Sunburn – The morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics.
By Peter Schorsch, Phil Ammann, Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster, Mitch Perry, Ryan Ray, and Jim Rosica
DEBATE NIGHT IN AMERICA
The Republican presidential candidates will gather tonight in Des Moines, Iowa for the seventh and final forum before voters caucus next Mondaynight, but the drama about whether or not Donald Trump will participate was apparently cleared up early Wednesday evening, when the front-runner announced that he would host a special event for veterans at Drake University – at exactly the same time that the debate will kick off.
His top rivals still think he’ll show up.
“I expect to see Trump on stage tomorrow,” tweeted John Kasich’s campaign manager, John Weaver.
“Donald Trump will be at the debate,” Ted Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler surmised. “Mark my words.”
The moderators set for tonight are the same ones who hosted the first Fox News Debate last August that drew record ratings: Megyn Kelly, Bret Baier and Chris Wallace, and it’s Kelly’s presence that allegedly irking Trump, though he apparently made his decision not to attend snarky following press statements from Fox News.
Trump says Kelly is biased and treats him unfairly.
Now standing center stage will be Ted Cruz. The Texas Senator is in a statistical tie or trailing Trump by a few points in most polls, and he has a lot on the line in terms of his entire candidacy.
Trump’s absence will also provide more airtime for the other major candidates trying to make a breakthrough in the next few weeks , such as Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and John Kasich.
Ben Carson and Rand Paul will also participate in the prime-time gathering.
Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Jim Gilmore will appear at the earlier debate, scheduled for 7 p.m. eastern.
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RNC: NO EMPTY LECTERN AT FOX NEWS DEBATE via Nolan McCaskill of POLITICO – Fox News won’t have an empty lectern on its prime-time debate stage to represent Trump’s absence, Republican National Committee chief strategist and spokesman Sean Spicer said … “Nope. I’m confident in that” … during the last debate there was no empty lectern for … Rand Paul, who declined to participate … “No, I think that’s pretty standard for debates, that whether or not they show up or whether they happen to be offstage during a commercial break, that generally both sides have always had an unwritten rule saying that empty podiums will not be shown, and of course that will be the case this time as well,” Spicer said of plans for the Des Moines, Iowa, event.
QUOTE OF THE DAY via Rush Limbaugh: “Fox News was acting like they had been jilted at the altar.”
REPUBLICANS POINT FINGERS: WHO LET DONALD TRUMP GET THIS FAR? via Alex Isenstadt of POLITICO – The chiding, once limited to private conversations, is now erupting in public view – with campaigns, operatives, donors, party officials and conservative intellectuals arguing over why something hasn’t been done to stop the man who has been leading nearly every state and national poll since August. … “This whole thing is a disaster,” said [Jindal strategist] Curt Anderson, a former [RNC] political director and veteran operative. “I think I’ll write a book about it.” Receiving much of the blame is Right to Rise … [which] has directed relatively little of [their $100 million plus] sum toward attacking Trump – instead focusing its efforts on taking down Bush‘s establishment rivals, above all … Rubio. … [T]he group has spent about $5 million on TV commercials going after Trump, while dropping four times as much in negative ads against Rubio.
WHY TRUMP’S ABSENCE DOESNT MATTER: The Fix’s Philip Bump found in December that no candidate has done worse in the polls in the seven- and 14-day period after a debate than Trump.
JEB BUSH THINKS ‘POOR LITTLE DONALD’ MIGHT STILL SHOW UP TO DEBATE via Patricia Mazzei of the Miami Herald – [Verbatim] from Bush on Trump: “He’s apparently not going to come to the debate, though I’ve got a $20 bet he’ll show up.” Bush is still most animated as a candidate when he gets to campaign against Trump. When a man asked an admittedly “softball” question to Bush about Trump — “Why is he not right for America?” — Bush responded, “How much time do we have?” He started off by rattling off a list of good Trump characteristics, such as his business success. (“My mother always makes me say that,” Bush said of his tendency to say nice things first.) But then he slammed Trump: “His talk is designed to hurt,” Bush said. “It’s not how you win” … he mocked Trump for skipping the debate: “Poor little Donald,” upset by media coverage … “You’re giving me therapy for letting me answer that question.”
