Sunburn – The morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics.
Today’s SachsFact is brought to you by the public affairs, integrated marketing and reputation management experts at Sachs Media Group:With your breakfast this morning, pour yourself a cool glass of fresh Florida orange juice to commemorate its designation as “the official beverage of the State of Florida.” On this date in 1967, Governor Claude Kirk signed the law giving orange juice that distinction. It’s worth remembering that orange juice has been so closely identified with the Sunshine State for decades – OJ is Florida’s #1 export! As they say: A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.
DAYS UNTIL The deadline for entries in #CateSineDie: 1; Special Election in HD 64: 1; Sine Die: 11; Jacksonville’s Mayoral Election: 29; Star Wars: The Force Awakens debuts: 248; Florida’s Presidential Primary: 329; Florida’s 2016 Primary Election: 498; Florida’s 2016 General Election: 569.
OBAMA TO VISIT FLORIDA ON WEDNESDAY TO URGE ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE by Chris Mooney of the Washington Post
In the president’s weekly Saturday morning address, he declared that he’s headed to the Florida Everglades Wednesday — Earth Day — to “talk about the way that climate change threatens our economy.”
“The Everglades is one of the most special places in our country,” the president said. “But it’s also one of the most fragile. Rising sea levels are putting a national treasure — and an economic engine for the South Florida tourism industry — at risk.”
“Climate change can no longer be denied — or ignored,” said Obama.
Details for Obama’s visit have not been released.
BILL NELSON: DECADE-OLD GULF OIL LEAK IS ‘UNACCEPTABLE’ via Michael Kunzelman of the Associated Press
In a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Sen. Bill Nelson said it is “unacceptable” that oil is still leaking from the site off Louisiana’s coast where an oil platform owned by Taylor Energy Company toppled during Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
The Florida Democrat, who is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, told Jewell and Johnson that “all necessary resources” should be committed to stopping the oil from flowing.
“If you’ve got an oil rig that’s been leaking for 11 years, then it’s time for us to find out what’s going on,” Nelson said during a telephone interview.
Taylor has downplayed the leak’s extent and environmental impact. The New Orleans-based company recently touted a year-old estimate that less than 4 gallons per day is spilling at the site where its cluster of 28 wells remain buried under sediment from a mudslide triggered by Ivan’s waves.
But the Coast Guard provided a new leak estimate that is about 20 times greater than the one cited by Taylor.
HOW THE 5-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE BP OIL SPILL IS PLAYING
USA Today, Five years after spill, Gulf Coast waits for fine money – “Gulf Coast communities are still waiting for the billions promised to help them recover from the nation’s worst environmental disaster.” Bradenton Herald, 5 years later: With no oil touching Manatee County, explosion effects still felt in county – “five years later, the effects of the spill continue to be felt in Manatee … increased tourism — many tourists came to Manatee because of oil elsewhere … increased conservation efforts … lessons learned. …” Pensacola News-Journal,Uncertainty lingers 5 years after oil spill – “ … national and state environmental watchdog groups, scientists and local officials … sharply criticizing BP’s controversial ad campaign … ‘It’s inappropriate as well as premature for BP to reach conclusions about impacts from the spill before the completion of the assessment.’” Miami Herald, Five years after The Big Spill: Drilling, questions continue in the Gulf – “For all the billions spent … more than $29 billion so far … two things are clear: The oil and gas industry will keep drilling and, despite tougher safety standards and better response plans, there is no guarantee it won’t happen again.” Tampa Bay Times, Five years after oil disaster, coastal health still in doubt – “… offshore drilling is rebounding and the dangerous environment of deepwater exploration in the gulf is taking a bigger role in America’s energy future.”
HILLARY CLINTON STAYING AWAY FROM FLORIDA, BUT HER SUPPORTERS GET ROLLING via Alex Leary and Adam Smith of the Tampa Bay Times
Florida Democrats are ready for Hillary, even if Hillary Clinton is not yet ready for them….The Clinton team is in no rush to start organizing and campaigning in America’s biggest swing state, even though Barack Obama’s re-election campaign started at this point four years ago. But Clinton supporters are aggressively raising money and nearly unanimous that she can win the state even if Republicans nominate Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio.
“Florida is in play for Hillary no matter who the general election candidate is for Republicans. And if Hillary wins Florida, that’s it,” said U.S. Sen. Nelson.
… Mindful of what went wrong with her campaign in 2008, the Clinton team wants to avoid looking presumptuous and signaling that she’s a lock as the Democratic nominee. So the campaign is concentrating on the early voting primary and caucus states such as New Hampshire and Iowa….
…”To start putting staff in states that aren’t early states could send the wrong message to those early states,” said Ashley Walker, who ran Obama’s Florida 2012 re-election campaign that kicked off in April 2011 and helped run the 2008 Obama campaign in Florida that kicked off in June 2008.
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OUR REPORTER MITCH PERRY WAS AT THE GOP CONFAB IN NEW HAMPSHIRE; HERE ARE HIS NOTES…
— Jeb Bush says liberals in Florida are “angry” that some say he wasn’t a conservative governor: Bush attempted to convince some skeptical Republicans that he’s not as moderate as he’s been depicted by some because of his stances on immigration and Common Core.
“The funny thing is in Florida, those that are on the left that are really upset that people are calling me something I’m not,” he said after a woman in the audience said she feared the Republicans were going to “coronate” Bush like the Democrats may end up doing with Hillary Clinton in their search for a presidential nominee.
