Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Joe HendersonJanuary 5, 2017

Mitch Perry’s story Tuesday on FloridaPolitics.com about the bill filed by state Sen. Tom Lee to dismantle state’s Sports Development Program triggered an instant thought: Well, forget about a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays. I followed up with a call to Lee, a Republican from Brandon, and asked if my thought about the […]

Joe HendersonJanuary 2, 2017

St. Petersburg is a lovely, vibrant city that is getting better by the day. I love its waterfront and its eclectic, revitalized downtown. So I hope my friends there don’t this personally when I ask: Have your city leaders lost their minds? I refer to the “Baseball Forever’ push to a build a stadium that […]

Mitch PerryDecember 15, 2016

St. Pete City Council members are scheduled to receive a report on the progress of the St. Petersburg Pier at City Hall this morning. Architects from ASD Architects, Rogers Partners Architects + Urban Designers, representing the Pier and W Architecture and Landscape Architecture and Wannemacher Jensen Architects, representing the Pier Approach will present updated renderings of the new Pier. […]

Joe HendersonDecember 7, 2016

Another year has almost passed and, so far as we know, nothing much has happened to lead anyone to believe the Tampa Bay Rays are anywhere close to securing a new stadium. But there were two developments this week that seemed to be forces pulling in the opposite direction. That’s never good. On Monday, as […]

Jim RosicaDecember 6, 2016

A new House bill would prohibit sports teams in Florida from building or refurbishing stadiums on public land. State Rep. Bryan Avila, a Hialeah Republican, filed the bill (HB 77) Tuesday. The House website shows it does not yet have a Senate companion. The legislation says “sports franchise(s) may not construct, reconstruct, renovate, or improve […]

Mitch PerryOctober 3, 2016

We’ve had Brexit and Donald Trump; now we have the nation of Colombia rejecting a landmark peace agreement between the government and the former rebel group FARC — a deal that took over four years to negotiate and would have formally ended five decades of war. Who can predict anything with accuracy these days? Closer to home, for the […]

Joe HendersonSeptember 29, 2016

I think we have one of our first major campaign issues for the 2018 race to succeed Rick Scott as Florida’s governor. Any serious candidate who doesn’t come out strongly in favor of seriously beefing up the state Department of Environmental Protection will miss a great opportunity. In just the last couple of months alone, […]

Peter SchorschSeptember 6, 2016

It is the difference between the executive and the legislative. The former is about the buck stopping here. The latter is about forming a committee to explore when would be best to meet to address the problem. It’s about management style. With a political career that included time on St. Petersburg’s City Council and as a […]

Mitch PerryAugust 26, 2016

Incoming Florida Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jack Latvala said Friday a lack of mass transit in the Tampa Bay area has become a bigger problem than ever, and he blasted his fellow Republicans in Tallahassee for failing to lead on the issue. “We’ve got a lot of folks in my party that just bury their head in the sand when […]

Jenna Buzzacco-FoersterJuly 4, 2016

Whether it’s at the ballpark or the beach, setting off fireworks or firing up the grill, Floridians will celebrate the July 4 holiday in style. The National Retail Federation predicts Americans will spend $71.34 per household on average on food for barbecues. The organization — which has been conducting its annual Independence Day survey since 2003 […]

Tag: Tampa Bay Rays

Pro sports franchises: Build your own stadium, ballpark, or arena

Building a new ballpark in St. Petersburg: Throwing good money after bad

Mitch Perry Report for 12.15.16 — Pier politics, part VIII

Baseball commissioner: Rays stadium is about location, location, location

Bryan Avila files stadium funding bill

Mitch Perry Report for 10.3.16 — The Tampa Bay Rays long, bad 2016 comes to an end

Joe Henderson: Issue 1 in 2018 Gov’s race, fixing Florida’s environment

Remind us again what big project Rick Kriseman’s administration is good at managing?

Jack Latvala says his GOP colleagues have their ‘heads in the sand when it comes to transportation’

Independence Day brought to you by these lobbyists and political associations