Caldwell Concedes Ag Commissioner Race To Fried
November 19, 2018
Republican Matt Caldwell pointed to a need for political “sanity” and a “peaceful transfer of power” Monday as he conceded the race for Florida agriculture commissioner to Fort Lauderdale lawyer Nikki Fried, the only Democrat to winstatewide this year.
Caldwell, a real-estate appraiser from North Fort Myers who has served the past eight years in the Florida House, said in a statement that he still had questions about how ballots were handled in Palm Beach and Broward counties, where he had filed a lawsuit. But he didn’t want to use “legal loopholes to win an election.”
“All I have ever expected since Election Day is a full and fair accounting of all legal votes cast, and then respecting the will of the voters,” Caldwell said. “Unfortunately, as a result of the abject failures in Broward and Palm Beach, it has become clear that we may never gain an understanding of what transpired in the hours and days after polls closed, despite the exhaustive efforts of my legal team to get to the truth. To continue this legal challenge would likely require millions of dollars and months to complete without providing any more clarity.”
A short time after Caldwell’s announcement, Fried tweeted that she received a phone call from Caldwell and “he could not have been more gracious.”
“I want to congratulate him on a close race and thank him for his willingness to step into the arena. And to everyone who supported him, I will be your voice in Tallahassee too,” Fried tweeted.
The state Elections Canvassing Commission will meet Tuesday to certify the results of the Nov. 6 elections.
A manual recount completed Sunday raised Fried’s lead over Caldwell to 6,753 votes out of more than 8 million cast in the race for a seat on the state Cabinet. The manual recount added 1,446 votes to Fried’s total from an earlier machine recount, according to results posted on the state Division of Elections website.
Caldwell’s campaign Sunday continued to explore how heavily Democratic Broward and Palm Beach counties handled the recount. The Republican’s attorneys contended in the earlier lawsuit that about 17,000 vote-by-mail ballots were collected and counted in Broward County after polls closed at 7 p.m. on Nov. 6.
Caldwell also attacked Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes for “staggering incompetence” after her office was unable to provide the results of a machine recount to the state by a Thursday deadline.
Snipes, appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2003 and re-elected four times, submitted her resignation — effective Jan. 4 — to Gov. Rick Scott on Sunday.
Caldwell’s concession Monday came a short time after the Republican Party of Palm Beach County called for volunteers to help with a recount expected to be conducted locally Tuesday and Wednesday.
Caldwell, who noted the need for a “peaceful transfer of power” by alluding to how Richard Nixon accepted the results of a “fraud” filled 1960 election won by President John F. Kennedy, said he was no longer challenging the results.
In a separate letter thanking supporters, Caldwell said the current “unhealthy” state of politics weighed in his decision.
“That hit home this last week when the FBI informed me that I was among the group of individuals that the recently captured pipe bomber had researched prior to his arrest,” Caldwell wrote. “Even our own governor-elect was a near target of the baseball field shootings. There is no place for political violence in a democratically elected republic. Our remedy is the ballot box and it should remain there. Embracing this fact can only make us stronger. The sooner we return to peaceful sanity, the better.”
In addition to his letter to supporters, Caldwell submitted a letter to Secretary of State Ken Detzner that calls for reform of the election process and outlined “mistakes, errors and failures” in Palm Beach and Broward counties.
Among his proposals: changes to how votes are delivered, sorted and counted; basic training for supervisors of elections and their staffs; extended time periods for machine and manual recounts; and a process for canvassing boards to request extensions to complete counting.
Caldwell declared victory on election night, as ballots counted several hours after the polls closed had him up by more than 40,000 votes. But over the next several days, as more ballots were tabulated, particularly in South Florida, Fried pulled ahead.
Fried, who has also worked as a medical marijuana lobbyist, first claimed victory after unofficial returns were posted on Nov. 10. But state law required machine and manual recounts because of the slim margins between the candidates.
Fried has set up a transition team headed by Congressman Darren Soto of Orlando and former Congressman Patrick Murphy.
