Sink, Sank, Sunk

Alex Sink and David Jolly

If Alex Sink thought she'd have an easy path to Congress in Florida's 13th District, she was badly mistaken. Perhaps realizing she cannot run from her past support for Obamacare, she instead continues to enthusiastically promote it during her campaign, leading to awkward moments such as a recent interview in which she referred to job losses caused by Obamacare as "an exciting prospect."

This disconnect with the unpopularity of Obamacare creates an opportunity for Sink's Republican challenger David Jolly and his supporters. American Crossroads released an ad today, titled "Sunk," featuring compelling interviews with Pinellas County seniors that highlight other troubling details from Sink's record:

Mel Martinez's move changed face of Florida politics

Elections always bring change, but 2010 brought more than usual...especially here in Florida.

Here's an interesting look back on the falling dominoes that reshaped the political landscape in the Sunshine State:

Mel Martinez's move changed face of Florida politics | HeraldTribune.com

Florida's representation in government underwent a huge change in 2010 and voters can either blame or thank former Sen. Mel Martinez, depending on how they feel about it.

Republican Martinez's December 2008 announcement that he would not seek a second term created a domino effect that led to an election year unlike Florida had seen in more than a century.

If Martinez had just stayed put, Gov. Charlie Crist probably would have run for re-election. Same with Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and Attorney General Bill McCollum. Instead, Florida has a new U.S. senator, a new governor and three new Cabinet members.

And it was a year when Tea Party fervor over federal spending helped Republicans take back four U.S. House seats, including two candidates considered safe when the election cycle began...

(Keep reading)

What surprised you the most about this past election?  Personally, I was not that shocked by Crist's decision to run as an independent, but I was surprised (and pleased!) to see that, instead of drawing away conservative votes from Marco Rubio, Crist swung so far to the left that he stole liberal votes from Kendrick Meek.  The unusual dynamics of the Senate race have been credited with depressing Democratic turnout, and partially assisting Rick Scott win the governor's race. 

...and just as the above-cited article points out...it all started with Mel Martinez. 

Sarah on Flashpoint

Lauren Rowe hosts a great political talk show on Local 6 WKMG called "Flashpoint" and she invited me to join the discussion for her post-election show.  You can watch the show, which was taped the day after the election, here:

Flashpoint November 7, 2010 | 'Flashpoint' Revisits Election Night

Lauren and I are joined by Jeremiah Jaspon, Chair of the Orange County Democratic Party, and Chris Trenkmann, WKMG political reporter, and we discuss the races for Governor, Senate, Congress, as well as the amendments.

It was my first time on the program, and I really enjoyed it.  Besides her hosting duties, Lauren oversees all the production for Flashpoint, so I got a great behind-the-scenes view of how a program like this is put together.  Thanks also to Lauren for giving a great shout-out to my little blog!

...and P.S. to Jeremiah: The GOP is not like bell bottom pants!  (See his comment near the end of the program.)

Just in case you aren't sick of post-election commentary yet

Wow, Tuesday, wow.  I'm still pretty excited about the results.  I've been spending this week relaxing, hanging out with family, cleaning out my car (it is amazing how many palm cards can hide under a car seat), and enjoying all the post-election commentaries. Just thought I'd share a few of my thoughts on Tuesday's results and what it all might mean moving forward...if you're not sick of all the endless election rehashing yet, read on...

RPOF = Trendsetters? Apparently!

We in the Grand Old Party are often unfairly branded as being "not cool."  OK, yes, we're the same party that ran John "More Likely to Break a Hip than BE Hip" McCain for President in 2008, and I've often said that one thing Democrats do better is coming up with catchy T-shirt slogans, sometimes the Republican Party really can be the trendsetter...

Case in point: last night's debate between gubernatorial (Does anyone else giggle a little bit at how the first part of that word is "goober"?  Just me?  OK, then...) debate between Rick Scott and Alex Sink.

After one of the commercial breaks, Scott made a reference to Sink violating the debate rules, getting a message from a staffer on some sort of cell phone (looked like an iPhone) shown to her by her makeup artist during the break.  Campaigns always negotiate and make agreements about the format and rules of a debate beforehand, and apparently the agreement for yesterday's debate included not getting notes (which arguably would include a message displayed on a cell phone).  The Miami Herald's Naked Politics blog posted the agreement both campaigns signed, confirming that Sink was not supposed to get any notes during the debate.

During the debate, Twitter was all aflutter with politico-types discussing who scored what points, what silly things were said, who sounded more like a politician and more like a leader, and then there was this tweet, from one of the moderators of the debate, Adam Smith of the St. Pete Times:

@adamsmithtimes: Alex Sink cheated during Fla gov debate http://bit.ly/cBHJ1H

Smith made that post almost immediately after the debate ended, along with the link to a blog post with the same bold print headline:  "Alex Sink cheated during the debate."  Alex Sink Cheated.  Ouch.  That's a pretty brutal smackdown from the moderator of the debate, especially after she spent most of the hour whining about how she was the most ethical and just-shiny-perfect candidate in the race.

The other moderator, CNN's John King, weighed in too, with a YouTube video of the incident, including what happened during the commercial break when Sink got her illicit little communication, under the title, "Alex Sink caught breaking debate rules:"

YouTube | CNN | John King, USA | Alex Sink caught breaking debate rules

Anyway, Adam Smith's initial tweet and blog post got everyone all atwitter (Heh!) and the debate discussion (at least among the people I follow, which is admittedly not a scientific sample, but anyway...) almost completely turned away from all other topics concerning the debate to talk about Sink's violation of the debate rules.

