This post is a plea for everyone reading to pay more attention to Soil and Water Conservation Board candidates. Few people even know that we elect members to deal with water issues, which inevitably means that the knowledge about candidates for this board is frequently inexcusably low. Combined with the fact that many of these […]
Never mind the Governor’s race, the real ugly politics are happening in HD 74. The primary house race here between two Republicans is shaping up to be one of the most bitter races this year and definitely one to watch. Republicans Julio Gonzalez and Richard DeNapoli are locked into an epic battle that is getting […]
I feel to a certain extent that my arguments about the Florida Legislature and Reapportionment are going in circles. For the last week, it has been abundantly clear to regular readers of this site where we stand on this matter. This is not about partisanship but about fundamental fairness and honoring the will of Florida’s […]
The Democrats are failing on reapportionment unless things change dramatically in the next 18 hours. With the opportunity of the decade in front of legislators, no coordinated House/Senate strategy has been implemented. Instead the GOP is likely to get away with another partisan gerrymander that breaks up communities of interest and once again strategically splits […]
For many months now the tension around activists involved the Gubernatorial Primary has reached a fever pitch. The name calling which has dominated social media in recent weeks reached a new level in the past seven days with the temperature rising seemingly on a daily basis. The willingness of some Nan Rich supporters to attack […]
By Debbie Simmons, owner of Shelbie Print & Copy, Inc. Presidential elections get a lot of attention here in the I-4 corridor, but despite having major implications for local business owners, workers and their families, local elections are all too often ignored by voters. It’s time to change that. As owner of Shelbie Press Print & […]
Al Gore’s 2000 victory in Orange County, the first in the county by a Democratic Presidential candidate since 1944 sent shockwaves through the consulting class of Florida’s GOP. Having just captured complete control of state government in 1998, Central Florida was thought of as a reliable Republican area, the top of the “Republican Horseshoe” that […]
This morning Florida House and Senate committees have been hard at work on Redistricting. The GOP has submitted maps which are likely to pass given the partisan conformity of the legislature. These maps submitted by the majority party reflect the arrogance and recklessness of the current leadership of the Legislature. Having failed to deliver constitutionally […]
Interesting nugget today in the Buzz blog. Something I have theorized for years appears to now have empirical evidence to back it up. From Adam Smith in the St Pete Times today: For those of you who haven’t yet finished the latest edition of The American Economic Review, Profs. Filipe R. Campante and Quoc-Anh Do […]
Florida Republicans Walking a Tightrope on Redistricting By Putting Politics Over Florida’s Citizens
Florida Republicans seem self-assured entering the Reapportionment Special Session which begins Thursday in Tallahassee. Having been rebuked for drawing unconstitutional districts, the leadership of the legislature seems to have no problem crying that a minor disruption to the election cycle is somehow worse than the citizens of the state being denied fair representation in unconstitutional […]
The Florida Squeeze 