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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
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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.

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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, July 06, 2005

PBA Attacks Maddox

    "Union files complaint against Maddox":
    An old political feud was reignited Tuesday with the state's largest law enforcement union asking the Florida Elections Commission to investigate Democratic governor candidate Scott Maddox.

    The Florida Police Benevolence Association is a political power backed by dues from 30,000 correctional officers and other law enforcement workers. Maddox's father headed the group for decades before he was forced out in 1994.

    The complaint questions Maddox's role as chairman of the Leon County Democratic Executive Committee until May. Maddox was also chairman of the Florida Democratic Party until May, when he quit to run for governor. Party rules require that the state party chairman also head a county committee.

    In November, the Leon County elections office fined the Leon County DEC $10,500 for filing a campaign-finance report late.
    Note: The PBA is not an AFL-CIO affiliated "union"; nor is this the same "PBA" that represents cops up North, not hardly; the PBA leans Republican (most of its political contributions have gone to GOoPers, they endorsed "Jeb!", and have largely supported "Jeb!"'s legislative agenda. It acknowledges as much:
    "I think it's fair to put a disclaimer on anything we say, we do have this history," [PBA head Dave] Murrell said. "But we're concerned like everyone else with who is going to be the next governor. And these issues should be brought out whether it's us or anyone else."
    "Officers union files complaint on Maddox" (politely says the PBA "leans Republican"). See also "Police union files charges against Maddox". See also "Maddox faces election complaint". And then there's this:
    Murrell said the complaint had nothing to do with a longtime feud between the PBA and the Maddox family. Charlie Maddox, the candidate's father, headed the PBA for three decades before being ousted in 1994.
    "Maddox questioned about fine". To put it in perspective,
    "Last week it was (Gov.) Jeb Bush issuing personal attacks on Scott Maddox and this week it's allies of Charlie Crist. There is nothing new here."
    "Maddox hit by another complaint over Democratic Party leadership".

    Update: The title of this post was originally "GOP Front Group Attacks Maddox" and in the body of the post I referred to the PBA "is in reality a GOP front group" and noted that "many argue that it is not much of a union at all, and is in reality a GOP front group". While I agree with these sentiments, out of fairness to the PBA I have deleted this wording.

5:32 AM

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