— George Pataki still is not running for president: Pataki, the former three-term governor of New York (1994-2006), who was making his eighth trip to New Hampshire since September.
Speaking at the First in the Nation Republican Leadership Summit in Nashua, Pataki disdained giving a speech. He instead sat sit with Concord radio talk-show host Peter St. James to field questions from the public; none were asked in person, but taken from Twitter or on video or audio in advance.
— Chris Christie talks a lot about his style: It was just a few days ago that Chris Christie unveiled his plan on reforming Social Security but it’s that plan – and his boasting that his appeal as a candidate is based on speaking about such hard truths – that dominated Christie’s much anticipated appearance.
— Rand Paul takes on GOP critics over going to war: Paul has made his brand as not being your typical Republican. While he positions himself to seek the GOP presidential nomination, though, he’s found himself in a difficult stance balancing his isolationist views versus a public alarmed about combating terrorism. He emphasized, “If we want to protect and continue our prosperity at home, we have to defend ourselves.” However, he said there’s a smart way of doing that.
— Carly Fiorina says too many Americans have “flat, hopeless look”: Call her the anti-Hillary. Carly Fiorina is the only woman considered a possible candidate for the Republican nomination for president in the current field. She presented a refined performance before hundreds … “Hilary Clinton must not become president of the United States,” Fiorina said in her speech, hardly a novel concept among speakers at this forum.
— Donald Trump blasts Fiorina’s qualifications for president: Trump never runs for president, but always pretends so every four years. After a speech and fielding questions, Trump answered questions from the media who surrounded him in the press room. Florida Politics asked whether he supports raising the minimum wage. “I would certainly look at it but I would say this,” Trump said. “The minimum wage to me would be very unimportant because I believe I would make this country so financially strong that the minimum wage would not come into play very much. People are going to have a lot better job than minimum wage jobs.”
AP’s 5 takeaways from New Hampshire here.
POLITICO’s 6 takeaways from New Hampshire here.
JEB BUSH ‘THINKS’ IT’S POSSIBLE TO STAY FRIENDS WITH MARCO RUBIO via Michael Bender of Bloomberg Politics
Bush gave a chilly response to a question on Friday asking his thoughts about potentially competing for the Republican presidential nomination against U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, who lives just a couple miles away in Miami.
“He’s a good, close friend, and it is what it is,” Bush told reporters after meeting voters at St. Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics. “One of my objectives would be to maintain the friendships I have with the people that may be aspiring to the same thing. I think it’s possible.”
Bush was governor as Rubio was just beginning his career in politics, first as a West Miami city commissioner and then in the Florida House of Representatives. The two have both said that they’ll try to remain friends, but the subtle jabs have already started.
… Rubio was asked if Bush was a candidate of “yesterday.” The 43-year-old refused to say yes or no. “It’s not about biological age, or how long someone’s been in politics,” Rubio said. “It has more to do with the age of your ideas: Do you have ideas to move America into the 21st century? Jeb, if he announces for president, he’s going to be a very strong candidate. I imagine he’ll put forth a policy agenda that outlines his position on various issues. And then we can make that judgment, as voters will make that judgment.”
RUBIO: THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN’S $40 MILLION MAN via Michelle Conlin of Reuters
Less than a week after announcing his 2016 campaign for president, Rubio doesn’t need to worry about money. It’s as good as in the bank.
“Marco Rubio will have the resources necessary to run a first-class campaign, that’s already been determined,” said billionaire Florida auto dealer Norman Braman, a former Jeb Bush supporter who is now one of Rubio’s highest-silhouette donors.
Annandale Capital founder George Seay, who is hosting a Rubio fundraiser with the moneyed Dallas elite at his 7,000-square-foot, seven-bath home on Tuesday, said: “Marco has had zero trouble raising money.”
At least seven other Rubio mega donors say their candidate has already received monetary commitments in excess of the $40 million he will likely need to battle through a presidential primary season that will feature a crowd of seasoned Republican candidates with strong financial backing.
The breakneck pace of the 2016 fundraising, most notably characterized by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s reputed aim to raise $100 million, is emblematic of how much the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision unleashed an era of unfettered political spending by for-profit corporations and the rich, altering the financial calculus of campaigns.
TOP TALKER — THE RISE OF RUBIO via Stephen F. Hayes of The Weekly Standard
Five days before he would take the biggest step of his young political career, Rubio called Bernie Navarro, a Miami real estate investor, to ask for a favor. Rubio wanted to have a small, low-key gathering to thank friends and family before his official announcement the next day, and he needed someone to host it. Navarro, like Rubio the son of Cuban exiles, asked permission from his wife. Although she had denied his repeated requests to host a Super Bowl party, there was no hesitation in approving this one.
At dusk on a steamy Sunday evening, Rubio, wearing khakis, a plaid oxford, and brown loafers, walked to the middle of the backyard of the stately suburban Miami home to address the group that had come to wish him well. Navarro had introduced him as “the next president of the United States,” though he apologized for scooping his friend’s own announcement.
The crowd of approximately 150 people included family, friends, staff from his Senate office and political operation, Florida supporters, and a smattering of major contributors from around the country. Rubio’s wife and children were there. So were his siblings Mario, Barbara, and Veronica. Clyde Fabretti, a Tea Party leader from central Florida, brought his wife and daughter. Philip Ellender, an executive with Koch Industries, came from Atlanta. Warren Tompkins, the South Carolina Republican strategist who will be running a pro-Rubio super-PAC, was there along with some of those who will serve on his staff.
