Gov. Rick Scott not likely to extend early voting

Citing long lines, a former Miami Beach state senator, the Florida Democratic Party and the League of Women Voters of Florida urged Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday to extend early voting.

But don’t expect the effort to go anywhere.

Top Republican officials in Tallahassee said Thursday an extension isn’t needed. And in Miami-Dade, the county with the longest lines, the office of Mayor Carlos Gimenez, a Republican who appoints the elections supervisor, said he has no plans to ask the governor for more time.

The likely result: more long lines for early voters and long lines for Election Day voters on Tuesday.

Other early glitches have been reported, too. Some Broward voters have seen delays in receiving their absentee ballots; the county elections supervisor’s office says every voter who has reported a missing ballot has been mailed another one.

One Broward voter encountered an unexpected wrinkle: She was purged from the voting rolls because she hadn’t voted in so long and because she didn’t respond to certified mail that warned her she would be removed because she had been so inactive, according to the elections office.

But the focus remained on in-person early voting, where voters are still facing three-hour waits at some Miami-Dade polling sites.

More than 3 million Floridians had voted early or by mail through Wednesday evening. Democrats lead in early voting, while Republicans hold the edge in absentee voting.

Between the first day of early voting Saturday and Wednesday, Broward averaged more than 28,400 voters a day. Miami-Dade averaged more than 26,300.

More here.

"Nightmare:" Long lines, mail-ballot glitches in South Florida early voting

From Miami Haitians to a Harvard student from Broward, voting early in South Florida — be it by mail or in person — is proving troublesome.

Some voters have yet to receive absentee ballots they requested weeks ago from Broward County’s elections’ office. Long lines have plagued several early voting sites, especially in Hollywood and Miramar.

In Miami-Dade, the lines have been even longer. Wait times range from 30 minutes to six hours. The North Miami library has had such long waits that Haitian-American advocates held a news conference Wednesday to protest the “disenfranchisement.”

In Aventura, police officers waved away potential voters who couldn’t find parking spots. A county commissioner resorted to enlisting a staffer, to shuttle voters by van from distant parking lots to the polls.

And Miami Gardens had such long lines that former Gov. Charlie Crist, a President Obama campaign proxy, appeared and urged his successor, Gov. Rick Scott, to extend the length of early voting hours countywide. Crist did that in 2008, helping Obama win Florida.

“You cannot believe the line out here right now, it’s phenomenal,” Crist said. Of extending the number of early-voting hours or days, Crist said: “It’s just the right thing to do.”

Scott, a supporter of Republican Mitt Romney, probably won’t extend in-person early voting, which ends Saturday night.

“We think that the hours we have right now are the best hours we’ve ever had,” said Chris Cate, a spokesman for Florida’s elections division, part of Scott’s administration.

Scott signed a law last year cutting early voting days from 14 to eight and eliminated early voting on the Sunday before Election Day, when heavily Democratic African-American voters held “souls to the polls” rallies, though the law guaranteed a Sunday of early voting. The law caps access at 12 hours daily, and a cumulative total of 96 hours. In 2008, voters had a cumulative 120 hours thanks to Crist’s executive order.

In general, Democrats favor early voting, and Republicans favor voting absentee.

Out-of-state voters are having problems, too, in getting their absentee ballots.

More here.

PolitiFact checks Adam Hasner's claims about Lois Frankel's bathroom and chopper ride

The battle between congressional candidates Lois Frankel and Adam Hasner has fallen into the toilet.

Democrat Frankel and Republican Hasner are competing in the South Florida Congressional22 district that is currently home to U.S. Rep. Allen West who has switched districts.

In Hasner’s ad "Gotta Go" the incensed female narrator says:

"That Lois Frankel is something. She gave herself a 40 percent pay raise. Charged us for a police helicopter ride to go to a dinner party. But the worst part? Frankel spent over $13,000 in taxpayer money on a marble shower in a private bathroom with her own toilet. What a waste. All that money right down the drain for her own personal use," says the narrator, as a close-up of her hand is shown flushing a white toilet.