BUSH RISES TO SECOND IN NH POLL via Talking Points Memo – Bush surged into second place in a New Hampshire poll released Wednesday by the Emerson College Polling Society, although real-estate billionaire Trump retained a double-digit lead in Granite State. The poll showed support for Trump at 35 percent of likely Republican voters, a 17-point lead over Bush, who came second with 18 percent.
BEHIND MARCO RUBIO’S SURVIVAL STRATEGY via Eli Stokols and Marc Caputo of POLITICO – Rubio won’t finish first in Iowa’s caucuses … but he and his allies have increasingly positioned him to make a third-place showing look like the victory they always wanted. Like a contestant on a Republican version of “Survivor,” Rubio has long been content to hang with the pack and avoid elimination. For months he has been playing the expectations game-and hearing a chorus of conservatives carping about his campaign’s cool, confident approach. But now, with … Trump taking the lead back from Cruz in Iowa, Rubio’s team says the caucuses are setting up to give their candidate the boost he needs to sideline rivals in New Hampshire.
RUBIO’S PLAN FOR THE LAST DAYS OF IOWA? TALK ABOUT GOD. A LOT. via The Washington Post – “As the Florida Republican senator embarks on his final push before next Monday’s Iowa caucuses, he is aggressively trying to persuade Christian conservative voters to support him. In TV ads, town halls and online videos, Rubio has been emphasizing his faith more than ever, wagering that showing his spiritual side will pay off in a state where 57 percent of GOP caucus-goers identified as evangelical or born-again Christians four years ago.
THE STEEP COST OF TED CRUZ’S 99 COUNTY IOWA STRATEGY via Shane Goldmacher of POLITICO – In the final countdown to the Iowa caucuses, Cruz is racing to visit all 99 of the state’s counties. But the pursuit is diverting him far from the state’s voter-rich population centers, major media hubs, and socially conservative northwest region — detours that could prove costly. Cruz is the only top-tier contender here to have pledged to visit every Iowa county and he has long used that fact to bludgeon his chief rivals, Trump and Rubio, for not campaigning “the Iowa way.” But Cruz entered the final 10-day sprint to caucuses with nearly two-dozen counties still left to visit — many of them remote, underpopulated and strategically insignificant. “You don’t want to be squeezing in 10 to 15 counties in the last week of the caucus just for the sake of putting a pin on the map. You want to be going where your campaign has identified the largest swath of persuadable voters,” said Jeff Patch, an Iowa Republican operative unaligned in 2016. “In that sense, the Cruz campaign may be somewhat limiting themselves.”
THE BIG SURPRISE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE MIGHT BE SANITY via Jeffrey Frank of The New Yorker – “’Prince of Light and Hope,’ and I don’t spend all my time getting people riled up about how bad everything is,” [John] Kasich told the radio host Hugh Hewitt. At town-hall meetings, Kasich says that “The Republican Party is my vehicle, not my master,” and, wearing L.L. Bean-ish garb, he answers questions in fairly direct language, talks about his Croatian ancestors who worked in the steel mills, and says that he speaks for blue-collar workers. He takes command of his audience and seems to win people to his side, if not to his views, demonstrating the patient tenacity that New Hampshire sometimes rewards. He is the sort of candidate to whom New Hampshire’s Republicans, if they behave as they consistently have for the last sixty-some years, could turn to again.
GET SMART QUICK – GOOGLE TESTS NEW SEARCH RESULT FOR CONTENT GENERATED BY CAMPAIGNS via Paul Singer of USA TODAY – Google is launching a new experimental feature that allows the presidential candidates of both parties to produce content that will appear in a special window on the results page when a user conducts a relevant search. The content – text, images, even video – will appear in a carousel of eight cards the campaigns control. The cards will continually update and the older cards will get knocked off the carousel, but the older cards will not disappear from the Internet. If one goes viral, it will show up on a Google search on its own. The content on the cards can be words, pictures, even YouTube video and GIFs that will all load ‘natively’ on the search page … The result is a cascade of shareable posts and images that looks almost like a candidate’s Twitter feed or Facebook page. … Google will … be using the carousel during Thursday’s presidential debate, which the search giant is co-sponsoring with Fox News. Google will host a ‘parallel debate’ – anybody making a debate-related search will get a window with a selection of cards from various candidates on stage.