With the strong smell of steaks wafting from the commercial-sized grill just a few feet to his right, Rubio started with the obvious joke. “Thank you all for coming. I’m glad to announce my reelection for the Senate,” he said, with a broad grin.
RUBIO: ‘SEXUAL PREFERENCE IS SOMETHING THAT PEOPLE ARE BORN WITH’ via Alex Leary of the Tampa Bay Times
Rubio said on Face the Nation that he thinks people are born with their sexual orientation but that marriage should be between a man and a woman.
“It’s not that I’m against gay marriage. I believe the definition of the institution of marriage should be between one man and one woman,” Rubio said. “States have always regulated marriage. And if a state wants to have a different definition, you should petition the state legislature and have a political debate. I don’t think courts should be making that decision.”
“I don’t believe same-sex marriage is a Constitutional right. I also don’t believe that your sexual preferences are a choice for the vast and enormous majority of people. In fact…I believe that sexual preference is something that people are born with.”
RUBIO GETS THE ONION TREATMENT here, including a suggested campaign slogan, “Laying the groundwork for 2020”
MORE JEB READS
“Bush Avoids Fights With Party Rivals” by Beth Reinhard and Reid Epstein of National Journal
“Bush: No regrets on Terri Schiavo” via Zeke Miller of TIME Magazine
MORE MARCO READS
“Rubio really wants to be the candidate of ideas” via Patrick Brennan of National Review
“Rubio, Gen-X fraud” via Ana Marie Cox of The Daily Beast
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ICYMI: DESPITE JOB GAINS, STATE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE REMAINS FLAT via The Associated Press
The latest unemployment figures show Florida’s jobless rate is remaining flat, despite a gain of more than 30,000 jobs.
Gov. Scott announced the new employment figures while visiting Kellstrom Defense Aerospace, Inc. in Miramar, which is expanding its operations to add 20 jobs.
The figures show the March unemployment rate was 5.7 percent which matches revised figures for February. Florida’s unemployment rate remains higher than the national rate of 5.5 percent.
Scott says Florida has recovered the jobs it lost during the Great Recession prior to him taking office in 2011.
State economists, however, say because of population growth it would take more than 600,000 additional jobs to match the employment levels prior to the downturn.
ASSIGNMENT EDITORS: Gov. Scott will present school recognition funding awards to Bay County schools at Patronis Elementary School. Announcement is 9:30 a.m. CST at Patronis Elementary, 7400 Patronis Drive in Panama City Beach.
ASSIGNMENT EDITORS: Gov. Scott will highlight the state’s job growth at a press conference beginning 3:15 p.m. EST at Club Trust in Lake Buena Vista Resort Village & Spa, 8113 Resort Village Drive, Orlando.
CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS SEND LETTER TO RICK SCOTT CALLING ON HIM TO DROP LAWSUIT via Christine Jordan Sexton of Florida Politics
The letter writing surrounding Medicaid and Low Income Pool continues as ten Congressional Democrats sent a note to Gov. Scott calling on him to drop his yet-to-be-filed lawsuit against the Obama Administration for coercing the state to expand Medicaid in order to continue to receive supplemental Medicaid funding for hospitals.
“We are concerned that you intend to take Florida down a wasteful and counterproductive path with a frivolous and baseless lawsuit against the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services while only two weeks remains in the Florida legislative session and the state budget still hangs in the balance,” the letter reads.
It was signed by Congresswomen Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Kathy Castor, Frederica Wilson, Lois Frankel, Gwen Graham and Corrine Brown.
Congressmen Alcee Hastings, Alan Grayson, Ted Deutch, and Patrick Murphy also signed the letter.
The Congressional Democrats say the lawsuit will not bring budget negotiations in for a landing and it won’t help to give uninsured Floridians access to health care.
LIFE IN FLORIDA WITHOUT MEDICAID EXPANSION via the Miami Herald
For two years, Florida legislators have refused to expand Medicaid as envisioned under the Affordable Care Act. Their decision left an estimated 850,000 Floridians without healthcare insurance in the “coverage gap.” Those caught in the gap earn too much to receive Medicaid, but not enough to qualify for subsidies to buy a plan through the federal marketplace. The Miami Herald looks at how these Floridians are coping and what other states are doing to close the gap:
For 850,000 Floridians, piecemeal healthcare: With legislators seemingly deadlocked on Medicaid expansion in Florida, residents in the “coverage gap” are stitching together their medical care through personal ingenuity, half doses of medicines and low-cost clinics. It’s exhausting work, especially when you’re sick. Read more
Choosing between dinner and a medical test: Without Medicaid expansion, South Florida’s low-income residents have found out the hard way that the healthcare safety net designed to catch people before they hit bottom is no substitute for insurance.
Why won’t Florida adopt Medicaid expansion?: Other states have overcome political opposition to Medicaid expansion and adopted plans to bring government-subsidized coverage to more of their low-income residents. Read more
Explainer: How 5.2 million people fell into the health insurance coverage gap: Compare states that expanded Medicaid with states such as Florida that did not expand, leaving citizens without coverage. Read more
ANDY GARDINER CALLS FOR MEETING ON MEDICAID FUNDING OPTIONS via Christine Jordan Sexton of Florida Politics
Senate President Gardiner has scheduled a workshop for senators to brush up on the Medicaid issues that have brought the session to a standstill.
