A defiant MacNamara defends his record, says he's not leaving -- yet

Gov. Rick Scott's chief of staff, Steve MacNamara, sat down with the Herald/Times Wednesday to rebut elements of a series of articles about his tenure as the governor's top adviser and the contracts he signed when he was chief of staff in the Florida Senate.

MacNamara said that while the stream of stories may hasten his plans to leave the administration later this year, he is not leaving -- yet.

"This whole thing may just hurry my departure by a few months,'' he said.

Scott hired MacNamara in July 2011 to the $189,000-a-year job after a blistering first six months of low poll ratings and icy relationships with lawmakers. Even with his departure, MacNamara said, the governor is "going to keep pressuring people to cut budgets and make efficiencies and people are going to continue to think they’re being picked on.''

A Sunday story in the Herald/Times reported that current and former members of Scott's administration have accused MacNamara of being a heavy handed manager who controls who is hired and fired, influences which key contracts get advanced and installs people into government jobs who are loyal to him.

The Herald/Times reported that MacNamara also signed a $5.5 million no-bid contract with Anna Mattson of Spider Data Systems to create a web platform that will provide the public access to the legislature's budget process. Mattons, who developed the program, is a business partner with MacNamara's close friend, Jim Eaton.

MacNamara said he believes that people are complaining because the governor's attempts at efficiencies are making people mad.

"There’s hundreds of millions of dollars that’s not going to get renewed and they start throwing people under the bus,” he said.

Nearly 2,700 potential non-citizen voters are on Florida's rolls

Nearly 2,700 potential non-U.S. citizens are registered to vote in Florida and some could have been unlawfully casting ballots for years, according to a Miami Herald-CBS4 analysis of elections data.

The bulk of the potential non-citizen voters are in Florida’s largest county, Miami-Dade, where the elections supervisor is combing through a list of nearly 2,000 names and contacting them.

An analysis of a partial list of 350 names showed that about 104 have cast ballots going as far back as 1996.

Even if voters are on the list, it doesn’t mean they’re not eligible to cast a ballot.

Consider the case of Miami’s Maria Ginorio, a 64-year-old from Cuba, who said she became a U.S. citizen in August 2009. She said she was angered by a letter she received asking her to go to the elections office to document her status. Ginorio, who said she typically votes by absentee ballot, is ill and homebound.

"I'm not going to do anything about this,'' Ginorio said. "I can't. I guess I won't vote anymore. I say this with pain in my heart, because voting is my right as a citizen.''

Sen. Rand Paul endorses Connie Mack in Senate race

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, son of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, is endorsing Connie Mack for U.S. Senate in the Republican race. The press release:

MIAMI – Congressman Connie Mack today received another key conservative endorsement in his race for the United States Senate, this time from conservative Senate stalwart Rand Paul (R-KY).
 
Paul, one of the nation’s leading TEA Party leaders and champion of freedom from government stated:
 
“I’ve had the opportunity to work first-hand with Connie Mack. He is a passionate defender and a tireless advocate for the ideals of less taxing, less spending, less government and more freedom.
 
“From standing against the Bush Administration on TARP and fighting against President Obama’s failed stimulus, to his introduction of the Penny Plan, which I strongly support, Connie Mack has proven time and again that he is a staunch conservative and the very type of principled leader that we need in the United States Senate.
 
"Winning the Florida Senate seat for conservatives means the defeat of Harry Reid and all of us need to rally around Connie for the sake of our country.  We need Connie Mack in the U.S. Senate."
 
Mack said:
 
“Senator Rand Paul was one of the earliest supporters of the Mack Penny Pan to balance the budget in five years and I’m honored to have earned his support in our fight for freedom against Bill Nelson.  His fight for our shared goal of less government and more freedom in the U.S Senate has made him one of our nation’s most important conservative leaders.
 
“I look forward to working closely with Senator Paul in the United States to bring this country back to its founding principles, back to what makes America great and back to the road to prosperity.”

More groups lobbying Bondi with ideas for $300 million in foreclosure settlement cash

Attorney General Pam Bondi is being flooded with advice after she asked members of the public for their thoughts on how she should spend more than $300 million in unallocated cash from a $25 billion mortgage settlement over foreclosures

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, a Tampa-area Democrat, sent Bondi suggestions on how to spend the cash this week, urging her not to allow it to be used for plugging Florida's budget hole. She wants the money to go directly to housing initiatives.

