News Service Florida Political Blog

The Miami Herald looks at voter behavior

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/13/2797893/voter-apathy-not-floridas-new.html

and NPR at voter registration

http://www.npr.org/2012/05/14/152517589/in-florida-registering-voters-a-whole-new-game

And in case you missed it, here’s a link to the Jeffrey Toobin article in the New Yorker on the Citizens United case that everybody who pays attention to campaign finance law has been reading

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/05/21/120521fa_fact_toobin

Also in campaign finance news:
The Naples Daily News looks at donations from southwest Florida to the Obama and Romney campaigns. http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/may/13/obama-romney-president-donations-southwest-florida/

Yesterday we reported on the top fundraisers in the House, including surprise newcomer Halsey Beshears, a Republican in Monticello running for House District 7.

Here’s a bit more – the top 10, if you will:

The quarter’s top fund-raiser  Beshears, who collected $108,268 as he tries to win the redrawn House District 7, which includes all or parts of 10 North Florida counties.

He was followed by two Republicans seeking House seats from Northeast Florida. District 24 candidate Travis Hutson, who lives in St. Johns County, raised $70,675, while District 18 candidate Travis Cummings of Orange Park raised $66,226.

Other Republican candidates in the top 10 were Heather Fitzenhagen of Fort Myers, with $65,377; incumbent Rep. Scott Plakon, with $53,511; and Dane Eagle of Cape Coral, with $50,570.

Among Democrats, the top fund-raisers were District 49 candidate Joe Saunders of Orlando, with $55,731, and District 21 candidate Aaron Bosshardt of Gainesville, with $54,845.

Other Democrats in the top 10 were Jonah Wolfson of Miami Beach, with $49,625, and David Kerner of Lake Worth, with $46,020.

With the exception of Plakon and Eagle, none of the quarter’s top fund-raisers had reported receiving earlier contributions. That leaves them far behind many incumbents, who raised money throughout 2011.

The top overall House fund-raiser is incoming Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, who collected $24,650 during the quarter and brought his total to $421,800.

Two other Republicans in line to become future speakers, Chris Dorworth of Lake Mary and Richard Corcoran of New Port Richey, also are among the top House fund-raisers. Dorworth has raised a total of $250,995, while Corcoran has raised $201,062.

It’s good to be in leadership. While most sitting lawmakers struggled  to keep up with newcomers in a first quarter in which they were in session most of the time, members of the GOP Senate leadership team did OK. Incoming Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, as expected, had a more-than-respectable quarter, drawing just under $43,000 in donations during the quarter, and bringing his total re-elect haul to $472,260. Senate Rules Chairman John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, meanwhile, raised $26,650 during the first quarter, bringing his total in his re-elect bid for Senate District 6 to $428,315. Senate Majority Leader Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, raised $24,700 in the quarter and is closing in on $400,000 total for the cycle, with just over $397,000 raised.

A mysterious Florida group with a strange – and broad – mix of interests is getting attention in Washington for setting up what may be the first corporate Super PAC though a national group that watches money and politics says the group’s filing appears to have several problems.

A few campaign finance watchers, and the Washington Post, noticed earlier this month when the group appeared to become the first corporate Super PAC. Those are the new political committees – officially known as “independent-expenditure only committees” – that can raise unlimited corporate and union money to do advocacy that isn’t directly coordinated with candidates. The groups were made possible by a couple of recent court decisions.

The new Florida Super PAC was formed by something called Deep Sea Burial, which is affiliated with another group called American Phoenix. The groups’ president, Michael Benjamin, was quoted in the Washington Post last week saying that the PAC plans to put as much as $5 million into state and federal elections. The campaign finance watchdog group the Center for Responsive Politics notes in its Opensecrets.org blog today that there are several possible problems with the group’s filing, raising the possibility it may not be legally allowed to sponsor a Super PAC. But even more intriguing is the group’s apparent list of interests. Today, the American Phoenix website simply says it wants to give “power back to the people” and “end corporate rule.” And the website for Deep Sea Burial is about just that – “carbon neutral burial” at sea. But an earlier version of the site, according to Opensecrets, also said its aims were banning circumcision, eliminating red light cameras, banning absentee voting and to “classify the killing of Sikhs in Pakistan in 1947 as a genocide” and overturning the North American Free Trade Agreement. And in an earlier interview with the Sunlight Foundation, Benjamin said the group advocates for legalization of drugs and prostitution, declaring Islam as a hostile political party and requiring homeowners associations to be put to a vote every five years.