Sunburn – The morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics.
By Peter Schorsch, Phil Ammann, Mitch Perry, Ryan Ray, and Jim Rosica.
WELCOME A-SCHORSCH: I’M BACK FROM VACATION; HERE’S WHAT I MISSED
Hillary Clinton pretty much locked up the Democratic nomination — Biden not in. Benghazi over. Long-shots drop out. All that’s left between Clinton and her party’s nom is an avowed socialist. What could go wrong? P.S. Hillary and Bill get to spend the holidays raising money for 2016 while the GOP bones up on how to nominate a candidate from the convention floor.
Jeb Bush put his campaign on a paleo diet — Hey, it worked for his body, why not his presidential bid? A joyful tortoise Bush is not. By the way, does anyone have a tougher job right now than Bush campaign manager Sally Bradshaw?
Marco Rubio is now the top choice of the prediction markets to win the GOP nomination — Apparently it does not matter that he’s not leading in early state strength, endorsements, fundraising or organization.
Ben Carson supplanted Donald Trump as the frontrunner in Iowa — Maybe it’s not the outsider candidates who are crazy but the voters themselves.
Trump tapped Joe Gruters to lead his Florida campaign — The Sarasota GOP chief can pick winners better than Jimmy the Greek ever did, but we’re already hearing Gruters signing up with Trump is not sitting well with the rest of the Jeb/Marco-centric Florida GOP. P.S. Trump also hired Susie Wiles, but isn’t her husband, the legendary Lanny Wiles, working for John Kasich?
Charlie Crist officially announced he’s running for Congress — St. Pete’s favorite son might end up being opposed by its former mayor, Rick Baker. Meanwhile, the current mayor, Rick Kriseman, endorsed Crist’s Democratic opponent. The level of resentment against Crist among white political elites in Pinellas cannot be overstated. If Crist didn’t have near-universal name ID among Pinellas’ black voters, where would he be?
David Jolly crashed Crist’s announcement — No matter how heartfelt his rationale, Jolly showing up at Crist’s event to call him a “huckster” was a déclassé move by someone who has shown nothing but class and moderation while in the public eye.
A Florida Senate committee passed out a new map of Senate districts — The base map rammed through by future Senate President Bill Galvano will certainly win the Florida Supreme Court’s approval — in a courtroom in Bizarro World on Opposite Day, that is. With its blatant partisan intentions and defiant ignoring of the Court’s admonishments, it’s as if Galvano wants Barbara Pariente to draw the final map.
Andy Gardiner sounded like he’s not a fan of fantasy sports – The Senate President has tasked his staff with researching how to shut down the burgeoning industry in Florida. Because banning something has never made it more popular.
More than 300 black bears were killed this past weekend as part of the first statewide hunt in more than 20 years. — I don’t have anything snarky to say about this affront to Mother Nature. Let her settle it out.
DAYS UNTIL: Third GOP presidential debate: 2; Sine Die 10 (maybe): Florida GOP’s Sunshine Summit: 16; Thanksgiving: 30; Debut of Star Wars: The Force Awakens: 53; Christmas: 59; First day of 2016 Legislative Session: 78; Iowa Caucus 98; Super Bowl 50: 104; New Hampshire Primary: 106; Super Tuesday: 117; Florida’s presidential primary: 141; Florida’s primary elections: 309; 2016 Election Day: 378.
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AP POLL: REPUBLICANS PREFER AN OUTSIDER CANDIDATE via Emily Swanson of the Associated Press –
A huge majority of Republican voters prefer an outsider candidate to one with experience in Washington, and most see political rookies … Trump and … Carson as possible general election winners … Carson tops the field as the most positively viewed candidate among Republicans … Nearly 6 in 10 Republican voters — 58 percent — have a favorable opinion of Trump … relatively high unfavorable ratings within his own party, too, at 36 percent … Bush is another candidate struggling to tamp down negative opinions … 48 percent of Republican voters say they have a positive opinion and 37 percent have a negative opinion … Rubio and … Carly Fiorina are the candidates with the widest gap between their favorable and unfavorable ratings, 51 percent to 20 percent for Rubio and 47 percent to 19 percent for Fiorina … Seven in 10 Republicans and Republican-leaning registered voters say they think Trump could win in November 2016 if he were nominated; that’s the most of any Republican candidate.
