What many voters likely didn't know is that millions of tax dollars already are being funneled to those schools. . . .
Schools run by Baptist, Lutheran, Seventh-day Adventist, Catholic, Jewish and Islamic religious organizations are among those accepting scholarship students in Central Florida and across the state. The scholarships are paid with money that certain businesses can contribute to the scholarship organization instead of paying state taxes.

But the state has no control over the curriculum at private schools. Critics complain that the state is sending students to private religious schools at taxpayer expense without adequately assessing how students or schools perform.
The state requires that scholarship students in grades three to 10 take a standardized test each year but only takes a broad look at the results to see whether the scholarship students overall appear to be relatively on par with public-school students.
"That is one of the cruelest tricks we are playing on children in education today," said Kathleen Oropeza, one of the founders of Fund Education Now, an Orlando-based parents' group critical of Florida lawmakers' push for school choice.
Oropeza and other critics say that accountability standards for scholarship students attending the private schools lack the teeth of those for public schools, such as holding back students, denying diplomas, firing teachers or closing low-performing schools. Without penalties for poor performance, there is no real accountability, they say.
But despite such criticism, the scholarship fund continues to grow as businesses such as Walgreens, Winn-Dixie and United Healthcare of Florida contribute in lieu of paying state taxes.

We can look for scapegoats, sure, but the truth is everyone should claim responsibility, starting in the home all the way up to the governor’s office.
Yes, Gov. Rick Scott. Why?
Because his administration continues to defend the Republican-led Legislature’s new law that would ban pediatricians and other doctors from even asking their patients the simple safety question: Do you own a gun and do you keep it locked away from your kids?
In July, U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke blocked the state from enforcing that onerous law. The judge noted in her decision that the state law “aims to restrict a practitioner’s ability to provide truthful, non-misleading information to patient.” One truth: If you own a gun and have children in the home you should store it where it would not be accessible, and even if found, the bullets should be stashed somewhere else so that it couldn’t misfire.
Investigators will determine the facts of this case, and it may well be that Jordyn’s parents did exactly what they should have done and yet the boy managed to load the pistol with bullets.
But one fact remains clear: Fining physicians $10,000 for asking a patient about gun access (and that’s just the penalty for the first violation) — with a minimum of $100,000 for any health professional who asks about gun safety more than twice — criminalizes doctor-patient conversations.
The law, as we’ve said before, is a stunning example of heavy-handed government intrusion from a Legislature that has been bellowing “small government” for years. In doing the bidding of the NRA, for whom gun control is the spawn of the devil, lawmakers and the governor foolishly trampled the First Amendment on its way to elevating the Second. (It also would keep those campaign donations flowing from the right-to-bear-arms crowd.) Unfortunately, the governor is fighting the federal judge’s ruling. The state’s appeal continues.

But the change was not spontaneous: The conservative Christian group pushing to restore prayer has been laying the groundwork for nearly a year and a half.
The Christian Family Coalition saw an opportunity to promote its agenda after Commissioner Katy Sorenson retired in late 2010, according Anthony Verdugo, the group’s executive director. Sorenson had been one of two board members who years earlier — in 2004, Verdugo said — changed the county’s practice to begin meetings with a moment of silence instead of a prayer.

The ordinance stipulates that no one be allowed to give the invocation more than three times a year. The opening prayer would be open to leaders of all faiths.
But while the ordinance says the invocation will be nondenominational, there’s no way for the county to know in advance what a speaker plans to say, said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.
That’s what happened before commissioners did away with the invocation, former Commissioner Sorenson said. The prayers were supposed to be nondenominational, but that often wasn’t the case.

He bobbed and weaved around the subject, disingenuously insisting he wasn't a scientist. A pandering denial of scientific fact may appeal to factions of the Republican Party, but it hardly establishes Rubio as a thoughtful future leader of the GOP, much less the country.

Actually the greater mystery is how an ambitious political figure, with an undergraduate degree from the University of Florida, a law degree with the University of Miami and a father of four children, could decline to take a stand on a basic elementary school science question. It's especially troubling from a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

“That stupid comment that came out of Mitt Romney’s mouth would never in a million years have come out of Jeb Bush’s mouth because he doesn’t think it,” said Ms. Navarro, the strategist, who sees Mr. Bush regularly at the Biltmore [sic], a gathering spot for local politicos. “This election result has made Jeb Bush’s voice that much wiser and that much more needed for the Republican Party: What he’s been warning about all along proved to be true.”

Bush’s history of politically unfortunate rhetoric goes back to 1994, when he famously answered a question on the campaign trail by saying he would do “probably nothing” for blacks if elected governor. He lost the race against incumbent Gov. Lawton Chiles by a hair — and many analysts believe his dismal showing among black voters (he got just 4 percent) was largely to blame.

response to an impromptu sit-in by two African-American state legislators, state Sen. Kendrick Meek and Rep. Tony Hill, who in 2000 were protesting the implementation of Bush’s One Florida plan repealing affirmative action in state contracting and higher education. Irritated by the legislators’ refusal to leave his offices following a failed attempt at renegotiating the plan, Bush admonished staff — within earshot of a television reporter — to “throw their asses out.” Bush’s staff later tried to “convince” the reporter not to air the remarks, but they were splashed across the airwaves anyway, forcing the governor to backpedal into a cover story that he was actually referring to the media’s asses, not the lawmakers’.

