No Longer Beating a Dead Horse
I give up - there's really no reason to rally behind the only real Democrat in the Democratic primary race. No Party Charlie Crist is with us on everything except what he's not with us on and that's good enough for me, so the primary is officially moot.
Look, I will always like Kendrick - he's such a nice guy! But his campaign is teh suck. It lacks visibility and support, and Meek is not a gifted orator, and he's not as cool and popular as Charlie, so it's over. I can not vote for Kendrick. I am going to invite Crist into my life.
Some say we need work hard to elect better Democrats. Balderdash. I used to be in that camp, but I have seen the light - a halo, actually, just behind Crist's head.
I don't care if we have a real Democrat on the general election ballot in November. I don't need a chance to vote for a candidate who stands for my values.
I am going to vote for Charlie Crist come hell or oily water. What could possibly go wrong?
To this point, Charlie Crist has been nimbly avoiding the literal gusher of indictments and arrests and trials and IRS audits and FBI investigations and lavish credit card spending sprees and, well, just about everything bad that's been happening to the Florida GOP. So I'm betting that none of those scandals will touch him, and I'm absolutely certain that no new bombshell revelation will pop up that might affect his general election chances.
In fact, I have such faith in Crist that I'm betting everything I have.
Of course, I'm not worried that after the Democratic primary Crist will realize that I now have no leverage over him - that I've already placed my bet and that I will have no recourse were he to kick me in the face. I don't need a plan 'B'. I'm positive that Crist is different. He wont hurt me. Honest.
And by backing Crist now I can absolutely guarantee that Marco Rubio will not win the election.
After all, there's no way that anything that no one could have predicted could possibly have come to pass by the time I cast my ballot for Charlie Crist in November.
So I see no reason to even pay any attention to the Democratic primary much less back a candidate just because his values line up nicely with mine and the rich carpetbagger he's running against is a real schmuck. This would be a waste of my valuable time and it really does not matter one iota who the Democratic nominee is because I am going to vote for Charlie Crist.
What could possibly go wrong?
Kendrick Meek could really use our help, but none of us like him anymore, so just don't bother.
I’m Not Afraid of the Big Bad Rubio and Jeff Greene is a Real Schmuck
I’m NOT Afraid of the Big Bad Rubio
and Jeff Greene is a Real Schmuck:
Why We All Need to Get Behind Kendrick Meek Right Now
I keep hearing folks say that they have given up on Kendrick Meek and that they’re voting for Chain Gang Charlie Crist in November because he is the only hope to keep Tea Bagger Marco Rubio out of Washington.
Bullshit.
It’s true that the polls don’t look very good for Meek right now, but November is a long way away and Marco Rubio is primed to self-destruct. As Rubio implodes, Dems may end up with a real choice in November, but only if we ensure that Kendrick Meek wins the Democratic Primary.
Rubio is a lightweight. He’s never been tested in a statewide race. His West Miami district is safely Republican. Like some other Tea Party candidates who found themselves suddenly newsworthy, his campaign is wilting somewhat as the harsh glare of the national media spotlight illuminates slimy stances that are forcing the candidate to dance around the issues.
But in Rubio’s case, the campaign is also drowning under a deluge of scandal.
Rubio, the fiscal responsibility candidate, was carrying a million dollars or so in debt as of 2008 and is a deadbeat. Apparently, at least since he was forced to cut up his Republican Party of Florida AMEX, he has not been making monthly mortgage payments on a house he co-owns in Talahassee. Rubio’s camp claims it’s all a big misunderstanding. The Bank has filed for foreclosure.
Speaking of Rubio’s RPOF AMEX, he was one of the big spenders, racking up one hundred and six thousand dollars in charges. He is known to have double billed taxpayers and the RPOF for expense reimbursement and he was very slow to reimburse the party for personal expenses incurred on his card. He chalks all that up to accounting oversights. The IRS and FBI are investigating.
It was accounting again, along with staff errors, that led to six million dollars allegedly being misappropriated by Ray Sansom, Rubio’s hand picked successor as Speaker of the Florida House. Neither Marco Rubio, whose job as Speaker required him to sign off on all budget items, nor Governor Charlie Crist, who could have vetoed this particular turkey, have any memory whatsoever of the line item which paid for a brand new airplane hanger for Sansom’s future employer. Sansom is awaiting trial.
All of these scandals are starting to wear on Rubio and he’s already slipping in the polls. He’s not coming back up.
So, if Rubio continues to slip, then there really is no reason to strategically back Crist to keep Rubio out of DC. And if Kendrick Meek wins the Democratic Primary then we will have a choice between Crist, a Republican who is adopting Democratic ideas in a calculated move to appeal to the political center and Meek, a real Democrat who has always believed in and voted for the ideals that form the bedrock of our party.
