Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Farewell Summer, We Hardly Knew You
August 10, 2014
.Inter- and intra-party scrapes over elections in the sultry months leading up to November are typical hijinks for those already in office and others hoping to join the in-crowd.
But the latest scuffle over the GOP-dominated Legislature’s congressional map has brought summertime finger-pointing to a halt, at least for members who already have subterranean Capitol parking spaces.
Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis surprised even himself by getting the last say in the dispute over the map approved by lawmakers in 2012. House and Senate leaders decided not to fight his ruling last month that they violated the Florida Constitution’s voter-approved prohibition against favoring incumbents or political parties, apparently fearful that a contest of his decision could give someone other than themselves control over what the districts should look like.
So lawmakers, who are prohibited from taking campaign cash while they are in session, are back in Tallahassee this week and at least part of next week to draw a handful of new districts. The special session gives their opponents, if they have any, the chance to rake in a little extra dough while the incumbents are holed up in the Capitol.
The campaigning in the governor’s race, however, is in overdrive, with both sides slinging mud. Republican Gov. Rick Scott spent the week touting environmental plans, while his likely Democratic opponent, Charlie Crist, fleshed out some platform details in the “Fair Shot Florida” plan aimed at middle-class voters.
SUPER-FAST SPECIAL SESSION
House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz quickly ordered lawmakers into a special session this week to revise the congressional map struck down by Lewis.
Proving that the process is on hyper-speed, the chairmen of the committees working on a new map released a joint proposal hours after the session convened Thursday. The plan was approved by committees Friday and could gain approval from the full Legislature by Wednesday, before lawmakers return home for summer vacations, last-minute primary campaigning or helping get the kids ready for school.
The work is focused on correcting the two districts targeted by Lewis: Congressional District 5, represented by Democratic Congresswoman Corrine Brown, which sprawls across eight counties as it winds its way from Jacksonville to Orlando; and Congressional District 10, represented by Republican Congressman Dan Webster. At least five other districts abutting the problematic seats could be impacted by the changes.
Under the plan revealed by Senate Redistricting Chairman Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, and his House counterpart, Land O’Lakes Republican Richard Corcoran, Brown’s district would no longer include the city of Sanford — it would instead pick up more of Putnam and Marion counties.
All of Seminole County, which includes Sanford, would be included in Congressional District 7, now held by Republican Congressman John Mica, while the changes would force Republican Congressman Ron DeSantis’ District 6 to pick up more of Volusia County.
The plan released by GOP leaders differs significantly from a proposal by two voting-rights groups that were among those challenging the current map in court. Those groups wanted Brown’s district to instead run from Jacksonville in the east to Gadsden County in the west.
“Slight alterations will not correct the constitutional defects Judge Lewis identified,” wrote Deirdre Macnab, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, and Peter Butzin, chairman of Common Cause Florida, in a letter Thursday to legislative leaders. “The snaking north-south configuration of CD 5 should be abandoned.”
In a marked departure from the norm, the fourth floor of the Capitol appeared abandoned before, during and after discussions regarding the districts. Usually during session, the area between the House and Senate chambers is crowded with lobbyists.
The absence of Capitol insiders may be because Galvano and Corcoran issued a gag order for staffers, an apparent reaction to revelations during the trial about secret meetings, map-swapping and email exchanges between legislative aides and GOP consultants. Lewis decided that the political consultants manipulated the process that led to the tainted maps in what he called a “mockery” of the anti-gerrymandering Fair Districts constitutional amendments.
Galvano, in a memo, warned staff “to refrain from discussing their map-drawing efforts with anyone outside of the Legislature except our legal counsel and not to share their work product with any outside interests in advance of the public release of the remedial plan.”
Corcoran was even more pointed in his directive.
“House Redistricting Committee staff have been informed that they are to have no interactions with any member of Congress, Congressional staffer or aide, or with any political consultant,” Corcoran wrote. “If any member of the House suggests to Redistricting Committee staff that a plan be changed with an intent to favor or disfavor any incumbent or political party, staff should disregard the suggestion entirely and report the conversation directly to me.”
One lobbyist offered a simple explanation for why he was avoiding the Capitol this week.
“I don’t want to get subpoenaed,” he said.
GOING GREEN WHILE SLINGING MUD
Campaigning had to take a backseat for a few days this month for incumbent legislators, but there’s been no reprieve for Scott and Crist.
