South Florida Business Journal: Florida grand jury issues report on public corruption |

Date: Thursday, December 30, 2010, 11:06am EST

After 10 months of hearing testimony, a Florida grand jury looking released a report that outlines a series of changes designed to crack down on politicians and government employees who commit crimes.

The grand jury, presided over by Broward County Chief Judge Victor Tobin, was created in February at the request of Gov. Charlie Crist after numerous arrests of politicians. It recommends, among other things:

• Expanding the definition of public employees to include private employees contracted by government entities that perform government services.
• Creating sentencing enhancements for offenses committed by officials who use their public position to facilitate their crimes.
• Creating an independent State Office of Inspector General, responsible for hiring and firing agency Inspectors General.
• Expanding definition of criminal bid tampering to include bid-rigging schemes.
• Authorizing the Ethics Commission to initiate investigations with a super majority vote of commission members.
  

The grand jury asked that lawmakers address its concerns during the 2011 legislative session.

The problem is that the GOP has been running Florida for 12 consecutive years and a new Republican governor is about to be inaugurated.

Why didn't the cleueless Democrats run an anti-incumbency of anti-corruption campaign in the 2010 election cycle?

The chairman of the Florida Democratic party, Karen Thurman,  is now gone. We need some one with Cojones grandes or Cuca grandas.

Alan Grayson comes to mind because Florida Democrats need to be inspired perhaps with a swift kick in the ass!

To read the rest of the story: see http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2010/12/30/florida-grand-jury-issues-report-on.html

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Florida Democratic party needs to be rebuilt

Rightardia supported OFA during the 2010 election cycle, but  we noticed few campaign worker showed up in northern Pinellas county. The election was a disaster  for Florida Democrats. The Republicans now have a billionaire governor and a super-majority in the house and the senate.

Most of the Democratic gains that were made in 2008, have disappeared. Karen Thurman has resigned as the chairperson of the Florida Democratic Party.  One of the fine field organizers that Rightardia worked with appears to be gone.

Rightardia was contacted prior to recent OFA Southern Regional conference. We identified several issues we were concerned about, but all Dave Walker,OFA National Regional Director for the Southern Region, wanted to do was 'cheer lead" during the recent conference call. 

The Florida Democrats should have challenged the 12 year incumbency of Republicans in the 2010 elections, but they let Rick Scott blame the bad Florida economy on Obama.

It seems the Democrats used a misguided election strategy. The Democratic losses in Florida were disastrous. Florida Republicans now have a super-majority and Rick Scott wants to privatize the Florida education system. 

 

Of course, all of the was glossed over during the conference call. Rightardia never heard a honest assessment of the situation during the call. Steve Walker appears to have his head buried in the sands of Washington.

We suspect DNC and OFA heads rolled after the 2010 election and know that Walker had worked in Louisiana so he may be new to the regional director position. 

Rightadia's view is that we need to concentrate our efforts on the state and do less at the national level with OFA.  We hope we will be able to support the re-election of Obama in 20102, but thee OFA should not count on it. 

We think Obama has been "Clintonized." 

Out first priority is to help the Democratic Party recover in Florida.  We see OFA as part of the problem rather than as part of the solution. 

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Mayor Buddy Dyers speaks at Florida Democratic Confrence

Mayor Buddy Dyers of Orlando

Mayor Buddy Dyers of Oraland was greatly concerned about growth in Orlando and improving transportation such as rail.  He has meet with Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, about a high speed rail line in Central Florida. This good news would, of course, create more union jobs.

The bad news is the federal government will only work with states  and cities that already have a commuter system like SunRail and Tri-Rail.

Commuter Rail in Florida


The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), in cooperation with the federal government and local officials in Orange, Seminole, Volusia and Osceola counties and the city of Orlando, is advancing SunRail, a commuter rail transit project that will run along a 61-mile stretch of existing rail freight tracks in the four-county area.

The 31-mile first phase of SunRail would serve 12 stations, linking DeBary to Orlando. Phase II would serve 5 additional stations, north to DeLand and south to Poinciana. Service is expected to begin in 2011 - just as FDOT is expected to start a major I-4 reconstruction project through the heart of Central Florida.

Tri-Rail already links Miami, Fort lauderdale and Palm Beach. According to Wikipedia, Florida High Speed Rail is a proposed high-speed rail network in Florida. Funding for the system was authorized by a 2000 referendum of Florida voters but repealed by 64% of Florida voters in a 2004 referendum.

The first phase, planned for completion in 2009, would have connected Orlando to Tampa, with a later extension to St. Petersburg. Later phases might have extended the network to Miami, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Tallahassee and Pensacola.Some have argued that the wording on the 2004 referendum was misleading.

There was an era when Americans supported big publics work projects, but the GOP has  been stopping rail projects because taxes would have to be raised to fund them. The US needs to take a close look at what is going on in China and rethink our priorities. We need to be the nation of big ideas again.



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Florida Democratic Conference

All of the Rightardia staff attended the Florida Democratic conference in Orlando for October 9 to 11. The General Session opened up with the Jones High School Tiger's Marching Band performing for about 30 minutes followed by the appropriate salutes to the flag and an invocation.

Karen Thurman,Chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, was the first speaker. Thurman described Florida as a newly minted blue state which was music to a lot of people's ears. She indicated that Democrats would take back the state in 2010 election after big Democratic gains in 2008. She emphasized every state wide elective office will be on the ballot in 2010. She mentioned that Florida Democrats delivered to state's 27 electoral votes to Barrack Obama in 2008. She expects Alex Sink, Florida's Chief Financial Officer, to be Florida's first female governor.

The next speaker was Senator Bill Nelson and he had some amazing predictions about health care that will be posted in the next Rightardia article.

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Chalie Crist picks unknown to replace Sen. Mel Martinez

Florida GOP Gov. Charlie Crist on Friday named former aide George LeMieux to fill the seat of outgoing GOP Sen. Mel Martinez who resigned without explanation.

LeMieux, a longtime Republican insider in the state, has served as chairman of the Broward County Republican Party, deputy state attorney general and campaign manager for Crist’s 2006 run for governor. He ran unsuccessfully for the state house in 1998.

The first choice was Rep. CW 'Bill' Young who declined the honor. Young is a congressman form the Tenth Congressional District of Florida in Pinellas County.


GOP state Rep. Jennifer Carroll, another contender for the vacant seat, told POLITICO that she found out LeMieux was the pick when Crist called her Friday morning to inform her.

Carroll said Crist made the pick because “he probably felt safe in knowing George, he’s been his chief of staff and confidant for years.”

Crist choice was not popular

Mac Stipanovich, a top Florida Republican lobbyist who supports Crist, was “surprised” by the governor’s choice of LeMieux.

“I’m dumbfounded. I’m never without something to say and I’m practically speechless,” Stipanovich said. “The governor certainly won't have anything to worry about in terms of the new senator doing anything contrary to his interests.” He said LeMieux is a peculiar choice when looking at the breadth of experience present on Crist's short list of possibilities.

Stipanovich said that LeMieux “never held public office. He’s never run a large business. He's not a war hero.”

Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen L. Thurman wasted little time in attacking the pick as an example of cronyism and accused Crist of playing “political games with the public’s trust.”

“In appointing LeMieux, someone who has made millions over the past several years selling access to Crist to the highest bidders among Tallahassee's special interests, Charlie Crist once again put his own political ambition above doing what is right for Florida,” Thurman said in a statement.

Thurman added, “Floridians are sick of the Republican culture of corruption and the Tallahassee back room dealings that clearly led Crist to pick LeMieux, whose only qualification is being Charlie Crist's crony.”

source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26540.html

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