Peter Schorsch
Sunburn – The morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics.
By Peter Schorsch, Phil Ammann, Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster, Mitch Perry and Jim Rosica.
BULLETIN via the Associated Press – 4:32 a.m. – Janet Reno, the first woman to serve as U.S. attorney general and the epicenter of several political storms during the Clinton administration, has died. She was 78. Reno died early Monday from complications of Parkinson’s disease, her goddaughter Gabrielle D’Alemberte said. D’Alemberte said Reno spent her final days at home in Miami surrounded by family and friends.
DAY PENULTIMATE
Just call it “Checkmate State.” The candidates sure are.
“Did you know how important you are,” asked Democrat Tim Kaine during a campaign stop Saturday. “You guys are very, very important.”
Yeah, we know.
Over the course of the weekend, presidential hopefuls and their surrogates crisscrossed Florida in hopes of rallying support ahead of Election Day. The sprint came on the final weekend of early voting, revving up party faithful, and maybe even swaying an undecided voter along the way.
While Republicans Donald Trump and Mike Pence both made stops in Florida — Pence appealed to voters in Miami Friday, and Trump rallied supporters in Tampa Saturday — Democrats dominated the weekend. And we’re not just talking about campaign stops.
But there were campaign stops: Hillary Clinton rallied Broward County supporters in the pouring rain. Kaine spent two days in the Sunshine State, finishing in Melbourne and deep-red Lee County before rocking out with Jon Bon Jovi at a rally in St. Petersburg.
Former President Bill Clinton snapped selfies and stumped for his wife in Gainesville, before rolling into Jacksonville Saturday. The Rev. Jesse Jackson encouraged early voting, and former presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley even got in the game to promote turnout in Duval.
And Sunday, one of Clinton’s top surrogates, President Barack Obama, returned to Florida to get out the vote.
Is it working? We won’t know until the polls close Tuesday, but millions of Floridians have already voted. And if pre-election numbers are any indication, Democrats are turning out the vote.
More than 6.15 million Floridians had voted as of Sunday. According to the Division of Elections, Democrats now lead Republicans by a margin of more than 32,000 votes with more than 2.43 million registered Democrats and 2.4 million Republicans casting ballots already.
The polls remain just as close, with RealClearPolitics showing Clinton has an average lead of less than 1 percent in Florida. So it’s no wonder the full-court press in Florida continues today.
Trump is scheduled to hold his final Florida rally at 11 a.m. at the Roberts Arena at the Sarasota Fairgrounds, 3000 Ringling Blvd. in Sarasota.
Vice President Joe Biden and wife, Jill, will attend a get out the vote rally at 1:15 p.m. at Florida A&M University, 1668 South Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in Tallahassee. The Bidens will then make their way to St. Petersburg for a 5 p.m. get out the vote event and concert at 5 p.m. at Albert Whitted Park, 480 Bayshore Drive SE in St. Petersburg. The musical guest? Jimmy Buffett.
FOR THE LATEST UPDATES ON THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE bookmark our live-blog: “Live-blogging the final hours of the presidential race”
VOTERS ARE VOTING UPDATE – As of 4:01 a.m. Monday morning, 2,536,310 vote-by-mail ballots have been returned for the November general election, and 3,616,444 people have voted early across the state. Registered Republicans lead in vote-by-mail ballots to Democrats 1,043,641 to 974,202, but Democrats lead GOP voters in early voting 1,461,536 to 1,359,561. A total of 1,165,144 other party and no-party voters have returned ballots to their local supervisors of elections or voted early. The state’s website for vote-by-mail and early voting statistics is here.
TWEET, TWEET: @DeFede #BREAKING Record setting day for early voting in Broward (44,216) and Miami-Dade (53,095) – unprecedented numbers for single day
— “Final day of early voting in Florida draws surge of voters” via Steve Bousquet, Paul Guzzo and Mark Puente of the Tampa Bay Times
WHILE YOU WERE WATCHING THE NFL – FBI: NO CHARGES AGAINST HILLARY CLINTON AFTER NEW EMAIL REVIEW via The Associated Press – FBI Director James Comey abruptly announced Sunday that a review of newly discovered emails sent or received by Clinton has not changed his conclusion that the Democrat should not face criminal charges. His announcement came in a letter to congressional lawmakers two days before Election Day. Comey said the FBI has worked “around the clock to process and review a large number of emails” obtained from a device belonging to Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former congressman and estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. He said the review has not changed the bureau’s assessment from earlier this year that Clinton should not be prosecuted for her handling of classified information at the State Department. The new review has roiled the presidential campaign in its final days, shattering what had appeared to be Clinton’s solid grip on the race and emboldening Republican Donald Trump. During a campaign stop earlier Sunday, Trump warned that Clinton would be under investigation as president, prompting an “unprecedented constitutional crisis.”
PAM BONDI: FBI NOT PROSECUTING CLINTON PROVES ‘THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN’ via Michael Auslen of the Tampa Bay Times – Bondi says she still believes Clinton is not qualified for a job with a security clearance — such as the presidency — because she was “extremely careless.” … Bondi told Fox’s Neil Cavuto that Clinton would have a hard time getting a security clearance. “How can we have a president who cannot have security clearance?” Bondi said. “That’s unreal to me. Comey alerted Congress earlier in the day that there was no need to change the FBI’s decision not to recommend that charges be pressed. To Bondi, one of Trump‘s most prominent Florida supporters, that’s proof that the mechanisms of government in Washington, D.C., aren’t functioning as they’re supposed to. “This confirms everything Donald Trump’s been saying about the system,” Bondi said. “The system is dysfunctional. The system is broken. And Hillary Clinton is the system.”
— “The FBI just absolved Hillary Clinton. but that doesn’t undo the damage” via Philip Elliott of Time magazine
FINAL POLL: CLINTON LEADS DONALD TRUMP BY 3 AS VOTERS LOCK IN via Steven Shepard and Jake Sherman of POLITICO – Forty-five percent of likely voters support Clinton, while 42 percent would vote for Trump, according to the poll, which was conducted by Morning Consult Friday and Saturday. Despite a topsy-turvy, nearly-two-year-long campaign, the election is ending on a note of stability: Clinton’s 3-point margin over Trump is identical to last week’s POLITICO/Morning Consult survey, though both candidates’ vote shares have risen as undecided voters have made their choice … But there remains a source of uncertainty in the eventual outcome: A combined 12 percent of likely voters say they will cast their ballots for Libertarian Gary Johnson (8 percent) or Green Party nominee Jill Stein (4 percent), neither of whom is likely to win a single state … The poll shows a shrinking gender gap in the final days of the campaign. Trump leads by just a single point among male voters, 44 percent to 43 percent. Clinton, meanwhile, has a 6-point lead among women, 47 percent to 41 percent.