Scott on Monday rolled out a $1 billion environmental blueprint for Florida, the latest piece of his re-election platform.
The governor’s proposal includes investing $50 million a year for alternative water-supply projects and another $50 million a year for natural springs restoration.
Scott’s plan calls for increased penalties on polluters, a new position in the governor’s office focused on efforts to move water south through the Everglades rather than east and west, commitments to protect the Florida Keys and Apalachicola Bay, lobbying Congress to provide matching funds for South Florida water projects and $150 million-a-year for Florida Forever for items including land preservation.
Democrats and Crist quickly blasted Scott — who, within months of taking office in 2011, successfully pushed for the elimination of the Department of Community Affairs, the agency tasked with overseeing growth management — for what they called “an election year gimmick.”
Scott has “always been on the polluters’ side,” Florida Democratic Party spokesman Joshua Karp said. “Rick Scott campaigning on the environment is like the Grinch campaigning for Christmas.”
Crist never misses an opportunity to dis Scott for what he calls a dismal environmental record. But this week Republicans slugged back. The state GOP released a web ad docking Crist for taking a ride to a campaign event — in which he bragged about his green credentials — on a private plane owned by developer James Finch, owner of a construction company fined at least twice for violating environmental regulations.
The fight over who’s the larger land lover comes amid buzz about billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer’s selection of Florida as one of seven states in which he’s planning to spend up to a reported $10 million to back climate-change politicos like Crist. Steyer, founder of San Francisco-based NextGen, dropped $750,000 into a Florida political committee backing Crist, who took a lot of heat from Republicans for holding a climate-change summit during his tenure as Florida’s GOP governor.
In a break from dueling over the green, Crist this week released details of his campaign platform, announcing tuition-loan forgiveness and refinancing programs as part of a “middle class jobs and opportunity plan.”
The proposal features a number of education-related proposals as well as several previously discussed ideas, such as increasing the minimum wage and expanding access to health care.
“To ensure that everyone has a fair shot, Florida needs a governor who will invest in them, not just the big corporations,” Crist, who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2010 instead of seeking a second term as Republican governor, said in a prepared statement.
Crist, who’s lambasted Scott over past education-funding cuts and for failing to expand health care, dubbed his plan “Fair Shot Florida.”
Even before it was released, the plan was panned by Sen. John Thrasher, a St. Augustine Republican who is Scott’s campaign chairman.
“It’s hard to take Charlie Crist seriously on ‘jobs and opportunity’ — because he hurt Florida’s economy so much as governor, he didn’t even want his own job,” Thrasher said in a statement issued by the Scott campaign more than three hours before Crist’s announcement Tuesday. “Charlie Crist had his shot at being governor — but he failed, then ran away.”
STORY OF THE WEEK
Lawmakers are meeting in a special session to draft a new congressional map after the 2012 plan was struck down by a Tallahassee judge.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I think senators of both parties are fulfilling their constitutional responsibility — and that’s more important than running for election, it’s more important than me taking out the cat boxes for Vicky (Gaetz), it’s more important than fundraising or anything else that we might do.” Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, on the special session dealing with redistricting.
Generals Top Wahoos
August 10, 2014
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos (19-30, 50-69) fell 
-5 to the Jackson Generals (22-26, 53-64) in front of the 30th sellout crowd of 2014. With the win, the Generals evened the series at two games apiece.
For the first time in the series, the Generals struck first in the contest. Leon Landry led the game off with a solo home run to right field. It was an inauspicious start for Wahoos’ starter Robert Stephenson, who would eventually be chased from the contest after 2.1 innings pitched. Stephenson allowed five runs on nine hits, five of which went for extra-bases.
The Wahoos answered in the bottom of the second inning with three runs of their own to take the lead, 3-2. Travis Mattair started the inning off with a double and Kyle Waldrop followed it up with an RBI triple. After a sacrifice fly from Seth Mejias-Brean, Juan Duran crushed a solo shot to left field to give the Wahoos the lead.
Jackson re-took the lead with a two-RBI double from Dario Pizzano in the third inning and it was sixth batter of the inning, Steve Baron, whose double ended Stephenson’s night. The seesaw battle continued with the Wahoos tying the score at five in the bottom of the fourth.
