Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Scott PowersApril 19, 2017

The Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association – which represents the states’s 20 state attorneys including Orlando’s Aramis Ayala – will be filing an amicus brief against her and supporting Gov. Rick Scott‘s power to reassign state attorneys’ cases. The association filed a motion Wednesday morning requesting the chance to weigh in as a friend of the […]

Jim RosicaApril 18, 2017

Gov. Rick Scott went once more unto the breach Tuesday, pressing his case for full funding of the state’s VISIT FLORIDA tourism marketing agency. The Republican governor—surrounded by VISIT FLORIDA’s CEO Ken Lawson, board chairman William Talbert, and others—spoke with reporters outside his Capitol office. The GOP-majority House of Representatives, which at first wanted to eliminate […]

Scott PowersApril 13, 2017

Tri-Rail’s controversial, one-source, half-billion, operations contract could go forward under an amended bill pushed Thursday by the Gov. Rick Scott administration and state Sens. George Gainer and Jeff Brandes. Just a few weeks ago, both Gainer and Brandes were hostile critics of the contract and Tri-Rail. Brandes, a St. Petersburg Republican, sponsored an amendment Thursday that […]

Scott PowersApril 11, 2017

Among material filed Tuesday with Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala‘s Florida Supreme Court challenge of Gov. Rick Scott‘s executive orders stripping cases from her is a year-old letter from his office affirming her position – that her prosecutorial decisions cannot be overridden. Ayala’s attorneys Roy Austin Jr. of Washington D.C. and Marcos Hasbun of Tampa included the […]

Jim RosicaApril 11, 2017

With the House seemingly intent on gutting VISIT FLORIDA and eliminating Enterprise Florida, Gov. Rick Scott suggested he won’t stop counterpunching. The governor, who spoke to reporters after Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, has been openly warring with House Speaker Richard Corcoran. He’s been out to kill state government’s business incentives programs. Corcoran counts Enterprise Florida (EFI), the […]

Jim RosicaApril 6, 2017

The Florida Supreme Court no longer will allow its justices to keep working indefinitely on open cases after they leave the bench, according to a new rule released Thursday. After Justice James E.C. Perry officially retired on Dec. 30, Chief Justice Jorge Labarga allowed him to finish work on opinions as a “senior justice,” following decades of court practice. […]

Scott PowersApril 4, 2017

Democratic state Senator Randolph Bracy has published a national defense of Orlando’s State Attorney Aramis Ayala Tuesday with an op-ed column in the New York Times contending Gov. Rick Scott has overreached in removing cases from her. In the column headlined “Florida’s Vengeful Governor,” Bracy argues that Scott’s reassignment of 22 death penalty cases from […]

Jim RosicaApril 2, 2017

Ed. Note: A version of this story ran previously in Saturday’s “Takeaways from Tallahassee” email. It’s long been a Capitol cliché, but there are few pronouncements on a piece of legislation as inauspicious as calling something “a heavy lift.” Saying a bill is “a heavy, heavy lift” sounds even more portending of defeat. Yet that’s how […]

Staff ReportsMarch 31, 2017

Gov. Rick Scott on Friday announced sixteen reappointments and fifteen appointments to fourteen Judicial Nominating Commissions (JNCs), the panels charged with making recommendations for judgeships. They “submit three to six names of the most highly qualified applicants to the Governor, who must make a final selection from the list,” according to The Florida Bar. “Each Judicial Nominating […]

Peter SchorschMarch 29, 2017

Sen. Jack Latvala has backed Gov. Rick Scott in his defense of Enterprise Florida—but that wasn’t always the case. The Clearwater Republican, who now chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, had some choice words for the public-private economic development organization back in 2015. That’s when he was chair of the Senate’s Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development […]

Tag: Gov. Rick Scott

Florida prosecutors’ group to weigh in on Rick Scott’s side in Aramis Ayala dispute

Rick Scott pushes ahead for VISIT FLORIDA funding

George Gainer, Jeff Brandes reverse positions on Tri-Rail, push bill to let controversial contract stand

Governor’s office affirmed prosecutorial discretion, state attorneys’ independence, in letter last year

Rick Scott won’t end fight for economic development, tourism funding

Supreme Court tweaks its ‘senior justice’ rule after controversy

Randolph Bracy comes to Aramis Ayala’s defense with NY Times op-ed

Black clouds loom over this year’s gambling bills

Rick Scott names 31 to state’s Judicial Nominating Commissions

Was Jack Latvala against Enterprise Florida before he was for it?