In a memo to senators, Gardiner said he asked Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Lee to use the first portion of his all-day meeting to discuss Low Income Pool and that Senate professional staff discuss with members the “potential funding scenarios and implications for their constituents.”
Gardiner said in the memo that the meeting will include a “brief history and summary of the issues” surrounding LIP and Medicaid as well as background on the Senate’s proposal.
“We will include time for public testimony to enable Senators to hear from the people who will be impacted by our decisions on these issues,” Gardner wrote in the memo.
The Appropriations Committee is slated to meet 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday.
TWEET, TWEET: @JasonAltmire: Sound familiar, Florida? “Feds Warn Texas: Expand Medicaid or Risk Hospital Funds“
BLOG POST via Francisco Gonzalez — “Florida corporations and big media want to expand a program that does not work“
COULD LEGISLATURE’S BUDGET STANDOFF BE AS BAD AS ONE OF 1992? via John Kennedy of the Palm Beach Post
A standoff over health insurance is forcing Florida lawmakers into strange territory — the final two weeks of a legislative session without work on a state budget, the only bill they must pass each year.
But the clash also is likely to affect a host of other issues as the Legislature hurtles toward a May 1 finish line, with nothing to replace the $77 billion budget that expires two months later.
Proposals on education, tax breaks, the environment, prisons and social services – basically anything with a dollar attached – are threatened, as lawmakers lurch ahead without a spending agreement.
Budget items also are commonly used as a sweetener in policy deal-making. But that tactic has been taken off the table this year.
“We’ll use the time we’ve been allotted,” House Speaker Crisafulli said of the remaining days of the two-month session “We’ll continue to move through on the agenda we’ve been working on. And that’s to move policy through this process.”
But signs of an awkward ending abound. Most legislators cut out of the Capitol on Thursday — a sure sign of the deepening deadlock. A weekend normally marked by lawmakers and staff beginning to iron-out differences between House and Senate spending plans instead found Capitol hallways and offices empty.
Florida’s current budget year ends June 30. While lawmakers extended the session to finish the budget as recently as 2009, it’s been 23 years since they went into June without a new spending plan in place.
SLEW OF HEALTH CARE PROPOSALS GAIN STEAM LATE IN SESSION via Kathleen McGrory of the Miami Herald
A contentious debate over Medicaid expansion has overshadowed much of the 2015 legislative session, but it isn’t the only health care issue under consideration.
A proposal that would allow doctors to make better use of digital communications technology is gaining steam late in the session, as are bills seeking to expand the prescribing powers of nurses and encourage medical tourism.
Lawmakers are also advancing a plan that would broaden the list of vaccines that pharmacists and pharmacy interns can administer (HB 279/SB 792).
One of (Senate Health Policy Chairman Aaron) Bean’s top priorities is to establish a legal framework for telehealth, the practice of using digital medical devices and Web-based communications technology to treat patients remotely.
Another closely watched bill (HB 281) would authorize physician’s assistants and advanced registered nurse practitioners to prescribe controlled substances, so long as they are under the supervision of a physician.
Another high-profile Senate proposal seeks to create a commission to review any insurance practices that limit services (SB 784). Some plans, for example, require beneficiaries to try a certain drug before they will cover a different drug for that condition.
The bill’s chances are dimming. Business groups have fought it, saying the costs would go up for employers, and the House companion (HB 863) has stalled.
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PRIVATE PRISON VENDORS COULD FACE NEW SCRUTINY IN FLORIDA via Mary Ellen Klas of the Tampa Bay Times
Looming in the background in the legislative debate over prison reform is a question that could come into new focus: How productive was the move to privatize prisons and inmate health care and how much farther should it go?
Legislative leaders last week tentatively agreed to the creation of a joint legislative oversight board with the power to investigate and monitor the performance of Florida’s troubled Department of Corrections. Its goal is to secure the safety of inmates in the face of mounting reports of suspicious inmate deaths, excessive use of force and allegations of cover-ups at the agency that houses more than 101,000 prisoners, said sponsors of the measure, Sen. Greg Evers and Rep. Carlos Trujillo.
Audits conducted by the state’s Correctional Medical Authority also found problems with inadequate medical care, nursing and staffing shortages, and hundreds of pending lawsuits claiming inadequate medical care.
Rep. Katie Edwards … blames Florida’s weak contracts with the health care companies on the access their high-profile lobbyists have had to the governor and key lawmakers. Bill Rubin, the lobbyist for Wexford, worked for Scott when he was head of the hospital giant HCA and remains influential, and Brian Ballard, lobbyist for Corizon, was head of Scott’s political finance committee.
“If we get hauled back into federal court because of inmate violations based on health care, I place the blame squarely on Corizon and Wexford,” said Edwards who counted 1,092 malpractice lawsuits that have been settled across the country against Wexford and another 600 for Corizon. “We are giving these individuals — lobbyists — access and they have never once come and testified to defend themselves.”
REFORMS FOR UTILITIES A ‘BABY STEP’ via the Associated Press
Bills that supporters say would tighten the rules governing the panel that sets Florida’s electric rates are moving toward passage in the state Legislature, but some say they’re not enough to end what they call the panel’s too-cozy relationship with big power companies.