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MEDICAL MARIJUANA WILL BE ON BALLOT IN 2016 via Brendan Farrington of the Associated Press – A proposed constitutional amendment to allow medical use of marijuana will be back on the ballot in November and organizers said Wednesday that growing public support and a larger voter turnout in a presidential election year should help pass the measure that narrowly failed in 2014. The group organizing a petition drive to put the issue on the ballot now has 692,981 certified voter signatures, nearly 10,000 more than it needed to put the proposed amendment on the ballot. … In an email to supporters Wednesday night, John Morgan said, “We’re back. We’re going to win for the patients. BELIEVE!!!”
ASSIGNMENT EDITORS: Morgan will be holding a live press conference at 3 pm in his office in Orlando.
DAVID JOLLY’S CONGRESSIONAL REFORM MEASURE NETS OVERWHELMING SUPPORT, POLL SHOWS via Mitch Perry of Florida Politics – Jolly’s proposal that would ensure members of Congress and other federal officeholders can’t personally ask individuals for campaign contributions is a winner with the people of Florida. The Pinellas County Congressman and GOP U.S. Senate candidate’s announced his Stop Act eight days ago, and a St. Pete Polls survey released on Wednesday shows that 72 percent support the bill, with 18 percent opposing, and 10 percent unsure.
ASSIGNMENT EDITORS: U.S. Senate candidate Congressman Patrick Murphy and LIUNA (Laborers’ International Union of North America) will make a major announcement at 9 a.m. in the LIUNA Laborers Training Center, 2020 N.W. 32nd Street in Pompano Beach.
ALCEE HASTINGS ENDORSES DARREN SOTO IN CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 9 RACE via Scott Powers of Florida Politics – Hastings’ endorsement is in part a counter to last month’s support by fellow-Palm Beach County U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, who is the only other Florida member of Congress to weigh in on the race. Frankel threw her support to Soto’s chief rival, Susannah Randolph. “Darren Soto is exactly the kind of leader that this nation needs to serve in Congress,” Hastings stated … “He will be a consummate advocate for his constituents and fight every single day for hard working families in Florida. I am pleased to endorse his candidacy.”
REBECCA NEGRON ENDORSED BY MARYLYNN MAGAR via a press release: “As a like-minded Republican who believes in limited government, strengthening our economy and is committed to bettering both her community, as well as the State of Florida, Rebecca Negron is the local conservative Congressional District 18 needs in Congress,” said Rep. Magar. “Not only is Rebecca dedicated to growing small businesses, she will fight in Washington to preserve our Treasure Coast’s waterways and estuaries for generations to come. I whole-heartedly give my full support to Rebecca Negron for Florida Congressional District 18.”
TREY RADEL TO WRITE BOOK ABOUT TIME IN CONGRESS via Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster of Florida Politics – [The] former Fort Myers congressman is writing a book about his time in Congress. The book — which BuzzFeed reported is expected to be announced … by Blue Rider Press, the imprint of Penguin Group USA — will revolve around his life story … Radel took to social media to announce the news, saying he was “writing a book to be released next year.” Last year, he opened a media consulting company that offers media training. He’s also taken on the role of a pundit, penning guest columns for CNN and using his Twitter account as a place to comment on the 2016 presidential election. Radel’s book … is set to be released in early 2017.
***A special message from Florida’s horsemen: While legislators debate using hard-earned taxpayer dollars for corporate relocation incentives, Florida employers who’ve been hard at work for decades could lose everything, thanks to “decoupling”— a Big Casino cash grab and gambling expansion plan tucked inside the Seminole Compact. It seems senseless to kill established Florida businesses, while spending public money in hopes new business may materialize. But Florida could do just that when “decoupling” leaves horse racing investors with NO WAY to do business and NO CHANCE to recoup financial return. Gambling policy should be about growing Florida’s economy. Not padding the pockets of Big Casinos. Florida’s horsemen oppose decoupling in ANY form. NoDecoupling.com.***
HOUSE’S $1 BILLION TAX CUT PLAN SIMILAR TO RICK SCOTT’S, BUT SPEAKER SAYS STILL LONG WAY TO GO via John Kennedy of the Palm Beach Post – The House steers clear of the centerpiece of the Republican governor’s plan — a $770 million reduction in the corporate income tax paid by manufacturers and retailers. Instead, House Finance and Tax Chairman Matt Gaetz packaged together a host of one-time reductions, including four different sales tax holidays. … But House Speaker Steve Crisafulli also said that the initiative marked just the beginning of discussions on a tax-cut plan this election-year session. Crisafulli said there remains a “long way to go,” and some form of big corporate income tax cut is likely still to be discussed.
