A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Train Station

The Central Florida Commuter Rail Project, now known as SunRail may be about to get a big boost from the Federal stimulus package recently passed by Congress. No, not because of monies allocated for commuter rail projects. Strangely enough, SunRail may get its biggest boost of all because of the $8 billion in the bill for High Speed Rail.

I have written previously about the possible motivations of SunRail's biggest opponent, State Senator Paula Dockery. Yes, that Paula Dockery, the one who is married to C.C. "Doc" Dockery, the sponsor of the Florida High Speed Rail Constitutional Amendment. You remember, the constitutional amendment for high speed rail that was repealed in a campaign led by then Governor Jeb Bush. The same Jeb Bush, who in one of his last acts as Governor, signed the deal with CSX to make the SunRail project feasible.

Last legislative session, Sen. Dockery was able to team up with the Florida trial lawyers lobby to derail the last piece of legislation necessary for the SunRail project to move forward. The legislation has since been modified so that the trial lawyers have dropped their opposition. That's not enough to stop Senator Dockery. Now she is on to a laundry list of reasons for opposing the bill, most of which are nonsense, as detailed by the Orlando Sentinel.

That brings us back to the federal stimulus money for high speed rail. The Tampa Tribune is now reporting that the Florida High Speed Rail Authority (who even knew that they still existed?)

is hopeful it can get some of the $8 billion recently set aside for high-speed rail projects nationwide.

Presumably, Sen. Dockery will be supportive of her husbands efforts to secure this Federal money. Almost certainly, securing this stimulus money will ultimately require the support of Governor Charlie Crist.

Of course, Governor Crist is now a full throated supporter of SunRail. I am sure the Governor would look more kindly on the high speed rail effort if Sen. Dockery could somehow be persuaded to be supportive of one of his legislative priorities for this upcoming legislative session.

Governor Crist is a farily persuasive fellow. He should use this opportunity to persuade Senator Dockery to be for something for a change.

Leaving Money on the Table and Kids Uninsured

In a story in today's Orlando Sentinel, we get the following intertwined pieces of information:

Florida ranks 43rd in the country when it comes to children's health-insurance coverage, said Dr. Edward Zissman, chief executive officer of Altamonte Pediatric Associates.

And from the same source, there is this:

Last year, Florida returned $20 million in 2005 federal matching dollars because it did not enroll enough children.

The federal grant matches 71 cents for every 29 cents the state spends, said Tara Klimek, a spokeswoman for state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink. Since 1998 the state has returned $140 million, she said.

What can be done about this abysmal situation? State Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando, has an idea. Randolph called on Gov. Charlie Crist to include KidCare reform in next month's special session.

"We've got to put this on the calendar or face losing federal matching dollars," Randolph said. "For every dollar we refuse to put in . . . we send $3 back to Washington."

The US House of Representatives recently passed an expansion of the SCHIP program. However, Florida's Republican Representatives voted against this bill. The DCCC responded by launching radio ads targeting these Roadblock Republicans. At least one of the targets, Old Bill Young, did not take kindly to being targeted. Bill Young

angrily pointed to a new radio ad campaign this week by Democrats accusing him of opposing increased benefits in Medicare for seniors.

Maybe Charlie Crist will have a more temperate response to the health care needs of Florida's children?

Budget Balancing on the Backs of the Needy

Poor pregnant women; hospitals and poor immigrants; missing children; and law abiding citizens. What do all these groups have in common? They are all about to bear the brunt of the state budget balancing measures. Maybe.

The Miami Herald has a story today about various proposals being floated for balancing the budget when the legislature meets for its special session in September. Cost-cutting recommendations from more than two dozen state agencies are due to Gov. Charlie Crist and legislative leaders today. These measures are needed help close a more than $1 billion budget shortfall, due to a sluggish economy that has sapped tax collections. Legislators will meet to decide what to cut on Sept. 18 when they convene for a three-week special session.

Lets repeat what is causing all this scrooge like activity:

a sluggish economy that has sapped tax collections.

