Senate Rs are Bronx bound for Yankee fundraiser

Florida's Republican Senators are heading north to host a New York City fundraiser for baseball fans on Saturday, Sept. 12.

The invitation "to experience the new Yankee Stadium" and contribute generously to Senate Majority 2010 is being sent by the Republican Party of Florida. First Pitch between the NY Yankees and Baltimore Orioles is at 1:05 p.m.

The squeeze play is hosted by Senate President Jeff Atwater, Pro Tem Mike Fasano, and Sens. Mike Haridopolos, Mike Bennett, Don Gaetz and Andy Gardiner.

Senate President vanity license plate targeted

Sen. Mike Fasano was surprised. As he looked at the SUV parked at a wedding recently, the Senate's transporation budget chief noticed a vanity license plate that simply said "Senate President." Fasano knew it didn't belong to Senate President Jeff Atwater, who drives a blue Honda Odyssey minivan. So Fasano checked around and found out the specialty plate belonged to former Senate President Tom Lee.

Fasano was even more surprised to find out that, contrary to his suspicions, such plates for former House Speakers and Senate Presidents became legal thanks to a little-noticed provision slipped into a transportation bill in the House in 2006, Lee's last year in the Legislature.

"Someone had to have told the leaders, 'Hey, you can get a specialty plate for the rest of your life,' " Fasano said.

Now, Fasano wants to take Lee's plate away as well as any other license plate that suggests someone is an office holder when s/he isn't. Fasano said he'll try to change the statute to ban such vanity plates next legislative session.

"Tom Lee is a good friend. He was a good senate president," said Fasano. "But this isn't about him. When you are termed out, you have left the system. You leave. You don’t get preferential treatment you don’t get specialty license plates. It sends the wrong message."

Lee couldn't be reached.

Llorente pulls out of Senate race

State Rep. Marcelo Llorente is pulling out of a three-way Republican primary for the state Senate in 2010 and setting his sights on the Miami-Dade county mayor's office in 2012.

A press release said one of his Senate rivals, state Rep. David Rivera, will attend the official announcement tomorrow, but Llorente said he is not throwing his support behind Rivera. Rivera outraised Llorente $235,335 to $133,750 in the first three months of this year.

"I felt comfortable with where we were in the senate race,'' Llorente said. "At the end of the day, my decision was about wanting to spend more time with my children at home, not in Tallahassee.''

The third Republican in the race, state Rep. Anitere Flores, raised $9,025 through the end of March. A survey last week by Florida International University associate professor Dario Moreno showed Rivera beating Flores by a 2-1 margin. More than half of the voters were undecided. Moreno said Llorente was not included in the poll, which was conducted for a private client.

The Senate district is currently represented by Alex Villalobos, who said he had been planning to help Llorente take his seat.

Crist visits Broward to sign education bill

He had already quietly signed the bill, but that didn't stop Gov. Charlie Crist from going to a North Lauderdale charter school Friday for a ceremonial signing of HB 991, a new "differential accountability" system that rates Florida schools.

The new system combines the state's school-grading standards with the federal rating standards under No Child Left Behind. It pushes for more intervention for failing schools, including turning them into charter schools if they don't pass muster.

"Basically, more choice, and that's what we should do in education," said Crist, speaking at the North Broward Academy of Excellence.

Rep. Tom Grady, the Naples Republican who sponsored the bill, praised the President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan for pushing for more accountability and transparency in schools.

"This bill walks that talk," Grady said -- after making a quip about standing behind the podium prepared for Crist.

"I've never been able to speak with Charlie's fan blowing on me," Grady said.

Crist signs budget but restores pay to state workers

Saying the economy is on the upswing, Florida's ever-optimistic Gov. Charlie Crist signed the state's $66.5 billion budget into law Wednesday, making two changes to the bill passed by lawmakers.

The governor restored pay to state workers -- reversing the 2 percent pay cuts imposed by the legislature -- and he vetoed the raids on the concealed weapons trust fund.

"I believe that now is not the best time to reduce state employees pay and so we have made that modifcation,'' Crist said. Agency heads will "respect the legislature's reduction without reducing salaries."

He said that the 28,000 state workers "and their families are consumers too. I want them to have the ability to make purchases and stimulate Florida's economy.''

At a bill signing ceremony attended by the legislature's top Republican budget chiefs, Crist said the state budget is "not nearly as dismal as many expected it to be. There are no broad base tax increases, no plans to release inmates from prison.'' And he noted that Florida isn't making cuts as deep as other states.

Amid consumer protest, Crist says he doesn't like insurance bill

Gov. Charlie Crist said this morning that he continues to have concerns about the property insurance bill (HB 1171) that allows for large, well-capitalized companies like State Farm, to go unregulated.

"To have that industry unregulated in essence is not something that is appealing to me nor is it fair to the customer,'' Crist said at a morning media availability.