HOUSE VOTES 73-45 TO APPROVE FRACKING BILL via Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster of Florida Politics – The decision came after more than an hour of debate, and now heads to the Senate. A companion measure (SB 318) has one more committee stop before it heads to the floor for a vote. “This process has taken four years. This topic has had 17 committee hearings here in the House, and three votes on the floor, after this vote today,” said Rep. Ray Rodrigues … “I recognize this bill is in the center of a storm of controversy.” Rodrigues urged lawmakers to vote for the bill, pointing to other times the Florida House handled controversial topics — such as electricity, automobiles and space exploration — as examples of why the Legislature should support the measure. The bill passed along party lines. Democrats used their time during the debate to urge lawmakers to vote against the bill.
2 HEALTH CARE BILLS PASS FINAL COMMITTEE, NEXT STOP HOUSE FLOOR via Legislative IQ powered by Lobby Tools – HB 37 seeks to define agreements for services between patients and health providers, cutting out insurers. That bill unanimously passed after two amendments added by Rep. Fred Costello … One change will shorten advance written notice to terminate an agreement from 60 to 30 days. The other “removes the statement that by combining a primary care agreement with a catastrophic comprehensive care policy it would satisfy the individual mandate of PPACA [Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act]” … HB 1061 will help recruit out-of-state nurses, by allowing Florida to join a multi-state agreement whereby participating states mutually recognize the licenses of nurses. If passed, the Sunshine State joins 25 other states in the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC).
BID TO REMOVE FLORIDA CONFEDERATE GENERAL FROM U.S. CAPITOL DRAWS FIRE via John Kennedy of the Palm Beach Post – A measure that would move the statue of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith out of the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall collection continued to advance through legislative committees. But the proposal drew its fiercest fire … in the Senate Rules Committee, which approved jettisoning Smith on a 10-3 vote, but with two former Senate presidents and a future chamber boss opposing it. “I think, maybe, we can find someone who could represent our state better,” said Sen. John Legg … sponsor of the bill (CS/SB 310). former [Senate presidents] Don Gaetz and Tom Lee voted against the change, joined by Sen. Joe Negron … who is in line to become Senate president in November. Gaetz said Legg failed to explicitly lay out why Smith’s statue should be taken down. “Maybe there are good reasons to take him out,” Gaetz said. “But we haven’t heard it.”
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ECONOMIST TELLS SENATE THAT EXPANDED GAMBLING COULD CREATE MORE REVENUE, BUT LIKELY WILL CANNIBALIZE EXISTING BUSINESS via Mary Ellen Klas of the Tampa Bay Times – As Florida lawmakers decide the fate of the future of gambling in the state with the governor’s proposed agreement with the Seminole Tribe, one unpleasant issue continues to emerge — cannibalization. It’s the term used by state economists when one business feeds off the other to expand. The official definition: “creating demand for one product at the expense of another” and it is central to the success of any changes in state gambling law now being debated by lawmakers. And the state is cracking down on player-backed card games at race tracks, including Tampa Bay Downs.
BILL LEGALIZING FANTASY GAMES MOVES FORWARD via Jeff Schweers of the Tampa Tribune – A bill sponsored by Joe Negron to legalize and regulate daily fantasy sports games passed out of the Regulated Industries Committee … but not without a debate over whether the game constituted chance or skill. Negron’s bill would make daily fantasy sports legal in Florida by basically saying it’s not a form of gambling but a form of amusement. It would set up an Office of Amusements, set up a regulatory framework and ability to suspend a license if any misconduct was found. Rob Bradley … chairman of the committee … was the last person to stand on a rooftop and advocate for criminalizing people who play fantasy games, but he was not sure that it wasn’t a form of gambling. When you make up a team and play the whole season, Bradley said, “That is a true exercise in amusement in my mind. That was not gaming, in my mind.” But the way it’s evolved into a daily operation “brings to account more chance and it feels more like gaming,” Bradley said. The bill was approved with Bradley among the two people to vote against it.