Several bills filed early in the legislative session regarding the Public Service Commission have been combined into a grab bag of proposals that stem from controversies over utilities service, several involving Duke Energy.
The proposal would set a 12 year term limit for the PSC’s five members; require them to take ethics training; expand prohibitions on private discussions with power company officials; and require those who lobby the committee that recommends commission nominees to register. The commissioners are appointed by the governor with Senate approval to fouryear terms and are paid $131,036 annually.
The bill would also limit service deposits power companies can require and prohibit them from changing billing cycles to push customers into higher rate categories, among other measures.
Backers of the bills say stronger changes need more deliberation and depend on coming changes in federal energy regulations.
State Sen. Jack Latvala, sponsor of the Senate bill, said it’s a first step.
‘If we don’t get the PSC’s attention with this bill, you can do things like go back to an elected PSC,’ he said. ‘People are very frustrated with the PSC.’ The legislation, House Bill 7109 and a similar bill in the Senate, SB 288, omit other measures proposed by advocates of stronger reform.
I DON’T EVEN LIKE LINKING TO THIS DOG BITS MAN STORY — “Even after the gift ban and reform, freebies flow to Florida lawmakers“
>>>If you can spend $500 at a steakhouse to raise $50K, there’s not a pol in Florida who wouldn’t do that 6 days a week & twice on Sunday.
>>>If you spend $500 at a steakhouse to raise $50K, getting reimbursed for that dinner is not a “freebie.”
SPRINGS BILL IN SENATE DISAPPOINTS SOME ENVIRONMENTALISTS via Bruce Ritchie of Florida Politics
Last year a comprehensive water bill that passed the Senate included a major focus on Florida’s springs and reducing threats from groundwater pollution and over-pumping.
Florida’s springs during the past 30 years have turned green with algae because of nitrogen in groundwater from various sources including septic tanks, fertilizer and sewage treatment plants. Fixing the problems cost lots of money, and preventing further pollution requires regulations that are unpopular with rural landowners.
The 2014 Senate bill, SB 1576, established springs protection zones with prohibited uses, provided more than $300 million for wastewater treatment, and increased the standard in state law to protect groundwater flowing to springs against over-pumping.
This year, Senate legislation, SB 918, started with the prohibited uses and tougher standard against over-pumping. But those have been weakened or rewritten in the face of opposition from agriculture and industry groups.
Some environmentalists are saying that springs protection they hoped for this year won’t happen unless strong protective language is restored in the Senate bill, which now appears unlikely.
COUP GONE WILD COVERAGE via SaintPetersBlog
GOP LEADERS QUESTION BLAISE INGOGLIA’S ROLE Full story here
Freshman state Rep. Blaise Ingoglia … faces serious accusations (from) Orange County GOP Chairman Lew Oliver … who alleges an intimidation campaign to force new House members, including several from his Central Florida region, into breaking their commitment to support Eric Eisnaugle for speaker of the Florida House in 2021-22. Ingoglia has denied the accusations. “When an RPOF chairman may be actively engaged in, or even used as an involuntary pawn … an effort to undermine or even potentially remove or defeat another House member … the myth of the RPOF as a ‘safe harbor’ or ‘neutral ground’ is smashed into little pieces. … It is the textbook definition of ‘conflict of interest.’”
BLAISE INGOGLIA CALLS RUMORS ‘FLAT OUT WRONG’ Full story here
There is no active effort in the Florida House to drop Eisnaugle as speaker designate, according to Ingoglia. “The accusation that the RPOF has made any threats to sitting members of the Florida House of Representatives is flat out wrong and void of any truth,” Ingoglia said … “In fact, one phone call to any of these three members would have cleared that up immediately.”
OLIVER FIRES BACK: INGOGLIA SHOULD RESIGN Full story here
Oliver responded: “If our chairman wants to mount a campaign for Speaker of the House, I wish him luck, but we should not be paying him a 6-figure salary to subsidize that task, and we should not tolerate a chairman someone who is not UNCONDITIONALLY committed – without conflict – to protect every office our party is constituted to defend. He ought to resign and pursue his other interests without dragging the party into a civil war among branches of government, elected officials and rank and file volunteers.”
INGOGLIA DOUBLES DOWN, WON’T RESIGN AND CALLS FOR UNITY Full story here
Ingoglia says he will not be stepping down. “I am not leading and have not orchestrated a ‘coup’ as you describe,” he wrote in an email. “What I have done is add my voice and support to nearly half of the freshman class in their courageous efforts at reforming the flawed process by which special interests, lobbyists and consultants choose our future leaders before they even get elected.”
TALK SHOW HOST: FLORIDA GOP SHOULD STOP AIRING DIRTY LAUNDRY Full story here
Cindy Graves, a conservative radio talk show host and both a former president of the Florida Federation of Republican Women and a Duval County Republican State Committeewoman: “Stop this self-serving spin, Lew! Your emails are not private and seem to be popping up in the media hours before they land in our email boxes. … We have a process – no honorable member of the RPOF Executive Committee will ever allow the process to be highjacked [sic] again, not by an elected official or state chairman and certainly not by a county chairman and I RESENT your continued accusations to the contrary.”
LEGISLATIVE SCHEDULE HIGHLIGHTS
SENATE COMMITTEE TAKES UP ‘CONSCIENCE PROTECTION’ BILL FOR ADOPTIONS
The Senate Rules Committee will consider the controversial House bill permitting private agencies to refuse to place adopted children with same-sex couples. Passing the House last week, HB 7111 is what supporters call the “conscience protection” bill. Meeting begins 1 p.m. in room 110 of the Senate Office Building.
