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
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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 Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Bush League

    Ah come on; this is bush league, compared to what Harris did:
    When the outcome of [the 2000] presidential election in Florida was cast in doubt and Secretary of State Katherine Harris' role as the state's top elections official came under scrutiny, Harris didn't go looking for outside help from experts in the mechanics and legal technicalities of ballot-counting. Instead, she sought out the most effective partisan fixers she could find.

    J.M. "Mac" Stipanovich is Florida's most famous -- or notorious, depending on your point of view -- Republican political consultant. He has run campaigns for Harris, Gov. Jeb Bush and former Gov. Bob Martinez, and he has been an influential behind-the-scenes GOP strategist for decades. For all his mastery of partisan campaigns, Stipanovich, by his own admission, knows very little about the professional operation of elections. Yet Stipanovich virtually moved into Harris' office after Election Day, serving, in his words, as Harris' "personal attorney" during the recounts.

    Stipanovich was joined in service to Harris by Tampa political media consultant Adam Goodman, known for his slash-and-burn ads on behalf of Republican candidates. Stipanovich and Goodman acknowledge that they took the lead in crafting Harris' public statements -- and, in the process, setting policy for the state's top elections official.
    "Harris' partisan fixers".

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