Results matching “putnam”

The Buzz directs us to a Bay News 9 report that has exposed another corrupt Republican:  State Senator Charlie Dean.

It turns out Charlie Dean has built a "barn" that looks like anything but a "barn." Just take a look in the picture on the right.

Local residents have filed a complaint against him, because he used the Florida Right to Farm Act to ensure he would not have to get any permits to build a barn, but would if he was building any other building.

It looks like we can add Charlie Dean to the list of corrupt Republicans that think they are above the law.

Of the top of my head, here is what I can remmber of the Republicans who used their office to make themselves money, think they are above the law, helped big donors, or all of the above:

• Gov. Charlie Crist (for taking illegal contributions and refusing to return them)
• Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp (for "Air Kottkamp"  and not paying people back for
• former Speaker and current Policy Comm. Chairman Ray Sansom (for using his position to get himself a six figure job and getting the college that gave it to him millions)
• RPOF Chairman Jim Greer (for using campaign donations as a slush fund and accepting illegal contributions and not returning them)
• former Speaker Marco Rubio (for everything from getting himself a job with quid pro quo to sweetheart mortgages to legislative favors for big donors)
• Congressman Adam Putnam (for taking Agricultre relief from the Federal Government while taking him million that year and voting to make himself money on TARP)
• Congressman Vern Buchannan (for pressuring employees to contribute to his campaignand illegally pocketing contributions)
• State Senator JD Alexander (for using hisoffice to make himself money through the CSX deal)
• State Senator Charlie Dean (for using a loophole to build his "barn")

I know there are three or four more I can't even remember. That is when you know its time for a Party to leave power -- when they are so corrupt you can't even remember how many there are who are breaking the law or making profit from their jobs.

Here's the full write up on each race. 

OK, I know we just came off of 2008, and there were a lot of competitive races nationally, as well as in Florida. But, 10 is just a big number. I mean we've only got 25 seats in the House, so 10 of them being competitive is a huge deal. Don't get too excited though, they aren't all possible D pickups.

2^nd (Tallahassee, etc.):  Congressman Allen Boyd, a Blue Dog, is being primary challenged by Al Lawson, term-out state Senate leader. Lawson, no true progressive, will run to the Left of Boyd. My prediction: the challenge never really materializes, and Boyd keeps his seat.

8^th (Orlando, etc.): Grayson beat Keller here in 2008. Since winning, Grayson has shown his true colors as an 'aggressive' progressive. Nothing wrong with that in my book, but will his voters find him out of sync with them? I think it's less of a question about Grayson but more about who the Rs can put up against him.

10^th (St. Petersburg, etc.) Will Bill Young ever retire? 

12^th  (Lakeland, etc.) Adam Putnam is vacating to run for Ag Commissioner. Dennis Ross, former state Senator, is the defacto Republican nominee; Lori Edwards, Polk county Supervisor of Elections, is the prominent D in the race. Definitely will be a race to watch.

13^th (Sarasota, etc.) What is Vern Buchanan doing? He's talking about a Senate race; perhaps because the Ds will never let him just have the district. If he vacates, watch for a strong race in a tight district.

16^th (Palm Beach County, etc.) Southern Political Report ranks this one. I'm not so sure it's competitive. Tom Rooney will win again, but he will be challenged by a strong D. Just not sure the D will ever be able to take off.

17^th (Miami, etc.) Who will replace K-Meek? Whoever wins this primary will be the new Rep.

22^nd (Fort Lauderdale, etc.) This is another, 'What will person X do?' race. Ron Klein may get into the Senate race. Even if he doesn't, he will never go unchallenged in this swingy district. But, if he runs for reelection, Klein should sail to victory again.

24^th (Orlando, etc.) Kosmas, who just took her seat in January, will face a strong, but yet to be determined, Republican. Feeney had questionable morals, which inevitably led to his downfall. The national Rs will look to the 24th to run a strong campaign and reclaim the district.

25^th (Miami, etc.): The 3 Miami area Ds who ran in 2008 never took off in their races like the national party expected. But, expect to see strong races again down in the Miami area. In the 25th, Joe Garcia will likely again challenge Mario Diaz Balart, but just ask Christine Jennings what happens to second time candidates.

So those are my thoughts. What are yours?

After yesterday's Charlie Crist drinking game, we don't have a ton energy to make your morning fried bits news goodness, gotta save some for Yoga. But here you go:

- Charlie Crist's State of the State was 18 minutes of bad speech, but then we have to admit we never sat through an entire Charlie Crist speech before. You can read the full text here and our live reaction here.

- We didn't think it was too hot, but since we didn't have a lot of experience, we were suprised when Flablog says in the history of State of the State's it was good. That might be going a little far.

