Free Republic

NAACP Board of Directors chairman Leon W. Russell lives in Florida despite the NAACP issuing a travel advisory for the state. He lives in the Tampa Bay area. The Chairman of the Florida GOP, Christian Ziegler, said: “The CHAIRMAN of the @NAACP lives in Tampa, FLORIDA! True leadership is being willing to do what you ask others to do… time to step up and MOVE. If you think our state is so bad, the @FloridaGOP will help with moving costs.” Russell went on MSNBC to try to defend himself. He said: “First of all, he is full of bull—-. Secondly,...

Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist endorsed President Barack Obama in an op-ed in The Tampa Bay Times on Sunday. Touting the president for serving as the “nation’s calm,” Crist, now a registered independent, decried the GOP’s shift to the “extreme right.” POLITICO noted that while the move isn’t a shock, the interesting aspect is related to “ongoing rumors about Crist running for governor again, only as a Democrat.” While he doesn’t make any mention of a run in the op-ed, ” if Obama wins Florida, this would be a handy thing for Crist, whose original consulting team is with Romney,...

NAPLES, Fla.) -- Mitt Romney, offering GOP rival Newt Gingrich an analysis of his drop in support in the Sunshine State, suggested that the former speaker “look in the mirror” when weighing why he may not been resonating with Floridians just two days before the state’s primary. “[Gingrich is] now finding excuses everywhere he can,” said Romney, speaking at an outdoor theater in Naples, where more than 1,000 people came to hear him speak. “He’s on TV this morning going from station to station complaining about what he thinks were the reasons he thinks he’s had difficulty here in Florida...

GOP Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich delivers the keynote speech at the Palm Beach County Republican Party's 2012 Lincoln Day Dinner. Live at 8PM EST Saturday, 1-28-12

Florida’s most experienced political professionals are closely divided on whether Rick Perry or Mitt Romney will win Florida’s Republican presidential primary, but overwhelmingly they see Romney as the stronger candidate to beat Barack Obama in Florida. More than 100 of Florida’s sharpest political minds participated in the latest St. Petersburg Times Florida Insider Poll - including campaign consultants, lobbyists, activists - and the results were striking: Two thirds of Democrats and two thirds of Republicans pegged Romney as the stronger general election candidate, though Republicans were considerably more confident than Democrats that Perry would win Florida’s crucial presidential primary early...

Charlie Crist personally called a top adviser to Bill Clinton and asked if the former president would discuss with Kendrick Meek the possibility of dropping out of the Florida Senate race, according to a source close to Clinton. The revelation adds a bit more detail to a story breaking tonight that's roiling the Florida race. Politico's Ben Smith reported this evening that Clinton tried to persuade Meek to drop out of the race and almost succeeded. Meek has adamantly denied that he ever considered dropping out. According to a source close to Clinton, the former president's conversations with Meek were...

"I endorse Gov @charliecristfl for Senate. Great leader, works with both parties, and our country needs someone like him in DC right now."

The Republican Party of Florida released a long-awaited audit of party spending during the tenure of indicted former Chairman Jim Greer on Friday, detailing how party donors footed the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars in questionable expenses for Greer and associates including Gov. Charlie Crist. In all, auditors with Alston & Bird LLP said they discovered $381,786.12 in expenses that were not “primarily” related to party business, including $13,345.59 in charges for a June 2009 trip the Crist and Greer families took to Walt Disney World and Universal Studios; $3,376.43 on a September 2009 trip to New York...

State Republicans moved the three-way U.S. Senate race to a new level Saturday, with party leaders pointing to an audit of their books they say implies Gov. Charlie Crist — now an independent candidate for U.S. Senate — ran up potentially "hundreds of thousands" of dollars in inappropriate charges. Party Chairman and state Sen. John Thrasher said the expenses came to light during the just-completed forensic audit by Alston & Bird LLP — which was the examiner in energy giant Enron's 2002 bankruptcy. He said the party may sue their former standard bearer to get the money back. The announcement...

Introduced by a Democratic state representative at a gathering of hundreds of senior citizens at a condo complex in heavily Democratic Broward County on Wednesday, Florida governor and U.S. Senate candidate Charlie Crist thanked God that he was no longer a Republican. "You know, I used to be a Republican," Crist told the adoring crowd after an introduction by Democratic state Rep. Ari Porth . When a women in the audience yelled out, "Thank God!" Crist immediately said, "Yeah, thank God. Right - used to be!" The statement came the same day Washington Examiner columnist Timothy P. Carney revealed that...