— WaPo/ABC — Clinton 48 percent, Trump 43 percent
— NBC/WSJ – Clinton 44 percent, Trump 40 percent
DON’T IGNORE THE POLLS — CLINTON LEADS, BUT IT’S A CLOSE RACE via Nate Silver of Five Thirty Eight — Two weeks ago, I noted the unusually wide spread in national polls, which showed margins ranging from a 14 percentage point lead for Clinton to a 1-point lead for Trump. Now, the results have shifted toward Trump, but the range has narrowed. Of 14 national polls since Oct. 28, when FBI Director James Comey put Clinton’s email server back in the news, all but one show somewhere between a 5-point lead for Clinton and a 1-point lead for Trump.
… On average across the 14 polls, Clinton’s lead is 1.9 percentage points. Chuck out the Los Angeles Times poll, which has been an outlier all year, and her lead is 2.5 percentage points. … The point is that however you slice the data, you end up with a Clinton lead in the range of 2 to 3 percentage points. Our national polling average, which weights the higher-rated polls more heavily, is slightly toward the higher end of that range, showing her up by 2.8 points.You can also see that Clinton’s swing-state advantage is slender based on some of the higher-quality state polls to come across the wire in the past 24 hours: Clinton is tied in Florida and down 1 point in Ohio, according to YouGov. A Columbus Dispatch poll — conducted entirely by mail! — has Clinton up by 1 point in Ohio instead. Clinton trails in Iowa by 7 points, according to the Selzer & Co. poll for the Des Moines Register. Clinton is up 4 in Pennsylvania, according to a Muhlenberg College poll. And Clinton has only a 5-point lead in New Mexico, according to a poll for the Albuquerque Journal.
… All of this data are nevertheless consistent with Clinton being an Electoral College favorite. She has a 64 percent chance of winning the Electoral College in our polls-only model and 65 percent in polls-plus, putting her somewhere in the range of being a 2-1 favorite. At the same time, it shouldn’t be hard to see how Clinton could lose. She’s up by about 3 percentage points nationally, and 3-point polling errors happen fairly often, including in the last two federal elections. Obama beat his polls by about 3 points in 2012, whereas Republicans beat their polls by 3 to 4 points in the 2014 midterms. If such an error were to favor Clinton, she could win in a borderline landslide. If the error favored Trump, however, she’d be in a dicey position, because the error is highly correlated across states. … To be honest, I’m kind of confused as to why people think it’s heretical for our model to give Trump a 1-in-3 chance — which does make him a fairly significant underdog, after all. …But the public polls — specifically including the highest-quality public polls — show a tight race in which turnout and late-deciding voters will determine the difference between a clear Clinton win, a narrow Clinton win and Trump finding his way to 270 electoral votes.
CLINTON HAS SOLID LEAD IN ELECTORAL COLLEGE; TRUMP’S WINNING MAP IS UNCLEAR via Nate Cohn of The New York Times — Over the last few days of the race, Trump intends to travel all over the country. He’s going to Florida, North Carolina, Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and even Minnesota, he said Saturday. It’s an impressive travel schedule, but it may reflect the biggest challenge facing him right now: It’s still not clear exactly where and how he would win. Clinton has a consistent and clear advantage in states worth at least 270 electoral votes, even if the race has undoubtedly tightened over the last few weeks. But even that understates the challenge facing Trump’s campaign: It’s not at all obvious where he has his best chance of breaking through, making it harder for him to concentrate his efforts over the last days of the campaign. This is not to say that Trump can’t win. The polls could be off across the board. But even if he wins Arizona, Iowa, Ohio, Utah, North Carolina, Florida and New Hampshire, he’s still short of a victory. He’s not assured to win any of those states, to be clear — although he’s a clear favorite in Iowa and Utah at this point. But he would still need to win one of the following states: Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado, Virginia, or perhaps New Mexico or Minnesota. … (T)he polls are close enough that the possibility of a victory for Trump is still quite real. But it’s just not clear exactly how or where he would break through. It doesn’t seem that the Trump campaign knows either.
THREE PATHS THAT DELIVER TRUMP THE WIN via Shane Goldmacher of POLITICO – His chances are slim, but three narrow paths could still deliver 270 electoral votes … With three full days left in the campaign, Trump‘s pathway to the presidency is narrow, defined and unforgiving. It begins by the Republican nominee, who continues to trail Hillary Clinton in most national polls, sweeping three must-win electorally rich battleground states: Ohio (18 electoral votes), Florida (27) and North Carolina (15) … From there, Trump must also hold all the states that Mitt Romney won in 2012, including Utah, Arizona and Georgia. 1. Win the Keystone State: Pennsylvania (20): 273 electoral votes … 2. Cobble together four states Iowa (6), Nevada (6), Maine-2 (1), New Hampshire (4): 270 electoral votes … 3. Pull off a shocker Combine Iowa (6) and/or Nevada (6) with some wild card state: Michigan (16), Wisconsin (10), Virginia (13), Colorado (9), New Mexico (5).
TRUMP RUSHED OFF STAGE BY SECRET SERVICE AT RALLY via Zeke Miller of Time magazine – Speaking at a rally three days before Election Day, Trump was rushed off stage by two Secret Service agents just after 6 p.m. local time after a disturbance near the front of the Reno-Sparks Convention Center hall. Secret Service agents, Trump Security, and a local SWAT team could be seen rushing an area near the stage moments after Trump was escorted out of the room. It appeared one person was removed by law enforcement. Several civilians told reporters that they had observed a person with a gun at the rally, and supporters could be heard shouting “he’s got a gun” before agents rushed toward Trump … authorities did not recover a weapon. It appears that the crowd overreacted to a person raising a sign, and someone shouted “gun,” … According to a representative for the U.S. Secret Service, “Mr. Trump was removed from the stage by his Secret Service protective detail after a commotion occurred in the crowd, immediately in front of the stage and an unidentified individual shouted ‘gun.’” “Secret Service agents and Reno Police Officers immediately apprehended the subject,” the representative added. “Upon a thorough search of the subject and the surrounding area, no weapon was found. A thorough investigation is ongoing at this time by the U.S. Secret Service and the Reno Police Department.”
AT RALLY IN TAMPA, TRUMP CALLS CLINON A CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS IN THE MAKING. AND HE KISSES A BABY via the New York Times – For most of Trump’s rally … he stuck to his favorite lines of attack, warning that Clinton would pillage the pocketbooks of regular Americans and work to enrich her cronies. But amid promises to build a wall along the southern border and a vow to take on the Islamic State, Trump showed that even he had a soft spot when it came to babies. “Oh, look, a future construction worker,” Trump said, pointing to an infant in the crowd. “Look, look at that baby. He’s so cute. Oh, give me that.” Click on the image below to watch the scene.
