Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Jim RosicaApril 22, 2016

Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater again picked state Rep. Bill Hager and two others to be interviewed for state Insurance Commissioner at next Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting. The decision came in a Thursday email. The current commissioner, Kevin McCarty, plans to leave the post this year. Hager, a former Iowa Insurance Commissioner, is Atwater’s choice but Gov. […]

Jim RosicaApril 20, 2016

A top plaintiffs’ insurance lawyer is lauding Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty‘s offer to extend his departure, which was originally set for May 2. McCarty “staying on until a replacement is named is a massive blessing,” said Chip Merlin of the Merlin Law Group in Tampa. Merlin has built a business out of suing insurance companies that “deny, delay or underpay property […]

Jim RosicaApril 20, 2016

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Kevin McCarty is telling his bosses: You need more time? You got it. The state’s outgoing Insurance Commissioner on Wednesday wrote separate but identical letters to Gov. Rick Scott, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. He said he would delay his departure to “45 days after my successor […]

Jim RosicaApril 19, 2016

Alimony overhaul supporters may need to take a break next legislative session, state Sen. Kelli Stargel says. “I don’t know that I’m willing to take this on again next year,” she told FloridaPolitics.com on Tuesday. “Then again, a lot can happen between now and the next legislative session. But we need to discuss the merits of […]

Peter SchorschApril 19, 2016

About a month ago, when FloridaPolitics.com offered “The Good, the Bad and the Interesting” of the applicants for the next Insurance Commissioner, we highlighted the legal requirements for the job. They’re high … on purpose. HB 3, passed in Special Session E in 2002, implemented a 1998 constitutional amendment that merged the jobs of Comptroller […]

Jim RosicaApril 18, 2016

Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet now have 67 names to pick from for state Insurance Commissioner. They decided to take more applications for the job after the March 29 Cabinet meeting, setting an April 15 application deadline. Scott and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater had each favored two different candidates: Retired executive Jeffrey Bragg and state Rep. Bill […]

Associated PressApril 18, 2016

A former Florida House speaker who stood up to Gov. Rick Scott is being pushed off the Florida State University board. Scott on Friday replaced Allan Bense on the FSU board of trustees with Max Alvarez, a Doral businessman and friend of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio. He also reappointed two trustees including one, Joe Gruters, who […]

Jim RosicaApril 15, 2016

Smaller private, charter and Christian schools in Florida say the state’s high-school athletics oversight body is preventing them from competing for state championships despite a new state law approved by Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday. But a spokesman for the organization, the Florida High School Athletics Association, says they’re simply enforcing a policy that’s been on the […]

Jim RosicaApril 15, 2016

Gov. Rick Scott Thursday vetoed legislation that could have helped poor and rural Floridians get dental care, saying it held too much potential for abuse of public dollars. The bill (HB 139), filed by state Rep. Travis Cummings, had been passed unanimously by both chambers of the Legislature in the 2016 Legislative Session. It created […]

Jim RosicaApril 14, 2016

The next head of Enterprise Florida, the state’s public-private economic development organization, will no longer report directly to Gov. Rick Scott, according to a new Governor’s Office organizational chart. The chart, first unearthed Wednesday by Associated Press Capitol reporter Gary Fineout in his The Fine Print blog, had been quietly posted on the Governor’s Office official website, www.flgov.com. […]

Tag: Gov. Rick Scott

Jeff Atwater considering three for OIR top job

Chip Merlin calls Kevin McCarty’s departure delay a ‘massive blessing’

In letter, Kevin McCarty says he’s willing to extend departure date

Kelli Stargel says alimony reform may have to wait until 2018 session

The million-dollar Insurance Commissioner question

67 apply to become state’s next Insurance Commissioner

Weekend round-up: Allan Bense booted, Gene Cryer dies, union prez sentenced

Small detail in big education bill causing major headache in high school athletics

Rick Scott vetoes dental care program for the poor

Enterprise Florida downgraded in Rick Scott’s new organizational chart