Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

A.G. GancarskiDecember 28, 2016

Subpoenas with a side of sauce. That’s one way to sum up the year. In Jacksonville politics, 2016 started with subpoenas being delivered to Rep. Corrine Brown and her clique at a barbecue place on the Northside. And it ended with a raid on Councilwoman Katrina Brown’s familial barbecue sauce plant on the Westside. Katrina […]

A.G. GancarskiDecember 19, 2016

Friday saw an official meeting between Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry and former Mayor Alvin Brown. And with that meeting, a message to #jaxpol: the bitterness of the 2015 election was finally consigned to memory. The picture above: worth a thousand words. Acrimony expunged, replaced by bonhomie. The campaign for Jacksonville mayor was the most expensive local campaign […]

A.G. GancarskiDecember 16, 2016

For the first time since the acrimonious election of 2015, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry and his predecessor, Alvin Brown, met in the mayor’s suite. Curry and Brown, in a brief appearance in the lobby of the mayor’s office, smiled for the camera, with Curry saying they were “just catching up.” Curry’s spokeswoman, Marsha Oliver, noted that “Mr. Brown […]

A.G. GancarskiDecember 14, 2016

The crossroads for pension plans for new hires in Jacksonville is here, and is casting a shadow over virtually every aspect of the city’s future. The latest bond rating trip for the city, for example, saw the pension issue – and whether or not Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry will succeed in getting at least one […]

A.G. GancarskiNovember 22, 2016

In Jacksonville, the TRUE Commission (Taxation, Revenue, and Utilization of Expenditures) advises the city on fiscal policy. A recent email to city leadership shows that, while you can take a commissioner off of the TRUE Commission, that doesn’t necessarily divest that person of vigilance. Patti Anania, a former TRUE Commission member and wife of a […]

A.G. GancarskiNovember 17, 2016

Jacksonville’s Carlucci family is inextricably linked with Jacksonville history. Joe Carlucci was a councilman from the days of consolidation. Matt Carlucci carried on the family’s tradition of public service, serving three terms on the council, including a stint as president. Now Carlucci is the chairman of the Florida Commission on Ethics. Yet his time there is nearing an […]

A.G. GancarskiNovember 7, 2016

Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry has been an enthusiastic supporter and friend of Sen. Marco Rubio, dating back to a time before Rubio was in the U.S. Senate. Evidence of that political symbiosis abounds in more recent memory. Rubio was a prominent backer of Curry’s mayoral bid, coming into town for a rally the day before the May […]

Anne LindbergOctober 21, 2016

As the election enters the homestretch, a group of African-American mayors and former mayors from across the U.S. have jumped on the bus for Hillary Clinton — literally. They’re taking a bus around Florida on the “Souls to Polls Train” to take a message to the African-American and Latin communities in particular — elect Hillary. “Her message […]

Scott PowersOctober 20, 2016

What a party bus this will be. A Democratic Party bus, filled with mayors from Florida including Orlando’s Buddy Dyer, Miami Beach’s Phillip Levine, Tampa’s Bob Buckhorn, and St. Petersburg’s Rick Kriseman, has begun a cross-state tour to campaign for Hillary Clinton. Hillary for America announced Thursday that those four and 19 other mayors and former mayors […]

A.G. GancarskiOctober 19, 2016

A fun #jaxpol mystery of 2015 — accounting for $27,000 worth of missing employee incentive debit cards from the Alvin Brown administration — petered out this month. “City debit cards reported missing were in a safe all along,” reported the Jax Daily Record. In November 2015, Curry directed the inspector general to look into the debit card issue and to connect with […]

Tag: Alvin Brown
Family members appear behind a pile of debris outside their home in Steinhatchee, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, after Hurricane Helene slammed Florida's Big Bend as a Category 4 storm Thursday night. (Ashleigh Lucas/WUFT News)

Subpoenas with a side of sauce: The 10 biggest #JaxPol stories of 2016

Reading the tea leaves of the Lenny Curry-Alvin Brown meeting

Alvin Brown, Lenny Curry meet, putting election behind them

John Rutherford, a former Jacksonville sheriff, discusses police pensions

Former TRUE commissioner blasts Jacksonville for post-hurricane cleanup

Matt Carlucci ‘seriously considering’ another run for Jacksonville City Council

Lenny Curry talks Election 2016 at Jacksonville Marco Rubio HQ

African-American mayors bring a message to St. Pete and Tampa: Vote for Hillary

Buddy Dyer, Phillip Levine, Bob Buckhorn, others on Mayors for Hillary bus tour

Lenny Curry defends missing debit card investigation