Bush likes to project the image of compassionate conservative in public. His reelection campaign commercials portray him as just “Jeb” — canoodling with schoolteachers and handing out $160-a-month prescription-drug subsidies to the elderly poor.
But the man who wept in public and pleaded for privacy in the case of his drug-troubled daughter (she was recently caught with crack cocaine at a rehabilitation center) just can’t seem to stop making inappropriate, off-color remarks in private. For a man who has made “accountability” a cornerstone of his governorship, Bush’s inability to restrain his tongue — and his refusal to brook criticism for it — just seems troubling.

And as if he hadn’t had enough bad publicity for one day, Bush is now said to have told lawmakers at that same meeting that he has a “devious plan” to kill a proposed bill to mandate reduced class sizes in the state. If voters approve the bill in November, Bush says, it will bust the state budget, and he has made opposing it a platform in his reelection campaign. So what was his “devious plan”? Bush was overheard on the reporter’s audiotape saying that if the class size amendment passes, he might offer a second voter initiative with funding — read tax increases — attached, so voters will see the full ramifications of their choice. But once again Bush’s unfortunate choice of words — rather than the debate about class size mandates — became the story.

In his defense, Bush comes from a family that’s famous for its curious relationship with the English language. (Remember “Is our children learning?” the nugget from George W. Bush’s campaign for president?) But while his brother and father are more famous for a certain unfamiliarity with the rigors of the mother tongue, Jeb’s verbal slips tend to reveal a mean-spiritedness that seems less benign.

considered two possibilities -- Jeb was either crooked or stupid. At the time, he concluded Jeb was merely stupid.

basic competence has been an issue for Bush.

Aside from his need to “restore” his depleted wealth, Jeb’s business dealings may well prove an insurmountable obstacle to a national candidacy, just as Romney’s business career became excess baggage for his presidential campaign. Known today only as another Bush brother, Jeb must be introduced to American voters. And among the first things they are likely to learn about him is the string of borderline business deals that built his original fortune in Florida real estate, which began three decades ago.
While some aspects of the Jeb story may sound uplifting, there are certainly other episodes that will make voters’ hair stand on end.

Consider his gamy relationship with Miguel Recarey, whose International Medical Centers stands accused of one of the largest Medicare swindles of all time. Before Recarey fled the country ahead of several federal indictments, Jeb had placed a call on his behalf to Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler — a Cabinet secretary serving at the pleasure of Jeb’s daddy, President George Herbert Walker Bush. Recarey paid Jeb a sweet $75,000 for that lobbying effort, which forestalled government action to stop Recarey’s skimming of millions in Medicare dollars. Although Jeb has denied that Recarey — a Mafia associate — hired him to importune Heckler, both the fugitive and the former HHS secretary have since confirmed those circumstances.

After Recarey fled Miami, Jeb gradually grew rich through real estate investments, thanks to his connections with the Cuban-American community in South Florida. To show his gratitude, Jeb sought a presidential pardon from his dad for Orlando Bosch, a murderous anti-Castro militant denounced by his father’s own attorney general Richard Thornburgh as “an unreformed terrorist” responsible for the murder of dozens of innocent people. That kind of thing is acceptable among the South Florida Cubans, but may not look so good in the post-9/11 era to the rest of the country.

Then there is Jeb’s career as governor, a saga that includes his vow to sign legislation that would have awarded Florida’s disputed electoral votes to his brother in November 2000, and his attempted intervention in the case of Terri Schiavo, the brain-dead woman whose husband and parents fought over whether to turn off her respirator. Interference in that sad matter by congressional leaders and other right-wing busybodies was gross exploitation of a family tragedy — and the Schiavo affair became a turning point in the 2006 Republican midterm debacle.

So yes — run, Jeb, run! The fact is that almost any presidential candidate from Florida represents a full-employment program for investigative journalism — and the “smarter” Bush brother is no exception.

You can pretend that it’s quite possible that the planet we live on is about 6,000 years old, and you can have a seat on the U.S. Senate committee that deals with science.

But you shouldn’t be able to do both at the same time.

seat on the science committee should hang in the balance.

While there’s no way of preventing U.S. Senators from holding the notion that the Earth is only a few thousand years old, common decency should keep them from taking up space on a committee dedicated to science, a discipline that has through empirical evidence put the age of the Earth at about 4.55 billion years old.

Choose, Mr. Rubio. Six thousand years or 4.55 billion years?

It’s not like we’re splitting hairs here.

What’s not a mystery by now, is that Rubio is already running for president in 2016, and by claiming the age of the planet is little more than a matter of equally-valid opinions, he’s going out of his way not to offend any Republican primary voters.

Gaetz, Weatherford take the helm

"The Niceville senator outlines an agenda of growing jobs, lashing education to the economy, strengthening ethics and improving election procedures." "Gaetz takes the Senate helm".

"The new House speaker from Wesley Chapel said he will work across the aisle in his speech during swearing-in ceremonies for the 120 members of the Florida House of Representatives." "Rep. Weatherford formally named House Speaker, pledges bipartisanship".

