RPOF continues to swing knives at Fitzgerald

The Republican Party of Florida is stepping up its attacks on former State Rep. Keith Fitzgerald, the Democrat who's trying to oust Republican U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan from Congress.

An RPOF release says John Saputo, an appointee of former Gov. Charlie Crist and trustee of New College, where Fitzgerald is a professor, has asked Fitzgerald to "put students ahead of his political ambitions and take an unpaid leave to run for Congress."

RPOF doesn't mention that Saputo has donated $3,250 to Buchanan since 2009 and several family members appear to have also donated, according to filings from the Federal Elections Commission.

The release also accuses Fitzgerald of being "embroiled in an ethics scandal." As a former House member, Fitzgerald voted on state budgets that included money for New College without filing conflict-of-interest forms.

Stearns, Haridopolos, LeMieux all have campaign cash but no campaign

Twelve-term U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns lost his Republican primary to a little known tea party opponent last week with as much as $2 million still sitting in his campaign account.

Now he has no campaign to spend it on.

Stearns, it turns out, is one of several high-profile Florida candidates ousted from the campaign trail with formidable war chests of leftover cash. Stearns was sitting on about $2.1 million in late July, while former U.S. Senate candidates Mike Haridopolos and George LeMieux have about $1.4 million and $1 million, respectively.

Money raised for federal campaigns cannot go to personal expenses, but almost anything else is fair game.

"I'm sure congressman Stearns is getting quite a few calls from the Republican Party of Florida and other political party committees saying 'Hey, can we have some of your campaign funds,'" said former Federal Election Commission Chairman Michael Toner. "He may want to hang onto the money, but he'll certainly be under pressure to give."

See story here.

Fed grand jury alert: suspected David Rivera-ringer changes financial reports amid investigation

A failed Democratic congressional candidate whose campaign is under federal grand jury investigation abruptly amended his financial disclosures to show he loaned himself nearly $53,000 more than he originally reported.

Before filing the new report, Justin Lamar Sternad, 35, insisted his finances were in order and steadfastly refused to say how he paid for tens of thousands of dollars worth of campaign-mail services.

Many of the transactions were in cash — sometimes in the form of $100 bills stuffed in envelopes, a campaign vendor said.

The big cash payments drew the attention of the FBI, which began examining the working-class hotel employee, a political unknown who now claims to have dropped about $64,000 of his own money in his Aug. 14 primary loss.

Campaign vendors told The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald that Sternad’s congressional Democratic primary run was backed by Republican Rep. David Rivera, who says he has never met or helped Sternad. During the campaign, Sternad bashed Rivera’s main rival, Joe Garcia. Garcia handily won and faces Rivera in November.

Rivera and Sternad have denied working in concert. Rivera has publicly attacked Sternad’s campaign vendors who spoke about his role, calling them liars or Herald lackeys. Sternad has blamed them for his reporting problems.

“I did not previously report this loan because I was unaware of the final monetary obligation incurred by my campaign,” Sternad wrote to the Federal Election Commission, which posted his letter Thursday. “I have now received invoices for the expenditures ... and this amendment represents satisfaction of those invoices.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/23/2965170/suspected-ringer-candidate-backed.html#storylink=cpy

More here

Florida seeks court OK for eight early voting days

Florida is formally asking a panel of three federal judges to approve eight days of early voting in five counties under U.S. oversight for all voting changes.

The state filed a motion with the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., that includes emails from four of the five counties (Hillsborough, Collier, Hardee and Hendry). All four counties, working in conjunction with Gov. Rick Scott's administration, sent emails that said: "If the early voting changes in Chapter 2011-40 receive preclearance, (this) county would offer early voting for 12 hours per day on each day of the early voting period, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day, for the November 2012 general election."

In its motion, the state emphasizes that under the new early voting scheme, early voting sites would be open for 12 hours on Sunday, Oct. 28. The old law did not require any early voting on Sunday, but required a total of eight hours on a weekend.  

The three-judge panel last week refused to grant pre-clearance in the five counties, saying that a reduction in days (and hours in many counties) would discourage African-American turnout. But the judges also suggested they would approve a new early voting schedule if it provided for the maximum 96 hours, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for all eight days, the maximum allowed under the new law (HB 1355) enacted last year and signed by Scott on May 19, 2011.  

The fifth county that is subject to preclearance, Monroe, has not agreed to the eight-day, 12-hours-a-day schedule. Monroe County Supervisor of Elections Harry Sawyer Jr. (right) says Keys voters are better served under the old law, which allowed up to 14 days of early voting.

Monroe plans to offer 12 days of early voting for eight hours each day, which Sawyer defends by saying that until preclearance is granted, he is bound by the old law.   

The state's new motion indicates that it is requesting preclearance for Monroe as well, even though it says "Monroe County has not set an early voting schedule" for the Nov. 6 general election. But Monroe's early voting schedule is posted on its website, www.keys-elections.org.  

Now the ball is back in the three-judge panel's court. The judges must decide whether to pre-clear a controversial change in early voting when one county refuses to adopt it.

Sawyer, a Republican, has held the Keys elections post for 24 years and is not seeking re-election. 

