With Marco Rubio running for president, both Democrats and Republicans can expect competitive primaries to replace him. Patrick Murphy and Alan Grayson offer two very different messages for Democrats as they look to flip a Senate seat. There are several Republican incumbents in blue states defending their seats in November and Democrats will need Florida if they want to flip the Senate.

Democrats are also hoping to pick up a few congressional seats in Florida in the aftermath of the state Supreme Court’s redistricting ruling. Already Democrats have high hopes for Annette Taddeo to defeat Carlos Curbelo and to flip the seats currently held by Jolly and Dan Webster. But Republicans will have their own opportunities to flip the seats held by Gwen Graham and Murphy. In the meantime, Democrats will be running hard to replace Grayson while Republicans can expect primaries to replace DeSantis and the retiring Rich Nugent. - See more at: http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/more-white-house-stake-florida-2016#sthash.ti5r2eu2.dpuf

Embarrassing . . . but for whom?

"Trump: Jeb ‘a total embarrassment’ to his family."

Grubbing for wingnuts

First the Gowdy endorsement now Inhofe: "Although he said he was not ready to endorse a candidate in the 2016 race, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) on Saturday called his colleague Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) 'one that I really do like'." "GOP senator hints at Rubio endorsement."

More nuts: "Phil Gramm: 'My vote would go to Rubio'."

"Political chaos of the Legislature’s own making"

The Daytona Beach News Journal's editors: "The legislative misfires and legal decisions have pushed the redistricting process to the edge of the electoral calendar, creating a rush to assemble the 2016 electoral landscape before the Legislature convenes its regular session Jan. 12. The Senate must randomly assign district numbers to determine which members would receive two-year terms and which would get four years. It will be political chaos of the Legislature’s own making." "Mapping Florida’s political future."

Trading chisels for sledgehammers

The Sun Sentinel editors: "Over the years, Florida lawmakers have steadily chipped away at their constituents' constitutional right of access to government by approving hundreds of exceptions to the state's open-records and open-meetings laws. But now a couple of lawmakers are proposing to trade in their chisels for sledgehammers." "Don't gut Florida's Sunshine Law."

Runnin' gub'ment like a bidness

"Hunting, grazing, logging at Florida state parks? 2016 fight looms."

Immigration issues could dominate the 2016 campaign

"This year saw new influxes of Central Americans and Cubans on the southern border, Syrian refugees rejected by the leaders of more than 30 states and the president's executive action on immigration mired in legal challenges." "How immigration issues could unfold during the 2016 campaign."

Meanwhile, the Miami Herald editors point out that the "'wet foot, dry foot' policy that Cubans have enjoyed for 20 years can no longer stand the test of time. And the policy’s foundation, the coveted Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, is already under fire."

In his last year at the White House, President Obama should focus on finding a fair way to treat Cubans fleeing oppression, and distinguishing them from those who simply want to move on temporarily, benefiting from American benevolence.

And then there’s Florida, a state that has shunned same-day voter registration and vote centers as an alternative to busy precincts. Citizens here have to request a mail-in ballot every other election year or set aside time to go to a polling place.

“We have a state that has a history of disenfranchising voters,” said Pamela Goodman, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida. “We have to continually be on the watch for legislation that moves us backward instead of forward.”

Florida’s top 2015 political stories

"2015's Top Political Social Media Stories," and "How GOP Presidential Hopefuls With Florida Ties Did in 2015" and "Year in review: Florida’s top political stories from 2015."

Choice politics

"An administrative law judge has canceled a hearing in the case of a South Florida abortion clinic accused by the state Agency for Health Care Administration of improperly performing second-trimester abortions, records show. The case stems from a series of AHCA inspections in August, which produced similar administrative charges against the Aastra Women’s Center in Plantation, three Planned Parenthood clinics in St. Petersburg, Fort Myers and Naples and the Bread and Roses Women’s Health Center in Gainesville." "Hearing called off in Fla. abortion clinic case."

An elected state education commissioner

The Tampa Bay Times editors: "No issue is more important to Florida and its future than public education."

Yet voters are two steps removed from directly influencing the state education commissioner, who is appointed by the Board of Education, and whose members are picked by the governor. The move from an elected education commissioner to an appointed one has resulted in less public accountability rather than more and has not worked nearly as well as expected. The Legislature should give voters the chance to decide whether to elect the commissioner once again by putting a constitutional amendment on the November 2016 ballot.

Jeb's last gasp

"Can Jeb Bush Make a Comeback?" and "How Jeb Bush Hopes to Save His Candidacy."

Florida feeds at the public trough

"Florida eyes federal grants to help clear rape kit backlog."