Dan Paolini answered in the fifth with a solo home run to left center to give the Generals the lead for good. Paolini was the marquee player for Jackson; he went 4-for-5, with three RBI and two solo home runs.
RHP Kyle McMyne made his first Double-A appearance of his career for Pensacola. McMyne went 2.0 innings and allowed one run on three hits while notching his first strikeout. RHP Tim Adleman came on in relief of Stephenson and took the loss for the Wahoos. Adleman went 2.2 innings and gave up just one run on two hits while striking out three batters. LHP Kyle Hunter earned the win, throwing 2.1 innings of scoreless ball for the Generals.
The Wahoos scored five runs, so use promo code WAHOOS on PapaJohns.com Sunday for 50% off pizza.
The rubber match begins at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. The Wahoos will send RHP Michael Lorenzen (4-5, 2.56) to the mound and the Generals have tabbed LHP Tyler Pike (3-2, 6.29) as their starting pitcher.
by Tommy Thrall
Pedestrian Killed On Fairfield Drive
August 9, 2014
A pedestrian was struck and killed Friday night in Escambia County.
Earl Brown, 53, of Ocala, was in the westbound lane of Fairfield Drive near North “S” Street about 10 p.m. when he was hit by 1993 Dodge Ram B250 driven by 57-year old Lonnie Lee Rice of Pensacola. That forced Brown to the ground, directly into the path of a 1987 Nissan Pickup driven by Dustin Brent Faulk of Pensacola. Brown was pronounced deceased at the scene.
No charges were filed, but the investigation into the crash is continuing by the Florida Highway Patrol.
One Injured In Highway 97 Three Vehicle Crash
August 9, 2014
There were no serious injuries in a three-vehicle crash Friday night in Davisville.
The accident happened just before 8 p.m. on Highway 97 just south of the Florida/Alabama state line. A van was apparently rear-ended by a pickup truck, before a passing car hit the wreckage. A juvenile in the van was transported by Escambia County EMS to Atmore Community Hospital with injuries that were not considered serious.
The accident blocked Highway 97 and caused traffic to be diverted through an adjacent shopping center parking lot for about an hour.
The wreck is under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol. The Walnut Hill Station of Escambia Fire Rescue and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office also responded to the crash.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Night Work Planned On I-10, Highway 29 Ramps
August 9, 2014
The eastbound I-10 ramp to southbound Highway 29 in Escambia County will be closed from 10 p.m. Sunday, August 10 to 6 a.m. Monday, August 11 as crews mill and resurface the roadway. Motorists will be directed to use the northbound Highway 29 ramp during the temporary closure.
The outside eastbound lane of I-10 at Highway 29 will be closed from 10 p.m. Monday, August 11 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, August 12 as crews pave the outside shoulder.
The work is part of an I-10 resurfacing project which extends from Highway 29 to east of Palafox Street. The project also includes the milling and resurfacing of all ramps and ramp shoulders associated with the Highway 29/I-10 interchange, shoulder widening, guardrail upgrades, crash cushion replacement, removal of portable traffic monitoring sites (PTMS), installation of new signs, pavement markings, and sodding.
During construction drivers will encounter overnight lane restrictions on both I-10 and the Highway 29/ I-10 interchange. Lane closures on I-10 and intermittent closures or restrictions on the interchange will be limited to 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
All planned construction activities are weather dependent and may be rescheduled in the event of inclement weather
Escambia County Athlete Honored With Special Olympics Of Florida Award
August 9, 2014
A very special Escambia County athlete was recognized with a Special Olympics of Florida award.
Stacy Barnes has been participating in Special Olympics for 17 years. She had focused on bowling and bocce competition but made a New Year’s resolution to try tennis.
Barnes’ hard work paid off – this summer she took home a gold medal in tennis.
For eight years Barnes has also served in several leadership roles through Special Olympics, including being elected to represent her county and promote national campaigns. Barnes represents Special Olympics Florida in her community by emphasizing the abilities of the athletes, not their disabilities when she makes speeches and participates in public events.
Pictured top: The Florida Special Olympics Torch run begins each year in Century. Pictured inset: Stacy Barnes. Pictured below: The Escambia County Special Olympics Spring Games are held each spring at Tate High School. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Nearly 100K Citizens Policies Approved For Private Market
August 9, 2014
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation announced Friday that nearly 100,000 policies have beenm approved to be shifted in October from the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. to private carriers.
