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

Guest AuthorSeptember 18, 2013

I’m pretty sure Key West weather makes transplanted residents crazy. After a year in the southernmost city, I have no idea what month it is. I stopped obsessively watching The Weather Channel because nothing changes. Eighty degrees, sunshine, humid and the occasional passing thunderstorm. That part I like. The visual and temperature cues of the […]

Guest AuthorSeptember 18, 2013

As dinner comes to a close, Emeline, our 3-year-old, sometimes asks us a question: “Can I have something that’s not good for me?” What she means is, “can I have dessert?” It is easy to either give her dessert or not depending on how well she ate what was good for her during dinner. What […]

Guest AuthorSeptember 17, 2013

I remember watching in disbelief as Anderson Cooper grilled Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz in a live interview, pointing out that her facts were all wrong. Cooper called Wasserman Shultz out for misquoting the LA Times in a fundraising letter. She had wrongly suggested that Mitt Romney endorsed the GOP’s platform plank on abortion. The truth, […]

Guest AuthorSeptember 17, 2013

One of many fallacies believed about the timber industry is that it depletes our natural resources. In reality, it is forest owners and tree farmers who have led the push for sustainable practices on our land, keeping our natural resources renewable. Too many policymakers and activist groups ignore this reality, and too often try to […]

Guest AuthorSeptember 16, 2013

Across the state, libertarians rage against red-light traffic cameras. The claims are many: there is conflicting evidence about whether they make intersections safer; the only purpose is to make money for cash-strapped local governments; they’re unconstitutional. I understand the arguments. What I don’t understand is why they choose this issue, as opposed to a much […]

Guest AuthorSeptember 16, 2013

When I first moved to Florida in 2007, I took to writing my representative in Congress when I had a concern, just as I did in Ohio. I may not have agreed with Congressman Steve Chabot (R) any more than 20 percent of the time, but he always responded with an educated answer that actually […]

Guest AuthorSeptember 15, 2013

After being elected governor as a Republican, he came to Tallahassee as a businessman who had not held public office before. His first term was filled with blunders and controversy and it appeared that his re-election was in doubt when a prominent Democrat appeared likely to run against him. But Jeb Bush became the first […]

Guest AuthorSeptember 15, 2013

It sounds bizarre, but it involves Florida and Arizona politics, so it’s par for the course. It is January 2013 and a group of Republican governors have all worked against unions, women’s rights, Planned Parenthood and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). But most of all, especially after the Supreme Court ruled the ACA constitutional, they […]

Guest AuthorSeptember 12, 2013

Policy textbooks say that when considering alternatives, all equal, invest in the one that will have the greatest reach. But the political process has an appetite for eating good ideas, leaving just piecemeal chunks on the bone. No shock there, particularly for contentious issues. But what’s more confounding is when policies of uncontested merit fall […]

Guest AuthorSeptember 12, 2013

Florida Rep. Neill Combee, R-Polk City, stirred up a small hornet’s nest last week with a Twitter post that asked the rhetorical question, “Did the White House Help Plan the Syrian Chemical Attack?” On first glance, this may appear to be yet another dive into the deep end of right-wing paranoia, but with the civil […]

Guest Author

Linda Cunningham: Key West weather leaves me confused

Ben Kirby: Engaged parents can help kids avoid foods that are ‘not good for me’

Karen Cyphers: Public disapproval of Obamacare reflects flawed plan

Bryan Olmert: Keeping our forests renewable and sustainable benefits every economic sector

Jeff Clemens: What’s the purpose of speeding tickets on interstates?

Gary Stein: Obamacare opponents need to get their talking points straight

Jamie Miller: Bush re-elected after tough first term; Scott will do the same

Gary Stein: Is this how you run a business, Gov. Scott?

Karen Cyphers: What do Steve Southerland’s daughter’s friends have to do with Alzheimer’s funding?

Cary McMullen: Proposed Syria strike provokes rare political unity