Meanwhile, the Consumer Federation of the Southeast and the Florida Public Interest Research Group called on the governor Wednesday to veto the bill.

"This should be a no brainer veto,'' said Walter Dartland, director of the Consumer Federation. "It will allow the major property insurers to raise rates any way they want.''

He warned that when a similar deregulation was allowed for property insurance of condominiums, "State farm dramatically increased rates over several years and then decided not to renew the policies. There's no reason for me to think that anything different can happen here.''

Everglades expert says growth bill will weaken protections

Richard Grosso, the director and general counsel of the Everglades Law Center is the latest to weigh in and urge the governor to veto the growth management bill, SB 360, which is sitting on this desk. Read story here.

"In short, the 'economic stimulous claims' don't pass the straight face test given the huge over-supply problems and the fact that most development in florida costs the state more money than it brings in.'' said Grosso, who has been working on growth management since its inception in Florida.

In a letter to the governor, urging a veto, he writes: "This bill would result in more burdens to taxpayers, and would also result in weakened growth management controls, undermining the very important climate change goals you have so strongly advocated.  It would clearly lead to more sprawl and less infill in already developed areas.  

"Governor, I have worked with this law virtually every day of my career since 1989.  This Bill is bad. While some have claimed that is will be good for the economy and promote infill development, the details of the Bill do just the opposite.   As someone who has admired and been grateful for your strong leadership and understanding of growth management and environmental protection, I urge you in the strongest terms I can muster to understand how this bill does violence to both of those objectives, and ask you to prevent it from becoming law." Download ELC VETO LETTER

Bogdanoff, Domino officially enter state Senate race

Republican state representatives Ellyn Bogdanoff, of Fort Lauderdale, and Carl Domino, of Jupiter, officially jumped into the race for Sen. Jeff Atwater's Broward-Palm Beach state Senate district, releasing formal statements on Wednesday.

Atwater, Senate President and North Palm Beach Republican announced Tuesday that he will run for chief financial officer, creating a wide open race for the coastal state Senate district that runs from Fort   Lauderdale to Juno Beach.

About 35 percent of the district is in Broward County with the rest in Palm Beach. Republicans have a slight edge in the district, with 39 percent of voters registered Republican and 36 percent registered Democratic in the last election.

Bogdanoff was elected in a 2004 special election. She served as the Majority Whip from 2006 until 2008 and now serves as the chairwoman of the House Finance & Tax Council. Her House District stretches also stretches up the coast, running from Dania Beach to Boca Raton.

Domino was elected in 2002 and served as Majority Whip between 2004 and 2006. He now chairs the House budget committee that oversees seniors spending. Domino's House district includes the portion of the Palm Beach coast running from North Palm Beach to Jupiter as will as parts of Palm Beach Gardens.

Republican Nick Loeb, of Delray Beach, also has announced plans to run for the state Senate seat.

See below for the statements by Bogdanoff and Domino.

Bogdanoff to announce state Senate run on Wednesday

With state Sen. Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, officially in the race for chief financial officer, state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, said she plans to make an announcement Wednesday that she is running for Atwater's Senate district, which runs up the coast from Fort Lauderdale to Juno Beach.

Bogdanoff also was considering potential runs for CFO or attorney general but wanted to wait until Atwater finalized his political plans before making up her mind. In the end, she decided a move to the Senate was "a natural progression."

"I like public policy and I enjoy the process," she said.

Bogdanoff said she will likely make the formal announcement Wednesday by sending out a statement without "a lot of fanfare."

Bogdanoff was first elected to the House in a 2004 special election and currently serves as the House Finance & Tax Council chairwoman. Her House district runs from Dania Beach to Boca Raton and overlaps with part of Atwater's Senate district.

Rep. Carl Domino, of Jupiter, is another potential Republican candidate for the seat.

Bogdanoff's announcment also could trigger another political domino with Broward County Commission Ken Keechl saying last week that he hadn't ruled out a run for Bogdanoff's House seat.

Tallahassee brain drain

Take the lack of institutional knowledge caused by term limits, exacerbated of late by the early retirement of a veteran legislator like state Sen. Ken Pruitt and the cancer diagnosis facing another veteran, Sen. Jim King.  Add the worst budget crisis the state has faced in decades. And sprinkle with the massive political turnover created by five statewide open seats in 2010.

A recipe for disaster?

"We are going to be spending a huge amount of time on politics when we should be tackling public policy,'' said former state Sen. Rod Smith, who lost a bid for governor in 2006 and may take a shot at attorney general in 2010. "Anyone who says this is not a sad recipe for Florida is denying reality. This is a time when we need leadership.''

Smith said he's nearly made up his mind about his plans for 2010 but isn't ready to talk about them yet. "I enjoyed public life but I haven't missed it a lick,'' he said, sounding like a guy who's going to pass on a statewide campaign.