Sunburn – The morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics.
By Peter Schorsch, Phil Ammann, Mitch Perry, Ryan Ray, and Jim Rosica with material from the Associated Press.
BREAKING LAST NIGHT — STATE, SEMINOLE TRIBE OF FLORIDA REACH $3 BILLION GAMBLING DEAL via Gary Fineout of the Associated Press – Gov. Rick Scott announced Monday that he and the Seminole Tribe have reached a sweeping new gambling deal that would bring in billions to the state while also allowing an expansion of gambling in South Florida. … Scott said that the compact with the tribe that would generate $3 billion for the state over a seven-year period starting in 2017. It must be ratified by the Florida Legislature.
For its part, the tribe gets to keep card games such as blackjack at their casinos across the state, including the Seminole Hard Rock casinos in Tampa and Hollywood, and to add table games such as roulette and craps. … The deal also allows for the addition of slot machines at a Palm Beach county dog track and also leaves an opening for another casino in Miami-Dade as well as create a path for existing tracks in that county and Broward to eventually add blackjack tables as well.
READ WITHOUT DOWNLOADING SCOTT’S PROPOSAL here.
TWEET, TWEET: @Fineout: Interesting – the higher payments from the tribe would not start until 2017
TWEET SHOT: @MarcACaputo: Your @politicofl friends have made Gov. Scott’s non-searchable pdf version searchable
TWEET CHASER: @SaintPetersBlog: By the way, @MarcACaputo, a searchable PDF will still not reveal @BallardFirm’s fingerprints.
ACTUAL HEADLINE MONDAY FROM THE TIMES/HERALD: “Slow progress on gaming compact means it will remain out of budget talks“
TOUGH SELL IN LEGISLATURE? via Politico Florida – While the governor hailed the “unprecedented level of cooperation” between the state and tribe, his decision to sign the deal without telling some top state lawmakers makes an already difficult agreement even tougher to pass in a Legislature that has grown weary of what many see as Scott’s secretive and autocratic ways.
“I told some members today that this wasn’t being signed and I don’t know the details, so it makes it a tougher sell for me right now,” said state Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, the Miami Republican who chairs the House regulatory affairs committee and who had been part of the gambling talks until the last minute. … “I had intended to brief members and discuss broad elements of the plan to get their support. Now I’ll have to spend all day [Tuesday] reading this and figuring it out… But it’s a hiccup in the process,” Diaz said. “I can almost assure you that this will look quite different after the Legislature deals with it.”
ANDY GARDINER: STILL NO PLANS TO INCLUDE CARD GAMES COMPACT MONEY IN 2016 BUDGET via Mary Ellen Klas of the Miami Herald – … it remains unlikely that the House and Senate will renew the banked card games portion of the gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe in time to include the money in the 2016-17 budget. “We’re certainly not anticipating it,” Gardiner told the Herald/Times at a pre-session interview … for a deal to be reached in time for the 2016-17 budget year, lawmakers would need a resolution “certainly by the beginning of session … “I haven’t seen anything in writing. You hear concepts.”
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DONALD TRUMP CALLS FOR COMPLETE SHUTDOWN OF MUSLIMS ENTERING U.S. – Trump called Monday for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
The proposed ban would stand “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on,” his campaign said in a statement.
The statement added that Trump’s proposal comes in response to the level of hatred among “large segments of the Muslim population” toward Americans.
“Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life,” Trump said in the statement.
He added on Twitter: “Just put out a very important policy statement on the extraordinary influx of hatred & danger coming into our country. We must be vigilant!”
Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Trump’s proposed ban would apply to “everybody,” including Muslims seeking immigration visas as well as tourists seeking to enter the country.
He did not respond to questions about whether it would also include Muslims who are U.S. citizens and travel outside of the country, or how a determination of someone’s religion might be made by customs and border officials.
In response to a request for additional detail, Trump said via a campaign spokeswoman: “Because I am so politically correct, I would never be the one to say. You figure it out!”
REAX
Jeb Bush: “Donald Trump is unhinged. His ‘policy’ proposals are not serious.”
Marco Rubio, via Twitter: “I disagree with Donald Trump’s latest proposal. His habit of making offensive and outlandish statements will not bring Americans together.”
Lindsey Graham: “He’s putting at risk the lives of interpreters, American supporters, diplomats, & the troops in the region by making these bigoted comments.”
James Grant, via Twitter: “Radical Islam is no doubt a grave danger to our national security. Fascism is not the answer. America is better than that … How to make a fascist proposal even more offensive? Do it on Dec. 7. Am I right?”
