Emails & Opinions

Peter SchorschSeptember 21, 2016

If you ever want to complain about how the Lottery is run in Florida, just take a gander at how other states royally screw it up. And how they victimize the companies getting it right. The most recent lesson comes from Maryland. Lottery officials there admitted they “inflated” an 8-year, $262 million IT contract “to include […]

Mitch PerrySeptember 21, 2016

The New Yorker magazine has a story this week on what a President Donald J. Trump would do if elected in November. Writer Evan Osnos reports that Trump’s advisers are weighing several options for the “First Day Project” – where he would spend hours on inauguration day next January signing papers that “erases the Obama Presidency,” […]

Peter SchorschSeptember 21, 2016

Sunburn – The morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics. By Peter Schorsch, Phil Ammann, Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster, Mitch Perry and Jim Rosica. PEERING INTO THE CRYSTAL BALL The electoral map is changing. Florida is still a toss-up. States that once leaned Democratic now lean Republican. Larry Sabato and the team at Sabato’s Crystal Ball revised its […]

Peter SchorschSeptember 20, 2016

In response to a rather benign story we published about the latest mailer from opponents of the medical marijuana initiative, we received the email below from the obviously charming Thomas Soldo of Hernando. Obscene letters-to-the-editor are nothing new to us here at Florida Politics. What is surprising is that Mr. Soldo had the courage to call someone […]

Tom JacksonSeptember 20, 2016

Now that the Florida Education Association has chosen to appeal its legal double-drubbing over the state’s scholarship program for students from low-income families, the question that leaps immediately to mind is this: Why does the teachers’ union hate poor kids? Seriously. About 92,000 students from modest circumstances are attending private schools through the 15-year-old Florida […]

Peter SchorschSeptember 20, 2016

A recurrent frustration of the Northeast Florida political class is how the media doesn’t “get” politics. It’s a frustration often heard at our NE Florida Bureau, especially as it relates to one issue: the expansion of the Human Rights Ordinance to include the LGBT community. Proponents of expansion will tell anyone who listens that 600 […]

Joe HendersonSeptember 20, 2016

TAKE 1: Who won? I would call it a draw. Both candidates got in zingers at the other and both successfully reinforced the message they are trying to sell to voters. In Jolly’s case, he wants to remind voters he has been a maverick in his two-plus years in the U.S. House of Representatives. That’s […]

Mitch PerrySeptember 20, 2016

David Jolly seemed to take particular relish in last night’s debate, after Charlie Crist attacked him for being unresponsive to asking for federal help for St. Petersburg’s sewage problems post-Hurricane Hermine. “Because the mayor who’s endorsed you who oversaw this catastrophe did not ask for it,” Jolly responded, which received a loud cheer from the […]

Steve SchaleSeptember 20, 2016

MEMO TO: Reporters Covering Florida, Other Observers and the Nation of Twitter FROM: Steve, #FloridaMan and Disgruntled Jags Fan. RE: BREAKING, 2016 version: Florida is gonna be close For much of the window between 2000 and 2012, the conversation about Florida, driven at times by Nate Silver himself was “is it really a swing state?” This year, the new […]

Peter SchorschSeptember 19, 2016

Democratic uber consultant (and frequent Uber customer) Steve Schale contends in a must-read, table-setting blog post about which Florida Senate races are worth watching that “Oscar Braynon is running the best Senate political operation I’ve seen in years.” Really? Technically, Schale is absolutely right. Braynon is running the best political shop in years because, when compared to previous Democratic efforts, […]

Emails & Opinions

IGT made a victim in Maryland lottery brouhaha

Mitch Perry Report for 9.21.16 – Can Ban Ki-Moon get enough buy-in to deny a President Trump the opportunity to renounce the Paris agreement?

Sunburn for 9.20.16 – Peering into the Crystal Ball

This letter-to-the-editor is all #$@&%*! class — and NSFW

Tom Jackson: Appeal puts poor students under FEA’s boot

Jacksonville Bold for 09.20.16 — HRO and small-town mentality

Joe Henderson: Five takeaways from the Charlie Crist-David Jolly CD 13 debate

Mitch Perry Report for 9.20.16 — Rick Kriseman works on turning it around

Steve Schale: Florida is gonna Florida, 2016 version

Is Oscar Braynon running the best Senate political operation in years?