"Vexing problems"

The Daytona Beach News Journal editorial board: "The state has some vexing problems: Sparse revenue for the state budget, high unemployment and housing woes. Add to that weak ethical standards in state government." "Here's hoping for a more productive session". See also "Florida lawmakers sworn in, face daunting work".

"Era of cooperation" promised

"Florida's new legislative leaders on Tuesday pledged to fix the state's troubled elections system, and promised a new era of cooperation in the wake of a string of Election Day defeats that surprised many top Republicans." "New Legislature leaders vow election fix".

See also "New Senate president: Elections will be improved", "Florida’s new legislative leaders promise elections, ethics reform", "New House Speaker pledges inclusion, cooperation", "Sen. Gaetz calls for new ethics rules, shakes up committee structure" and "For now, spirit of cooperation".

"Key committee vacancies loom"

"New chairmen are needed for some committees but Sen. Charlie Dean has indicated his willingness to serve again as chairman of the Senate environment committee. Rep. Steve Crisafulli says his election as House speaker-designate doesn't preclude him from remaining chairman of the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Subcommittee." "Environment, energy take a back seat in session speeches but key committee vacancies loom".

Senators take a detour this year

"The Senate's traditional walk across the rotunda took a detour this year to avoid a gantlet of people holding signs protesting immigration laws, election problems and 'stand your ground.'" "Lawmakers sidestep protesters".

"Scott must have spent Election Day on a trade mission to Mars"

The Orlando Sentinel editorial board: "With its hours-long waits for many voters, and its days-delayed results, Florida's 2012 election was another stain on the state's reputation. Yet Gov. Rick Scott, who must have spent Election Day on a trade mission to Mars, at first expressed satisfaction with the process. As public anger and ridicule mounted, Scott belatedly acknowledged problems with the election. But his follow-up, so far, has been feeble." "Fla. needs independent panel on voting reform".

Health care law marches on, Florida Legislature sits on its hands

Yesterday, "Governors such as Florida’s Rick Scott, who had anticipated that a Romney presidency would dismantle the [Affordable Care Act], were put on notice:"

State leaders could get on board or the law would move ahead without them.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius began remarks Tuesday by listing accomplishments under the law and taking a jab at its detractors.

“Of all the worst predictions of the law opponents from accelerated costs to government getting between patients and their doctors to Medicare crumbling, none have come through,” she said.

Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services extended the deadline for states to declare their intention to open an exchange. That is, a marketplace where individuals and small businesses can band together to get better rates and where consumers can compare prices and buy insurance.

Although the law lays out many specifics about exchanges, including the minimum benefits that plans sold on them must offer, states that run their own exchange have much more say in the plans. States that opt out are at the mercy of the federal government to make all the decisions.

“Now that the law is here to stay,” Sebelius said, she hoped state leaders would help implement it.

Florida lawmakers have not decided whether to open an exchange, partner with the federal government or keep their hands out of it entirely.

Florida’s next Senate President Don Gaetz and House Speaker Will Weatherford wrote last week to Sebelius, saying leaders could not yet make a decision. “The state lacks sufficient information to fully evaluate the potential impact of choosing one exchange model over another,” they wrote. They attached their questions. Among them: Would insurers be allowed to participate by region or must they provide coverage to the entire state?

The rules released Tuesday address some of the legislators’ questions including a query about minimum benefits.

But it’s unclear whether that information will speed a decision. Gaetz and Weatherford also wrote that lawmakers, who must authorize an exchange, would not meet until March. HHS’s new deadline is in December.

Scott wrote last week to Sebelius asking for a meeting. He said he doubted that the health care exchange would lower costs in Florida and proposed other changes instead. Scott’s staff said Tuesday that he had not received a response from Sebelius.

Will West Surprise?

The Palm Beach Post editors: "Though U.S. Rep. Allen West conceded on Tuesday the honorific 'Rep.' continues to precede his name for the rest of this year, including during the crucial fiscal cliff debate."

There’s still plenty of pressure for conservatives to go down swinging. Grover Norquist is as adamant as ever that Republicans must stick to his no-taxes pledge. But Rep. West had said he wasn’t happy with Mr. Norquist’s inflexible position even before President Obama was reelected and Rep. West became a lame duck. . . .

Instead of staying in the limelight of an election contest, Rep. West returns to Washington for what likely will be a bit part in a more important event. Many people would not expect such a decision from Rep. West. But it’s the kind of decision voters have shown they’d like their representatives to make. It’s ironic that Rep. West could go out in a way that might have kept him in.

What Republicans call "Red Tape"

"Critical violations of state sanitation and safety laws observed by inspectors at five South Florida restaurants last week prompted the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation to cite the owners and briefly suspend their operations." "Miami Subs in Hialeah among restaurants cited by inspectors |".

"Where lawmakers once debated shutting down Florida’s public schools"

"Florida Democratic lawmakers selected two Broward County legislators as their leaders Monday. Rep. Perry Thurston of Plantation and Sen. Chris Smith of Fort Lauderdale will chair their respective chamber's Democratic Caucus. The meeting to elect the two black lawmakers to leadership positions was held in the historic Old Capitol, where lawmakers once debated shutting down Florida’s public schools to protest court-ordered integration." "Democrats pick legislative leaders".

And these guys expect a pension?

