FL poll: McCollum, boosted by health fight, beating Sink

Attorney General Bill McCollum’s decision to sue the federal government over health care reform looks like a political winner, according to a new poll showing that he has widened his lead over state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink in the race for governor.

The Mason-Dixon Polling & Research survey shows that 51 percent of registered Florida voters approve of McCollum’s lawsuit while 39 percent are opposed.

As the state appears to lean rightward, the Republican McCollum draws 49 percent support compared to the 34 percent who would vote for Sink, a Democrat, according to the poll of 625 registered Florida voters.

“The lawsuit probably gave McCollum a little lift and has put him in a strong position, but there’s more going on here,” said Mason-Dixon pollster Brad Coker.

“The numbers that jump out at me is that he’s peeling off 24 percent of Democrats. She only draws 3 percent Republican support,” Coker said. “Also, there’s no gender gap. That’s a problem for Sink. A Democratic woman can’t win without the strong support of women.”

GOP wants records on Sink's ties to BofA

The Republican Party of Florida sent a huge public records request to Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink's office, looking for documents related to her former employer Bank of America and her husband, Bill McBride. The letter says the records are necessary to provide "full disclosure to the people of Florida in regards to state contracting" but political points are surely the main objective. For the request, read below.

This comes after Democrats requested documents about Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum's ties to his former lobbying partner, David Rivkin, who is suing the federal government on behalf of the Attorney General's Office. 

McCollum under fire for health care lawsuit, 'sweetheart' deal

CFO Alex Sink blasted Attorney General Bill McCollum on Monday for using Florida tax dollars to file a lawsuit against the health care legislation.

"He seems to be obsessed by Washington politics and not really acting in the best interest of Floridians," said Sink, a Democrat. "It's unfortunate that he's using taxpayer money to file a suite on behalf of the people of the state of Florida when in fact this legislation is going to provide help for many, many Floridians."

Sink contended McCollum, her GOP gubernatorial rival, was "playing party politics" and objected to his questionable contract with his former business partner, David Rivkin and Lee Casey with Baker and Hostetler. She suggested he should have opened the contract bidding to other law firms, as his legislative priority concerning contingency fee contracts would mandate.

"Certainly that's not appropriate in a situation like this," she said. He should have sought proposals "as opposed to providing sweetheart contract to someone he is very close with."

McCollum dismissed the suggestion.

"We hired the best constitutional lawyer possible in David Rivkin," McCollum said. "I have known David Rivkin for a long time. He is an excellent constitutional lawyer."

A spokeswoman for McCollum's office said Florida is paying Rivkin part of a fee split among the dozen attorneys general who filed suit. The fee is $250 an hour but Florida's portion is still undetermined. Here's the contract, which puts a cap of $50,000 on the bill.

Senate CFO bills a boon to Jeff Atwater campaign

If Jeff Atwater's Senate has its way, the higher office he seeks will have unprecedented power over privatized prisons, billions of dollars in purchasing authority and the power to investigate Medicaid and food-stamp fraud.

The bills to expand the post of Florida Chief Financial Officer all come from Senate President Atwater's chamber -- but that's just a coincidence, say Atwater and the senators sponsoring the legislation.

Atwater said he would have supported the proposals even if he were not running for CFO, a Cabinet-level post.

``I certainly did not suggest [to senators], `hey, anything you've got that might fit under the CFO's role, I have a particular interest in.' Not at all,'' Atwater said. ``I did not weigh in.''

More here.

Jeff Atwater is not a credit card

"I'm not the card,'' protested a flustered Senate President Jeff Atwater, asked by reporters if he would release the statements showing how he used his Republican party credit card. Trying his damndest not to be drawn into the party's credit card scandal, Atwater made it very clear that the card wasn't his and he was not the card.

But a call to American Express confirmed that in fact, Atwater could call a 1-800 number to get copies of the statements if he so chose. So could all of the cardholders -- incoming House Speaker Dean Cannon, incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, et al -- if they were really interested in showing party donors that they have been spending their money wisely. Column here.

