Category: Florida

So, Pam Bondi was the Tampa Bay Times’ “winner of the week.” That’s what you get for being a political harlot who previously backed Jeb Bush and has come out early for Donald Trump in a mega battleground state. Moreover, her loyalty winnings, hinted the Times, could even include payback from Trump should he win the presidency. Attorney general? Secretary of ill repute?

A while back, Congressman David Jolly, R-Indian Shores, made it clear that the “bullying” and “bigotry” that were defining Donald Trump were unacceptable qualities in a presidential candidate. He called on Trump to summarily get out of the race.

But now that Trump is the pre-convention favorite to win the nomination, Jolly is walking back his anti-Trump rhetoric. He played down policy differences, implying that Trump actually has views worthy of policy labeling. And then he said he was officially “undecided” about supporting Trump.

Then he congratulated himself for being uncommonly honest in admitting his indecision.  “Rarely in politics is a member of Congress or a candidate plainly honest in expressing they are undecided on a matter, but that is the course I’ve chosen,” he said in a statement. “Very candidly, I’m simply not prepared in March to decide whether I will be prepared to personally support Mr. Trump with my vote in November.”

This is a new, disingenuous low, even among pragmatic politicians who are more concerned about their party and voter demographics than their country. Either that or he really believes that the ultimate, uninformed, arrogant, bigoted con-man candidate will have morphed into legitimate presidential nominee by the fall. He’s either that unctuous or that gullible.

Among the more notable directives sent out from Gov. Rick Scott’s office:

* Got a problem with the climate-change issue? Don’t use the term.

* Got a problem with open-records and texting? Don’t text.

* Nobody quit and went home early.

* No necessary business had to be relegated to a special session at taxpayer expense.

* How to explain? It’s an election year. Apparently, it still matters.

* Among legislation signed into law: death penalty compromise that requires at least 10 of 12 jurors to agree on the recommendation of a death sentence. Only problem: Such a sentence should be unanimous, as it is in most states. It’s a sentence that ultimately is irrevocable–although quite obviously not infallible.

You know what I miss? Folks showing up at the local voting venue on–of all days–voting day.

It’s beyond old school, I know, and the more than 2 million early Florida voters are testimony that voting-day voting is such yesterday thinking. Why not mail it in or go earlier when it’s likely less crowded?

Frankly, I like a live political vibe on voting day. Even though politics permeates society, it’s appropriate for this day. Even signage of loathsome candidates is a sign of involvement. There’s a sense of common American-democracy cause even among ideological opposites. Duty calls.

What begins as a solemn rite–can turn into a community conclave.

Plus, we don’t do enough as a community beyond concerts and games. We’re so wired. In-person communication is no longer a priority–or necessity–when texting and Skyping are available.

And when it comes to politics, we keep building our walls. We just cherry-pick our media for validation and our events for like-minded camaraderie. More conservative or more liberal neighbors rarely have to mix except at awkward cocktail parties.

So there we were, my wife Laraine and I, at the Kate Jackson Community Center in South Tampa last Tuesday. We were prepared for some mid-day down time, but that’s a modest price for participatory democracy. Well, the down time was zero.

There were no voters ahead of us. The poll workers, who are not on commission, seemed particularly disposed to small talk. We did our best to comply. The turn-around time was still a matter of minutes. It could have been 30 seconds, and that would have included affixing the “I Voted” sticker.

But, still, we reminded ourselves, what was truly important is that people vote–not when and how.

Only one caveat. Early voting has serious, sometimes downright perverse, implications.

Primaries are volatile processes. The candidate-herd ultimately thins, and no one can predict the precise timing of drop-outs. Some issues move to the fore as the demographics change. Some dynamics change as the candidates manifest other dimensions–for better or worse.

In short, there is reason to wait and see how it plays out–and which players literally remain. Voting too early can negate a vote–or invalidate a later assessment. No mulligans.

The good news is that there were no major precinct embarrassments throughout Florida. This is, after all, still the hanging-chads, obscenely long-lines state to many Americans. It’s almost enough to forget about all those early Jeb Bush votes that wound up in the political ether.

Florida went for Trump, which surprised nobody. What was a surprise, however, is that Attorney General Pam Bondi of Tampa went for Trump. She endorsed him at last week’s Trump rally at the Tampa Convention Center.

She had previously been a solid Jeb Bush supporter. And most Bush backers wouldn’t feel any fealty for the man who had so arrogantly turned his demagogic bluster on Bush as a cheap-shot “debate” strategy.

Surely, it had nothing to do with the $25,000 that the Donald J. Trump Foundation gave to Bondi’s 2014 re-election campaign. Surely. And surely that had nothing to do with Trump University issues. Surely.

It’s not hard to make the case that the primary/caucus system that has Iowa and New Hampshire leading off is less than ideal. Population-challenged, demographically-skewed states shouldn’t be allowed to matter that much to a globally-important, momentum-sensitive process.

But Florida’s winner-take-all-99-delegates Republican primary on Tuesday actually comes at an unexpectedly pivotal point. Rather than ginning up early momentum, Florida could be a Trump card for one candidate and a Joker for another. Scenarios for a brokered convention could be emboldened or ended.

Yes, Florida voting in mid-March matters–more than we had expected.

Perhaps the quadrennial presidential primary season should come with a voting caveat. In effect, if you want to go absentee and mail in your vote weeks in advance, consider a certain reality.

Unlike the general, primaries are, by definition, multi-candidate. They are also protean and volatile. Stuff happens and candidates surge and drop out.

Just ask Marco Rubio about what early Jeb Bush voters might have done with a mulligan.

Gun buy-backs. Free gun locks. Campaigns to warn about unlocked cars with legal guns left inside. Legislative support to thwart open-carry and on-campus heat-packing. All helpful–and piecemeal–and symptomatic of low-bar goals within the context of the bigger issue. In short, not nearly enough will change until the gun culture–typically cloaked in Second Amendment, Founding Father fodder–changes.

It’s not a major newsmaker like tax cuts or prominent earmarks, but Gov. Rick Scott will be making the call on a bill that would replace the statue of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith as one of Florida’s two contributions to the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall Collection. A replacement would stand beside that of the incumbent John Gorrie, a 19th century physician who played a key role in the invention of modern air conditioning. In addition to Civil War baggage in 2016, Smith only lived in Florida for 12 years.

The bigger issue is who would be the new statuary entrant.

With all due respect to Zora Neale Hurston and Henry Flagler, let’s just go ahead and designate former Gov. LeRoy Collins. Let’s forever enshrine someone who’s the antithesis of Rick Scott and “Flori-duh” in all its more recent manifestations.

Collins was a governor who helped modernize the Florida government by, among other things, reforming legislative districts and founding the community college system. He was also a champion of open government when the cause wasn’t so obvious and courageously helped make the case for racial integration–when that cause was a flammable one in the South.

The impact of Collins is still felt today; a U.S. Capitol statue would represent Florida at its historic best.