Now the screen reveals that our narrator is sitting on a toilet next to a roll of toilet paper and a white shower curtain:

"When you gotta go, you gotta go, but that’s just ridiculous."

We’ve already checked a PAC claim about whether Frankel gave herself a 40 percent pay raise while the city lost jobs (Half True) and Hasner’s claim that she took a ride in a helicopter ride to a party (Half True).

Here we go for a deep dive about that taxpayer-funded bathroom. We will focus our fact-check on whether Frankel spent $13,000 on a marble shower in a private bathroom at City Hall. We will also touch on why she got that bathroom and how it ended up with marble. Read our fact-check here.

Write-in candidates: Sham or sincere?

TALLAHASSEE — They are the candidates you don't see. They don't collect signatures or pay fees to run. They almost never raise or spend money. They don't attend campaign forums or knock on doors. Their names never appear on the ballot. And they always lose.

Yet, write-in candidates matter in Florida.

When they run, voters lose.

This year alone, more than 900,000 Floridians were stopped from casting a ballot in 15 competitive state House and Senate races because a write-in candidate signed up to run.

It's a loophole in Florida's quirky election system that can be exploited to prevent Democrats and independents from choosing a representative from among only Republicans, and vice versa.

"It's a sham," said Carl Domino, a Jupiter Republican.

Butterworth skirts state lobbying laws with Broward contract

Former Department of Children and Families Secretary Bob Butterworth lobbied heavily this year to persuade his former agency to award his nonprofit company — and its for-profit partner — a $44 million-a-year state management contract.

Butterworth, however, is not registered in Tallahassee to lobby state officials.

The Broward Behavioral Health Coalition, Butterworth’s group, won the competition in March to become Broward’s new “managing entity for substance abuse and mental health services.”

Now, after months of delays caused by an unsuccessful bid protest, Butterworth is negotiating final contract terms with DCF. A signed deal is expected by Nov. 1.

As president of Broward Behavioral, Butterworth led the company’s campaign to secure the lucrative, multi-year contract. Its bid was chosen over one made by Partnership for Community Health, a group of established Broward healthcare providers. More from Dan Christensen here.

Fact-checking paychecks in the Frankel-Hasner contest

Two veteran politicians in South Florida are dueling in a nationally-watched Congressional brawl to take over for tea party sensation U.S. Rep. Allen West.

Redistricting changed the Broward/Palm Beach Congressional District 22 from a swing district to left-leaning territory. And that sent West packing his campaign to the more conservative Treasure Coast. The fall-out from that decision means former Florida House Majority Adam Hasner, sagging behind in the GOP U.S. Senate primary, switched to run for Congress in West’s place.

In November, Hasner of Boca Raton faces Democrat Lois Frankel, a former West Palm Beach mayor and state representative, who easily fended off a primary challenge by Broward County Commissioner Kristin Jacobs. Hasner and Frankel were close in the race for dollars before the primary. (Updated financial reports are expected in October.)

Frankel and Hasner have a unique shared history: When he was in high school, his mother ran Frankel’s first campaign for state House in 1986.

"As a teenage Republican at the time you can only imagine the tough negotiations at the Hasner house -- me trying to get the keys to the car on Friday night when I wasn’t going to go out and help my mom and her boss  putting up yard signs Saturday morning," Hasner joked at a September forum in West Palm Beach.

"Say hello to your mother for me," Frankel later replied.

The two candidates have been fighting about Medicare, health care and each others' paychecks. PolitiFact checks two claims in this race -- one from a PAC that said while she was West Palm Beach mayor, "Frankel took a 40 percent pay raise with our money. We lost jobs." We also check an ad by Frankel  that Hasner said "I'll never accept a pay increase," but the narrator points out he "voted to raise his pay four times.

Ex-state lawmaker's wife, a former Broward school board member, had sexual trysts with vendors, investigation finds

While still in office, former Broward School Board member Jennifer Gottlieb engaged in two different romantic affairs with men who worked for a company doing business with the school district, according to law enforcement records now made public.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement records show that two employees of Citigroup, which was hired to help Broward finance bonds used to build schools, admitted to sexual trysts with Gottlieb.

