Florida Democratic Party News Clips – June 12, 2012

FLORIDA DOESN’T HAVE A VOTER FRAUD PROBLEM, SCOTT HAS A POLLING PROBLEMBehind Scott’s rhetoric, voter suppression [Tampa Bay Times editorial] “Don’t be fooled by the governor, who has transformed his assault on voters’ rights into a political assault on President Barack Obama…But the broader issue here is not Homeland Security, and it’s not that anyone believes noncitizens should vote in Florida elections. The issue is that the governor of Florida is defying federal law and jeopardizing the voting rights of U.S. citizens.” 

AG “Roars Back” on voter purge [Miami Herald] “The state’s program is too ‘faulty’ and comes too close to election time to not endanger the voting rights of thousands of lawful U.S. citizens, Perez wrote. He said Florida has repeatedly ignored Homeland Security’s warning that the department’s database, known as SAVE, isn’t designed for the noncitizen hunt on which Florida embarked. ‘The significant problems you are encountering in administering this new program are of your own creation,’ Perez wrote. ‘Your claim that the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security have worked in concert to deny Florida access to the SAVE Program is simply wrong,” 

Feds, Florida in dueling lawsuits over voter purge [Palm Beach Post] “Perez wrote that Florida has been on notice for eight months that the federal database can only work if Florida provides more information than the name and date of birth of potential non-citizen voters, such as numeric identifiers in immigration paperwork or underlying immigration documents. 

FDP CHAIR ROD SMITH CALLS ON ROMNEY TO APOLOGIZE Florida Dem Chair Calls On Romney to Apologize While He’s In Orlando Today [FLDemocracy2012] “As Mitt Romney stumps in Orlando Tuesday, Florida Democratic Party chair Rod Smith issued a statement decrying the Republican candidate’s recent comments on cutting firefighters, police, and teacher jobs.”

New Obama TV ad in Florida questions Romney’s record as governor [Tampa Bay Times] “The latest salvo from the Obama campaign. The ad will air in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.” The script: “When Mitt Romney was governor, Massachusetts was number one — number one in state debt. $18 billion in debt — more debt per person than any other state in the country. At the same time, Massachusetts fell to forty-seventh in job creation — one the worst economic records in the country. First in debt. 47th in job creation. That’s Romney economics. It didn’t work then. It won’t work now.” WATCH “NUMBER ONE” HERE. 

THE “VOLATILE” #FLSEN PRIMARY: Little-known U.S. Senate candidate Marielena Stuart wins Pinellas GOP straw poll [Tampa Bay Times] “On Monday, Stuart nabbed 110 votes, former Sen. George LeMieux took 69 and frontrunner U.S. Rep. Connie Mack — who didn’t show for the poll — took 12. Former Rep. Dave Weldon got five votes, and retired Army Col. Mike McCalister, who also didn’t attend, got four.”

Tea Party divided over endorsement of Connie Mack [Miami Herald] “In a heated conference call with dozens of Tea Party supporters throughout the state late Sunday, Florida’s disparate Tea Party groups debated whether or not to endorse Republican Connie Mack” 

ON THE CONGRESSIONAL FRONT — DEMINGS LIKE A “SUPERHERO,” GRASSROOTS & NETROOTS LINE UP AGAINST WEST

“Val Demings is like an actual superhero” [The Daily Beast] “Demings started out as a beat cop in Orlando and worked her way up to become the city’s first-ever female chief of police. The mother of three boys saw the city’s violent crime rate fall by 40 percent under her leadership before she retired and set her sights on Congress. The youngest of seven children of a janitor and housekeeper, the “steady,” “determined” Demings is a clear favorite of Democrats, who put her at the top of the list of the hopefuls they’d like to see make it all the way to Washington.”

Netroots line up against Allen West [Politico] “How closely do progressives follow the freshman Republican’s campaign? Consider the fundraising of his Democratic opponent Patrick Murphy, which hint at it. Murphy, a first-time candidate, has raised more than $1.7 million through the first quarter alone — and more than $1.6 million of it is from individual contributions.”

OTHER NEWS WE THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW

Jeb Bush Questions G.O.P.’s Shift to the Right [New York Times] “Speaking at a breakfast with national reporters held by Bloomberg View in Manhattan, Mr. Bush questioned the party’s approach to immigration, deficit reduction and partisanship, saying that his father, former President George Bush, and Reagan would struggle with ‘an orthodoxy that doesn’t allow for disagreement.’” 

In Florida, Republican trials and tribulations [Tampa Bay Times column] “But what could be viewed as a fairly simple, run-of-the-mill case of greed has evolved into much more. Greer has argued that highly placed party officials such as Crist, state Sen. John Thrasher, House Speaker Dean Cannon, Senate President Mike Haridopolos and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio were all aware of what he was doing and nobody raised a peep of protest…It’s not Charlie Crist’s sexual orientation that should be scrutinized. It’s his decision to hand over the keys to the state Republican Party to a walking Gilligan’s Island.”

Antonio Villaraigosa to headline Fla Dems’ JJ gala [Tampa Bay Times] “Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will headline the Florida Democratic Party’s July 14 Jefferson Jackson dinner at the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood. “