- Kenneth Quinell has a good run down of the live tweeting of the State of the State -- we really didn't do to great. Have to remember to use those tags and get more friends.

- Political whore has your rundown of the day in the legislature today so we don't have to, and they have guest posting by Rick Kriseman.

- Looks like it is going to be stimulus day on the hill today, with Crist, Sink, and others plan to weigh in on how to spend the federal largess. (hat tip to fineout and Kevin Cate on twitter)

- As the legslature considers the budget, this story from UCF is kind of thing we are going to see more and more often as long Crist stays in Fantasyland and the Legislature continues on their path.

- Barack Obama is coming to Miami with Joe Biden ... via video. So no he's not really coming, but Hilda Solis will be and she's awesome.

- The Miami Herald blog had some fun today. First Marco Rubio is running for Senate, wait no he's not because maybe he's running for Governor. So really he's "testing the waters." But he successfully raised all $5,000 he can spend on this testing phase of the campaign.

- The competition for the open seat left by Adam Putnam in FL-12 is heating up and Will March has good rundown of the race so far on TBO.com. And Interstate 4 Jamming has more including some Doug Tudor news.

This is a sort of editorial note, not pertaining to the legislative session that starts this week. But, it's an important discussion none the less, that will hopefully become more of a topic here at FriedGator.

I'm a big believer that women in office are a good thing- not just for the feminist movement but more for the society that they serve. So, while looking at the website for the Center for American Women and Politics, I came across some interesting fast facts.

6 out of Florida's 25 Congressional Representatives are women.
Florida has only elected 12 women to Congress in total.
Ruth Bryan Owen, daughter of William Jennings Bryan, was the first elected female representative from the South, and Florida. She was elected in 1929.
Florida has only had 1 female senator.
Florida has never had a female governor.
Alex Sink is the first female CFO of the state.
The first woman elected to statewide office was Marnie Eaton Greene as Railroad Commissioner in the 1920s. She and CFO Sink are 2 of 8 women elected statewide in Florida's history.
38 out of 160 state legislators are women. And that's 23.8%, which is almost identical to the national average of 24.3%.

 
Should Pam Iorio get into the Senate race and win, she'd be the second female from Florida (first Democratic female). If (hopefully when?!) Alex Sink decides to run for governor, she'd be the first. We're electing more and more women to office in this state. Women like Betty and Kathy Castor and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, but also Loranne Ausley and even Lori Edwards of Polk county, Supervisor of Elections who might run for Putnam's seat. The FDP even has a female Chairwoman, one of 12 state parties nationally. It's truly an exciting time to be a woman in Florida politics.

When Hillary conceeded last summer, she said: "You can be so proud that, from now on, it will be unremarkable for a woman to win primary state victories, unremarkable to have a woman in a close race to be our nominee, unremarkable to think that a woman can be the President of the United States. And that is truly remarkable."

Let's make it unremarkable in Florida too.

And if you want more, check out Ruth's List Florida. Great organization.

Friedgator has been blogging about Adam Putnam since he announced last week- bordering on an obsession (see here, here, here, and here). This obsession like all unrequited love affairs began by seeing him from afar at his announcement, then followed by googling him when we got home. But like seeing the hideous Facebook picture of that guy you were hitting on all night at the bar the next morning, things always look better at first glance.

It turns out that Adam Putnam, street alias: Opie, who voted for the Wall Street bailout last year, did not vote for main street's stimulus package to help create jobs, provide health care for many who would lose it under Charlie, and even build a fire station in his own district. What makes this all the worse is that with his vote for TARP likely saved or earned him and his family hundreds of thousands of dollars or even millions in the years to come. 

In addition to the millions Putnam has invested in the market with places like Goldman Sachs, he has over $1,000,000 in accounts Colonial Bank, of which he owned around $100,000 worth of stock and his family owned millions more [PDF]. At the time of the vote in Congress, Colonial Bank expected to get TARP funding, and it was later offered $550 Million from TARP if they could raise more capital. This may not have been so bad; it could be argued that TARP may have been necessary to prevent a banking disaster that the conflict of interest may not have factored into his vote. But, then, Putnam voted against the Stimulus Bill, part of helping the rest of us get on our feet and to create jobs all over the state of Florida. He voted to make money for himself, but not to help us. 

And, this is the guy who wants to protect our consumers on the Cabinet? Wow. How th heck did we get here? To understand all this we have to go back to the beginning.

My obsession with Adam Putnam continues. What can I say? I am just a ginger afficionado.

Anyways, to my point, or question, or maybe just generic confusion. Adam Putnam is running for Agriculture, and although that may change if Charlie decides to jump ship, under most any circumstance, dude is peacing out of the House.

