Rick Scott

Unpopular Gov. Rick Scott Wants To 'Make Sure Florida Is The Model For The Country' (VIDEO)

David Taintor | September 14, 2011, 12:08PM

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) on MSNBC's Morning 9/14/11

Highly unpopular Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) sat down with the folks of Morning Joe on Wednesday to discuss the Republican presidential candidates' chances in Florida as well as some of his state's own issues.

Asked how Mitt Romney and Rick Perry would do in Florida, Scott said he thinks either candidate could win in a general election. And Scott doesn't think Perry will be in much trouble for calling Social Security a "monstrous lie" and a "ponzi scheme."

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2012

Huntsman's Big Endorsement: Jeb Bush Jr.

Benjy Sarlin | August 10, 2011, 9:17AM

Jeb Bush Jr.

Jon Huntsman is headed to Florida on Wednesday to accept an endorsement from Jeb Bush Jr. - son of the state's popular ex-governor Jeb Bush Sr. and a nephew of President George W. Bush.

Huntsman had teased the Florida visit as a "major announcement," sparking immediate speculation that Governor Bush, who has spoken highly of Huntsman in the past and is one of the party's most highly respected figures nationally, might declare his support. But the junior Bush is an established figure in the state as well and has helped lead efforts to bring Latino voters into the Republican fold.

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Rick Scott

Florida Gov. Rick Scott Hosts Anti-Abortion Law Celebration

David Taintor | August 1, 2011, 10:28AM

Rick Scott

Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) knows how to throw a party. The conservative governor on Saturday hosted pro-life activists and Florida lawmakers at the governor's mansion to celebrate a handful of new anti-abortion laws, the Miami Herald reports.

But the laws actually went into effect about a month ago, so why host the ceremonial bill-signing event now?

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Florida GOP

FL GOPer: Seniors Shouldn't Succumb To Dem 'Scare Tactics'

Susan Crabtree | July 13, 2011, 4:56PM

Seems like a certain candidate in the Sunshine State got Sen. Jon Cornyn's (R-TX) memo about dissing Democrats and President Obama for allegedly using Social Security scare tactics as leverage in the debt talks and is repeating it almost verbatim.

Former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, who is running for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) next year, wasted no time in repeating the contents of the Cornyn memo almost verbatim Tuesday, criticizing President Obama for threatening to stop sending seniors their Social Security checks if the government defaults on its loans and has to stop paying for some government functions.

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Medicare

Florida Tea Party Leader: GOP Medicare Plan A 'Public Policy Nightmare'

Brian Beutler | June 20, 2011, 11:29AM

Tea Party protesters on Capitol Hill

South Florida Tea Party Chairman Everett Wilkinson thinks the GOP budget -- and in particular its call to phase out Medicare and replace it with a marketplace for private insurance -- is a total disaster. He's saying that Republicans, including members in his sphere of influence like Rep. Allen West (R-FL), should back away from it.

In an email to fellow Tea Partiers last week, obtained by The Palm Beach Post, Wilkinson called the GOP plan a "public policy nightmare" that could trigger "huge Democratic wins in 2012," and prompt Republicans to blame the Tea Party for their losses.

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Paul Ryan

WATCH: Radio Host Cuts Off GOP Senate Candidate After He Dodges Questions On Ryan Budget

Benjy Sarlin | June 1, 2011, 1:26PM

Senate Candidate Mike Haridopolos (R-FL)

Mike Haridopolos, a Republican running for Senate in Florida, got so tangled up in answering a question the Paul Ryan budget in a radio interview that the host dropped his call mid-show.

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Rick Scott

Florida Governor Rick Scott Gives Thumbs Up To Public Worker Organizing

Brian Beutler | February 22, 2011, 4:07PM

Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL)

Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) is now to the right of Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) on the question of allowing public sector workers to unionize.

"My belief is as long as people know what they're doing, collective bargaining is fine," Scott said in an interview with Tallahassee's WFLA FM radio station.

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2010 elections

Rich Guys Finish Last? Big Spending Could Still Mean Big Failure In Florida Tuesday

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 23, 2010, 9:13AM

FL Gov. candidate Rick Scott (R) and FL Sen. candidate Jeff Greene (D)

How much does it cost to buy your way out of your past? In Florida, it looks like the answer is well north of $20 million to $30 million. That's at least how much the two rich guys trying to buy their way into the voter's hearts in the Sunshine State -- Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Greene and Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott -- have spent on their primary campaigns, respectively. And with a number of recent polls showing that each could be in trouble in the primaries they turned upside-down with their massive personal spending, it's starting to look like Tuesday could be the day rich guys finish last.

