Lenny Curry leaves RPOF, explores Jax mayoral bid

Florida Times Union:

"Lenny Curry, who is exploring a run for Jacksonville mayor, will announce he is stepping down as chairman of the Florida Republican Party on Thursday, according to party officials with knowledge of the situation.

"He will send a letter to Republican Party leadership Thursday, officials said. He will stay on as chair through the end of May....

"The move comes on the heels of a high-profile and potentially significant pickup for Curry. Peter Rummell, a powerful Northeast Florida Republican fundraiser, told the Times-Union last week he will throw his support behind the GOP chairman in the 2015 mayor’s race."

More here:

http://m.jacksonville.com/news/2014-04-30/story/lenny-curry-potential-jacksonville-mayoral-candidate-will-announce-he-stepping

For the second year in a row, one of Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford’s top priorities, an overhaul of the state’s pension system failed on the Senate floor.

Last year, it was defeated in a 22-18 vote by Democrats and Republicans backed by unions. This year, the measure didn’t even get that far. After a series of legislative maneuvers showed that there was little support for it, the sponsor of SB 1114, decided to kill it prematurely with two days to go in the session.

“It’s dead,” said Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby. “We’ve had enough debate on this. I think we’ve made our points on both sides. The wishes of the Senate were done today.”

It was an inauspicious end for what Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, had identified as one of the main goals he wanted to accomplish upon becoming Speaker in 2012. With his term to end this year, the 34-year-old termed out lawmaker must admit defeat on an issue that was a primary concern for a conservative base that includes the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Americans for Prosperity.

Weatherford, who heard the news of the bill’s demise before the unveiling of his official House portrait, conceded that the battle appeared done.

“For two years we’ve been trying to get a pension bill done, we’ve always known that it wasn’t going to be an easy lift,” Weatherford said. “Nothing is ever dead until Day 60 (of the Session, which is Friday) but there’s no question that the bill is probably in some pretty big trouble. When you try to take on big policy issues, you’re not going to be able to score on every single one, and so I’d be disappointed if the bill doesn’t pass, but I think overall we’re having a fantastic session.”

SB 1114 would have required only elected officials, except judges, to enroll in 401(k)-style investment plans that are already offered. But they would be prohibited from enrolling in the $135 billion pension plan, which provides a guaranteed benefit, unlike the private investment plans. All other employees would have nine months to choose between the two retirement plans. Those not making a choice would default into the private investment plans, which would reduce pension membership over time.

Simpson, who pays Weatherford about $32,000 as an environmental consultant in his private business, has sponsored a pension reform bill the last two years. Like Weatherford, Simpson says the pension is unsustainable over time and could bankrupt state finances, comparing it to Detroit. Weatherford says the situation is so dire that he says the pension to a “ticking time bomb” in state finances.

But the urgency of the measure has wanted the past few years as the stock market has brought higher returns to the pension plan, which is regarded as one of the better public plans in the nation. Even the sponsor of the House’s bill, Rep. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, said chances of the pension going bankrupt were remote and that the purpose of the measure instead was to provide employees a better choice for retirement.

But employees already have a choice between either plan, making the case for it difficult in the Senate. Democrats and several Republicans with large union constituencies questioned the need for it all.

Pointing out that the pension can’t go bankrupt unless 86 percent of state employees retire at the same time, Sen. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, asked: “Short of a zombie apocalypse, what scenario would that ever happen?”

Senators had been flooded with calls from the members of the Florida Education Association Tuesday night and signs showed that they were ready to vote against it.

Before breaking for lunch, the Senate voted 21-15 against considering HB 7181, which combined the overhaul of the state's pension system and Florida's 500 municipal pension plans.

In the Senate, local pension reform is popular, and passed unanimously in a separate bill. Weatherford linked the two hoping to gain support for it in the Senate. Some legislative trickery briefly merged the two in the Senate on Wednesday when President Don Gaetz asked quickly for an amendment that would substitute the Senate bill for the House merged version.

After it passed on a voice vote, Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, rushed to his microphone to ask for a reconsideration of the vote.

After some back-and-forth on Senate procedures, Gaetz and Rules Chairman John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, agreed to Latvala's reconsideration of the vote. It passed 21-15, meaning the House bill was no longer accepted.

