Jeff Atwater bristles at Rick Scott's 'bloated' comment

No, state CFO Jeff Atwater isn't mildly annoyed with Gov. Rick Scott over a comment about his weight.

Rather, Atwater took issue yesterday with his fellow Republican's comment that Florida's $70.4 billion budget was "bloated." Scott wouldn't/couldn't give one example of bloat. Maybe he'll do that on Twitter tonight.

This budget (smaller than former Gov. Jeb Bush's last budget) was passed by the Legislature when Atwater was president of the Senate. So the CFO took the comment somewhat personally. Atwater said he was proud of the budgets created under his direction.

"I thought we were thoughtful and careful and responsible with what we did," he said.

 

Video: Florida's first all-new cabinet in a century

  

Atwater, Putnam and Bondi push back at Scott's regulations grab

Thirty minutes after taking office last week, Gov. Rick Scott signed an executive order requiring his approval for any new state rules in departments under his purview.

Three days later, he sent an e-mail asking agencies that are not under his control to voluntarily ``consent to the pre-authorization process'' as well.

That request went to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and Agricultural Commissioner Adam Putnam - state Cabinet members who were elected in their own right.

Their response?

Thanks, but no thanks.

A spokeswoman for Atwater said his office will review its rules and regulations ``following their own standards.'' More here.

 

 

Atwater flak Brian Hughes to join Scott's communications team

Brian Hughes, who formerly served as spokesman for the Atwater for CFO campaign and runs Meteoric Media Strategies, will become the deputy communications director on Tuesday for Gov. Rick Scott.

Hughes will be the second Brian on the message-massaging brain team. He will be second in command to the gov's campaign spokesman and now communications director Brian Burgess. 

Atwater ad ties Ausley to Pelosi

Jeff Atwater is out with a new TV commercial hitting CFO opponent Loranne Ausley. The ad tries to link Ausley with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and says Ausley is a "Tallahassee politician who wants total control of our money. Tough stuff from a campaign that has so far been pretty above board. The ad fails to mention, however, that Atwater's Senate pushed through (in a lean budget year) $2.2 billion in taxes and fees in 2009. Check out the ad (uploaded by the Ausley camp) below the jump.

Ausley TV spot hits on mess in Tallahassee

Here's CFO candidate Loranne Ausley's TV ad, heavy on the message of cleaning up the "pay to pay" culture in Tallahassee:

Jeff Atwater campaign spokesman Brian Hughes noted that his guy just pulled down five newspaper endorsements: "In the meantime, Ausley continues her campaign from the gutter. Ausley's commercial uses mops to claim that she'll clean things up. Well, it looks like Ausley needs those mops to clean up the trash and mud she's been slinging for months while hiding her liberal, tax-and-spend record."

Rick Scott speaks to Broward GOP activists

Rick Scott came to speak to the Broward GOP Friday night -- a group that had largely backed his opponent Bill McCollum in the primary.

But since the primary, Scott has made inroads statewide among the party insiders including in Broward who backed McCollum, the state's attorney general and former Congressman.

Scott touted the fact that "I don't read newspapers that have my name in it" and criticized his Democratic opponent Alex Sink without naming her who he debated at Univision earlier in the day.

"She didn't have a plan for jobs, she didn't have a plan for education, she didn't have a plan for health care," he said.

During the debate, Scott reiterated his plan to create about 700,000 jobs prompting Sink to mock his "7-7-7" plan saying it referred to his seven years as a Florida resident, 75 times he took the 5th in a lawsuit and the $70 million she expects him to spend on his campaign.

U.S. Senator George LeMieux warmed up the crowd at the Broward Republican Executive Committee's Victory Dinner at the Westin hotel in northeast Fort Lauderdale tonight.

LeMieux's talk is a homecoming of sorts -- he is a former Broward GOP chairman and recently moved home to Lighthouse Point. He encouraged the room full of about 150 activists to go through their rolodexes and call everyone they know who is not a "crazy liberal Democrat" and encourage them to vote.

Pam Bondi, who is running for Attorney General, criticized her Democratic opponent Dan Gelber without mentionning him by name. She said he released an ad that called her "the political insider" while Gelber the state senator had "the most liberal voting record in the house." 

We can't watch the ad right now while speeches are underway but the Post on Politics from the Palm Beach Post states that Gelber's new TV ad accuses Bondi of being too close to the business crowd that has backed her campaign -- the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Florida -- to go after corruption. 

Adam Putnam, running for commissioner of agriculture, and U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, and Jeff Atwater, running for CFO, and state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, running for state senate, also spoke. Local officials and candidates include Lighthouse Point City Commissioner Chip LaMarca, running for county commission, and school board member Kevin Tynan.

Ausley urges Atwater to accept last-minute debate

CFO candidate Loranne Ausley today urged her opponent Jeff Atwater to accept a last-ditch debate -- on Oct. 28 in Miami for Univision. The Spanish-language station, which is sponsoring a debate today in the governor's race, has said that is the only date left that it can sponsor a debate.

"So I'm calling on Jeff Atwater to stop hiding, stop ignoring the issue of our state and his record, and have a debate," Ausley said. "No more excuses, no more stalling."

Earlier, a Florida Press Association/Leadership Florida debate for Cabinet races fell through after Atwater and AG candidate Pam Bondi didn't accept. Atwater's folks say they are considering the 28th: “We’re hoping to make it work,” said Atwater spokesman Brian Hughes. “But as you can expect, with 25 days left to go in a campaign, we can’t be everywhere all the time.” (Hughes points out they accepted the 21st, while Ausley's camp says it preferred both the 14th and 28th but would have taken the 21st if it were the only option.)

Atwater releases first TV ad in CFO race

CFO candidate Jeff Atwater released his first TV ad of the race. It launched Tuesday in several major markets across the state. So far, the campaign has reserved about $2 million over the next two weeks.

GOP operative slams Rubio, Atwater

Republican operative Chris Ingram is out with his ballot recommendations, and (surprise!) most of them are for Republicans or GOP-favored amendments. But a couple of races caught our eye: He endorses Libertarian Alex Snitker in the Senate race, Loranne Ausley in the CFO race and urges a no vote on the class size amendment.

In the Senate race, he calls Charlie Crist, Marco Rubio and Kendrick Meek all "crooked" and says Snitker "enthusiastic and sincere." Amendment 8, he says, would "erode public education."

But Ingram saves his strongest stuff for his endorsement of Ausley (really an endorsement against Jeff Atwater): Loranne Ausley is hardly a Tallahassee outsider, but running against State Senate President Jeff Atwater she looks like the Mother Teresa of Florida politics. Atwater is probably the most disingenuous and self-serving elected officials in the entire state – quite a feat in a state that is home to Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio. He rails against “big government” spending in Washington while balancing the state’s budget on the backs of the next generation in the form of Obama stimulus funds. Ausley probably would have done the same, but Republicans should expect and demand better. Send double-talking G.O.P. candidates a message by sending Atwater back to whatever rock he crawled out from.