Sarah Palin robocall urges voters to support "conservative reformer" Sandy Adams

Sarah Palin, who endorsed Sandy Adams in the Republican primary for Florida's Seventh Congressional District, recorded a robocall in support of her campaign:

Jeff Ashton, In His Own Words

My concerns about Jeff Ashton's ability to lead the Ninth Circuit State Attorney's Office aren't based on just the ridiculous Facebook comments by his campaign manager or the campaign's willingness to accept support from shady characters like Doug Guetzloe. 

Specifically, I have concerns about Ashton's temperament and suitability for the job itself. Running the State Attorney's Office for a large metropolitan area like Orange and Osceola Counties is not a job for an amateur.

It's election season, so Doug Guetzloe is making up stories again

It's election season, and a perfect time for a reality check: just because someone posts something on the internet does not mean it is true. 

Exhibit A: Doug Guetzloe's repeated claims about supporters of Lawson Lamar being charged with ethical violations. He, both individually and through his "Ax the Tax" group, has been sending out mailers, making robocalls, and writing too many Facebook posts to count, with a wild assortment of false accusations.

Facts are pesky things to people like Guetzloe, so I thought I'd just share some information as a reminder to question what you read and demand evidence of his claims.

Democrats trying to help Todd Long?

Is it just me, or do the Congressional primaries in Florida this year seem weirder and wackier than usual?

Latest Romney ad fits religious freedom and foreign policy in 30 seconds

The latest Romney ad, "Be Not Afraid," featuring footage from Mitt and Ann Romney's recent trip to Poland, has a short but powerful message about religious freedom:

Shady intimidation tactics by campaign manager for Jeff Ashton's State Attorney campaign

The race for the Ninth Circuit (Orange and Osceola County) State Attorney took an unfortunate turn this week, with the already heated political rhetoric boiling over into actual threats. 

Current State Attorney Lawson Lamar is facing a challenge from Jeff Ashton. Both candidates are registered Democrats, and no one else is on the ballot, so under Florida law, all Orange and Osceola County voters can participate in this election, no matter what their party registration is. 

The unusual open primary has introduced some interesting dynamics to the race. Because the Democrats have very few contested primaries on the ballot, Republican turnout is expected to be higher, and both Lamar and Ashton are seeking Republican votes. 

Lamar, as a military veteran, former Orange County Sheriff, and current State Attorney with a long history of involvement in the Central Florida community, has easily won Republican votes in past elections. 

Ashton seems to be finding trouble attracting similar support from Central Florida Republicans, and some of his campaign's allies are not helping matters. 

New Romney ad uses Democrats to hit Obama on welfare issue [VIDEO]

It's no secret to my readers that I think Barack Obama has been a colossal failure as a president.

Forty-one straight months of unemployment over eight percent is nothing to cheer about, but Obama seems to think that moving more people out of the job market and into entitlement programs is a positive development.

How else to explain his decision a few weeks ago to cut out the heart of the 1996 welfare reforms that were passed by Bill Clinton and a Republican Congress? 

The Romney campaign is seizing the opportunity, using harsh language from members of Obama's own party to tell the story in a new ad, just released late last night:

Romney VP announcement coming soon...tomorrow?

 There has been endless speculation about who Mitt Romney will pick for his running mate - not just who he will pick, but when the announcement will be made. 

As TechPresident reported yesterday, watching Wikipedia to see whose biography page gets a sudden flurry of updates and edits may be a sign. Checking out airplane hangars was a source of intel in 2004, when an airplane mechanic saw John Edwards' name being added to John Kerry's plane.

The Romney campaign has launched an app for iPhone and Android, "Who Will Be Mitt's VP?", and they may have given an important clue at least about the timing of the announcement.

Steve Oelrich changes his story again, explanation still lacking

Say what?

Third time apparently isn't the charm for Steve Oelrich. His third attempt to explain his military eligibility has left us with just as many unanswered questions as the first two.

As I wrote last week, the Oelrich campaign issued a press release claiming that an injury he received in the line of duty as a police officer was the reason he was ineligible for the draft, but publicly available documents show that the eligibility-ending injury actually happened years before his law enforcement career began. 

The story got even stranger when the campaign reacted by deleting the press release and replacing it with a new one (back-dated to the date of the original release) as if nothing had ever happened. 

Then, last weekend, the Florida Times-Union ran a story about the controversy, and Oelrich's response raises even more questions:

Breitbart TV interview with Sean Bielat [VIDEO]

Massachusetts Congressional candidate Sean Bielat spoke at the RedState Gathering last Friday, and Breitbart TV's Larry O'Connor had a great interview with him after the speech. Watch it here:

Will Weatherford ready to lead "innovative conservative" Florida House

RedState's Erick Erickson and Will Weatherford

Speaker-designate of the Florida House Will Weatherford stopped by the RedState Gathering in Jacksonville last Friday to chat with the conservative activists and bloggers who were attending the conference. 

