Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Peter SchorschAugust 24, 2016

Publix Supermarkets has given nearly $2.6 million to Florida candidates and committees during the 2016 election cycle, including more than $300,000 since the start of August. Among the Lakeland-based company’s most recent contributions were a $100,000 check to the Florida Chamber of Commerce, and an additional $150,000 payment to the group’s “Florida Jobs” political committee. […]

Peter SchorschJuly 18, 2016

Last week, the Miami Herald’s Mary Ellen Klas reported Florida’s sugar industry has spent a “whopping” $57.8 million over the last 22 years on political campaign contributions. This number sounds huge. But to those actively involved in Florida’s political process, the number is not so whopping when you’re plying your trade as a health care, theme park/entertainment, […]

A.G. GancarskiJune 9, 2016

The race for the GOP nomination in Florida’s 6th Congressional District finally has a Publix angle, with two Republican candidates sparring over the grocery chain. At a GOP meeting Wednesday, Fred Costello asserted that working as a “Publix bag boy” doesn’t really count as private sector experience. Brandon Patty, a military veteran of recent vintage, responded to Costello, […]

Jenna Buzzacco-FoersterMay 29, 2016

Summertime is here — well, unofficially. While Memorial Day commemorates the men and women who died while serving in the country’s armed forces, the holiday also marks the unofficial start of summer. That means baseball games and cookouts; road trips to the state’s theme parks; and a plethora of tourists visiting restaurants, beaches and hotels. […]

Guest AuthorApril 18, 2016

The most popular tourist game in Key West these days is searching for that single, illusive parking spot. Top down on the signature rented orange Camaro, there they go around the block, the one riding shotgun pointing to, oops, not that one. If locals talk ceaselessly about traffic, they can come to blows over parking […]

Julie DelegalMarch 29, 2016

The law on employer-paid health care has taken some strange twists in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Hobby Lobby. Its follow-up case, Zubik v. Burwell, is before the high court now. But is there a way to reconceive health benefits as pay — and therefore as something employers have no control […]

Jim RosicaFebruary 29, 2016

If proponents of tearing down the hard liquor “wall of separation” in retail stores had a theme song, it would be, “Don’t You (Forget About Me).” Businesses organized as Floridians for Fair Business Practices want to repeal the Prohibition-era state law that requires businesses, such as grocery chains and big-box retailers, to have separate stores to sell liquor. […]

Guest AuthorFebruary 8, 2016

The whole world watched and waited to learn the names of the winners of the $1.5-billion Powerball jackpot last month. Any news, and a lot of non-news speculation, was breaking news. Then we learned something. Publix in Melbourne Beach, Florida, sold one of the winning tickets. It was rewarded $100,000, but, it lost a lot […]

Mitch PerryDecember 2, 2015

A new national Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday morning shows Hillary Clinton walking away with the Democratic nomination for president, about two months before the Iowa caucuses. Clinton leads Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders by 30 percentage points, 60-30 percent. No doubt Clinton enthusiasts will be reveling in that new nugget when they gather Wednesday afternoon […]

Jim RosicaNovember 17, 2015

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Give state Rep. Carlos Trujillo credit for frankness. On Tuesday, he yanked his ‘whiskey and Wheaties’ bill from the agenda of the House Business and Professions subcommittee because, as he said, “one of my four votes is not here today” (though four votes is a minority on the 13-member committee). Trujillo, a Miami Republican, was referring to the […]

Tag: Publix

Publix: Where shopping — and making hefty political contributions — are a pleasure

Putting the sugar industry’s history of political contributions into some much-needed context

The Publix question enters the CD 6 race

Memorial Day is brought to you by these lobbyists, associations and, of course, Publix

Linda Cunningham: Parking in paradise ain’t pretty

Julie Delegal: Employers, paychecks, insurance, and birth control

“Whiskey and Wheaties” looking dead, but advocates keep pushing

Kevin Cate: How Publix lost the power of Powerball

Mitch Perry Report for 12.2.15 – Here’s Hillary … and her plan to begin fixing our infrastructure needs

Is the ‘whiskey and Wheaties’ bill on the rocks?