The Florida Housing Coalition is the latest group to ask Bondi to spend the money on affordable housing initiatives like the State Housing Initiative Program (SHIP) and the State Apartment Incentive Loan (SAIL). State funds that normally go to those programs have been redirected in recent budget years. 

US Chamber of Commerce to bash Bill Nelson in TV ads

Associated Press:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is launching ads in Florida, Missouri, Hawaii and Ohio as Democrats struggle to hold Senate seats and their slim majority. The Republican-friendly lobbying group is also targeting 17 House races from New York to Minnesota....

The chamber declined to say how much it will spend in this round of advertising. Ad buys earlier this year in eight Senate races and 12 House races was estimated at $10 million.....

In Florida, two-term Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson has raised more than $9 million while his Republican foes, Rep. Connie Mack and former Sen. George LeMieux, have struggled in attracting significant donations for a state with 10 major media markets, including expensive Miami. The chamber advertising is certain to fill in the gap for the GOP which won’t settle on a nominee to challenge Nelson until Aug. 14.

Cuban Americans in Congress call for meeting with IKEA

The six Cuban-Americans in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday demanded “an urgent meeting” with the head of IKEA in North America to discuss whether the company used Cuban prison labor to make some of its furniture in the 1980s.

“It is the responsibility of every company to ensure that its products and their respective components are derived from responsible labor practices,” the two Senators and four House members wrote in a letter to IKEA’s Mike Ward.

“They certainly should not derive from the dark prisons of authoritarian regimes that repress their own populations, including the denial of basic workers’ rights,” added the letter to Ward, head of IKEA North America.

It was signed by Sens. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, and Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, as well as South Florida Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart and David Rivera and New Jersey Democrat Albio Sires.

More from Juan Tamayo here.

Almost-Senate candidate Nick Loeb splits from actress Sofia Vergara. For now

Millionaire Nick Loeb, who flirted with a Republican U.S. Senate run in Florida, has split from his famous girlfriend, actress Sofia Vergara, says the New York Post:

Men around the world, rejoice. Sofia Vergara is single again after splitting with boyfriend Nick Loeb after more than two years together, Page Six can exclusively reveal.

The Colombian stunner and New York-based Loeb broke up over the weekend following a series of arguments, sources tell us. And, on Monday, she attended the Met Ball alone.

A source told us, “Sofia was confiding in friends at the ball that she and Nick have split. They have been fighting a lot recently and have been on the brink of splitting many times. It is not yet clear if they are over for good, but they are done as a couple for now.”

The two were last spotted together at the White House Correspondents Dinner in D.C. (picture at left)

In November, with Vergara by his side at a South Beach hotel, Loeb announced he wouldn't run due to his bad health stemming from a 2010 car accident.

"I have the passion. I have the drive," Loeb said. "But the job of U.S. Senator requires physical and mental commitment." 

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2011/11/sorry-gawkers-sofia-vergaras-bf-wont-run-for-us-senate-state-sen.html#storylink=cpy

Ooops. Connie Mack mistakenly misspends tax money on penny-plan pitch to save tax money

Taxpayer-funded mailers highlighting Rep. Connie Mack's "penny plan" -- a proposal he's also pitching as a Senate candidate -- are landing in mailboxes outside the congressman's district, an apparent violation of House rules. So far, copies have been reported in the Hillsborough County communities Odessa and Lithia as well as Sarasota and Coral Gables.

The substance of Mack's mailer, which mentions Sen. Marco Rubio, would have had to be approved by a bipartisan committee. But House rules state that "a member is authorized to distribute a mass mailing or mass communications to constituents in the congressional district the member currently represents." Mack represents district 14, which includes all of Lee County and portions of Charlotte and Collier counties.

Reached Tuesday night, Mack campaign spokesman David James told the Tampa Bay Times: "The Congressional office discovered the list vendor made a mistake in preparing the list and is in the process of informing and reimbursing the Treasury for the entire cost."

"Franked" mail has long generated controversy due to the cost and advantage it provides incumbents. Mack introduced his penny plan a year ago this month but it has sat idle in committee.

--- Alex Leary, Tampa Bay Times