Free Republic

The billionaire is ready to take out Florida’s multi-millionaire governor. In a nationwide push to fight Republicans who deny the existence of man-made climate change, investor-turned-activist Tom Steyer has founded a Florida political committee, seeded it with $750,000 of his own money and says he’ll spend far more to help Democrat Charlie Crist defeat Gov. Rick Scott. Florida Democrats are buzzing about Steyer spending $10 million, which he won’t discuss. Republicans say the California Democrat is a phony environmentalist, but they nevertheless worry his financial commitment could be real in Florida. “It’s hard to look at the map of the...

WASHINGTON — U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder sent a scathing letter to Gov. Rick Scott over voting changes in Florida and issued a warning that the Justice Department is "carefully monitoring" the state. "Whenever warranted by the facts and the law, we will not hesitate to use all tools and legal authorities at our disposal to fight against racial discrimination, to stand against disenfranchisement and to safeguard the right of every eligible American to cast a ballot," Holder wrote. Scott's office dismissed it as a "bizarre attempt to help Charlie Crist." The letter, dotted with pointed language and examples of...

On July 25 the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit "eliminated the injunction" against the enforcement of Florida's "gun gag" law, which restricts doctors from asking patients if they own a firearm unless asking is necessary to a patient's treatment. According to Law360.com, the 11th Circuit ruled that barring doctors from asking about firearms "doesn't violate the First Amendment." Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) signed the NRA-backed "gun gag" legislation in 2011. Suit was brought against the State of Florida over the law by "the Florida chapters of the American Academies of Pediatrics and American College of...

Despite claims that he switched to the Democratic Party as a result of "GOP racism," Charlie Crist has been unable to secure strong minority support and as a result has lost the lead in his bid to reclaim the Florida Governors mansion against incumbent Governor Republican Rick Scott. In the latest CBS/New York Time/YouGov poll, Scott now leads Crist by five points in a race analysts suggest may be getting away from Crist. Charlie Crist led the race by as many as 15 points in polls taken early this year, but has been unable to muster strong support from minority...

Florida is leading the nation in job growth, adding more than 37,000 jobs this month. The Tampa Bay area has added over 25,000 jobs in the last 12 months, third among metro areas in Florida, according to state officials..

Noted party-jumper Charlie Crist has blown a 12-point lead over Florida's incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Scott, narrowing the state's gubernatorial race to a dead heat, according to the Democratic-leaning survey firm Public Policy Polling.

Fox News’ Sean Hannity sat down with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Thursday at the Republican Leadership Conference to talk about the accomplishments conservative governors have made across the U.S. “All of you inherited deficits you turned into surpluses, high unemployment now low unemployment,” Hannity said of Jindal and Govs. Rick Scott (FL), Rick Perry (TX), John Kasich (OH), Scott Walker (WI), and Nikki Haley (SC). “What can the Republicans in Washington learn?” Washington can actually learn a lot from states if they want to—it’s just common sense, Jindal replied. Lawmakers inside the beltway always talk about the things...

Today, Governor Rick Scott announced plans to file a lawsuit establishing the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration’s (AHCA) authority to inspect federal VA hospitals in Florida, and to stop the federal veterans affairs agency from obstructing state actions. Governor Scott said, “As the chief health policy and planning entity for the state that licenses, inspects, and investigates consumer complaints, AHCA should be allowed access to federal VA hospitals to inspect their processes and their facilities. On seven separate occasions at six federal VA hospitals, however, state inspectors have been blocked by federal officials from carrying out their mission of...

BREVARD -- Brevard County will soon be the home of the largest economic development project in the country, officials said. The Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast announced on May 8 that Northrop Grumman Corporation has selected Brevard County for an expansion project that could create 1,800 jobs, with an average annual salary of $100,000. The project was secretly known as "Project Magellan" throughout the due diligence phase, as part of a confidentiality agreement between the company and the Space Coast, officials said. Northrop Grumman plans to invest approximately $500 million in new capital investments at Melbourne International Airport,...

Former Florida Governor Charlie Crist has made no secret of his desire to end the U.S. embargo on Cuba, but he may go even further and take a visit to the communist nation over the summer, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The Times reported that Crist is “eager to learn more about the country as he call for normalizing relations with Florida’s neighbor." Crist’s calls to lift the embargo lines up with polling across the state and the nation that show majorities favor ending the U.S. policy.

Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (D) said Tuesday that a “big reason” why he left the Republican Party was because many in the GOP were hostile to President Obama due to his race. Crist, who is running for his old office against Gov. Rick Scott (R), said in an interview with Fusion’s Jorge Ramos that he felt uncomfortable with his previous party affiliation. Republicans are perceived as “anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-minority, [and] anti-gay,” he said, and they refuse to compromise with Obama. The ex-governor said he feels, “liberated as a Democrat.” “I couldn’t be consistent with myself and my core beliefs,...