The companies approved to acquire the Citizens policies are Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Company, SafePoint Insurance Company, Tower Hill Preferred Insurance Company and Weston Insurance Company.
The majority of policies would be inland personal-lines accounts, with coastal properties accounting for 12,449 of the targeted policies. The number of policies that actually move won’t reach the total approved by OIR. Past takeout efforts have shown that private companies cherry-pick the least risky policies and that companies often go after many of the same policies.
Since the start of the year, the state office has approved 466,572 policies for takeout, including those announced Friday. So far, 118,434 have been removed. Citizens had 933,422 policies as of June 30.
On February 10, the agency went under the 1 million policy mark for the first time since August 2006. Last month, Citizens President and Chief Executive Officer Barry Gilway said he expects the number of Citizens policies to reach about 850,000 later this year, with the number flattening out around 650,000 policies before the end of 2017.
Wahoos Top The Generals 5-1
August 9, 2014
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos (19-29, 50-68) took game three of the series 5-1 over the Jackson Generals (21-26, 52-64). With their second straight victory, the Wahoos took a 2-1 series lead over the Generals. RHP Jon Moscot (W, 7-10) shined for the Wahoos, earning his seventh win of the season.
Moscot worked efficiently in the game; he pitched 7.0 innings on 85 pitches, 58 of which were strikes. The righty allowed only three hits, struck out four batters and didn’t surrender a walk all night. It was Moscot’s 14th quality start in 24 appearances this season with the Wahoos.
Seth Mejias-Brean got the Blue Wahoos on the board first for the fourth straight game with his third home run of the season in the second inning. Pensacola was aided by three unearned runs over the third and fourth innings to take a 4-0 lead. For the second straight night, the Wahoos were able to capitalize on Jackson’s miscues to gain an early advantage.
The Wahoos scored in their fourth straight inning when Mejias-Brean got his second RBI of the contest with a run scoring single to give Pensacola a 5-0 lead. The Generals didn’t strike until the Wahoos went to their bullpen in the eighth inning. Carlos Gonzalez allowed a run and exited the game with the bases loaded.
RHP Ben Klimesh (S, 1) came on and struck out Pat Kivlehan to end the threat in the eighth inning. Klimesh finished off the Generals in the ninth inning, earning his first save with Pensacola.
Ross Perez was held hitless tonight snapping his 13-game hitting streak, the second longest in team history. Despite going 0-for-4 at the plate, he won off the field by proposing to his girlfriend Smirna Flores before the game as part of a ceremonial first pitch. She said yes and the two shared a moment before the start of Friday night’s game.
RHP Stephen Landazuri (L, 6-4) took the loss for the Generals. The Generals’ right-hander went 5.0 innings and allowed 5 R/2ER on five hits. The Wahoos scored five runs, so use promo code WAHOOS on PapaJohns.com on Saturday for 50% off pizza.
The Blue Wahoos have tabbed RHP Robert Stephenson (5-8, 4.29) as their starting pitcher for game four on Saturday. The Generals will send RHP Victor Sanchez (6-4, 3.62) to the mound.
by Tommy Thrall
House, Senate Committees Approve New Districts
August 9, 2014
House and Senate committees approved revised congressional districts Friday, clearing the way for a set of votes that would bring a special legislative session to an end early next week.
The Senate Reapportionment Committee approved the plan on a bipartisan, 7-0 vote. Not long after that, the House Select Committee on Redistricting voted 8-5 along party lines to move the proposal to the floor in that chamber. The conflicting votes appeared to reflect differences between House and Senate Democrats on whether to join the Republican majority in backing the maps.
The three Senate Democrats who voted for the plan — Minority Leader Chris Smith of Fort Lauderdale, Audrey Gibson of Jacksonville and Bill Montford of Tallahassee — said their support was tentative.
“I do look forward to dealing with this map and others on the floor,” Smith said.
Meanwhile, House Democrats tried unsuccessfully to get Republicans to accept a different version of the map drawn by Sen. Darren Soto, D-Orlando. House Minority Leader Perry Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale, didn’t directly answer when asked whether he was disappointed with his counterparts in the Senate.
“I love Senate Democrats,” he said, pausing for a moment. “This is where the rubber hits the road. This is where we ask the tough questions. It’s more of a congenial delegation over there. But we want to get down to the facts here. We want to address what’s really happening. Is this the best that we can do?”