ICYMI: STATE FILES GAMBLING COMPLAINTS AGAINST RACETRACKS ACROSS FLORIDA via Jim Rosica of Florida Politics – State gambling regulators this week filed complaints against seven racetracks in Florida, saying they’re operating illegal card games … The pari-mutuels targeted by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which regulates gambling, include: Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Palm Beach Kennel Club in West Palm Beach, Magic City Casino in Miami, Derby Lane in St. Petersburg, Isle Casino and Pompano Park in Pompano Beach, Tampa Bay Downs in Tampa, and BestBet in Jacksonville. The state is declaring war on what’s known as “designated-player games” offered in the pari-mutuels’ card rooms. Such games are usually a version of poker in which players take on each other, rather than playing against the house.
DBPR SECRETARY WON’T EXPLAIN WHY THE STATE REVERSED POSITION ON CARD GAMES via Mary Ellen Klas of the Tampa Bay Times – A day after issuing complaints at only seven of the several pari-mutuels that have been authorized to operate player banked poker games, Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Ken Lawson refused to elaborate on why and how he came to the conclusion that the games that his agency had previously approved had all of a sudden been ruled in violation of state law. “After reviewing operations and obtaining additional information at pari-mutuel facilities throughout the state, the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering discovered violations of Florida law resulting in administrative complaints,” Lawson said in a statement … “We will continue to administer the law and maintain our opposition to unauthorized activity conducted at any facility licensed by the state.” Sen. Rob Bradley … chairman of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee, told reporters he had questions about DBPR’s action after it was raised by Jacksonville Racing CEO Howard Kormanbefore the committee.
RACINO EXECUTIVE SPEAKS OUT ON CARD-ROOM CONTROVERSY via Jim Rosica of Florida Politics – The head of a Jacksonville racetrack and card room says the state was unfairly targeting pari-mutuels for running illegal card games, especially when state regulators oversaw the games being set up. Howard Korman, president of Jacksonville Greyhound Racing, which does business as BestBet, spoke at a Senate Regulated Industries Committee meeting … The Department of Business and Professional Regulation filed administrative complaints against Korman’s operation and six other tracks in Florida. The state is fighting what’s known as “designated-player games” offered in the pari-mutuels’ card rooms. Korman told lawmakers that regulators were in his facility as they were setting up their designated-player games. “We understand we’re in a regulated industry, but not one where the rug is pulled out from under us … We basically felt we had complete permission … I truly don’t understand why what we were told is now different.”
LEGISLATORS VOW TO KEEP DEATH PENALTY, FIX LAW via Gary Fineout of the Associated Press – Sen. Greg Evers, the Milton Republican in charge of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, vowed that in the next few weeks legislators would pass a bill to preserve the death penalty. But he conceded that legislation will likely call for major changes – including changing the state law that now requires only a simple majority of jurors to recommend that the judge impose the death penalty.
HAPPENING TODAY: At 6 p.m., the Fair Sentencing & Fair Chances National Tour launched by the Coalition for Public Safety, the nation’s largest bipartisan criminal justice reform organization, will be at the FSU College of Law Room L101, 425 W. Jefferson Street in Tallahassee. The event is hosted by FSU Project on Accountable Justice and The James Madison Institute and features former Attorneys General Richard Doranand Bob Butterworth, Sen. Jeff Brandes, Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, as well as ACLU, Reason Foundation, Project on Accountable Justice, JMI and the Urban Institute. The public is invited to attend.
NURSERY FILES LAWSUIT TO CONTINUE CULTIVATION OF MARIJUANA via Joe Reedy of the Associated Press – An Alachua County nursey filed a lawsuit Wednesday to prevent any delays in the cultivation and dispensing of medical marijuana in northeast Florida. Chestnut Hill Tree Farm was one of five businesses granted a license last November by the Department of Health’s Office of Compassionate Use to grow and dispense low-THC strains of marijuana. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Leon County Circuit Court.
Two organizations that did not win the license for the northeast Florida have filed challenges with the Department of Administrative Hearings over how the licenses were awarded. John Lockwood, the attorney for Chestnut Hill, said in an emailed statement that the reason for the lawsuit is to eliminate the doubt and uncertainty created by the challenges.
The southeast is the only region without any administrative challenges, injunctions or stays on the process. Costa Farms has the license in that region.