Make that sales tax collections. This tax revenue fluctuates notoriously in line with the Florida economy. With the slowness in the housing market spilling over into other parts of the economy, state services are facing the budget cutting axe. And still we have certain state legislators who think replacing the property tax with a much higher state sales tax is a good idea.

Here's what would be a good idea: Legislators who think this is a good idea should be turned out of office to find another line of work. Another good idea? Get in touch with your state legislators to make sure they know you do not want the most needy in the state to bear the largest burden in this special session of service cutting.

Florida and the New(t) Republicans

by Tally

In a discussion of Newt Gingrich’s analysis of the Republican Party as stated in a recent New Yorker article, Kos says the following:

Gingrich, on the other hand, appears to sense that Americans are disgusted
at Bush and GOP incompetence and expect government to work for them. Katrina and Iraq have driven that sentiment home.

Therefore, if his party is to remain relevant, it must recreate itself not as the party of smaller government, but the party of modernized government.

But this has already taken place in Florida. Learn more below.

Tally's diary :: ::

Many of us have written about Charlie Crist, and how he essentially appears to be acting like a progressive Democrat. Limelite, bejammin075, T Rex, cornball, britain33, meowmissy, creepers, and yours truly have all commented on this phenomenon, if a bit skeptically at times. Both gatordem and I have diaried a little more explicitly about our doubts and concerns and our belief that Crist is very politically astute.

The bottom line is that our new governor, unlike our president, knows how to govern competently and knows how to steal the rhetoric of the Democrats. A while back I posted the following quote from Crist:

"What I pay more attention to is what I hear from people on the street," Crist
said. "Their encouragement, their critique or their compliments are all
appreciated because they are the boss, as I say all the time. It's much more
important to get it from them, eye to eye, and understand what really is in
their hearts, what their needs and desires are."

As I said at the time, "Who else could get away with a comment like that?"

In other words, Crist has already done in Florida what Kos wrote about:

Gingrich isn't talking about a slight or subtle ideological shift here, he's talking about erasing the biggest fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats, and doing so by adopting our position.

That’s been the standard joke ever since the legislative session began: "Charlie Crist is the best Democratic governor ever elected."

Kos wondered if Gingrich would enter the presidential race and use the "Sarkozy Strategy", i.e., running against Bush rather than the Democrats. This would set up an intense intra-party struggle within the GOP.

But Crist was able to win without this apparently happening in Florida. His defeat of Tom Gallagher (who ran as a religious conservative) in the primary was decisive and not particularly divisive. Personally, I have been trying to push this concept of opening up a split in the Republican Party of Florida, but it hasn't really been getting a lot of traction.

There seemed to be some hope over Crist telling the state Republican Party not to push the state's anti-gay marriage amendment and his fallout with State Attorney General Bill McCollum over restoration of felon rights. But these seemed to fade away without much being made of it and I haven’t seen anything else to indicate a split between the pragmatists and the fundamentalists.

You might remember then Congressman Bill McCollum from Bill Clinton's impeachment. He seemed to have impeccable conservative credentials. But then he refused to pull out of the Republican primary for the open Florida senate seat in 2004 and was savaged by Bush's people for daring to get in the way of Karl Rove's Cuban strategy of having Mel Martinez run.

One of the results of that dustup is the now seemingly incongruous situation where McCollum is Rudy Giuliani's campaign manager in Florida in order to get a shot at being Attorney General in a Giuliani administration. While we all thought McCollum was a fundamentalist it turns out he’s as pragmatic as the next guy.

What we have to understand is that the majority of Republicans in Florida, just like the majority of Republicans in the country, are not fundamentalist Christians. They might give lip service to cultural issues, but those aren't the sine qua non of their votes.

Another key player in the Republican Party of Florida is State House Speaker Marco Rubio. He's young, good looking, and ambitious. He was the force behind moving the Florida primary up. He wants to follow Crist as governor and is praying that the Republican nominee will pick Crist as vice president. Rubio anticipated Gingrich’s approach by years. One of the first things I ever diaried about on DKos was Rubio's 100 Ideas Project. I still defy anyone to watch the promotional video and tell me it isn’t exactly what you want from a progressive legislature. In this regard, both Rubio and Crist have been working from the same populist playbook.

