Debt Ceiling Agreement Doesn't Help President's Approval Ratings in Florida

    President Barack Obama's approval ratings in Florida have dipped in the last two months.

In late May, more than half of Florida voters approved of President Obama's job performance. That's no longer the case.

Quinnipiac University surveyed two groups of Florida voters, one before Congress voted to raise the debt ceiling and the other after. The agreement to raise the nation's debt limit did little to change how Florida voters feel about the president.

WLRN Miami Herald reporter Gina Jordan has more on the poll numbers.

 

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Tea party announces U.S. Senate debate

The Tea Party Network says it has confirmed most of the Republican U.S. Senate candidates for a Nov. 5 debate in Daytona Beach.

"The U.S. Senate debate is a very valuable event for patriots, activists and voters to see, first hand, the U.S. Senate candidates and what they stand for,” said Patricia Sullivan, chair of the Tea Party Network.

The group said it had confirmed the attendance of Mike McCalister, Adam Hasner, Craig Miller and Ron McNeil. An organizer said George LeMieux has also been invited.

The debate coincides with a tea party convention to be held Nov. 4-6 at the Volusia County Ocean Center. Gov. Scott is expected to attend, as well as "national conservative talk show hosts, according to an announcement.

Posted by Alex Leary

 

PolitiFact Florida: Did former CEO Craig Miller create over 40,000 jobs?

Former Ruth's Chris Steak House CEO Craig Miller, who jumped last week into the GOP race to take on Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., vows to "take on the career politicians."

He's running on his business credentials, which he says include creating over 40,000 jobs. He was a long-time restaurant exec, so it seemed more plausible than other big job creation claims we've checked.

PolitiFact Florida looked back nearly four decades. See how we ruled.

Hasner is an E-Verify fan -- but was his co-sponsored bill the first to pass?

Republican U.S. Senate candidates Adam Hasner and Mike Haridopolos have had their share of back and forth spats about who did more (or less) to promote E-Verify in Florida -- the federal electronic verification system to check if employees are illegal immigrants.

But in a recent debate, Hasner declared he "sponsored and was the co-sponsor of the only legislation that ever passed that had E-Verify provisions in it back in 2010 when I served in the Legislature." 

Was he really the first? Read PolitiFact to find out.

Will Weatherford on redistricting, 2012 and more

UPDATE: Weatherford endorsed former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

State Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, sat down for a wide-ranging, one-hour conversation with the St. Petersburg Times editorial board this morning. The future House speaker has a busy summer going as he chairs the House redistricting committee and attends public hearings across the state. He covered a number of hot topics. Here are the highlights:

The redisctricting process: "It's putting a very complicated pie together that involves a lot of testimony, it involves a lot of law, federal law, state law, constitutional state provisions, case law, I mean, it’s a lot. And I had no idea what this was going to entail when I asked to be chairman of this committee."

Where will FL's new congressional seats be? "The two new seats … that’s probably further down the road in fall. I can tell you the greatest population increases have been I-4-based, really pretty much from Tampa to Orlando, the southwest Florida corridor, down there in Collier, Lee county … and then in northeast Florida, kind of between Jacksonville and Orlando, along that Palm Coast, I-95 corridor. Those are the three that have had the most. So we have two congressional seats, obviously, not three. I don’t know for sure, but my guess would be those are the areas with the most population, they could potentially be where a seat goes."

Getting lobbied by current members of Congress? "Yeah, I’ve had them call, 'Hey, how’s it going Mr. Chairman, what’s happening?’ All the sudden I’m a pretty popular guy to people who didn’t know who I was. I give them the same speech I give our members, which is, ‘Do me a favor, have your people come to hearings, we’d love to hear from you if you want to give us your opinion. But don’t talk to me about where you live, don’t talk to me about what your political agenda is. Talk about the communities of interest in your district, talk about how it can be more compact, talk about how it can follow geographic boundaries better. If your comments are tailored toward the district and not you, it’s okay. But anything you say to me can and will be used.' "

Gov. Rick Scott's low approval rating a concern for 2012? "I’m not concerned about it. I think it’s early. Just like when Gov. (Charlie) Crist in … 2008 his numbers were through the roof, I mean, absolutely through the roof and he got walloped in the polls. To me, if my election hinges upon the popularity of the governor, then I’m probably not a very good legislator for my district."

Endorsing for Republican presidential primary? "I'm flirting. I’d be jumping the gun if I told you. I have narrowed it down and there’s a couple that I really like and one in particular that I’m leaning toward. I’m not going to share it today because I’ll probably be coming out with something pretty soon. We’ll see." (Could it be Jon Huntsman? The former Utah governor is making several Tampa Bay area stops this weekend, perfect for an endorsement.)

What about FL's primary? “I think the goal is to be as close as we possibly can, hopefully like the fifth slot, without penalty. So we’re negotiating with the RNC as to how we get that done. There may be a penalty anyway, no matter what we do. ... but playing devil’s advocate, as Florida, if we were to go into it and say, okay, we’ll take the penalty, we’re going to go the Thursday before Super Tuesday  … Let’s say they take away half of our delegates, they’re worth more than Iowa’s, New Hampshire’s and almost South Carolina’s combined.”