***Florida hospitals are on a mission. A mission to increase access to health care, improve the quality of care and reduce costs for patients. Find out more about the Florida Hospital Association’s “Mission to Care” and its new website that provides hospital prices and quality ratings in a consumer-friendly, searchable format.***
THURSDAY’S GOVERNORS CLUB BUFFET LUNCH MENU: As the work week winds down, lawmakers will get to choose Thursday from a superb selection on the Governors Club buffet menu, including Baked Potato Soup; Classic Cold Cut Wrap Board with Chips; Chef Salad Bar; Tuna Salad & Chicken Salad; Grilled Beef Tips with Mushroom Cream; Grilled Striped Bass with Spicy Lobster Sauce; Jamaican-Style Curry Chicken with Green Papayas & Plantains; California Vegetable Mix & Risi Bisi Rice, topped off with Peach Cobbler & Assorted Mini Desserts.
FOR LOBBYING, GRAVITY’S PULL CONTINUES, FLOOR NOT FOUND YET via Will Tucker of the Center for Responsive Politics – Lobbying was a $3.2 billion industry in 2015, down slightly from $3.24 billion the year before … but the number became the latest data point in the long, slow slide in total outlays by clients lobbying the federal government … Registered lobbyists numbered 11,465, down from 12,945 in 2010. Still, all the downward-trending graphs don’t mean K Street had a bad year, and reports of the influence industry’s death may have been greatly exaggerated. For some firms, things were just fine, if not outright booming: Akin Gump saw an increase of $3.7 million in billings over 2014, BGR Group grew its billings $2 million in the same period and big players like Covington & Burling, Cornerstone Government Affairs, Brownstein Hyatt, Greenberg Traurig, Venable and Ogilvy all received $1 million more from clients in 2015 than they did in 2014.
NEW LOBBYING REGISTRATIONS
Patrick Bell, Capitol Solutions: Coalition of Ignition Interlock Manufacturers
Brady Benford, Ballard Partners: Uber Technologies
Anita Berry: All Children’s Hospital Johns Hopkins Medicine
Matt Brockelman, Southern Strategy Group: BCR Environmental Corporation
Kristen Alexis Butler: National Federation of Independent Business
Dean Cannon, Rheb Harbison, Cynthia Lorenzo, Kirk Pepper, Richard Reeves, Joseph Salzverg, Capitol Insight: City of St. Cloud
Tiffany Carr: Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Miguel Collazo, III, H. French Brown, IV, Hopping Green & Sams: Shuler Limited Partnership; Florida Power & Light Company
Candice Ericks, David Ericks, Adams St. Advocates: Florida Association of Counties; Gold Coast Bench; Capital Asphalt; Infor; Killearn Home Association
Edgar Fernandez, Anfield: Botanical Legal Defense
Joanne Gallagher: Accenture LLP
Judy Genshaft: University of South Florida
Adam Giery, Jim Horne, Tara Reid, Strategos Public Affairs: ACT Inc.; Kaplan Higher Education Corporation
Ron Greenstein: Town of Davie
Paul Hawkes: Florida Council for Behavioral Healthcare
William Helmich, Helmich Consulting: Miami Dade Citizens for Property Rights
Thomas Hobbs, Douglas McAlarney, Liberty Partners of Tallahassee: AT&T; HomeAway; Advanced Energy Economy
Jeff Johnston, Amanda Stewart: Corcoran & Johnston: Guardianship of L.T./Richard Filson, Esq.
Ashley Kalifeh, Capital City Consulting: Florida Justice Reform Institute
Fred Karlinsky, Greenberg Traurig: Florida Justice Reform Institute
John Kelly: Florida Atlantic University
Don Ladner, Jr.: Florida Department of Law Enforcement
David Lavery: Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen
Danielle McBeth, Alcalde & Fay: Cruise Lines International Association
April Money: Workforce Florida
Timothy Edward Moore: Florida A&M University
Betty Mullins, Ramba Consulting Group: Florida Native Plant Society
Vernon Pickup-Crawford, Schoolhouse Consulting Group: School District of Palm Beach County
Timothy Stapleton: Florida Medical Association
Richard Swearingen: Florida Department of Law Enforcement
Larry Williams, Cameron Yarbrough: Gunster Yoakley & Stewart: Motorola Solutions; Coalition of Affordable Housing Providers
HAPPY BIRTHDAY belatedly to one of our best friends, Laura Boehmer of Southern Strategy Group. More belated wishes to Cory Guzzo of Floridian Partners.