And guess what. When I went to the 100 Ideas site to get the correct link for the video I found that the site’s been updated. And what should I find but a new video of Newt Gingrich praising Rubio and the 100 Ideas Project (same link as above)!

So there you have it. If you want to see the new face of the Republican Party, all you have to do is look at Florida! Giuliani has already said he intends to concentrate on winning it's primary next January 29.

Which leaves us Democrats struggling with Dr. Dean's intransigence. Please read gatordem's plea to make the Democratic primary count and send a message to the DNC about it.

If you are a Florida blogger you might want to be signed up for the Blogger Luncheon at the FDP's Jefferson Jackson Weekend event June 9 & 10 .

If you're serious about organizing in Florida then you might want to be signed up for the DFA training in Tampa June 30 and July 1.

Dr. Dean - Let Our Votes Count

Blog Florida Blue


Florida Governor Charlie Crist today signed an elections reform bill that moves Florida's Presidential Preference Primary up to January 29th in 2008. This puts the Florida Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee on a collision course. DNC primary rules call for draconian penalties for any state that moves its primary up before February 5th. Potentially, Florida could lose all of its delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

I have blogged about this before. The first time was last November on DailyKos. More recently, I blogged about the Florida Primary Conspiracy Theory, a dubious concept at best. I have also blogged about How to Have Our Primary Cake and Eat It Too. This laid out how the FDP could avoid delegate penalties from the DNC. The technique would be to declare the January 29th primary non-binding. This would then require the FDP to hold a caucus at a later date to actually select and apportion the convention delegates. It would also have the unfortunate effect of the the Florida Democratic Party telling its members that their votes on January 29th wouldn't count.

I have come to the conclusion that this is not a cake I want to eat. Our Republican dominated state legislature did this to us. Make no mistake here, though. Many Dem legislators were just as happy to move up in the primary schedule. I know I was, and continue to be. We are the largest swing state in the country. We have more electoral votes at stake than the states going before us combined. We are much more diverse than any state going before us in this process. Floridians deserve to have their voices heard as part of the presidential nominating process.

Our own state party should not be put in the position of telling us our primary votes are not going to count. Not in Florida of all places. We have a hard enough time getting our votes to count here as it is. (Although the bill that Gov. Crist signed today also does away with touch screen voting machines (almost entirely) and provides us with a voter verifiable paper trail.) No , the state party should not put us in that position.

That puts the ball squarely in your court, Dr. Dean. As Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, your position on this dilemma counts for a great deal. Do you really want to tell Florida Democrats, of all people, that their votes won't count? After all, this was done to us by the Republican controlled Florida Legislature. The Dems couldn't have stopped this if they had wanted to. Speaking of Florida Democrats, Dr. Dean, you do recall how important their support was in your ascendancy to the Chairmanship, don't you? The early support from the Florida delegation to the DNC really got the ball rolling for you.

But, let's just get back to the basic issue here. There will be a presidential primary in Florida on January 29th. It is now the law of this state. The Democratic candidates are going to campaign here. This state supplies too much money, and holds too many electoral votes for the candidates to ignore us. The only remaining question is this:

Doctor Dean, are you going to let our votes count?

Blog Florida Blue

FLORIDA MOVES to paper ballots!

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 3 May 2007

Contact:
Susan Pynchon, Cell: 386-804-3131
Pamela Haengel, Cell: 727-244-9064
Kindra Muntz, Cell: 941-266-8278
Dan McCrea, Cell: 305-984-2900

FLORIDA MOVES to paper ballots!

Florida Voters Coalition congratulates governor crist and the florida legislature for ending PAPERLESS voting.

TALLAHASSEE: In a historic vote, the Florida House today unanimously passed CS/HB 537, already passed in the Senate, that provides almost all voters paper ballots in time for the 2008 Presidential election, and bans paperless DREs outright by 2012. The bill now goes to the Governor where he’s sure to sign it since it’s his initiative.

