Wasserman Schultz talks up Allen West's likely Democratic opponent

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Weston) talked up Democratic candidates including Patrick Murphy, political newcomer and businessman who is expected to win the primary in Congressional District 18 and face Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West.

“Patrick Murphy will send the unhinged, McCarthy-esque West and his extremist views back home wherever that is where he belongs,” said the DNC chair speaking to about 1,000 Democrats at the annual Jefferson Jackson dinner in Hollywood Saturday night.

The McCarthy comments relates to when West riled up Congressional Democrats when he said about 80 are Communists -- a claim PolitiFact ruled Pants on Fire.

West was elected to the Broward/Palm Beach Congressional District 22 while he lived in part of Plantation that was in a neighboring district represented by Wasserman Schultz. Due to redistricting, West recently moved to the new Treasure Coast District 18 which is north of his current district. Murphy also recently moved to the district.

West has a major financial advantage: he raised about $7.6 million through the first quarter of the year while Murphy has raised about $2.3 million through the second quarter.

Sen. Bill Nelson says outsiders spending millions in race against him

Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson told Democrats at the Jefferson Jackson dinner tonight that outsiders are spending millions in an effort to defeat him.

"You take a race such as mine with an opponent the newspapers have said is flawed and yet who is raising very little money yet what we see is millions of dollars that are pouring in," Nelson said. "Outside of the Miami TV market $8 million of negative TV ads have been run against me. Karl Rove just reserved another $6 million coming up in the fall. ... What we are going to have to do about it is be smarter, more efficient and put the shoe leather to the street." 

The Florida Democratic Party raised about $750,000 at the event and drew about 1,000 people.

Gov. Scott isn't on the ballot for two more years, but Dems focused on him

Gov. Rick Scott isn't on the ballot for two more years, but he's still the go-to guy for Dems to bash though Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is the one posing a more immediate threat to Florida Democrats' effort to put the state in the blue category.

“The Republican Party has lost their way and have moved so far to the right that they have become the Tea Party,” said state party chairman Rod Smith at a press conference at the Democrats' annual Jefferson Jackson dinner at the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood Saturday evening. “We believe [Scott] has become a voice of the Republican Party of Florida. Apparently their presidential candidate must not agree: on 54 trips I don’t think they’ve gotten together. I’m assuming Gov. Romney thinks Tallahassee is a no-fly zone right now.”

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, Florida’s only Democratic statewide office holder, is seeking a third term and facing what will be an expensive and contentious battle with U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV (R-Fort Myers) who is far behind in fundraising but Super PACS could level the playing field for the Republican.

“This is a time of extraordinary outside money coming into Florida to try to buy certain elections,” Nelson said Saturday. “When this kind of money comes in to influence and comes in from billionaires it is obvious they are not interested in Florida -- they are interested in their own particular agenda.”

Democratic State Sen. Nan Rich of Broward who is running against Scott criticized the governor’s statements about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in favor of the Affordable Care Act.

“We have a governor that is saying he is not going to implement what he calls optional components,” she said. “He includes in optional the exchanges.” If the state won’t set up the exchange the federal government will  do that for Florida, Rich said.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Weston), chair of the Democratic National Committee, said that “Scott and the Republican Legislature have pushed through some of the most draconian cuts we have seen” -- citing K-12 education and cutting funding to rape counseling centers. She also criticized Romney for not releasing several years of tax returns.

Wasserman Schultz was asked to explain why she was calling on Romney to release several years of tax returns when she hadn’t released her own -- something that one of her potential GOP challengers, Karen Harrington, has repeatedly asked her to do.

Wasserman Schultz said that she is “fully compliant” in terms of releasing financial information that she has to provide as a member of Congress.

Romney is running for president, and has “violated decades of precedent for presidential candidates going back to his  own father when he ran for president," Wasserman Schultz said. The Washington Post reported that Romney has followed the law and released his 2010 return and said he would release his 2011 return but his father George released 12 years’ of returns in 1968.

 

AP: Feds grant Florida access to immigration database requested for noncitizen voter purge

From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON -- In a victory for Republicans, the federal government has agreed to let Florida use a law enforcement database to challenge people's right to vote if they are suspected of not being U.S. citizens.

The agreement, made in a letter to Florida Gov. Rick Scott's administration that was obtained by The Associated Press, grants the state access to a list of resident noncitizens maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. The Obama administration had denied Florida's request for months, but relented after a judge ruled in the state's favor in a related voter-purge matter.

Voting rights groups, while acknowledging that noncitizens have no right to vote, have expressed alarm about using such data for a purpose not originally intended: purging voter lists of ineligible people. They say voter purges less than four months before a presidential election might leave insufficient time to correct mistakes stemming from faulty data or other problems.

Democrats say that the government's concession is less troubling than some GOP-controlled states' push to require voters to show photo identification.

But Republicans count it as a victory nonetheless in their broad-based fight over voter eligibility, an issue that could play a big role in the White House race. That's especially true in pivotal states such as Florida, Colorado, Nevada and North Carolina.

Republican officials in several states say they are trying to combat voter fraud. Democrats, however, note that proven cases of voter fraud are rare. They accuse Republicans of cynical efforts to suppress voting by people in lower socio-economic groups who tend to vote Democratic.

