Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Joe HendersonOctober 27, 2016

Earlier this week, NBC political chief Chuck Todd was chatting with Republican strategist Jeff Roe, picking out three places around the country where election geeks should focus special attention. Hillsborough County topped the list. Are we surprised? Todd noted that Roe considered it “the bellwether county in the country” and added, “you could make that […]

Associated PressOctober 20, 2016

Bitter presidential rivals Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have one more face-to-face showdown before Election Day. And they’re supposed to make it funny. The venue just 24 hours after their third and final debate is the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York, a white-tie gala that every four years becomes a […]

Mitch PerrySeptember 29, 2016

Dr. Jill Stein, the 66-year-old Green Party presidential candidate, brought her campaign to Tampa Wednesday night, where she spoke to a packed house in the second floor ballroom of the Cuban Club in Ybor City. Stein is currently averaging around 2.5 percent in the national polls, not that dissimilar to the 2.7 percent Ralph Nader ultimately earned in […]

Martin DyckmanSeptember 27, 2016

Your vote is a terrible thing to waste. That lesson was demonstrated 16 years ago, when his contested margin of 537 votes in Florida made George W. Bush president of the United States. From that came the invasion of Iraq and the present turmoil and bloodshed in the Middle East, the Supreme Court nominations of […]

Associated PressSeptember 26, 2016

A claim from the presidential debate and how it stacks up with the facts: TRUMP: “Wrong. Wrong,” he said when Clinton pointed out that he supported the Iraq war. Trump later returned to the issue when asked about it by moderator Lester Holt. “I did not support the war in Iraq,” he said. “That is […]

Mitch PerrySeptember 26, 2016

I’m not about to be a spoilsport and say that presidential debates are overrated, but the history shows there have been very, very few since they began being held regularly 1976 that have significantly moved voters. The first debate in 2000 between Al Gore and George W. Bush definitely changed some things. That’s the one, you might recall, where Gore was okay on substance […]

Brendan FarringtonSeptember 25, 2016

It took just 14,496 votes to win his closed Democratic primary for one of Florida’s 27 congressional seats. Now Darren Soto is virtually assured of going to Capitol Hill, unlikely to face a strong Republican challenge this November in his safely Democratic district. The state senator snared the votes of just 2 percent of the […]

Mitch PerrySeptember 24, 2016

The U.S. Presidential election returns to Florida’s I-4 corridor early next week, with Donald Trump speaking at a rally at Orlando Melbourne International Airport on Tuesday at 7 p.m.. The GOP presidential nominee’s appearance will come less than 24 hours after he and Hillary Clinton engage in the first of their three scheduled debates before the November 8 election. The trip is another occasion […]

Phil AmmannSeptember 18, 2016

Francis Suarez comes from a long line of civic and political leaders who have formed the Republican bedrock in south Florida’s Cuban community for a half century. Yet the 38-year-old Miami city commissioner hasn’t decided whether he will vote for his party’s presidential nominee. He’s not alone. Many Cuban-Americans are expressing solidarity with other Latin-Americans […]

Joe HendersonSeptember 2, 2016

I love a good campaign slogan. It can be the key to victory, as we saw with Barack Obama’s “Hope and Change” and George W. Bush’s “Compassionate Conservative” pitch. And then there is Marco Rubio, Florida’s reluctant U.S. senator who is running, sort of, for re-election to an office he doesn’t appear to completely embrace. […]

Tag: George W. Bush

Joe Henderson: Buckle up, Hillsborough, you’re the big political prize

Day after debate, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton square off again at roast

Jill Stein tells Tampa: ‘This is the perfect storm for a voter revolt’

Martin Dyckman: Now is no time for exalted idealism

Fact check: Donald Trump on Iraq War

Mitch Perry Report for 9.26.16 – Keeping everything in perspective

Florida primaries eyed: Representation of few, or the many?

Donald Trump to return to Central Florida less than 24 hours after Monday night’s debate

In Florida, a shifting Cuban vote could be the difference

Joe Henderson: Marco Rubio’s 2016 slogan — ‘Maybe I’ll stay. Maybe I won’t.’