Category: Florida

Much has been made of new House Speaker Marco Rubio’s spending spree – especially for staff salaries. Changes and upgrades are to be expected – and like everything else – they never cost less.

But how do you justify paying $175,000 for a chief of staff, when the CHIEF of the STATE — the governor — makes less? A lot less.

He hasn’t been sworn in yet, but already Gov.-elect Charlie Crist has made a major comeback. As soon as the pricey-gala news had hit the populist fan, he admitted it was a dumb idea. Not good for a kinder-gentler Republican hybrid.

And then he hits one out of the park with the appointment of Bob Butterworth, the well-regarded — and Democratic — former Attorney General, to run the Department of Children & Families. DCF has become synonymous with failure and re-abuse and its leaders relegated to a revolving-door tenure.

Butterworth, who has history with DCF, is a proven leader who works both sides of the political aisle.

Gubernatorial rhetoric – from open government to preparations for a post-Castro Cuba – comes easily. Especially when the job is not yet yours. But the Butterworth appointment was a concrete sign that “the people’s governor” might be more than a campaign slogan.

Democrat Christine Jennings, the Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the 13th Congressional District, won’t concede anything – including, it would seem, being a poor sport. She lost her House race to Vern Buchanan – by about 400 votes – and that was confirmed by manual and machine recounts. Now she’s suing everybody but Katherine Harris.

There’s that matter of the 18,000 “undervote” in Sarasota County.

However it happened, it’s not worth a re-vote. The undervote, however substantial, is part of the process. Lamentably so.

It likely happened for one of two reasons:

1) The Sarasota Herald-Tribune surveyed election workers and found that one in five said voters complained they did not notice the congressional race. A presumed design flaw was at fault, although 87 per cent of the voters managed to figure it out.

2) Approximately one in eight voters said, in effect, “I’m disgusted with this particularly nasty exercise in mudslinging and insulting attack ads, and this is the only way to formally express ‘neither one.'”

So, Mel Martinez for chairman of the Republican National Committee. The timing, to be sure, couldn’t be better. Chairman Mel obviously needs another challenge, and fortunately he has time to spare.

It’s the sort of national responsibility you undertake after a classy senatorial win over Betty Castor; two seamless years learning the Senate ropes; an open-minded, humane approach to the Cuban embargo and travel policies; and more than ample time mastering the details of your constituents’ myriad needs.

Mel Martinez, George Bush’s Hispanic lawn jockey, now makes it official and will work even harder for the party — whatever the cost back home.

Jeff Bowden finally did the right thing by announcing his resignation — effective at the end of the regular season — as Florida State University’s offensive coordinator. But it wasn’t the honorable thing. That had to be done a few years ago – when it was apparent he was in over his head and could have saved his dad, head coach Bobby Bowden, national notoriety as well as the embarrassing wrath of incensed bloggers, disgruntled boosters and outraged alums.

When you devise a one-of-a-kind, nepotism workaround for an employee – one who had not otherwise earned his position but makes more than $140,000 a year – nothing good can ultimately come of it. Nothing did.

Jeff Bowden, of course, hasn’t been the lone reason for FSU’s fallen fortunes, but he’s no mere scapegoat. And others will likely follow. Only they won’t leave with a $537,500, five-year (garnet and) golden parachute, courtesy of Seminole Boosters.

On balance, good call, coach. Finally.

And speaking of 77-year-old Bobby Bowden, despite the tougher times, many observers and pundits have maintained that he has more than earned the right to call his own shot in terms of stepping down. This is an understandable, well-intentioned but misplaced priority.

All the wins, all the championships and all the national prestige and revenues have been commensurately rewarded with handsome 7-figure salaries, bonuses, TV deals and even a statue and a field named in his honor. But the fact remains irrefutable; he’s just a coach, albeit a very successful one, in the context of higher education. It’s hardly the academy’s highest calling. And there have been times, lest we forget, when Bobby looked the other way on matters academic – such as Dion Sanders playing in a bowl game after he had stopped going to classes.

If we were talking about a distinguished professor who had won a Nobel Prize or discovered a cure for a fatal disease, this call-your-own-shot conversation would be a no-brainer. In fact, the question would be a rhetorical one.

But we’re talking about a football coach, even if his name is Bobby Bowden and his victories outnumber everybody else’s. The Bobby Bowdens – and the Joe Paternos – are not bigger than their universities.

Dadgummit, they just aren’t.

*High drama this was not. Kathy Castor was the overwhelming favorite in the 11th District congressional race against unknown Republican Eddie Adams. She won overwhelmingly with nearly 70 per cent of the vote.