Steve Bousquet

PolitiFact: Connie Mack says a business in Florida needs 31 permits to expand

It’s one of U.S. Rep. Connie Mack’s favorite stories for the campaign trail.

Owners of a Cape Coral-based boat building company want to expand and hire new people. But a long list of government-imposed permits and fees threaten to capsize their plans.

"There’s a small business in my district. They wanted to expand their business," Mack said during a recent visit to Sayler’s Suncoast Water in Pinellas Park. "It took 31 different permits and fees just to be able to expand their business. This is a government that is out of control."

Republicans frequently rail against burdensome regulations that stifle job growth. And Mack’s story of job-killing regulations anchors his platform as he strives to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who’s seeking his third term.

Mack’s story surfaces so frequently, we fact-checkers couldn’t help but dive in. Here, we’re checking if it takes 31 different permits to expand a business. 

See story here.

Scott prepping for Tropical Storm Isaac during RNC [UPDATED]

12:15pm UPDATE: Scott has indicated that, at this point, he doesn't anticipate that the convention will be canceled. Local, state, federal and RNC officials are meeting regularly to decide what to do.

Gov. Rick Scott is preparing for the worst—a major hurricane bearing down on Tampa Bay during the Republican National Convention.

The governor said “hopefully that will not happen” and “everything’s going to work out,” but he’s also planning for the opposite. He has directed the state’s division of emergency management to activate the emergency operations center, and is holding regular meetings with a group of stakeholders.

The Republican National Convention organizers will have the final say over whether to cancel or shorten the convention because of Tropical Storm Isaac, currently headed toward Haiti.  

But local, state and federal officials will be at the table as well.

“I have convened local, state, federal and convention officials for twice daily briefings,” Scott said. “The goal is to make sure everyone has the best information available, a complete picture of the situation.”

President Clinton vouches for Obama in new campaign ad airing in Florida

 Former President Bill Clinton makes the case for President Obama in the Obama campaign's latest ad, likening the president's policies to his own and telling viewers the November election is a "clear choice.

"The Republican plan is to cut more taxes on upper income people and go back to deregulation. That’s what got us in trouble in the first place," Clinton says, speaking directly to the camera. "President Obama has a plan to rebuild America from the ground up, investing in innovation, education and job training. It only works if there is a strong middle class. That’s what happened when I was president. We need to keep going with his plan."

The ad which will air in will air in New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada comes as the Romney campaign is running an ad accusing Obama of rolling back the welfare-to-work requirement that Clinton successfully enacted. Fact checkers have denounced the ad and Clinton released a statement saying it was not true.

-- Lesley Clark

Romney to unveil 'energy independence' plan today

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney plans to unveil Thursday a series of steps aimed at moving the nation closer to energy independence.

He'll speak in New Mexico, and offer a bluepring tht includes empoewring states to control onshore energy development, open offshore areas for such development, and pursue a North American Energy Partnership.

Other highlights: ensuring "accurae assessment" of energy resources, regulatory reform that restores "transparency and fairness to permitting and regulation," and encouraging private sector-led energy technology development. Read it here.

-- David Lightman

Rules mavens: Tougher penalties on the way if Florida GOP tries that again

If Florida Republicans think they were treated harshly for moving up their 2012 presidential primary to January, wait until they try something like that in 2016.

Under new rules passed by national party officials Wednesday, Florida Republicans would see their delegates hacked by 90 percent if they leapfrog the GOP’s four kickoff contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.

That’s a far stiffer penalty than what Florida is getting this year. Party leaders cut the state’s voting delegates at the Republican National Convention next week in Tampa from 99 to 50 and stripped them of more than 160 guest passes.

During a meeting at the Marriott Waterside, the Republican National Committee Rules Committee voted that future rogue states would have their delegates reduced to nine — the bare minimum required for a state to attend and serve on committees at the national convention.

"Half is not a big enough punishment," said South Carolina delegate Glenn McCall, who made the motion for the more severe penalty. "Obviously it’s not, because there are states that still want to take that penalty and move up. So we need to make it really punitive and stick to it." More from Mike Van Sickler here.

Q Poll: Romney gets 'tiny bounce' from Ryan pick, gets 46% to Obama's 49% in FL

From a press release:

Gov. Mitt Romney seems to get a tiny bounce from his choice of U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan as running mate, as President Barack Obama has a 6-point likely voter lead in Ohio and stays on the upside of too-close-to-call races in Florida and Wisconsin, according to a Quinnipiac University/CBS News/New York Times Swing State Poll released today.

Congressman Ryan does have slightly better net favorability ratings than Vice President Joseph Biden in each state. By narrow margins, more likely voters in Florida and Ohio think Biden is qualified to serve as president, while more Wisconsin voters say Ryan is qualified. Matching Obama against Romney among likely voters in each of these key states shows:

Florida: Obama at 49 percent to Romney’s 46 percent, compared to Obama’s 51 – 45 percent lead August 1;

Ohio: Obama edges Romney 50 – 44 percent, unchanged from August 1;

Wisconsin: Obama at 49 percent to Romney’s 47 percent, compared to Obama’s 51 – 45 percent lead August 8. Florida: • •