But now, with Jeff Greene having purchased a spot on the primary ballot, Meek first has to win the Democratic primary in order to give us a real choice in November. Jeff Greene has bombarded the airwaves and has literally bought himself up to parity with Meek, but no one really knows anything about him or where he stands on the issues.
It is, however, fairly easy to illustrate the difference between the Democrat in the Democratic primary race for Florida Senate and the other guy who is running in the Democratic primary.
First, from The Buzz:
Jeff Greene's first campaign stop in Tampa Bay yesterday. He met privately with assorted politicos, taped some TV interviews and stopped by the Jordan Park gym in St Pete, to visit an after-school program serving mostly African-American children. His chauffeur drove up in a shiny cadillac, and Greene cheerfully pressed the flesh with nearly two dozen people.
Jeff Greene with his Limo and his Driver
And from The Miami Herald:
Unlike most candidates, Meek usually carries his own bags and takes the wheel on campaign road trips, even while making fundraising calls or doing interviews. He drives a solid 80 mph on the highway, frequently in the left lane. ``The one thing I like about going out on the road [to campaign] is that I get a chance to drive,'' he said.
Kendrick Meek delivers petitions. Meek is the only statewide candidate to qualify for the ballot via petition in Florida history.
We've got a regular guy with working class credentials and values up against The Millionaire Billionaire and his wife mom.
Billionaire Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Greene features his 83-year-old mother, Century Village of West Palm Beach resident Barbara Greene, in his newest TV spot.
“My Jeff, he’ll shake things up in Washington and he’ll get results. That’s what he does,” Barbara Greene says in the ad.
The Billionaire and his mom.
People were being mean to Jeff Greene so he used his mom as a human shield. Classy.
Look, I haven't even touched on the fact that Crist is tied into most of the same scandals as Rubio plus a few of his own. Crist and Rubio could both conceivably be under indictment soon. Even if you think you will ultimately vote for Crist, you need to support Meek right now during his primary challenge or you could find yourself regretting your lack of a plan B as you hold your nose and send Democratic Primary Winner Jeff Greene to DC.
Keep your options open. Support Kendrick Meek in the primary. Don't let this schmuck Jeff Greene buy the nomination. Ensure that voters have a real choice in November.
The Chain Gang Charlie Crist is Born
“I'm as conservative as any governor. I'm chain gang Charlie. I'm pro-gun. I'm pro life,”
That's Charlie Crist way back in 2009 before he made a sincere and heartfelt decision to completely change.
Charlie Crist recently became the darling of Florida's teachers as he polished his indie cred by vetoing an absolutely horrible education bill. But he hasn't always had such concerns for schools.
In the 1990's, Florida had a choice: we could start down the road toward the proper funding of education and programs for the poor, or we could lock more people up and devise humiliating ways to publicly shame them.
Led by Republican Legislators like Chain Gang Charlie Crist, Florida decided to follow the lead of Alabama and Arizona and spend money on shackled work gangs and other high profile regressive prison policies.
After spearheading the legislation that cost 2 billion dollars and would force Florida's prisons chief to "require selected inmates to perform labor wearing leg irons in chain gang work groups," Crist embarked on a fact finding mission with the secretary of the Department of Corrections Harry Singletary to have a look at Alabama's trendsetting chain gang revival and maybe get some ideas for Florida's big debut.
As Singletary whined to a reporter that "Everyone wants a silver bullet, and this is not the silver bullet. This is not the answer to the crime problem. We could have 45,000 people on chain gangs, but if people are still having babies at 13, if we're not educating folks or if there's not enough jobs, then we're still going to have problems," Crist was bizy checking out the latest in Chain Gang Haute Couture:
Singletary came away from Alabama convinced that the only practical implementation of the legislature's demands involved individual shackles rather than the Alabama model which featured prisoners chained to each other.
But Charlie Crist had a pretty specific image in mind when he first fantasized his chain gang law, and in that image a group of 5 beautifully muscled bad boys, dark skinned, heavily perspiring, bound with handcuffs and leg irons and shackled together with chains break rocks beside the Interstate. People driving through get all warm and fuzzy as they pass within inches of these dangerous and swarthy criminals who are being beneficially overseen by several heavily armed white men with orders to shoot to kill.
Oh, wait - that's not the image of Charlie with his "gang" that I was trying to post... let's try this oped cartoon from the Gainesville Sun instead:
Good stuff, and Chain Gang Charlie was not about to allow the teary eyed liberal prisons chief to mess with the exquisitely detailed image that Crist had spent years thinking about.
