Guest Author, Author at Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Guest AuthorOctober 21, 2014

Answering questions is as unspeakable to Rick Scott as eating pork is to someone who keeps kosher. The governor treats talking with the press and public as trayf (Yiddish for tainted food), as though he would be putting himself at risk for the political equivalent of trichinosis. Ask him anything. And, as if unable to […]

Guest AuthorOctober 21, 2014

Rubble. Fife. The Dinosaur. Bishop. What do these Barneys have in common? None of them live in reality. Barney Bishop’s most recent hyperventilation published on Context Florida about Amendment 2 — which would allow medical marijuana in Florida — both repeated some of his previous made-up contentions and introduced some new ones. Again, Bishop ignores […]

Guest AuthorOctober 21, 2014

“The early evidence indicates that this strategy is succeeding.” These are the words of White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, defending President Barack Obama’s strategy to address the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Let’s review some of that early evidence. As I write this, Islamic State jihadists in Iraq have […]

Guest AuthorOctober 20, 2014

When defining the ethnicity, gender and race of American society, I find it is interrelated with the cultural dialogue. The African-American experience has always been tied to those topics. In America, the concept of the “one-drop rule” — that a single drop of “black blood” makes a person a black — was founded on sub-Saharan […]

Guest AuthorOctober 19, 2014

Early this month Ben Pollara, campaign manager for United for Care, wrote a column for Context Florida challenging some of my arguments opposing Amendment 2, the medical marijuana measure on the Nov. 4 ballot. Some of Ben’s answers were just plain wrong and some were misleading, so let’s look at his attempts to answer my […]

Guest AuthorOctober 19, 2014

If you live in Florida’s capital city, one routine complaint is the airport: Flights are too expensive; it’s just hard getting anywhere from here. So city officials are trying to change the narrative, if not the flight path of Tallahassee Regional Airport. They want to join the ranks of Melbourne International and Sarasota-Bradenton International. Before […]

Guest AuthorOctober 19, 2014

One issue bubbling to the surface is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Power Plan. The EPA has extended the deadline to collect additional public comments on the plan to Dec. 1. We support new clean-energy strategies for Florida and the programs that already exist. The U.S. has been working toward affordable and secure clean-energy […]

Guest AuthorOctober 17, 2014

By now, most of the free world knows about Ebola and #fangate. In case you are late to the debate, the host at the Florida gubernatorial debate Wednesday night invited both candidates to come on stage. After about a minute and a half, former Gov. Charlie Crist walked on and the host announced that Rick […]

Guest AuthorOctober 16, 2014

Recently I saw a blurb about a meeting of the Boca Area Post Polio Group. This jolted my memory back 20 years and a conversation with my friend “Jeremy,” a radiologist. Usually a robust man in his early 50s, he appeared a little stooped and sluggish. Finally, he confided to his closest friends what had been happening. J. had polio as a […]

Guest AuthorOctober 15, 2014

The Florida Chamber of Commerce is one of the few entities publicly opposing Amendment 1 on the November ballot. Yet at the end of September, the Florida Chamber Political Institute’s polling data showed that Amendment 1 has very strong support: 75 percent in favor and 14 percent opposed. Amendment 1, if approved by the voters […]

Guest Author

Stephen Goldstein: Scott won’t answer questions and too many voters don’t care

Ben Pollara: I may be naive, but I’m certain Floridians would benefit from medical pot

Thomas Rooney: Obama must use more military force against the Islamic State

Anthony Major: Playwrights helped explain the black experience to America

Barney Bishop: Challenges to Amendment 2 loopholes still not answered

Andrew Skerritt: Trying to take off, Tallahassee Airport wants to go international

Samantha Stratton: A smart energy plan is necessary for Florida

Jamie Miller: Some ways Rick Scott could have handled #fangate better

Rachel Patron: The remnants of an old epidemic

Barbara Joy Cooley: Amendment 1’s fate depends on voter turnout