Lay it down Charlie:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/...
Democratic candidate Charlie Crist made his bid to win his old job back official Monday, filing for governor and using the occasion to hold a round-table discussion with teachers who blasted incumbent Gov. Rick Scott.
About a dozen teachers sat down with the former governor in a Leon County library to complain about salaries and the bill Scott, the incumbent Republican, signed into law in 2011 creating a “merit pay” system for teachers that has been challenged in court.
Education has been a recent focus of Scott's campaign, which has already spent more than $14 million on ads and blasted Crist for signing a university tuition "differential" bill allowing three universities to charge students more for college. Lawmakers and Scott this year watered down the amount the universities can raise.
One teacher thanked Crist for vetoing a similar merit pay bill his final year in office, an event he used at the time to help re-launch his 2010 independent candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat he lost to Marco Rubio.
“It was the last time anybody listened to us,” Fran Hern, a Leon County teacher, told him.
Crist pledged to the group to undo “everything” Scott has pushed in the education policy and funding arenas.
“This election is four and half months and you should have hope,” Crist said. “Because I was good to you when I was there before, and I’ll be good to you again.”
Other teachers accused Scott of chasing away teachers from Florida, thanks to increased performance standards for teachers and lagging pay.
One of them, Shari Genwanter, asked Scott last year what he planned to do to help boost teacher moral in Florida, and said she was told "help's on the way." But she also said teachers would be watching Crist if he does win his old job back.
"I see you're taking notes and that's good, because there will be a test," Genwanter said.
Crist accused Scott and lawmakers of short-changing teachers by passing a historically large, $77 billion budget this year that still funded Bright Futures scholarships and per-pupil funding for PreK-12 classrooms at lower levels than Florida’s peak level during Crist’s first year as governor.
This year’s budget devotes $18.9 billion in per-pupil aid to classrooms, or $6,937, up $176 from last year. While that’s an increase, it still falls a bit short of the record, $7,126 per-student Florida was spending in 2007 before the Great Recession.
“You want people to get good jobs, but you won’t educate them,” Crist said. “It’s nonsense.” - Orlando Sentinel, 6/16/14
Florida Democrats have been hammering Scott on education:
http://www.miamiherald.com/...
Democratic State Sen. Dwight Bullard criticized Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-dominated Legislature for approving cuts to the state’s popular Bright Futures scholarship program, saying fewer college students are eligible for benefits.
Appearing at a news conference Thursday in front of Miami Dade College’s downtown campus, Bullard said Scott and Republican lawmakers had slashed the Bright Futures budget from $309 million last year to $266 million this year.
Said Bullard: “What happened to Bright Futures?”
The remarks by the top Democrat in Tallahassee come the same week Scott is traveling the state touting his legislative success at keeping tuition rates low in Florida. Scott’s gubernatorial campaign also is airing a television ad that slams former Gov. Charlie Crist for allowing “college tuition to increase up to 15 percent every year.”
The Legislature approved a bill this year that altered the so-called “differential tuition” law, which allowed 15 percent increases in tuition at state universities to be approved by the Board of Governors. Under the new law, only the University of Florida and Florida State University will qualify for the increases, which are capped at 6 percent a year.
Bright Future is a merit scholarship that provides Florida high school seniors with a scholarship to any public college or university. But fewer students are qualifying for the scholarship because lawmakers raised the requirements. - Miami Herald, 6/12/14
While Crist and Democrats hit Scott on education, environmentalists are hitting Scott on this:
http://jacksonville.com/...
Gov. Rick Scott's six-figure stake in a French energy company is angering environmentalists because the firm is involved in oil drilling in Collier County, near the Everglades.
Scott and the Cabinet oversee the Department of Environmental Protection, which regulates oil drilling in Florida, and Scott has invested in businesses that could be regulated by DEP and other state agencies.
Asked if he supports drilling in a county where he owns a $9.2 million home, Scott did not directly answer. He said: "You'll have to talk to DEP."
To avoid conflicts, Scott put his wealth in a blind trust three years ago, and an adviser is assigned to manage Scott's money without his knowledge.
