Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Guest AuthorJune 29, 2014

If you think anti-abortion activists swarming around clinics are sweet, helpful Good Samaritans, you’ve sniffed a snoot-full of cockamamie pixie dust. Or you’re swooning over the perfectly coiffed spokesmen (and, why is it they are almost always men?) whose carefully modulated tones and messages reassure that protesters are simple caring folks handing out pamphlets and […]

Martin DyckmanMay 21, 2014

Scientists fear that global warming will reach a “tipping point” beyond which it could not be halted. That may already have happened, they said last week, to the West Antarctica ice sheet. If it slides into the ocean, seas could eventually rise by as much as 10 feet worldwide. There’s a third tipping point that’s […]

Martin DyckmanMay 4, 2014

Whether the murderer Clayton Lockett deserved to die is beside the point to nearly everyone who has read or heard about how he died in Oklahoma Tuesday. His execution attempt, evoking images of medieval torture, was botched so badly that it had to be interrupted shortly before a heart attack completed what needles and drugs […]

Mark FerruloApril 16, 2014

On April 1 a federal appeals court issued a ruling that squashed Gov. Rick Scott’s politically driven, error-riddled 2012 “voter purge.” This decision underscored what nearly every political observer already knew: Scott’s effort to purge the rolls was not only flawed, but also illegal. The National Voter Registration Act clearly prohibits any program that purges […]

Martin DyckmanApril 6, 2014

Running for re-election in 1974, Gov. Reubin Askew limited his contributions to $300 per person — no more than $100 for each of the three phases of the campaign. The law allowed $9,000. Sen. Lawton Chiles went one better when he ran for re-election in 1976. He restricted his contributions to $10 a pop, or […]

Guest AuthorApril 1, 2014

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to rule soon in a case that will determine whether prayers at government meetings should continue to be allowed and if so, what kind. The court will rule on whether an upstate New York town violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from making […]

Julie DelegalMarch 16, 2014

The proposed legislative expansion of Florida’s private-school voucher program may jump the blurry line between private money and public money. Instead of diverting only corporate taxes to pay for private-school vouchers, House Speaker Will Weatherford wants to use your sales tax dollars, and mine, to expand the voucher pot by another $30 million. Many Floridians […]

Martin DyckmanDecember 29, 2013

Human intuition — aka common sense — can be a keen judge of the obvious. For example, “coffin nails” was slang for cigarettes long before the surgeon general’s statistics proved that’s what they are. When it comes to persuading judges and politicians, it usually takes science to prove the obvious. Today, anybody with eyes and […]

Martin DyckmanNovember 25, 2013

Here we go again. Some politician hungry for a headline — in South Dakota this time –wants to make school children recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag as a daily ritual. Applause erupts countrywide. My ContextFlorida colleague Steve Kurlander endorsed the idea last week. I dissent. True patriotism is taught, and learned, only […]

Darryl PaulsonSeptember 25, 2013

Last of nine parts. In the first eight articles in this series I discussed the long and shameful legacy of voter discrimination in Florida. Neither Democrats nor Republicans should have any pride in how they have treated the black electorate in the past 200 years. Democrats, who politically controlled Florida for about 140 of the […]

Tag: U.S. Supreme Court
United States election confusion and Community vote or voting crisis concept as hands holding votes casting ballots in a tangled American flag as voters confused with 3D illustration elements.

Linda Cunningham: Protected by its buffer zone, court bans them at clinics

Martin Dyckman: We must limit campaign spending to halt ‘hostile takeover’

Martin Dyckman: Botched execution further weakens argument for death penalty

Mark Ferrulo: Recent rulings show why we need quality federal judges

Martin Dyckman: Supreme Court ruling is a death warrant for democracy

Steve Kurlander: Overt Christian prayers have no place at government meetings

Julie Delegal: Do you want your Florida sales taxes going to religious schools?

Martin Dyckman: Voter suppression aims to curb black vote, study says

Martin Dyckman: Forcing people to recite the Pledge is unconstitutional

Darryl Paulson: Black voter discrimination: What lies ahead?