— “Donald Trump campaign swings through Bay County” via Jon Henderson of the Panama City News-Herald
***Today’s SUNBURN is brought to you by Bright House Networks for Business, your trusted provider of industry leading communications and networking services for any size business – from startup to enterprise, and everything in between. We offer a full portfolio of products and services, including Business Phone and cloud-based Hosted Voice, Business Internet at speeds up to 350 Mbps to fiber-based Dedicated Internet Access, several tiers of high-quality HD Video programming, and an array of advanced cloud and managed IT services. Our solutions are customized to fit your business, your budget and your industry. We own, manage and maintain our network, which means we are 100% accountable; and we’re locally based, which allows us to be immediately responsive to our customers. Find out why so many businesses in your area trust their communications needs to Bright House Networks. Learn more.***
CLINTON, TRUMP MAKE CLOSING ARGUMENTS IN NEW ADS via Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster of Florida Politics — Both campaigns released advertisements Saturday, with each painting a starkly different picture of the election. The new ads come as polls show a dead heat between the two candidates. According to RealClearPolitics, Clinton leads Trump nationwide on average 1.8 percentage points. The Clinton campaign released a 60-second spot featuring the Katy Perry song “Roar.” The ad features images of voters and scenes from campaign stops as the words “I’m voting for …” scroll across the screen. The ad ends with the words “I’m voting for a president,” before Clinton is heard saying she approves the message. The disclaimer at the end of the ad is the only time Clinton is heard speaking in the advertisement. By contrast, the Trump campaign released a 2-minute spot — called “Donald Trump’s Argument for America” — narrated by the candidate. And while the Clinton spot is largely positive, the Trump ad has a more negative tone. “The political establishment that is trying to stop us is the same group responsible for our disastrous trade deals, massive illegal immigration, and economic and foreign policies that have bled out country dry,” the GOP nominee is heard saying in the advertisement. “The political establishment has brought about the destruction of our factories and our jobs, as they flee to Mexico, China and other countries all around the world.
AT KISSIMMEE RALLY, BARACK OBAMA SAYS, “IF WE WIN FLORIDA, IT’S OVER” via John Kennedy of the Palm Beach Post – “All the progress we’ve made, it goes out the window if we don’t win the election,” Obama told about 11,000 people at a baseball stadium. “And we win this election, if we win Florida. “If we win Florida, it’s a wrap. If we win Florida, it’s over,” he said. Polls show the state remains a toss-up heading into the presidential campaign’s closing days and Obama’s visit underscored the significance of Florida and its 29 electoral votes … Trump also is out to claim the state, campaigning Saturday in Tampa and with plans to return [today] for an Election Day-eve rally in Sarasota. Trump’s path to the White House relies much on winning Florida and several other key battleground states. He planned to barnstorm across five states Sunday, while Clinton was campaigning in Ohio — with Cleveland Cavaliers’ star LeBron James — and New Hampshire.
THE SMARTEST GUY IN THE ROOM THINKS CLINTON WILL WIN FLORIDA via Florida Politics – It’s during times like this that I am grateful for my friendship with Ryan Tyson of Associated Industries of Florida. At this point in the game, he is the smartest guy in the room. “Ryan’s intellect is matched only by his incredible capacity to question everything, to guess at nothing, and to demand excellence of himself and everyone around him,” says Democratic strategist Steve Vancore, founder of VancoreJones Communications … what Tyson is telling the people who write six- and seven-figure checks to finance his operation is that Clinton will win Florida, somewhere in the range of two to four points. For those who say African-American voter turnout is not where it was in 2012, Tyson will tell you a surge in Hispanic voter participation is making up for it. Tyson is also telling his members Marco Rubio will win re-election, but that’s not much a surprise at this point. If Clinton is able to win the Sunshine State, there’s really no path to victory for Donald Trump. So for Clinton supporters, steady. Steady.
— The CBS News battleground tracker has a 45-45 tie in Florida.
WHAT MARC CAPUTO THINKS: “The Democrats’ lead of 7,280 ballots cast pales in comparison to their advantage of about 104,000 early and absentee votes four years ago, however, the state’s voter rolls have shifted significantly, and neither Republicans nor Democrats can lay claim to having a clear advantage.”
WHAT STEVE SCHALE THINKS: “I think it’s trending well for HRC, but it’s definitely a toss-up state.”
WHAT CONVENTIONAL WISDOM THINKS – FLORIDA INSIDER POLL: PREDICTING TUESDAY’S ELECTION via Adam Smith of the Tampa Bay Times – The results? Almost two-thirds expect Clinton will win Florida, all but guaranteeing she wins the White House. More than 3 out of 4 think she will win the presidency, regardless of whether she wins the Sunshine State. Almost 95 percent expect Rubio to beat Murphy for U.S. Senate. Nearly 9 in 10 expect the medical marijuana ballot initiative to pass. Seven in 10 doubt that the utility-backed amendment relating to solar power — and opposed by most consumer groups — will reach the 60 percent threshold needed to pass. “I expect in Florida the main difference between Donald Trump losing and Marco Rubio winning will be the Hispanic vote. But we will see soon enough!” said one independent voter. “Trump’s worst week of entire campaign (first debate, Twitter wars, tape) came at best time for (Clinton) — right when (mail ballots) were dropping and being returned,” a Republican said. “If Trump loses, you can point to that week specifically.”
WILL HISPANIC ‘INVERSE TRUMP EFFECT’ SWAY FLORIDA via George Bennett of the Palm Beach Post — Florida Hispanic voters are voting by mail and casting ballots at in-person early voting sites in much greater numbers than four years ago, says University of Florida Political Science Prof. Daniel A. Smith. Smith, a noted electoral numbers cruncher who posts at Electionsmith.com, stated that Hispanic turnout for in-person early voting was up 152 percent over a comparable period four years ago. In an interview, Smith called it the “Inverse Trump Effect” in honor of Trump, whose hard-line stance on immigration and 2015 reference to Mexican “rapists” have contributed to his low polling numbers among Latinos. A Univision poll this week finds Clinton beating Trump by a 60-to-30 percent margin among Florida Hispanic voters. President Barack Obama carried the Florida Hispanic vote by a 60-to-39 percent margin over Mitt Romney in 2012, according to exit polls. Through Thursday, Hispanic turnout appears to be roughly proportionate to the composition of Florida voter rolls. Hispanics are 15.7 percent of all voters in Florida. Smith said about 744,000 Hispanics had voted through Thursday — that’s about 14 percent of the nearly 5.3 million early and mail-in votes cast at that time. The overall Hispanic electorate in Florida is 39.5 percent Democrat and 25.4 percent Republican. About 35 percent of Hispanics aren’t registered with either major party — significantly higher than the 26.7 percent of all Florida voters who shun the major parties.
DEMOCRATS DEPLOY STREAM OF SURROGATES TO CAMPAIGN FOR CLINTON IN JEWISH COMMUNITY via Anthony Man of the South Florida Sun Sentinel – The final weeks of the presidential campaign have featured a stream of surrogates campaigning for Clinton in the Jewish community in Broward and Palm Beach counties. For Democrats, Jewish voters are an important component of the coalition of voting blocs that can produce statewide victories in Florida. While Jewish voters aren’t as big a component as black or Hispanic voters, they are overwhelmingly Democratic — and vote at higher rates than the overall electorate, said Kenneth D. Wald, the Samuel R. “Bud” Shorstein Professor Emeritus of American Jewish Culture & Society at the University of Florida. Wald estimated that Jews make up 4 percent to 5 percent of the electorate in Florida, a “significant share of the vote,” given that all recent polls show the contest between Clinton and Trump is exceedingly close in Florida. Wald said, “The Trump impact has been really bad for Republicans.” Among the differences this year: The Republican Jewish Coalition, a national group with a Florida presence, hasn’t been as active in Florida as it was in 2008 and 2012 … The RJC isn’t mounting the same kind of massive, public efforts this year … Wald examined the top 40 Jewish Republican donors to political campaigns and found about a third have publicly come out against Trump.
