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.

Alex Sink

TALLAHASSEE — State Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink is the top fundraiser in the governor’s race, but her financial report released Friday suggests she’s in damage control over her use of state airplanes.

The report shows her campaign recently made an unusual $17,000 payment to her own agency for 20 airplane trips to different cities where she had state business — and campaign events.

”We did this in an abundance of caution,” said Sink’s chief spokeswoman, Kyra Jennings, adding that the CFO is going “above and beyond the requirements of the law.”

Sink, a Democrat who has raised $1.3 million in the April through June quarter, instantly came under fire from her Republican rival, Attorney General Bill McCollum, who has raised slightly more than $1 million since his campaign began in May.

Sink clearly appeared to violate state statutes that require officials to use state aircraft only for official business, said Shannon Gravitte, a McCollum spokeswoman.

”No amount of reimbursing can excuse illegal use of a state plane,” she said.

Among the trips: a May 11 flight from Tampa to Orlando where Sink attended four state events followed by a ”personal event” from 5 to 6:30 p.m., according to her calendar. On Feb. 16, Sink flew from Tallahassee to Destin to speak to a sheriff’s conference and had ”personal events” from 10 a.m. until noon.

EASY ACCESS

Sink’s chief of staff, Jim Cassady, ordered the campaign to reimburse the state June 25, a day after a report ran in the the Herald/Times detailing how Sink and McCollum used the state plane to get easy access to their Central Florida homes.

The papers also reported that state auditors had concluded that Sink spent $27,200, while McCollum spent $12,600 to travel between the capital and their homes. It provoked ethics complaints against each of them from partisan political activists.

McCollum lives in Longwood near Orlando, and Sink lives in Thonotosassa near Tampa.

Unlike Sink, McCollum has not used the state plane since he has announced his candidacy. Two days before, Sink announced she was running for governor, scuttling her bid to seek a second term as CFO.

Many of the contributors to her CFO campaign allowed their money to be rolled over into her race for governor. A few dozen donors — many Republicans — didn’t. She returned their contributions of about $19,000.

McCollum, by contrast, didn’t have a re-election account. He opened his campaign account for governor on May 15 and had 43 days to complete his fundraising.

Because she transferred so much cash from her CFO race, Sink has $2.1 million on hand — double the amount McCollum has, according to the financial reports.

Cassady completed an internal review into her airplane use ordered by his boss on Friday and concluded that Sink never violated state laws by allowing family to hitch rides on state airplanes or, in one case, to fly from Miami to Fort Lauderdale to catch a commercial flight to a vacation condo in the Bahamas.

POTENTIAL PROBLEM

But two weeks ago, Cassady flagged a potential problem with her travel and campaigning, noting she used the state plane 11 times and commercial aircraft nine times. ”While CFO Sink engaged in activities for state business using state aircraft,” he wrote in the June 25 memo, “she also included some activities to further her candidacy.”

In announcing her campaign fundraising totals, Sink made no mention of the airplane controversy.

”I am overwhelmed by the continued outpouring of support from everyday Floridians who are ready for a new and different kind of leader,” Sink said. “Floridians are coming together to send a clear message that they are tired of politics as usual in Tallahassee.”

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink may not rival the present governor when it comes to raising campaign dollars, but she did OK in the second quarter of 2009.

Sink & McCollum

The state’s sitting chief financial officer raised over $1.28 million in the fundraising quarter between April 1-June 30, her campaign reported Friday. She has now raised $2.4 million for the 2010 governor’s race.

Attorney General Bill McCollum, who is expected to be Sink’s opponent, reported his campaign raised $1.03 million in the last 43 days of the quarter.

Gov. Charlie Crist, who is leaving that office after just one term to seek a vacant U.S. Senate seat, reported Thursday that he’d raised $4.3 million in the last seven weeks of the second quarter.

Paula Dockery

For those that questioned the legitimacy of a recent Mason-Dixon poll commissioned by Democrat PR firm Ron Sachs that showed Florida Senator Paula Dockery (R-Lakeland) receiving only 4% of the vote have good cause – the poll was flawed.

Upon closer inspection, the survey, which comes on the heels of an independent survey by well-established polling firm STRATEGIC VISION of Atlanta showing Dockery with 28% of the GOP vote against the Parties anointed candidate, Bill McCollum, had the surveyors mispronouncing Dockery’s last name in several of the questions calling her Paula “Dockey.”

“The Mason-Dixon poll was flawed and the Strategic Vision polling in the past has been very accurate.  We believe that with the momentum generated to draft Senator Dockery for Governor that her actual polling numbers are much closer today than the Strategic Vision survey showed several weeks ago.  Mispronouncing a candidate’s name, either intentionally or unintentionally, voids the results,” stated Draft Dockery Co-Chairman Doug Guetzloe.  Guetzloe is the owner of Advantage Consultants, a public relations and public opinion research firm that produces public opinion research for candidates, corporate clients and governmental entities.