INSIDERS SAY TRUMP NOMINATION LOOKING MORE LIKELY via Katie Glueck of POLITICO – Odds that … Trump wins the Republican presidential nomination are going up. Eighty-one percent of Republican insiders say the likelihood that Trump becomes their party’s nominee is more today than it was a month ago, and 79 percent of Democrats said the same … according to the POLITICO Caucus … “I can’t even describe the lunacy of him as our nominee. But reason has not applied to date in this race, and my hopes are fleeting that it will ever surface,” lamented an Iowa Republican … “Predictions of his demise keep not coming true.”
TRUMP: ON RAISING RATES, RUNNING MATES AND JOE BIDEN’S DECISION via Susan Page of USA Today – Trump admits to being a bit surprised by his phenomenal rise and sustained lead in the Republican presidential race … He’s thought about possible running mates, including some of the rivals now competing … Boehner foolishly threw away negotiating leverage with the White House by declaring that Congress wouldn’t allow the United States to default on its debt next month … agrees that the 2016 campaign is moving into a different phase … didn’t back down from his criticism of former president George W. Bush for failing to respond more effectively to intelligence warnings of the threat from Osama bin Laden … he wasn’t surprised by … Joe Biden’s announcement … he wouldn’t jump into the race. Biden probably would have lost to former secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he says, though he also calls Biden a more formidable general-election opponent.
TRUMP JABS AT JEB BUSH IN FLORIDA: NOT READY TO BE PRESIDENT via Brendan Farrington of the Associated Press – Trump mocked … Bush in his own state … saying recent campaign cuts show he’s not ready to be president … “Here’s a guy who wants to run our country, and he can’t even run his own campaign. And you know what? He’s cutting back big.” Trump said Bush … is “losing badly and embarrassing his family … has no money. He’s cutting. He’s meeting today with mommy and daddy and they’re working on their campaign.”
BUSH STRUGGLES TO GALVANIZE HIS FAMILY’S DONOR BASE via Rebecca Ballhaus, Christopher S. Stewart and Beth Reinhard of the Wall Street Journal – Nearly half of the leading donors to his brother’s 2004 re-election who are still alive appear to be on the sidelines, while about 15% have peeled off to a dozen other candidates … Only about one out of four of George W. Bush’s “Rangers” — those who raised at least $200,000 in 2004 — have each bundled at least $17,600 for his brother’s campaign, according to a list released last week. Another 15% have given to a super PAC backing Bush or made a smaller donation. Only 7% of the $13.3 million Bush raised in the past three months came from contributions under $200. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who ranks second in national polls of Republican voters, saw 60% of the $20 million he raised in the same period come from donations of $200 or less. In the Wall Street Journal poll … Bush’s support fell to 8% from 22% in June. Among Republicans who want the next House Speaker to seek compromise—a natural audience for Bush, who pitches himself as a can-do pragmatist—he is receiving support from only 11%. And his appeal among Tea Party Republicans has deteriorated, from 10% in June when he was leading overall to 4%.
THE FRIDAY BUSH-WHACK
BUSH CUTS STAFF AND SALARIES via the New York Times – Bush‘s deep cutbacks were perhaps the most telling admission that he will be unable to match the structure of his brother’s well-funded and sprawling 2000 campaign. In public and in private, Bush has invoked another example of late, recalling an encounter in October 2007 with Sen. John McCain at the Atlanta airport. ‘He’s carrying his bag, he has no aide, he’s running for president, he has no staff,’ Bush said in New Hampshire last month. ‘The campaign was basically over. Everybody said it. All the pundits said, ‘It’s over, why waste your time?'” But McCain persisted, Bush said, implicitly drawing an analogy-cum-prediction for his current race.
BEHIND THE BELT TIGHTENING via Bloomberg – The circumstances when we started the election were different,’ Bush told Pat Robertson in an interview at Regent University hours after news of the shakeup broke. “I have not met a person that thought that … Trump would be the front running candidate at this point. God bless him for his success in that regard, we’ll see how long that lasts. But you have to adapt.” He said his new ‘lean and mean’ campaign will allow him to do that. “Every dollar we can save in overhead is a dollar that goes on television, goes on radio, goes on media, goes on voter outreach,” Bush added.