More here.

Herald/Times Florida poll: Obama 46%, Romney 45%

Brace yourselves for another nail-biter presidential election in Florida.

A new Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald/Bay News 9 poll finds Barack Obama and Mitt Romney essentially tied in America’s biggest battleground state, with 46 percent of likely Florida voters supporting the president, 45 percent backing the former Massachusetts governor, and 2 percent behind Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. Only 7 percent are undecided.

“A coin toss,” Mason-Dixon pollster Brad Coker said. “Typical Florida.”

Adding Republican Sen. Marco Rubio to the Romney ticket would only marginally help Romney in must-win Florida. A Romney-Rubio ticket leads Obama-Joe Biden 46 percent to 45 percent in Florida.

Dig into the numbers, and what’s most surprising is that Obama is at all competitive with Romney:

•  54 percent of likely Florida voters say the country is on the “wrong track” with Obama at the helm.

•  Only 35 percent believe his policies have improved the economy, while 41 percent say they have made it worse.

•  46 percent of voters approve of the president’s job performance, while 50 percent disapprove.

•  52 percent oppose the healthcare overhaul — Obama’s signature achievement recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court — and 50 percent of Florida voters want to see it repealed.

More from Adam C. Smith here.

Genting money funds apparent push for gambling ballot initiative

Genting Group appears to be intensifying its push to allow voters to make the final decision on whether Las-Vegas style gambling comes to South Florida.

Recently released financing reports show a political action group linked to the Malaysia-based conglomerate is spending big on an apparent campaign to get voters to approve a constitutional amendment in favor of resort-style casinos.

The gaming giant failed to win legislative approval from lawmakers earlier this year, despite spending millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions. Now a Genting-linked political committee — New Jobs and Revenue For Florida — is directing funds towards a potential 2014 voter petition drive, which could offer an alternative path to accomplishing the goal of building multi-billion-dollar casino resorts in South Florida.

"New Jobs and Revenue for Florida is an exploratory effort to consider whether or not there are ways to have more entertainment options in Florida,” said committee spokesperson Brian Hughes.

Campaign finance records show the political action committee spent nearly $600,000 in the last three months on voter-petition consultants, constitutional scholars and pollsters who have worked for Gov. Rick Scott.

The spending included $50,000 to Nation Voter Outreach, a Nevada-based political consulting firm that, according to its website, specializes in “organizing signature drives to qualify issues and candidates for the ballot.”

Read more here.

--@ToluseO

 

Haitian president visits South Florida, and North Miami foots the bill for his security detail

Haitian President Michel Martelly jetted into South Florida last weekend ready to party. Inside a crowded ballroom on Saturday night, the pop-star-turned-president grabbed the microphone, swayed from side-to-side and riled up the crowd with an impromptu performance at the Renaissance Ballroom off Calle Ocho.

It was the eighth anniversary celebration for a popular Haitian website.

Accompanying him to the party were North Miami police officers, who provided private security detail for his Friday-to-Sunday visit, after the Secret Service had turned him down because of short notice. The cost of the visit to North Miami taxpayers: $8,800, the city said.

The publicly funded security detail has irked some in North Miami, which like many other municipalities is struggling financially — and where, like other South Florida communities, international affairs can stir emotions.

While some laud the city’s decision, others say it impacts the city’s budget and gives the appearance of a gulf between Haitians and non-Haitians in the Northeast Miami-Dade city. Haitians represent roughly one-third of the population.

More from Nadege Green here.

Poll: Florida voters favor Obama immigration policies

Florida voters, particularly in immigrant-rich pockets of South and Central Florida, overwhelmingly say they support comprehensive immigration reform that would give people living in the state illegally a pathway to citizenship, according to a new Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times/Bay News 9 poll.

Across the state, 66 percent of voters support immigration reform that allows people living in the U.S. without legal status to stay and apply for citizenship. Another 28 percent oppose it, and 6 percent are undecided.

"Most voters here support some sort of way to solve the problem," said Brad Coker of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, the nonpartisan, Jacksonville-based company that conducted the poll for the Florida media organizations.

Florida voters also favor President Barack Obama's recent move to protect some younger illegal immigrants — the so-called DREAM Act kids — from being deported. They back the plan 53 to 42 percent, with 5 percent of potential voters undecided. In South Florida, that number jumps to 63 percent support, with just 34 percent opposing it.

More from Erika Bolstad here.

Third-party groups spending millions to attacks Florida Sen. Bill Nelson

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is facing a growing threat in his re-election campaign — and it’s not necessarily Republican rival U.S. Rep. Connie Mack.

It’s the super PAC.

American Crossroads, a political action committee overseen by conservative strategist Karl Rove, said this week it has reserved $6.2 million in air time this fall to link Nelson to President Barack Obama’s agenda.

Nelson "has a long record that makes him vulnerable," said Crossroads spokesman Nate Hodson.

That follows a $1 million injection into a new super PAC supporting Mack. The money to Freedom PAC came from casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who has already donated millions to super PACs supporting Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney.

And in Tampa this week, anti-Nelson TV ads began running from another newly formed group, American Commitment, a tax exempt advocacy group that is like a super PAC but does not have to disclose its donors.

More from Alex Leary here.