Political Paths for Incumbent Senators

"Aside from chatter about the partisan skew of a Senate redistricting plan selected Wednesday by Leon County Circuit Judge George Reynolds, the biggest question about the new lines is how they might alter the future of incumbent senators who hope to run again in 2016." "Backroom Briefing: Political Paths Still Open for Incumbent Senators."

SoFla's congressional delegation turns a blind eye to Cuba problem

The Sun Sentinel editors: "With the exodus of Cuban refugees having reached a crisis stage, South Florida's congressional delegation — including our two U.S. senators — continues to turn a blind eye." "Pitiful lack of leadership on Cuban crisis."

More Redistricting

"Redistricting judge questions not using political data to draw maps." See also "Judge sides with voting-rights groups on new state Senate maps."

See also "Redistricting judge questions not using political data to draw maps."

Expect new water policy

"New Water Policy Expected to Flow in Session."

Pension deform

The Tampa Trib editors think its a great idea to push public employees into, what a Forbes columnist calls "one of the most egregious scams in modern finance."

Doing the bidding of a "trillion-dollar industry that has a lot of money at stake if people stop believing in the mythology bolted to the scam":

The investment plan default probably would be the best option for most workers. As House members point out, it takes eight years to be vested in the Florida Retirement System, the reason about 60 percent of the workers who enroll in the system never receive anything from it.

2015 health care-policy review

"It's easy to forget now, amid the ongoing battle over redistricting, but health care issues dominated the regular 2015 legislative session. Lawmakers drew lines in the sand in a dispute over the state's Medicaid expansion, which short-circuited the session after the House of Representatives adjourned early due to the stalemate." "Medicaid stalemate, price-gouging, and pot: A health care-policy review of 2015."

That’s raised eyebrows among Republicans in states such as Iowa, where people are used to being lavished with attention in a presidential campaign.

"Florida's Top Gun Stories"

"Florida's Top Gun Stories of 2015."

"What's hot, crazy or shady about politics in the Sunshine State"

Marc Caputo: "RUBIO’s Cruz problem? – BUSH’s Cuban comment – CHELSEA CLINTON in St. Pete." "Florida Playbook."

The "Jeb Bush comeback" narrative is premature

Ed Kilgore: "You knew it was coming at some point before actual voters put paid to it."

But a "Jeb Bush comeback" narrative arrived ahead of schedule today with a Michael Brendan Dougherty column at The Week making the case that the former Florida governor is positioned to take a big leap from the political intensive care unit to the GOP presidential nomination.

Dougherty's case boils down to three points: First, Marco Rubio ain't exactly setting the world on fire as the presumed successor to Jeb as the Establishment Republican favorite. Second, Jeb's super-pac has an awful lot of money. And third, John McCain pulled off this sort of comeback in 2008.

Unfortunately for Jeb, all three arguments are shaky at best.

You know Jeb knows he's losing when . . .

"Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush says he'd like to square off with real estate mogul Donald Trump in a one-on-one debate." "Jeb Bush Challenges Donald Trump To One-On-One Debate." See also "How to tell a candidate is losing."

More: "Ahead of Final Campaign Push, There's No Place Like Home for Jeb Bush."

The best Marco can do?

"In the final days of the year and the first days of the next one, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas will battle for voters in Iowa in the lead-up to the caucuses."

Last week, Mr. Cruz, who is surging in national polls but especially in recent surveys of Iowa, announced his “Cruzin’ to Caucus” bus trip from Jan. 4 through 9. Mr. Rubio, who has spent comparatively less time there, was scheduled to hold a three-day bus tour of his own, beginning Monday. But his campaign announced Monday that it had rescheduled the first leg of the tour.

Whether or not Mr. Rubio ends up in Iowa, the tour was an excuse to unveil an important endorsement — over the weekend, his campaign announced a special guest, Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, who has steered the Republican-led investigation into the 2012 terrorist attacks on a United States diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.

Meanwhile, "Trump Rips Rubio-Backer Trey Gowdy: 'Failed Miserably on Benghazi'."

Koch brothers thank Tally legislators

"Americans for Prosperity-Florida sent notes to registered voters in six legislative districts thanking local lawmakers for supporting the conservative group's environmental and health care agenda in the upcoming 2016 session."

The flyers were sent to voters in districts represented by state Sen. Greg Evers and state Reps. Manny Diaz, Jr., Fred Costello, Heather Fitzenhagen, Cary Pigman and Chris Sprowls.

The effort didn’t last, and in a short amount of time, the U.S. state with the most to lose from a warming planet became a global laughingstock and a symbol of the polarized debate surrounding climate change.