STAFF HEADED TO IOWA, NH via POLITICO – According to the campaign, staff cut from Miami will be offered jobs in early voting states, but at reduced salary. Staffers were told that job functions would change for some.
SILVER LINING HEADLINE via WMUR – “National staff cuts mean more emphasis on New Hampshire.“
WHY BUSH SHOULD SKIP THE IOWA CAUCUSES. STILL. via Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post – Skipping the Iowa caucuses not only still makes sense for Bush, but also might represent his best chance of being the Republican presidential nominee … Asked which (if any) candidate they could not see themselves supporting, one in five Iowa Republicans named Bush — the second-highest number behind only … Trump (30 percent won’t vote for.) One in three Tea Party supporters said they could not see themselves supporting Bush. Among likely Republican caucus-goers, 43 percent have a favorable opinion of Bush, while 51 percent … unfavorable … only Christie … Gilmore … Pataki … Graham — rate worse in the eyes of GOP caucus-goers … caucuses are less than four months away, not nine. And Bush is still at 5 percent in the primary ballot test — the same place he stood way back in May.
QUOTE OF THE DAY via Bush (h/t Jake Tapper): “If this election is about how we’re going to fight to get nothing done, then I don’t want anything., I don’t want any part of it. I don’t want to be elected president to sit around and see gridlock just become so dominant that people literally are in decline in their lives. That is not my motivation. I’ve got a lot of really cool things I could do other than sit around, being miserable, listening to people demonize me and me feeling compelled to demonize them. That is a joke. Elect Trump if you want that.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY – PART 2 via Bush: ““Blah blah blah blah, that’s my answer, blah blah blah,” as quoted by MSNBC, responding to suggestions that his campaign is in a death spiral.
BUSH SUPER PAC CONSIDERING STAFF FOR EARLY VOTING STATES via Tom Beaumont of the Associated Press – The Right to Rise super PAC “is considering placing organizing staff in Iowa and New Hampshire, [following] the decision of his formal campaign to refocus its efforts on the two early-voting states. … A faithful core of roughly 100 Bush supporters made the trip to Houston, … fewer than expected due in part to the rains that pounded south Texas … Among the invited were people who had raised at least $50,000 for the campaign … Right to Rise has spent $14.7 million on ads through the end of this week, mainly in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina … ‘Our primary mission is to tell Jeb’s story through paid advertising, but we’re always exploring other ways we can help amplify his positive message,’ said Right to Rise spokesman Paul Lindsey. … Jay Zeidman, a Houston fundraiser for Bush who attended the Right to Rise briefing on Sunday, said he felt ‘reassured’ after listening to the super PAC leadership.
GEORGE BUSH AT 91: IRRITATED AND INVIGORATED BY ’16 RACE via Jonathan Martin and Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times – Former President George Bush, 91 and frail, is straining to understand an election season that has, for his son and the Republican Party, lurched sharply and stunningly off script. And he is often bewildered by what he sees. “I’m getting old,” he tells friends … “at just the right time.” These are confounding days for the Bush family and the network of advisers, donors and supporters who have helped sustain a political dynasty that began with the Senate victory by Prescott Bush, the older Mr. Bush’s father, in Connecticut 63 years ago. They have watched the rise of … Trump with alarm, and seen how Jeb Bush … languished despite early advantages of political pedigree and campaign money.
MARCO RUBIO, THE UNUSUAL FRONT-RUNNER via Ross Douthat of the New York Times – Four years ago this week, I boldly predicted that Mitt Romney would inevitably be his party’s nominee … 2016 is very different: The G.O.P. candidates are stronger overall … Jeb’s campaign has been one long flail. His favorable ratings are terrible … So that leaves Rubio. And unlike all the rest, it’s surpassingly easy to imagine the Florida senator as the nominee. He sits close to the party’s center ideologically, and his favorable ratings with Republicans are consistently strong. He’s an effective debater with a great personal story and an appealing style, and a more impressive policy portfolio than most of his rivals. He scares Democrats in the general election, and strikes the most politically-useful contrasts with She Who Has Always Been Inevitable. His past support for comprehensive immigration reform is a major liability, but Rubio has shown a lot more finesse on that issue than has Jeb, and one liability isn’t usually enough to doom a candidate who otherwise looks like a winner. And that’s how Rubio looks right now.