JIMMY BUFFETT TO PERFORM AT GOTV RALLY IN ST. PETERSBURG via Florida Politics – Buffett is scheduled to perform at a get-out-the-vote rally for Clinton, Patrick Murphy and Charlie Crist … The event is meant to urge voters to get to the polls on Election Day. Buffett is expected to be joined by Murphy and Crist. He’ll also perform a short set of songs with Country Music Musician of the Year Mac McAnally … Mayor Rick Kriseman will welcome Buffett and the candidates. The event is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at Albert Whitted Park in downtown St. Petersburg. The event is free and open to the public.
— “Inside Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s final dash” via Sam Frizell of Time Magazine
— “Rain shortens Hillary Clinton’s Broward County rally” via George Bennett of the Palm Beach Post
— “Former president Bill Clinton visits Gainesville” via Andrew Kaplan of the Gainesville Sun
TWEET, TWEET: @MacStipanovich: This is the first Souls to the Polls Sunday in my life that I’m not going to spend on my knees praying for rain. #NeverTrump
TRUMP CAMP: WE’RE IN BETTER SHAPE IN FLORIDA THAN ROMNEY WAS IN ‘16 via Adam Smith of the Tampa Bay Times – Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said on a conference call with reporters … that the campaign sees six different, plausible paths to 270 electoral votes. She seemed to acknowledge that ever yone requires winning Florida. Asked specifically if any path did not include Florida’s 29 electoral votes, she said this: “Everybody knows how important Florida is,” said Conway, who used to poll Florida for the Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald along with Democrat Tom Eldon. “Both the Clinton and Trump campaigns have obviously laid a lot out on the field in Florida. We like a lot of the internal and extrernal polling numbers in Florida and we very much like the early voting/absentee ballot information we’ve been receiving out of the field. We’re a lot closer in 2016 than Gov. Romney was in ’12 with respect to early voting/absentee ballot requests, and he made Florida pretty competitive even though he lost it in the end.”
FUTURE 45 ATTACKS CLINTON IN NEW FLORIDA AD — The Republican super PAC took to the airwaves Friday as part of a $25 million national ad buy attacking Clinton. The 30-second spot, called “Inauguration,” appears to show Clinton taking the oath of office, before a narrator interrupts telling viewers “not so fast.” The narrator then says “Clinton destroyed 30,000 emails, many under subpoena. The FBI director said Clinton’s claims on classified material were not true. Clinton has faced numerous criminal investigations, and 60 percent of Americans think she’s not honest. Now the FBI has reopened the investigation of Clinton’s email scandal. Should we invest a president too consumed by scandal to lead?” The spot will air in several battleground states, including Florida. The super PAC is backed by Joe Rickets and GOP donors Sheldon and Miriam Adelson. Click on the image below to watch the ad.
JACKSONVILLE’S DAILY NEWSPAPER ENDORSES TRUMP via First Coast News – The Florida Times-Union [published the] endorsement in Sunday’s newspaper. Throughout the race for president, almost every major market newspaper in the country has endorsed Clinton, including usually conservative papers like the Arizona Republic and the Dallas Morning News. The only larger market newspaper in the country that has endorsed Trump so far is the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a newspaper owned by Trump backer and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. The Times-Union is the flagship paper of Morris Communications, an Augusta, Georgia-based, family-owned corporation known for conservative policies and editorial stances. A presidential endorsement is normally the brainchild of the paper’s editorial board, but … this endorsement was a top-down directive from Morris. Speaking off the record, several employees expressed concern with the endorsement, in light of Trump’s statements about women and minorities … Times-Union editor Frank Denton … reaffirmed the paper’s endorsement. “The endorsement itself is self-explanatory,” he said. “And in keeping with the traditional conservative values of William Morris newspapers.” He admitted there was internal grumbling at the paper about the endorsement and added that no matter who the paper endorsed there would be grumbling. “The editorial board handles local races,” he said, “but we defer to our ownership on the presidential endorsements.”
INSIDE BUZZFEED’S SCRAMBLE TO PRODUCE AN ELECTION NIGHT LIVE BROADCAST ON TWITTER via Todd Spangler of Variety — BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief Ben Smith wants to boost its credibility as a hard news outlet with the company’s most ambitious live event yet: an election-night broadcast, distributed exclusively via Twitter, that could run five hours or longer. BuzzFeed put the plans together for the “Election Night Live” show very quickly. Smith greenlit the concept in September, and then conducted an urgent search for an executive producer to run it. That led him to recruit Bruce Perlmutter, who has a background in TV production working with CNN, MSNBC and E! and most recently produced the Fox special “Heaven Sent,” in which a skydiver made a 25,000-foot jump sans parachute. (So he’s used to working without a net, a BuzzFeed rep quipped, mixing metaphors.) In addition, rather than traditional news anchors, BuzzFeed will have an ensemble cast hosting the night’s coverage: political reporter Adrian Carrasquillo, Tracy Clayton (of BuzzFeed’s “Another Round” podcast), Eugene Yang (of BuzzFeed’s “The Try Guys”) and U.K.-based reporter Hannah Jewell. Said Perlmutter, “The beauty of BuzzFeed is, it’s not, ‘Here’s our Anderson Cooper.’ It’s about the ensemble.”
WHAT STEPHANIE SMITH IS READING — UBER, GOOGLE TEAM UP TO ENCOURAGE USERS TO VOTE — The ride-hailing giant has teamed up with Google to launch a special in-app feature Tuesday that will help riders locate their polling place before requesting their ride. “Given the important decision people around the country will make on Nov. 8, we wanted to make getting to and from your polling place easier than ever,” said Nikki Christoff, the head of federal affairs at Uber in a statement on its website. “Teaming up with Google, Uber is excited to help make that trip as convenient and stress free as possible.” On Tuesda, an in-app message will remind riders it is Election Day and provide easy access to their polling place, before helping them request a ride.
WHAT ASHLEY WALKER IS READING — AIRBNB EXAMINES RENTAL PATTERNS IN BATTLEGROUND COUNTIES via POLITICO – Airbnb pulled its rental numbers from … 25 battleground counties … and the company found it had seen “record influxes of out-of-state weekend visitors in 13 counties throughout the month of October.” All told, Airbnb counted 62,000 guest arrivals in those counties in the leadup to Election Day — 86 percent are from out of state. Florida counties on the list include Duval, Hillsborough and Palm Beach county.
