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

Guest AuthorOctober 9, 2014

The federal lawsuit filed Thursday by Libertarian Party candidate for governor, Adrian Wyllie, seeking to force his way in to next week’s debate between Gov. Rick Scott and former Gov. Charlie Crist is another case of history repeating itself. In 2006, Reform Party candidate for governor, Max Linn, filed a federal lawsuit in an effort […]

Guest AuthorOctober 9, 2014

Florida’s geology, topography and watercourses are like no other state, dominated by vast floodplains along the coast and myriad wetlands, rivers, streams and lakes inland. Virtually all of these features are connected underground by our precious aquifer system through sandy soils and porous limestone. Because Florida’s elevation is only slightly above sea level and relatively […]

Guest AuthorOctober 8, 2014

I smoked some marijuana the other day and went to the beach in Fort Lauderdale. I eased back in my chair, looked up and saw the a lovely formation of wispy white clouds. The late-afternoon air had a hint of Florida autumn. The water was warm. The sounds of the beachgoers were soothing. I was […]

Guest AuthorOctober 8, 2014

Transformers 4 grossed $1 billion dollars worldwide. Now it’s out on Blu-Ray to add to that total. This has left many wondering what South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone once famously pondered: “Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies” when his movies are seemingly so terrible? Well, modern consumer scientific […]

Guest AuthorOctober 7, 2014

If you haven’t yet heard about political writer Matt Bai’s book on the failed presidential hopes of Gary Hart, you will. Bai, once political editor for the New York Times’ Sunday magazine and current political editor for Yahoo, asserts that one week in 1987 forever changed politics in America. Bai is on the interview circuit […]

Guest AuthorOctober 7, 2014

The Tampa Bay Times is recommending a “no” vote for a constitutional amendment before voters in November. The proposal put forward by conservationists would allocate one-third of the documentary stamp tax required of real estate transactions to be applied to acquisition of conservation lands. In 2016, the newspaper notes, more than $600 million could be allocated to this important […]

Guest AuthorOctober 7, 2014

Florida Gov. Rick Scott is the reincarnation of Richard Nixon. “Tricky Dick,” the 37th U.S. president, was a walking thesaurus of negatives: imperious, secretive, draconian, paranoid, duplicitous, underhanded, and insincere — for starters. The committee formed to re-elect him — and that got him into Watergate trouble that led to his resignation — aptly went […]

Guest AuthorOctober 7, 2014

First in a series. As Election Day approaches, the backers on both sides of the ballot initiative to make medical marijuana legal in Florida are getting fired up. It’s a battle of wits, money, compassion, money, politics and money and of course, the people who are donating the money to either pass or defeat Amendment […]

Guest AuthorOctober 6, 2014

The Florida Education Association is highly litigious, politically active and flush with resources from membership dues and fees. It often gets its way, but not without collateral damage. In its fight with the Legislature for more school funding, the union is determined to destroy a privately funded scholarship program giving 68,000 of Florida’s poorest students the opportunity to […]

Guest AuthorOctober 5, 2014

The state’s Department of Children and Families Northeast Region, which was responsible for the safety of the six children massacred by their grandfather in the rural town of Bell, drastically needs new leadership. That’s obvious reading recent reports in the Miami Herald about the 18 complaints investigators received about Don Spirit, his troubled daughter and […]

Guest Author

Jeff Kottkamp: History repeated with legal challenge over gubernatorial debate

Tom Feeney: Proposed EPA water rules are too costly for Fla. governments

Tom O’Hara: I’m 67 years old, I smoke pot, and it’s time to make it legal

Troy Campbell: Why does Michael Bay get to keep making movies?

Doug Clifton: Miami Herald was right to pursue tip about Gary Hart dalliance

Alan Farago: GOP forcing Floridians to use Amendment 1 to conserve vital lands

Stephen Goldstein: Florida’s Richard Nixon: “Tricky” Rick Scott

Gary Stein: Of Pain, people, pot, politics, public figures and priorities

William Patrick: Coalition forms to help protect scholarship program for poor

Andrew Skerritt: Mass murder exposes dysfunction in DCF regional office