Rick Scott/Mitt Romney campaign alum Ward Baker now NRSC political director

Ward Baker, the nuts-and-bolts data meister who furnished outsized help in Rick Scott's gubernatorial campaign, has been named the political director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Baker most recently worked on Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.

Another FL tie: Baker is married to Citrus County native Jennifer Coxe Baker, who repped Sen. Mel Martinez in 2004 and Scott in 2010. 

Writes The Hill:

The National Republican Senatorial Committee announced its senior staff Tuesday, rounding out an overhaul of leadership for the new cycle as the party aims to win the majority in 2014.

Serving under NRSC Chairman Jerry Moran of Kansas and NRSC Executive Director Rob Collins, who was hired in December, are an array of operatives with both campaign and Capitol Hill experience....

Ward Baker, political director: Baker is a veteran campaign operative with stints at Majority Strategies, the Republican State Leadership Committee and in 2012 as a liaison between the Mitt Romney presidential campaign and the Republican National Committee. He also has experience running state Victory programs and independent expenditure operations.

Despite dismal poll numbers, Rick Scott still a challenge for Democrats

by MarcACaputo

Rick Scott’s poll numbers look dismal. His finances don’t.

"One number should worry you: $70 million. That’s how much Rick Scott spent in 2010," Annette Taddeo-Goldstein, Miami-Dade’s new Democratic chairwoman, told Democrats this weekend.

To be clear, she was referring to Scott’s personal money. And it was actually closer to $75.1 million.

Include the Republican Party, and Scott probably spent just under $100 million. He was worth at least $218 million at the time, but reports he lost net worth after becoming governor. His wife has millions more.

Scott is prepared to spend as much or more in 2014.

The money race is on. And Democrats are losing it. But they know it.

Rick Scott loyalist heading Republican Governor's Association

The Shark Tank reports that the Republican Governor's Association "just installed Kenny McKay as its new Political Director. McKay was a ‘special projects’ manager of sorts, overseeing and tying together several different aspects during  Scotts’ 2010 campaign."

That's a good sign of how important Florida is. Does it signify nervousness by the RGA with Scott, who has some serious popularity problems? Is it a coincidence?

Speaker Will Weatherford warns GOP lawmakers to cool it after rowdiness at Disney resort

House Speaker Will Weatherford has apologized for the behavior of some lawmakers at a retreat last month when several Republican members who had been drinking became unruly at a Disney World hotel.

Weatherford said he's still trying to learn what happened, but was concerned enough about reports of rowdiness that he apologized to members the next day and warned he could not condone "unruly behavior."

The outing began the Tuesday night after Thanksgiving at the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, the priciest hotel at the theme park with rooms that fetch up to $700 a night. Paid for by the Republican Party of Florida, it was part of a traditional retreat to salute new leaders of the House after an election.

"I believe each member has the personal responsibility to conduct themselves in a manner that honors their community and the House of Representatives," Weatherford said in a statement. "There are special considerations when dealing with matters that are part of private conduct. When I was made aware of situations that reflected upon the House, I dealt with the matters swiftly according to the verified facts."

But efforts to determine what happened and who was involved have been hampered by contradictory statements and fading memories.

Story here.

RPOF keeps spooling the Crist files

The Republican Party of Florida has turned watching Charlie Crist reels into an art form.

In yet another reprisal of what we have now heard and seen from the party -- dozens of times -- comes their latest video. It's called : the Two Faces of Charlie Crist. The kicker makes clear that the party wants Dems to remember Crist as a Ronald Reagan Republican, not a Democrat. (But that begs the question: if Crist is a Reagan Republican, who else is?)

 

DLP vs. RPOF: Another headache for the Grand Old Party in Florida

A Republican is suing the Republican Party of Florida, saying it disenfranchised him and some Republican voters.

On its face, the lawsuit filed last week by former Miami-Dade School Board member Renier Diaz de la Portilla looks like a simple paperwork fight over an obscure party position.

But the underpinnings of the case are much more complicated, involving the byzantine politics of Miami-Dade and the behind-the-scenes battle in Tallahassee for who leads the Florida House in six years.

