The Senate’s reputation for bipartisanship in Tallahassee appears to be well-earned, while the names of House and Senate members who most frequently voted against their parties included a few surprises, according to an analysis of votes in the 2017 legislative session.
The voting record report is out. Associated Industries of Florida released its 2017 Voting Record report. Published for more than four decades, the annual report is considered one of the definitive legislative scorecards for the business community. This year, the organization calculated more than 208,966 votes on 1,955 bills with 848 legislators. “This session, AIF faced a variety of tough issues on behalf of Florida’s business community, including opposing any measure that would have made it more expensive for businesses…
It’s no secret that the United States is in the midst of an epidemic of opioid abuse, overdoses and deaths, with Florida emerging as an epicenter. Nevertheless, several Tallahassee lawmakers, albeit unwittingly, may soon contribute to this wildfire of a crisis, a casualty of the latest battle in Florida’s Eyeball Wars. Few can argue the opioid problem has reached epic proportions. The Washington Post is reporting more than 200,000 deaths from opioid overdose between 1999 and 2015. In 2016, nearly…
The Florida Chamber of Commerce lent their substantial clout to four statehouse Republicans on Monday. Groveland Rep. Larry Metz, Auburndale Rep. Neil Combee, Maitland Rep. Bob Cortes, and Saint Cloud Rep. Mike De La Rosa were among those who got the nod from the pro-business interest group. The lawmakers all received “A” grades from the Chamber’s annual legislative report card, which assigns members marks based on their votes on the group’s priorities, which according to their criteria aim to make “Florida more competitive through private-sector job…
The Florida Chamber‘s Annual Insurance Summit wrapped up Wednesday morning in Orlando with a group of Florida lawmakers peering into their crystal balls ahead of next year’s Legislative Session, set to start in January. The Chamber program listed participants as “members of the Florida Senate and Florida House of Representatives,” but of the four panelists – Republicans John Wood, Doug Broxson and Bill Hager and Democrat Larry Lee – none was a Senate member. That proved to be more than mere coincidence as the discussion wore on.…
The attacks keep coming in the Patrick Murphy-Alan Grayson Democratic U.S. Senate primary, and it’s only the first day of fall of 2015. Early on in Alan Grayson’s remarks to the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee on Monday night in Tampa, the Orlando congressman and 2016 aspirant said the Democratic Party was a club, but not just any old club, but one more like a gang, “like the Crips or the Bloods.” The exact quote went like this: “A lot of…