"I put everything in a blind trust, so I don't know what's in the blind trust," Scott said last week.
In 2011, the original blind trust showed a $135,000 investment in Schlumberger Ltd., the world's largest oil services company.
Its stock has risen steadily over the past year and trades at $107 a share, but the blind trust prevents the public from knowing whether Scott still has a stake in the company — or whether it has grown. - Tampa Bay Times, 6/13/14
Here's a little more info:
http://www.miamiherald.com/...
The leader of a citizens group opposed to drilling is one of numerous people alarmed by Scott’s past, and his potentially ongoing financial ties to Schlumberger.
“This makes a huge difference to me,” said Joe Mulé, president of Preserve Our Paradise.
Learning of the Schlumberger tie, Mulé said he’s more suspicious of DEP’s layoffs of dozens of employees charged with regulating polluters in 2012.
“It’s very two-faced,” said Alexis Meyer, who runs a Sierra Club program to protect panther habitats in Southwest Florida. “To have a governor who invests our money for Everglades restoration but also supports a company that wants to drill in the Everglades makes me very uncomfortable.”
Schlumberger helped apply for a DEP permit so that a Texas oil company, the Dan A. Hughes Co., can use a drilling technique that uses acid to create cracks in the rock and then a gel mixed with sand to hold the cracks open.
“Schlumberger Water Services has been involved primarily in the permitting of the saltwater injection wells for Dan A. Hughes and has assisted with the oil well permit application,” said Stephen Harris, a Schlumberger spokesman.
Harris said Schlumberger also performed groundwater monitoring and a review of abandoned oil wells on behalf of Collier Resources, which holds the mineral rights to the drill site. Schlumberger has no involvement in drilling operations, he said.
Hughes has denied it has used hydraulic fracturing to crack limestone, a process known as fracking. The company agreed to a $25,000 fine for an unauthorized second acid treatment and, in a consent order with DEP, agreed to hire an independent expert to monitor groundwater for possible contamination.
Hughes’ operation has drawn opposition from Collier residents because the drilling is near a residential area known as Golden Gate Estates and close to the Florida Panther Wildlife Refuge.
The project also has created a major rift between DEP and the Collier County Commission.
Commissioners have voted to challenge the consent order and claim DEP is not demanding enough oversight of Hughes.
The county and residents accused DEP of excessive secrecy in its dealings with Hughes.
DEP urged the county to drop its challenge, saying it will remove any obligations on Hughes until all lawsuits are settled. But DEP on Friday sent the county a more conciliatory letter, saying it “is committed to working with you … to be good stewards of Florida’s natural resources.”
Scott’s campaign spokesman, Matt Moon, said the Schlumberger investment was not made by Scott but by an external brokerage, C.L. King & Associates, that manages part of Scott’s portfolio.
Schlumberger was one of more than three dozen securities accounts managed by King that in 2011 had a value of $21.4 million.
Scott’s overall net worth last year was $83.8 million.
“In 2011, Governor Scott disclosed his investment in an externally managed brokerage account,” Moon said. “He placed those assets in a blind trust so he would have no knowledge if his investments in this brokerage account were bought, sold or changed.”
Environmentalists said Scott’s investment in an oil services company raises questions.
“It means that Rick Scott is in this business,” said David Guest, an attorney for Earthjustice. “It changes how you see him if you know he’s an investor in this business.”
Jennifer Hecker of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida said she’s troubled that a geologist from Schlumberger was hired by Collier Resources to reassure the county that old wells were plugged properly and that no contamination resulted.
“The only consultant who says it’s safe is the same consultant who worked on the permitting of the project,” Hecker said.
Scott and the three elected Cabinet members jointly oversee DEP.
Scott has frequently praised the performance of DEP Secretary Herschel Vinyard. - Miami Herald, 6/15/14
And while Scott's getting hit with that, he's getting hit with this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) has spent $13.5 million on reelection ads for television, most of it in Central Florida.
