Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Martin DyckmanJanuary 24, 2016

Had a modern Rip Van Winkle who happened to be a Republican fallen asleep 20 years ago, he might think that he had awakened now in hell. His choice in the 1996 party primaries for president would have been among a 10-person field including Bob Dole, the senator and eventual nominee; Sen. Richard Lugar of […]

Martin DyckmanJanuary 5, 2016

Legislation calling on Florida to once again elect a state education commissioner strikes me as the wrong solution to a real problem. There are plenty of reasons to be dissatisfied with the state of education in the Sunshine State but none is enough, in my opinion, to enlarge the Cabinet and dilute the responsibility of […]

Martin DyckmanJanuary 4, 2016

Legislation calling on Florida to once again elect an education commissioner strikes me as the wrong solution to a real problem. There are plenty of reasons to be dissatisfied with the state of education in the Sunshine State but none is enough, in my opinion, to enlarge the Cabinet and dilute the responsibility of the […]

Martin DyckmanOctober 16, 2015

It can be perilous to predict the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court case by the questions justices ask during the oral argument, but this once I’ll hazard a guess: Florida’s death-sentencing law is in deep trouble. The better question, in fact, is not whether Pensacola killer Timothy Hurst will win his appeal but how […]

Martin DyckmanOctober 15, 2015

It can be perilous to predict the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court case by the questions justices ask during the oral argument, but this once I’ll hazard a guess: Florida’s death-sentencing law is in deep trouble. The better question, in fact, is not whether Pensacola killer Timothy Hurst will win his appeal but how […]

Peter SchorschAugust 18, 2015

The second edition of INFLUENCE Magazine should have already arrived in your mailbox. If it has not and you would like to receive a hard copy of this inside view into Florida’s news, politics, and culture, please drop me a line. As you can imagine, I’ve read everything in INFLUENCE several times, backwards and forwards. But, […]

Martin DyckmanJune 8, 2015

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Were any of your ancestors here to meet the Godspeed at Jamestown or the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock? No? Then you, like me, belong to an immigrant family. Your forebears may have been here longer than mine, who came in the late 1800s, but we are alike in that none of our American roots were […]

Martin DyckmanJune 1, 2015

With all the horrors continuing to occur in the world, notably including the massacres perpetrated by Boko Haram in Africa and ISIS in the Middle East, the evangelist Franklin Graham has not exactly overlooked them. But it’s to some other crisis that he has been devoting most of his public preaching lately. He’s been praying […]

Martin DyckmanMay 25, 2015

The obituaries for Helen Gordon Davis correctly recounted what one called her “trailblazing” career in the Florida Legislature, where in 1974 she became one of very few women – the first from Hillsborough County – in what a colleague famously called “the land of the Bubbas.” She weathered the sexism and condescension and compiled a […]

Martin DyckmanMay 25, 2015

The obituaries for Helen Gordon Davis correctly recounted what one called her “trailblazing” career in the Florida Legislature, where in 1974 she became one of very few women – the first from Hillsborough County – in what a colleague famously called “the land of the Bubbas.” She weathered the sexism and condescension and compiled a […]

Tag: Martin Dyckman
TALLAHASSEE, FLA. 3/4/25-Gov. Ron DeSantis talks with the media after giving the State of the State speech on the opening day of the 2025 Legislative Session, Tuesday at the Capitol in Tallahassee. COLIN HACKLEY PHOTO

Martin Dyckman: Is Ted Cruz eligible to be president? The question needs to be resolved

Martin Dyckman: Restoring elected education commissioner won’t fix schools

Martin Dyckman: Restoring elected education commissioner won’t fix schools

Martin Dyckman: Why Florida’s death-sentencing law is likely in trouble

Martin Dyckman: Why Florida’s death-sentencing law is likely in trouble

13 things I really like about the latest issue of INFLUENCE Magazine

Martin Dyckman: Why is Jeb Bush the only GOP contender who makes sense on immigration?

Martin Dyckman: Franklin Graham praying for destruction of the U.S. Constitution

Martin Dyckman: Helen Gordon Davis, an early victim of racial gerrymandering in Florida

Martin Dyckman: Helen Gordon Davis an early victim of racial gerrymandering in Florida