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
One Injured In Crash Near Ransom Middle School
November 18, 2018
One person was injured in a single vehicle wreck Sunday morning near Ransom Middle School.
The driver of a Toyota Tundra lost control, ran off West Kingsfield Road, struck a utility pole and ran into a wooded area. He was transported by Escambia County EMS to an area hospital with injuries that were not considered life threatening.
The accident is under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol.
The Ensley and Cantonment stations of Escambia Fire Rescue also responded to the crash.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
From Shelter To Service: Escambia County Working Dogs
November 18, 2018
Each Saturday morning, Escambia County Animal Control Supervisor Kevin Monfreda and his 3-year-old bloodhound, Bo, visit campuses and parks along the Gulf Coast. The two aren’t stopping in for a game of fetch or a jog — they’re rigorously perfecting Bo’s skills as a scent trailing dog.
The pair has been working together since July 2015, when Monfreda adopted Bo from the Escambia County Animal Shelter after Animal Control officers removed the 7-month-old puppy from an animal cruelty situation.
“He was so cute, and we just really bonded,” Monfreda said.
After two years of training and miles of scent tracking across various terrain, Monfreda and Bo are now certified by the North American Police Working Dog Association as a scent trailing team.
“When we first started training, we’d do short runaway sessions, where the handler gets the dog excited, then drops an article of clothing and runs away out of sight, creating a scent trail,” Monfreda said. “The trails are marked with scent flags at first, and then as the dog gets older and more experienced, you take away the flags and continue adding more turns while lengthening the trail, so they have to look hard for the scent.”
The pair are now part of KLAASKids, a nationally recognized volunteer search and rescue organization that provides search managers, planners, field searchers and K-9s to search for missing and trafficked children. Monfreda and Bo have participated in three active searches for missing children.
In addition to the weekly Saturday training sessions with other teams in the area, Monfreda and Bo attend regional seminars and training events. The two will attend their next seminar on Saturday, Nov. 10 in Sarasota, Florida, which will focus specifically on urban scent trailing.
“He really likes the urban seminars– it makes him think,” Monfreda said. “He enjoys the challenge. He’s a laid-back dog, but he really likes to work.”
Another county working dog who got her start at the Escambia County Animal Shelter is 5-year-old German Shepherd mix, Britt.
Britt was picked up as stray by Animal Control officers in 2015 and was taken to the Escambia County Animal Shelter and made available for adoption. She was adopted shortly after she was placed at the shelter, but was quickly returned.
Officer Robert Oliver and Sgt. Boswell of the Escambia County Road Prison were visiting the animal shelter to check on an inmate performing work duties when they noticed Britt in her kennel.
“She seemed attentive and trainable, so we took her out of the kennel and went over to an exercise pen and believe it or not, she already knew verbal commands and had a very high toy drive,” Oliver said. “She just loved to play ball, and that’s actually what we use to start training our narcotics dogs.”
Oliver noted that dogs with an extremely high toy drive make great narcotics tracking dogs because of their relentless desire to find an object or toy.
After seeing Britt’s toy drive and trainability, Oliver decided to pull her from the shelter to work as a narcotics dog for the Escambia County Road Prison. Oliver enrolled Britt in a training course with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, and she successfully completed 240 training hours and received her certification from the United States Police Canine Association.
Britt now works directly alongside Oliver and searches areas where inmates live and work, including lockers, vehicles and various jail buildings.
“She comes to work with me every day and while the inmates are working on the roads, she’ll do a housing area search,” Oliver said.
The Road Prison also has four call beagles and one call bloodhound that make up the rest of the tracking team.
In 2016, Britt competed in the Southern States Manhunt Field Trial and placed fourth in the narcotics search. She returned in 2017 to compete in the same search and came in second place against 17 other dogs.
“She was the only dog who placed in the competition that came from a shelter,” Oliver said. “She’s a sweetheart and a hard worker.”
Britt currently has 20 documented narcotics finds for Escambia County, and has found marijuana, methamphetamine, spice and prescription pills.