The Draft Dockery movement has attracted over 5,000 grassroots volunteers to the Draft Dockery website (www.Dockery2010.com) and over a dozen affiliated Draft Dockery FaceBook sites.

Alex Sink’s efforts at government transparency may have come back to harm her.

In April, her office announced that state travel logs chronicling the flights of state employees on state planes would be posted on line by the Florida Department of Management Services.

On Monday, a state employee filed an ethics complaint against Florida’s Chief Financial officer alleging that she misused the state plane.

Jose Blas Lorenzo Jr., an attorney who works for the Department of Education, filed the complaint. He said he was “incensed” by some of the information he has read in news articles about Sink’s use of the plane and did some research of his own. He figures that since announcing her plans to run for governor, Sink has racked up $11,000 in plane travel that’s unrelated to her official duties.

“I am just concerned, very concerned,” Lorenzo said. “I live in the state, my children grew up here, I pay my taxes, I work for the state, what example is she setting?” he asked.

In his complaint, Lorenzo claims that on at least one occasion, Sink flew on the state plane on the first leg of a flight with a destination for a vacation in the Bahamas.

He said that on other occasions Sink has used the plane to drop off her husband, Bill McBride, or pick up her son.

Sink, a Democrat, is running for governor. Calls to her office for comment were not immediately returned. However, according to published reports, she has ordered her office to conduct a review of her plane use.

Attorney General Bill McCollum, who is a Republican candidate for governor, was also subject of the joint stories by the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald for travel to his home in Central Florida.

“McCollum has spent several personal days campaigning and not used a state plane, that’s indicative of something,” Lorenzo said.

A check of campaign contributions found that Lorenzo supported Charlie Crist in his run for governor, donating $200 in 2006 and $150 in 2005

Looks like the folks behind the Draft Dockery movement have arranged a Meet and Greet with Senator Paula Dockery. Below is the email that I received advising of the event.
—————————
Great News: You finally have a chance to meet Florida Senator Paula Dockery

Running a grassroots ‘Draft Paula Dockery For Governor’ sure ain’t easy. First you have to see how much interest there is in a face-to-face get together. Then you have to check available dates. But that is all behind us now.

Mark Saturday June 27, at 11am as your opportunity to tell Ms. Dockery to ‘Run, Paula, Run’ for governor. We will meet at the Rosen Centre Hotel on the far south side of Orlando’s International Drive area. Adjacent to the famous Orange County Convention Center, this is a first class ballroom setting. Attire is strictly casual. Atmosphere is absolutely ELECTRIFYING!

Here’s your chance to meet the Lady Who Stopped A Train and is now contemplating upending the well laid plans of men. The Republican Party of Florida big wigs are trying to scuttle the Primary process. But there’s Paula again pulling the emergency brake, asking, ‘What do the PEOPLE think?’

Get on board early and chat it up with our guest of honor. We will all have a chance to ask questions, comment, and make some history all at the same time. When’s the last time you heard of a reluctant candidate being drafted into running for Governor?

Let me say one more thing. This is a real tough decision and Paula needs all the people and all the prayers she can get. Be there or you might as well say, ‘Let big-shots call the election; I’ll accept the outcome.’

Me? I’m bettin’ on the long shot. Once in awhile, the people really do have a choice and a chance.

Nick Egoroff
Administrator: Draft Dockery Movement

Hotel Address http://www.rosencentre.com/Location.aspx

RSVP at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?sid=7140d3d487432c464daf675f3537d21e&eid=103275484200&ref=search

Or email me Nick@dockery2010.com

Rosen Centre Hotel
9840 International Drive
Orlando, Florida 32819
Phone: (407) 996-9840
Signature One room – first floor – 11-1 pm
Draft Dockery for Governor Meet and Greet

The already-started 2010 election has a fast-approaching milepost, the June 30 deadline for second quarter campaign finance reports.

Both gubernatorial candidates, Republican Bill McCollum and Democrat Alex Sink, are heading to Orlando this week for cash calls ahead of the marker.

Sink is headed to McCollum’s home region for a Wednesday evening fund-raiser at Winter Park’s Interlachen Country Club, chaired by such Central Florida Democratic regulars as Roger Chapin, Jim Pugh and Richard Swann.

McCollum counters the next night with a downtown Orlando event expected to draw the checkbooks of Dick Nunes, Fred Leonhardt, Duke Crittenden and Tico Perez.

“This is an important time,” acknowledged McCollum advisor Shannon Gravitte. “We’re doing something almost every day, just like our opponent is.”

Sink collected $1.1 million through the first three months of the year, when it looked like she’d be seeking re-election as Chief Financial Officer. Sink is offering contributors refunds, now that she’s running for governor – and one thing the political class may be looking at is how many of them ask for their money back. Sink got plenty of Republican money when she was running for re-election to her Cabinet post, but many of those contributors might rather give to a GOP candidate only in the governor’s race.

Sink’s next quarter is still expected to be padded with most of that early million, however.