"We have to respect the process," Latvala said of the attempt to merge the two bills with little discussion. "We have rules, we need to respect them, you need to match up the bills before you can take up the House bill. That’s just the way it is."

After the Senate broke for lunch, Simpson said he will try to amend the local pension bill onto his state pension bill later this afternoon. His bill probably dies if the two aren't merged, he said.

"That's what we're going to try to do, to bring the local pension bill onto the Senate bill," Simpson said. "If that fails, then I think we probably failed."

But Simpson never brought it back up after talking with other senators.

“It’s done,” he said.

House approves constitutional amendment to let next gov pack the court

Florida legislators took the final step to put an amendment on the November ballot Wednesday that asks voters to decide whether to give Florida’s governor new powers to make prospective appointments to the state Supreme Court.

The proposed constitutional amendment, SJR 1188, was approved by a 74-45 partisan vote in the Florida House following its Senate passage. The amendment will be the third one on the ballot and must be approved by at least 60 percent of voters on Election Day to become law.

Republicans defended the proposal and Democrats opposed it since it means that the next governor will have the power to pick three of the seven justices because of a fluke of timing that requires three of them to retire on the same day the next governor’s term ends, on Jan. 8, 2019. Unlike every recent election year in the last decade, this is the first time legislators have placed only one amendment on the ballot.

Justices are required to retire at age 70, but can continue to serve on the bench until the end of their six-year term. Justices R. Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince — the court’s liberal wing — will all turn 70 some time during the next governor’s term, and their six-year terms will all end on the same day the new governor is inaugurated.

Dead bill walking: Weatherford's pension reform could die today

Before breaking for lunch, the Florida Senate voted 21-15 on Wednesday against considering a House bill that is one of Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford's top priorities.

HB 7181 overhauls the state's pension system and Florida's 500 municipal pension plans. The Senate has those two issues, state pension reform vs. municipal pension reform, divided into two separate bills.

In the Senate, local pension reform is popular, and passed unanimously. The state pension reform, in SB 1114 sponsored by Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, is controversial. The state's $135 billion pension system is considered to be one of the most fiscally sound in the nation, so many senators say an overhaul isn't necessary. But Weatherford has made an overhaul of the state's pension system a chief priority.

The two bills were briefly merged in the Senate on Wednesday when President Don Gaetz asked quickly for an amendment that would substitute the Senate bill for the House merged version. After it passed on a voice vote, Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, rushed to his microphone to ask for a reconsideration of the vote.

After some back-and-forth on Senate procedures, Gaetz and Rules Chairman John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, agreed to Latvala's reconsideration of the vote. It passed 21-15, meaning the House bill was no longer accepted.

"We have to respect the process," Latvala said of the attempt to merge the two bills with little discussion. "We have rules, we need to respect them, you need to match up the bills before you can take up the House bill. That’s just the way it is."

After the Senate broke for lunch, Simpson said he will try to amend the local pension bill onto his state pension bill later this afternoon. His bill probably dies if the two aren't merged, he said. 

"That's what we're going to try to do, to bring the local pension bill onto the Senate bill," Simpson said. "If that fails, then I think we probably failed."

So for the second year in a row, Weatherford's pension reform will die in the Senate?

"It could," Simpson said. "We’ll have one amendment, and if that fails, maybe the bill is dead."

 

 

Closely-divided House OKs 75 mph speed limit

By a 58-56 margin, the Florida House on Wednesday passed a bill that would raise the speed limit from 70 to 75 miles per hour on most interstate highways. A supporter called for the vote to be reconsidered, which briefly put passage in doubt. But Republicans said that maneuver occurred too late for the bill to be brought back for a second vote.

Democrats were nearly united in opposition as 39 of 45 members of the House Democratic Caucus opposed the bill, along with 17 Republicans.

Under the bill (SB 392), the state Department of Transportation would have to determine whether 75 is the "safe and advisable" minimum speed on Florida's Turnpike, I-75, I-10, I-95, I-4 and the Suncoast Parkway. Florida would be the first urban state east of the Mississippi to allow drivers to travel at 75 miles per hour (a rural section of northern Maine also has a 75 mph limit).

The bill passed the Senate on a 27-11 margin last week.