“She’s a great working dog a and real asset to our team,” Oliver added.
The two are preparing for Britt’s next Southern States Manhunt Trail competition in 2019.
John Robinson, Animal Services manager, said his staff is always looking for dogs that come into the shelter that might make great tracking or search and rescue dogs.
“Escambia County Animal Services is really proud to see dogs that come from our shelter helping people and also representing shelter dogs in a positive light,” Robinson said. “Great dogs and cats can come from any animal shelter and be great additions to families, and sometimes they can even become productive members of a team.”
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Fire Destroys Flomaton Storage Shed
November 18, 2018
Fire destroyed a storage shed on Wolf Log Road in Flomaton Saturday. The cause of the fire was not immediately know. There were no injuries, and two nearby homes escaped damage. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
ECUA Board Elects Officers
November 18, 2018
The Emerald Coast Utilities Authority board has elected officers for 2018-2019.
District 2 representative Lois Benson was reelected to serve as board chairman. District 3’s Elvin McCorvey was elected vice-chair.
Vicki Campbell of District 1 was elected chair of the Citizens’ Advisory Committee, and Larry Walker, District 5, was elected vice-chairman of the committee.
Deborah Benn, Chuck Kimball, Catherine Booker, Kevin Hammer, Pueschel Schneier, Randy Ponson and Louise Ritz, were appointed to serve as members of the Citizens’ Advisory Committee.
Four Tate Aggies Sign To Play College Ball
November 18, 2018
Four Tate High School seniors signed college ball scholarships recently
Three Aggies signed to play baseball — Trey Lafleur to the University of Mississippi, Mason Land to Mississippi State University, and Hunter McLean to Meridian Community College.
Tate’s Kasey Scott signed to play volleyball at Pensacola State College.
Pictured top: Four Tate seniors signed to play college ball. Names are below each photo below. Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Above: Trey Lafleur to the University of Mississippi.
Above: Trey Lafleur to the University of Mississippi.
Above: Mason Land to Mississippi State University.
Above: Mason Land to Mississippi State University.
Above: Hunter McLean to Meridian Community College.
Above: Hunter McLean to Meridian Community College.
Above: Kasey Scott to Pensacola State College.
Cassevah Named Ernest Ward Middle Teacher Of The Year
November 18, 2018
Bob Cassevah has been named the Ernest Ward Middle School Teacher of the Year. He teaches civics. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: All Eyes On Florida
November 18, 2018
With flashbacks to the 2000 presidential election, Florida was again ground zero this week for a vote recount with national implications.
But despite a host of lawsuits and controversies, by the weekend the state appeared to be closing in on decisions involving the election of a new governor, a U.S. senator and a state agriculture commissioner.
In race to succeed Gov. Rick Scott, Republican Ron DeSantis solidified his Nov. 6 victory after a machine recount basically verified his nearly 34,000-vote lead over Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum. But Gillum has yet to concede.
The margin could be adjusted slightly after more overseas ballots are counted before the noon Sunday deadline for the official results. But the final tally is likely to represent the closest general-election victory in a governor’s race in the modern era.
DeSantis’ 0.41 percent winning margin was a veritable landslide compared to the 0.15 percent margin Republican Scott was holding over incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson as a manual recount began. And it was much more substantial than the 0.06 percent lead held by Democrat Nikki Fried over Matt Caldwell in the agriculture commissioner’s race.
The razor-thin margins and the continuing controversies over Florida’s statewide elections may only be a prelude to what’s on the horizon.
Florida, the nation’s largest swing state, will play a key role in the next presidential election, as Donald Trump seeks re-election to the office he holds in part thanks to a 1.2 percent victory margin in the Sunshine State two years ago.
A FLURRY OF LAWSUITS
The vote recount resulted in at least eight legal challenges being filed in federal court, with U.S. District Judge Mark Walker of Tallahassee handling all of the cases.
Here are key developments:
— Siding with Nelson’s campaign and national Democrats, Walker gave voters until 5 p.m. Saturday to fix ballots that were rejected because of mismatched signatures.
