Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Peter SchorschSeptember 29, 2017

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Over the past century Florida has never elected a Republican in back-to-back U.S. Senate elections, making the Sunshine State somewhat of a rare bird. Despite having a veritable stranglehold on the state legislature, and the fact that it will have held the Governor’s Mansion for 20 years by the time Rick Scott leaves office, the […]

Jim RosicaJune 14, 2017

When Gov. Rick Scott appointed a conservative jurist to the state’s Supreme Court in December, he made clear he wasn’t done. “I will appoint three more justices the morning I finish my term,” he said, referring to the mandatory retirement in early 2019 of the court’s liberal-leaning triumvirate of Justices Barbara Pariente, Peggy A. Quince and […]

Martin DyckmanMay 9, 2017

When the Florida Constitution Revision Commission was debating the election of judges 20 years ago, I sat in the gallery to hear my own words used to attack something that my editorials and columns consistently had supported. The issue was whether all trial judges should be chosen exclusively by appointment, without elections, in the same […]

Susan WashingtonApril 26, 2017

For the charismatic, 37-year-old mayor of Tallahassee, a day in Gainesville was an opportunity to campaign for Florida governor — the job he hopes to win in next year’s election — but also a chance to reconnect with a place and some people who he describes as “pivotal.” Following an economic roundtable discussion with University […]

Martin DyckmanApril 18, 2017

He would put it off as long as he could, aides said, and trembled when he finally had to sign a black-bordered death warrant. Despite his profound opposition to capital punishment, LeRoy Collins sent 29 men to their doom during his six years as Florida’s governor. He was in anguish each time. To some people, […]

Guest AuthorDecember 9, 2016

“What we have here is a failure to communicate.” That quote from “Cool Hand Luke” could be directed squarely at the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party has been suffering from this issue and a message problem since 1998. The performance of the Florida Democratic Party has led to a complete Republican dominance in both the […]

Mitch PerryNovember 1, 2016

David Jolly again revives Charlie Crist‘s visit to a prison in Alabama where he observed a literal prison chain gang in 1995 in a new running on television and on the internet. The ad, called “See How it Feels,” stars former St. Petersburg Democrat-turned-Republican state lawmaker Rudy Bradley, who looks sternly into the camera and says the incident is […]

Ryan RayJune 1, 2016

A pair of eminent Florida politicos want to introduce legislation to create a specialty Florida license plate bearing the logo of Auburn University. That’s a bad idea for several reasons. No animus against Democratic strategist Kevin Cate, one of the kindest political people around, or Rep. Jamie Grant, who gives me courage despite my own receding hairline. But this […]

Ryan RayFebruary 26, 2016

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A newly pugilistic Marco Rubio showed Americans his skill with slings and arrows at Thursday night’s GOP debate in Houston, calling Donald Trump a “con artist” and giving Trump a taste of his own vicious medicine by repeatedly interrupting and ridiculing him. But, as Jeremy Peters of The New York Times wrote Friday, Rubio may have just been warming up: […]

Jim RosicaFebruary 5, 2016

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Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Jorge Labarga has been re-elected by his colleagues to serve a second two-year term, the first justice to serve two consecutive terms as chief since the end of the Civil War, according to a Friday news release. “It is a privilege to serve the people of Florida,” Labarga said. “My second term will […]

Tag: Lawton Chiles

Report: Can Florida Republicans finally win back-to-back U.S. Senate races?

Progressive groups sue over Rick Scott’s judicial appointment power

Martin Dyckman: Judges are not politicians, nor should they play politics

As a teen, Gainesville pivotal to shaping Andrew Gillum’s political rise, ambition

Martin Dyckman: Clemency and Florida’s overbearing ‘politics of death’

Carlos Nathan: An open letter to Florida Democrats

Former St. Pete Rep. Rudy Bradley stars in David Jolly’s latest ad

An Auburn license plate in Florida is a bad idea

Marco Rubio goes for the jugular against Donald Trump

Jorge Labarga to repeat as state’s chief justice