The House vote -- the closest of any issue in the 2014 session -- would send the bill to Gov. Rick Scott, who has not expressed a view on it, but a leading advocate in the Senate, Republican Sen. Jeff Brandes of St. Petersburg, says he expects Scott will sign the bill if it gets there.

Of the 16 House members from the Tampa Bay region, seven voted yes, eight voted no and one did not vote. House members were sharply divided in debate, with supporters emphasizing that the bill merely gives DOT's engineers the discretion to increase the speed limit, and opponents predicting that motorists would drive faster and more recklessly, resulting in more highway fatalities.

"People are going to die if we do this," said Rep. Dave Kerner, D-Lake Worth.

"Let the old retired cop talk to you one more time," said Rep. Ray Pilon, R-Sarasota, a retired sheriff's deputy. "None of my people in law enforcement want this to pass."

Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Panama City, said opponents were overreacting to a bill that simply gave transportation experts more authority. "We're finding a bogeyman in the details that doesn't even exist," Patronis said.

 

After DCF was warned about drug abusing mom, child found dead in Keys

Shortly after child protection investigators received reports that Carter James Turcanu’s mother was spending most of her money on drugs — leaving her children hungry — Carter was found dead in his parents’ Stock Island home.

Carter’s death remains under investigation by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, and authorities would not disclose the results of an autopsy that was performed last week. Police reports say Carter’s mother, Marcia Ann Hake, told authorities she left Carter on a couch to sleep, and later found him there unresponsive. Reports said police were considering the possibility that Carter was accidentally smothered while asleep on the couch — a sleeping arrangement that is unsafe for infants.

“The crib is stacked with clothing and other articles,” a DCF report states. “There are concerns on how safe or comfortable the baby was in the home.”

Carter’s family, sources told the Miami Herald, had a long history with the state Department of Children & Families, including two child abuse hotline reports within a couple of months of the boy’s death. A brief DCF incident report said agency lawyers were in the process of asking a judge to oversee the family, which was receiving services from Healthy Start and other better-parenting programs.

Carter’s death comes at a difficult time for DCF, which has struggled to stanch a wave of child deaths, many of them violent, among families with a prior agency history. Last month, the Herald published a series of stories, called Innocents Lost, detailing the deaths by neglect or abuse of 477 children whose families had been known to DCF. Lawmakers, in their last week of the state’s annual session, are considering sweeping legislation to better protect children who have been abused or neglected.

Story by Carol Marbin Miller here @Marbinius

Scott heads to Pensacola to view severe flooding

Gov. Rick Scott headed to Pensacola Wednesday after torrential overnight rains caused severe flooding, closed schools, forced more than 200 people to flee their homes and resulted in the temporary closing of a stretch of I-10 in the Florida Panhandle.

Scott said up to 22 inches of rain fell in parts of the Panhandle, parts of which were under tornado watches. He declared a state of emergency in a 26-county region covering the Big Bend and Panhandle areas of the state. Three emergency shelters were opened as the vast, slow-moving weather system began moving toward the mid-Atlantic and the northeastern U.S.

"We have had severe weather in the Panhandle," Scott told reporters at a morning briefing in Tallahassee. "There's a lot of water on the ground. We're going to continue to see more flooding, and some flash flooding. Every family member needs to be careful. Don't drive into downed water."

Scott planned to meet with first responders and local officials in Northwest Florida, including Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward. Before leaving, he huddled with state emergency managers, chief of staff Adam Hollingsworth and others at the state Emergency Operations Center Wednesday morning. The EOC wen to Level 2 activation overnight, triggering the deployment of dozens of disaster management staffers from various state agencies.

Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, who represents much of the affected area, opened Wednesday's Senate floor session by praising Scott's quick action. "We appreciate his decisiveness," Gaetz said.

At the storm briefing at the state Emergency Operations Center, Scott declined to comment on the $77.1 billion state budget that's headed his way, which is by far the biggest budget in state history.

"Today's all about making sure our citizens are safe. I'll deal with that when I finish this," Scott said.

Q-Poll: Charlie Crist beating Rick Scott 48–38 percent

@MarcACaputo

Charlie Crist leads Gov. Rick Scott by 10 percentage points in a new poll of Florida voters that also indicates a majority of voters view the former governor's party-switching in a favorable light.

Separately, the Quinnipiac University poll also indicates a majority of Florida voters -- by 55-41 percent -- say illegal immigrants who graduate from Florida high schools should be eligible for in-state tuition rates. Voters also support gay marriage by 56-39 percent. 

In the governor's race, the poll indicates Crist's 48-38 percent lead over Scott is reflected in three key areas: likability, trustworthiness and compassion.

Scott is spending at least $6.5 million in ads in two months, many of them negative, and might have already spent as much as $20 million, according to Crist's campaign.

"So far, Florida Gov. Rick Scott's television barrage apparently has had no impact on the race. The incumbent has not been able to reduce former Gov. Charlie Crist's lead. In fact, voters see Crist's party switch in a positive light and the incumbent's effort to tie Crist's support for Obamacare has not yet borne fruit," Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement.

Republicans are sure to complain that the poll over-surveyed self-identified independents and didn't include enough Republicans (who account for just 25 percent of the sample but likely will be more than 40 percent of the ballot-casting electorate in November).

If the poll were adjusted to show Republicans and Democrats turning out a 41 percent each and independents at 18 percent, for instance, Crist's lead would be far smaller over Scott: about 4 percentage points, or 46-42 percent.

But such calculations, nicknamed "unskewing," are fraught with mathematical and statistical peril (no one knows what the electorate will look like, for instance) and shouldn't be taken as being superior to the poll. More here on unskewing and averaging polls and more here about Quinnipiac's polling techniques.

Other recent polls have shown a far closer race at this point, with Tampa Bay’s NBC affiliate, WFLA, reported Tuesday that Crist led Scott 44-41 percent in a SurveyUSA poll, an apparent decrease of the 46-41 percent the Democrat held in an April 15 poll from the same firm.

Update: A poll from Republican-leaning Gravis Marketing finds quite the opposite of Quinnipiac: A Scott lead of 1 point, 44-43 percent over Crist. Democrats will be sure to note that Gravis has consistently had outlier polls that lean heavily conservative. Its results were off in the presidential race in Virginia and Florida, where it also wrongly showed Connie Mack was close to Sen. Bill Nelson, who blew the Republican away by 13 points.

All recent major polls show little-known Democrat Nan Rich faring poorly against Scott, with Quinnipiac indicating she'd lose 36-42 percent. Libertarian candidate Adrian Wyllie was not polled by Quinnipiac.

Crist's campaign expects the race against Scott to be tight. The governor intends to spend $100 million and money like that often buys enough ad time to change poll numbers. 

"Forget about the polls," Jim Messina, a Crist advisor who ran President Obama's re-election campaign in 2012 said in a recent email to supporters.

"One says we're up, another says we're down, a third says we're tied -- that crap is just noise," he wrote. "This race is going to come down to the wire. What will put us over the top is the grassroots organization we build together."

Poll is here

 

Today in Tallahassee: Five Things to Know

TALLAHASSEE Florida legislative leaders hit the send budget on the 2014-15 state budget on Tuesday, giving lawmakers three days left in the session to review the $77.1 billion in spending plan before they take a vote on it late Friday.

That means the logjam of high profile bills that were awaiting progress on the budget will now move. Many of them will get a hearing on Wednesday, which makes for a busy day. Five things to watch are:

 

• The Senate debates a bill, HB 851, to allow children of undocumented immigrants pay in-state tuition rates at Florida universities.
• A proposal to open the school voucher program to additional students, SB 1512, will also be debated in Senate.
• The House takes a final vote on SJR 1188, a constitutional amendment to let governors pick replacements for Supreme Court and appellate judges before their post is vacant.
• The House is expected to take up a bill to allow for the legalization of medical cannabis, HB 843.
• Gov. Rick Scott travels to Largo to meet hold a press conference on manufacturing with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Final budget landed on lawmakers' desks at 8:35 p.m.

It's going to be a very long final day in the 2014 legislative session Friday. Forget that end-of-session happy hour celebration. Or at least postpone it.

The conference report -- the fancy name for the compromise state budget (HB 5001) -- reached all 160 lawmakers' desks at 8:35 p.m. Tuesday, which started the mandatory 72-hour cooling-off period before the budget can be adopted by both chambers.

As a result, the 2014 session cannot end until at least 8:35 p.m. Friday. If things should go awry, the Senate president and House speaker will have to pass an emergency resolution if the session is to go past midnight Friday.