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Ryan Ray - page 87

Ryan Ray has 632 articles published.

Ryan Ray writes about campaigns and public policy in Tampa Bay and across the state. A contributor to FloridaPolitics.com and before that, The Florida Squeeze, he covers the Legislature as a member of the Florida Capitol Press Corps and has worked as a staffer on several campaigns. He can be reached at [email protected].

Florida restaurant and hotel lobby blasts Dana Young’s new gaming bill

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The Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association — a group with outsized importance in our state’s tourism-centric economy — issued a statement Tuesday excoriating the proposal released yesterday by House Majority Leader Dana Young. “We will continue to fight this legislation, along with any other measure that seeks to expand gambling under the false pretense that it will bring additional jobs, attract more tourists, and increase Florida’s tax base,” said FRLA President and CEO Carol Dover. “Florida currently enjoys record number of tourists,…

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Senate unanimously passes greyhound injury reporting bill on opening day

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In keeping with the tone set by the Weatherford-Gaetz style of legislative leadership, Senate President Andy Gardiner has seen fit to pass a bill on the first day of Session. SB 2 — or the Vicky Q. Gaetz Racing Greyhound Protection Act, if you will — sponsored by state Sen. Eleanor Sobel of Hollywood was approved by the full Senate Tuesday. “Racing greyhounds are prone to injuries, which can too often lead to horrible pain and premature death,” said Sobel in a statement. “Injury reporting is a…

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Byron Donalds files to run in House District 80

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Collier County businessmann Byron Donalds has filed to run for a Southwest Florida House seat, according to the Florida Division of Elections. The District 80 seat eyed by Donalds is set to be vacated by House Speaker Pro Tempore Matt Hudson, who faces term limits in 2016. Hudson in turn is running for the Senate seat of term-limited state Sen. Garrett Richter of Naples. District 80 was competitive before 2011 redistricting, when Hudson first took office by defeating Democrat Maria Jimenez by a margin of…

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Will Florida Republicans hold a Presidency 6 straw poll this year?

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“If you don’t measure, you don’t really care.” That’s what Jeb Bush told a crowd of supporters at his recent education forum in Tallahassee. The more data, the better, it would seem. Well, not since the days of this amazing vintage footage of Steve Bousquet covering the late Gov. Reubin Askew‘s 1984 presidential run has there been so much concern about a Floridian pursuing the White House. And when it rains, it pours: we have not only frontrunner Jeb Bush to obsess over…

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Blaise Ingoglia delegates RPOF fundraising to Joe Gruters, Peter Feaman

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Republican Party of Florida Chairman — and state Rep.- – Blaise Ingoglia held a meeting Friday evening in which he divested himself of his fundraising duties and transferred them to party Vice Chairman Joe Gruters and Republican State Committeeman Peter Feaman for the duration of the 2015 legislative session. The move was made in order to remain in compliance with a state law that prohibits state lawmakers from raising funds during session, and will revert back to the status quo when the Legislature adjourns sine…

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No Casinos comes out decisively against Dana Young’s gambling bill

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Just minutes after House Majority Leader Dana Young released her much-awaited casino gambling legislation, Orlando-based group No Casinos, Inc. released a set of statements blasting the proposal. “This bill would cause the biggest expansion of gambling in Florida history,” said No Casinos President John Sowinski. “It invites wall-to-wall casino gambling in Florida, and the social costs and crime that go with it.” “It creates so much new gambling that it also launches a vast new government bureaucracy to try to regulate it,” inveighed Sowinski,…

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2015 Legislative Session Preview: Big tobacco, Brecht Heuchan, and the most interesting food fight this Session

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Almost all of the headlines surrounding the annual session of the Florida Legislature will have already been written by the time lawmakers are gaveled into business on March 3. Those headlines will involve calls to expand Medicaid; a budget hole created by the federal government’s refusal to fund the Low Income Pool health care program; how to spend the money derived from Amendment 1,  etc. You’ll read about gambling and water and Uber and grad school tuition and tax breaks and…

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