The lawsuit is also another public-relations headache for the Republican Party of Florida, which would prefer to focus its energies on bigger matters, like promoting Gov. Rick Scott.

But RPOF has no choice. It has to deal with Diaz de la Portilla.

He was elected Aug. 14 as Republican State Executive Committeeman from Miami-Dade. The party, though, refused to seat him. It said he forgot to submit a loyalty oath to the party in Tallahassee.

Diaz de la Portilla said that’s false.

Dept. of Screw Turns: RPOF calls Crist a liar after he becomes a Democrat

We said Monday that the 2014 Florida governor's race was underway.

More evidence emerged last night at the White House, where former Republican-turned-independent Gov. Charlie Crist officially announed he'd become a Democrat. It's no shock, considering all the time he spent on the campaign trail and his speech at the Democrats' convention for President Obama.

Also no surprise: The Republican Party of Florida, a once-pro-Crist political cult that's now a pro-Rick Scott political cult, attacked him as a liar:

Prelude to 2014: Scott-Crist race already underway

Two years before he’s even on the ballot, Rick Scott is already the $5 million candidate.

Expect that number — the amount he raised through his personal political committee since winning office — to more than quadruple in the coming months. In addition, he has the Republican Party’s coffers and his personal millions at the ready.

Scott will need every penny.

The unpopular governor faces two formidable challenges: His own record and the chance that his predecessor, Charlie Crist, might run against him.

At this early stage, it appears that the potential Scott-Crist election matchup is all about elections — specifically an elections law Scott signed.

Scott wouldn’t even mention Crist’s name during an interview that aired Sunday on CBS4’s Facing South Florida With Jim DeFede. Scott, though, subtly contrasted the job-growth on his watch with that of Crist’s.

“Think about it, the four years before I became governor, we had lost 825,000 jobs. Unemployment had gone from 3.5 to 11.1 percent,” Scott said.

Court blocks release of 'salacious' report in Jim Greer case

Floridians will have to wait a little longer for details of that golf cart full of prostitutes.

The Fifth District Court of Appeal on Friday ruled in favor of anonymous petitioners who want to block the release of investigative reports about a gathering in the Bahamas sponsored by the Republican Party of Florida when Jim Greer was chairman.

Greer faces trial in February for allegedly defrauding the party of about $200,000. Reports of the party and prostitutes surfaced during a pretrial hearing in the summer.

Story here.

Dems to Scott: Stop meddling

Democrats charged Friday that Gov. Rick Scott is meddling in the U.S. Congressional race between Patrick Murphy and Republican Allen West.

 A judge denied a demand by West, the tea party-based incumbent, for a recount of early voting ballots in St. Lucie County, which makes up the 19th Congressional District along with parts of Palm Beach and Martin counties. Murphy led West by 1,907 votes. Earlier in the week, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner sent a three-member team to audit the results, according to news reports.

That prompted Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, to issue a statement.

“In a clear effort to overturn an election result after having lost at the ballot box, Allen West has now run to Governor Rick Scott to needlessly interfere with and politicize a non-partisan election process.

"All votes in this election were counted fairly and accurately, and Allen West has lost beyond the mandatory recount range. Having Governor Scott intervene is outrageous and inappropriate. After disenfranchising Florida voters by cutting down early voting days and creating extraordinarily long lines at the polls, Governor Scott is now trying to blatantly overturn an election result he disagreed with and undermine Gertrude Walker, a three-decade veteran of the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections office. Governor Scott needs to remove himself from this process immediately."

That led Chris Cate, the spokesman for Detzner, to issue a response.

Claims that there is any interference by the state in this election are wholly inaccurate and unhelpful to the voters who need to know their votes have been counted accurately. We have a responsibility to ensure Florida’s election laws are interpreted and enforced properly, and our involvement in St. Lucie County has only been observational with the purpose of protecting the voice of the voters and ensuring fair elections were conducted in all of the St. Lucie County races, not just the highest profile contests.