Crist wrote the Governor. He wrote editorials. He complained to reporters. He helpfully pointed out that gangs of 5 were way better than gangs of one, but to no avail. Chain Gang Charlie's chain gangs were about to be ruined by Singletary and no one seemed to care.
But state legislators say the program clashes with what they envisioned when they passed the chain gang law earlier this year. Senator Charlie Crist, a Republican from St. Petersburg who sponsored the law, said individual chains would pose a higher safety risk because they would not prevent an inmate from jumping into the back of a car to escape. Mr. Crist also said the setup made the punishment less harsh.
"The idea is not to be cruel but to have an appropriate punishment that also serves as a deterrent," he said.
The Florida Department of Corrections is scheduled to start the program with 90 inmates at three prisons, and expand it by Dec. 1 to 210 inmates at seven prisons.
Corrections officials like Mr. Singletary have been reluctant partners in reinstituting chain gangs, which were abandoned in Florida and other states in the 1940's, but which this year made a modest comeback, reflecting the nation's tougher stance on crime. While supporters see them as an effective way to send an anti-crime message, critics cringe at the spectacle of shackled men, most black, stirring images of slavery.
The executive director of the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, Alvin J. Bronstein, said the Alabama chain gang program had led to more injuries among inmates, for example, when someone tripped and fell, dragging others down. He said he had also received reports of fights among inmates because of slow or fast walkers in the chain.
Mr. Bronstein said the Florida and Arizona programs were more humane and preferable because they reduced the risk of accidents and tension among inmates.
So Charlie got his chain gangs, and they were no walk in the park, but they were not as punitive and regressive as Crist had fervently imagined they might be.
And Chain Gang Charlie Crist is Born.
Meek vs. Greene In a Nutshell
The difference between the Democrat in the Democratic primary race for Florida Senate and the other guy who is running in the Democratic primary can be summed up with these two short clips.
First, from The Buzz:
Jeff Greene's first campaign stop in Tampa Bay yesterday. He met privately with assorted politicos, taped some TV interviews and stopped by the Jordan Park gym in St Pete, to visit an after-school program serving mostly African-American children. His chauffeur drove up in a shiny cadillac, and Greene cheerfully pressed the flesh with nearly two dozen people.
Jeff Greene with his Limo and his Driver
And from The Miami Herald:
Unlike most candidates, Meek usually carries his own bags and takes the wheel on campaign road trips, even while making fundraising calls or doing interviews. He drives a solid 80 mph on the highway, frequently in the left lane. ``The one thing I like about going out on the road [to campaign] is that I get a chance to drive,'' he said.
Kendrick Meek delivers petitions. Meek is the only statewide candidate to qualify for the ballot via petition in Florida history.
We've got a regular guy with working class credentials and values up against The Millionaire Billionaire and his wife mom.
The Billionaire and his mom.
This Is Democracy?
Florida’s statewide filing deadline for November races fell on Friday and news reports highlighted a great example of the kind of behavior that disgusts voters who say that they are just fed up with the same old “business as usual” as politicians from both parties took turns abusing a loophole in Florida law that allows for the disenfranchisement of thousands every election season.
Last minute write-in candidates closed primaries between Republicans vying for a state Senate seat and Democrats running for the Hillsborough County Commission.
In the District 3 commission race, incumbent Kevin White will square off against former state Sen. Les Miller and businesswoman Valerie Goddard in the Aug. 24 primary.
The winning Democrat will face Dwight Bolden - a political newcomer who filed to run as a Democrat but qualified as a write-in candidate - in the Nov. 2 election.
"I didn’t have any money or a campaign team, so I went with the non-traditional way," said Bolden, whose name, under election laws, won’t appear on the ballot.
He wasn’t the only unexpected contender to qualify this week for the fall elections.
In the District 12 Senate race, a pair of unknowns qualified as write-in candidates, fueling speculation about whether the two were asked to run to close the primary.
They are Derek Crabb, 30, a Petco store clerk, and Kimberly Renspie, 20, a student at Catawba College in North Carolina.
If they hadn’t filed, all district voters, regardless of party, would have decided the race between former state Rep. Kevin Ambler and Hillsborough County Commissioner Jim Norman in the primary.
The write-in candidates mean that only Republicans can vote in the primary, leaving all other voters with a choice in November of the primary winner and the two write-in candidates whose names won’t appear on the ballot.
So, who is 30-year-old Crabb?
Republican candidate Kevin Ambler wondered the same when he read Crabb's sparse financial information.
"My first thought was, my opponent might want a closed primary, so maybe he recruited this person," he said.
The opponent, County Commission member Jim Norman, is also Republican.
Because no one has filed as a Democrat, the Aug. 24 primary would have been open to all voters.