24-HOUR ABORTION WAITING PERIOD DISCUSSED
Among bills facing the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee is SB 724 from committee Chair Anitere Flores. The Miami Republican is seeking to require a 24-hour waiting period before a woman can get an abortion. Meeting is 1 p.m. in Room 412 of the Knott Building.
KEVIN CATE LAUNCHES ANNUAL #CATESINEDIE CONTEST TO GUESS END TIME OF 2015 SESSION
Kevin Cate, founder of public relations and advertising firm CateComm, is hosting his annual #CateSineDie contest, where players will predict a time and date (with the hashtag #CateSineDie) that they believe the hanky will drop to end Florida’s regular legislative session. The Associated Press will report the winning time/date.
If no hanky drops because it’s being used to wipe tears due to an extended session, Cate says, the official sine die time will be the moment the last chamber sine dies (that sounds morbid), budget or no budget (that sounds even worse).
What you win: Everyone wins. Session is over, right? But seriously, the winner will win something cool yet to be determined – like Gucci loafers, for the “shoe-wearing” powers out there. Lawmakers, reporters, and others too important to accept gifts are playing for fun or a charitable donation.
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BIG SUNDAY READS
HOW A CREW OF HARD-PARTYING FLORIDA TEENS CASHED IN ON AN EPIDEMIC AND BUILT A MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR OXYCONTIN SMUGGLING RING via Guy Lawson of the Rolling Stone
Standing at the threshold of a luxury condo in Tampa, Florida, Doug Dodd looked on in horror at the spectacle of a drug dealer’s den of iniquity. Dodd was only 19, a student taking business courses at a local community college — when he wasn’t busy being a big-time narcotics trafficker — but he could see the obvious: His best friend was out of control.
It was the summer of 2008, and for the past year, every month Dodd and (Lance) Barabas were illegally moving an average of 20,000 OxyContin and Roxicodone pills to a network of dealers spread across the country — Tennessee, Alaska, South Carolina, New York. The two kids and their crew were making millions of dollars, but the business was overwhelming them.
Dodd was carrying thousands of oxycodone pills — more than enough for a 25-year mandatory minimum sentence in Florida. But Barabas didn’t seem to care about security or rudimentary precautions.
Dodd was beginning to despair of his best friend — known as the Little General for his short stature and Napoleonic tendencies. They’d wrestled together in high school for the Hudson Cobras, both bantam-size balls of muscle, with short hair gelled upward and a punkish attitude. They loved each other like brothers. But the Little General was getting more and more reckless. Crazy shit, Dodd thought — the kind of behavior that was destined to end with them in handcuffs.
Prisoners pitch me their stories from time to time. But I’ve never before reported an article based on the manuscript of a tale written by a convicted drug dealer and a major mortgage fraud mastermind, both inmates in a federal facility in Florida. A while back, Doug Dodd and his prison writing partner, Matthew Cox, sent me a document titled “Oxy Rush: From High School Wrestlers to Oxycodone Kingpins,” asking if I might be interested in writing about the story. Dodd was serving 80 months for trafficking illegal prescription drugs and money laundering. Cox was doing 26 years for a massive fraud he’d committed by originating fake mortgages and stealing the proceeds. The hundred or so pages they’d written were printed in the form of prison-issue e-mails, with inmate numbers stamped at the top.
I read the description of Dodd’s adventures as a teenage drug dealer, and the story described a universe I didn’t know existed, the half-crazy swirl of a gang of high school wresting buddies who turned themselves into an extremely unlikely organized-crime enterprise. There was a certain kind of charm to Dodd and his pals, even as they broke the law with abandon. Mostly I liked Dodd’s voice: He was a maniac, but he was also smart and observant. He was like a pill-pusher version of The Wolf of Wall Street, it seemed to me, or the mobster Henry Hill in GoodFellas: an insider whose descent into the chaos and collapse of a major criminal conspiracy offered a window into an amazing underworld. So I checked out Dodd’s tale — court records, DEA files, press clippings, interviews with two of his co-conspirators.
And the story lined up: What follows is his account.
HOW RIDING YOUR BIKE CAN LAND YOU IN TROUBLE WITH THE COPS — IF YOU’RE BLACK via Alexandra Zayas and Kameel Stanley of the Tampa Bay Times
If the tickets are any indication, Tampa residents must be the lousiest bicyclists in Florida. They don’t use lights at night. Don’t ride close enough to the curb. Can’t manage to keep their hands on the handlebars.
In the past three years, Tampa police have written 2,504 bike tickets — more than Jacksonville, Miami, St. Petersburg and Orlando combined. Police say they are gung ho about bike safety and focused on stopping a plague of bike thefts.
But here’s something they don’t mention about the people they ticket: Eight out of 10 are black.
A Tampa Bay Times investigation has found that Tampa police are targeting poor, black neighborhoods with obscure subsections of a Florida statute that outlaws things most people have tried on a bike, like riding with no light or carrying a friend on the handlebars.
Officers use these minor violations as an excuse to stop, question and search almost anyone on wheels. The department doesn’t just condone these stops, it encourages them, pushing officers who patrol high-crime neighborhoods to do as many as possible.