Counties will have the option to pitch DREs immediately and provide ballot marking devices for voters with disabilities. “FVC urges all 67 counties to convert to uniform paper ballot systems without delay and leave no voter behind voting on failed electronic voting machines,” said FVC Co-Founder, Dan McCrea.

The bill is funded with $27.9 million in HAVA funds and there’s plenty more money in that account should more be needed next year. Counties will get help from the state to purchase optical scan equipment to count the paper ballots; ballot-on-demand equipment to ease paper congestion problems in Early Voting; and ballot marking devices to serve the disabled.

While there was talk earlier in the legislative session about retrofitting printers to failed touchscreen DREs, that talk faded as legislators saw it would be throwing good money after bad. Additionally, they are sure to have understood that currently available “VVPAT” printers would not comply with proposed federal legislation which, if passed, will supersede Florida law. (Federal bill HR 811, sponsored by Rep. Rush Holt, currently has 212 bi-partisan co-sponsors in Congress.)

The Florida bill also contains new audit provisions essential to the security of paper ballot voting systems. There was agreement among legislators that the new audit provisions will need further tweaking next year before becoming effective in July 2008. For now, the language requires that after every election, at least 1% and not more than 2% of randomly selected precincts be audited by hand-counting the paper ballots in one randomly selected race. The audit will take place after certification and be reported 3 days before the contest period ends.

“FVC supports ‘statistically significant’ audits that would yield a far greater confidence level in election results and should be reported before certification. FVC will be working with state and local election officials in the coming year to strengthen Florida audit language,” said another FVC Co-Founder, Kindra Muntz, who led the successful charter amendment campaign in Sarasota County that requires both voter verified paper ballots and mandatory random audits in all elections.

“We thank Governor Crist and the Florida Legislature for their vision and diligence in improving Florida voting systems,” said FVC Co-Founder, Susan Pynchon, “and for working together in a bi-partisan, bicameral effort. The eyes of the nation have been and still are on Florida elections – and Florida finally got it right! We can now say Florida is leading the nation in election reform.”

In addition to the Governor and the Legislature deserving praise, FVC thanks the two dozen co-signers to our 2007 Position Paper on Voting Systems, who are listed below, and who worked very hard together at local, state, and national levels on many different aspects of advocating for this legislation. Thanks to Senator Bill Nelson and other members of Congress who also helped at the national level. We also thank the Florida League of Woman Voters and the Florida Council of the Blind for their vital assistance. Special thanks to Warren Stewart, Policy Director for VoteTrustUSA; Ion Sancho, Leon County Supervisor of Elections; Howard Simon, Executive Director of ACLU of Florida; and Pamela Smith, President of Verified Voting for their invaluable contributions to this effort. Additional thanks go to Sam Bell, Doug Bell and Rebecca Sager for their extensive assistance on the ground in Tallahassee. And finally, FVC thanks the thousands of volunteers and citizens who cared enough about Florida’s elections to help rally support, send messages to the Governor and Legislature, talk to the media, and make their voices heard. “This was a good day for democracy,” said FVC Co-Founder Pamela Haengel.

National Organizations - Alphabetical by Organization

Ralph Miller, Executive Director, Latinos for America
Megan Matson, Director, Mainstreet Moms
Pamela Smith, President, VerifiedVoting.org
Dan McCrea, Florida State Director, Voter Action
John Gideon, Executive Director, VotersUnite.org
Joan Krawitz, Executive Director, VoteTrustUSA

State of Florida Organizations - Alphabetical by Organization

Howard Simon, Executive Director, ACLU of Florida
Jeannette D. Wynn, President, Florida Council of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
Cynthia Hall, President, Florida AFL-CIO
Ellen Brodsky, Executive Director, Broward Election Reform Coalition (BERC)
Susan Pynchon, Executive Director, Florida Fair Elections Coalition (FFEC)
Ion Sancho, Supervisor of Elections, Leon County Department of Elections
Trevor Harvey, President, Sarasota County Branch, NAACP
Susan Van Houten, Co-Founder, Palm Beach Coalition for Election Reform
Brad Ashwell, Florida Public Interest Research Group (PIRG)
Kindra Muntz, President, Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections (SAFE)
Sevell C. Brown III, Florida State President, Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Jim Pillow, Political Coordinator - Teamsters Local 385 Orlando
Fred Seidl, Coordinator, Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry, Florida
Gene Jones, Florida Veterans for Common Sense
Pamela Haengel, President, Voting Integrity Alliance of Tampa Bay (VIA Tampa Bay)

###

URGENT ACTION ALERT: Write FL Senators TODAY!!!