That is, until Crabb came along as a write-in, listing no political party.
The district comprises northern Hillsborough and central and eastern Pasco counties.
Speaking hurriedly from the pet store, he said he has never held public office.
When asked why he is running, he said, "I don't think I want to comment on that." Pressed for an answer, he said, "Without disclosing too much, I want my voice to be heard." Pressed even more, he added, "I'm trying to lay low right now."
Write-in Candidate Loophole
Florida is a closed primary state. Only voters who are registered as a member of a particular party may participate in that party’s primary election.
In 1998, Florida voters stated their desire for more open and meaningful elections by passing an open primaries amendment that allowed all voters, regardless of party affiliation, to participate in a primary election if the winner of the primary election would be running unopposed in the general.
In other words, if 5 Republicans are running for a State Senate seat and no Democrats are in the race, then every voter in that district should be able to vote in the Republican primary - which is ordinarily only open to registered Republicans - because the primary will effectively decide the winner of the general election.
If only registered Republicans are allowed to vote in the example above, then Democrats and independent voters are disenfranchised along with folks who are registered with minor parties like the Greens or the Tea Party.
Although the intent seemed clear, and eminently fair, the actual language left just a bit of wiggle room.
If all candidates for an office have the same party affiliation and the winner will have no opposition in the general election, all qualified electors, regardless of party affiliation, may vote in the primary elections for that office.
The amendment passed in 1998. By 2000, a loophole was already being used to close primaries that should have been open to all registered voters. Several legislative races and at least one US House race were affected.
The write in loophole has affected only one US House race, the district 1 Republican primary between incumbent Joe Scarborough and Bob Condon, both of Pensacola. There are 4 write in candidates.
This is how it works: Back to the example cited above with 5 single party candidates in the race. If a candidate will benefit from disenfranchising two thirds of the electorate, all the candidate need do is produce a write-in candidate and VOILA! the primary is closed to all but the party faithful.
A write-in candidate can qualify for the ballot pretty easily.
A write-in candidate is not entitled to have his or her name printed on any ballot; however, a space for the write-in candidate’s name to be written in shall be provided on the general election ballot. A write-in candidate is not required to pay a qualifying fee, election assessment or party assessment, or file petitions(Section 99.061, Fla. Stat.)
And once a write-in candidate is “qualified,” then the general election will be "contested" and the primary is closed.
Of course, many voters thought that this loophole was unfair, and lawsuits have been fought to fix it. Florida courts have sided with the politicians in this fight.
In Lake County, a man who was registered as a Republican declared himself to be a write-in candidate for the Democrats in a county commissioner race. That step prevented 93,000 Democrats, independents and other non-Republicans from casting a ballot in the election.
But Hill said he could not - as the loophole's challengers wanted - make a judgment on a write-in candidate's intentions.
"Nothing in the Constitution authorizes this court or any other court to predict the degree of opposition a candidate will present or to determine whether a candidate's opposition is significant or even realistic," Hill wrote in his ruling.
The average margin of victory in the general election for these primary winners who take on a write-in candidate is 99.8 percent.
A spring study by the Florida Senate Committee on Ethics and Elections showed that, through 2006, a write-in had filed to run and thus "closed" a primary in a state legislative race 38 times since the advisory opinion was issued.
The average margin of victory over those write-in candidates was 99.8 percent. Seven times, write-in candidates did not even vote for themselves. The story is similar for many local races, as well.
Critics say this proves that many write-in candidates are just spoilers. They enter the race with no intention of campaigning, much less winning. They simply want to shut out non-party members from voting. Typically, the dominant party in a county uses the strategy when the other party cannot field a candidate with a chance of success.
Both Parties Do It Routinely
Both Democrats and Republicans have learned to love this loophole and to abuse it routinely.
Aronberg said both parties are guilty. In South Florida, it’s seen more often with Democrats, who are in the majority. Elsewhere in the state, it’s a common Republican practice.
Why won’t it change? "It’s hard to ask politicians who benefit from the system to change the system. This is something that the public a only finds out about every two years,"
That’s Dave Aronberg, one of this year’s Democratic Attorney General candidates. He’s been fighting to close this loophole since it was opened up in 2000. Sometimes it seems like he is the only politician in the state who actually cares about this issue. He’s championed lawsuits challenging the loophole and (From the same article:)
State Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, introduces legislation every year to close the loophole. And every year he loses.
"It’s disgusting. It’s un-American. It’s un-democratic. It’s a manipulation of the process. And it will continue because the politicians use it to protect themselves," he said.
What’s more, it’s easy because the write-in candidate doesn’t pay a fee or collect petition signatures to get on the ballot.