With President Barack Obama heading to the Sunshine State on Thursday, he is drawing fire from an old foe in Gov. Rick Scott. Rising to political prominence by opposing Obama’s federal health-care law, Scott went after Obama for taking funds from Medicaid Advantage to fund the law. "Today, President Obama is coming to Florida to raise money and do a campaign-style event,” Scott said. “No one knows specifically what he’s going to talk about, but it’s safe to say he won’t be addressing the 1.3 million Florida seniors who are in danger of losing their health care benefits, doctors and...

HOUSTON, TX – The nation’s leading labor union will plan to spend $300 million in 2014 trying to unseat Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and four other Republican Governors. More: AFL-CIO to Target Walker, Other Governors People’s World reported that the AFL-CIO announced on Thursday morning during a press conference in Houston that they would spend money trying to unseat Governor Walker. Other Governors that the labor organization is targeting are John Kasich (R-Ohio), Tom Corbett (R-Pennsylvania), Rick Snyder (R-Michigan), and Rick Scott (R-Florida). The American Federation of Teachers backed the AFL-CIO’s plan. President Randi Weingarten said: “In many ways it...

WEST PALM BEACH — Wooing politicians like Gov. Charlie Crist and U.S. Sen. John McCain was a key to the success of his $1.4 billion Ponzi scheme, convicted fraudster Scott Rothstein testified Wednesday in federal court.In a wide-ranging discussion of how he built the scheme and how it imploded in October 2009 that came during his testimony in the trial of lawyer Christina Kitterman, Rothstein was both confident and contrite.

TAMPA -- Some Florida Republicans fear, and some Democrats hope, that a November referendum on legalizing medical marijuana in Florida will drive young and liberal voters to the polls, helping Democratic candidates including gubernatorial challenger Charlie Crist. The initiative, still not certified for the November ballot, is generating charges of political motives from both sides. Some Republicans call it an expensive ploy by Crist's backers to help him win. "It is no coincidence that Charlie Crist's law partner and biggest supporter, John Morgan, is financing medical marijuana," said Gainesville-based GOP consultant Alex Patton. "It's a plan." Some Democrats, meanwhile, say...

The Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW), multitudes of people of African descent and people of conscience and goodwill have not forgotten about the tragedy and travesty of the murder of Trayvon Martin. There is a deep seated feeling of injustice and lack of closure as the Justice Department has yet to render a decision whether to pursue civil rights violations in this case --a course which is highly unlikely. And, the “Stand Your Ground Law” which provided George Zimmerman the pretext to profile and ultimately murder Trayvon Martin with impunity is still in place. Despite a courageous...

Former Republican governor turned Democrat Charlie Crist filed paperwork Friday to run for his old job with his new party, a move that will turn the race into one of the most watched in the nation. Crist is now the front-runner to represent Democrats against Republican Gov. Rick Scott, one of the most unpopular chief executives in the country. Scott, though, will be well-financed and is expected to spend as much as $25 million in attack ads against Crist. For Crist, he is hoping to revive a political career that seemingly crashed when he left the GOP and lost an...

Congresswoman and Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz told the 650 Democrats at the dinner that Scott was the worst governor in Florida history. She then paused and said he was the worst governor in the nation's history. "I trust Rick Scott to lead this state as much as I trust Ted Cruz to read bedtime stories to my daughter," said Wasserman Schultz, referring to the Sen. Cruz, R-Texas, reading Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham" during a filibuster earlier this month.

Just days after comparing the tea party to the Ku Klux Klan, Florida’s most-outspoken Democratic Congressman, Alan Grayson, addressed the state party faithful Saturday and likened some Republicans to Confederate flag-waving “bigots.” Grayson made his comments during a mock reading of a fake Republican Party agenda in which he suggested conservatives were also gay marriage-bashing gun nuts. “At 8:30 a.m., the morning breakout sessions,” Grayson said, reading the made-up GOP agenda. “Ballroom A: the bigots. Ballroom B: the paranoids. And Ballroom C, the largest group of all: the gullible.” The speech, largely applauded by the attendees of the Florida Democratic...

Weeks have passed since George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing Trayvon Martin in mid-July, but a group of young activists known as the Dream Defenders only recently ended their occupation of the state capitol building in Tallahassee, where they called for a special session of the legislature to repeal Florida's so-called "stand your ground" (SYG) law, confront racial profiling, and end the school-to-prison pipeline. They were right to do so for four main reasons: •the "stand your ground" law is badly flawed, and the evidence is overwhelming; •it was directly implicated in Zimmerman's acquittal, even though Zimmerman's lawyers did not...