TWEET, TWEET: @JeffreyGoldberg: “Donald Trump is now an actual threat to national security. He’s providing jihadists ammunition for their campaign to demonize the US.
DAVID JOLLY SAYS TRUMP SHOULD LEAVE RACE AFTER “BIGOTED, HATE-FILLED RHETORIC” via Alex Leary of the Tampa Bay Times – “While ISIS is beheading innocent people for their religious practices, Trump is betraying our freedoms,” Jolly said in a statement. “His brutal, bullying bigotry runs contrary to the very principles our forefathers fought so hard to defend. We are either a party of protecting the constitution and religious liberties or we’re not. America should insist on a security test but never a religious test.”
WITH A TWEET, MAYOR RICK KRISEMAN ‘BARS’ TRUMP FROM ST. PETERSBURG via Claire McNeill of the Tampa Bay Times — “I am hereby barring Donald Trump from entering St. Petersburg until we fully understand the dangerous threat posed by all Trumps,” Krisemantweeted. About an hour after he posted it, more than 1,200 people had already retweeted it … played off of Trump’s sweeping statement … which he called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
TRUMP LAWYER THREATENS MIKE FERNANDEZ OVER ANTI-TRUMP CAMPAIGN via Alex Leary of the Tampa Bay Times – Fernandez posted the letter today on Facebook and remarked, “Only in America can an immigrant scare a #bullyionaire … If there is any damage being done to the Trump brand, it is by Donald Trump himself.” Fernandez is a … Bush supporter but says he’s doing the campaign — which started with an ad in the Miami Herald — on his own.
>>> Trump’s latest web video mocks the size of crowds at John Kasich events – and comes after a super PAC backing Kasich has attacked Trump in ads.
— “Donald Trump is a disaster for Republicans and they can’t do anything about it” via Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post
LATEST IOWA POLL per Monmouth University, Cruz: 24%, Trump, 19%, Rubio: 17%.
NEW JEB BUSH SUPER PAC AD HITS TRUMP, TED CRUZ, MARCO RUBIO via Alex Leary of the Tampa Bay Times – new ad from the Bush super PAC goes after Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, questioning their readiness in an worrisome time. … The ad begins Tuesday in IA, NH, SC, and NV and on Fox News, according to Right to Rise.
TWEET, TWEET: @MarcACaputo: I’ve had a few days of trolling @r2rusa for its terrible Jeb biopic, only fair to point out attack ad is good
BUSH BASHES CRUZ OVER DATA COLLECTION, SYRIA via The Washington Examiner – Bush went after … Cruz Monday over the Texas senator’s decision to allow the National Security Agency’s collection of metadata to expire. Appearing on both “Morning Joe” and “Fox and Friends,” Bush repeatedly went after Cruz for supporting the expiration of the NSA’s collection program, which took place on Nov. 28. The 2016 hopeful repeatedly called the program an “essential tool” to keeping Americans safe.
— The Verge reports www.jebbush.com redirects you to www.donaldtrump.com.
MARCO RUBIO, SWITCHING FOCUS, AIMS TO HALT CRUZ’S MOMENTUM via Jonathan Martin and Jeremy peters of The New York Times – Rubio has abruptly changed course zeroing in on … Cruz in an urgent effort to halt his momentum with conservative voters. … With help from an allied group that is airing … TV ads in Iowa … seeking to raise doubts on the right about … Cruz’s toughness on national security. … More quietly, he is trying to muddy the perception that … Cruz is a hard-liner on immigration, asserting that … Cruz supports ‘legalizing people that are in this country illegally.’ … [W]ith right-of-center Republicans like Chris Christie, Jeb Bush and John Kasich effectively making a last stand in New Hampshire, the Republican establishment could be delayed in coalescing around a Rubio candidacy — making stopping … Cruz, or at least slowing him, all the more urgent.
RUBIO DEFENDS VOTE AGAINST BANNING PEOPLE ON WATCH LISTS FROM BUYING GUNS via CNN – Rubio defended his recent Senate vote against barring people on terrorism watch lists from buying firearms” and said “very significant number” of people on no-fly lists have done nothing wrong. “Sometimes you’re only on that list because the FBI wants to talk to you about someone you know, not because you’re a suspect,” Rubio said.
RUBIO’S LATEST AD IN IOWA here.
MEANWHILE … HILLARY CLINTON FORCES SEE 3 POSSIBLE GOP OPPONENTS via Politico – Trump, Rubio and Cruz are the focus of … super PACs and operatives … James Carville — who remains a close confidant of Bill Clinton’s — said he’s actually put his money where his mouth is, placing a bet on Cruz on the website PredictIt.com. ‘I’ve been on Cruz since day one,’ said Carville, who said the Texas senator first came on his radar after his wife, … Mary Matalin, hosted a fundraiser for Cruz about a year ago at their home.