The result, Aronberg said, every election season, the voters lose out. "In a matter of seconds, thousands of voters are disenfranchised."
The pols who abuse this loophole in the Florida Constitution and the write-in candidates who enable them are frequently so pleased with their cleverness that they don’t even try to hide their evil scheme.
Schlein, 60, a Leesburg Republican, said she declared as a write-in candidate in the race to prevent Democrats from voting in the Republican primary, which pitted two-term incumbent Jennifer Hill against challenger Jim Miller.
The loophole is manipulated easily. In 2004, Jean Enright had her mother file as a write-in candidate for the Port of Palm Beach commission seat she ultimately won. Two Pinellas County brothers have raised eyebrows in running - ostensibly against each other - for a seat on that county’s commission.
Democrat Manuel Press qualified as a write-in candidate to replace state Rep. Irving Slosberg, D-Boca Raton, in District 90. Press was on vacation Thursday and could not be reached for comment.
Press and Harvey Arnold, who is running for the seat as a Democrat, belong to the United South County Democratic Club. Arnold, the club’s former president, has received support from local Democrats. Public records show Press’ spouse, Phyllis, another club member, donated $100 to the Arnold campaign.
Arnold denied encouraging Press to qualify as a write-in candidate, though he knew of Press’ plans several weeks ago, he said.
"I’m delighted Press is running so that Republicans won’t vote," he said.
In the race for the House District 86 seat formerly held by Rep. Anne Gannon, D-Delray Beach, homemaker Kathleen Faherty-Ruby of Delray Beach qualified to run as a write-in. A Republican, Faherty- Ruby said she was, paradoxically, running to give Republicans a choice in the election, even though her candidacy shut Republicans out of voting in the primary.
"I wanted to give Republicans a choice of writing in whoever they wanted to in the general election," she said. "Basically, I thought it was the right thing to do."
No one encouraged her to run, the mother of six boys said. She said she doesn’t necessarily want people to vote for her, just whomever they want to write in.
So, if you live in a district with a closed primary and you want to vote for your elected representative, you may have to make a strategic decision to change your party affiliation before the registration deadline on July 26. Then you can vote in the closed primary!
But even that wacky strategy will fail if you live in the area within Hillsborough County where County Commission District 3 and Senate District 12 overlap. In that case you can vote in either the District 3 County Commission race (if you are a registered Democrat) or, for Republicans, the District 12 State Senate race, but not both. Independents wont get to vote in either race.
In Florida, we call this democracy.
Disclaimer: Dave Aronberg is taking on fellow Democrat Dan Gelber for the right to face the Republican nominee for Florida Attorney General in November. I like both Democratic candidates. As of now I am undecided on this race and I will enthusiastically support whichever candidate ultimately prevails. I am writing about the loophole because it is in the news today, not to give props to Dave Aronberg. Having said that, it is impossible to write about this issue without mentioning Aronberg and giving him credit for fighting to fix this mess.
UPDATE: From the comments - Did you notice the Hill-Hill connection? Commissioner Jennifer Hill and Judge Mark Hill are married.
Kendrick Meek Needs Us Now
Charlie Crist is no progressive.
“I'm as conservative as any governor. I'm chain gang Charlie. I'm pro-gun. I'm pro life,”
There is a true progressive in the Florida Senate race, and he is being all but ignored by the progressive community. Kendrick Meek needs and deserves the support of everyone who is looking to put better Democrats in Congress.
Meek is the one Florida Senate Candidate who remains just as committed today as he has always been to keeping oil rigs away from Florida's fragile coasts. Unlike Charlie Crist who
... even evoked childhood memories of cleaning birds after an oil spill in Tampa Bay. He has expressed adamant opposition to drilling throughout his career, from state senator to education commissioner to U.S. Senate candidate to attorney general.
But on Tuesday, he joined presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain in calling for an end to a 26-year federal ban on drilling, saying states should decide whether to allow rigs off their coasts, subject to safety and environmental restrictions.
Well, let's just say Charlie wants us to believe that he's back with us right now, but we know that Kendrick Meek has always been on our side against offshore drilling.
Meek is now and always has been a strong progressive and he comes down on the right side on an impressive number of issues.
- Meek strongly supports repeal of DADT.
- Supports gay marriage.
- Pro choice.
- 100% NARAL rating. Rated 10% by Christian Coalition.
- Strong environmental record.
- Voted against oil refineries, for energy independence.
- Strong pro working families record.
- Co-sponsored Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
- Voted against CAFTA.
- Progressive on immigration.
- Progressive on taxation
- NO on retroactive telecom immunity
- Defender of Social Security
And as a State Senator he became famous for championing the Class Size Amendment and for leading a sit in Governor Jeb Bush's office to protest the One Florida initiative that basically did away with affirmative action at state schools.