TALLAHASSEE — As the slates for statewide and legislative elections were set Friday, a political war began brewing over who is behind the state’s official “Tea Party.” Seven of the 16 Tea Party candidates who qualified for House or Senate seats are opposing Republican incumbents. Chairman Fred O’Neal suggested the party’s main goal was to defeat GOP legislators who aren’t conservative enough. But Republicans saw something more nefarious: An organized effort to try to split the GOP, perhaps to aid Democrats. “While a few tea party candidates across the state do have ties to the tea party movement, in the...

"Could you just SHUT UP, Bernie?" That is what the South Florida "Mini Madoff" Ponzi schemer, Scott Rothstein, must be thinking about Bernie Madoff who made this recent comment about the people he bilked as reported by New York Magazine: "F--- my victims! I carried them for twenty years, and now I’m doing 150 years.”In a case of incredibly poor timing, this must have been especially painful to Rothstein who will be sentenced for his Ponzi crimes by a judge on Wednesday. In fact, Rothstein, also known for his large political contributions to senate candidate Charlie Crist to the tune...

The emergence of a politically unknown billionaire self-funder in the Florida Senate race is prompting top Democrats in the state to say publicly what some have been whispering for weeks: If Jeff Greene, who got rich betting on the collapse of the housing market, becomes their nominee, many in the party will have the cover they need to get behind Republican-turned-independent Gov. Charlie Crist.  Establishment Democrats in Florida, for now, are sticking with Rep. Kendrick Meek, who lags far behind in early general election polls against Crist and Republican Marco Rubio. Yet with Greene promising to drop at least $40...

Phoenix, Az. (June 15) - U.S. Senate Candidate J.D. Hayworth (R-Az.) today said he is dismayed by claims that Sen. John McCain does not know McCain's number one contributor who is now serving 50 years in prison. Hayworth called on McCain to admit he knows Scott Rothstein, the convicted Ponzi scheme artist, return all the dirty money he received over the years from investment scams, and promise to return and reject contributions from shady characters. "Sen. McCain likes to talk about how character matters, how political leaders must rise above even the appearance of impropriety," Hayworth said. "It's time his...

Sen. John McCain must personally and publicly explain why he allowed his staff to lie to the media about returning all $1.1 million given to his presidential campaign by a convicted felon; if he accepted even more from the felon's law partners; and why he has not donated all the dirty money to charity as his campaign claimed. Federal authorities have been investigating 30 lawyers who worked in the now-defunct firm of Scott Rothstein, who yesterday was sentenced to 50 years in prison for running an elaborate Ponzi scheme. According to his lawyer and media reports, the convicted felon is...

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office; and Daniel W. Auer, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Criminal Investigation Division, announced today’s sentencing of attorney Scott Rothstein, 47, of Fort Lauderdale, in connection with the operation of a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme through the defunct Ft. Lauderdale law firm Rothstein Rosenfeldt and Adler, P.A (RRA). Today’s sentence follows Rothstein’s January 27, 2010 guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to violate the racketeering influenced corrupt organization (RICO) statute...

A now-disbarred Florida lawyer who admitted to orchestrating a huge Ponzi scheme gave more than $180,000 to Arizona Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, contributions that McCain's Senate rival is now making an issue in their competitive primary. Scott Rothstein was sentenced Wednesday to 50 years in prison after he confessed to running a $1.2 billion fraud using faked legal settlements. Rothstein also was a key contributor and fundraiser who bundled more than $500,000 in campaign contributions for McCain's 2008 race, according to the campaign finance watchdog Center for Responsive Politics.

Gov. Charlie Crist personally signed off on his former Republican Party chairman's confidential fundraising role with the state party, according to Jim Greer's attorney, whose allegation contradicts the governor's statement that he "didn't know anything" about the deal now part of a criminal investigation. State investigators say Greer and the party's former executive director, Delmar W. Johnson III, secretly set up a shell company called Victory Strategies to divert party money and enrich themselves. Greer was charged Wednesday with fraud and money laundering.

Florida's recently ousted Republican Party chief was indicted on Wednesday on fraud, theft and money laundering charges in the latest embarrassment stemming from the party's fundraising practices.