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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.

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, September 25, 2005

Your Tax Dollars at Work

    Mike Haridopolos, a
    Republican state senator from Melbourne is writing a book as part of a unique contract arrangement with Brevard Community College, where Haridopolos is an assistant professor. In exchange for a lighter class load -- and a salary of more than $38,000 a year -- Haridopolos will pen a "textbook-quality" tome for the school that draws on his time in Tallahassee. ...

    Haridopolos has already submitted a draft of the first third of the book. Among the words of wisdom he has for aspiring politicians:

    Send out mail. Lots of it. "The fact is many people walk directly from their mailbox to the trash can. You will make it there too, but let's hope they at least remember your name!"

    Think about that skeleton in your closet. "It will come out and [so] try to figure out if it is something that you can live with and the public will tolerate. By this I mean an arrest record, not marriage issues or even drugs. Those only come up in the larger races or ones that are clearly obvious."

    Prepare to grovel. "I sometimes joke with my students that asking for money is like asking a girl out you like from school and if she somehow reluctantly says OK, you then follow up with 'Can you pay for the date too?' "

    Of course, whether the work is "textbook quality" may depend on whom you ask.

    There are plenty of instances where it's not hard to divine Haridopolos' ideology. Like the time Haridopolos, one of the most conservative members of the Senate, warns prospective candidates to know where they stand on issues because "we all saw . . . during the 2004 presidential election [Democratic nominee] John Kerry's flip-flops."
    "GOP senator pens political tome". Don't you love how "one of the most conservative members of the Senate" sucks down public money to write such useless garbage.

    Remind me why Democrat Buddy Dyer was indicted again?

6:32 AM

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