The Times analyzed more than 10,000 bicycle tickets Tampa police issued in the past dozen years. The newspaper found that even though blacks make up about a quarter of the city’s population, they received 79 percent of the bike tickets.
Some riders have been stopped more than a dozen times through the years, and issued as many as 17 tickets. Some have been ticketed three times in one day. It’s possible blacks in some areas use bicycles more than whites. But that’s not what’s driving the disparity.
MORE PRIVATE SCHOOLS BECOME DEPENDENT ON VOUCHERS via Lauren Roth and Scott Powers of the Orlando Sentinel
Private schools in Florida are becoming vastly more dependent on state voucher programs that pay all or part of tuition for students with disabilities or from low-income families. … [F]amilies of nearly 100,000 Florida students received vouchers worth about $544 million this year as the Legislature has steadily increased support for the programs. That growth has come despite critics who contend that vouchers divert money from public schools to private institutions that do not have the same student-testing or teacher-accountability rules and can freely mix education with religion.
About 45 percent of the state’s private schools that accept state scholarship vouchers rely on them for at least half of their students. … That’s up from 30 percent three years ago. And for 200 of them, at least 90 percent of their students are on either the state’s McKay Scholarships for students with disabilities or Florida Tax Credit scholarships for low-income families. That’s a 50 percent increase from 2012.
Jon East, a vice president at Step Up for Students, which administers almost all of the tax-credit scholarships, said many private schools turned to them for survival as fewer parents could pay tuition during the economic downturn. The Legislature’s growing support gives more schools confidence in its staying power, he said.
Of Florida’s about 2,300 private schools, more than 1,500 take vouchers.
A lawsuit filed last summer by the Florida Education Association and several other groups contends the tax-credit program has all the hallmarks of an earlier voucher plan shut down by the Florida Supreme Court in 2006. Justices ruled then that the previous voucher plan violated the state’s constitution, which requires the state to create one education system and prevents public funds from going to religious institutions.
***Liberty Partners of Tallahassee, LLC, is a full-service consulting firm located just steps from the Capitol. The firm specializes in the development and implementation of successful advocacy strategies highly personalized for each client. Team Liberty is comprised of professionals with a track record of successful coalition-building, grassroots efforts and team coordination. The combination of a strong commitment to clients and practical government and private sector experience is why Fortune 500 companies and not-for-profits alike choose Liberty Partners of Tallahassee.***
GOOD READ: AMERICA’S LOBBYING ADDICTION via Philip Wallach of the Brooking Institute
Whether we are worried about money in politics, government sclerosis, or American citizens’ increasing sense of alienation from the actions of their government … the rise of lobbying is the key story for us to understand. … just what lobbying means in 21st century America, where it has mushroomed as an industry unto itself—one with revenues of $3.31 billion in 2012, three-quarters of which came from corporate clients.
Lobbying … is a habit-forming addiction for America’s corporations. Once a corporation takes up the Washington game, it rarely quits; indeed, the more it plays the more its lobbyists are likely to convince it of further opportunities worth pursuing. Especially for the largest firms which spend more than $1 million each year on lobbying, large institutionalized policy staffs working out of D.C. offices are good at figuring out tasks for themselves and for additional hired guns, and good at selling their firms’ management on the idea that they must run faster and faster even just to stay in place. As a result, corporations’ lobbying presence in Washington has become “pervasive” and “ubiquitous.” “This Town” is saturated in advocates working a huge variety of different channels in hopes of influencing policy.
And yet it is hard to say that corporations, writ large, are really winners from this arrangement. Certainly, their interests are respectfully considered in every corner of the policymaking process in a way that regular people’s are not … an arms race that has primarily benefited the arms manufacturers. There is so much lobbying that it is difficult to understand which efforts are really efficacious or worthwhile, and that creates a vicious principal-agent problem in which the lobbyists’ ability to exploit their clients’ uncertainty is nearly limitless. To the extent firms try to solve this by insisting on pursuing measurable impacts, they end up seeking highly particularistic, outcomes — which in turn exponentially expands the field for lobbying, as sector-wide interest group advocacy takes a back seat to firm-specific, intra-sector competition.
It seems clear that we need the lobbyist version of the old lawyer joke: that town is too small for one lawyer to make a living, but it could probably support two and offer a fine living to three. … lobbying begets lobbying. This is because it is harder to cut through the noise created by all the other lobbyists; because the fixed costs of launching a policy shop are already sunk … figuring out ways in which the government should reorient its policies is inexhaustible. … convincing data … show(s) that the ratchet only goes one way: there has never been a significant draw-down in aggregate troops, and even at the firm level attrition is unusual.
As a result of all this lobbying, the system becomes more byzantine, making it harder for anyone to navigate without more lobbyists. The lobbyists—probably contrary to the interests of business as a whole—are the patrons of kludgeocracy, which is the environment in which they thrive. … this isn’t just an emergent property of the system, but something that lobbyists are canny enough to consciously promote as they play a long game.
[A] big question looms into view: just what level of involvement in politics is appropriate for corporate America? Almost nobody … thinks that firms should passively await the pronouncements of policymakers without trying to communicate the specific nature of their needs and interests, and so some degree of lobbying seems benign. The more kludgey and detailed the government’s involvement in a business’s affairs, the more important these communications will become.