The list goes on. Pick an issue. I found that Meek shares my values and ideals many of my priorities. Even on issues where we disagree, I find that his reasoning is fact based and defensible.
No Party Charlie Crist is no progressive. It's true that he's not exactly a raging right winger like Rubio (or is he?) but he will never amount to a reliable progressive vote.
So, we can have in Senator Crist another Lieberdem - a guy who might sometimes vote our way, but who will always have great leverage over us and our priorities, or we can support a true progressive candidate.
Meek is not a compromise candidate - he is progressive. He is not a typical triangulating centrist, and certainly not a right-center wishy washy GOP today Dem tomorrow flip flopper like Charlie Crist. Kendrick Meek is a true progressive champion who we can count on for the next 6 years.
The truth is that we really have no idea how No Party Charlie might vote. On the other hand, we know we can count on Kendrick Meek to support our causes. But only if we support him now.
Kendrick Meek is and always has been a strong progressive. He believes in and fights for progressive ideals. He deserves the support of this progressive community.
The Kendrick Meek Campaign needs money and volunteers.
Rubio Drilling Deeper and Deeper
Nationwide, tea party primary winners are grabbing headlines as they seemingly try to outdo each other in a surreal political reality theater. Nevada's Sharron Angle, Kentucky's Rand Paul and Florida's Marco Rubio are three of the not ready for post-primary time players who are battling it out on America's Got Tea.
Each of these far right Senate candidates is playing to win, with everything from the resurrection of prohibition (tea partiers don't mind the government regulating what you put into your body) and the elimination of Social Security to the return of the Jim Crow era being discussed.
Oh, and the Florida candidate has decided that now is a really really good time to differentiate himself by favoring expanded offshore drilling.
Game changer.
Floridians have never wanted oil rigs off of our coasts. Drilling was always the third rail of Florida politics. When he ran for Governor in 2006 Charlie Crist remained adamantly against drilling.
Crist even evoked childhood memories of cleaning birds after an oil spill in Tampa Bay. He has expressed adamant opposition to drilling throughout his career, from state senator to education commissioner to U.S. Senate candidate to attorney general.
But on Tuesday, he joined presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain in calling for an end to a 26-year federal ban on drilling, saying states should decide whether to allow rigs off their coasts, subject to safety and environmental restrictions.
Charlie Crist, cozying up to John McCain during his Presidential run, breached the wellhead when came out in favor of drilling and wasn't subsequently beaten up in the polls. A veritable gusher of GOP legislators followed, along with bills and proposals and rushed studies, and for the first time ever, in the last couple of years, Florida has been on the verge of allowing the rigs within a few miles of shore.
That's right - in 2008 when Charlie Crist considered himself a prime contender for the VP slot on McCain's ticket, he honed his rank hypocrisy polished his tough guy hetero cred by getting himself caught swapping spit in an elevator, and by openly supporting the rape and pillage of the Gulf.
Of course, in 2010 Crist is courting Democratic voters, and the timing couldn't be better to flip around like an oil covered fish show his sensitive side by sensibly turning against drilling. Let's trust him! I think he really loves us!
Anyway, Marco Rubio should probably come out against drilling too. Public opinion in Florida, which had been trending toward drilling acceptance, has turned sharply against as the Gulf continues to bleed.
But Rubio is stuck. His tea bagging masters are keeping him on a tight leash. He tried to be just a little bit moderate on the Arizona immigration law, but his base gave a jerk of the lead, and he came right back into step, flipping his position to just right of crazy.
Rubio's easily trained, and he wont attempt to roam around on drilling or be caught trending toward the center on any other issues. This will help him with the really hard core crowd, but most voters will be turned off by his extremism. And the hard core group wont be enough to drag him over the finish line, even in a three way race.
In fact, there is a real possibility that Rubio's hard core supporters may end up being so bitterly disappointed by their dream candidate that they wont end up expending much effort for him in the end. But that's fodder for another post.
Kemple Runs a Fundamentally Stealth Campaign
Terry Kemple, the Bell Shoals Baptist based Christian crusader against everything from bikini bars to bathrooms is running for a seat on the Hillsborough County School board. This a county wide seat to oversee almost 200,000 students and over 11,000 teachers working at about 250 schools in the 8th largest school district in the country.
Per his campaign website, his primary qualifications for the job include the stunning feat of once having managed a full blown baker's dozen of helpers and the fact that some of his grandchildren are in school. No mention of his own educational achievements or background, but he's deeply religious, so Jesus will help him get up to speed.
