Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Guest AuthorOctober 4, 2015

So again, Jeb Bush belittles black people. After a decade of uniform disdain for black life, Bush’s view amounts to the pejorative “free-stuff” argument — food stamps, Head Start, unemployment (not necessarily free), which black people tend to take advantage of “disproportionately,” as a Washington Post article put it. That, Bush says, is the cause […]

Guest AuthorSeptember 3, 2015

Marco Rubio likes to say he’s representing the future of the Grand Old Party. (An oxymoron, no?) He’s a new face, he’s young, he’s definitely not “low-energy” or overly familiar (Jeb Bush; Hillary Clinton), he’s sane (not Rand Paul), he has charisma (not Scott Walker), he’s unflappable (not Chris Christie), he’s not brash and false […]

Guest AuthorJuly 30, 2015

This has to be the most on-its-face absurd comparison, but circumstances make it an apt one: Former Florida A&M University President Frederick Humphries is officially the Jimmy Carter of former FAMU presidents. This is not the Jimmy Carter of Habitat Humanity, Sunday school lessons in primitive Georgia churches, or the former president who’s trying permanently […]

Guest AuthorJuly 24, 2015

In one way, supporters and detractors of U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson agree: He’s a lightning rod. The Republican Party of Florida loves this about him because it provides fresh material for attack ads; partisans because he revs them up. The Democratic establishment hates it because it screws up the possibility of having a clean, organized, […]

Guest AuthorJuly 23, 2015

In one way, supporters and detractors of U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson agree: He’s a lightning rod. The Republican Party of Florida loves this about him because it provides fresh material for attack ads; partisans because he revs them up. The Democratic establishment hates it because it screws up the possibility of having a clean, organized, […]

Guest AuthorJuly 9, 2015

If you want to see how unsophisticated and implacable Republicans can be on race, you should have been at the Hillsborough County Charter Review Board (stacked with Republican functionaries) meeting on Tuesday. Besides the inevitable (and highly entertaining) fireworks the meeting was bound to ignite, it was the absence of even a genuine conversation and […]

Guest AuthorJuly 2, 2015

The teacher who taught state Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami, his ABCs, if he or she were around, should certainly regret it. Because — astonishingly, or maybe not — Fresen believes that the insights gleaned from a casual reading during a long airplane flight (Amanda Ripley’s “The Smartest Kids in the World,” according to Fresen) entitles […]

Guest AuthorJune 25, 2015

So Jeb! didn’t know. Mr. Wonky, details-oriented, well-briefed, bureaucratic slayer of 500-page white papers just didn’t know. (And that’s reading past the executive summary. Take that, George W., MBA-style prez!) According to The Root, a magazine dedicated to black news and culture, now formally announced candidate for president and dynastic-heir wannabe, Jeb Bush, told the […]

Guest AuthorJune 18, 2015

Marco Rubio must be smiling. The baby-faced U.S. senator and presidential hopeful is having the best two weeks of his life. Not only did he get needlessly razed by the arch-liberal New York Times in two attack pieces, he’s also receiving the cold shoulder by everybody’s who’s somebody in Florida’s Republican establishment. According to CNN, […]

Guest AuthorNovember 12, 2014

Say you’re a new university president and you’re leading a university that has had two “permanent” presidents and two “interim” presidents in the last decade. Say you came from an Ivy League school, ranked 15th best in the country, according to The US News & World Report. Say you have had an unblemished professional career. […]

Tag: Chris Timmons
Mike Johnson. Image via AP.

Chris Timmons: It's time the GOP realizes the human complexity of black experience

Chris Timmons: The future is Marco Rubio's for the taking

Chris Timmons: A FAMU ex-president and a Jimmy Carter comparison

Chris Timmons: Politics is organized around passion — so Florida Democrats need Alan Grayson

Chris Timmons: Politics is organized around passion — so Florida Democrats need Alan Grayson

Chris Timmons: Hillsborough County and race: Historical fact — America ain't never been colorblind

Chris Timmons: Legislator misunderstands teaching and teachers

Chris Timmons: This is typical Jeb Bush tone-deafness on race

Chris Timmons: Marco Rubio, the insurgent

Chris Timmons: FAMU trustees must let the new president do her job