Today Sen. Paula Dockery dropped out of the Gubernatorial Race.  Below is an email her campaign sent out.

Jim Greer

TALLAHASSEE — Former Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer is the subject of a criminal investigation after an auditor found he funneled party money to a political consulting company he owned.

Attorney General Bill McCollum referred the matter to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on March 15 after it was discovered during an internal party audit.

“This information indicates there may have been criminal activity surrounding a former senior official of the Republican Party of Florida and a company called Victory Strategies, LLC,” McCollum said in a statement.

Just a side note that McCollum was never in favor of the actual audit.  John Thrasher stated publicly that he would have a private firm audit the RPOF.  McCollum also knew about the secret deal between Delmar Johnson and Jim Greer for two months before actually going public with the finding.

The audit showed that Greer owned 60 percent of the company and Delmar Johnson, the party’s former executive director, owned the remaining 40 percent. Greer authorized the contract to let Johnson take a 10 percent commission on all dollars he raised for the party coffers. It totaled $133,005 for 2009 with an additional $66,250 for other consulting services.

Gov. Charlie Crist said the news is “terribly disturbing.” Greer was Crist’s hand-picked candidate to lead the state party following the governor’s election in 2006, and Crist remained publicly loyal to Greer until it became obvious in January that Greer had virtually lost all support.

“I find it terribly disturbing to hear, but I know that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will certainly conduct a thorough and comprehensive investigation,” Crist said. Asked if the investigation could tarnish leading Republicans, Crist, who’s trailing in polls as a U.S. Senate candidate, said: “I certainly hope that it does not. The acts of individuals are the acts of individuals, and that is for the people to decide.”

Crist said he “had heard rumors” that Greer owned a stake in a consulting company, Victory Strategies, that was paid with party funds.

FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey reports to Crist and the Cabinet, and Crist is constantly accompanied by one or more FDLE agents, but the governor said he did not receive a heads-up of the FDLE probe of Greer. “I heard about it about an hour ago,” Crist said at about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Bill McCollum

It is really something when Alex Sink is sounding like Jack Kemp!  Yet Bill McCollum is sounding like a Democrat. You can read more about that here

Tonight the Paula Dockery campaign fired off a great Press Release that hit Bill on that mark as well.  Below is that release

Bill McCollum

It would seem that Good Ole’ Boy Bill McCollum’s support is slipping. In the last few weeks the Dockery campaign has released endorsements from Dennis Jones and Nancy Detert who both came out for Bill early on.

If people endorsing Bill are having second thoughts shouldn’t voters?  Bill represents the establishment and the status quo.  This is just one of McCollum’s big worries. Recently the RPOF has come under considerable criticism, which McCollum has remained mute on the issue.  Considering how close McCollum and Greer are I don’t expect him or his campaign to be active on this big issue.  Doesn’t McCollum have an RPOF American Express (AMEX) card?  But we can trust McCollum right?  He did use the state plane for just work related trips right?

Farid Khavari

Miami, FL   — Noted economist Farid Khavari, a  Democratic candidate for Florida governor, has gained national and international attention for his plan to create a state-owned bank in Florida.

“Not since the Great Depression has it been so clear,” said Khavari. “We need banks that work for the benefit of the people, not people working for the benefit of the banks. There is no mystery why we are facing another depression: the banks got greedy and stupid, and now they are making us pay for it.

“The economy is collapsing due to lack of demand. The economy needs money, but the banks are cutting credit, and then sucking all the cash out of the economy by raising interest rates to make sure no one has any cash left at the end of the month. The cost of interest is built into the cost of everything. People already work ten years of their lives just to pay interest in one form or another. The Bank of the State of Florida will end that for Floridians. And this model will work for every state.

“We can start the BSF at no cost to taxpayers. We can pay 6% interest on savings. Using the same fractional reserve rules as all banks, we can create $900 of new money through loans for every $100 in deposits. We can loan that $900 in the form of 2% fixed rate 15-year mortgages, for example, and the state can earn $12 every year for every $100 in deposits. That means Floridians can save tens of billions of dollars per year while the state earns billions making it possible for them.

“2% fixed-rate mortgages will create a thousand times more jobs than any so-called stimulus can.  By reducing the total interest cost on a home by over 85%, the average family will save hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that money stays in Florida,” Khavari said.

“State and local government budgets will balance without higher taxes when the BSF cuts interest costs,” Khavari said. “6% BSF credit cards will save people billions per month, money that stays in Florida instead of going to the big banks—and the state will make huge profits on that, too.  Saving billions in interest costs will create millions of jobs without subsidies just by keeping those billions circulating in Florida. Eventually the state will earn enough to reduce and eliminate state and local taxes while every Floridian has economic security in a recession-proof Florida.”