Kemple is running on ideas that are both substantive and designed to inform voters of his oft repeated beliefs that the Christian creation myth should be taught in science classes and that abstinence only should be taught from 6th grade through college graduation comprised of meaningless drivel about accountability and cooperation and can be boiled down to the three simplistic phrases that anchor his "platform" while managing to say absolutely nothing:
That gruel is pretty thin. Where are the rants against Darwin and calls for teachers to have the "academic freedom" to proselytize? How about demands to build the public school calendar around Christian holidays? And what about abstinence only?
Any bill that goes beyond abstinence-only is "antifamily and anti-God" because it will encourage sex outside marriage, said Terry Kemple, a Christian community activist in Brandon who once ran a sexual-abstinence ministry.
"You don't give kids an option like that without expecting them to exercise the option," said Kemple, who has also been active in opposing the state's proposed new science standards because they embrace Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. "There should be an unequivocal, zero-tolerance program. 'You will not have sex.' That's it."
Don't the voters need to know about Terry Kemple's stands on these divisive issues?
Apparently Mr. Kemple is running something of a Stealth campaign. It's a good strategy in this non-partisan election in which there wont even be a "D" or an "R" next to any candidate's name on the ballot, since his name recognition in the religious right community is huge, and the lack of any fairly recent public activism on his part has allowed most other voters to gratefully forget all about Terry Kemple and the numerous odious stands he has taken in the past.
So come November, certain churchgoers with church approved voting lists in hand will be sure to check the box for Kemple, and a certain percentage of uninformed voters will check that box out of name recognition, and some will check it randomly, and when all the checks are added up, the 8th largest school district in the country might have Terry Kemple as one of its members.
Which makes his platform more of a campaign strategy:
"You can't expect what you can't inspect."
Terry doesn't want the voters to inspect his actual views...
"Concentrating on using the resources we have to their maximum is far more important than worrying about how to get more."
The religious right community will provide the votes...
"Together we can make a difference."
Jeebus for everyone! Bwaaaaahahahahahahahaha!!!
Thankfully, someone has taken the time to put together a site that is infinitely more informative than Kemple's own official campaign site. It's one stop shopping for all of Terry's krazy krusades.
You can learn about Terry's DisPepsi campaign. You'll reminisce about days gone by as you read about and fondly recall the billboards of yore featuring made up "quotes" from our founding fathers, and you will wonder how our kids have survived this long without Terry's guidance as you learn about his heroic efforts to excise Darwin from our public schools.
Link to this site often, and send it to any of your friends who vote in Hillsborough County. If the electorate is informed, Terry Kemple can be sent back to Bell Shoals to drink Coke and our kids might just be allowed to learn.
Will Meek Be the Last Pol Standing in Nov.?
In the 3 way race that is expected to develop for Florida Senate, Kendrick Meek is perfectly positioned to benefit from scandals rocking the Florida GOP. No party Charlie Crist's hand-picked head of the Florida Republicans was just arrested for... stealing from the Florida Republicans. Marco Rubio is also caught up in the scandal, as the IRS is investigating reports that he more or less lived off of a Florida Republican Party American Express Card for several years. Perhaps most importantly, Crist's and Rubio's problems are indicative of a GOP brand in Florida that is heavily tainted by rampant corruption.
Charlie Crist made a big splash when he dumped the GOP and went independent. Polls showed him as the new front runner. But Charlie has a little problem.
Jim Greer was Charlie Crist's pick to head the Florida GOP - Charlie almost singlehandedly inserted Greer into the post and Crist supported Greer right up to the day he resigned in January. Charlie Crist was Jim Greer's only friend for quite some time during late 2009 and January 2010. Of course, we all know that Charlie's buddy was just arrested.
Charlie's Greer problem does help in one way - it has taken the spotlight off of his Scott Rothstein problem.
Marco Rubio is in big trouble. Rubio shot to the lead in the GOP primary by playing to his Tea Bagging base. He is running on tax reform, secure borders, the second amendment, and every other right wing hot button issue. Oh, and he is the outsider who is untainted by scandal and corruption - his web ads all proclaim "Principles Stand for Something... Stand With Marco." Oops.
RPOF Individual Spending On AmEx Cards
Speaker Marco Rubio - $110,000
Indicted Speaker Ray Sansom - $173,000
Speaker-designate Dean Cannon - $175,000
Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos - *$2,347
Rubio Chief of Staff Richard Corcoran - $70,000
RPOF Executive Director Delmar Johnson - $500,000
Jr. Party Staffer Melanie Phister - $1,258,000
It turns out that what Marco stands for is the right to live large on a state party AMEX given to him by... Jim Greer. Rubio and other users of State Party AMEX cards are currently under investigation by the FBI and IRS.