HOW TO SATIRIZE THIS ELECTION? EVEN THE ONION IS HAVING TROUBLE via Sarah Lyall of The New York Times – Now that it’s almost over and we’re all thoroughly miserable, is there anything funny left to say about this dreadful election? Even the writers at the satirical website The Onion were struggling the other morning to come up with fresh avenues of amusement. It’s not that The Onion … has not faced dismaying events before. Its specialty is finding satire even in topics seemingly impossible to satirize. ‘God Angrily Clarifies ‘Don’t Kill’ Rule’ was its headline for a post-9/11 article in which a despairing God rails at the moronic nature of his creation.” But the 2016 campaign has proved particularly challenging: “This last week is just us strafing to find new angles, to put into words how horrible this experience has been,” said editor-in-chief Cole Bolton. Added managing editor Ben Berkley: “It’s hard to turn up the volume when the speaker is already blown out and everyone’s ears are already bleeding.”
— “The 155 craziest things Donald Trump said this election” via POLITICO Magazine
— “If babies could vote in this 2016 election” via Mimi Graham for Florida Politics
AT CLOSE OF UGLY CONTEST, STARK REALITY OF LOW EXPECTATIONS AWAITS NEXT PRESIDENT via John Wagner of The Washington Post – With the end of an ugly contest between Clinton and …Trump … drawing near … frustrations underscore a stark reality confronting Clinton if she reaches the White House: Much of the country will have very low expectations for what she might accomplish. It’s not that Clinton has been stingy in offering policy proposals. Over the course of her candidacy, she has put forward a slew of plans, many of them incremental, to expand health care access, make child care more affordable, raise the minimum wage and invest in the country’s infrastructure, among many other things. But what made headlines were her blistering critiques of Trump, whom she accused of avoiding taxes and “degrading, insulting and assaulting” women for decades. Some voters simply don’t trust Clinton. But interviews with dozens of voters in battleground states — including many who attended her rallies — unearthed a far broader skepticism about her ability to work with a divided Congress and change the poisonous atmosphere in Washington.
EPILOGUE: JEB BUSH TO JOIN TEXAS A&M SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT FACULTY via The Associated Press – Bush is returning to his native state to teach a 10-day elective course on governmental leadership at Texas A&M University … Bush’s class will begin Jan. 6 and conclude before the regular spring semester begins. He’s joining the faculty at the university’s Bush School of Government and Public Service, named for Jeb’s father, former President George H.W. Bush. Jeb graduated from the University of Texas. He grew up in Midland, along with his brother George W. Bush, who was Texas governor before leaving for the White House in 2000.
***November marks National Home Care Month, which recognizes more than 68,000 Florida nurses, home care aides, therapists, and social workers who provide cost-effective, high-quality health care in the patient-preferred setting. These caregivers represent more than 2,500 home care agencies that serve 180,000 Floridians at home every day. Last year alone, the Florida home care industry created 109,000 jobs at a $3.92 billion net economic growth to the state. Celebrate the home care industry’s contribution to Florida’s families and economy at HomeCareFLA.org***
PROGRESSIVE GROUP TOUTS ENERGETIC BASE AS MORE THAN 6.1M FLORIDIANS HAVE VOTED via Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster of Florida Politics — The Democratic base is fired up and ready to go, at least according to a new memo from For Our Future. In a memo Saturday, the progressive super PAC said internal tracking polls show “strong enthusiasm among voters that are the core of the voters who turned out to elect Barack Obama.” The organization said voters in seven swing states, including Florida, are “registering high and sustained enthusiasm” and are on target to turn out voters comparable with 2008 and 2012. “Our tracking polls … asked Clinton supporters to rate how enthusiastic they are to voting in the upcoming election on a scale of 1-10; 83 percent place their enthusiasm at a 10, indicating that they are almost certain to vote,” the memo said. More than 6.15 million Floridians have already voted, according to new state data released Sunday. Democrats, fueled in large part by early voting turnout, surpassed Republicans in pre-Election Day totals Friday. “For Our Future and our partners have knocked on over 4 million doors, and contacted a total universe of over 10 million through a broad range of grassroots voter contact methods, including in person, digital and phones,” the group said in the memo. “Our message and approach was targeted to increasing engagement, enthusiasm and vote likelihood of mid and low propensity Democratic voters.” In Florida, 79 percent of voters placed their enthusiasm at a 10.
HILLARY FOR AMERICA SPENDS $50K ON LATE MEDIA BUY FOR FLORIDA’S U.S. SENATE RACE via Kristen Clark of the Miami Herald – Five days before Election Day, the campaign for … Clinton dumped $50,000 into a media buy for Florida’s U.S. Senate race — both in support of Murphy and against Marco Rubio … This marks the first time Clinton’s campaign has put any direct funding behind Murphy, the Democratic Party’s longtime hope tasked with unseating Rubio. Last month, Clinton’s campaign said it would be sending $6 million in all to help down-ballot Democrats in key swing states. However, it wasn’t revealed at that time whether Murphy would benefit from that or by how much. It was not immediately clear what Clinton’s money would exactly be used for in the final days of Murphy’s campaign. (Fifty grand can’t buy a lot of TV time in a state like Florida, where ad slots are expensive.) Clinton has helped elevate Murphy’s candidacy in the past few weeks, as polls showed the two-term Jupiter congressman continued to struggle with statewide name recognition against the nationally known Rubio even as Election Day drew closer.
MARCO RUBIO MAKES CLOSING ARGUMENT IN FINAL AD via Florida Politics — Rubio is making his closing arguments in his final TV spot. According to the Rubio campaign, 30-second spot, called “Debt,” is meant to discuss each generation’s “debt and duty to the next.“America is the greatest country in the world, and keeping it that way is every generation’s debt to the next,” he says in the advertisement. “Today, our country is more divided than ever and our challenges are growing more grave, threatening who we are and everything we hope to be.” He goes on to say the upcoming election “is about the future, and about keeping America the one place in the world where any dream can still come true..”
MURPHY’S CAMPAIGN’S RESPONSE: “Marco Rubio’s final ad, like the entirety of his career in the U.S. Senate, has nothing to do with Florida and everything to do with his presidential ambitions. Rubio isn’t even waiting for the votes to be counted in Florida’s Senate election before turning attention to his 2020 presidential bid. While Rubio attempts to once again use Florida’s Senate seat as a launching pad to run for president, Floridians are ready to send him to retirement on November 8.” — Murphy campaign spokeswoman Galia Slayen.
***Smart employers know an inclusive workforce makes good business sense and helps secure Florida’s future. Only 30% of Floridians with disabilities are working. Explore the talent in the untapped 70%. Find out how at AbleTrust.org***
ONCE FEATURED IN AMENDMENT 1 ADS, FIREFIGHTERS NOW WITHDRAW THEIR SUPPORT via Mary Ellen Klas of the Miami Herald – “It is clear to the elected Executive Board of this organization that our membership would prefer to pursue any future firefighter safety regulations related to the still developing alternative energy industry through legislative or rulemaking action, as opposed to a constitutional amendment that many believe to be misleading,” the Florida Professional Firefighters said in a press release … Firefighters had been heavily featured in hundreds of television ads run by the Consumers for Smart Solar, the political committee financed by the state’s largest electric companies. The ads urged voters to support Amendment 1 and implied that solar panels could be a fire hazard. But after weeks of complaints from members, the executive board reversed its endorsement, suggesting that the amendment was misleading. “We assure Florida’s firefighters that their safety remains our top priority and this decision, by no means, indicates that we will be any less vigilant in advocating for their health and well-being when it comes to rapidly evolving, environmentally friendly, and sometimes confusing alternative energy systems,” Jim Tolley, FPF President, said. Richard C. Silvestri, a retired fire captain for the City of Miami, was among those who complained to … Tolley … [Saying] the portrayal of solar panels as a fire hazard was having “aided and abetted one of the biggest scams on Floridians in the history of the state.”
