Easter presents for the children when he arrived at former party chairman Jim Greer’s house in Oviedo on the night of March 29, 2010.

Greer’s children were happy to see “Uncle Gar Gar,” godfather to Aiden, Greer’s toddler son.

Together the two men discussed the finances of Victory Strategies, the company Greer and Johnson created in early 2009, and a severance agreement that was supposed to pay Greer $124,000. They also spent time speculating about who might have conspired to force Greer out of his job, what party auditors would find and whether Leon County State Attorney Willie Meggs was conducting a criminal investigation.

Greer (pictured, right) seemed unaware of how much money Victory Strategies had collected from the party, at one point wondering what he had done with “all that money.’’

Damon Chase, the lawyer who represents Greer says the conversation — which was secretly recorded by Johnson as part of an immunity deal with prosecutors and released this week— makes it appear that Johnson was running the company.

“It is the smoking gun that completely exonerates Greer,’’ Chase said Thursday. He said additional documents from the party will also exonerate Greer.

Read Lucy Morgan's story here.

See an FDLE report detailing the two-hour conversation by clicking here.

Bill Nelson's tax vote could help the budget... of Connie Mack's campaign

Sen. Bill Nelson’s decision to cast a deciding vote for raising taxes on the wealthy won’t do much to fix the budget deficit, but it could help the campaign coffers of his Republican rival.

Less than a day after the 51-48 Senate vote, Republican Rep. Connie Mack’s campaign sent out a Thursday fundraising email pointing out that the Democrat had said he didn’t want to raise taxes on those earning more than $250,000.

Nelson said he preferred to eliminate the Bush-era tax cuts on the wealthy who earn $1 million or more.

“For weeks Bill Nelson has told Floridians he didn't support the president's plan. But then he cast the deciding vote for it,” Mack campaign manager Jeff Cohen wrote.

“It's the same old Bill Nelson we've come to expect,” said Cohen. “He talks like a moderate in Florida, but he votes like a LockStep Liberal with President Obama. Enough's enough.”

But Nelson’s spokesman, Dan McLaughlin, said Nelson has been consistent.

“He said he favored keeping the Bush-era tax cuts for those making up to a $1 million.   But that’s not what was before the Senate,” McLaughlin wrote. “He isn’t going to support raising taxes on everybody who makes under $250,000.”

Sen. Nan Rich seeks to block inmate health care outsourcing

Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich, D-Weston, has lodged a formal objection to the Legislature giving final approval to budget transfers that would allow the prison system to privatize health care for 100,000 inmates. Rich wrote a letter to Sen. JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, who chairs the 14-member Legislative Budget Commission. The prison system has asked the LBC to approve a transfer of $58 million between budget categories so the agency can move forward with the privatization and implement it by Jan. 1, 2013.

The LBC generally functions as a rubber-stamp for mid-year changes to agencies' budgets, and in the past, an objection from a single lawmaker has carried great weight.  

The outsourcing of health care in Florida prisons has a checkered history, and this latest venture is highly controversial because it was created under budget proviso language that expired June 30 when the previous fiscal year ended. "But for the proviso, the appropriation would not be made," Rich wrote. "Consequently, I believe the DOC does not have the authority to privatize health services in prisons."

Unions representing state workers and nurses in the prison system have threatened to file a new lawsuit seeking to block the project from going forward.

Rich's effort to block the privatization comes as the leading vendor, Corizon Health, has agreed to pay a $1.85 million fine to the city of Philadelphia because of irregularities in its handling of a contract in that city's jail system. More background here.

-- Steve Bousquet

Romney campaign's "You Didn't Build That" web ad assault features FL biz owners

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign obviously thinks it has a winner when it comes to the "You Didn't Build That" controversy involving President Obama's comments regarding small businesses, two of which from Florida are featured in the following web ad:

Report claims Florida lawmakers do bidding of corporate-funded ALEC

Some of the most controversial bills introduced recently in the Florida Legislature were thought up by out-of-state corporate interests with financial motives, according to a report released Thursday by a two national watchdog groups and Progress Florida. The report says the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is a shadowy force exerting an uncanny amount of power over Florida’s lawmaking process.

ALEC advances so-called “model bills” on items like public education, immigration, labor issues, healthcare, gun rights and voter rights. Replicas of those business-friendly bills often end up in legislation sponsored by Florida lawmakers who are ALEC members, the report found.

Dozens of Florida lawmakers have ties to the group, which has been thrust into the spotlight this year as the main force behind the rapid spread of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law across the country.

“We realized that this was a massive corporate agenda that often puts the corporate agenda in front of public interest and in some cases, public safety,” said Doug Clopp, of Common Cause, a liberal group. “What ALEC represents is the poster child for a non-transparent [political process] that puts corporate profits ahead of the public interest.”

Common Cause, along with the Center for Media and Democracy, and Progress Florida, authored the 50-page report.

Federal judge rules write-ins OK in Miami-Dade state attorney's race; only Dems to vote in primary

Miami-Dade’s primary election for state attorney will remain open to only Democrats, a federal judge ruled Wednesday — meaning the selection of the county’s top law enforcement officer will likely be decided by 525,890 voters.

U.S. Judge William Zloch issued his ruling Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by Republican and independent voters who said they were being disenfranchised by the presence of two “gimmick” write-in candidates in the general election.

The “write-in” candidates for Miami-Dade state attorney, lawyers Michele Samaroo and T. Omar Malone, won’t appear on any ballots this fall and voters who want to select them will need to write their names into a blank space.

But Zloch said because Samaroo and Malone qualified as “candidates” under state law, they should be counted as opposition.

“The court will not consult a crystal ball to determine when and whether a given write-in candidate constitutes ‘real’ or mere illusory opposition,” Zloch wrote, adding that “they could” win even if was generally unlikely.

“The court today will not declare that these candidacies are futile,” Zloch wrote.

More from David Ovalle here.