"Two off-duty Broward sheriff's deputies and a Coconut Creek officer combined efforts to save a woman from burning to death in a wrecked pickup truck Sunday." "Three officers pull woman from fiery wreck".

Teacher Evaluations Fight

"FEA: Stop New Teacher Evaluations". See also "Teachers give an F to evaluation process".

St. Lucie County Elections Office Scrutinized

"U.S. Rep. Allen West may have ended his two-week battle with election officials in St. Lucie County on Tuesday, but the Treasure Coast office will continue to face scrutiny over how it handled the election."

Florida Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, vowed she will pursue correcting how the supervisor of elections office reportedly double-counted some ballots and misplaced others in West’s defeat to Democrat Patrick Murphy of Jupiter. . . .

Secretary of State Ken Detzner, who said he hasn’t talked to St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker, sent an inspection team to the county last week as the race was contested in court and later the county canvassing board ordered a retabulation of the first five days of early voting.

At the urging of West’s legal team and his supporters, the canvassing board performed a full early voting recount Saturday and Sunday, but missed a noon deadline to report new results to the state. The adjusted numbers, which included 306 votes never counted, would’ve extended Murphy’s margin of victory to 0.65 percent.

By the way, the claim by the West crew that "Preliminary totals showed 900 voters cast ballots in Precinct 93, where only seven voters are registered" is "not true." "Fact check: Did precinct in Allen West race have 900 ballots cast but only 7 registered voters?".

Recognizing Scott's low popularity, meanwhile, some Republicans are talking about the possibility of a primary challenge to oust him and pick a different candidate for governor in 2014.

But even those Republicans realize the odds of a credible challenge are slim.

Despite their confidence, Democrats face their own problems — a field of candidates with no clear champion, all with at least some drawbacks.

Because of former Gov. Charlie Crist's recent alliance with President Barack Obama, some Democrats consider him the Democratic front-runner. But not all are prepared to accept the former Republican, and Crist won't get the nomination without a fight, probably against Alex Sink of Tampa and others.

Scott's job approval ratings have improved during his tenure but remain upside-down.

Potential challengers mentioned include Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, who couldn't be reached for comment last week, and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. Asked about the subject during a Romney Tampa campaign event Oct. 31, Putnam, who's widely expected to run for governor some day, sounded negative about a 2014 race but didn't close the door. "I don't anticipate a primary," he said.

Former GOP Chairman Tom Slade said he has heard "whispers" that state Sen. John Thrasher would have the fundraising ability and political clout to mount a challenge, but no serious talk of it.

"The elephant in the room," he said, is former Gov. Jeb Bush, "clearly the strongest candidate we've got for anything in Florida." But most Republicans are skeptical Bush would run for governor again.

Putnam, possibly the strongest candidate known to be interested in the governorship, is only 38 and can afford to wait for a better opportunity, several Republicans noted.

A major obstacle to any primary challenger is that Scott could spend heavily from his own personal fortune on a campaign. In 2010, he spent more than $70 million.

West prays Murphy puts the interests of the nation "before his own"

"Allen West concedes, congratulates Patrick Murphy". In one last cheap shot, West prayed that Murphy would "put the interests of our nation before his own". "Allen West Ends Quest for Congressional Seat".

Michael Mayo doesn't "know why West is fighting so hard. He'll rake in more cash from speeches/appearances/broadcast gigs as a conservative blowhard than he ever could in Congress." "Allen West's legacy: Recounts for everyone!".

Imagine that: Tampa depicted as a "yahoo town"

The Tampa Tribune editorial board: "Tampa is taking its lumps for the David Petraeus affair."

"Saturday Night Live" lampooned the city last weekend with a skit featuring a "never-used Tampa correspondent" and punk-talking, self-proclaimed Tampa Mayor Derek "Fat Deuce" Derek, who bragged about Tampa having everything, including "cigars, Jill Kelley, tattoos" and gutted-out Applebee's — or at least that is what we thought he said.

It was funny, but pointedly depicted Tampa as a yahoo town.

During the show's "Weekend Update," anchor Seth Meyers called Kelley and the entire state of Florida "losers," saying sordid sex scandals are like Jewish New Yorkers: "They always find their way to Florida."

National Public Radio's humorous quiz show "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," also had fun at our expense. The Daily Beast reported MacDill Air Force Base was known as "party central" to the military.

"Florida can always be counted on to be the Ground Zero of Zeroes"

Daniel Ruth writes that "whenever some weird, strange, twisted, perverse story surfaces involving tawdry sex, or political chicanery, or complete morons, Florida can always be counted on to be at the Ground Zero of Zeroes." "A rotten cherry atop sleaze sundae".

"Secret Emails Controversy"

"No Sunshine? Florida Connection to Obama Environmental Agency Secret Emails Controversy".

Marco speaks

"In what many see as the first steps toward the 2016 presidential contest, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Miami, outlined a road map for his party while attending a birthday party in Iowa for Gov. Terry Branstad". "Marco Rubio’s 2016 Advice for the GOP: Make ‘Poor People Richer’".

And so it begins

"The two men taking the reins of the Florida Legislature this week are a character study of shifting political eras." "Legislature's new leaders — a political odd couple — promise ethics reforms". See also "Democrats pick legislative leaders". Steve Bousquet: "The Class of 2012 arrives at the Capitol in Tallahassee ahead of a one-day organizational session. As the newbies look ahead with idealism, they would be wise to look back, too. The history of the Legislature is full of good lessons." "New Capitol class can learn from past".