His ruling came hours before a 3 p.m. Thursday deadline for a machine recount to be completed in the race between Nelson and Scott, whose 56,000-vote election-night lead had dwindled to fewer than 13,000 votes when the recount was ordered.
The lawsuit focuses on part of Florida law that requires signatures on mail-in and provisional ballots to match signatures on file with elections offices. Voters whose ballots are delivered by 5 p.m. the day before an election have the opportunity to “cure” signature mismatches. But people whose mail-in ballots are received after that, or voters who cast provisional ballots on Election Day, do not.
County canvassing boards make decisions about whether signatures match, and thus whether ballots should be counted. But counties don’t have uniform regulations to govern the decisions, Democrats argued, making the process unconstitutional.
The judge agreed.
“The precise issue in this case is whether Florida’s law that allows county election officials to reject vote-by-mail and provisional ballots for mismatched signatures — with no standards, an illusory process to cure, and no process to challenge the rejection — passes constitutional muster. The answer is simple. It does not,” Walker wrote in a 34-page order.
Walker called the opportunity to fix a ballot “the last chance a vote-by-mail voter has to save their vote from being rejected and not counted.”
“Florida law provides no opportunity for voters to challenge the determination of the canvassing board that their signatures do not match, and their votes do not count,” he wrote.
In contrast, the law allows voters or candidates to challenge signatures that were accepted, Walker noted.
Walker’s decision was upheld by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
— Saying he refuses to “fashion a remedy in the dark,” Walker on Thursday turned down a request by Nelson’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to extend recount deadlines.
Walker, who held a telephone hearing on the issue Thursday morning, focused his order on Palm Beach County, which was unable to meet the machine recount deadline because of antiquated equipment. The judge wrote that the recount deadline “arbitrarily and disparately treats some voters differently because of their location and without taking into account the unpredictable circumstances of each election cycle.”
But he said he would not issue the preliminary injunction sought by the Democrats because it was uncertain how long it might take Palm Beach County to finish recounting ballots.
Walker wrote that “there is a complete dearth of evidence before this court concerning the status, progress, or expected completion of the ordered recounts in Palm Beach County.”
“This court must be able to craft a remedy with knowledge that it will not prove futile. It cannot do so on this record. This court does not and will not fashion a remedy in the dark,” the judge wrote.
— In two other rulings on Thursday, Walker shot down an attempt to keep Scott from interfering in the recount process and nixed another challenge focused on the way county canvassing boards decide which ballots should be tossed.
The rulings, issued hours after Walker held hearings in a mash-up of cases, followed machine recounts in which Scott maintained a narrow lead over Nelson.
In the days following the Nov. 6 election, Scott and his supporters repeatedly castigated elections chiefs in Broward and Palm Beach counties as ballots in the heavily Democratic regions continued to be tallied and Scott’s advantage over Nelson shrank.
Standing outside the governor’s mansion two days after the election, Scott held a press conference accusing Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes and her Palm Beach County counterpart, Susan Bucher, of ineptitude and fraud. The governor also said he was asking the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate. His campaign Twitter account later urged Florida sheriffs to be on guard for election irregularities.
Scott’s comments prompted the League of Women Voters of Florida and Common Cause Florida to ask the federal court to remove the Republican governor and U.S. Senate candidate from the elections process.
One of Scott’s lawyers told Walker the governor intends to recuse himself from the state Elections Canvassing Commission, which is set to certify election results at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
But during a Thursday hearing, Larry Robbins, a lawyer for the voting-rights groups, told Walker that Scott should also be stripped of his authority to remove members of county canvassing boards, comprised of elections supervisors, county commissioners and judges.
By urging “the cops to go out and see what these unethical liberals are doing,” Scott has showed a bias against Palm Beach, Broward and possibly other counties, Robbins argued.
But, in a ruling later Thursday, Walker said there’s a difference between “typical campaign-trail puffery” — which he called “increasingly bombastic, imprudent, and not necessarily rooted in objective facts” — and what a public official says and does in his official capacity.
