Category: Florida

In the aftermath of Tuesday’s maddeningly disappointing election, this much can assuredly be said. One way to avoid a repeat of an embarrassingly scurrilous, obscenely expensive campaign is for the Democrats to develop a bench.

Enough so that their top-of-the-ballot candidates have formidable track records and visions that can be credibly articulated and substantiated. Enough so that replying in drumbeat, negative kind doesn’t have to be the main campaign strategy.

Don’t want Rick Scott, an off-putting, fraud-tainted ideologue, in the governor’s mansion? Don’t run Alex Sink as the uninspiring alternative.

Don’t want Rick Scott re-elected? Don’t run the compromised chameleon, Charlie Crist, as the alternative.

Don’t want David Jolly replacing Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young in Congress? Don’t run Alex Sink as the alternative.

Don’t want Marco Rubio, the calculating Cuban, as a Tea Party senator? Don’t run Kendrick Meek as an alternative, one who could barely come within 10 points of newly-minted Independent runner-up, Charlie Crist.

The voters of Florida–and the Democratic Party–positively deserve better.

The Pam Bondi yard signs say: “Our Attorney General.” The ones for incumbent Jeff Atwater say: For Chief Financial Officer.” Subtle.

Sunday’s New York Times featured a well-reasoned lead editorial on the Cuban embargo. It acknowledged raw feelings about “ancestry, homeland and loss” as well as the usual suspects who still carry inordinate political clout. It spoke of evolving feelings, including within the Cuban-American demographic, on “deepening engagement” with the island. It also underscored how much the failed embargo policy has cost in hemispheric relations and lost trade, plus it provided a convenient excuse for the Cuban government to justify its failures.

The editorial also prominently mentioned U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, the Tampa Democrat. It noted her trip to Cuba last year, her strong personal appeal for an end to sanctions and her popularity among constituents, including Cuban-Americans.

The name of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is still prominently out there for 2016. A recent poll has him trailing Hillary Clinton by 7 percentage points in Iowa. And Jeb!, of course, has only fanned the flames of speculation with a book and political endorsements.

For perspective, however, it would be wise to keep certain context in mind, even for a wonky-smart, bi-lingual, moderate, adult Republican who made history by becoming the only two-term GOP governor of America’s pre-eminent swing state. Arguably, Jeb! has enough potential baggage to at least eliminate the exclamation point in the primaries or beyond.

* There’s that devalued Bush name. And even if his brother had been a success, his mom has awkwardly spoken for many by candidly noting that another Bush candidacy smacks of entitlement–a 4-letter GOPster word, if there ever was one.

* Jeb signed “Terri’s Law”–later declared unconstitutional–that would have given government the right to the ultimate intervention.

* He also signed legislation allowing utility companies to charge customers for power plants that were never built.

* Jeb presided over 21 executions, not considered a moderate number, and zero commutations.

* While educational accountability is Jeb’s mantra, many perceive the curriculum-skewing, teacher-enraging FCAT as a dubious legacy.

* Jeb’s Foundation for Excellence in Education is hardly all upside. Charges are still out there that FEE, for example, used donations from for-profit companies to lobby for state education laws that could benefit those companies.

* And Jeb’s wife Columba is not thought to be all in on any presidential scenario. As we know, she took one for the team in Tallahassee–which is hardly comparable to the media glare of the White House.

But, still, only 7 points behind Hillary Clinton.

Cuba, of course,made the topical short list of gubernatorial-debate topics.  There were no surprises.

Charlie Crist, as we’ve heard, has evolved into seeing the embargo for the counterproductive failure that it is. He wasn’t previously, as we know, this outspoken. Rick Scott, on the other hand, sees the embargo as supportable: sort of the karmic consequences of dictators getting their due.

“I believe in the embargo,” said Scott during the Telemundo debate in Miramar, “and here’s why: The Castro Brothers are terrorists.” Next piñataquestion.

Two points.

First, even if humane scenarios and hemispheric geopolitics don’t resonate, how about self-serving economic rationales?