But that doesn't mean he wants to talk on television -- and one Orlando news anchor is seriously over it. News 13's Ybeth Bruzual spent nearly two minutes of air time calling out Scott for dodging her and her show, "Political Connections."
Bruzual said Florida's other major gubernatorial candidates including Charlie Crist (D) have appeared on "Political Connections," but Scott's campaign had repeatedly declined to commit to an appearance. Then, she said, his staff reached out and requested to appear on News 13's Spanish language sister station InfoMás to discuss his Hispanic outreach program.
InfoMás initially agreed to the interview, but everything fell apart when producers informed Scott's staff that Bruzual would conduct the interview and it would appear across all of the platforms owned by parent company Brighthouse Cable, including News 13 and a station in Tampa Bay.
It isn't the first time Scott has frustrated reporters by declining to directly answer questions. When WFTV's Lori Brown was rebuffed while asking about the state's broken unemployment website several months ago, she told viewers in Orlando, "For the fourth time, he did not answer our questions." - Huffington Post, 6/13/14
And more people should be hitting Scott on this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Under a new law, abortions will be illegal in Florida at any point in a woman's pregnancy if her doctor determines that the fetus could survive outside the womb.
Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill Friday that redefines that state's current third trimester abortion ban.
Current law prohibits abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy unless the mother's life is at risk. The new law will require women to have a doctor determine whether a fetus is viable before having an abortion. It also removes the exception of psychological trouble as an exception.
The law takes effect July 1. It keeps an exception if a mother's life is at risk or to prevent irreversible physical impairment of a mother's major bodily function.
The measure passed the House 70-45 and the Senate 24-15.
"Governor Scott is pro-life and was glad to sign this bill that protects the lives of children," spokesman John Tupps said in an email.
Democrats opposed the legislation throughout the committee process and during the 2014 session. Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda, D-Tallahassee, is worried that doctors could be open to criminal prosecution and said different physicians can have different determinations. - Huffington Post, 6/13/14
Of course Scott has been lying and hitting Crist on anything he can and there's also been a few dirty tricks to take him down. Like this one:
http://www.tampabay.com/...
A shadowy group calling itself Progressive Choice is attacking Charlie Crist as "a conservative Republican" who is "no friend of progressive Democrats."
Mailers started showing up around the state over the weekend, claiming Crist is pro-life, A+ rated by the NRA and that he signed a petition banning gay marriage.
The attacks aren't surprising, and most of the specific claims are rooted in truth (though they ignore Crist's changes of positions/flip flops). The more intriguing question is: Who's behind and paying for the mailers?
Progressive Choice has a bare bones website that describes the group as "a diverse coalition of fair-minded, forward-thinking individuals and organizations advocating for leadership that stands firm on progressive principles and genuinely reflects the interests of all progressives across the nation."
The group is not yet listed with the Federal Election Commission or the Florida Division of Elections, so we don't know where its money is coming from. The mailer lists a Washington D.C. P.O. box and says the mailers were sent from Orlando.
On a Facebook page, the group said its leader is Jamie Fontaine, who runs a Baltimore political advocacy firm and who "has been pushing women's and LGBT issues for 20 years."
In an email, Fontaine would not say who is funding the mailers, robocalls and Web adverstising being paid for by Progressive Choice.
"I will not at this time provide the names these supporters because their only motivation is to engage and have a meaningful impact," Fontaine said. "They did not ask to be placed in the spotlight or bullied by operatives with clear (or not so clear) corporate and political agendas — all while important issues like access to health care, more investment in public education and workforce advancement are buried by shadowy horse race coverage."
The minutiae of where the group's money is coming from is noteworthy because Republicans backing Gov. Rick Scott said in September that they might spend money helping little-known Democrat Nan Rich in a primary versus Crist. The idea being to attack Crist from both sides to weaken him in November.
Progressive Choice would seem to fit that bill. - Tampa Bay Times, 4/1/14
And this guy wants to take down Crist too:
http://www.theledger.com/...
Jim Greer found a way to get even with Charlie Crist, but the question is how many people will believe it — or pay $32.95 to read about it.
