Florida Democratic Party News Clips – July 2, 2012

DO FLORIDIANS REALLY TRUST THE MADOFF OF MEDICARE WITH HEALTHCARE? Gov. Scott putting politics above people in need [Tampa Bay Times column] “It doesn’t matter how many millions of Floridians are without health insurance. It doesn’t matter how high your insurance premiums climb. It doesn’t matter that emergency rooms have been turned into standing-room-only free clinics. Rick Scott still knows best…Rick Scott is so danged smart, he is willing to play with people’s lives…And so it looks like he doesn’t give a damn about people in need. He has offered no credible alternative to the health care reform law, and says he will turn down the federal government’s offer to provide health insurance.” 

State’s loser lawsuits waste taxpayer money [Miami Herald column]  “Ideology ain’t cheap. The current regime in Tallahassee, for example, has been spending a considerable chunk of taxpayer money on loser lawsuits of the ideological kind…Of course, there have been costs beyond all those appellate lawyers. Gov. Rick Scott refused to accept $106 million in federal grants tied to the health care act — a rather pricey bit of quixotic politics in a state so strapped for money.” 

Rick Scott loser of the week [Tampa Bay Times] “Florida’s governor, who rose from obscurity on the back of his opposition to the federal health care law, doesn’t seem to be taking losing easily. Only hours after telling reporters Friday that he was still studying how to respond to the Supreme Court decision, he went on Fox News to say he will not support implementing the law. This comes on the heels of him implying something different during a conference call organized by conservative groups. ‘If it’s declared constitutional and doesn’t get repealed, then we’ll comply with the law. … We’ll deal with all the issues we have to deal with when we know that it’s going to be the law of the land,’ he said June 20.”  

Supreme Court health care decision impacts locals [Orlando Sentinel]

State Must Play Catch Up On Health Care Law [WJHG] 

Floridians Need Governor Scott to Expeditiously Implement the Affordable Care Act [Orlando Sentinel opinion]

The law of the land [Miami Herald editorial]

More Bad Ink for Scott on Healthcare here.

SCOTT ALSO SLAMMED ON ECONOMY, LAND & WATER AND PURGE 

Growth and sprawl on the march [Tampa Bay Times editorial] “Gov. Rick Scott’s vision of Florida’s economic future looks a lot like its past: heavily dependent on grand-scale development that creates sprawl and environmental damage but comes with no money to pay for the consequences.” 

Peek at Florida corporate handouts isn’t pretty [Tampa Bay Times editorial] “Gov. Rick Scott’s administration late last month inadvertently gave Floridians a more complete picture of how their tax money is being given away to corporations in an expensive attempt to create jobs. It’s not a pretty sight, and it raises more questions about corporate welfare, secrecy and whether the money would be better spent investing in the state.”

Attacks on environment invite public suspicion [Orlando Sentinel editorial] “It’s hard to swallow the notion that Scott’s goal truly is an objective assessment of public lands. It wouldn’t stretch the imagination to envision scenic tracts coveted by private interests being deemed as surplus and sold off.”

Open and shut case on releasing records [Tampa Bay Times editorial] “Perhaps Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner needs a refresher course on his job duties. His department is the central repository for state government documents, and as such the secretary should know chapter and verse of the state’s open records law. But Detzner, who also oversees the division of elections, is refusing repeated requests to release a secret list of 180,000 voters whose citizenship his office believes might be in question.”

DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES PUSHING FLORIDA BLUE  Growing Puerto Rican population near Disney will be critical in picking a president [Tampa Bay Times] “This is ground zero for the changing demographics in America and a big reason why the long-celebrated swing voter battleground swath of Florida known as the I-4 Corridor is starting to turn into a Democratic stronghold…Given the demographic shifts, few political observers view this as Romney country.”

Enthusiasm Grows Among FL Latino Voters [Public News Service of Florida] “The survey found that 71 percent of Florida Latino voters say they are more enthusiastic about voting for him in November after his recent announcement allowing young undocumented workers here since they were children to apply for a work permit” 

Obama Floods Airwarves [Orlando Sentinel]  “President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign is already dropping millions of dollars in Orlando…’The more Florida voters learn about Mitt Romney and his pioneering efforts to outsource American jobs, the less they like him…The Orlando area will be a critical battleground this election, and Mitt Romney and the Republicans are  already falling behind — both on the air and at the doors.’ 

MACK, RUBIO PUT PARTISAN POLITICS AHEAD OF FL’S MIDDLE CLASS Mack & Rubio vote against Highway Bill [FlaDems] “Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Connie Mack IV today showed, yet again, that Florida’s Republican leaders are more interested in championing partisan politics and Tea Party extremism instead of doing what’s right for the middle class — voting against three critical measures which will help Florida’s families. Both Rubio and Mack voted against preventing the doubling of interest on student loans, voted against the RESTORE Act which would dedicate fines from the BP Oil Spill to Florida and the Gulf Region, and voted against funding to repair Florida and the nation’s highway infrastructure. “

SEE ALSO: Rubio faces Latino dilemma with his immigation stance [Tampa Tribune] “Rubio has suffered a setback in the highest-profile legislative initiative so far in his brief Senate career, his abortive proposal for an alternative to the DREAM Act…’But the party is so hostile to immigration it’s going to make it difficult for his position to gain favor.'” 

ON THE CONGRESSIONAL FRONT

Will Gloria Romero Roses Be the 1st Colombian-American in Congress? [Politics 365] “The first thing that Romero Roses says when she explains why she has chosen to enter the race to represent Florida’s 26th Congressional district is that she is not politician. “I see myself first as a mom and a businesswoman, and I’m a problem solver,” she asserted. Frustrated by the gridlock in Washington, Romero Roses says that she wants to use her problem solving skills to improve the lives of people in the 26th district.”

Oelrich hits Stearns as “Godfather of individual mandate” [Oelrich for Congress] ” Cliff Stearns, sponsored the “Consumer Choice Health Security Act” in the 1990’s, which was the first time in recent history that Congress had proposed the individual mandate. Decades before ObamaCare, Cliff Stearns proposed the individual mandate.”

OTHER NEWS WE THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW

Prospective Florida House Speaker Dorworth fends off fire from GOP rivals [Palm Beach Post] “Dorworth, an Orlando-area real estate investor whose finances have rollercoastered in recent years, faces two Republican opponents in an increasingly bitter Aug. 14 primary, with a Democratic challenger poised to take on the winner in November.”

RNC has its awkward notes: Greer, Paul, Scott [Tampa Bay Times] “The convention will come on the heels of the criminal trial of former Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer, charged with stealing more than $100,000 from the party. Greer has made it clear he won’t hesitate to highlight dirty secrets of Florida Republican leaders as he defends himself.”

Florida’s work-release centers quietly going private [Times/Herald] “When Gov. Rick Scott and legislators tried to privatize South Florida prisons, the state Senate rejected it. When the state sought to privatize health care for inmates, two unions filed suit, stalling it. Undeterred, the Department of Corrections is pursuing privatization on a new front.”