Each man brings a lot of personal baggage to his candidacy. Scott is the disgraced former executive of a hospital chain that was slapped with more than $1 billion in fines for defrauding the federal government on his watch. Greene has had to run away from past personal associations with such luminaries as Mike Tyson, Heidi Fleiss and Lindsay Lohan. And that was before he had to explain his way out of becoming a billionaire by betting the mortgage bubble would burst.

Greene and Scott both seemed to think that spending big and going negative on their establishment opponents would bring them political fortunes as big as the ones they keep at the bank (or, more likely, a series of banks and complex investment schemes that no lowly Internet reporter could imagine in his wildest dreams). The game plan was simple: use your lack of name ID to run as an "outsider," and use your overflowing war chest to trash your establishment opponent on TV.

The plan could still work. Greene and Scott could each still win. But there's been a clear shift in the polls, and with one day before primary voters go to the polls in Florida, it's looking more and more like a tough sell for both men.

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FL-GOV

PPP Poll: Dem Alex Sink Leads Both Republican Contenders in Florida Gov Race

Thomas Rhiel | July 21, 2010, 4:01PM

Florida Gov. candidates Bill McCollum (R), Alex Sink (D) and Rick Scott (R).

A new PPP survey of the Florida gubernatorial race shows Democrat Alex Sink leading both of her possible Republican opponents. The poll, released today, found Sink up 37%-23% against Republican state Attorney General Bill McCollum, with Independent candidate Bud Chiles at 14%. Against Republican Rick Scott, Sink leads 36%-30%, with Chiles receiving 13% of the vote. The previous PPP poll -- from early March, before Scott entered the race -- showed McCollum leading Sink by 13.

It's far from clear which Republican candidate Sink will face in the general election. The Republican primary has been increasingly nasty, and Scott has used his personal fortune to bury the establishment-backed McCollum with a barrage of ads. The Republican primary is August 24, and polls show Scott now running well ahead of McCollum.

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Florida Tea Party

Down The Rabbit Hole: Is The 'Florida Tea Party' Tied To Democrat Alan Grayson?

Christina Bellantoni | June 25, 2010, 11:55AM

Florida Tea Party official Doug Guetzloe, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) and tea cups.

The pieces of the Florida Tea Party puzzle are all a bit strange, and none fit together quite right. Republicans and activists say voters are being duped by former Democrats, an anti-tax radio host and college students who took an odd alliance and made it into an official third party -- the Florida Tea Party -- to put "TEA" on the ballot for the first time this fall. State Democrats were amused by the whole thing until several links between the Florida Tea Party group and Rep. Alan Grayson surfaced, complicating everything.

TPM has tracked down all the players, from a 23-year-old who caught tea fever to a talk radio station owner who canned two Tea Party members, and one thing is clear. When it comes to tea in Florida, everyone seems to be pointing a finger at everyone else.

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Cliff Stearns

Report: Joe Barton To Be 'Special Guest' At FL GOPer's Fundraiser

Jillian Rayfield | June 22, 2010, 3:53PM

Rep. Joe L. Barton (R-TX) and Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL)

Most Republicans have been doing backflips to distance themselves from Joe Barton, who apologized to BP last week for the $20 billion escrow fund set up to make BP pay for Gulf Coast oil spill damages.

But Barton reportedly still has at least one friend left: Florida Republican Cliff Stearns is having a fundraiser next week, and according to the Miami Herald, Barton is his "special guest."

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Florida Tea Party

Tea Partiers Plan To Combat 'Phony' Tea Party Candidates By Spelling Out T-E-A

Christina Bellantoni | June 22, 2010, 1:25PM

Tea party protester

Tea party activists in Florida who insist they are the real thing are about to mount a public education campaign to rebrand a group of candidates as fakers who won't adhere to principles of the movement.

Tea partier Tim McClellan, a political strategist based in Pompano Beach who is suing the Florida Tea Party, has a plan to prevent those Tea Party candidates from winning, and it involves spelling. He believes the 20 official Tea Party candidates we wrote about yesterday are phonies with ties to the Democratic party and an intent to confuse voters.

