Archive for June, 2009
Sen. Mike Haridopolos, who is slated to take over the Senate presidency from fellow Republican Jeff Atwater in 2010, plans to announce later today he's endorsing Wellington Councilwoman Lizbeth Benacquisto in her bid for the Senate seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Dave Aronberg (who is running for Attorney General against fellow Dem Dan Gelber).
"I think she is the best, most qualified candidate," Haridopolos told the Times/Herald. "We're rallying the troops around her."
She might need troops. Former state Rep. Sharon Merchant, a Republican, has said she plans to run for the seat that runs from West Palm Beach to Fort Myers.
Merchant says she'll launch her own GOP campaign soon for the treadwear-testing West Palm Beach-to-Fort Myers seat of Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, who's running for attorney general.
Benaquisto has already gotten endorsements from Atwater and former Senate President Ken Pruitt, who is next month leaving his Port St. Lucie seat.
From a press release:
"A new statewide poll conducted for Ron Sachs Communications shows Attorney General Bill McCollum leading Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink 41 percent to 35 percent in the race for Florida Governor, with 24 percent undecided.
"McCollum enjoys high name recognition from 87 percent of registered Florida voters, while Sink is recognized by 61 percent.
"In the Republican Primary for Governor, McCollum has a crushing lead over Florida Sen. Paula Dockery – 53 percent to 4 percent among likely Republican Primary voters. Dockery’s name is recognized by only 24 percent of likely voters.
"In a hypothetical General Election matchup between Dockery and Sink, Sink leads 43 percent to 18 percent, with 39 percent undecided.
"The poll of 625 Florida registered voters was conducted June 24 – 26 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research. Questions relating to the General Election have a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent. The poll also includes an over-sampling of 300 likely Democratic primary voters and 300 likely Republican primary voters who were asked questions relating to the primary election races. These questions have a margin for error of plus or minus 6 percent.
"In the Democratic Primary for Attorney General, Florida state senators Dan Gelber and Dave Aronberg remain essentially tied, with 11 percent and 10 percent respectively. However, should former state Sen. Rod Smith enter the race, he would lead with 13 percent. Two-thirds of voters remain undecided.
"In the Republican Primary for Attorney General, the poll shows Lieutenant Governor Jeff Kottkamp, who has not yet officially announced for the race, leading law professor Jim Lewis 12 percent to 9 percent, with 79 percent undecided.
"In the G.O.P. race for Chief Financial Officer, Florida Senate President Jeff Atwater leads Florida Rep. Pat Patterson 17 percent to 10 percent, with 73 percent undecided.
" 'These numbers show that even as Florida voters have not yet tuned in to the Cabinet races, we can expect a very tough and competitive race for Florida Governor,” said Ron Sachs, president and CEO of Ron Sachs Communications, who commissioned the poll. “At this stage – 16 months out from Election Day – all five statewide races remain wide open and up for grabs. We can expect this campaign cycle to be the longest, most expensive and potentially the most brutal in modern Florida political history.' "
Danielle Will, who helped run Republican Al Lamberti's successful campaign for sheriff last year, was hired by Lamberti earlier this year as a $70,000 a year external affairs liasion — despite the fact that budget cuts were looming.
Will kept her company, DPF Consulting, and agreed to work on David Maymon's campaign for state house in Broward.
But Maymon says that several weeks ago Will backed out.
"She said 'I have other commitments. I am too busy right now,''' Maymon said.
Will couldn't be reached for comment on her cell this morning. It's unclear if Will is keeping other political clients while she works for the sheriff who has vowed that he is not a politician. Maymon said he spotted Will at an event for state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff and state Sen. Jeff Atwater.
Sen. Mike Fasano was surprised. As he looked at the SUV parked at a wedding recently, the Senate's transporation budget chief noticed a vanity license plate that simply said "Senate President." Fasano knew it didn't belong to Senate President Jeff Atwater, who drives a blue Honda Odyssey minivan. So Fasano checked around and found out the specialty plate belonged to former Senate President Tom Lee.
Fasano was even more surprised to find out that, contrary to his suspicions, such plates for former House Speakers and Senate Presidents became legal thanks to a little-noticed provision slipped into a transportation bill in the House in 2006, Lee's last year in the Legislature.
"Someone had to have told the leaders, 'Hey, you can get a specialty plate for the rest of your life,' " Fasano said.
Now, Fasano wants to take Lee's plate away as well as any other license plate that suggests someone is an office holder when s/he isn't. Fasano said he'll try to change the statute to ban such vanity plates next legislative session.
"Tom Lee is a good friend. He was a good senate president," said Fasano. "But this isn't about him. When you are termed out, you have left the system. You leave. You don’t get preferential treatment you don’t get specialty license plates. It sends the wrong message."
Lee couldn't be reached.