What I like about Weatherford is that he isn't just a proud Republican, but that he is consistently cheerful and positive about it, treating politics as a method for finding solutions. He truly believes that conservative principles are the best way to provide the most opportunities for success for the most people, and is dedicated to the idea of making government as simple and streamlined as possible.

While Weatherford was at the Gathering, he was nice enough to chat with me for a few minutes. Here is a video of the interview:

John Mica: Obama's best cheerleader [VIDEO]

In case you missed it, the Sandy Adams campaign released a hard-hitting ad that highlights comments that her Republican primary opponent, John Mica, made recently, calling himself Obama's "best cheerleader," in addition to Mica's role in passing the recent transportation bill that Obama supported:

Join Sandy Adams tomorrow for a major endorsement

Sandy Adams' campaign sent out a press release earlier today about an event tomorrow in Winter Park hosted by Tea Party Express, and Amy Kremer, the Chair, will be in attendance to announce the organization's latest Congressional endorsement.

I don't think this is really revealing anything, but it is safe to assume that if the announcement is being sent on Adams' campaign email, that the endorsement is for her. Tea Party Express will be joining Sarah Palin, Allen West, RedState's Erick Erickson, and many other conservative leaders and organizations in supporting Sandy Adams in the District 7 Republican primary.

I'll be there in Winter Park tomorrow. Hope you can join us! Here is the announcement:

Ted Cruz at #RSG12 gives credit to Marco Rubio & bloggers [VIDEO]

Ted Cruz, fresh off his amazing win in the runoff for the Texas Republican Senate primary on Tuesday, is in Jacksonville, Florida today for this year's RedState Gathering. He gave a great speech to kick off the conference (look for it to be posted later at RedState.com) and was kind enough to sit down for a interview with me.

I first met Cruz at CPAC 2011 and have followed his campaign as it has progressed from only getting 2% in the first polls. It's very similar to how Marco Rubio's first poll was just 3%, leading those of us who supported him from the beginning to call ourselves the "Three Percenters." Cruz acknowledged the parallels and gives a lot of credit to Marco Rubio: "he blazed the path that we followed."

The Taxman Cometh...Even to the Olympics

"I owe how much?"

Athletes across the country grow up dreaming of one day bringing home  an Olympic medal. Unfortunately for those who do, Olympic glory comes with a price: a bill from Uncle Sam. 

Any of our athletes who win a medal will also  receive a cash prize from the U.S. Olympic Organizing Committee, and some sports have additional prizes, and the IRS expects to get their cut. Even the medals themselves could incur a tax bill.

Americans for Tax Reform calculated what the taxes would be for Olympic medal winners:

Sean Bielat on "He Said, She Said" on CDNews Radio

Sean Bielat was a guest on the "He Said, She Said" Blog Talk Radio program last night with Demetrius Minor and Stacy Washington. It was a fun show, covering everything from the latest updates from the campaign trail to Sean's upcoming appearance at the RedState Gathering this week.

If you missed the show, you can listen here:

Oh, Canada!

Canada: Home of moose, hockey,
and well-capitalized banks

Looks like our neighbors to the north are doing something right.

Correction: they are doing a lot of things right.

Canada is succeeding by doing things "right," literally. They have implemented many of the same economic policies championed by fiscally conservative Republicans here in the United States, and swiftly began seeing positive effects.

Ted Cruz: "Stronger than Garlic"

What an incredible, amazing, wonderful night for Ted Cruz!

In less than two years, he managed to go from "Ted Who?" and polling in the low single digits, to winning the Republican primary for the Texas Senate by a decisive margin, earning the support of conservative activists across the country along the way.

During his victory speech last night, Cruz made reference to the fact that he only received 2% of the vote at the first poll that was taken in his race, providing yet another parallel with Marco Rubio's Senate race in Florida. Both Rubio and Cruz are attorneys with Cuban heritage, strong conservatives, and Rubio initially had a weak showing in the first public polls that were taken in his race.

UF has more Olympic medals than UK, Australia, Canada

A little bit of Olympic pride for my fellow Gators:

Business Insider | The University Of Florida Has More Medals Than Great Britain Right Now 

The University of Florida has 40 athletes competing in the Olympics, and they are doing some serious medal-winning.

Right now, UF athletes have four medals, two gold, and two silver. That's more than Australia, Canada, and even the home town team, Great Britain...

Happy 100th Birthday Milton Friedman!

Milton Friedman, economic adviser to Ronald Reagan and Nobel-prize-winning leader of the Chicago school of economics, was born a century ago today, on July 31, 1912.

Thomas Sowell, who was lucky enough to be a student of Friedman's, wrote an article about his former professor at National Review:

National Review Online | Milton Friedman’s Centenary