FL Senate race: Won't endorse before the Republican primary. Says all of the candidates are friends.

Asked if PSC was wronged: “Gov. (Charlie) Crist politicized the PSC. The PSC is supposed to be a quasi-judicial branch that is supposed to look at facts and figures and make a determination based on what is in front of them and what they know, not based on political pressure. Gov. Crist, who I still consider a friend of mine, he’s a nice guy, but he went out there and campaigned on lowering people’s rates, he was very consumer-friendly, he wanted to make sure that the PSC was always fighting back and not approving anything that he thought could potentially increase rates for consumers. Well that goes against what the whole PSC was supposed to be. The reason we created the PSC was to take politics out of the decision-making process and make it a judicial decision on facts. Gov. Crist was calling PSC commissioners and telling them how to vote, minutes before the vote, a couple years ago. And so he politicized it first and I think the reaction of the Legislature was to depoliticize it."

Open FL waters to oil exploration? "Not interested. We’ve had the debate. Not interested.”

Charlie Crist, the slur

He has been off the public stage for nearly seven months and yet Charlie Crist's shadow still looms over the Florida GOP.

The main Republican candidates for U.S. Senate held their first debate Thursday, and it sometimes felt like a game of who could sound most disdainful of the ex-governor.

"I never supported Charlie Crist in his U.S. Senate race despite a lot of pressure to do that,'' stressed state Senate President Mike Haridopolos.

Former state Rep. Adam Hasner boasted that his antagonism to Crist was well known in Tallahassee.

Crist, who dropped out of the Republican Party while running for U.S. Senate, is never a great topic for former Sen. George LeMieux — he being Crist's former chief of staff, campaign manager and longtime friend. Running in a GOP primary where many staunch conservatives see Crist as a moderate traitor, LeMieux has to keep his distance from the man who appointed him to fill Mel Martinez's unexpired term in the Senate.

Adam C. Smith's story is here

 

Who's your lawmaker? My Lawmaker is improved

The St. Petersburg Times has retooled My Lawmaker, a database site where you can plug in your address and find your elected representatives in Congress, the Florida House and Senate, right on down to your city council. The site provides district maps and contact information for officials throughout the state. Check it out and tell us what you think!

E-Verify may haunt Haridopolos

Rick Scott last year throttled Bill McCollum on immigration, accusing him of being soft in the issue and a flip-flopper. Now U.S. Senate candidate Mike Haridopolos is sure to take some heat for failing to get a tough anti-illegal immigration bill passed in the senate he leads. Senators passed immigration bill critics will call toothless because it was stripped of a requirement that private employers use the federal E-Verify system to check a worker's immigration status.

Check out the first 30-seconds of this March 8 video, where Haridopolos responds to activists chanting E-Verify! E-Verify.

"I'm here to verify it will be a part of our senate bill,'' Haridopolos assured the crowd. Ouch.

Haridopolos said this evening that he had hoped to get more elements of E-Verify in the bill, but "I'm only one of 40 senators."

Adam Hasner's sloppy paperwork problems

What is it with the Republican senate candidates and their shoddy compliance with disclosure requrements?

From George Bennett at the Palm Bach Post: ...Democratic activist Diana Demarest has filed an ethics complaint against former state House Majority Leader and likely GOP U.S. Senate candidate Adam Hasner of Boca Raton, for not filing a required personal financial disclosure form within 60 days of his November departure from office.

Hasner adviser Rick Wilson said Hasner didn't know he needed to file the form and sent it to the Ethics Commission as soon as he found out last week. Wilson accused Demarest of acting on behalf of Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, who has opened a 2012 U.S. Senate campaign.

Wilson was apparently referring to Demarest's friendship with Republican activist and BIZPAC Review co-founder Jack Furnari, who is a Haridopolos supporter. Furnari said he had nothing to do with Demarest's complaint and even declined to blog about it because it would have been "awkward. I don't have anything against Hasner. I just support Haridopolos."

Demarest said her complaint had nothing to do with either Haridopolos or Furnari. Her explanation: "I didn't like Adam Hasner when he was in the House. I certainly don't want him to be a Senator."

Posted by Adam C. Smith

PP poll: "No early GOP favorite for president or Senate in Florida"

The Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling finds the GOP prez primary in Florida "completely up in the air.

"There's a three way tie at the top with 18 percent of primary voters listing Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and Newt Gingrich as their first choice for President. Sarah Palin gets 15 percent, followed by Michele Bachmann at 7 percent, Ron Paul and Tim Pawlenty at 6 percent and Haley Barbour at 3 percent.

For Senate: "Florida Republicans really have no clue who any of their potential Senate candidates are at this point...Mike Haridopolos 'leads' the way in name recognition with 32 percent of voters expressing an opinion about him- 16 percent positive and 16 percent negative. George LeMieux's second with 26 percent of voters able to rate him- 15 percent favorable and 11 percent unfavorable. Adam Hasner only has 15 percent of GOP primary voters who can take a stand on him and they break down 5 percent positive and 10 percent negative.

"The bottom line on the Republican field at this point appears to be LeMieux and Haridopolos basically as co-favorites with Hasner a step behind- but more than anything else it's wide open and there's plenty of room for someone else to come in and win the nomination."