Flush with Sheldon Adelson cash, it's Giuliani (and Pataki) time for pro-Connie Mack super PAC

Freedom PAC, the pro-Connie Mack political committee, isn't resting on the $1 million contribution that casino magnate Sheldon Adelson gave or the $50,000 chipped in from The Villages last month. It plans to hold what could be a high-dollar fundraising reception Aug. 11 headlined by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former New York Gov. George Pataki. Both have advisers tied to Freedom PAC.

Location: the Bridgehampton home of Charles Gargano, a Reagan-era ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago.

Donations: $1,000 per person, $5,000 for host couples, $10,000 for co-chair couples.

Mack could use the help. The Fort Myers Republican Rep. trails incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson by 5 points in the latest Miami Herald poll. That lead isn't big; it's within the poll's 3.5% error margin.

Carroll's accuser denied arson probe, Meggs says he may file more charges

 

The bitter feud between Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll and a disgruntled aide escalated Monday as the aide’s attorney called for a state arson investigation into a trash can fire in Carroll’s office and the state attorney said he may expand the charges against the aide, Carletha Cole.

Leon County State Attorney Willie Meggs, who charged Cole last October with giving an illegally taped conversation to a newspaper reporter, told the Herald/Times that he is considering additional charges against her for illegally recording the conversation she had with Carroll’s chief of staff, John Konkus.

In the recording, Konkus is heard blaming internal office problems on Gov. Rick Scott’s former Chief of Staff Steve MacNamara and accusing the governor of "not leading." Cole has declined comment. Cole’s attorney, Steven R. Andrews, denies his client made the recording.

After the recording surfaced on the Florida Times Union website last September, Cole, 51, was fired from her $42,500-a-year job as a senior program analyst for "conduct unbecoming."

Meggs said Monday he had hoped to settle the initial charges quietly, but said the tenor of the case changed last week when Cole’s attorney filed documents in court alleging that Cole caught Carroll and her travel aide in a "compromising position."

"We may amend that and charge her with recording it, too,’’ he said. "If you have to go to war, you go to war. I think we’re at war.’’

Illegally recording a conversation is a third-degree felony and it carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.

For Miami-Dade commission challengers, Norman Braman's political groups provide financial boost

Newly released campaign finance reports show long-entrenched Miami-Dade commissioners in auto magnate Norman Braman’s crosshairs are facing unprecedented fundraising pressure, and County Mayor Carlos Gimenez enjoys an enormous financial edge over chief rival Joe Martinez for the August election.

The four incumbent commissioners up for reelection — Bruno Barreiro, Audrey Edmonson, Barbara Jordan and Dennis Moss — still enjoy large fundraising leads. But that money is being countered by Braman’s two political groups: an electioneering communications organization called Change for Miami-Dade Now, and a political action committee called Vote For a New Miami-Dade. The two fundraising tools created by the billionaire businessman so far have collected a combined $440,000.

Though the groups must follow different rules than campaigns — an ECO is not allowed to endorse a candidate, for example, but it can attack one — both groups can do something campaigns cannot: solicit unlimited donations.

“We’re trying to even the playing field,” said Braman, who hopes his spending will draw a larger turnout than typical for the traditionally slow August primary, and who has promised more ads are on the way. Braman believes the larger the turnout, the better the chance of unseating an incumbent. “We’re not throwing away money, what we’re trying to do is get people to come out and vote,” he said.

Braman also has donated $6,000 or so in individual, $500 contributions from himself and his companies to his slate of challengers: state Rep. Luis Garcia against Barreiro, Belafonte Tacolcy Center Chief Executive Alison Austin against Edmonson, Miami Gardens Mayor Shirley Gibson against Jordan, and Miami-Dade Farm Bureau President Alice Pena against Moss. More here.

Purple poll: Romney 48%, Obama 45% in FL

Purple Strategies, the bi-partisan consulting group, released several swing states polls today, and they have Mitt Romney leading Barack Obama in Florida 48 percent to 45 percent.

**Forty six percent say the economy is growing worse and 29 percent said it's getting better.

**Fifty percent said Obama has been a failure as president, while 41 percent said Romney is too out of touch to be president.

**43 percent approve of Obama's job performance and 54 percent disapprove.

**47 percent have a favorable view of Romney and 46 percent an unfavorable view.

Here's the full polling summary

Posted by Adam C. Smith

Pete Mitchell to head up Sen. Nelson's re-election campaign

From a press release:

ORLANDO - Gearing up for the general election in a little less than four months, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has named his campaign manager.

Pete Mitchell, 60, assumes the job today after going on reduced status in the Senate as provided by Ethics Committee rules.  Recently, Nelson named Marley Wilkes, a key member of his fundraising team, as deputy campaign manager.

Mitchell has been a fixture on the Florida political scene for three decades, the having been director of the state House budget committee and chief of staff for Nelson when Nelson was state Treasurer in the mid-1990s.

Nelson’s re-election headquarters are in Orlando.
 
 

Poll: Most Floridians want no changes to Stand Your Ground law

Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law continues to enjoy widespread support among likely voters, even as a state task force considers rewriting the law, according to a new Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald/Bay News 9 poll.

Nearly 65 percent say the 2005 law — which allows people who believe they are in grave danger to use deadly force to defend themselves — does not need to be changed. There’s less consensus when it comes to voters’ thoughts on the Trayvon Martin shooting, which thrust “Stand Your Ground” into the national spotlight this year.

Voters are essentially split about whether George Zimmerman — who faces second-degree murder charges for shooting the 17-year-old Trayvon on Feb. 26 — was acting in self-defense when he pulled the trigger. Forty-four percent believe he was and 40 percent say he wasn’t, while 16 percent are not sure. Major differences emerge when voters are separated by geography and race.

“The real divide on this is racial, which I think isn’t terribly surprising given the racial tone that this [case] has taken,” said Brad Coker of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, a nonpartisan, Jacksonville-based company that conducted the poll.

Read more here: