Fact-checking Ted Cruz's claim about political arrests in Cuba

@amysherman1

The son of a Cuban immigrant, Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said that he hoped President-elect Donald Trump could press for change for Cubans following Fidel Castro’s death.

But in a Nov. 27 interview on ABC’s This Week, Cruz expressed some skepticism that anything will be better under Castro’s brother Raúl Castro, who began taking over in 2006.

"What the Obama administration has done is strengthen Raúl Castro. Raúl is the dictator now," Cruz said. "You know, I asked my dad at dinner last night, what do you think happens now that Fidel is dead? And he shrugged and said Raúl has been in power for years. The system has gotten stronger. ... You know, in 2015 roughly 10,000 political arrests occurred in Cuba. That is five times as many as occurred in 2010, when there were only about 2,000."

We were interested in his statistic, so we contacted Cruz’s office. Spokesman Phil Novack told us the senator slightly misspoke, but his point is still basically accurate.

Keep reading from PolitiFact Florida.

Who will Sen. Bill Nelson support for Florida Democratic Party chair?

@amysherman1

Sen. Bill Nelson, the key elected Democrat in Florida who will likely have influence in selecting the next Florida Democratic Party chair, hasn’t publicly revealed who he will support.

“The Senator is aware of some candidates who have expressed an interest and will be monitoring the upcoming local DEC elections which determine who is officially eligible to run,” said Pete Mitchell, Nelson’s former longtime chief of staff who is advising him on his 2018 campaign.

It appears that Nelson is waiting for some of the large Democratic counties to first elect their own leaders before he weighs in publicly on who should replace Allison Tant, who announced after the Nov. 8th election that she wouldn’t seek re-election in January.

Broward Democrats will elect their state committeeman and woman Saturday while the Miami-Dade party elects its leaders Tuesday.

Across Florida, committeemen and women vote for the state party chair according to a formula based on the number of registered Democrats in the county which means that Broward and Miami-Dade have the most influence.

Nelson is the lone statewide Democrat in elected office in Florida and the Republicans have placed a target on this back for 2018.

While Nelson easily beat U.S. Rep. Connie Mack in 2012, this time he could face a far more formidable opponent: Republican Gov. Rick Scott appears poised to run. A former hospital CEO, Scott can tap his personal wealth and friendship with President Elect Donald Trump.

Broward County Commissioner Steve Geller who has known Nelson for decades said he hasn’t heard from Nelson who he plans to support.

“When he weighs in I think for a lot of us that will be a very very important step,” Geller said. “He is the single individual that if he chooses to influence the race will have the most influence. Thus far I have not heard him choose to use it.”

In 2013, Nelson backed Tant.

Nelson will want a party chair who can help unify the party and raise millions of dollars. The key candidate who could generate big bucks for the party is Stephen Bittel, a prominent national fundraiser and Coconut Grove developer. Bittel told the Herald earlier this month he “might” want the position but he appears to be a serious candidate because he has been contacting Democratic activists. However, for Bittel to run would require some maneuvering because he isn’t a precinct committeeman, a prerequisite to run for the state chair position.

There is a long list of potential candidates to run for state chair. Sen. Dwight Bullard of Cutler Bay and Susannah Randolph, former district director for U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson have both said they will run for chair.

In-state college tuition rates for Florida's undocumented students could be in danger

via @clairemcneill

Heralded as a bipartisan victory when it passed, a Florida law granting in-state college tuition rates to undocumented students could now be in danger.

A bill filed Wednesday by conservative Florida Sen. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, seeks to erase that 2014 provision. Colleges no longer would have to waive out-of-state fees for undocumented students who attend Florida high schools.

"It is certainly a big issue in my district among my constituents, who were frustrated and upset that the state would allow undocumented illegal immigrants to receive taxpayer-supported in-state tuition," he said. "So I think it's important to file the bill and have a discussion on it."

Steube said he knocked on thousands of doors in his primary campaign. Unfailingly, voters asked about two things: the Second Amendment, and illegal immigration. He remembers one working-class man in particular, disappointed that after working so hard to put his family through college, the state would give undocumented immigrants a tuition break.

"I just don't think it's good public policy for the state," Steube said. "And with the change in leadership and the change in both of the chambers, I think it's a policy that is worth revisiting."

More than a decade of contention preceded the 2014 tuition bill. When it finally passed in a high-profile 26-13 vote in the Senate, Republican Gov. Rick Scott deemed it "a historic day."

"Just think," Scott said then. "Children that grew up in our state will now get the same tuition as their peers."

The vote felt like victory for Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, who sponsored the bill.

"The eyes of America are on us," he said. "I think we're setting an example. I think we're doing the right thing."

On Wednesday, Latvala had little to say about the new Senate Bill 82.

"First I've heard about it," he said. "I'm out of state, so I really don't want to talk about it until I've had a chance to take a look."

Before passing in spring 2014 with significant Republican support, the tuition proposal faced strong opposition within the party.

Then-Senate President Don Gaetz rebuked the bill in an email to his constituents, incensed that it would aid even those from countries rife with "anti-American violence." And incoming Senate president Joe Negron, R-Stuart, then chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said his committee wouldn't hear the bill, deflating its potential of becoming law.

Latvala crafted a strategy in response, adding the language to several other bills going before the panel to keep the effort alive. Student activists also kept the heat on Senate leaders, staging news conferences and pressing for meetings. Scott told reporters he considered the bill a priority.

On Wednesday, his office said it was taking a look at the new proposal.

Steube, who was elected to the Senate in 2016 after six years in the House, said he hasn't talked to Negron or Republican House Speaker Richard Corcoran about the legislation yet. But knowing of their previous opposition gave him hope.

Negron and Corcoran have not returned calls for comment.

The benefits of the bill are already being felt by young adults who were brought to the U.S. through no fault of their own, said Rep. Jeanette Nuñez, R-Miami, who sponsored the 2014 bill in the House. 

“This really isn’t an immigration bill, this is access to higher education,” she said. “I for one am focused on empowering families and being able to provide opportunities for students.”

Despite the Senate president’s likely support, she said she’s not too concerned about Steube’s bill just yet. She vowed to fight it tooth and nail.

“Clearly, in my mind, he’s still in campaign mode,” she said. “There’s a lot of football to be played, and we’re in the preseason at this point. Hopefully at the end of the day we’ll prevail.”

Photo credit: State Sen. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, in 2014 when he was in the Florida House. Scott Keeler / Tampa Bay Times

Gov. Rick Scott's key job creation agency gets new leader

@JeremySWallace

There is a new leader for the agency Gov. Rick Scott has most relied on to achieve his job creation campaign promises, but turmoil under the previous director still isn’t quite over.

Enterprise Florida agreed on Wednesday — with Scott in attendance during the entire two-hour meeting — to hire former Tampa state Rep. Chris Hart IV to run the embattled quasi-governmental agency that oversees the recruiting of businesses to relocate to Florida.

Hart, 48, has run the state's job training development agency, CareerSource Florida under Scott and prior to that he was the interim director of the Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development under former Gov. Charlie Crist from Jan. 2010 to early 2011. A Republican, he was in the Florida Legislature from 1998 to 2002.

"I'd like to thank you for inviting me to be apart of this grand adventure with all of you," Hart told Enterprise Florida board members at a meeting in Miramar Beach in Northwest Florida. "What better place than Enterprise Florida to help our fellow Floridians realize their hopes and their dreams and their aspirations."

Enterprise Florida board members are touting Hart's past as a state legislator as a sign that the agency will work better with the Florida Legislature, which gutted Scott's job incentives programs last year by refusing to give Scott any of the $250 million he requested. Incoming House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Pasco County, has declared the incentive program as "corporate welfare" that conflict with his view of government's proper role.

Hart will take over an Enterprise Florida that is still paying for issues left over from former CEO Bill Johnson. Enterprise Florida announced this week it had spent $107,000 since June on an outside accounting and management firm that specializes in taking on "distressed situations" and "helps clean things up." Another $10,000 might still need to go to that company, CFO Strategic Partners in Orlando, before they complete their task, said Rodney Ownby, vice president of accounting and finance at Enterprise Florida.

Full Story Here

Group of congressmen support Ingoglia for second term as Republican Party of Florida chair

@JeremySWallace

Seven members of Congress and four soon-to-be members are publicly throwing their support behind Republican Party of Florida chairman Blaise Ingoglia for a second term running the state party.

Ingoglia released the list of 11 members who will have votes when the Republican Party of Florida meets in January to vote on who will be the chairman through 2018.

"The organization Chairman Blaise Ingoglia put in place this past election cycle was crucial in delivering big wins from President-Elect Trump and Senator Rubio, our Congressional delegation, and the State Senate and State House,” U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, a Republican from Alachua County.

Others on the list: Reps Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor; Carlos Curbelo, R-Miami; Ron DeSantis, R-Ponte Vedra Beach; Tom Rooney, R-Okeechobee; Dennis Ross, R-Lakeland; and Dan Webster, R-Clermont. Congressmen-elect Neil Dunn, R-Panama City; Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach; Brian Mast, R-St. Lucie County; and John Rutherford, R-Jacksonville.

The list comes days after Ingoglia put out a list of 114 Republican activists who are supporting him.

But Ingoglia’s opponent Christian Ziegler, a Sarasota Republican, is hardly concerned about the lists. He says many of the people on Ingoglia’s list are county party chairs who are not seeking re-election this month, meaning they can’t vote in January when the race will be decided. He said there are others on the list who have encouraged him to run against Ingoglia so their endorsements may not translate into votes.

One example is Monroe County Republican Party chairwoman Debby Goodman, who after three terms as county party leader is not seeking re-election. Goodman said she won’t have a vote in January and said her name on the list “must have been an honest mistake.”

Ingoglia has since taken her name off his endorsement list.

Analysis shows Miami voters crossed party lines to support Curbelo and Ros-Lehtinen -- and Clinton

An new analysis of how Florida's congressional districts voted in November by Democratic data guru Matt Isbell shows that voters crossed party lines heavily in two Miami-Dade districts to re-elect Republican incumbents, despite overwhelmingly support for Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Isbell's data shows that if voters who supported Clinton had stuck with Democrats in the congressional vote, there would be 14 Repubicans in Florida's congressional delegation and 13 Democrats, instead of 16-11 split that was elected.

The principle takeaway: the partisan battleground lies in Miami but the battle grounds are already clear for 2018: newly-elected Democratic Congressman Charlie Crist better be wary, his district barely embraced Clinton; and Republican U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart's Miami district also only narrowly gave Trump the edge. 

The crossover votes came in Miami District 26, where Republican U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo fended off a challenge from his former rival, Democrat Joe Garcia 53 to 41 percent, with independent Jose Peixoto getting 6 percent of the vote. In Miami District 27, where Republican U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen kept her decades long hold on an otherwise Democratic district by defeating Democrat Mark Fuhrman 55 to 45 percent. 

Here's the breakdown via Matt Isbell of @mcimaps: 

New House education chairman who opposed school recess plan 'will take a look' at it in 2017

@ByKristenMClark

After being one of only two Florida House members to oppose it last session, Miami Republican Rep. Michael Bileca said he's open to considering a renewed effort to mandate recess time at Florida's public elementary schools.

But he indicated the proposal could still face some potentially tough scrutiny in 2017.

"I will take a look at it," Bileca told the Herald/Times. "The areas I had difficulty with were not changed (last session), so we'll need to see what's changed."

Although he's only one vote in the 120-member House, Bileca's opinion matters greatly because, as chairman of the Education Committee for the upcoming term, he has the power to influence the outcome of a wide range of education policy matters -- including this popular, parent-driven proposal.

Among Bileca's powers as chairman is deciding which bills are taken up by his committee. Failing to get a hearing is a frequent way bills die in session -- and it's how the recess measure stalled last spring in the Senate.

MORE: "Florida will again consider mandatory recess"

In filing a bill on Tuesday, Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, got the ball rolling to revive the Legislature's recess debate for next session. Rep. Rene Plasencia, the Orlando Republican who advocated for the issue last spring, is drafting the House companion.

"I know one of the things for me last year that I didn't like was it was tied to discipline," Bileca said, referencing a provision in last session's bill that read: "Free-play recess may not be withheld for academic or punititive reasons."

Bileca said he "expected modifications" in the proposal before it was brought to the House floor for a final vote but the bill was never altered.

Bileca and now-House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O'Lakes, were the only "no" votes when the measure passed the House, 112-2, in February. Corcoran's office did not respond to emails seeking comment this week about whether he would support a school recess proposal in the upcoming session.

While Plasencia's bill is still being drafted, the version Flores filed omits the line that concerned Bileca. It also doesn't include language affording recess time to sixth-graders who are enrolled at schools with at least one other elementary school grade, as last session's bill did.

In speaking with the Herald/Times, Bileca indicated the recess proposal could face a high bar as far as his support is concerned.

He noted that Florida already mandates physical education time, "a requirement that a lot of other states don't have." And he said: "My big focus for next session is going to be: Where are there areas we've over-regulated from the state level?"

One of the reasons the recess measure died last session in the Senate was because that chamber's education policy chairman at the time firmly believed it was a local issue that didn't "merit a Tallahassee solution."

Photo credit: State Rep. Michael Bileca, R-Miami, during the 2015 session. myfloridahouse.gov

'Building a wall is a phrase,' Rubio says

via @learyreports

Sen. Marco Rubio says he’s eager to get to work on Donald Trump’s agenda of ditching Obamacare and increasing border security, though Rubio implied that Trump’s wall was a rhetorical device.

“Building a wall is a phrase that is about securing the border and enforcing our immigration laws. And I think that's something we need to move on first,” Rubio said Tuesday night in an interview with Sean Hannity. “I've -- I've said now for a long time that it is the key that unlocks the door to be able to do anything else on immigration.”

Rubio’s comments reflect what other Republicans on Capitol Hill have said as questions have come up about the cost and feasibility of a wall, at least as Trump described it.

Rubio said he generally agreed with Trump’s domestic agenda but carefully noted potential differences on foreign policy. “We'll see how that develops. He's had -- as I said, he's never held public office before, so he said some things on the campaign trail. We'll see how that translates to foreign policy,” Rubio said.

House set to pass health bill with Miami ties

@PatriciaMazzei

The U.S. House plans to vote Wednesday on a wide-ranging health bill that includes several items of interest to South Florida.

The legislation, dubbed the "21st Century Cures Act," would exempt the University of Miami's Sylvester Cancer Center from Medicare reimbursement cuts imposed on hospitals last year -- a protection that should help Sylvester expand, according to the office of Miami Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Also included in the bill is language Ros-Lehtinen and Boca Raton Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch drafted to direct federal health grants to train physicians and educators about early signs of eating disorders. In addition, the legislation supports federal drug courts modeled in part like the state ones pioneered in Miami.

The Cures Act had been passed by the House before, but the Senate objected to some provisions. The new version is a result of negotiations between both chambers.

Perhaps the best known part of the legislation in South Florida is lifting a restriction to allow the Food and Drug Administration to authorize, on an emergency basis, the use of technologies such as a genetically modified mosquito to combat the Zika virus.

In op-ed, Curbelo calls on Trump administration to be 'inclusive'

From a Miami Herald op-ed column penned by newly reelected Miami Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo:

A long and uninspiring election season has come and gone. Americans from all regions of the country, with diverse backgrounds and beliefs, cast ballots for candidates who best represented their vision for the future. Since Election Day, we have seen a wide array of emotions, from celebration to protest. As the dust settles and we look towards the future, officials at all levels must put politics aside and serve the people who elected them to make government more efficient.

I have been given the honor of returning to the U.S. House of Representatives for another two years to represent our South Florida community in Congress. Throughout the campaign, the theme I reiterated to constituents was the need for civility, the need to put people and ideas above petty politics. Campaigns might focus on personalities and personal attacks, but governing requires thoughtfulness and consensus-building. Those who govern must lead serious discussions of ideas for making our community and the country better places to live and raise a family. This is the only way we can hope to restore Americans’ trust and confidence in government and its institutions.

[...]

But we won’t be able to accomplish anything noteworthy unless all parties have a seat at the table to share their views and contribute. I encourage the new administration to be inclusive. It didn’t take me long to learn that without bipartisan cooperation little gets done in Washington. The best laws are often products of compromise and negotiation.

More here.