RUBIO’s KNIFE FIGHTERS via McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed – The Rubio campaign is being helmed by a combative strategist, Terry Sullivan … The leading pro-Rubio super PAC is headed by Warren Tompkins … Rubio’s chief digital strategist, Wesley Donehue, is said to have actively hyped unsubstantiated rumors in 2010 that Nikki Haley had an affair with a local South Carolina blogger.
RUBIO TRANSLATED FOR SPIN via American Bridge 21st Century – A web ad released this weekend will target Iowa and New Hampshire. “Rubio tries to hide it, but his views rank with the most extreme right-wingers of his party. In order to hold the ever-absent senator accountable, American Bridge is releasing a new web ad that translates Rubio’s b-level spin into the truth about his record. The web ad will target voters in Iowa and New Hampshire.”
— Rubio picks up another top Wisconsin presidential endorsement” via Matthew DeFour of the Wisconsin State Journal
— MORE 2016 —
BEN CARSON BEGINS FIRST TV ADS IN KEY STATES via Hallie Jackson of NBC News – The $500,000 ad buy will air in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada, and includes themes centered on Carson’s history as a doctor and status as an outsider in the 2016 race. Both ads end with the tagline: “Heal, Inspire, Revive.”
THE FUNDRAISING FAVORS TED CRUZ via Laurence Brinton of the National Review – If you believe in the predictive validity of fundraising numbers … Cruz is actually the front-runner in this race … Trump his only serious competition. Cruz is the only candidate who has shown that he can extensively raise hard dollars from both large and small donors, ranking second in hard dollars to Carson and second in total dollars (including from Super PACs) to Bush. Cruz’s fundraising is almost evenly balanced between small and large donors.
WHAT HAPPENED TO CARLY FIORINA? via David Graham of The Atlantic – Remember Carly Fiorina? In late September she was being heralded as the next big thing in the Republican primary field … Now look at the polls … NBC/Wall Street Journal … at 7 percent, running behind the much-maligned Bush … down from 11 in late September … CNN … is even bleaker … comes in fourth … So what happened to Fiorina? Fiorina’s polling has correlated strongly with her debate performance … after winning a promotion to the main stage for the second debate, she was the consensus winner there, too. In that time, her stock has plummeted … practically disappeared from the headlines … She doesn’t seem to be as good at collecting “earned media”— attention in the press, more or less.
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LEADERSHIP FIGHT BUBBLES UP AS MAP MOVES TO FULL SENATE via Matt Dixon of POLITICO Florida – Much of the angst as lawmaker(s) convene for another redistricting session to redraw the Senate maps is an internal fight driven, in part, by leadership politics … Bill Galvano … was able to muscle his preferred map out of the Senate Reapportionment Committee on a party-line 4-3 vote. Though he won committee passage, members of Galvano’s own party expressed concerns with the plan, and said the chamber’s other 33 members should be encouraged to propose changes when it hits the floor. “I don’t want the full body of this Senate to view this work product to having any air of superiority,” Sen. Tom Lee … said.
JACK LATVALA BLASTS PROPOSED SENATE MAPS IN COMMITTEE TESTIMONY via Florida Politics – After his testimony in front of the Senate panel on redistricting … a lot of Alachua, Pasco, Sarasota and Volusia voters probably wish Clearwater Republican Jack Latvala was their senator … had to sign up to speak during the panel’s public comment time. During his nine minutes in front of the microphone … offered a stern rebuke of the map all while Galvano stared ahead with his hand over his face. “… In that 14 years I’ve never experienced being part of a body that basically admitted that we did something wrong, that admitted that we didn’t follow the constitution and now we’re all paying the price for that and have to be back here.” Latvala said the map being voted … was “history repeating itself” … attacked the map for its “miraculous” lack of incumbents running against each other and for how it skirts requirements for compactness.
DAN WEBSTER ASKS SUPREME COURT TO LET HIM INTERVENE IN CONGRESSIONAL CASE via Mary Ellen Klas of the Tampa Bay Times – Arguing that the “extraordinary” circumstances surrounding the state’s congressional redistricting challenge could leave him without a district … Webster … filed to intervene in the case before the Florida Supreme Court, arguing that violates the constitution. “The Congressional District of a sitting United States Congressman is being transmuted into a majority minority district in which he stands no chance of re-election, and he has, to date, not been permitted “a seat,” Webster argues.
