Mitt Romney loves "Cuban energy" (and other pool notes)

Tonight's pool report:

Mitt Romney spoke to about 150 donors at the Biltmore Hotel where he was introduced by Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and former Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, who praised the Republican presidential candidate as the “clear leader” the nation needs.

“Gosh,” Romney gushed before his 13-minute speech. “You really ought to be in Congress again. “The energy. The Cuban American energy and passion is so wonderful.”

Romney thanked the room for helping turn his fortunes in the Republican primary in January.

 “You delivered the state that I had to win. You may recall, things were looking a little shaky coming into Florida,” Romney said.

Hoping to raise $10m, Romney swings through FL and bashes Obama

Mitt Romney swung through Florida on Thursday, picking up more than $2 million in political contributions while bashing President Barack Obama as an ineffective leader.

Romney pointed out that, earlier in the day, the Senate scuttled the president’s budget.

“The number of Senators who voted for the Obama budget was zero.. He has shown a remarkable lack of leadership,” Romney said during an evening fundraiser at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables.

“This is an individual who has not been in a leadership capacity before and is learning on the job,” Romney said. “This vote is another example of people in Washington seeing that this president can not get the job done.”

While Romney’s speeches in South Florida and Tampa Bay were long on criticisms of Obama, they were short on specifics.

Romney’s attack on the president’s spending record left unclear how the former Massachusetts governor’s largely vague budget plans — cutting taxes and ramping up defense spending — will reign in the country’s deficit. He has avoided identifying tax loopholes he would eliminate or specifically where he would make dramatic budget cuts required to make a real dent in the deficit.

More here

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/16/2803051/mitt-romney-rumbles-through-florida.html#storylink=cpy

Sen. Flores calls Citizens' plan to uncap rates 'simply unacceptable'

In the wake of Citizens Property Insurance's controversial plan to uncap rates on new customers next year, another South Florida lawmaker is tongue-lashing the state-run insurer.

Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, wrote a strongly-worded Letter to the Editor of the Miami Herald, bashing the state-run insurer for attempting to bypass the Legislature's 10-percent cap on rates. She promised to sponsor a law next year clarifying that the 10-percent cap applies to all customers, including new ones.

"If Citizens were to succeed with their plan to increase rates by up to 95%  this will guarantee that the housing market in Miami-Dade will take even longer to recover, if it recovers at all," Flores wrote in a letter that takes Citizens to task for rate hikes over the years."Young couples eager to buy their first homes in a buyer’s market will be unable to make escrow payments due to the high cost of their insurance and property taxes. Not to mention our elderly on fixed incomes, who cannot afford these increases. This is simply unacceptable."

Citizens is currently considering the proposal, and members of its board will discuss the plan further on Thursday.

It's official: Steve MacNamara is a joke. A Tonight Show punchline, to be exact.

Remember when we said Rick Scott's chief of staff, Steve MacNamara, was the governor's biggest failure? Scott went on to defend MacNamara as story after story detailed how he helped his buddies. Finally, MacNamara quit.

Now, he's a punchline.

A Tonight Show punchline to be exact.

Jay Leno (who might have erred in implicating MacNamara's relatives) included the former staff chief in a monologue around 2:36 in the video below where he says: "And Steven MacNamara, the chief of staff for Florida Gov. Rick Scott, has resigned amid allegations that he steered lucrative state contracts to his friends and relatives. The people most upset about his resignation? His friends and relatives."

Laughs.

That's gotta hurt.

South Florida's Republicans veer from the GOP on the Violence Against Women Act

South Florida's congressional Republicans were among 23 of those in their party to vote Wednesday against the GOP version of the Violence Against Women Act. There's no word yet on why Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, David Rivera and Mario Diaz-Balart voted against the bill, but opponents charge it doesn't sufficiently protect gay, lesbian, transgender people, Native Americans and immigrants.

The House of Representatives passed the GOP-sponsored bill 222-205. The 18-year-old law written by then-Sen. Joe Biden dedicates federal resources to assist victims of domestic violence.

The vote puts the House at odds with the Democratic-controlled Senate, which approved its version of the bill last month on a bipartisan 68-31 vote. The Senate bill renews the act for five years, authorizes $659.3 million in annual spending and contains measures to help victims of sexual assault, improve emergency housing services for victims and consolidate some grant programs to make them more efficient.

Here's a statement from Rivera's office about his vote: "While there are many important provisions in the House version of VAWA, Congressman Rivera believed the bill jeopardized the safety of immigrant women who are victims of domestic violence or sexual assault by unnecessarily eliminating legal protections for these victims. Congressman Rivera represents a district with a large immigrant population and intends on working with congressional leaders to ensure these legal protections for immigrant women are preserved in the final version of VAWA."

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., voted for the Senate version; Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., voted against it.

Bill Nelson pitches corporate income tax reform

Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson is set to speak tonight in Washington to the Florida Council of 100. They'll hear about corporate tax reform from the senator, according to his prepared remarks. Nelson, who sits on the Senate Budget Committee, will tell them that in many areas, "the tax code borders on incoherence."

"Our corporate tax is too high and too complex, and it stifles competition," his remarks say. "In fact, the United States has the highest statutory corporate income tax rate in the developed world. It's imperative to have a healthy, vibrant, private sector that creates new, well-paid jobs for American workers."

Rules related to corporate mergers and acquisitions "reflect a long line of cases, statutory amendments, and IRS rulings that are staggering in their complexity and unpredictability," Nelson will say.