By contrast, McCollum has begun fund-raising in earnest only since jumping into the governor’s race last month. In advance of the June 30 close-of-books, McCollum has planned a Tampa fund-raiser hosted by Al Austen, a Fort Lauderale event with Jim Blosser and Wayne Huizenga among the hosts, and one in Miami with former Gov. Jeb Bush collecting checks.

Neither Sink nor McCollum, though, want to say much about early fund-raising goals.

The national parties also are targeting contributors in advance of next week’s reporting deadline.

J.B. Poersch, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is helping U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek of Miami, is seeking to raise more than a quarter-million dollars in the closing days of this month.

He’s using Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh to separate Democrats from their cash.

“In his speech last week, Newt said President Obama has already failed. We know that’s ridiculous. But the best way to prove it is to defend our Senate majority,” Poersch wrote in a new fund-raising letter.

The deadline for reporting April-through-June contributions is July 10.

The Republican Party of Florida released the following statement today regarding CFO Alex Sink ——

State Senator Mike Fasano released the following statement regarding Democrat Gubernatorial Candidate, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink “forgetting” whether or not she supported property tax relief for millions of Floridians by voting for Amendment 1 last January.

“I am absolutely astonished that a candidate for Governor of Florida doesn’t remember supporting historic tax reform championed by Governor Crist, the Florida Legislature and more than 60 percent of Florida voters,” said Senator Fasano who served as Chairman of the Amendment 1 Campaign. “Registered Independents, who couldn’t even vote in the Presidential Preference Primary, came out by the hundreds of thousands to support Amendment 1, yet someone seeking the state’s highest office won’t even take a position on the issue.”

Speaking to the Latin American Builders Association yesterday, Alex Sink stated that she couldn’t remember whether or not she supported historic property tax reform passed with Amendment 1.

Amendment 1, supported by more than 60 percent of Florida voters in January 2008, is estimated to save Floridians $9.3 billion in taxes during the first five years. The amendment doubled the $25,000 homestead exemption, made the save our homes tax cap portable, created a $25,000 exemption of the tangible personal property tax and a 10 percent annual cap on non-homestead properties.

From the St. Petersburg Times:

The builders’ group has championed measures intended to lower property taxes, such as the constitutional amendment passed last year that increased the homestead exemption and allows homeowners to transfer tax savings to new homes. Sink didn’t take a public position on the referendum at the time and said Friday she didn’t recall how she voted.

While state Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, continues to look seriously at challenging Bill McCollum for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, the GOP appears to be working overtime to discourage her.

Last week, just after word spread that Dockery had a full-day meeting with a top pollster about the potential campaign, the McCollum campaign announced that virtually the entire Republican congressional delegation was backing him. The only holdout? U.S. Rep.Adam Putnam, who has his own statewide campaign for agriculture commissioner and hails from Polk County along with Dockery.

“This could be more like 1986 … when the establishment wanted Tallahassee and D.C. insiders, and we instead gotBob Martinez nominated,” said Dockery’s veteran pollster, David Hill. “Florida had never had a Hispanic governor. It’s still never had a female governor. Time to make history again?”

A Dockery decision does not appear imminent, and likely will depend in large part on how much money McCollum raises through June. Hill said that Dockery is being flooded with pleas for her to run grass roots, and he dismissed the talk that McCollum is unbeatable for the nomination.

“Throughout his entire career, he has either underachieved or run up to the starting line and dropped out before he got started. If anything, he’s probably been overestimated,” Hill said of McCollum. “People keep coming to (Dockery) and saying, ‘Help!’ I’m not sure this is going to have a happy ending for Florida. The fact that the Democrats have a likely woman nominee makes minds wander to this.”

Original Source

When Alex Sink was running unopposed for re-election as chief financial officer, she was a safe bet not just for Democrats but Republicans as well. Dozens of well-known GOP’ers sent $500 checks to Sink’s CFO campaign in the first quarter of 2009, helping her to accumulate more than $1.1-million.

But everything changed in May when Sink switched races and announced she will run for governor next year. She wants to convert all of that CFO money into her campaign for governor, but she can’t do it without the consent of contributors. Sink has sent this letter to all donors offering to give them their money back on a pro-rated basis. Contributors have until June 30 to let Sink know their intentions.

“If you would like to support my campaign for governor, you do not have to do anything,” Sink writes in the letter, a point that she underlined for emphasis.

It will be very revealing on July 10, when Sink posts her second-quarter financial report, which donors demanded their money back and which ones didn’t. For example, Republican lawyer Chris Kise and his wife, Amy, each gave Sink $500, and he said she can absolutely keep the money. “What they do with the money is their decision,” Kise said, calling it “bad form” for campaign contributors to demand a refund. But lawyer-lobbyist Brian Ballard, whose firm and wife, Kathryn, both gave Sink $500, said he will ask for the money back because the donations were exclusively for Sink’s CFO race. “With all due respect to Chris, it’s bad form to contribute to candidates you don’t support,” Ballard said.

Currently Bill McCollum and Alex Sink have both launched campaigns for the Governors post.  Paula Dockery has yet to declare her candidacy .