Weatherford denies any attempt to undermine West

Posted Feb 7, 2012 by William March

Updated Feb 7, 2012 at 12:11 PM

House redistricting Chairman Will Weatherford today denied there was any attempt in the state Legislature to undermine U.S. Rep. Allen West, as West contended in a news release last week.

“I’m a huge supporter of Allen West—he has hit conservative icon status very quickly,” said Weatherford, a Wesley Chapel Republican in line to be the next state House speaker. “There’s been no political intent in this map (of congressional districts) whatever.”

Weatherford said under the new Fair Districts constitutional amendments, the legislators legally weren’t allowed to look at the political effects of their district mapping, and didn’t.

The state House’s redistricting proposal rendered West’s current congressional district somewhat more Democratic, and West announced last week he’ll switch districts as result.

West doesn’t live in his current district—he lives in the district of his political areh-enemy, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz—and an office spokeswoman said he and his family are already looking at possible homes and schools in the Treasure Coast area, the heart of the new district where he intends to run in November.

After the district proposal became known, some conservative Republicans speculated on blog postings over the next several days that moderate or “establishment” Republicans in Tallahassee were out to get West, and the charge was picked up by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

In announcing his district switch, West repeated the accusation, but with no details as to the names of the plotters of their motives.

He said he had initially promised to stay in his district, but “a cynical, politicized redistricting process wrought with cronyisms and nefarious in intent, sought to ensure I would not be able to keep that promise.”

West didn’t say who was to blame or why legislative Republicans would want to undercut his political standing. West’s chief of staff, Jonathan Blyth, said in an interview that West’s comment was “based on what he has read and heard about the process going on it Tallahassee.”

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Michelle Obama to tour Florida for healthy eating

Posted Feb 7, 2012 by William March

Updated Feb 7, 2012 at 11:46 AM

First Lady Michelle Obama will make stops in Homewood, Orlando and Longwood Friday and Saturday as part of a tour on the two-year anniversary of her Let’s Move! healthy eating initiative.

The initiative, begun in February 2010, is intended to solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation.

On Friday, Obama will hold a town hall session at a Homewood YMCA along with health and nutrition experts, then have dinner with an Orlando-area family who have made healthy dietary changes. On Saturday, she’ll speak to a gathering at Longwood’s Northland, A Church Distributed, then participate in an exercise event at the ESPN Wide World of Sports at Disney World.

It’s the second month in a row the First Lady has visited the political battleground state of Florida. She held a healthy eating event for Latinos in Tampa, and hit fundraisers in Sarasota and Palm Beach, shortly before last month’s Republican presidential primary.

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White House comes to Tampa for Hispanic outreach

Posted Feb 1, 2012 by William March

Updated Feb 2, 2012 at 11:11 AM

President Barack Obama’s attempts to connect with Hispanic voters, who were partly responsible for his election in 2008, will come to Tampa Friday.

The White House will hold an Hispanic Community Action Summit at the University of Tampa, including “senior administration officials,” to discuss issues with Hispanic community leaders, according to an invitation for the event.

It says the event, from 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. at the University of Tampa’s Vaughn Center, is free and open to the public.

It will include business and community leaders to discuss issues important to the Hispanic community—“an innovative open space dialogue where participants work together to define the agenda and shape outcomes.”

Obama won Hispanic voters by a large margin in 2008 but has since lost ground among them, largely because of the poor economy.

The event is part of a series of such meetings in The Administration will hold Hispanic community action summits in Phoenix, Tucson, Elyria, Ohio; and San Antonio in the coming weeks.

Attendees will include Frank Sanchez of Tampa, undersecretary of commerce for international trade.

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Hasner announces campaign switch

Posted Feb 1, 2012 by William March

Updated Feb 1, 2012 at 05:53 PM

Adam Hasner has made it official, announcing he’ll leave the U.S. Senate race and run for the U.S. House from the 22nd District instead.

Hasner’s move is the result of a series of falling dominoes involving U.S. Reps. Allen West and Tom Rooney.

West, who currently represents District 22—even though he doesn’t live there—is going to run for the new 18th district being created in the state Legislature’s redistricting. That’s because District 22 will get more Democratic under the redistricting plan.

Much of the new 18th District consists of the old 16th District, which is essentially cut in half in the redistricting plan, and has been represented by Tom Rooney. Rooney has announced he’ll run in the new District 17—unless the district map changes signficantly in the courts.

In the Senate race, the net effect is to leave the Republican primary a contest between Rep. Connie Mack IV of Fort Myers, and George LeMieux, with Mike McCalister the dark horse, who hasn’t been able to get traction so far in the primary.

The change only solidifies Mack’s position as frontrunner in part because of the name recognition he inherits from his father, former Sen. Connie Mack III, and in part because of LeMieux’s need to overcome his long association with former Gov. Charlie Crist.

Earlier this week, another comparatively little-known candidate, Craig Miller, former head of the Ruth’s Chris steak house chain, announced he’ll also leave the Senate race to run for the House in the new District 7, on the east coast from St. John’s to Putnam counties.

The reaction from LeMieux: “The US Senate race is now in clearer focus.  Connie Mack Jr. (meaning Connie Mack IV) currently leads in the polls but there is no doubt his lead stems entirely from having a well known name, inherited from his respected father and great-grandfather.”

He added, “Florida Republicans deserve a campaign, not a coronation. ... There is too much at stake to simply hand the Senate seat over to someone with a famous last name.

 

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Oops! Burgin leaves ALEC fingerprint on bill

Posted Feb 1, 2012 by William March

Updated Feb 1, 2012 at 04:32 PM

Most legislators aren’t eager to have it known when their legislative initiatives are dictated by an outside group, including the American Legislative Exchange Council, a well-funded, conservative business advocacy group.

ALEC courts state lawmakers with deluxe conferences and seeks to get conservative legislation passed in state legislatures around the country.

But when state Rep. Rachel Burgin of Riverview filed a bill in November, she accidentally left a clue in the text of the bill.

The bill is a resolution by the Legislature asking Congress to cut corporate tax rates. If passed, its only effect would be to put the state GOP-dominated Florida Legislature on record favoring the move.

When Burgin filed the bill as House Memorial 685 on Nov. 16, it included an opening paragraph that didn’t belong there: “Whereas it is the mission of the American Legislative Exchange Council to advance Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty ... .” That’s a sentence attached to ALEC’s legislative proposals, which they distribute to lawmaker-members.

Burgin quickly withdrew the bill Nov. 17 and refiled it the next day as HM 717—identical, but without the ALEC fingerprint paragraph.

Burgin said she’s a member of ALEC, went to an ALEC conference last year in New Orleans, and is on the group’s tax policy committee.

“I have no qualms whatever about ALEC‘s model legislation,” she said. “I think they did a fine job.” She said she can’t think of any other ALEC-produced legislation she’s filed, but “concepts I’ve worked on may have come from them,” and noted that many organizations produce model legislation.

“I don’t know why it’s a big deal,” she said.

Democrats say ALEC was the source of more controversial Florida legislation passed last year limiting early voting hours, imposing strict requirements on voter registration drives and making it harder for voters to cast ballots if they have address or name changes.

Democrats say those changes were aimed at cutting the 2012 turnout of minorities, who use early voting heavily; and young voters and women, who tend to have address and name changes.

More than a dozen other states have passed similar new voting restrictions recently, measures known to be favored by ALEC. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has called for Congressional and Justice Department investigations over whether this amounts to a conspiracy to violate voting rights.

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