"At best, these can be burdensome and inefficient.  At worst, they can stifle economic growth. Although we have the highest corporate tax rate, we rank around 18th out of 25 among developed countries in corporate tax revenue as a percentage of gross domestic product."

"I believe that we can actually cut the corporate income tax rate and improve tax fairness at the same time. That's because, right now, some firms pay an effective rate well above 30 percent, whereas other corporations pay nothing at all."

Lopez-Cantera and Fasano bash Citizens' 'uncapped rate' plan. Other lawmakers remain silent

A proposal by Citizens Property Insurance Corp. to raise rates for new customers by an average of 30 percent is receiving some pushback from a couple of state lawmakers, although most elected officials have remained eerily silent on the pocketbook issue.

Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami, sent a letter to Citizens interim president Tom Grady on Wednesday, urging him to reject a proposal to remove the 10-percent rate cap for customers who join Citizens after 2012. The Herald/Times reported Wednesday that the plan would lead to average premium increases of 30 percent, with 95-percent hikes in some parts of the state.

"I write to you in order to express my unequivocal opposition to any increase on the rates being offered by Citizens to new and/or existing customers, without the approval of the Florida Legislature," wrote Lopez-Cantera, who was part of a Legislature that passed a 10 percent cap on rate increases in 2009. "I strongly believe that the plan being discussed to increase Citizens premiums for new customers...would be a blatant circumvention of state law and not in the best interest of the state of Florida and its residents."

Jim Greer, wife savages 'scumbag' Charlie Crist over extortion claim

Former Gov. Charlie Crist claimed that his former handpicked Republican Party Chair, Jim Greer, tried to extort him (background here). Greer's wife, Lisa, took to Facebook and savaged the former governor.

** Update: Greer himself also just chimed in

Here's Jim Greer: "As for the extortion claim, it's ridiculous. I was simply telling him man to man that our friendship was over, that I could not understand why he lied about the fundraising and the fact that I had done everything he directed me to do as Chairman of the Party, which now has cost me dearly. But most importantly, he was always wanting to know if I was "still on the team" and after he lied I was letting him know our friendship was over. One thing people used to tell me about Charlie that I never believed until the end is that loyalty is not a part of his make up once he no longer has a use for you, something my family and I sure found out the hard way. I do believe that if he had not been running for the Senate, he may have told the truth. But, at that time, he needed to do what Charlie does best, and that was to protect his own self interests, even if it cost his closest ally and friend everything."

Here's Lisa Greer: it is:

"So, a convicted felon and Charlie Crist whining like the girl that he is are the best the papers and others can come up with today to continue the bs campaign against my husband, even though sworn affadavits keep coming out that prove Charlie Crist and Party leadership ("I don't know how my signature got on that agreement"!) to be a bunch of liars. The only thing Jim can be found guilty of would be if it were a crime to trust in the lies and so called friendship of that scumbag Charlie Crist. The transcript and recording of the phone call have been released and there is no extortion there. Clearly FDLE agreed or they would have talked to Jim over a year ago. The truth of the matter is the phone call was the result of Charlie having his minions call Jim begging him not to include him in any book that he might write and indicating that he would " help" if this occured. Charlie will do and say anything to be somebody again (perhaps a run for Governor as a Democrat?). He cleary showed his lack of honor and character when he flip flopped on everything he once stood for in his desparate efforts near the end of his FAILED Senate campaign. Charlie, remember directing Jim to deliver Marco Rubio's AMEX statements in an unmarked envelope to the Miami Herald? I once loved and trusted Charlie Crist, I now know he would whore himself out to anyone that will put him in power again. I am sick of the games and lies, I have a family to protect and a precious baby girl on the way, the truth must come out to clear Jim's name. So go ahead Charlie, use what little juice you have left, why don't you make one of your cheesy, demeaning commercials to spread your lies. Jim Greer can't wait to face you and the rest of the Party in court, the truth will come out and Jim will be found not guilty on ALL counts."

About 53,000 dead people on Florida's voter rolls

AP: Florida is calling on county election supervisors to remove more than 53,000 dead people from the state's voting rolls.

State officials this year checked Social Security files and concluded that people who died were still registered to vote. This was the first time the state checked the files. It was allowed under a controversial election law that passed the GOP-controlled Legislature last year.

An attorney with the Department of State told election supervisors on Wednesday they have seven days to remove a deceased voter from the rolls.

But some supervisors want to know if they will be given more proof that the voter is dead.

The move to remove dead voters comes at the same time when state officials are pushing to remove thousands non U.S.-citizens from the rolls.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/16/2802540/fla-says-more-than-53000-dead.html#storylink=cpy

Miami-Dade mayor launches reelection campaign

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez kicked off his reelection campaign Wednesday morning, less than 10 months since he was elected to finish the term of former Mayor Carlos Alvarez, who was ousted last year in a recall.

Gimenez, surrounded by family and friends at La Carreta restaurant on Bird Road, said casting a ballot for him in the August election would signal "continuing a fundamental shift" in how Florida's largest county is governed.

"I've kept my word to you," he said, speaking in English and Spanish. "It's a new day at County Hall."

Gimenez touted decreasing the property-tax rate, reducing the county budget, maintaining social services for seniors and shrinking the size of government, partly by doing away with 1,600 county positions. He also mentioned getting rid of executive benefit packages for his staff.

"I stand by my record and will proudly run on that record," said Gimenez, whose chief opponent will be Commission Chairman Joe Martinez.