Richard Patterson, a Citigroup managing director in Tampa, said Gottlieb suggested ending their affair in 2007 after her campaign manager “advised against pursuing the relationship if she had any hopes of furthering her political career.” The pair mutually decided to part ways at that point, Patterson said.

The other Citigroup employee, Michael Baldwin, “broke down in tears and stated that he and Gottlieb are ‘in love’ like two high school kids, and they have been romantically involved for the past three years,” according to the FDLE records of Baldwin’s sworn testimony. Baldwin told investigators he has been married for 17 years. Gottlieb is married to Broward County Judge Ken Gottlieb, though public records show he filed for divorce in June.

The existence of the FDLE documents was first reported Wednesday by Local 10 News reporter Bob Norman. Neither Gottlieb, Patterson, nor Baldwin could be reached for comment late Wednesday. First elected in 2006, Gottlieb was reelected in 2010 but abruptly resigned from office last year. At the time of her resignation, Gottlieb was dogged by rumors of infidelity, as well as criticism of her role in pushing for the construction of Beachside Montessori Village in Hollywood. A state grand jury report issued months before Gottlieb’s resignation blasted the Montessori school as a “beachside boondoggle” that cost taxpayers $25 million and was unnecessarily built in a part of the county that had enough classroom space.

More from Michael Vasquez here.

Paul Ryan's mom is a snowbird in Lauderdale by the Sea

Lauderdale by the Sea doesn’t make the news often -- it’s a small beachside town in Broward County known for the fishing pier, pretty beachfront and cute downtown with ice cream shops and restaurants. It’s also the home part of the year to Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s mother.

Betty Ryan Douglas, 78, has lived in a gated townhome community for part of the year since the development on Ocean Boulevard opened in 2000, said one of her neighbors, Rosina Ventre. She lives in a quiet townhome community that is a mix of locals and snowbirds.

She is only there during the winter months, Ventre said. Ryan Douglas doesn’t introduce herself as the Congressman’s son but Ventre said she saw Ryan visit his mother there.

“She is a very nice woman, nice family woman. Very bright, very alert,” Ventre said.

Ryan Douglas has been a registered Republican voter in Broward since 1997 and a regular voter, said Mary Cooney, spokeswoman for the Broward Supervisor of Elections.

Chamber backs Lisbon in his primary challenge against Rep. Gibbons

The Florida Chamber of Commerce has endorsed Sheldon Lisbon, a Democratic candidate for state house in the new District 100 which runs from Surfside to Dania Beach. Lisbon is running against State Rep. Joe Gibbons (D-Hallandale Beach).

Although Gibbons is running for his third term and has about double the size of Lisbon's campaign account, this could be a competitive race because 57 percent of the voters live in Miami-Dade County. Gibbons lives in Broward while Lisbon lives in Surfside, a small community in Miami-Dade County, where he served for a few months on the Town Commission before resigning to run for state house.

The chamber gave Gibbons a "D" on its 2012 legislative report card. But the big issue which could have cost Gibbons the endorsement was his support for expanding gambling to include large destination resorts -- something the Chamber opposed earlier this  year.

Gibbons says that if done correctly, expanded gambling would create jobs and boost tourism.

Lisbon has criticized Gibbons for taking donations from those in the gambling industry. But in an interview  with the Miami Herald, Lisbon didn't entirely rule out supporting a gambling expansion. When asked if he was flat-out opposed he said "no"  but that he doesn't want it near religious institutions or schools.

"Personally I am opposed to gambling but if it brings in money ... it has to take into consideration how it will impact the community -- the traffic impact, negative impact on schools. ... I don't want it to be a Las Vegas kind of town." 

The Chamber doesn't release candidate questionnaires but spokeswoman Edie Ousley said that Lisbon  told the chamber that "he does oppose the expansion of casino gambling" and therefore his position is in line with the chamber's position.

The Associated Industries of Florida, a business group that supported destination gambling resorts, endorsed Gibbons.

 

 

 

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.