Meanwhile, Tallahassee lawyer Jose Blas Lorenzo Jr. also filed an ethics complaint Monday accusing Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink of ''abusive, unauthorized use of state aircraft'' following reports by the Herald/Times and other news outlets.
Sink, along with Attorney General Bill McCollum and Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, spent $51,000 of taxpayer money from July 1, 2008, through Feb. 15, 2009, commuting to their homes or taking ''unnecessary legs during business trips,'' according to the Department of Management Services' March 3 audit. Sink spent the most — $27,200 — while McCollum spent $12,600 and Kottkamp spent $9,900, according to auditors.
But those details, as well as recommendations and conclusions, were left out of the final report. "We did not have any manpower to further investigate that," said Cathy Schroeder, DMS spokeswoman.
Read full story here. Examples follow:
An audit by the Office of Inspector General was completed March 3 but the working papers weren't released until Monday, at the Herald/Times, request. The audit examined the cost to taxpayers of trips taken by top state officials on the state plane and found that state officials appeared to be using the state plane to commute to their homes outside Tallahassee, in apparent violation of state law. Among the findings of the audit, which covered the period from July 1, 2008, through February 15, 2009:
Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp cost taxpayers $9,894.80.
Attorney General Bill McCollum cost taxpayers $12,604.
Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink cost taxpayers $27,197.50.
Here are examples from the documents released Monday:
SINK
- Oct. 16, 2008: The plane and a Sink staffer leave Tallahassee for St. Petersburg at
6:40 a.m. Cost: $2,460.80. Sink and her staffer then returned to Tallahassee at 11:15 a.m.
Cost: $2,460.80. Auditors concluded the total cost of the trip, $4,921.60, could have been
avoided had the plane not been sent "to pick up CFO Sink."
- July 21, 2008: The plane and a Sink staffer leave Tallahassee for West Palm Beach at
11:40 a.m. Cost: $3,493. Sink and her staffer then returned to Tallahassee at 1:00 p.m..
Cost: $3,842.30. Auditors concluded the total cost of the trip, $7,335.30, could have been
avoided had the plane not been sent "to pick up CFO Sink."
MCCOLLUM
- October 2-3, 2008: The empty plane leaves Tallahassee at 8:40 a.m. for Sanford. Cost:
$2,768.40. The plane picks up McCollum and takes him to Sarasota. Cost: $2,153.20.
- The next morning, the plane takes McCollum from Sarasota to Fort Lauderdale. Cost:
$2,460.80. He leaves Ft. Lauderdale late that night and flies to Sanford, arriving at
10:10 p.m., at a cost of $2,460.80. McCollum gets off; the empty plane returns to
Tallahassee. Cost: $2,768.40. Auditors concluded that had McCollum been in Tallahassee and
the plane not "ferried'' him to and from Sanford, the state could have saved $3,691.20
- December 20, 2008: The empty plane leaves Tallahassee at 10:05 a.m. for Sanford and
picks up McCollum. Cost: $2,460.80. The plane takes him to St. Petersburg — at a cost of
$1,538 — and then drops him off in Sanford, at a cost of $1,230.40. The empty plane flies
from Sanford to Tallahassee. Cost: $2,460.80. Auditors concluded that had McCollum been in
Tallahassee, the trip would have cost the state $2,768.40 less.
Jay Odom, the developer who has been indicted along with Rep. Ray
Sansom, has resigned from the Northwest Florida Transportation Corridor
Authority. (more here)
Appointed
by then Gov. Jeb Bush, Odom was a founding member of the panel, which
was created by Sansom and others in 2005. Odom and his authority
recently raised the ire of environmentalists with a proposal to push a
toll road through a nature preserve. (story here)
Odom had earlier stepped down as a member of the board for Citizens Property Insurance Corp.
No money yet but the filing documents are there for:County Commission 02 Florence ‘Flomo’ Moss Active County Commission 04 Sally A. Heyman Active Incumbent County Commission 06 Rebeca Sosa Active Incumbent County Commission 10 Miriam ‘Mimi’ Planas Active County Commission 12 Jose ‘Pepe’ Diaz Active Incumbent I hope Flomo can win against Rolle. Miriam —
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Thank you reader, Woof, for sending us ">Johannesburg, South Africa Nuke eyesore. Not to be outdone by McDonald’s visual blight, of course.
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Well, I was excited to see a new candidate running in the City of Miami till I googled him. Apparently David Chiverton showed up in the award winning Jason Grotto-Scott Hiaasen Exposé Poverty Peddlers as the director of the Martin Luther King Economic Development Corp. Geez Louise! Is everyone connected in Miami? I say that not in a good way. According the article:The reporters questioned many
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image via Miami New Times archives week of June 29 – July 5, 1988In the heat of the summer, better call out a plumber This week Archive Diver brings you an excerpt from an old New Times concert calend
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