ASSIGNMENT EDITORS: Democratic Congressman Patrick Murphy will challenge his Republican opponents in Florida’s U.S. Senate race to join him in calling for senators to close the “terrorist gun loophole” – which allows thousands of individuals to buy firearms each year without a background check. A measure to change the law is currently deadlocked in the Senate, as Republicans block several efforts by Democrats to add gun control provisions to a budget proposal. Murphy will host a press conference call, joined by union representatives, at 9:30 a.m.
WHAT YOU’LL HEAR MURPHY SAY: “I urge all my opponents on the other side of the aisle to put aside the partisan dysfunction, to join me in breaking through the gridlock and getting this done to keep our nation safe.” … “Too many politicians are willing to do nothing. They’re caving to what the reckless and wealthy gun industry wants them to do.” … “If you’re on the FBI’s Terrorist Watchlist, if you’re not allowed to fly on an airplane, you shouldn’t be allowed to buy a dangerous weapon.”
JUSTIN GRABELLE ABOUT TO BE CHALLENGED IN CD 11 RACE? via Mitch Perry of Florida Politics – After GOP incumbent Rich Nugent announced … he would not run for re-election … Justin Grabelle, his 33-year-old chief-of-staff, immediately announced he would run to succeed his boss … The move appears to have frozen the rest of the Republican field … The affable Grabelle … doesn’t differentiate much from Nugent’s fairly conservative bent … but it appears he’s about to be challenged for the GOP nomination for CD 11 at this point … [Ginny] Brown-Waite and state Sen. Wilton Simpson endorsed a candidate who isn’t even in the race yet, Kelly Rice, a Sumter County cattle rancher and Realtor … The newly drawn up CD 10 [also] makes it extremely hard for a Republican to compete, leading to speculation that if [Daniel Webster] wanted to continue his political career, he can attempt to run in CD 11 with Nugent’s departure. The Grabelle campaign doesn’t sound too concerned about a possible Webster run, at least now.
— “Adam Barringer makes Congressional ballot by petition” via Kevin Derby of the Sunshine State News
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FLORIDA JUDGE UPHOLDS STATE’S 2 MAIN VOUCHER PROGRAMS via The Associated Press – Circuit Judge George Reynolds … ruled against a request by parents and education advocacy groups to shut down state-created programs that pay to send children to private schools. One of the programs provides private school tuition to children with disabilities while the other helps children from low-income families. The ruling is a prelude to a much larger trial over Florida’s entire education system scheduled for March.
ABOUT 5,200 TEACHERS TO RECEIVE BONUSES BASED ON TEST SCORES via the Associated Press – About 5,200 Florida teaches will receive bonuses as part of a program that rewards instructors based on how they scored on college admissions exams. The Best and Brightest Teacher Scholarship Program will reward more than $8,400 to each instructor by April 1.
The program, which ties bonuses to teachers’ scores on ACT or SAT exams, was approved by the Florida Legislature in the spring. To qualify, instructors needed to score in the top 20 percent of exam takers the year they took the test.
ANDY GARDINER WARNS LIZ DUDEK, JOHN ARMSTRONG: EXPECT TOUGH CONFIRMATIONS IN THE SENATE via Michael Auslen of the Tampa Bay Times – “I met with Secretary Dudek last week and I told her, ‘You will get very pointed questions from the senators,’ and she needs to be prepared for that,” Gardiner said, adding, “Same thing with Dr. Armstrong, too.” That doesn’t mean they won’t be confirmed, though, despite persistent rumors in the halls of the Capitol that one agency head or another is in danger of losing his or her job. Gardiner said he knows nothing about rumors that Armstrong won’t be confirmed.
CHIVALRY IS NOT DEAD? DAVID SIMMONS ASKED STAFF TO UNPAIR TWO GOP INCUMBENTS DURING REDISTRICTING SESSION via Matt Dixon of Politico Florida
Simmons did not want Republican state Sens. Kelli Stargel of Lakeland and Denise Grimsley of Sebring drawn in the same map. To fix that, he asked Senate Committee on Reapportionment staff director Jay Ferrin to remove Highlands County — where Grimsley lives — from Stargel’s district.
Simmons said that would make the seat more visually compact, but also specifically mentioned the two incumbents.
“I do not want two of our female senators running against each other, because I don’t think that is appropriate,” he said, according to a recording of his meeting with Ferrin.