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Florida Tea Party

Florida Fakers? GOP Cries Foul Over 20 Tea Party Candidates

Christina Bellantoni | June 21, 2010, 2:35PM

Tea Party protest in Florida

Fearing that even marginal voter preferences for tea party candidates could spell doom in November, Republicans now claim that the dozen or more Florida Tea Party candidates running for statehouse seats are part of some Sunshine State shenanigans.

In the meantime, however, the tea partiers want the U.S. attorney to investigate claims that tea party candidates are being intimidated and threatened. The Democrats, meanwhile, swear they have nothing to do with the Tea Party candidates, even though at least 3 of them were once registered to vote as members of the Democratic Party.

It's an old-fashioned whodunit, fueled, in part, by the mysterious candidacy of Democratic Senate nominee Alvin Greene in South Carolina and the Tea Party of Nevada candidate who tea party activists there say is a faker.

Let's break it down.

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2010 elections

Have Republicans Already Blown Their Chance to Recapture The Senate?

Brian Beutler | June 15, 2010, 1:19PM

(clockwise, from top left) Sen candidate Sharron Angle (R-NV), Senator David Vitter (R-LA), Sen candidate Carly Fiorina (R-CA), Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL)

With nearly five months to go until Election Day, Republican hopes of retaking the Senate have dimmed and they're privately lamenting their lost opportunity. Until just a few weeks ago, Republicans considered winning a Senate majority a long shot but by no means out of reach. But the euphoria over Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts in January seems a distant memory now, especially after the latest round of primary results last week.

Primary victories by Carly Fiorina in California and Sharron Angle in Nevada bolstered a growing national narrative that Republican candidates are lightweights, or too outside the mainstream, to survive in the fall, and that could harm even top tier Republicans.

"There's now a path to 'acceptable losses' for Democrats," notes one cautiously optimistic Democratic strategist.

"I totally see how the number stops at five to seven [Republican pickups]" says a Republican consultant, speaking of an optimistic scenario for the GOP.

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Florida GOP

Crist On Greer Case: 'I Do Not Feel Complicit'

Ben Frumin | June 2, 2010, 12:36PM

Governor Charlie Crist (I-FL)

Gov. Charlie Crist said today that while he's "disappointed" about the news that his ally Jim Greer had been arrested, he doesn't feel responsible for Greer's actions.

"I do not feel complicit," Crist said.

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Marco Rubio

Game Changer? Rubio Charged Grocery Bills And Car Repairs To GOP-Issued Credit Card

Ben Frumin | February 24, 2010, 11:15PM

Senate candidate Marco Rubio (R-FL)

Florida Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio charged grocery bills, car repairs and a number of other personal expenses to a GOP-issued credit card during his tenure as speaker of the state's House, according to a report in the Miami Herald.

Records obtained by the newspaper show that during his time as speaker, from 2005 to 2008, Rubio charged $13,900 in personal expenses on the American Express the party issued him. That includes $1,000 for repairs to the Rubio family car. Among the other charges, which were covered by the party as "political expenses":

• $765 at Apple's online store for ``computer supplies.''

• $25.76 from Everglades Lumber for ``supplies.''

• $53.49 at Winn-Dixie in Miami for ``food.''

• $68.33 at Happy Wine in Miami for ``beverages'' and ``meal.''

• $78.10 for two purchases at Farm Stores groceries in suburban Miami.

• $412 at All Fusion Electronics, a music equipment store in Miami, for ``supplies.''

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Jim Greer

Florida GOP: Keep Obama Out of Our Schools!

Eric Kleefeld | September 2, 2009, 2:53PM

President Barack Obama

I just spoke with Florida Republican Party press secretary Katie Gordon, regarding state party chairman Jim Greer's denunciation of President Obama's upcoming national address to schoolchildren on Tuesday. Gordon stood by the party's press release -- and said that children should not be subjected to what she said is a clear attempt at political indoctrination by the Obama administration. Indeed, she said parents should be able to opt-out their kids from the speech.

The Department of Education's press release says about the address: "The President will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning. He will also call for a shared responsibility and commitment on the part of students, parents and educators to ensure that every child in every school receives the best education possible so they can compete in the global economy for good jobs and live rewarding and productive lives as American citizens."

But Gordon says there's a lot to be worried about. "I think that's certainly the concern, is that we don't know what this speech is about," said Gordon. "There's no advanced copy being given to parents, teachers or principals. I think that's certainly our concern, because if you look at the teaching tools that are being provided, it's certainly extremely biased."

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