WHEN RON (SACHS) MET MATT (GAETZ) via Jim Rosica of Florida Politics – Sachs, one of Tallahassee’s premier pitchmen, comes from a progressive background: Iconoclast college newspaper editor, spokesman for Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles and the state’s teachers’ union, speechwriter for Democratic Gov. Reubin Askew … Gaetz, a firebrand state representative from Northwest Florida, is the picture of Republican values: Tax cutter, gun rights defender, abortion foe. So why did Sachs, CEO of the eponymous PR shop, give $2,500 to Gaetz’s campaign this week? … Gaetz, Republican candidate for the solidly-conservative 1st Congressional District, is thought to be a shoo-in. “I am a Democrat who supports candidates and leaders whom I respect, like and believe in — regardless of party affiliation,” Sachs said in an email. “I don’t agree with every policy position of Matt Gaetz, but I am certain that he will represent his district, Florida, and our country with distinguished public service in the U.S. Congress. “That means everything to me,” he said. “I have had the privilege of working with two great governors, and it wasn’t necessary for me to personally agree with all of their positions to be proud of their leadership and commitment to serving our state.” Added Gaetz in a text message: “Ron Sachs was a guest professor of mine at FSU in 2003. I was enamored by his passion for community service then, and he has been willing to take my call ever since.”
WOMEN’S GROUPS SEE CLINTON HAVING SKIRT-TAILS TO HELP STEPHANIE MURPHY, OTHER WOMEN via Scott Powers of Florida Politics – A rally in Orlando … part of a statewide bus tour full of women’s movement and feminist leaders – offered the suggestion that there are such stark differences in attitudes, rhetoric, histories, and policy positions between Clinton and Trump and the Republicans that this is very much a gender-critical election. The gender gap in voting has never been clearer than polls show in the Clinton-Trump contest for president. But this bus group – including state and national heads of Planned Parenthood, the National Organization for Women and Feminist Majority, along with iconic women elected leaders – is counting on the increasingly defined “women’s bloc” creating skirt-tails to help down-ballot candidates like Orlando congressional candidates Val Demings and Murphy. And Demings and Murphy, Democrats running in Florida’s 10th and 7th Congressional Districts, along with House District 48 Democratic candidate Amy Mercado and House District 49 Democratic candidate Carlos Guillermo Smith, made it clear that women’s issues driving the gender gap in the presidential race are their issues too. “We may ask the question, what’s at stake? Well, everything is at stake,” said Demings, who’s opponent in CD 10, Republican nominee Thuy Lowe, is also a woman. “My future, and your future is at stake. The future of our daughters, and our granddaughters and our nieces, and every woman and every person that we love is at stake. A woman’s ability to have equal pay for equal work is at stake. A woman’s right to choose is at stake. Hillary Clinton has had our backs for a long time. My question for you today is, will we have her back?”
DARREN SOTO DRAWS $42K IN BIG CHECKS IN CLOSING WEEKS OF CD 9 RACE via Scott Powers of Florida Politics – He filed his last full campaign finance report stating he had raised $1 million overall and had $83,000 in the bank. Soto, seeking to become Florida’s first Puerto Rican member of Congress and to succeed … Alan Grayson … has collected 19 four-figure checks since Oct. 19, mostly from labor, business and congressional leadership PACs. They’ve included $5,000 each from political action committees representing the Service Employees International Union and the International Association of Firefighters; and $2,500 from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, NextEra Energy, and the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers. He’s also gotten checks from a small handful of individuals, including $1,000 from retiring state Sen. Geraldine Thompson, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress herself in the neighboring Florida’s Congressional District 10, losing in the primary. In addition, Soto is getting a little bit of outside help. The Immigrant Voters Win PAC reported, separately, it has invested $1,970 in mailers to support his election.
CHARLIE CRIST LEADS “SOULS TO THE POLLS” ON FINAL DAY OF EARLY VOTING via Anne Lindberg of Florida Politics – … voting sites and overall turnout was about 47.8 percent in Pinellas. That number included both mail-in ballots that had been received and early voting as of about 4 p.m. Sunday, a day that saw candidates scrambling for every vote still left on the table. One of the big pushes was the “Souls to the Polls” events, a statewide initiative designed to reach members of the faith community, particularly African-American, said Melissa Baldwin, the Tampa Bay regional press secretary of For Florida’s Future. “Souls to the Polls” events were scattered across Florida, with several in the Tampa Bay area. According to a press release from For Our Future, the events, which combined entertainment and food, with the “get out and vote” message, was a success. Thousands of congregants from dozens of faith organizations joined together today to celebrate the progress our country had made and ensure their community has a say in our future, the release said. At 15 “Souls to the Polls” events across the state, family fun, speeches and marches, among other activities, helped to ensure the last day of the popular early voting was a success. In St. Petersburg, Crist led a contingent of voters from Williams Park to the Courthouse, a block away.
NEW SUPER PAC AD SAYS RANDY PERKINS ‘IS NOT TRUSTWORTHY’ — Citizens Super PAC is targeting Democrat Randy Perkins in a new advertisement. The 30-second spot features Paul Parton, who was president of a company that sued Perkins in a business dispute. Parton, according to the Palm Beach Post, filed a lawsuit contending “Perkins breached a 1993 agreement making Parton a 50 percent owner of Ashbritt,” Perkins’ disaster recovering company. The case was settled in 1997. In the new advertisement, Parton says Perkins “cost me my horse farm in Florida; he cost me my family and he cost me the trust and respect of many business friends and associates. I trusted Randy Perkins, don’t you make the same mistake.” Click the image below to watch the ad.
WILL ‘FAIR DISTRICTS’ IN FLORIDA LEAD TO A FAIRER OUTCOME? via The Associated Press – Due to expensive court battles and standoffs in the Florida Legislature, this year’s election will mark the first time the full effort to end gerrymandering will be in place. As Election Day nears, however, it’s becoming apparent that the changes have not caused any major disruptions politically. Republicans are expected to retain control of the state Legislature. The gap between Democrats and Republicans in the state’s congressional delegation will probably shrink, but the GOP will likely remain in the majority. “We never expected this to be a revolutionary change, it was an evolutionary change,” said Pamela Goodman, president of the Florida State League of Women Voters, whose organization challenged in court how legislators enacted the standards. There have been some shake-ups as a result of the amendments finally kicking in: Two incumbent members of Congress, both Democrats, will be leaving office this year due in part to their reshaped districts. And several Republican members are also in tight battles that could result in their defeat Tuesday. Matthew Isbell, a data consultant who tracked redistricting and has worked for Democratic-leaning organizations, said while the changes “have put more seats in play” it will not result in Democrats taking back either chamber in the Legislature. Currently the GOP holds a 26-14 edge in the 40-member state Senate that could narrow some. Isbell predicts the 17-10 split in the congressional delegation will also shrink, but Republicans will still be in the majority. Part of it, he said, is due to the GOP’s fundraising advantage in the state. “It’s a long game for Democrats,” Isbell said.
