Florida Megathread

[IceSpear]

Crossposting: Smith says growing number of FLGOP insiders think Rubio will run for Governor in 2018.

Rubio doesn't exactly strike me as the Governor type.

Well, at least he's not a criminal, so by Florida standards he passes with flying colors.

[Maxwell]

Crossposting: Smith says growing number of FLGOP insiders think Rubio will run for Governor in 2018.

Rubio doesn't exactly strike me as the Governor type.

Well, at least he's not a criminal, so by Florida standards he passes with flying colors.

How funny do you think you are? Please divide this number by like 1000 to get the real answer.

[IceSpear]

Crossposting: Smith says growing number of FLGOP insiders think Rubio will run for Governor in 2018.

Rubio doesn't exactly strike me as the Governor type.

Well, at least he's not a criminal, so by Florida standards he passes with flying colors.

How funny do you think you are? Please divide this number by like 1000 to get the real answer.

I'd say 1,700,000,000 would be fitting.

[Devils30]

Rubio vs. Graham would be an interesting 2018 matchup. It seems good for Rubio now but the FL GOP has the simple problem that they have controlled the Governor's mansion for 20 years so voters might be willing to give a moderate Democrat like Graham a chance.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Crossposting: Smith says growing number of FLGOP insiders think Rubio will run for Governor in 2018.

Rubio doesn't exactly strike me as the Governor type.

Well, at least he's not a criminal, so by Florida standards he passes with flying colors.

Your obsession with Rick Scott is creepy.

[Donerail]

SaintPetersBlog calls it a 'wolf ticket'

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[Miles]

Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn looking at running for Governor.

[Free Bird]

Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn looking at running for Governor.

He moved from Iowa?

[Donerail]

Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn looking at running for Governor.

He moved from Iowa?

Somewhere Midwestern - he was born in Illinois but graduated from Penn State in 1980 (moved here in '82).

[Free Bird]

Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn looking at running for Governor.

He moved from Iowa?

Somewhere Midwestern - he was born in Illinois but graduated from Penn State in 1980 (moved here in '82).

Totally missed the joke

[Donerail]

Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn looking at running for Governor.

He moved from Iowa?

Somewhere Midwestern - he was born in Illinois but graduated from Penn State in 1980 (moved here in '82).

Totally missed the joke

Congratulations on your ability to recognize repetition of the letter 'B'. Your kindergarten teacher must be proud.

[Flake]

Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn looking at running for Governor.

He moved from Iowa?

Somewhere Midwestern - he was born in Illinois but graduated from Penn State in 1980 (moved here in '82).

Totally missed the joke

Congratulations on your ability to recognize repetition of the letter 'B'. Your kindergarten teacher must be proud.

A bit snarky

[RogueBeaver]

Atwater met with NRSC and Chamber this week.

[Donerail]

Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn looking at running for Governor.

He moved from Iowa?

Somewhere Midwestern - he was born in Illinois but graduated from Penn State in 1980 (moved here in '82).

Totally missed the joke

Congratulations on your ability to recognize repetition of the letter 'B'. Your kindergarten teacher must be proud.

A bit snarky

Hey, if you're gonna be funny on the Florida thread, at least be funnier than what we already do.

[Free Bird]

Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn looking at running for Governor.

He moved from Iowa?

Somewhere Midwestern - he was born in Illinois but graduated from Penn State in 1980 (moved here in '82).

Totally missed the joke

Congratulations on your ability to recognize repetition of the letter 'B'. Your kindergarten teacher must be proud.

Clearly someone didn't hang around the Congressional elections thread half-a year ago or so. The hostility there is unneeded.

[Flake]

Florida House Voter Registration

[morgieb]

Wow, Gwen Graham's district (and the state house districts that are inside it) has a lot of Dixiecrats.

[Flake]

Florida Sheriff Elections

• In Franklin County (60% D County under the two indy counties), the Sheriff was elected as a Democrat but is now a registered Republican
• In Calhoun County (45% D), the Republican only received 2.16%, being beat out by the Democrat and 6-8 indies
• Sheriffs are appointed, not elected in Dade County
• The Sheriff of Volusia County is a registered Republican, but Sheriff races up there are nonpartisan

[Donerail]

Always interesting to see how much of the Panhandle/North Florida/(not sure what you call the central swampy bit nobody lives in) is still run by Dixiecrats.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Weird that Indian River was fairly close.

[Dereich]

So tonight was the first round of the Jacksonville mayor's race and I decided I'd give a bit of a rundown on the whole thing. To start, a normal election will end up about 55/45 in favor of the Republican.