“Let’s get to work,” as all-encompassing as that theme has been for Scott, obviously doesn’t trump the hard-line politics of influential, vendetta partisans such as (Rep.) Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, (Rep.) Mario Díaz-Balart and (Sen.) Marco Rubio. What an unlikely fourth amigo is Scott.

The economic embargo disadvantages this country, this state and this port city. It has cost, and continues to cost, jobs. Make that “jobs, jobs, jobs.” And now a con job. Qué hipócrita.

Second, let’s also keep this in mind. Ultimately the embargo is a Congressional call, although one that is susceptible, to say the least, to political pressure from the state most impacted. Heretofore, Tallahassee hasn’t helped.

But Washington could still do something beyond no-guts incremental changes.

For openers, the Obama White House doesn’t need congressional approval to formally remove Cuba from the State Department’s list of countries that are state sponsors of terrorism. That’s right, Cuba still shares a list with Iran, Sudan and Syria.

Democracy-challenged but unthreatening Cuba is on a menace list, but North Korea isn’t? Cuba is an adversary and “citadels of freedom,” such as Saudi Arabia and a gaggle of Middle Eastern “‘stans” are allies? It would be farcical were it not so foreboding as foreign policy.

Moreover, the Obama White House can do something else: Restore normal diplomatic relations. Congressional cooperation isn’t needed. It would, ironically, better position the U.S. to press the Cubans for democratic reforms.

This much remains clear–even after more than half a century of Cold War invective and politics. Two critical keys are the political will and common sense of the occupants of the White House and a certain governor’s mansion.

It wasn’t as shockingas itshould have been.

The reaction wasn’t a dumbfounding, blind-siding “WHAT!” It was more like an anguished, wincing “Oh, no. Now it’s us.” University of Florida quarterback Treon Harris, the hero of the come-from-behind win over Tennessee, had been accused of sexual assault.

That’s not so much an aspersion on Harris’ character, largely unknown, as it is a comment on the times, which are increasingly troubling, with lionized football players too often making headlines for all the wrong reasons. There’s a reason President Barack Obama has launched the “It’s on us” public awareness campaign aimed at preventing sexual violence–especially on university campuses.

Quicker than you can say Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson or Jameis Winston, Harris was suspended. Indefinitely. No PR-skewed public statement heavy on due-process themes. No wagons circling to insulate the accused and prepare him for the next big SEC game.

The University Police Department, the Gainesville Police Department and UF’s student affairs office are investigating and reviewing. Title IX obligations will be met.

And most notably, the first person out in front to address this ticking campus-and-societal bomb was the president of the university, Bernie Machen–not the athletic director, not the coach. In short, not the wrong protocol.

The president is still the most important person in an institution of higher learning. No matter what the power football conference. No matter how much the head coach makes. No matter how much pressure there is to turn around 2013’s 4-8 season. And no matter how much it matters to rabid boosters and alumni.

It wasn’t shocking because there is, as we know all too well, very recent precedent. Upstate, FSU hasn’t comported itself well over the sordid affair involving Winston, still the focus of an investigation into Florida State’s handling of sexual-assault charges. It’s now Exhibit A for compromised priorities. Bobby Bowden and Burt Reynolds, if not Jimbo Fisher and Jameis Winston, are embarrassed.

So, UF, as well as all of its peers, now has a sex-assault allegation playbook to consult. It’s come to that.

But keep in mind that Harris, who hasn’t been charged, is only suspended from an extra-curricular activity. It’s just that the activity in this case is the highest-profile revenue sport there is on any campus.

But it’s what would have been done if the activity were student council or the glee club. Harris hasn’t been kicked out of school. He’s a student-athlete relegated to being, well, a student until the matter is settled.

Gainesville, says UF in so many words, will not become Tallahassee, the sequel. Plus, it’s the right thing to do. Probably in that order.

Charlie Crist, as we know, is an ideological chameleon who doesn’t quite fill out whatever suit he’s wearing at any given point in his political trajectory. He’s also a certifiable gubernatorial deserter who left the door open for a Rick Scott candidacy. It’s a familiar litany. Would that it weren’t true.

