Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Guest AuthorApril 17, 2014

There might not have been any new bombshells in this week’s New York Times investigative piece on the Jameis Winston rape allegations, but when the pieces are put together in one coherent narrative, they make this entire episode even more disquieting than we first suspected. What comes across in The Times’ piece, written by Pulitzer […]

Guest AuthorMarch 31, 2014

The farce is over — thankfully. Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner called a halt to his voter purge — a hunt for ghost non-citizens who apparently have been standing in line to cast ballots and elect Democrats. “From the beginning, I have said that the law requires state officials to ensure that the voter […]

Guest AuthorMarch 24, 2014

At a time when the reparations debate has gone silent in this country because there’s a black man in the White House, it’s getting a lot of play in the islands. Recently, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) heads of governments approved a 10-point plan for reparations for the lasting damage of slavery and the slave trade. […]

Guest AuthorMarch 16, 2014

The start of the new legislative session could rightly be called the silly season. The men and women elected to represent us have endeavored to propose some of the most nonsensical legislation. It makes you question the quality of our leadership. So many of the bills, such as the “Warning Shot” bill, can be considered […]

Guest AuthorMarch 12, 2014

They had the numbers: about 2,500 protesters marched to the State Capitol on a Monday morning. They had the enthusiasm: “Change the law!” “Get rid of it, now!” they chanted. They had the celebrities: The Rev. Al Sharpton, and Fly jock Tom Joyner, and Sabrina Fulwood, Trayvon Martin’s mother. Sharpton was in full flight: “ […]

Guest AuthorMarch 10, 2014

Can someone give Sen. Marco Rubio some love? He certainly wasn’t getting much at the recent gathering of conservatives in the Washington suburbs despite his tough rhetoric. Rubio placed a dismal seventh at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in a straw poll of likely GOP presidential hopefuls. And he definitely wasn’t getting it from […]

Guest AuthorFebruary 24, 2014

The Armed Occupation Act of 1842 gave 160 acres of Florida land to anyone who could fight the Seminoles and hold his ground for seven years. The congressional legislation was designed to increase the nonnative population of Florida. In 2005, the Florida Legislature approved the “stand your ground” provision of the self-defense law ostensibly to […]

Guest AuthorFebruary 10, 2014

Where is the outrage? The news that University of South Florida anthropologists found 55 bodies buried on the property of the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna prompted the usual anger from former inmates and relatives of boys who died there. But the silence from our state’s legal and political establishment is disconcerting. Attorney General […]

Guest AuthorJanuary 30, 2014

The phone call I dreaded for 30 years finally came. My grandmother, who raised me as her own son, died in her sleep a few days ago. She was 92. The news was not unexpected. Over the last year, my grandmother, Peggy Skerritt, had become increasingly frail – repeated emergency trips to the hospital foretold […]

Guest AuthorJanuary 26, 2014

Listening to all the punditry in the wake of the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty has led to one conclusion: Most of the common assumptions Americans have about poverty are dead wrong. Among them: – Most poor people are black. While the poverty rate among African Americans is more than double […]

Tag: Andrew Skerritt
Image via Palatka Main Street.

Andrew Skerritt: Details of Jameis Winston case even more troubling than first suspected

Andrew Skerritt: Will halting the voter purge help Scott with Hispanic voters?

Andrew Skerritt: We need an honest debate about slavery reparations

Andrew Skerritt: The Florida legislative session is the silly season

Andrew Skerritt: Stand your ground protest: Loud message with little impact

Andrew Skerritt: Rubio immigration reform and the political fringe

Andrew Skerritt: ‘Stand your ground’ is a 19th century solution for a modern problem – incivility

Andrew Skerritt: Where is the outrage over the bodies at Marianna?

Andrew Skerritt: A grandmother’s life is testimony that one woman can alter the course of future generations

Andrew Skerritt: Most assumptions about the poor are dead wrong