The Sarasota Herald Tribune editorial board: "Good signs from the Legislature". See also "Gambling, Obamacare Committees Forming in Senate", "Sen. Gaetz calls for new ethics rules, shakes up committee structure" and "Ethics Refresher Before Florida Senators".

Privatization follies

Bill Cotterell: "Unions for public workers and the Florida Nurses Association contend the Department of Corrections and legislative leadership went too far when it requested bids from private corporations to provide services for inmates." "Judge hears lawsuit on prison health care privatization".

"A skeptical judge on Monday raised questions about whether it was legal for the state to move ahead with a plan to privatize nearly 3,000 jobs in the state's prisons. Circuit Judge John Cooper spent more than two hours Monday hearing a lawsuit from three public employee unions that challenged a move by the state's prison agency to have private companies take over prison health care operations." "Florida judge skeptical about prison privatization". See also "Lawsuit Could Bring Ruling on Legislative Budget Commission's Power".

Miami-Dade elections supervisor in spotlight

"Unlike in every other county in the state, the Miami-Dade elections supervisor is not elected."

Florida — and Miami-Dade and Broward counties in particular — once again became the butt of post-election jokes, and that some voters were deterred by the lengthy waits.

Speaking on Spanish-language television two days after the election, former Miami City Manager Joe Arriola called for [the Miami-Dade elections supervisor,Penelope Townsley's] ouster.

“Just because Broward County got a double ‘F’, we still got an ‘F’, didn’t we?” Arriola later told The Miami Herald. “This is very poor preparation. I am absolutely adamant that if she’s in charge, she needs to pay the price.”

But Townsley’s boss, County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, has backed his appointee. Unlike in every other county in the state, the Miami-Dade elections supervisor is not elected.

“I’m not going to put everything on her,” Gimenez said after Election Day, when he announced plans to convene a task force to recommend elections improvements.

Still the same

"The incoming leaders of the Florida Legislature say they want to clean up the state's murky campaign-finance laws by doing away with third-party funds that lawmakers use to accept giant checks from corporations, unions and wealthy benefactors."

But they're not proposing to choke the flow of political cash. Instead, they want to lift the 30-year-old, $500 limit on checks to candidate re-election committees so they can take more cash directly.

"Florida's 825,000 undocumented immigrants suddenly have brighter prospects"

"In the wake of the 2012 elections, most of Florida's 825,000 undocumented immigrants suddenly have brighter prospects for becoming legal residents — and maybe, someday, U.S. citizens." "Election boosts chances for an immigration overhaul".

Citizens scandal?

"Scott is now backing calls to have the state inspector general look into why the corporate integrity team was dismantled at Citizens Property Insurance Corp."

Scott on Monday directed Chief Inspector General Melinda Miguel to study the termination of the four members of the watchdog team after a report was released Friday that the integrity team was investigating how leadership at Citizens handled a number of internal issues, including allegations of sexual harassment, indecent drunken behavior in public, questionable payments and falsified documents.

A recount Saturday and Sunday of more than 37,000 St. Lucie County ballots from all eight days of early voting had been demanded by partisans of Allen West, R-Palm Beach Gardens, after Murphy's narrow victory Nov. 6. Results of that recount, announced shortly after 2 p.m. Sunday by St. Lucie County Canvassing Board member Tod Mowery, placed Murphy farther ahead of West than before the two-day effort began. The results killed West campaign hopes the recount would narrow the gap to less than 0.5 percent and trigger an automatic recount of all votes under state law.

"A lot of these ballots have been counted three times," Murphy said in a phone interview late Sunday afternoon. "I think the voters should be confident now."

There was a noon Sunday deadline for sending results to Tallahassee. That deadline passed while election workers were still secluded in Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker's office. Walker herself was not present. She was hospitalized Friday and her administrative assistant, Annie Clark, oversaw the weekend recount.

Murphy's campaign then declared itself the winner based on the deadline being passed.

"(Election workers) did miss the statutory deadline," West campaign manager Tim Edson said. "We're evaluating our options."

But Clark said election officials got the results to the state in time.

"We met the noon deadline," Clark said.

She added that final results of St. Lucie County voting would not be printed for distribution until Monday at the earliest.

"'It’s time for Allen West to do the right thing and concede,' said Eric Johnson, Murphy’s senior adviser. West, however, has no such plans."

“As usual, Murphy’s people are full of garbage,” said Tim Edson, West’s campaign manager. “This is something the secretary of state and governor will have to sort out.”

The win came at 12:01 p.m., when Johnson told Murphy supporters and the media that the St. Lucie County Canvassing Board had missed its noon deadline to file results to the state Division of Elections.

Under Florida law, the certified unofficial results submitted a week ago Sunday stand when the certified results do not arrive on time. Those results have Murphy, a Democrat, winning by 0.58 percent. A spread of less than 0.50 percent would have triggered an automatic recount.

Preliminary numbers released around 2 p.m. by the St. Lucie County board showed Murphy with an even greater lead, with 65,841 votes to West’s 52,704. When those results are added to the final tallies in Martin and Palm Beach counties, Murphy’s lead increased to 0.65 percent.