Environmental reports stopped including the words “climate change.” One state official even refused to say those words during a committee hearing.

With no leadership from Tallahassee, the burden of dealing with climate change shifted to municipalities, where today the majority of the work to address the effects of global warming is being performed.

"Lost in Presidential Race's Shadow"

Kevin Derby: "Lost in the shadow of the presidential contest, the race to become Florida’s next U.S. senator was shaped greatly in the past year, setting the stage for what is expected to be one of the most important contests in the nation as the GOP looks to preserve its majority in 2016." "Lost in Presidential Race's Shadow, Candidates Line Up for Senate Contest in 2015."

"Florida sends more juveniles to adult prison than any other state"

The Tampa Trib editors: "Florida lawmakers are considering legislation that could have a huge impact on the fate of juvenile offenders who find themselves in big trouble and face a critical juncture in their lives."

Whether they are tried in adult court or juvenile court can profoundly affect their chances to mature into responsible adults who can contribute to society. Sending them into the adult system greatly minimizes those chances.

Yet Florida law often relegates judges to the sidelines when the decision is made to transfer juveniles to adult court, giving prosecutors sole discretion. Maybe that’s why Florida sends more juveniles to adult prison than any other state.

"In Florida, Bush forged a landmark environmental accord — and then exploded it"

The New Yorker: "On the afternoon of December 11, 2000, Jeb Bush, the forty-third governor of Florida and a member of the most dominant American political family since the Kennedys, stood in the Oval Office with President Bill Clinton to mark the signing of a landmark law intended to restore the Everglades, the majestic swamp that spans the interior of southern Florida. The legislation, overwhelmingly approved by both parties, envisioned spending eight billion dollars to revive the wetland, which, thanks in large part to heedless development, had been shrunk, chopped, polluted, and drained to the point of terminal decline. That same afternoon, the Supreme Court was hearing Bush v. Gore, the case that ended the vote-counting dispute in Florida between Clinton’s Vice-President and Jeb’s brother. But, if the occasion was awkward for Bush and Clinton, it marked a seeming triumph of federal and state coöperation. The Everglades legislation was the result of years of coördinated planning. The State of Florida and the federal government had promised to share the expense. “This is the restoration of a treasure for our country,” Bush said after the ceremony."

Less than three years later, Bush returned to Washington, this time to justify to a group of skeptical Republican members of Congress why he was dismantling one of the central provisions of Everglades restoration. Just days before, Florida lawmakers had endorsed a bill to drastically weaken pollution regulations—the result of an extraordinary lobbying blitz by the sugar industry, the largest polluter in the Everglades and one of the largest political donors in the state. Newspaper editorial boards around Florida condemned the proposal as a gift to Big Sugar, the nickname for the major interests in the state: Florida Crystals, U.S. Sugar, and the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative. In a private meeting room at the Capitol, the congressmen who had summoned Bush said the bill was so egregious that it could threaten federal funding for the restoration. Bush insisted that he would not change his mind.

In the Presidential primaries, Bush has spoken little about his record on the environment. As he struggles to revitalize his ailing campaign, he has preferred to talk broadly about his experience as governor—an attempt to contrast himself with insurgents like Donald Trump and Ben Carson, and also with Barack Obama, who, even after seven years in the White House, is described by many Republicans as a political neophyte. (The Bush campaign declined to comment for this article.) In a speech following the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, Bush announced, “We are living in serious times that require serious leadership.” In a campaign video, recorded in what appears to be a comfortable suburban living room, he presents himself as a tough, decisive manager. “This is what leadership’s about—it’s not just about yapping about things,” he says, as an image of the White House comes on the screen. “We need to start fixing things. I said I was going to do these things, and I did them. And the result was, Florida’s a lot better off.”

What lingers in Florida is the memory of a governor who liked to announce “big, hairy, audacious goals”—often shortened to BHAG, pronounced “bee-hag”—and to pursue them zealously. Much of the time, in a state with natural bipartisan coalitions, it worked. But when it didn’t Bush pushed on, even at the price of gruelling and expensive political conflict. Nowhere was his style more evident than in his protracted struggle with the federal government over the fate of the Everglades—a fight that, according to people in both parties, could well have been avoided with a less autocratic approach. Nathaniel Reed, an Assistant Secretary of the Interior in the Nixon Administration, a friend of President George H. W. Bush, and a prominent Florida environmental activist, told me, “Jeb wouldn’t listen to anyone. He’s the most thin-skinned son of a bitch I’ve seen. If you criticize him, he never forgets it.”