But this election is not about who Crist is; it’s about who he isn’t.

Democrats have it well within their wherewithal to deny Scott a second term: Basically, just turn out. Republicans may be the Party of No, but Democrats can’t afford to be the Party of No Show. Maybe this will be the non-presidential-election year when they see the implications of laziness and apathy for what it is.

And what it is could haunt all of us a long time if too many in the Democratic constituency sit it out–because, well, that’s what they do in off-year elections and, besides, Charlie is just not “one of us.”

If there were marching orders, they would be:

*Damn it, use the franchise and remember who it was that was pushing voter suppression not long ago. Remember the jobs lost by the “Jobs, jobs, jobs” governor: from turning down high-speed rail to turning down the opportunity to lobby for Medicaid expansion.

*Transcend that you’re actually checking a ballot for Crist. Get over it. You’re voting for  the only viable alternative to four more years of Scott. Also at stake: many more years of Republican domination and conservative reach–especially when it comes to the judiciary.

And let’s keep context in mind when we see Scott tacking toward the center. You think a Scott who’s unencumbered by the expedience of re-election won’t revert to his Tea Partying ways? You think you’ve seen the last of Eustis and The Villages as symbolic announcement venues? Or dismissive, non sequitur answers to non-Fox media queries?

We deserve better than a re-elected Scott, but we also deserve better than an electorate that would unconscionably allow inertia to permit that to happen. Surely, this is not what American exceptionalism now means. Surely.

Old is the new gold.

The mantrais a familiar one: the “workforce of tomorrow.” Every state and every major metro area target the same recruits: millennials. Their jobs, their lifestyles; our economic viability, our future.

And yet.

According to an AARP study, post-millennial Floridians–those 50 and older–currently generate 54 percent of the state’s economy and pay 67 percent of state and local taxes. And that’s while accounting for only 38 percent of the state’s population.

“The report adds to a growing body of research that shows that in economic terms, gray is gold,” says AARP Florida state director Jeff Johnson. Moreover, AARP is making sure these numbers get in front of state leaders to prod them into doing more to actually attract–as well as support–the over-50 set.

In other words, Florida can do a lot more to attract entrepreneurs in their 50s or older who would be receptive to a Visit Florida-type lifestyle pitch. In further words, let’s not leave it up to Sun City Center and The Villages to do non-millennial recruiting.

Leon County Supervisorof ElectionsIon Sancho probably speaks for a lot of us. Given the chronically low voter turnout and increase in undervotes that seems the new normal, Sancho has been wondering out loud if ballots should include some kind of official opt-out provision.

He prefers a formal “no selection made” to “none of the above.” He says the later sounds “too negative.”

But there is precedent. A “none” option is actually on the ballot in Nevada for presidential and statewide races–but it’s non-binding. If “none” receives the most votes, than the runner-up wins.

But imagine if “none of the above” were binding. And imagine if it were in effect for next month’s Florida gubernatorial election.

* Nineteen states have legal same-sex marriage. There are 12 states, including Florida, where gay-marriage bans have been overturned, but where appeals are in progress.

Locally, Tampa and St. Petersburg have joined cities such as Miami Beach and Orlando in supporting lawsuits that seek to overturn Florida’s same-sex marriage ban.

The dominoes continue to fall. Soon it will just be Terry Kemple and Pam Bondi on the wrong side of history–and the wrong side of an issue that is, at its core, about fairness and equality.

* Gov. Rick Scott did a campaign drive-by over the weekend in Carrollwood. In pep-talking his volunteers, he recalled that “When we won in 2010, it was because of grass roots.”

Not that Tea Partiers weren’t a presence, but it was hardly a grass-roots scenario for success.

As we know, it was more about Charlie Crist forgoing re-election and leaving early, Alex Sink being an awful campaigner, President Obama adamantly remaining a black, “socialist” target and Scott spending $70 million of his own money.