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 Saturday, July 30, 2005

Osceola Wingers Under Siege

    The wingnuts in Osceola County have a problem:
    The U.S. Justice Department sued Osceola last week, saying its at-large system for electing commissioners discriminates against Hispanic voters because it dilutes their strength at the polls and makes it harder for them to elect the candidates of their choice.

    Only one Hispanic has won a County Commission seat -- and that was during the brief period when the voters agreed to switch to single-member districts. In 1996, voters overwhelmingly decided to return to at-large elections.
    Atlee Mercer likes things just the way they are, thank you very much:
    The County Commission is scheduled to meet in executive session with its attorneys Tuesday to discuss the lawsuit and the county's options. Commissioner Atlee Mercer said he suspects "some accommodation will be made" before the case gets to trial, but he wants to know how the Justice Department arrived at its conclusion and what the public has to say about it.

    "Did they talk to six people, all of whom wanted to run for office? Or did they talk to 1,000 citizens?" Mercer said. "Everyone I talk to is not interested in single-member districts, but maybe I'm running in a different crowd."
    "District voting's benefits debated".

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