West’s options are limited. Shortly after noon, his legal team began discussing an emergency exemption in the law that permits final returns to be filed after the deadline. That exemption defines emergency as any occurrence “that results or may result in substantial injury or harm to the population or substantial damage to or loss of property to the extent it will prohibit an election officer’s ability to conduct a safe and orderly election.”

West, R-Palm Beach Gardens, also could challenge the official results using a rarely used law that allows the loser to contest the final results after all the ballots have been certified. Under that law, unsuccessful candidates or taxpayers living in the district can challenge the results by filing a legal complaint by Nov. 30 — that is, within 10 days of the final certification, which will happen Tuesday.

The complaint, called an election contest, can be filed only under several strict conditions: misconduct, fraud, bribery or corruption by an election official; the winner is not eligible for office; illegal votes or rejection of enough legal votes to change or create doubt in the results. West’s legal team declined to say whether an election contest would be filed.

The Palm Beach Post editorial board explains what happened: "Elections Supervisor Gertrude Walker admitted her office accidentally double-counted hundreds of early votes and ignored hundreds more. This threw the tight race for the U.S. House District 18 seat, which spans Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties, into serious question."

After Mr. West’s campaign cried foul, officials recounted a portion of the early voting ballots and discovered they had double-counted the equivalent of 799 votes. But in an ill-advised move, officials recounted only a fraction of the ballots.

Last week, Mr. West’s campaign and dozens of supporters loudly called for all of the early votes to be counted. While we supported Mr. Murphy’s candidacy and will hardly mourn the divisive Mr. West’s defeat, we agreed that all the early votes needed to be double-checked. This position was only bolstered by the revelation Friday that some 306 early votes had not been counted at all, forgotten, it turned out, in a box in some cranny of the county’s elections office.

Had the county’s canvassing board not decided Friday to finally recount the rest of the 37,000 early voting ballots, questions would have endured about the legitimacy of Mr. Murphy’s victory. As it turned out, the effort, completed Sunday, only enlarged Mr. Murphy’s victory. In this sense, the recount (legally, a “retabulation”) benefited Mr. Murphy, even though his campaign’s attorneys cynically fought to stop it, advancing the dubious legal argument that double-checking the disputed results would violate state law.

By Sunday evening, Mr. West had not yet conceded the race, nearly two weeks after Election Day. It is high time that he did. Having obtained the recount he and his supporters demanded, his defeat has been confirmed, and any further challenges will be acts of increasing desperation.

Nevermind

"Florida officials re-thinking opposition to 'Obamacare'".

Republicans have to do a lot better in rural areas in Florida

Jeremy Wallace: "If Republicans are going to lose big urban counties . . ., they have to do a lot better in rural areas in Florida, said Jamie Miller, a veteran Republican political consultant based in Sarasota. Miller said Mitt Romney had to grow his victory margins in 32 smaller, mostly rural counties in Florida compared to Republican John McCain four years earlier. It did not happen. Romney’s numbers from the rural counties were almost the same as McCain in his losing effort." "Republicans need to bolster rural support".

One of five Floridians live below the poverty level

"Last week the U.S. Census Bureau released a follow-up report to its most recent study on poverty rates in the United States. The proposed Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) claims it measures poverty more accurately than the official statistics the federal government currently relies on. And the picture it paints of Florida is less than flattering."

The Sunshine State is supposedly the third-poorest state in the nation, with about one of five Floridians (19.5 percent) living below the poverty level. This is about 5 points higher than Florida's still-official poverty measure of 15.3 percent.

According to the SPM, California leads the nation with its poverty rate of 23.5 percent (as opposed to the official count of 16.3 percent), with Arizona following behind at 19.8 percent (officially 19.2 percent).

Her teabags are showing

Nancy Smith is showing her teabags. She writes: "You have to hand it to the Democrats and their pals in the mainstream media. Nobody touches these guys for sheer hypocrisy."

Their hypocritical message is this: You can't disenfranchise us, but we can disenfranchise you.

What's conspicuously absent here is the Golden Rule. Apparently the Dems don't believe "do unto others" applies to Republican Congressman Allen West, whom they fear and despise for his blunt political style, his vast store of campaign cash and his fiercely loyal supporters.

So the Democrat machine doesn't like West. I get it. The former Army officer isn't everybody's cup of tea. But admit it, the CD 18 race was ultra close and it was a tangle of irregularities in the supervisor of elections offices in two counties.

Where Ms. Smith goes awry is her claim that the counting debacle amounts to "suppression" akin to the recent GOP shenanigans in Tallahassee. Not hardly. Counting errors - which actually worked to Murphy's detriment (Murphy, not West, picked up lost votes in the recount) - are not the same as the Florida Legislature's conscious effort to suppress the Democratic vote by, among other things, cutting back on early voting.

"There may be a new tone in Tallahassee"

"With an increase in Democratic lawmakers and a governor now looking toward his re-election, a new Florida legislature convenes this week, facing many of the same challenges of the past, from a tight budget to the rising cost of health care. But there may be a new tone in Tallahassee, following an election in which President Barack Obama carried the state and Democrats picked up four seats in the 120-member state House and two seats in the 40-member state Senate." "New state legislature has inclusive tone".