And of course, in the typical super-snarky way of the internet, several people quickly made suggestions for what to call the cheating scandal.  MakeupArtistGate?  Too long.  Then I saw something that was just the perfect description, especially considering that the phone apparently used to pass on the offending message was an iPhone: iCheat.  When I saw that, I immediately thought, oh, that is FANTASTIC.

Curious, I did a search on Twitter after I got home for the term to see who came up with it first.  After going back to the time the debate started, I discovered that the first use of the term "iCheat" to refer to Alex Sink's debate cheating was @FloridaGOP, the official Twitter account for RPOF.

Well done, y'all!  Snarky and very clever.  I was not expecting such creativity from an "official" party or candidate Twitter account.  The term was definitely my favorite of the night, and I made up this little logo (feel free to share, just give me credit):

It's just a parody.  Please don't sue me, Steve Jobs.

Well apparently, the term resonated with the Scott campaign, because they sent out an email last night with "iCheat" as the subject line, and their own cute little graphic:

Sorry, Alex, but AT&T's crappy network is not gonna help you out of this one.

The email, from Scott campaign manager Susie Wiles, mentioned the cheating, quoted Adam Smith's tweet, and said:

...During the debate, there was a moment that crystallized the stakes in this election. Alex Sink broke the rules agreed to by both campaigns prior to the debate when she was shown a message on an iPhone by an aide during one of the commercial breaks. It was especially ironic because she cheated right after an exchange about ethical conduct...

...It is very unusual for a moderator to feel compelled to make such a judgment following a debate, but it is also unheard of for a candidate to so recklessly ignore an agreement.

Floridians deserve a governor who respects their agreements and tonight, after her iCheat episode, it’s clear that Alex Sink will do anything to get elected.

What did you think about the debate?  Do you think Sink "cheated" or is this much ado about nothing?  What about the fact that Sink apparently fired the staffer responsible for sending the message with the makeup artist?  Did he or she deserve to lose their job?
 

Republican Unity Rallies

Republican Unity Rally

Monday, August 30, 5:30 pm

Mark Street Senior Center

99 East Marks Street

Orlando, FL 32801

Join our Republican nominees Rick Scott, Daniel Webster, Sandy Adams and others as we prepare for victory in November! UPDATE: and also Marco Rubio!

Rick Scott is also traveling around the state on a unity tour with Senate President Mike Haridopolos and Speaker of the House Dean Cannon for the next few days.  Here are some locations in other cities:

TAMPA

Monday, August 30, 1:30 pm

Tampa Jet Center

4751 Jim Walter Blvd.

MIAMI

Tuesday, August 31st, 11:30 am

Sweetwater Youth Center

250 SW 114th Ave.

JACKSONVILLE

Tuesday, August 31st, 7:00 pm

Republican Party of Duval office

4963 Beach Blvd.

Four Words: Why Republicans must rally behind Rick Scott

I have supported Bill McCollum for years, as I know many of you have, especially my Central Florida readers.  I endorsed him and voted for him on Tuesday.  I sympathize with the feelings of many of our local Republicans, who are not yet enthusiastic about Rick Scott.

I felt comfortable enough with my support of McCollum that, honest disclosure, I did not take the time to analyze Scott's platform and ideas in detail.  I am making up for that now, and I am liking what I am seeing.  I'll do a more detailed write-up of Rick Scott later, but here are four words why all conservatives need to join me on the Rick Scott bandwagon and support our Republican nominee:

Appointments

Redistricting

Veto Power

These four words are all powers that the Governor holds or has a great deal of control over, and powers that we would be granting to a Democrat if we fail to support Scott.  

The Governor makes literally thousands of appointments every year, everything from judges (local all the way to the Florida Supreme Court), to heads of agencies, to filling vacancies, as Crist did recently appointing Lui Damiani to Mildred Fernandez's Orange County Commission seat.  The Damiani appointment was stressful enough, considering Crist's current status as an independent Senate candidate; many people, including myself, were wondering if he would appoint a Democrat like Scott Randolph in an effort to court Democrat votes.  If Alex Sink is governor, the question won't be will she appoint a Democrat, but how liberal will that Democrat be? 

Redistricting is a highly complex and politically-charged process.  The Governor has the power to control the selection of some of the people who will be the decision makers and other ways to influence the process.  I honestly think legitimate arguments can be made for reforming the process in a way that removes some of the politics, but electing a Democrat Governor is not the way to do it...that would not do a darn thing to reduce political influences, it would just give the Democrats control over part of the process, and make it a more bitterly fought partisan battle.

The power of the Governor's veto pen is self-explanatory - overriding that veto requires additional votes, and therefore concessions to Democratic positions.  As Attorney General, Bill McCollum is leading the fight in court against Obamacare, and Rick Scott has been a loud and dedicated opponent to government takeover of our healthcare system for years.  We can be comfortable that Scott would continue to fight for the rights of Floridians to control their own healthcare, but Sink has expressed support for Obamacare.  What happens to the health care litigation if she is elected?

I truly believe that once a few more days pass to alleviate the pain from Tuesday's loss, McCollum himself will realize that he is not helping the party he has faithfully served for decades by withholding his support for Scott.  Republicans are doing Bill McCollum no favors by voting for Alex Sink; it does not show him any special loyalty or help him in any future political goals.  I would argue that electing a Democrat Governor is a betrayal of McCollum, because it would allow the Democrats to unravel many of the conservative initiatives for which McCollum has worked so hard.

Join me on the Rick Scott bandwagon: 

Official campaign website
Scott for Florida Facebook Page
Scott for Florida on Twitter
Scott for Florida on YouTube

Republicans, please remember these four words: appointments, redistricting, veto power, and vote for Rick Scott on November 2nd.