STATE’S DECISION ON UBER DRIVERS APPEALED via the Panama City News-Herald – Darrin McGillis filed a notice … in the 3rd District Court of Appeal as an initial step in challenging the decision by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity … decision [that] former Uber drivers are not eligible to file unemployment claims … part of a broader debate about how state and local governments should view the fast-growing car services.
FLORIDA BAR VOTES AGAINST CONTROVERSIAL EVIDENCE STANDARD via Jim Rosica of Florida Politics – … voted 33-9 to recommend that the state Supreme Court “not adopt the Daubert standard” … The move squarely sets up a showdown between the Bar’s controlling body and the GOP-controlled Legislature, which actually approved the defense-friendly change two years ago … Florida historically has used the Frye standard, which asks whether expert testimony is “generally accepted” in a particular scientific community. Daubert, or the federal method as it’s also called, is stricter scientifically and can often require a kind of “mini-trial” even before an expert can appear in front of jurors. It’s generally considered easier for plaintiffs to get damaging expert testimony before a jury under Frye, and much harder to do so under Daubert. That’s why the latter became a favorite of the defense bar and its big business clients.
ASSIGNMENT EDITORS: Continuing a long-standing tradition, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam will present Gov. Scott, Attorney General Bondi and Chief Financial Officer Atwater with Florida-grown Christmas trees. Presentation ceremony begins 8:30 a.m. outside of the Executive Office of the Governor, Plaza Level of the Florida Capitol. This year’s trees are provided by the Powell Tree Farm in Sneads.
GROUP FILES TO PLACE MENORAH IN CAPITOL ROTUNDA via Jim Rosica of Florida Politics – Chabad Lubavitch of Tallahassee and FSU filed to place a 9-foot-tall menorah, representing the traditional nine-taper candle holder used during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. Hanukkah began Sunday evening and ends next Monday evening, Dec. 14. The application was not filed until this past Thursday and is being reviewed … It has been approved in prior years, however.
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AS TECO ENERGY DEAL ADVANCES, FPL SHEDS LIGHT ON WHY IT PASSED ON TAMPA UTILITY’S SALE via Robert Trigaux of the Tampa Bay Times – FPL CEO Eric Silagy … offered an explanation why a TECO deal was not in the cards, as much as one initially might seem to make sense. First, he said, Emera paid a very high price for TECO. Second, industry regulators probably would have required FPL (as well as Duke) to take a series of unpalatable steps in any TECO deal because of FPL’s already huge size in the Florida market … Long story short, Silagy outlined a remarkably bureaucratic scenario that all but assured the large power companies that are Tampa Electric’s neighbors would want no part of a TECO transaction.
HOW BAPTIST HEALTH BENEFITS FROM TAX EXEMPTION via Daniel Chang of the Miami Herald – … each year Baptist Health benefits from its status as a not-for-profit corporation exempted from paying income, property and sales taxes — a perk valued at about $150 million in 2014. In return, Baptist Health — like all nonprofit hospitals — is required … to offer extra programs called “community benefits” to promote health … providing free or reduced-price healthcare for the uninsured and for those with Medicaid. Last year, Baptist Health’s community benefits totaled $317 million … But while Baptist Health gives generously to free clinics and other healthcare efforts, its vast network is unavailable to many low- and middle-income South Florida residents who buy plans on the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchange, known as Obamacare, and to those who are on Medicaid … accepts only two of the nine Medicaid plans in Miami-Dade — United Healthcare and Coventry — shutting out of its network about 400,000 people, or nearly 75 percent of the county’s Medicaid population.
KEVIN MCCARTY NAMED “INSURANCE MAN OF THE YEAR” via Jim Rosica of Florida Politics – … by the Latin American Association of Insurance Agencies … McCarty runs Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation … [He was] chosen “in recognition of his many years of service and contributions to the insurance industry, including for technological innovations to enhance the regulatory process, efforts on Personal Injury Protection (PIP) reform, the recovery of more than $110 million during the past two years for Florida policyholders as a result of life insurance claim settlements, and the depopulation of Citizens Propery Insurance Corporation.”
THE SMARTEST THING YOU’LL READ TODAY — “Eric Schmidt on how to build a better Web” via Eric Schmidt for the New York Times
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to one of the INFLUENCE 100, Mike Deeson, as well as the Governors Club’s Allison Ager, and our friends Joy-Ann Reid and Ashley Intartaglia.
THINKING ABOUT our friend Stacey Webb, whose birthday it is today. We miss you, Stacey.