OK - this has been done at least once already today. But we are trying to keep this in front of you so we can elecit all the help we can get. If you care at all about election integrity, please act today.


ACTION ALERT!

This originally supportable bill for paper ballots has become a dumping ground of partisan garbage. We need help contacting FL legislators today!!!

Subject: URGENT ACTION ALERT: Write all FL Senators in support of paper ballots today!!

Also, please send to every Florida voter you know as it is urgent as many Florida voters as possible write to Tallahassee today.


If you're outside of Florida, contact Governor Crist directly here .

Tell the Governor:

Congrats to you, Governor Crist, on your PAPER BALLOT plan to reform Florida’s voting systems. Floridians are fed up being a national laughingstock and the rest of the country is cheering Florida on to get this right. Now is the time for the LEGISLATURE to pass a CLEAN BILL in support of your plan – free from political baggage – and IMPLEMENT meaningful PAPER BALLOT voting system reform – fully effective for the 2008 Presidential election.

For concerned Florida voters:

Please send the following e-mail TODAY, Thursday, April 26th, to all Florida Senators: Please use this text only. The key Senate bill on voting systems is scheduled to be voted on TODAY.

Also, please send to every Florida voter you know as it is urgent that as many as possible write to Tallahassee today.

Type this in your "Subject" line:

I support a clean bill for Gov. Crist's paper ballot plan

Copy and paste this into the body of the email:

I support Governor Crist’s paper ballot plan to reform Florida ’s voting systems. Floridians are fed up being a national laughing stock. Now is the time for the legislature to pass a clean bill – free from political baggage – and implement Governor Crist’s paper ballot voting system reform – fully effective for the 2008 Presidential election.

The complete list of Senators is below. Simply highlight the list, copy and paste it into the "To:" line of your e-mail.

[NOTE: If you have trouble using the e-mail list below, it may be because of the commas separating the e-mail addresses. Some e-mail providers prefer semi-colons between names. Please don't let that stop you from getting this out... and thank for taking that extra step, if necessary.]

Wise.Stephen.web@flsenate.gov, Wilson.Frederica.web@flsenate.gov, Webster.Daniel.web@flsenate.gov, Villalobos.Alex.web@flsenate.gov, Storms.Ronda.web@flsenate.gov, Siplin.Gary.web@flsenate.gov, Saunders.Burt.web@flsenate.gov, Ring.Jeremy.web@flsenate.gov, Rich.Nan.web@flsenate.gov, Pruitt.Ken.web@flsenate.gov, Posey.Bill.web@flsenate.gov, Peaden.Durell.web@flsenate.gov, Oelrich.Steve.web@flsenate.gov, Margolis.Gwen.web@flsenate.gov, Lynn.Evelyn.web@flsenate.gov, Lawson.Alfred.web@flsenate.gov, King.James.web@flsenate.gov, Justice.Charlie.web@flsenate.gov, Joyner.Arthenia.web@flsenate.gov, Jones.Dennis.web@flsenate.gov, Hill.Anthony.web@flsenate.gov, Haridopolos.Mike.web@flsenate.gov, Geller.Steven.web@flsenate.gov, Garcia.Rudy.web@flsenate.gov, Gaetz.Don.web@flsenate.gov, Fasano.Mike.web@flsenate.gov, Dockery.Paula.web@flsenate.gov, Portilla.Alex.web@flsenate.gov, Deutch.Ted.web@flsenate.gov, Dawson.Mandy.web@flsenate.gov, Crist.Victor.web@flsenate.gov, Constantine.Lee.web@flsenate.gov, Carlton.Lisa.web@flsenate.gov, Bullard.Larcenia.web@flsenate.gov, Bennett.Michael.web@flsenate.gov, Baker.Carey.web@flsenate.gov, Atwater.Jeffrey.web@flsenate.gov, Aronberg.Dave.web@flsenate.gov, Argenziano.Nancy.web@flsenate.gov, Alexander.JD.web@flsenate.gov

Thank you!!!