NEW LOBBYING REGISTRATIONS
Glenn Bedonie: Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Paul Bradshaw, Christopher Dudley, Towson Fraser, Paul Mitchell, Stacey Webb; Southern Strategy Group: Seminole County Board of County Commissioners; Canopy Software
Leslie Dughi, Fred Karlinsky, Greenberg Traurig: Cold Saturday Farms
Karen Effrem: Florida Stop Common Core Coalition, Inc.
Susan Glickman: Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
Brecht Heuchan, The Labrador Company: Central Florida Gaming, LLC
Adam Levine, Florida Legal Advocacy Group of Tampa Bay: The Florida State Massage Therapy Association
Ayanna Louis-Charles: Morgan Stanley & Co.
Kendall Moore, Space Coast Strategy: All Aboard Florida
Larry Williams, Gunster Yoakley & Stewart: RVNB Holdings
REVOLVING DOOR — SELF-STYLED DC ‘OUTSIDER’ STEVE SOUTHERLAND TURNS UP AS WASHINGTON LOBBYIST via Ryan Ray of Florida Politics
On the campaign trail, former Congressman Steve Southerland would always take great pains to remind anyone who would listen that he was from the “real America.” He’d tell you he was not a snobby sophisticate with insider ties to Capitol Hill power players like his 2014 opponent Gwen Graham.
By Southerland’s account, the admittedly polished Graham was so tied in with the Washington establishment she was “More Potomac than Gulf Coast,” to use the National Republican Congressional Committee’s phrase. Graham had even committed the ultimate heresy – kind of, sort of registering as a (gasp!) lobbyist 25 years ago, a claim PolitiFact rated “Mostly False.”
Well now that Southerland has accepted a job as Senior Vice President at the Washington, D.C.-based Capitol Hill Consulting Group, a lot of that rhetoric looks plumb silly.
Capitol Hill Consulting continues to beef up its roster by feasting on the Congressional revolving door. Besides Southerland, CHGP hired on Brian Sutter earlier this year, a former staff director for a health subcommittee on the powerful House Ways & Means panel.
The firm counts among its clients industrial giants like Verizon, Swiss pharmaceuticals manufacturer Novartis and international energy conglomerate ExxonMobil – not exactly the North Floridian “little guys” Southerland so often vowed to protect from the incursions of big government.
SHOT here – Susan Glickman’s transparency issues
CHASER here — Glad we could help jog your memory, Susan
***Metz, Husband & Daughton is a full-service firm dedicated to overcoming clients’ legislative, legal and regulatory challenges. An energetic team of highly-skilled members; MHD has the experience, expertise and reputation necessary to achieve clients’ diverse goals in the policy and political arena. MHD has proven proficient in achieving results through long-standing representation of Fortune 500 companies, major Florida corporations, and state-wide trade and professional associations. www.MetzLaw.com.***
CONTEXT FLORIDA: SCOTT’S CONSCIENCE, TAXING SUNSHINE, HEALTHCARE CONSPIRACY AND TESTING REFORM
On Context Florida: Two years ago, Scott announced support for expanding access to healthcare in Florida saying he, “in good conscience,” could not deny the uninsured access to care. Fast forward to 2015 and he is opposed to a plan to close Florida’s coverage gap endorsed by the entire Florida Senate, Democrats and Republicans alike. After this latest about-face, Mark Ferrulo wonders if Scott even has a conscience. Bruce Ritchie asks if there is there a fair way to tax sunshine. That seems the underlying issue when state analysts tried to determine the potential cost of a proposed constitutional amendment promoting solar energy. Daniel Tilson says that Scott is turning a whiff of healthcare conspiracy into full-fledged stench. On April 9, the Florida Legislature quickly and quietly passed an educational testing reform bill that Scott signed into law on Tuesday – a significant victory for advocates and educators. But except for the Duval County PTA, Julie Delegal says that education advocates don’t appear to be taking credit for its passage.
Visit Context Florida to dig in.
FUN HEADLINE OF THE DAY — “Adam Putnam joins Motocross legend to open new off-highway vehicle park“
THIS WEEK’S POLITICAL FIX PODCAST: LAWSUITS, SPECIAL SESSION, MORE LIP, AND CATCHING UP WITH JAMIE GRANT via Matt Dixon and James Rosica of the Scripps/Tribune Tallahassee bureau
Health care funding fight. Health care funding fight. Health care funding fight.
If it feels like you can’t escape the issue of LIP and Medicaid expansion funding, you’re right.
As session grinds on, the House and Senate continue to fight, the Senate and governor’s office are at odds, and everyone is unhappy with the feds for not yet funding the Low Income Pool.
We can’t ignore the obvious, so this week’s Political Fix podcast talks about health care funding, but we also “disrupt” the market and catch up with a familiar face returning to Tallahassee.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY WISHES, but first two corrections: It’s Morgan McCord, not Megan. And Terry Miller is no longer the chairman of the Lee County GOP. Celebrating today is our man in Tallahassee, James Call.
EAGLES WILL REPORTEDLY SIGN TIM TEBOW via Adam Stites of SBNation.com
The Philadelphia Eagles will sign Tim Tebow today, according to a report from Jay Glazer of Fox Sports. Adam Schefter of ESPN reports the two sides began working on the framework of the deal when Tebow worked out for the Eagles in March. The deal was then finalized on Sunday, allowing Tebow to join the team ahead of the start of offseason workouts.
Tebow, 27, has been out of the NFL since the 2013 preseason when he played for the New England Patriots. His last action in a regular season game was in December 2012 when he played for the New York Jets.