“Here, Scott has toed the line between imprudent campaign-trail rhetoric and problematic state action. But he has not crossed the line,” Walker wrote.
Scott, as a candidate, has the right to make speeches outside the mansion. But the governor can’t “undercut the count and mandatory recounts from his perch of public official,” the judge wrote, noting that Scott’s most “questionable conduct” occurred in his capacity as a candidate, not as governor.
In a separate lawsuit, Walker also refused to block state elections rules that outline the way ballots should be counted during manual recounts.
STILL A WINNER
For the second time, DeSantis declared victory in the 2018 Florida governor’s race.
The results of a state-ordered machine recount showed the former Republican congressman from Ponte Vedra Beach maintained a nearly 34,000-vote lead over his rival, according to the state Division of Elections.
DeSantis, who is slated to become governor on Jan. 8, only lost one vote from his lead in unofficial results that triggered the machine recount. Such recounts are required when margins between candidates are 0.5 percent or less.
“Those returns remain clear and unambiguous, just as they were on election night, and at every point throughout this process,” DeSantis said in a statement. “I remain humbled by your support and the great honor the people of Florida have shown me as I prepare to serve as your next governor.”
However, Gillum, who conceded the race on election night but later retracted his concession as the vote margin narrowed, indicated he is not ready to give up on the race.
“A vote denied is justice denied — the state of Florida must count every legally cast vote. As today’s unofficial reports and recent court proceedings make clear, there are tens of thousands of votes that have yet to be counted,” Gillum said in a statement. “It is not over until every legally casted vote is counted.”
But unlike races for the U.S. Senate and state agriculture commissioner, which are headed for statewide manual recounts because the victory margins were less than 0.25 percent, the major vote-counting in the governor’s race is over.
County elections officials are scheduled to file their official returns to the state by noon on Sunday, with the state Elections Canvassing Commission meeting Tuesday morning to certify the results. Candidates have until Nov. 30 to challenge the election results.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Florida attracted the national spotlight amid recounts involving races for governor, U.S. Senate, agriculture commissioner and several legislative contests.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “We have been the laughingstock of the world in election after election. I get all that. … We’re still going to go to a default where we don’t count every vote,” said U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, expressing concern that state law does not have a provision to extend a vote recount in the case of voting machine problems.
by Lloyd Dunkelberger, The News Service of Florida
Nothing Found In Search For Possible Downed Aircraft Near Quintette Road
November 17, 2018
Nothing was found in a search for a possible downed aircraft in North Escambia Saturday night.
The search was in the area north and south of Quintette Road in Escambia County for a possible plane down based upon witness reports.
Escambia Fire Rescue and other agencies started their search about 6 p.m. and called the search unfounded about 7:20 p.m.
Pictured: A search for a possible downed aircraft on Quintette Road Saturday night. NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
Local Employment Rate Remains Steady
November 17, 2018
The latest job numbers released Friday show the employment rate remained the same in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
Escambia County’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held steady at 3 percent from September to October. There were 4,399 people reported unemployed during the period. One year ago, unemployment in Escambia County was 3.7 percent.
Santa Rosa County’s unemployment rate remained the same at 2.7 percent from September to October. Santa Rosa County had a total of 2,197 persons still unemployed. The year-ago unemployment rate in Santa Rosa County was 3.4 percent.
Florida’s unemployment rate inched down to 3.4 percent in October, a 0.1 percentage-point reduction from September. The latest numbers point to the lowest jobless rate for the state since January 2007. They represent 345,000 Floridians — 14,000 fewer than in September and 51,000 less than a year earlier — who qualified as unemployed from a workforce of 10.25 million. The decrease came as the national unemployment figure held at 3.7 percent from month to month. Florida’s numbers were driven by service-related jobs, according to the state agency. Modest gains were also reported in categories involving construction, financial activities, trade and utilities, education and health and professional and business services.
The jobless numbers released by the state do not include persons that have given up on finding a job and are no longer reported as unemployed.