Voting Integrity Alliance of Tampa Bay
Member, VoteTrustUSA Leaders Group
Co-Founder, Florida Voters Coalition
www.VIATampaBay.org

Charlie Crist: a Wolf in Progressive Clothing

Over at RockridgeNation there is a posting up about Florida's new and so far hugely popular Governor, Charlie Crist, entitled A John Lennon Conservative?

As a resident of Charlie Crist's hometown, I can bring an up close and personal perspective. I have known Charlie Crist for over 20 years. One need make no mistake about Charlie - he is a consummate politician. I think he is doing these "progressive" things because he does believe in them. But I'm not so sure he believes in them in and of themselves, but as in where the political advantage lies.

Florida is one of those states that really makes people shake their heads, especially progressives. Florida is about 4 states in one. There is the very progressive Southeast Florida (tempered by the reactionary ant-Castro Cubans in Miami), We have the very conservative Southwest Florida. We have the moderate I-4 corridor through the middle of the state. And we have conservative North Florida (tempered by the two big university cities, Gainesville and Tallahassee.)

Boiling all this down, Florida actually comes out as much more moderate than folks on either end of the political spectrum want to admit. Charlie Crist knows this very well. His biggest political defeat, and his springboard onto the state political stage, came when he took on the moderate and hugely popular US Senator Bob Graham.

Charlie Crist is hugely popular right now because he is trying to be all things to all people. The RockridgeNation posting did not mention Charlies' number one priority - his "anti-murder" bill. He demanded and received it as the first bill he signed from the regular legislative session. This bill requires judges to keep probation violators in jail until the judge certifies the person is not a danger to society. The cost of building the jail cells needed for this could well bankrupt the state. My guess is the Florida Legislature is not going to provide all the necessary funding for this, thus creating an onerous burden for the County jails where most of these folks are going to be housed.

Charlie Crist also knows that for every progressive action he takes, he must do something to satisfy his political base. Thus his support of the failed school accountability test program and tax cuts. Crist is playing both ends against the middle. Whether he can continue to pull it off is an open question.

Stay tuned.

Florida Legislature: What to Do, What to Do

The annual Florida Legislative session opens today in Tallahassee. The chambers of both Houses will be decked in flowers, a signal that hope springs eternal. But what do you hope the legislature will accomplish this year? Today, I'd like to start a conversation about what you would like to see the legislature accomplish this year.

Of course the big issues that everyone is talking about are the twin terrors facing property owners: insurance and taxes. The St. Petersburg Times has an excellent article today about the tax issues. Inevitably, every other issue facing the state is intertwined with the tax issue. There are education challenges both in K-12 and the university system. Managing growth and transportation issues loom large. How about crime and the cost of Gov. Crist's Anti-Murder bill?

There are plenty of challenges and opportunities facing the legislature this year. How about we get the on line conversation going? Maybe our legislators will take notice of what we say. After all, hope springs eternal.

Charlie's Inauguration Donors

After the PR fallout, Charlie Crist has released the list of donors to his inauguration committee.

The list of donors includes private prison contractor The Geo Group, which gave $50,000, while U.S. Sugar also kicked in $50,000. Boca Raton aviation company Trigeant Air gave $100,000. Powerhouse Fort Lauderdale law firm Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky Abate donated $25,000 while Tallahassee law firm Bryant Miller & Olive gave $10,000. Oviedo agriculture giant A. Duda & Sons donated $25,000.

That's some party that Charlie almost threw. He had a keen enough political ear to admit, "I made a mistake, and, yes, it was a doozy." That's rare in politics and I'll give him credit for that. I'm wondering why he wanted such a lavish inauguration.