"Agenda that could have been authored by the Florida Chamber of Commerce"

"Will Weatherford, the youngest speaker in recent Florida history, will lead a chamber that still has a large GOP majority, though the party lost seats in the election."

On Nov. 6, they lost five seats and their veto-proof majority, punctuated by the shocking defeat of the person who had been picked to succeed Weatherford as speaker in 2014, Chris Dorworth. . . .

Make no mistake: Weatherford will continue to push a conservative, pro-business agenda that could have been authored by the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

He wants new state employees to enroll in 401(k)-style retirement plans rather than the current pension system, which provides guaranteed payments from the state. While it’s sure to alienate unions and spark a legal battle, Weatherford can’t say how much it will save the state. He says pensions are a “ticking time bomb” in state finances — despite no evidence of the sort.

Here's the law governing the SOE's failure to meet the deadline, with underscoring and text in bracketing added]. Florida Statutes, Section 102.112 provides:

102.112 Deadline for submission of county returns to the Department of State.—

(1) The county canvassing board or a majority thereof shall file the county returns for the election of a federal or state officer with the Department of State immediately after certification of the election results. The returns must contain a certification by the canvassing board that the board has compared the number of persons who voted with the number of ballots counted and that the certification includes all valid votes cast in the election.

(2) Returns must be filed by 5 p.m. on the 7th day following a primary election and by noon on the 12th day following the general election [November 18, 2012]. However, the Department of State may correct typographical errors, including the transposition of numbers, in any returns submitted to the Department of State pursuant to s. 102.111(2).

(3) If the returns are not received by the department by the time specified, such returns shall be ignored and the results on file at that time shall be certified by the department.

(4) If the returns are not received by the department due to an emergency, as defined in s. 101.732, the Elections Canvassing Commission [in Tallahassee] shall determine the deadline by which the returns must be received.

The question to be decided, then, is whether there is an "emergency" within the meaning of Section 102.112(4), a decision to be made by the State Elections Canvassing Commission. "Campaign officials for Patrick Murphy, Democrat candidate for the congressional district 18 race, are calling their candidate the winner because the St. Lucie Canvassing Board has missed the noon deadline to certify results to the state Division of Elections." "Murphy camp declares victory due to missed deadline". See also "Noon passes and no results yet in St. Lucie elections recount".

“My trip to Iowa has nothing to do with 2016,” he said Thursday, a remark no one in Washington took seriously, even though Rubio pointed out the visit was set up months ago back when he expected Mitt Romney would be seeking re-election in four years.

Absurd as it may seem — the next presidential election is 48 months away — potential contenders are taking faint steps, and Rubio has claimed his spot in the fray. Two years ago, he defied convention by winning a Senate seat on the winds of the tea party. Now he is propelled by a demographic crisis. . . .

The party has a strong list of possible contenders, from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Romney running mate Paul Ryan and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. As Rubio continues to expand his profile, critics will increase scrutiny.

“The wattage goes up significantly on the bulb that shines once you try to emerge on the national stage,” said Rod Smith, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, which will happily share a dossier, hundreds of pages long, that opposition researchers assembled on Rubio as he was being considered for Romney’s running mate. . . .

A post-election National Journal poll of insiders showed Republicans think Rubio is the strongest candidate for president, followed by Jeb Bush, one of the undisputed heavyweights of Florida politics. During a rally in Miami a week before the election, Rubio and Bush stood on stage with Romney but it was Rubio’s name the crowd shouted, and when it came time to introduce the candidate, Rubio stepped forward.

The GOPers just don't understand "the differences that divide Cubans from all other Latinos. While not all Cubans believe in the differences, the Cuban GOP Right does. In fact Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla, is the poster boy for 'Viva la Diferencia'." "There Are Hispanics and Then There Are Cubans".

Separate and apart from that, Latinos recognize an empty suit when they see one: When Rubio's name was floated as a possible VP nominee, those who studied these things recognized that "most Latinos in and outside of Florida are not enthused about a Rubio candidacy, both in general and when it comes to the specific issue of immigration. Nominating Rubio would not be a game changer for Romney in winning the hearts and minds of the Latino electorate, not even in the swing state of Florida, the one place where a Rubio candidacy might have mattered to the general election." "Nominating Marco Rubio Likely Not a Game Changer for Romney in Florida".

Interactive map: Miami-Dade's longest and shortest lines

"During the 2012 Presidential Election, voting locations in the south and west tended to shut down the latest in Miami-Dade County, indicating they had the biggest lines at the scheduled 7 p.m. closing time." "Interactive map: Longest and shortest lines on Election Day in Miami-Dade County".

Murphy-West numbers due by Noon, Sunday

"The St. Lucie County Canvassing Board resumed ballot counting this morning in the tight congressional race between Republican Rep. Allen West and Democrat Patrick Murphy under the watchful eyes of dozens of attorneys and supporter of both candidates."

Canvassing board member Tod Lowery, who regularly updates the audience on the process, explained that the board still had write-in ballots and other questionable ballots from 8 days of early voting to review before the noon deadline for the state’s 67 supervisors of elections to submit their final, certified tallies to the state Division of Elections.

Last Sunday, the canvassing board agree to recount ballots cast the last three days of early voting after election officials revealed that machines had been unable to read some of the electronic memory cartridges. West’s attorneys then sought a recount of all early ballots after the elections office admitted double-counting some ballots and ignoring others on election night.