Asked whether a state-owned bank is socialism, Khavari smiled. “Are public schools socialism? Public roads, police and fire protection, municipal water? Socialism is where everyone works for the state. In these cases, and with our Bank of the State of Florida, the state is working for everyone. I call that general capitalism.”

Farid A. Khavari, Ph.D. is an economist and author of nine books, including Environomics. His latest book, Toward a Zero-Cost Economy, is available in stores or for free download at his website, www.khavariforgovernor.com.

Bill McCollum

With state Sen. Paula Dockery set to jump into the race for governor today, Attorney General Bill McCollum was endorsed by former Gov. Jeb Bush — the most influential voice in the Florida Republican Party.

Then his campaign office put out the Bush endorsement.

“I am proud to support my friend Bill McCollum as Florida’s next Governor,” Bush said. “At this critical time in our state’s history, we need a chief executive who will meet our challenges head on and stay true to the core conservative principles of limited government, fiscal discipline and the protection of liberty tempered by personal responsibility.”

Bush, who was governor from 1999 to 2007, called the attorney general “a tested and accomplished leader.”

At his news conference on the travel taxes and debt regulation proposals, McCollum turned aside questions about Dockery’s challenge. He said he is concentrating fully on Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the Democratic candidate for governor.

Dockery, who has been in the Legislature since 1996, has been testing the waters for several months. She won’t be term-limited out of the Senate until 2012 but would have to give up the last two years of her legislative term to run for governor.

Her candidacy is another major blow to the Republican Party’s announced efforts to avoid costly and divisive primary battles and concentrate on November of 2010.

Gov. Charlie Crist has drawn a tough challenge from former House Speaker Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate race and Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, running for McCollum’s Cabinet seat, faces an intra-party challenge from Holly Benson of Pensacola, former director of the Agency for Health Care Administration, who announced her candidacy last week.

Miami, FL – Oct. 26, 2009   Noted economist Farid Khavari, a Democratic candidate for Florida governor in 2010, today discussed his plans for health care reform in Florida.

“No matter what health care reform plan Congress and the Obama administration come up with, the states will pay the price and we need to be ready,” said Khavari. “Florida will have 700,000 to 1,200,000 new Medicaid clients, with similar increases in other states. We can expect the mandate from Washington to be unfunded or inadequately funded. This will be a crushing burden on the states unless we have a comprehensive solution to improve health care quality and access, and reduce costs.”

Khavari has gained national attention for his innovative economic plans, including a proposed state-owned bank to slash interest costs in Florida, and a program to create one million private-sector jobs in Florida without subsidies. He addressed health care reform in his books Vultures (1987), Environomics (1995) and Toward a Zero-Cost Economy (2009).  Some of his concepts have surfaced in the current national scramble for health care reform.

“Health care is one area where improving efficiency actually improves quality. We can have universal access, top quality care, drastically lower costs—and doctors, nurses and other personnel can earn more with less stress,” Khavari said. “The key is restructuring the delivery system. We can leave practicing medicine to the doctors, not the lawyers or bureaucrats or insurance companies. We can eliminate any form of rationing. We can eliminate redundancy and red tape that add costs and take away from quality health care.” Details including a new clinic model are at www.khavariforgovernor.com.

“We need to slash insurance costs by 30% or more,” Khavari said. “Forcing everyone to buy health insurance will not lower costs, it will just hand a huge piece of the GDP to the insurance companies and destroy our economy. Insurance companies have no interest in improving care or reducing costs. They make a profit regardless. If costs are higher, their business grows. If they could make the same profit at half the price, they wouldn’t do it, because it would shrink the size of their business. Everything from stock prices to executive bonuses is keyed to growth.

“There already is a ‘public option’ called Medicaid. The state is already in the health insurance business. When we restructure our delivery system for Medicaid, we will have doctors rushing to work with us, a quality of care second to none, and costs per patient far lower than we have now. We can offer access to this system to everyone, much cheaper than private health insurance. The insurance companies can join us in lowering costs and improving care, or they can face unbeatable competition from the people. Health insurance cannot continue to suck the lifeblood out of our economy,” Khavari said. “And we will not stand for drug companies charging higher prices in Florida than they do in Canada.

“Restructuring our health care delivery system will create about 200,000 good jobs in Florida, which will cost nothing because they will be paid for by health care savings,” Khavari said.

Farid A. Khavari, Ph.D. is a noted economist and author of nine books. His latest, Toward a Zero-Cost Economy, is available in stores or for free download at the website.