Paul Ryan's mom heads from Broward to The Villages to stump for her son

ABC:

WARREN, Ohio—Paul Ryan is headed to a Florida retirement community with his mother on Saturday to make his argument about the need to change Medicare for future generations. Ryan’s mother is in her late 70s.

He’ll appear at The Villages, the world’s largest retirement community and a conservative stronghold that is a must stop for Republican candidates. In 2008, a massive crowd of between 30,000 and 60,000 seniors came out to a rally Sarah Palin held there. Despite the Republican-leanings it’s a clear sign the Romney campaign will continue to stay on the offense on Medicare, but with this trip they may be entering the lion’s den.

Ryan’s mother, who will accompany him, can help her son connect with the senior citizen audience. She lives part of the year in Lauderdale-By-The Sea and part of the year outside of Janesville, Wisconsin.

But if addressing a group of Florida seniors on Medicare reform is a challenge for Ryan, even as his drastic changes to the program would alter no benefits for those currently over 55, then Ryan is making his pitch to one of the friendliest lion’s dens possible: The Villages is a hotbed of pro-Romney money.

More here

Scott loses legislative affairs director, Jon Costello

Gov. Rick Scott's legislative affairs director, Jon Costello, will be stepping down to take a job as a board member of the North Florida Water Management District, the governor's office announced Thursday.

Costello, who joined the governor's office after working on the campaign, replaced Hayden Dempsey as the governor's chief legislative liasion a year ago. He had previously worked for the Tallahassee law firm of Rutledge, Ecenia and Purnell as a government consultant. No word on whether he will return to the firm as he accepts the WMD role. His resignation is effective September 7, 2012.

From the the governor's office press release:

Who is Ted Yoho?

Voters forced U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns into a shocking early retirement Tuesday. But, even more improbable is who they chose to replace him.

Meet retired Gainesville veterinarian Ted Yoho, with his modest money chest and campaign staff of one.

The Times/Herald traveled to Yoho's Gainesville office Wednesday to meet the political rookie who unseated a senior congressman and beat out a state senator for the newly-drawn District 3. More on that here.

“We went into this hoping to win,” said Yoho, who sold his veterinary practice and launched his campaign in 2010. “But did I expect this? My feeling right now is just…numb.”

Round-the-clock campaigning, countless interviews and a late-night victory party at the Pickled Pelican in Jonesville had tired him out, Yoho said.

Sour grapes or real beef? Diaz de la Portilla gets hit with elections complaint

The bareknuckle House District 112 Republican race ended Tuesday night with former state Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla as the winner. And to the winner belong the spoils. And the elections complaint from employees of the loser in the race, former Rep. Gus Barreiro.

Arthur Arnau, a former Barreiro aide who was paid more than $18,000 from his campaign, announced Thursday that he filed a complaint alleging that Diaz de la Portilla's campaign finance reports listed "no expenditures for printing of campaign materials, mailers, palm cards, yard signs, robo calls, fence posters or campaign workers."

Well, not quite. The report available on the elections division website shows Diaz de la Portila, who was hit with campaign violation years before, itemized expenditures for everything but the robo calls. He said those expenses will be listed on his final report for expenses incurred after Aug. 8.

Arnau says the listed expenses are too small for the expenditures that were actually made. Diaz de la Portilla denies it. Arnau also alleges that Diaz de la Portilla's brother, a senator, "co-mingled" funds from his campaign account. And he complains that one mailer improperly lised the punch number of their youngest brother, Renier, who lost a state House race in Hialeah Tuesday.

"This is a guy who ran against me in 1999, who worked for my opponent and who was his aide," Diaz de la Portilla said. "This is b.s."

As for the punch-number mixup, Diaz de la Portilla said it was a mistake and it benefitted no one in his district to receive the wrong number for a candidate, his brother, in another district.

Sen. Sobel calls for new task force on hate crimes

After several people were gunned down in a Wisconsin Sikh temple this month, Florida State Sen. Eleanor Sobel is calling for a new task force to look into state policies regarding hate crimes.

“Florida represents a diversity of ethnicities and religious beliefs and we should be doing everything we can to ensure that such a despicable event does not occur here,” Sobel, a Broward County Democrat, said in a statement.  “We have the third largest number of active hate groups in the nation and I want us to begin this process by taking this first step.”

The shooter in the Sikh temple shooting was tied to white supremacist groups.

Sobel said she was not calling for any changes to state law or policy, but simply a review of current state law. In a letter to Gov. Rick Scott, Sobel said the task force should involve representatives from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Supreme Court, the Legislature, the state's Attorney General and private citizens.

There are currently several task forces operating under the govenor's purview, including one created this year to review the state's Stand Your Ground law.

Read Sobel's letter.

@ToluseO

 

 

Longtime Florida Rep. Cliff Stearns undone by his own party, horse doctor Ted Yoho

GAINESVILLE — For two years, U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns has used newfound clout in Washington as a spear against the Obama administration, heading probes into Solyndra and Planned Parenthood that have made him one of the most reviled figures among Democrats nationwide.

But Stearns' 24-year career came to a shocking end Tuesday by the hand of his own party, defeated in the Republican primary by a horse doctor from Gainesville named Ted Yoho.

As Stearns conceded Wednesday, the news reverberated nationally, speaking not only to the lurking prowess of the tea party but also the threat facing incumbents, especially those not pounding the streets with all the zeal of their first race.

Read story here.

FPL offers to settle rate case, opponents say deal would cost customers more

Reaction has been blistering to the last minute move by Florida Power & Light to settle its $690 million rate case by offering to cut the cost $138 million next year.

The state's largest utility offered up the deal late Wednesday after reaching an agreement with the state's largest commercial utility users just days before it is expected to begin a rate hearing on Monday, but the lawyers representing all ratepayers said the offer is worse for residential customers than the company's original plan.

"We just flat out don't think it's a good deal for customers,'' said J.R. Kelly, director of the Office of Public Counsel on Thursday. He said the proposal shifts $50 million of utility costs from the large utility users, hospitals and military bases who agreed to the deal and puts it onto residential customers and small businesses.

With most swing state economies faring better than U.S., how will it drive presidential race?

By the numbers, no swing state is better off economically than it was four years ago. But many see stronger recoveries than the U.S. How will that affect the presidential election?

The Miami Herald's Douglas Hanks explains ... 

Read the story here