The special session was sparked when Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis threw out two congressional districts approved in 2012, saying they were drawn to help Republican candidates in defiance of the anti-gerrymandering Fair Districts standards approved by voters in 2010.
Lewis found that the GOP-dominated Legislature put more African-American voters than necessary into Congressional District 5, represented by Democratic Congresswoman Corrine Brown, to keep those Democratic-leaning voters out of surrounding districts. District 5 is meant to provide black voters with an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.
The judge also found fault with Congressional District 10, currently held by Republican Congressman Dan Webster, because of an appendage of white voters added to the Orlando-area district.
Republicans say their new map is based on an earlier version of the 2012 congressional plan that Lewis seemed to indicate was better than the bill that passed that year. But legislative leaders say the new plan is better than the initial 2012 proposal, making several districts more compact.
“On every measurement, we improved upon the map that (Lewis) spoke consistently of in a favorable light,” said House Redistricting Chairman Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes.
In all, the map approved Friday would alter those two districts and five more. Because all congressional districts have to have roughly equal populations, any change to even one or two districts will generally ripple throughout the map.
The new legislative proposal would do little to change the partisan balance of the state’s congressional delegation, though it seems to make the seats held by Webster and fellow Republican Congressman John Mica more competitive.
Under the current map, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney carried Webster’s district by almost 7.7 percentage points in 2012; that would fall to 4.8 percentage points under the new map. Romney’s margin of victory in Mica’s seat would drop from 4.8 percentage points to almost 2.9 percentage points.
Soto’s plan would have pushed things even further. Webster’s district would have gone for Romney by 2.6 percentage points, while Democratic President Barack Obama would have narrowly won Mica’s seat by less than 0.4 percentage points. But Soto’s map only affected Districts 5, 7 and 10.
“We think the Soto map is less distraction, more competitiveness. And I think that’s really what the people of the state of Florida want,” Thurston said.
But Republicans and legislative lawyers blasted the proposal, saying it would endanger African-American voters’ opportunities to elect a candidate of their choice in Congressional District 5 by lowering the black voting-age population in the district to about 43.7 percent.
George Meros, a lawyer for the House in the redistricting trial, said the chances that black voters would get their candidate of choice elected in District 5 would be “a flip of the coin at the very best.”
Soto said he believes that estimate is too conservative and will bring his amendment back up on the floor of the Senate.
House Democrats were also considering joining a proposal by a pair of voting-rights organizations that were parties to the lawsuit challenging the congressional maps.
League of Women Voters of Florida President Deirdre Macnab and Common Cause Florida Chairman Peter Butzin issued a new letter Friday calling again on lawmakers to consider reorienting Brown’s district, which currently runs from Jacksonville to Orlando, by turning it into a district that runs from Jacksonville in the east to Gadsden County in the west.
“Of greatest concern is that (the proposed map) continues to use a minority-marginalizing relic of an era in which political gerrymandering was acceptable — now it is not,” the two wrote. “That is, CD 5 in (the map) packs an excessive number of African Americans into a district marked by hooks, tentacles and appendages as it snakes through and splits every county from Jacksonville down to Orlando.”
The groups’ idea has run into stiff opposition from the NAACP, which argues that an east-west CD 5 would not guarantee a victory by the candidate of choice for African-American voters and would strand thousands of voters in Central Florida in districts that would also be unlikely to approve black voters’ choices.
Beverlye Colson Neal, vice president of the Orange County branch of NAACP, said the proposal by the League of Women Voters would move Brown’s district into counties where census numbers have high numbers of African Americans due to the locations of jails, even though inmates are not on the voter rolls.
“You’ve got to look at the intent of (what) the district is meant to do,” Neal told the Senate committee. “I’ve lived in this district 50 years of my life. I know what it was like when we had a congressional rep who did not have the interest of the people that they served.”
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Bicyclist Shot In The Leg
August 8, 2014
An Escambia County man was shot while riding his bicycle Thursday night off Fairfield Drive.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office said a black male was shot in the leg. He told deputies that he was riding his bike on Bobe Street when a vehicle passed him and someone fired a shot at him.
The victim was transported to an area hospital by ambulance and treated for non-life threatening injuries. Deputies said he was unable to provide any further suspect information.
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (850) 433-STOP or the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 436-9620.