First, the losers:

Independent Omega Allen: Omega Allen formerly ran a small development agency and ran an independent leftist campaign. She had her moments, getting some good digs in on the mayor from the left in the last debate, but otherwise isn't worth much discussion. Atlas would have loved her, as with all leftists without a chance. Ended up with about 2% of the vote.

Republican Bill Bishop: City councilman and moderate favorite. He spent the campaign being too honest about his plans. He admitted he'd raise taxes as part of his plan to dredge the and fix the disastrous city pensions. He supported an earlier tax increase to prevent the firing of police officers, which the mayor opposed. He was seen as winning both of the debates and was endorsed by the Times-Union and pretty much every other local news outlet, but it didn't do him much good. I voted for him. He ended up with about 17% of the vote.

The Finalists:

Democrat Alvin Brown: The incumbent mayor, and winner of the first round. Alvin formerly worked in the Clinton administration under beloved Atlas icon Andrew Cuomo. Brown is a conservative Democrat who was barely elected 4 years ago after having the good luck of making the runoff against Mike Hogan, the candidate of an unholy alliance between the Tea Party and the First Baptist Church. Against this he managed to cobble together a coalition of black Democrats and business oriented moderate Republicans, barely squeaking through to become the city's first black mayor. His record has been mixed, to say the least. He's done some good developing downtown, he's managed to bring in some new businesses, didn't interfere with Shad Khan even though he didn't like him and overall had great success reducing unemployment. However, he's hidden away and dithered whenever controversial issues like the pension plan or human rights ordinance come up. He's also very egotistical, well known for putting his name and face everywhere; for example, the "Jacksonville Jazz Festival" became "Mayor Alvin Brown Presents the Jacksonville Jazz Festival". His inaction and fights over putting his name on things have driven off many of his initial business supporters and made him a sometimes enemy of Shad Khan, owner of the Jaguars and the city's most important benefactor. He also has been in hot water for trying to conduct secret negotiations with the unions over pensions, which resulted in a court order requiring openness. He would never make a controversial decision, fudging the numbers on budgets to reduce the need for unpopular action and leaping through hoops to never raise taxes, firing 150 police officers at one point to do so. He won round one with about 43% of the vote.

Republican Lenny Curry: The state GOP chair who stepped down to run for mayor. He's pretty much as establishment and standard a Republican as you'll get anywhere. It's hard to say too much about him because he's said nothing during the campaign and done nothing that'll hurt him. He's for "coming up with strategic plans" and against anything and everything that Mayor Brown has done in office. He's not a bad guy and by no means is he stupid, but he's shown no sign that he'll act with more backbone. The very least which can be said for him is that he's from the correct wing of the party: he won't campaign against the human rights ordinance or stop downtown development for religious reasons like some of his predecessors did. His connections will probably also lead to more money from Tallahassee. He got 38% in the first round.

Issues:

Human Rights Ordinance: An embarrassment to the city. The City Council was prepared to expand our Human Rights Ordinance to protect gays and lesbians from non-discrimination. Most cities already have these, and the push it this was led by liberals and the business community. Mayor Brown, at the urging of his minister, refused to support it and it narrowly failed in the council. Lenny Curry said he'd vote against this specific version of the ordinance, but is "against discrimination against gays in principle" whatever that means.

Taxes: Both sides promise to never raise taxes ever. Curry attacks Brown for a tax increase a few years ago that Brown vetoed, but was overruled on.

Dredging the port: Everyone want to do it, but nobody (but Bishop) will admit to having a plan on how to pay for it expect by begging Washington and Tallahassee for money.

Law and Order: Curry wants to rehire the 150 fired police officers but doesn't say how to afford them. Mayor Brown just tries to deny that there's been any increase in crime since the firing.

Pensions: This is still the big lurking terror. Business leaders are mad that Brown never fixed it, but he did try. Neither Brown nor Curry have definite plans, but they both say they'll fix it better than the other guy.

There is also a very competitive race for sheriff, where the well-regard incumbent is term limited out. That race will almost definitely be between Democrat Ken Jefferson and one of a few not really distinguishable Republican challengers. No choice for that is especially bad.

[Flake]

Omg, that's a lot of words

[Dereich]

I was bored and I never do long posts. Give me a break.

[Flake]

I was bored and I never do long posts. Give me a break.

I never said that I didn't enjoy the post

[Flake]

Murphy raises $750,000 the week after his announcement, $1.25 million for the quarter