Federal law enforcement agencies have launched a criminal investigation into the use of American Express cards issued by the Republican Party of Florida to elected officials and staff, according to sources familiar with the probe.
The U.S. attorney's office in Tallahassee, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service are all involved in the probe, which grew out of the state investigation into former House Speaker Ray Sansom. He was indicted on criminal charges that he stashed $6 million in the state budget for an airplane hangar for a friend and campaign donor.
In the federal case, Sansom and others could be charged with making false statements on their tax returns and tax evasion.
...
Meanwhile, in a separate inquiry, the IRS is also looking at the tax records of at least three former party credit card holders -- former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, ex-state party chairman Jim Greer and ex-party executive director Delmar Johnson -- to determine whether they misused their party credit cards for personal expenses, according to a source familiar with the preliminary inquiry.
If any of these big spenders enjoyed any personal financial gain from the use of these cards, the IRS will expect to find said financial gain declared as income on the big spenders' tax returns. The IRS can get kind of picky about this kind of stuff.
Regardless of undeclared personal income, the idea that Rubio managed to spend over $100,000 of party donor's money in a short period of time kind of belies his status as principled outsider. His zealous defenders wont mind, but more moderate potential supporters may be turned off by his easy corruptibility and rank hypocrisy, not to mention his far right stands on issues like HIR and immigration.
Last fall he opposed the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, the country's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice, saying he had concerns about her case history and testimony on issues such as the Second Amendment right to bear arms. He opposes counting undocumented immigrants in the U.S. census and providing them a pathway to citizenship.
He suggested in an interview with a conservative publication, Human Events, that even illegal immigrant children who have spent most of their lives in the U.S. shouldn't be allowed to stay. He later told The Associated Press: "Young children have to go wherever their parents are."
And after initially expressing concerns about Arizona's immigration law, the nation's harshest, Rubio reversed his position and came out in support, saying subsequent changes aimed at preventing racial profiling have greatly improved it.
"Most people, what they know about Marco Rubio is that he's a young, well-spoken guy who's Hispanic," said Rep. Juan Zapata, a Republican state representative in Florida who was born in Colombia and supports Rubio's rival Gov. Charlie Crist. "People don't know the details."
Zapata said that the Hispanic community would love to support a Latino candidate but that Rubio's views don't further the causes of Hispanic voters.
"I've known him for a long time and I've worked with him and I'm terribly disappointed in the positions he's taken," he said.
At times it seems as if the entire leadership of the Florida Republican Party is engulfed in scandal. Former Speaker Ray Sansom is under indictment for grand theft. Which led to the GOP credit card investigation that Marco Rubio is caught up in and, eventually, the arrest of Crist's buddy Jim Greer. Money Man Alan Mendelsohn indicted for fraud and money laundering. Crist favorite Scott Rothstein indicted for a massive ponzi scheme - he funneled proceeds to Florida politicians of both parties, but the only politician he ever baked a cake for was Charlie Crist. The list goes on and on.
Crist money-raisers have been charged with crimes, while Greer, his hand-picked state party chairman, is the target of probes; Republican candidate Marco Rubio, among 31 Republican politicians and operatives who are facing FBI and IRS scrutiny, has the IRS looking at his use of state party credit cards.
The avalanche of criminal investigations began in early 2009 with the indictment of former House Speaker Sansom after he accepted a $110,000-a-year job at Northwest Florida State College on the very day he became speaker. A St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald investigation showed how in the previous two years, Sansom steered $35 million to the school.
...
As part of the Sansom investigation, State Attorney Willie Meggs obtained records detailing Sansom's lavish charges to a GOP American Express card totaling more than $173,000.
The credit card charges sparked federal investigations of Sansom and Greer, the GOP chairman who had been living a life of luxury with chartered jets, four-star hotels and chauffeured limousines charged to his party card
.... Anyone who obtained personal benefits from the cards and failed to report them to IRS could be in trouble.
Now, Kendrick Meek has his own problems, but recent reports tying him to a failed Miami development indicate he was burned by family and staff, and that he had no personal knowledge of any shenanigans. There's apparently nothing there, but the "scandal" will be dredged up constantly to provide some balance to the scores of GOP troubles being reported.
Meek is a hard campaigner - he is the only statewide candidate to have ever qualified for the ballot via petition. He did this by getting out and meeting people and energizing volunteers to gather signatures. He is largely unknown, even among Democrats, and as he introduces himself to voters, his poll numbers will rise.
All 3 candidates will be battered by November, but if Kendrick Meek can take advantage of the big scandals enveloping his main rivals, he may well be the last man standing, and, with luck, we may end up with a true progressive representing Florida in the Senate.