The St Pete Times even ran a piece about who will run for the seat- the 12th Congressional District of Florida, which runs from Hillsborough well into Osceola county. Republican state Rep. Dennis Ross is even set to declare his intentions to run for the open seat later this week. (The Times piece also speculates about the possible Democrats, including Lori Edwards, Polk County Supervisor of Elections.)

So, then why is the DCCC running robos against Adam Putnam, chiding him for not supporting the stimulus? Do they know he's retiring? Is this meant to hurt his chances statewide? Doubtful. The robos are only going out to folks in his district.

Swing State Project makes the argument that they are laying the groundwork for any Democrat in a district they consider vulnerable. I'm not so sure that's a good theory- or in any case, an idea worth putting out money for. Putnam is gone; he's not going to represent them anymore. So, attacking him on a bill that was already passed is a bit much. But, it should be noted that Obama garnered 48% in the district, perhaps seen a legitimate shift by the DCCC? Although the district could be changing, I just think these robos are the wrong way to soften the ground for 2010.

But, I think we should just chalk this one up to losing Rahm to the White House.

Update: The DCCC is promoting a new site, RecoveryforAmerica.org. Click on FL and you'll find Adam Putnam, with absolutely no mention that the dude is retiring. Opie say what?

Just a few days late, but as promised, here are a few thoughts on the race as it stands now.

The only serious candidate (Democrat or Republican) is Republican Congressman, formerly 3rd in the House leadership, Adam Putnam from the Bartow area. That's it. No one else is running.

So, it begs the question, what are the Democrats doing and what should they be doing in this way, way down the ballot race? Well, for starters, will a candidate please stand up?

I don't know if any of our readers, presumably of the liberal persuasion, attended his announcement, but the dude ain't just running for Ag Commis. He's got bigger fish to fry and this whole retiring from the House is one step in a series that he sees as taking him to 1600. And, he's good too. I'm a lifelong Democrat, but I even found myself smiling and enjoying parts of what he was saying. Adam Putnam is a darn good politician and probably even someone you'd want to get a beer with.

But, this is politics, baby, and letting someone like that go unchallenged is just silly. There are a lot of good Ds from farm areas- and I'm not even just pinning all my hopes and dreams on Debbie Boyd (though, if you're reading, please run!). Letting Adam Putnam go unchecked, walk to victory in this race will make it that much harder for us when he decides to run for governor, which he will do eventually.  The guy isn't squeaky clean; there's some serious dirt on him. No one gets out of Washington clean as a whistle. Let's stop him now, instead of waiting until he's already been elected statewide.

I understand everyone's sentiment that the Democrats shouldn't put tons of money into the race, but we can't just roll over and play dead either.

After attending Congressman Adam Putnam's campaign kickoff in his bid to replace Charles Bronson -- it went well- it seemed like a dress rehearsal. You can watch the video at the Buzz or see some of our pictures from this morning.

Sure its over 21 months from Election Day 2010, but how early the campaign launched isn't the reason it seemed like a practice. It seemed like practice for when he runs for Governor (in 2014?) or when he inevitably runs runs for President (2020? 2024? He even mentioned Iowa and NH this morning, btw, giving a shout out to two states he maybe looking to visit often).

The announcement did focus a lot on Agriculture commissioner -- from the former Deputy Agriculture Commissioner that introduced him to the FFA members that led the pledge of alleigence. But, when Adam came to spoke he didn't seem to be part of the John Deer crowd- the signs leading up to even invoked with the green and yellow.

Don't get me wrong, he was good -- he hit all the right notes, the press was there, and he talked about Agriculture with a better message than most would, even mentioning his prize bull, Georgia Boy. But his focus seemed much broader and bigger than this job -- mostly because everyone assumes he will win and he probably will.

There is a lot I didn't like about the event today: I am not a fan of Putnam's congressional career and I don't think we need his partisanship in a job like agriculture comisisoner.  I have a serious critique of his discussion of food safety (when did he try and do what Secretary Vilsack is looking to do and streamline our food safety inspections). I have serious issues with two things he never touched (GMO foods and family farming), and I think the voters will have issue with on a word he barely mentioned: environment.

But I even after all that ... I left wondering ... will he be our second ginger President and bring confidence and notariaty to the young gingers of America?

Yes, we're coming to you live from Bartow, Florida. I'll have more on my thoughts on Adam as well as on the race later, but for now... enjoy....

I decided to surf the statewide Republican web tonight (yeah that bored) and was greeted by the competent (Charlie Crist), the non-existent (Bill McCollum), the too flashy (Connie Mack), the boring (Vern Buchanan), the red (Adam Putnam), but I was not expecting this from Marco Rubio ...