MONEY FLOW SHOWS TEAMWORK BETWEEN FORMER RIVALS JACK LATVALA, JOE NEGRON via Florida Politics – Latvala and Negron buried the hatchet long ago and, according to the most recent numbers from Latvala’s political committee, the two are very much playing on the same team. On Nov. 2, the Florida Leadership Committee, which served as Latvala’s war chest during the race for the Senate presidency, put $300,000 into the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee chaired by Negron. FRSCC has not updated its financials to reflect that, though at that point it had raised more than $16.6 million and had nearly $10 million of that money on hand. The committee’s numbers are sure to be monstrous when released, especially with Latvala and the committees of other top Senate Republicans putting their fundraising might behind it. Bradenton Sen. Bill Galvano’s committee shows an unofficial tally of $425,000 in transfers to the FRSCC since Oct. 28, while fellow future Senate President and Trilby Republican Sen. Wilton Simpson has also chipped in heavily in recent weeks. His committee, “Jobs for Florida,” shows $400,000 heading to FRSCC since Oct. 24.
FLORIDA GOP CALLS AD ATTACKING DANA YOUNG A ‘SMEAR PIECE,’ CALLS FOR FLORIDA DEMS TO PULL IT via Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster of Florida Politics – “Dana Young still supports Donald Trump, but she’s not supporting us,” an announcer says in a 30-second spot paid for by the Democratic Party of Florida. “Dana Young, she’s too dangerous for Tampa.” Blaise Ingoglia, the chairman of the Florida GOP, called the advertisement a “smear piece,” and said it “is disingenuous, unethical and potentially violates FEC campaign finance laws.” In a statement, he called on the Federal Election Commission to investigate whether the state party violated federal campaign finance law. “They should know that you cannot use the likeness, or the name, of a federal candidate in an ad for a state candidate without adhering to federal campaign finance law,” said Ingoglia, who also serves as a state representative. “We call upon the FEC to investigate this potential huge violation and for the Florida Dems to pull the ad down or to fully comply with all federal campaign finance laws. It’s truly sad that they have to resort to dirty politics instead of trying to win on the issues.” Young currently leads Bob Buesing in the district. According to the latest St. Pete Polls survey, 40 percent of voters in the district said they were backing Young, while 35 percent said they were backing Buesing.
MIGUEL DÍAZ DE LA PORTILLA DECRIES ‘DARK MONEY,’ BUT GETS HELP FROM MURKY CASH TRAIL via Matt Dixon of POLITICO Florida – Díaz de la Portilla has hit Rep. José Javier Rodríguez, his Democratic opponent, for the millions of dollars in help he is getting from groups associated with the so-called Florida Alliance, a group of progressive donors who are helping boost his campaign … Díaz de la Portilla’s own campaign, however, is also getting a big boost from a maze of political committees that quickly transfer large sums of money in a way that makes the true source of campaign help nearly impossible to find. Late last month, a political committee called Truth in Politics, blanketed Senate District 27 with mailers blasting Rodríguez for voting against budgets that had record education funding. It highlights his votes against the state budget in 2014 and 2015, years when Democrats opposed the spending plan for things like not expanding Medicaid, using local tax dollars to boost education funding, and not spending enough on conservation efforts. On Oct. 28, the committee spent $229,574 on mailers, by far its largest expenditure in months. Nearly $225,000, about half of the group’s total contributions, came in the last week of October from another political committee called Leadership for Florida’s Future, a group that received its last eight contributions (more than $600,000) from yet another political committee, Citizens Alliance for Florida’s Economy. That committee has received recent contributions from a whole range of additional political committees with large contributions from groups like U.S. Sugar, Disney and Charter Schools USA. Díaz de la Portilla says he knows nothing about the groups, which include some of the state’s best known political consultants and donors.
IN SD 40, AN ANGRY ANA RIVAS LOGAN THROWS HER SUPPORT BEHIND DWIGHT BULLARD via Nancy Smith of the Sunshine State News – Bullard … had a November surprise of his own — of the exceedingly pleasant variety. Former state Rep. and School Board member Rivas Logan gave Bullard her endorsement Friday, calling him “an honorable man who has served our community with distinction both as a school teacher and a state legislator.” Rivas Logan had challenged Bullard in the SD 40 Democratic primary and had said she wasn’t sure if she would endorse in the general election. But the “unfair attacks” from Bullard’s opponent, Republican Rep. Frank Artiles, changed her mind. Said Rivas Logan, “I could no longer sit on the sideline and watch Artiles’ negative, dishonest campaign. He went so far as to call Dwight a terrorist. It’s ridiculous. When you see something like that, something completely unjust, you have to call it out.” In addition to endorsing Bullard, Rivas Logan issued a robocall and will also be campaigning for him in the final days of the election. “This election is too important. Artiles has shown himself as unfit to serve in the state Senate. We need to re-elect Dwight Bullard and I plan on doing my part to make sure that happens,” Rivas Logan said. Getting the support of Rivas Logan — a “name” personality who can lure Hispanic voters — is regarded among political observers as a major coup for Bullard. Artiles has been painting Bullard as anti-Semitic and pro-terrorism in campaign ads blanketing the airwaves.
LISA MONTELIONE CAMPAIGN CALLS ON TV STATIONS TO PULL SHAWN HARRISON AD via Mitch Perry of Florida Politics – The ad mocks Montelione’s own television ad released last month, which depicted a commercial film set with a director, cameraman, technical crew — but no candidate. “Seen the Lisa Montelione commercial? You know, the one where she doesn’t show up,” asks the narrator at the beginning of Harrison’s ad, titled, “Where’s Lisa?” Mark Herron, Montelione’s attorney, says Harrison’s campaign uses, “without authorization, approximately 15 seconds of copyrighted images lifted directly from the prior advertisement by Ms. Montelione’s campaign. That unauthorized use is classic copyright infringement.” “Shawn Harrison’s clearly illegal actions are the sign of a desperate campaign struggling to stay afloat,” says Anders Croy, communications director for the House & Senate Victory Committee. “This is what a candidate does when his values and record do not align with the district he is seeking to represent. We look forward to this ad being swiftly taken down.”
— “Final roundup of the money race in Central Florida’s legislative races” via Florida Politics
ENDORSEMENT WATCH:
Brian Mast, running for Florida’s 18th Congressional District, has been endorsed by the National Defense PAC.
ASSIGNMENT EDITORS: Gov. Scott will announce the reopening of A1A Coastal Byway in Flagler Beach during a press conference at 9 a.m. at the intersection of 19th Street S. and A1A in Flagler Beach.
