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FLORIDA POLITICS
Since 2002, daily Florida political news and commentary

 

UPDATE: Every morning we review and individually digest Florida political news articles, editorials and punditry. Our sister site, FLA Politics was selected by Campaigns & Elections as one of only ten state blogs in the nation
"every political insider should be reading right now."

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Welcome To Florida Politics

Thanks for visiting. On a semi-daily basis we scan Florida's major daily newspapers for significant Florida political news and punditry. We also review the editorial pages and political columnists/pundits for Florida political commentary. The papers we review include: the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Sarasota Herald Tribune, St Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Tallahassee Democrat, and, occasionally, the Florida Times Union; we also review the political news blogs associated with these newspapers.

For each story, column, article or editorial we deem significant, we post at least the headline and link to the piece; the linked headline always appears in quotes. We quote the headline for two reasons: first, to allow researchers looking for the cited piece to find it (if the link has expired) by searching for the original title/headline via a commercial research service. Second, quotation of the original headline permits readers to appreciate the spin from the original piece, as opposed to our spin.

Not that we don't provide spin; we do, and plenty of it. Our perspective appears in post headlines, the subtitles within the post (in bold), and the excerpts from the linked stories we select to quote; we also occasionally provide other links and commentary about certain stories. While our bias should be immediately apparent to any reader, we nevertheless attempt to link to every article, column or editorial about Florida politics in every major online Florida newspaper.

 

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The Blog for Sunday, November 07, 2004

"Jeb!"'s Shame

    [I]n a state with the highest number of disenfranchised voters in the country, this last-chance option [clemency] is mired in a backlog of cases that has quadrupled since Bush took office in 1999, a Herald investigation found.

    The backlog soared as rules adopted by the Clemency Board under Bush excluded more than 85 percent of all felons from the faster process. That's more than 200,000 applications, the highest percentage of people in 16 years forced to appeal to the board if they want their rights restored.

    At the same time, civil-rights advocates across the state have helped thousands of felons apply for hearings, clogging the system even more.

    The result: Between 2000 and 2003, the number of people requesting hearings more than tripled.

    Bush, who declined to be interviewed, said in a written statement, "We've successfully made applying for clemency easier, which in turn has helped create tremendous demand for clemency reviews and hearings."

    Now, nearly 4,000 people are waiting to appeal to the board. Most applied years ago but won't get a hearing any time soon.

    In the past 16 years, the board has heard fewer than 1,500 cases and restored civil rights to fewer than 1,000 felons, The Herald found.

    During Bush's tenure, the board has heard more cases than under previous governors, but still only averages 134 a year. At that pace, clearing the backlog will take nearly three decades.     "The Long Road to Clemency"

7:17 AM

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