“There was such a cloud of suspicion,” said Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, a Boca Raton attorney on the West legal team. Shapiro observed much of the ballot review in Palm Beach county. “I felt the way the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections handled it created suspicion and I still don’t know if it was unnecessary or justified.”

That recount began at 9:40 a.m. yesterday and continued until 10 p.m. The canvassing board resumed counting at 8 a.m. today. Unlike the 4-day ballot review in Palm Beach county that ended November 10, where Palm Beach Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher offered few updates and ignored or routinely declined to answer questions from reporters, attorneys and the public, the St. Lucie Canvassing Board has allowed representatives has encouraged officials from both campaigns to agree on protocol. That includes how and when results will be released today.

SNL ridicules Florida

"‘Saturday Night Live’ ridicules Florida in Petraeus scandal".

Rick Scott's Promise

"Nearly 2,000 state workers are being displaced from Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s administration because of the nation’s biggest outsourcing of prison health care."

“Due to the outsourcing of this function, your position will be deleted,” reads a dryly worded dismissal notice from the Department of Corrections, sent to 1,890 state employees in the past two weeks.

The Department of Corrections signed a $230 million contract with Corizon Healthcare of Nashville to provide all health care in central and north Florida prisons and is negotiating contract terms with Wexford Health Sources of Pittsburgh to take over health care in nine South Florida prisons for $48 million a year. In the dismissal letters, prison officials emphasize that dismissed workers will get first consideration for new jobs at one of the two for-profit vendors, though with fewer benefits. The workers also expect to pay more out of their pockets for their own health insurance.

Many make less than $35,000 a year, have not had a raise in six years and live in economically distressed areas home to many state prisons, including Bradford, Dixie, Levy, Suwannee and Union counties.

"I'm as conservative as you can get"

"After Crist endorsed Obama and was preparing to speak at the Democratic National Convention, the state GOP paid for a statewide television ad to knock him down. The ad showed video of Crist praising prominent Republicans like former Gov. Jeb Bush, former President George W. Bush and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. It also showed Crist saying he is pro-life and pro-gun, and ends with him saying, 'I'm as conservative as you can get.'" "Fla. GOP tries to beat Crist before he can run".

"Dems got their mojo back . . . Well, sort of"

Myriam Marquez: "The Florida Democratic Party is gloating after the Nov. 6 election, as well it should. After two decades of losses, facing a veto-proof GOP majority in the Legislature, a tea party governor who spent $73 million of his own money in a TV sweepstakes to win, the Dems got their mojo back."

Well, sort of.

Florida Democrats can point to gaining four seats in Congress, handing President Barack Obama a second term and finally breaking the supermajority hold that the Republican Party has in Tallahassee by picking up a handful of legislative seats. Voters also gave a resounding ‘No’ to the Republican Party of Florida’s attempt to kick out three state Supreme Court justices for rulings the party disagrees with (talk about one-party state), and nixed constitutional amendments that sought to inject government into women’s reproductive rights and open the door to public funding of religious schools.

Heck, just two years ago, at the height of the tea party frenzy, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink wouldn’t even mention the president. Instead of defending healthcare reform, she scampered away, and lost to a man who didn’t even get the majority vote.

When you check on several of the young Republican bucks that have been elected in recent years in Miami-Dade, you find that they started out as interns for legislators, many of them non-Hispanics, in Tallahassee. They gained experience on how the system works, and they built connections from the Panhandle to the Keys. If Democrats really want to build on their get-out-the-vote success, and ensure it’s not a flash in the political pan, they need to get out and groom young Hispanics.

"Trying to rationalize the nuts' positions"

Scott Maxwell discusses how "more than 33,000 people have signed an online petition for Florida to secede from the United States."

Yes, it's 1861 all over again … well, except without any of these folks actually sacrificing anything for their alleged principles.

In fact, in 2012, you don't even have to leave your cubicle. Or give your last name.

Instead, the president made the mistake of setting up a website to listen to citizens' concerns — and the nuts quickly pounced.

Guys such as "Thomas V." from Mansfield, Ohio, are now demanding that Florida secede.

Don't ask me to explain why a guy from Ohio thinks anyone should give a flip about his opinions on Florida. Trying to rationalize the nuts' positions is like trying to explain calculus to my cat.

Still, Tom V. from Ohio had plenty of company from residents here in Florida. I saw cybersignatures from Orlando, Ocoee and Ormond Beach. . . .

So what do these seceders want?

Well, the petition says they want the White House to "Peacefully grant the State of Florida to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government."

Florida is not alone. Thousands of residents from other states — including Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and North Carolina — are also asking to secede.

So I say: Let 'em.

"State's hand may be forced on gambling regulations". See also "Timeline of gambling in Florida".

Scott approaches Sebelius on bended knee

"Gov. Scott seeks meeting with Sebelius before deciding Florida’s health exchange". Yesterday: "Scott asks for health care meeting".

Brilliant mistake

"The Miami-Dade Elections Department had a plan earlier this year to evenly distribute voters across polling places on Election Day, to avoid packing thousands of people into precincts where the population had boomed."

But the plan was put on hold because county leaders didn’t want to confuse voters by changing their polling places before a presidential election.