Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Adam WeinsteinDecember 11, 2014

Ban them all. We should never again allow a livelihood in media or government or think-tanking for any politician, any general, any pundit who ever argued that the United States of America needs to torture captives in order to keep its citizenry safe. Thanks to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA torture released this […]

Adam WeinsteinDecember 8, 2014

With the loss of Sen. Mary Landrieu in Louisiana’s run-off election last weekend, Southern Democrats have just about gone extinct. For the first time since Reconstruction, no state in the Deep South has a Democrat in the Senate or the governor’s office. As a Southern liberal, I say: Good. America will be better off without […]

Adam WeinsteinNovember 6, 2014

In 1994, at the height of the nationwide electoral wave against Bill Clinton — a force so great and enduring it would be remembered as “the Republican revolution” — there was one bright spot for Democrats: They held on to the Florida Governor’s Mansion. Lawton Chiles, a self-described cracker and populist, fought off a challenge […]

Adam WeinsteinOctober 30, 2014

I’m tired of false moral equivalencies. For a year or more, I’ve heard pundits and cynics flaunt the conventional wisdom about this governor’s race: Both candidates are awful. It’s hard not to feel that way, after tens of millions of dollars in shade-throwing, half-truthing ads and stunts. Calling both guys in the race equally terrible […]

Adam WeinsteinOctober 9, 2014

The capital of Florida used to have a good newspaper, I’m told. It’s hard to know, because by the time I started working there — 2006 — Knight Ridder had sold the Tallahassee Democrat to Gannett, the cigarette-perfumed, drunken used-car salesman of media corporations, and the paper was a ghost of itself. There was always […]

Adam WeinsteinSeptember 25, 2014

It’s all over now but the glad-handing. As the insider Board of Trustees planned all along, John Thrasher will be the next president of Florida State University. Even though he’s prevented by law from lobbying on FSU’s behalf for the next two years- — and lobbying expertise was supposed to be his strong selling point. […]

Adam WeinsteinSeptember 21, 2014

As early as Tuesday, we may learn who the trustees of Florida State University care about more: The FSU learning community, or their cronies. They can choose as college president any of three highly qualified administrators, fundraisers, and professors at other top-notch public universities. Or they can pick the man they’ve always wanted for the […]

Adam WeinsteinSeptember 11, 2014

Two years ago, a Florida state senator introduced a bill “to halt the revolving door between the Legislature and state universities” and bar lawmakers from running to jobs at colleges they fund. He explained to the Florida Times-Union that “even in cases where lawmakers are doing everything ethically,” such a relationship could raise “red flags,” adding: “It […]

Adam WeinsteinAugust 31, 2014

The state of Florida and one of its flagship universities are about to embark on an exciting new experiment: What happens when you turn an institution of higher learning into an annex of the Legislature and lobbyists? That’s about the only conclusion I can come to when I look at the presidential search process — […]

Adam WeinsteinAugust 13, 2014

I’m a journalist in Tallahassee, but I’ll be the first to admit there’s a lot I don’t know about how Florida politics really works. I don’t get, for instance, how local PR maven Ron Sachs can demand $375,000 from the family of Eric Brody, a young man who suffered brain damage and paralysis in 1998 […]

Tag: Adam Weinstein

Adam Weinstein: Don’t give a forum to defenders of torture

Adam Weinstein: Goodbye, Southern Democrats, and good riddance

Adam Weinstein: The three big reasons Florida Democrats still can’t elect a governor

Adam Weinstein: Stop saying Crist and Scott are both awful: Scott wins that contest by a mile

Adam Weinstein: Another bloodbath at the deteriorating Tallahassee Democrat

Adam Weinstein: FSU’s presidential ‘choice’ is a reminder of how Florida cronyism really works

Adam Weinstein: In the FSU presidential battle, Thrasher is his own worst enemy

Adam Weinstein: Don’t let FSU become another Penn State

Adam Weinstein: Presidential search is latest battle for free-market lobbyists trying to transform FSU

Adam Weinstein: A lesson in Florida politics – no good deed goes unpaid