The disgraced and imprisoned former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida is the subject of a new book by St. Petersburg author Peter Golenbock.
"The Chairman: The Rise and Betrayal of Jim Greer" is largely a 400-page rant by Greer, who went to prison more than a year ago after pleading guilty to stealing party money. Now at a halfway house in Orlando, he's due to be released July 5.
The book, filled with reconstructed dialogue and triple hearsay, is Greer's behind-the-scenes account of four years as party boss that paralleled the term of his benefactor, former Republican Gov. Crist.
"I haven't read it," Crist said, "but he sounds like a sad, bitter soul."
Crist plucked Greer from political obscurity in Seminole County and orchestrated his election as chairman, giving him power and money that became Greer's undoing.
Greer describes their relationship as "like brothers," and for most of four years, no one spent more time at Crist's side. Greer writes of lavish fundraising trips across the country, family outings at Disney World, evenings spent sipping wine at the Governor's Mansion and weekends at the Fisher Island home of Crist's wife, Carole.
To Greer, Crist was a self-absorbed and superficial politician who broke a promise to endorse Rudy Giuliani for president in 2008 and backed John McCain instead, then lost interest in being governor while seeking to be McCain's running mate. - The Ledger, 6/15/14
But again, keep in mind who Greer is:
http://www.saintpetersblog.com/...
Greer, the flamboyant and controversial former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida is scheduled to be released from a halfway house in Orlando on July 5th having served 15 months in prison for bilking the RPOF of thousands of dollars. Greer’s tell-all book, The Chairman, was released last week, and in it, Greer very much seeks to clear his name and settle the score with enemies perceived or real. In The Chairman, Greer makes dozens of incendiary claims and dishes on some of the power elite from the last election cycle. The obvious question for Florida’s political cognoscenti: How many of Greer’s shocking allegations also happen to be true?
It’s clear that Greer has smartly chosen to omit mention of many of the excesses of the Gilded Greer Era at the RPOF.
This is a man who took possibly hundreds of luxurious junkets courtesy of RPOF donors who thought they were giving money to advance conservative principles and not merely upgrade Greer and his entourage to first class seats (or, too often, the more supple calf leather found in chartered jets). These excesses are rarely mentioned, nor are Greer’s shameless attempts to bolster his own profile among the political elite. But, it’s also undeniable that for several tumultuous years Greer played a pivotal role as one of Charlie Crist’s closest confidants, and not in living memory has a Florida political insider at this privileged level written a tell-all about the intimate inner workings of a political regime. - Saint Peters Blog, 6/16/14
But in other news, Crist recently scored a huge endorsement:
http://www.publicnewsservice.org/...
The race for governor in Florida is heating up almost as fast as the temperature, and now Democratic candidate Charlie Crist has the backing of the state's largest labor federation as he vies to compete with incumbent Gov. Rick Scott.
The Florida AFL-CIO voted to endorse the former governor of the Sunshine State over the weekend. Mike Williams, Florida AFL-CIO state president, says the union members are united by one goal.
"Our priority is to remove Rick Scott from the governor's office," says Williams. "Folks are hitting the ground running. We've already got a plan in place for the work to be done around the state."
The Florida AFL-CIO represents more than 900,000 union members around the state, and the labor group says it's important the state's leader supports programs that improve the lives of teachers, law enforcement, and service workers.
Political science professor Stephen Craig at the University of Florida says the endorsement isn't surprising.
"What labor likes is a winner," says Craig. "I think that they anticipate Charlie Crist being the Democratic nominee, and have endorsed him in anticipation of that."
Craig says that in today's political landscape, fundraising capability and social media power can be more important than the endorsement itself.
Williams says he believes the AFL-CIO's support will provide an extra boost to the candidate. - Public News Service, 6/10/14
This race is tightening up as we can see in the latest polls. Scott has been filling the airwaves with negative attacks against Crist. While they've eaten away at his big lead, Scott's numbers are still under water. I always knew this race would be tight but we can still win it by getting our base out to vote. Click here to get involved and donate to Crist's campaign:
http://www.charliecrist.com/