A DEEP DIVE INTO PROPOSED TAMPA BAY SENATE MAPS via Matthew Isbell for Florida Politics – One major point of contention during the first week of the Special Session … has been the Tampa Bay area. Many spectators expected the Florida Senate to abandon efforts to cross the Tampa Bay … 19th district was used to create an African-American seat … 22nd district combined white Pinellas voters with those in part of Tampa … League of Women voters cited problems with both districts, arguing the 22nd has no legitimate reason to cross the bay and that the 19th overly packed African-American and Hispanic voters to protect surrounding Republican Senators.
Under [Bill] Galvano‘s map, the African-American share of the 2010 Primary for the district was 52.5%. In 2012, that number rises to 54.7%; with Hispanics at 5.9% and whites at 36.5%. A vast majority of that African-American rise is thanks to … registration/turnout increases in Hillsborough … This shift in demographics, specifically in Hillsborough, is a major point of contention when discussing redistricting in 2015.
An alternate proposal for the region … Matt Caldwell proposed … the city of Tampa only split twice, versus being split 3 times in Galvano’s chosen map … The gap between African-American and white voters in this plan is 10%, meaning African-Americans still control the primary. The question we have to ask is this: does crossing the bay to get that African-American share from 51.5% to 54.7% really justify going over open water? By using 2010 data, it’s easy to say that the district must cross to Pinellas, keeping African-American voters that … Jeff Brandes would be forced to take in otherwise. Brandes already sits in a swing seat split nearly even between the parties.
— “Senate map would boost Manatee candidates” via Zac Anderson of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune
— MORE NOTES FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL —
GEORGE GAINER, MATT GAETZ SPAR OVER CAMPAIGN FINANCING via John Henderson of the Panama City News-Herald – Gaetz said he has a fundamental difference with Gainer … “When someone donates to my campaign, they are buying into my agenda. I’m not buying into theirs,” Gaetz said … his contribution list of more than 500 donors reflects a grass-roots campaign with many supporters, including many $100 contributions … “Commissioner Gainer has definitely earned his own support … While elections are generally about building a broad base of grass-roots support, I have over 500 donors within Senate District 1. Some have given as little as $10 or $20.” In contrast, he said Gainer has only a few contributors from Bay County through the last reporting period … The latest financial disclosure forms show his net worth at $377,814. Gainer’s net worth was reported at $28.3 million.
INDEPENDENT BUSINESS GROUP ENDORSES DEAN ASHER IN SD 13 RACE via Florida Politics – An independent business group … will endorse Republican candidate Dean Asher in the Senate District 13 race … National Federation of Independent Businesses, which represents 325,000 small-business owners, announced their support and presented the Orlando-area real estate broker and former Florida Realtors president with a check Asher holds a massive fundraising advantage over his competition, Democrat Rick Roach and Republican Chuck Sheridan.
ORLANDO PASTOR FILES IN HD 45, ENSURING DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY via Florida Politics – The founding pastor of an Orlando-area church has filed to run in House District 45, ensuring a Democratic primary whether or not incumbent Rep. Randolph Bracy runs for the Florida Senate … Kelvin Cobaris filed … is the third candidate in the race after Gregory Jackson, also a Democrat, filed for the seat.
IVETTE GONZALEZ FILES TO CHALLENGE MANNY DIAZ IN HD 103 via Florida Politics – A Democrat has filed to challenge incumbent Hialeah Republican Manny Diaz for the Florida House District 103 seat … Coral Gables attorney Ivette Gonzalez filed for the seat … the only candidate running against Diaz as he shoots for a third term in the House. Gonzalez is a criminal defense attorney and has run her own law firm since 2010 … worked as an assistant state attorney for the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office.
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FLORIDA’S WEEK-LONG BEAR HUNT ENDS IN JUST TWO DAYS via Craig Pittman of the Tampa Bay Times – Florida’s first bear hunt in 21 years has fallen victim to its own success. Florida’s hunters killed so many bears over the weekend that state wildlife officials shut down the hunt on Sunday night, ending what was envisioned as a weeklong season after only two days. “I have signed the order to close the hunt,” state wildlife commission executive director Nick Wiley said about 8:45 p.m. Sunday … The number of bears killed statewide had reached 295 … and “we don’t want to go another full day” and risk exceeding the 320-bear limit … “We’d rather err on the conservative side.”