Video: Doubletalk and Jeff Atwater's credit card

Senate President Jeff Atwater, a frontrunner for state Chief Financial Officer, says he has no problem with folks seeing his Republican Party of Florida credit cards. But he's not pushing RPOF to release them. Will he ask AmEx for copies? Watch the response in this back-and-forth:

CFO candidate launches campaign

Democrat Loranne Ausley is launching her campaign for Chief Financial Officer at a March 9 fundraiser in Tallahassee. The host committee is an impressive list of nearly 200 names including a number of well-known Democrats who worked for former Govs. Bob Graham and Lawton Chiles, among other prominent lawyers and local officials. Among the bold faced names: Ron Sachs, Ron Meyer, Sandy D'Alemberte, Linda Shelley, April Salter and Kitty Chiles.

Jeff Atwater's 'transparent' credit-card statements

Senate President Jeff Atwater, whose statements about “transparency” have become a hallmark, will only go so far when it comes to publicizing his Republican Party of Florida credit-card expenses.

Atwater said last week he “wouldn't care" who saw his American Express billing statements. But Atwater now says he doesn’t have them. RPOF has them. But it's refusing to release them.

Atwater recently reviewed his records at RPOF's George Bush building headquarters, just a few blocks down the hill from the state Capitol. But Atwater's not leaving with any copies of his records, either. After Atwater's statements last week about disclosing his records, his office said that it'll be up to RPOF to decide whether to release the president's records.

On Saturday, the RPOF chose a new chairman: Sen. John Thrasher. A Thrasher spokeswoman then said that the individual statements will remain confidential.

Going forward, the individual credit-card statements will likely remain shielded from public scrutiny. Thank a Thrasher-chaired Ethics and Election Committee vote for that. It passed legislation last week that, among other things, ensures party credit-card statements remain shielded from public view.  Thrasher said the legislation “doesn’t prevent anyone who had a credit card from giving that stuff up.”

It’s not as if billing records aren’t leaking out. Just ask a defensive Marco Rubio today about his AmEx charges. Then there's The Hard Rock London and Rubio's indicted successor as House Speaker, Ray Sansom. And don't forget Delmar Johnson's golfing in Cali.

Republicans say the individual statements shouldn't be disclosed because RPOF, like the Florida Democrat Party, is private. Also, credit-card charges are somewhat disclosed in campaign finance reports.

But it's not clear who spent what money, where and when -- especially in the past few years when guys like convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein or accused scammer Dr. Alan Mendelsohn were raising money for the party to maintain political control in Florida. 

Jeff Atwater longs for the days of... Bill Clinton?

Fresh off gobbling up billions in federal money raised by deficit spending in a Democratic Congress, Republican Senate President Jeff Atwater is now interested in... a balanced federal budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Last time there was a balanced budget is when Bill Clinton was president. After Republicans took over the White House and Congress, the deficits began ballooning. But once a Democrat became president again with a Democratic bunch of deficit spenders well -- my God! We've got deficits! Somebody change the Constitution!

Here's Atwater's letter, which has nothing to do with the fact that Atwater is running for state CFO:

Sink gets feisty at Cabinet meeting

CFO Alex Sink lambasted the state's top financial regulator at the Cabinet meeting Tuesday for not aggressively pursing litigation against Bank of America -- her former employer -- for its deal with Merrill Lynch.

"I'm not really impressed with the comments you made," Sink started. "The last commissioner lost his job because he hid behind not having the powers or not having the resources. ... My main frustration  ... is the sense of do nothingness and inaction in the face of all sorts of scams in our state."

The public scolding of Thomas Cardwell, the commissioner of the Office of Financial regulation, stood out for two reasons: 1. It deviated from the normally cordial decorum at Cabinet meeting and 2. Cardwell was Sink's pick for the job.

Also because Cardwell fought back. "This is not an excuse," he said, preceding it with the standard "with all due respect."