For all intents, the real challenge in this heavily Democratic district had taken place in the September primary when State Senator Les Miller, among others, had been defeated. Overall, the Castor campaign raised more than $1.2 million. The Adams campaign less than $25,000. Another day at the office.

So the election-watch party was at the modest campaign headquarters in Hyde Park. Talk turned early to the national races and the likely Democratic capture of the U.S. House of Representatives. The latter was especially relevant given Castor’s designs on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Both of Castor’s parents were in Palm Beach, where Frank Castor, Kathy’s brother, was being elected county judge. And U.S. Rep.-elect Castor, along with campaign manager Clay Phillips, had already left for the Alex Sink party by 9:15 p.m.

*Over at the Jim Davis gathering at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay, the Associated Press had called the gubernatorial race for Charlie Crist before 10 p.m. That meant for more than an hour that most dreaded of post-election rituals, the concession-speech countdown, had begun.

Those over-sized “Time For A Change” banners seemed to mock the moment. Party faithful, 20-something volunteers and elected officials reduced to waiting for Bill Heller and Charlie Justice updates.

Finally Jim Davis and family. Still the high road. Gracious in defeat. Now was not the time to reflect on a less-than-textbook campaign effort. Nor to bemoan the ineffectual response to the empty chair ad or assail the “had lunch with terrorists” cheap shots. In a concession to bi-partisanship, Davis acknowledged that Crist “will need our help.”

And, then, in a notably blunt concession to reality: “You know there was more money (an estimated $50 million by Crist and the GOP) spent against me then any campaign in the history of Florida.”

Thanks to a U.S. district judge, brash third party (Reform) gubernatorial candidate Max Linn was allowed into the debate at the literal last minute. Just in time to blindside Crist, Davis and Matthews and change the dynamic – largely to the detriment of Crist and the delight of Eugene Ionesco fans.

The court ruling was based on a recent poll that showed Linn, whose previous polling had maxed out at about 1.0 per cent, at 8.9 per cent. The threshold was 7.0 per cent.

A campaign handler, in lamely explaining the surprise legal turnaround to the media prior to the debate, was notably short on key details – such as who had paid for the poll. It mattered because it was supposed to be an “independent” poll. It was also supposed to be of “likely” voters. But who’s to say last-call customers at Treasure Island beach bars shouldn’t count?

After that hail of bullets riddled the body of cop-killer Angilo Freeland, some questions were begged. It makes sense that the family of Freeland wanted to know why it took a Bonnie and Clyde fusillade of 68 bullets (out of 110 fired) to kill their son. And it makes sense that they were not pleased with the Dirty Harry answer of Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd: “

Congressman Mark Foley is gay, which should, frankly, engender a collective “so?” from the body politic. By all accounts, his sexual orientation has rung true for years. But it’s not particularly pertinent to Page-Gate. Those who troll for minors and abuse their positions of authority ooze from all demographic ranks.

He also says he has a rehab-serious drinking problem and was, as a youth, molested by a member of the clergy. Advisedly, we take him at his word – except the disingenuous part about claiming these are not meant to be excuses. This is the victim card purposefully and perversely turned on its head.

All that matters is that, at minimum, Foley’s behavior has been disgusting, salaciously sleazy and — still — manipulative. And that he had more than his share of inside-the-Beltway enablers.

By next Monday (Oct. 16), school districts throughout Florida are supposed to be in compliance with the state constitution’s class-size (Pre-K-3/18, 4-8/22, 9-12/25) amendment. Here in Hillsborough County, as elsewhere, that means a lot of last-minute scurrying around in a number of schools to create space, split classes and, especially, add extra teachers. Co-teaching – sometimes a worthwhile tact but often a gimmick – is now a favorite strategy.

If state-required (school) averages are not met, then more state money must be diverted to new construction.

Basically it’s reality-check time.

All things being equal and sufficient funds being readily available, smaller class size is always a clear winner. Who wouldn’t want to improve the learning environment? But all things are never equal and sufficient funding is typically siphoned from somewhere else.

Now ominously looming is the trade-off that pedagogical — as well as political –Cassandras warned of when voters passed the class-size amendment in 2002. Absent enough additional room, you will need more teachers. Alas, they’re in demand, and there’s a real premium on good ones. The best and the brightest still don’t come calling on education for a career.

So we have teachers exchanging their planning periods for extra pay to co-teach. None but the myopically idealistic would confuse a stop-gap measure with sound educational strategy. You’ll also have more teachers teaching outside their major certification areas to fill vacancies.

As important as teacher-student ratios can be, nothing is more important than a quality teacher. The trade off just isn’t worth it.