WOMEN’S GROUP CALLS ON RICK SCOTT TO REJECT TOM LEE’S PROPOSED ALIMONY BILL via Mitch Perry of Florida Politics – Although a legislative proposal to put an end to permanent alimony died in the Regular Session … it’s coming back in 2016, and a women’s group opposing the proposal is calling on … Scott to put a stop to it if reaches his desk. UniteWomen.org FL is opposing SB 250 … sponsored by… Tom Lee that would require a court to consider certain alimony factors and make specific written findings of fact after making specified determination, including a presumption that nearly equal time-sharing by both parents is in the best interest of the child. The group is calling on Scott to reject Lee’s measure and form a neutral, bipartisan family law task force to study proposed legislative changes in depth and make recommendations that they contend won’t put Florida’s women and children at risk.
ASSIGNMENT EDITORS: Gov. Scott will announce the creation of new jobs with a 10 a.m. press conference at Zimmer Biomet, 4600 East Park Dr. In Palm Beach Gardens. Later, the governor will highlight job creation and stem education proposals with a 2:30 p.m. press availability at Harris Corporation, 1395 Troutman Blvd. NE in Palm Bay.
FLORIDA CHAMBER’S INSURANCE SUMMIT STARTS via Florida Politics – The Florida Chamber of Commerce’s annual Insurance Summit begins in Orlando … discussion of Assignment of Benefits (AOB), a long-used legal device meant to allow vendors to get paid promptly for emergency repairs to a home without having to get the policyholder directly involved … has become a growing insurance scam, in which disreputable trial lawyers and remediation companies persuade stressed-out homeowners to sign over their benefits and rights after a burst water pipe or other home emergency. Water remediation and roofing firms have been soliciting AOBs from homeowners as way to fraudulently inflate claims, file thousands of lawsuits against insurers and stoke attorney’s fees.
STUDY: SHORING UP FLORIDA’S PROPERTY INSURANCE MARKET via R.J. Lehmann of The James Madison Institute – Florida has subsequently enjoyed a hurricane-free decade, representing the longest period on record without a tropical cyclone making landfall in the state … many scientists believe climate change will only increase the severity and incidence of storms in the future. While the state’s geography and risk profile haven’t changed, its built environment and the number of lives and amount of property at risk of hurricanes have grown dramatically. This concentration of population and property in high-risk coastal areas, in addition to the costs associated with the 2004 and 2005 storm seasons, all contributed to property insurance premium increases in the years following Wilma … This has resulted in capital flooding into catastrophe markets, which in turn have produced new and innovative risk-transfer products and seen fierce competition among traditional reinsurers. Florida has benefited handsomely from this “buyers’ market. Yet despite this remarkable streak of combined luck, average property-insurance premiums are still on the rise in some parts of Florida. Consumers have legitimate concerns when they ask why this is the case, when insurance companies have had a decade to save up for the next strike.
MY TAKE: CARLOS TRUJILLO’S BALANCE BILLING: STRAIGHT OUTTA OBAMACARE via Florida Politics – Carlos Trujillo’s attempt to fix balance billing is LITERALLY lifted from the federal law commonly referred to as “Obamacare” … To be fair, sometimes Trujillo’s bill tracks the federal law word for word, and other times it merely acts like a college student not wanting to be seen as plagiarizing a Wikipedia page … Seeing the word-for-word language makes it hard to conclude anything other than the fact a whole bunch of lawmakers are going to be asked to vote for a bill that is taken right from a law that many of those same lawmakers have spent the last five years railing against.
ASSIGNMENT EDITORS: Orlando-area state Sen. Darren Soto and Rep. Rene Plasencia will hold a news conference about legislation aimed at protecting Floridians from tragic accidents. Press availability begins 10 a.m. at the Orange County Courthouse, 425 North Orange Ave. in Orlando.