EXCLUSIVE — INCOMING SPEAKER RICHARD CORCORAN TO PROPOSE DRAMATIC CHANGES TO HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS via Florida Politics — House members hoping to get money in the 2017-18 budget will be asked to file a bill for every appropriations request they make. That change is one of several to be coming down the pike as part of new House rules, according to sources close to incoming Speaker Richard Corcoran, who will announce the new rules to members on Nov. 10. Corcoran has spent months re-writing the rules, which many expect will take a take a tough stance on special interests within the capital. A change to the budgeting process wouldn’t be surprising. As chairman of the House appropriations committee, Corcoran, with the help of House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, instituted a process requiring members to attach their names to budget items they were seeking. During the 2016 Legislative Session, the House posted all of the member request forms to the House website. Those forms included the name of the member requesting the money, background about the project, and the contact information of who requested the money. Additional changes are on the way, as the House will move to a system that requires members to file an individual bill for each budget request. In that scenario, members would like be required to file all of their requests by the bill filing deadline at the beginning of session. It is unlikely the member request bills would count toward the limited number of bills members can file each year, according to those briefed on the Speaker’s plans.
The member requests would likely then have to go through the same process as any other bill, clearing several committees before being taken up by the full floor. The request would need likely to pass the full House to be included in its version of the budget. If the House were to institute such a rule change, Florida would be the first state in the nation that requires members to file individual requests in the form of a bill. The change would also likely receive pushback from the Senate, particularly since there are rumblings House members will be asked to include a Senate sponsor on the request.Corcoran has been tight-lipped about many of proposed changes, saying they are still hammering out the details.
When asked about whether there will be changes to how members submit budget requests, Corcoran said the House has made transparency a priority. “We have said for four years now, going back to our blueprint that we wrote, that we will have the most transparent House of Representatives in the entire nation,” he said Friday.
LYNN COBB, TRUSTED ADVISER TO LEGISLATIVE LEADERS, KILLED IN CRASH via Florida Politics – Cobb was pronounced dead at the scene after her SUV was hit head-on by another vehicle that had been “swerving in and out of traffic, passing other cars” on the two-lane highway … Cobb, 74, was to serve under Richard Corcoran when he assumes the speakership following next week’s elections. Corcoran and outgoing Speaker Steve Crisafulli issued a joint statement to members of the House: “To call Lynn Cobb an institution of the Florida House is to understate her influence and importance. The public may not have known her name, but generations of members and staff relied on her wisdom, her expertise and her common sense.” Gov. Scott tweeted a message of support, “So sad to hear of the tragic death of longtime public servant Lynn Cobb. @FLAnnScott and I have her family and @MyFLHouse in our prayers.” Cobb was fiercely protective of the House’s prerogatives, said Larry Cretul, who became Speaker in 2009. “Lynn would tell me, ‘Stand up to the Senate. We’re the House. Don’t let them get one up on you.’” … During the high-stress closing days of Session, when budget negotiations reached their peak, Cretul would send Cobb to the Senate side “to have a conversation and get our point across,” he said. “She was a feisty lady. When she was with you, she was with you, and God help you if she was against you,” he said. Yet she was universally respected, he added. “She was the grandma of the House. You never mess with grandma.”
SAFETY NETS THREATEN TO WITHHOLD CONTRIBUTIONS IF ALL HOSPITALS DON’T PONY UP FOR LIP via Christine Sexton of POLITICO Florida – Jackson Memorial, Broward Health, Shands Healthcare and Tampa General, among others, have decided to hold in abeyance more than $200 million in local dollars normally sent to Tallahassee to fund supplemental Medicaid programs until the state convinces more hospitals to contribute. If these large hospitals don’t contribute their share, it leaves only $13.8 million in signed commitments to fund the Low Income Pool. That’s $223 million shy of what the Legislature assumed would be available when building the current year budget. The news comes as the state Agency for Health Care Administration struggles with rising Medicaid costs, a projected $138 million deficit in the current fiscal year, and legal challenges from HCA and Tenet Healthcare hospitals over the amount of payments for hospital outpatient services. Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida President Tony Carvalho sent a letter to interim AHCA Secretary Justin Senior pointing out that 94 percent of the local dollars committed to fund the Low Income Pool and “Disproportionate Share,” or DSH, programs – was coming from 12 hospital and health systems. There are many others who could contribute to the LIP program but haven’t now that the federal government changed the rules on how the money can be spent.
SECOND APPLICATION IN FOR STATE SUPREME COURT VACANCY via Jim Rosica of Florida Politics – Orlando civil-trial defense attorney Dan Gerber joins conservative appellate judge C. Alan Lawson as the initial applicants for the seat now held by Justice James E.C. Perry. Gerber is a partner with the law firm of Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell. He focuses on “toxic torts, class actions, commercial, product liability and governmental affairs,” according to his official bio. “Dan represents manufacturers of chemical products in claims alleging injury from chemical exposure,” it says. Republican Gov. Rick Scott will name Perry’s replacement, making it his first opportunity to pick a state Supreme Court justice.
NEW LOBBYING REGISTRATIONS
Albert Balido, Anfield Consulting: Florida Waste Haulers & Recyclers Coalition
Jose Bermudez, Ellyn Bogdanoff, Jose Fuentes, Becker & Poliakoff: City of Miami
Greg Black, Jim Daughton, Patricia Greene, Warren Husband, Allison Liby-Schoonover, Aimee Lyon, Andy Palmer, Metz Husband & Daughton: General Motors, LLC
Dean Cannon, Chris Carmody, Robert Stuart, GrayRobinson: CNL Financial Services, Inc.
Hayden Dempsey, Greenberg Traurig: GrowHealthy Holdings
Robert Hosay, Foley & Lardner: CA Technologies; National Strategies
Joni Hunt: Florida Hospital
Ed Labrador: Broward County
Kathryn Mizereck: Florida Polytechnic University
Andrew Romer: University of West Florida
Derek Whitis: Garcia Family Farm, LLC
GRAYROBINSON SHAREHOLDER NAMED TO STATE APPEALS COURT via Florida Politics – Scott appointed litigator Jeffrey T. Kuntz to fill a vacancy on the 4th District Court of Appeal left by the retirement of Judge W. Matthew Stevenson. Kuntz, 35, is a shareholder in the Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale offices of GrayRobinson, a firm he joined in 2006, following his graduation from Suffolk University Law School. According to his law firm bio, the Winter Park native practices commercial litigation and appellate law. He has argued before every district court of appeal in the state, the Florida Supreme Court, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. He analyzes rulings by those courts on The Florida Legal Blog.
APPOINTED: Charles Keith to the Governing Board of the Suwannee River Water Management District.
SPOTTED at the wedding of Rebekah Hammond and lobbyist Chris Dorworth at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando: Speaker-designate Richard Corcoran, Sens. Jeff Brandes and Travis Hutson, Reps. Frank Artilles, Matt Caldwell, and former Rep. Rob Schenck, Brian Ballard, Brady Benford, James Blair, Brad Burleson, Brad Herold, Adam Lovejoy, Syl Lukis, Ashley and Scott Ross, Alex Setzer, Jim Stelling.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY from the weekend to David Johnson, Britton Alexander, Lee Constantine, Janet Long, and Jon Stewart. Celebrating today is Jennifer Meale and Richard Swartz.