GOOD NEWS FOR A GOOD PERSON — PASCO KEEPS SHAWN FOSTER AS LOBBYIST via C.T. Bowen of the Tampa Bay Times – Pasco County commissioners selected Shawn Foster of Trinity-based Sunrise Consulting Group to lobby … Foster is the county’s current lobbyist under a recently expired $50,000-a-year contract. Terms of his hiring, still to be negotiated, will include an apparent raise. Foster proposed a 20 percent increase in his contract to $60,000 annually.
GOOD NEWS FOR A WELL-CONNECTED PERSON — PETE ANTONACCI GIVEN GREEN LIGHT FROM ETHICS PANEL via John Kennedy of the Palm Beach Post – A state ethics panel ruled … no conflict exists in the newly named executive director of the South Florida Water Management District having a wife whose law firm’s clients appear before the agency. Pete Antonacci … took over this month at the district … Antonacci’s wife is Anne Longman, a shareholder in Lewis, Longman & Walker … The firm is involved in several areas of environmental, real estate and land-use law that occasionally intersect with the agency Longman’s husband now directs. The commission voted 7-1 … to accept a recommendation from its staff that no conflict existed.
NEW LOBBYING REGISTRATIONS
Ron Book, Kelly Mallette, Ronald L. Book PA: Covenant Hospice; Oleta Partners; Penn Credit
Christopher Carmody, David Griffin, Robert Stuart, Jason Unger, GrayRobinson: Deloitte Consulting
Stephanie Grutman, Ballard Partners: FanDuel; Fantasy Sports Trade Association
Nick Iarossi, Jen Gaviria, Christopher Schoonover, Capital City Consulting: Melbourne Greyhound Park
Charlotte Mather-Taylor, CMT Consulting: Envision
Sean Pittman, Pittman Law Group: DraftKings; FanDuel; Hospice Foundation of America
Tara Reid, Strategos Public Affairs: ACT Aspire
William Rubin, Christopher Finkbeiner, The Rubin Group: Electronic Arts
Daphnee Anne Sainvil: Broward County
Jonathan Setzer, Monte Stevens, Southern Strategy Group: CHCG Land Services; The Grove Counseling Center; Verus Financial
Jeremy Shir, Becker & Poliakoff: City of Hollywood; PPI Inc.
4TH FLOOR FILES via Florida Politics — Mark Anderson … last-day-of-Session traditions … “Counting how many times people say that Session will either end early, extend, blow up or the ‘House and Senate aren’t getting along.’” Nelson Diaz … “I believe strongly in personal responsibility and that each citizen is responsible for him or herself. Government should be small and limited in scope and our society should be as free as possible with as few regulations as possible.” Shawn Foster … Professional accomplishment of which you are most proud … “Several state appropriations … an unbelievable feeling to read a newspaper article about a project that was accomplished and how it has made an impact in so many people’s lives.” Sean Pittman … last-day-of-session traditions … “I wear a compassion blue jacket to remind legislators to have compassion with power, and more importantly, because everyone else wears pink.” Heather Turnbull … “I’ve evolved from very partisan beliefs to learning the best policies usually come from the center … most enjoy working with moderate and pragmatic elected and government officials rather than those with extreme views … governmental practices should be adjusted as society evolves.”
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NO. 6 CLEMSON HANDS MIAMI WORST LOSS EVER, 58-0 via Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press – Clemson looked very much like a national title contender … Miami looked like a team that hit rock bottom. Deshaun Watson threw for one touchdown and ran for another before sitting out most of the second half and No. 6 Clemson rolled to a 42-0 lead by halftime on the way to embarrassing Miami 58-0 on Saturday – the worst loss in the 90-year history of Hurricanes football.
TWEET, TWEET – @BillyCorben: Thanks, Al Golden. I needed a first act for @30for30 ‘The U Part III.’ What’s past is prologue.
TWEET, TWEET: – @AlCardenasFL_DC: damage to recruiting, attendance, fans’ trust is huge by ADs announced inaction on coaching change. No confidence re AD.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY this weekend to Tampa’s finest citizen, Mike Griffin, and Orlando’s finest citizen, Kelly Cohen. Also celebrating this weekend is Mrs. Jack Latvala, the lovely Connie Prince, as well as Eric Conrad and Andrea Penton. Best wishes today to Dan Dawson and former Tampa Bay Times reporter Mark Puente. Today would have been Fred Leonhardt‘s birthday.
