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?

Miami, FL (MMD Newswire) September 9, 2009 – - Noted economist Farid A. Khavari, a Democratic candidate in the 2010 Florida gubernatorial race, today labeled Florida’s Governor Charlie Crist, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and Attorney General Bill McCollum “a dangerous Gang of Three.”

Citing the recently-reported $266 million lost in just one more bad deal by Florida’s State Board of Administration (SBA), Khavari said, “This is just a tiny part of $50 billion in SBA losses that we know of. The Gang of Three are the SBA’s three trustees. Now two of them are candidates for Governor and our Governor has appointed a crony to keep a U.S. Senate seat warm for him until 2010. We can and we must stop them in the 2010 primaries, if not sooner by impeachment.”

CFO Sink, Democrat, and Attorney General McCollum, Republican, are candidates for Governor. Governor Crist, Republican, is running for the U.S. Senate. Their current positions make them the three trustees of the SBA. “Two years ago the SBA had $138 billion. In March, 2009 they had about $83 billion. They didn’t lose this money in blue-chip stocks. They blew it in phony derivatives and so-called investments that no normal person would even consider, earning tens or hundreds of millions for Wall Street thieves,” Khavari said. “Now they want us to believe that these so-called securities, most of which have no market, have rebounded by $26 billion in the past five months? How stupid do they think the people are?”

Khavari blasted the media. “Instead of doing their jobs, the Gang of Three were out collecting millions in campaign contributions from lobbyists and special interests while the SBA lost over $50 billion, a million Floridians lost their jobs, and a million Floridians lost their homes. The media are dazzled by the millions in contributions, charmed by Sink taking away Blackberries from state employees, and have all but declared the Gang of Three the only candidates for these offices. Not one of them has even hinted at a plan to clean up the mess. The media continue to cover-up $50 billion in losses and print whatever lies they tell about the SBA funds.

“Negligence, stupidity, or corruption? I don’t know,” said Khavari, “but the results are the same. We need to get the Gang of Three out of public office if we are ever going to revive Florida’s economy, put a million people back to work, and slash interest, insurance and energy costs for the governments and people of Florida without higher taxes. The Gang of Three has got to go.”

Khavari continued, “Now these geniuses, fresh from losing $266 million in just one shaky real estate deal, want to invest in Florida real estate for profit. Until we fix the economy, who could ever buy these properties from the state?”

Khavari’s economic plan for Florida, including a publicly-owned bank, has gained national attention since it was released in July.

Khavari praised as an exception a series of articles by four-time Pulitzer winner Sydney P. Freedberg published in the St. Petersburg Times and archived online at www.tampabay.com/writers/sydney-p-freedberg.

Farid A. Khavari, Ph. D., is the author of nine books, including Environomics. His latest book, Toward a Zero-Cost Economy, is available in stores or for free download atwww.khavariforgovernor.com, where details of his economic plan can be found

Sink & McCollum

Florida’s legislative leaders may be pushing hard to allow offshore drilling close to the coast of Florida. But neither major-party candidate for governor supports the move, according to WFSU-FM.

Republican candidate Bill McCollum said he wasn’t in favor of it, and Democratic candidate Alex Sink agreed, citing her concern about the impact dirty beaches might have on the state’s the $50-billion tourist industry, according to the radio report.

Meanwhile, one of the key arguments for allowing drilling close to Florida — the attempt by Cuba to drill off its own coast, just south of the Keys — has suffered a setback.

“Cuba and a consortium of foreign oil companies have once again postponed plans to drill for oil in the island’s still-untapped fields in the gulf,” Reuters reported recently. A Spanish company drilled a test well 20 miles off Cuba’s northern coast in 2004, finding traces of high-quality oil, and there have been repeated promises that a second well would follow shortly — “but each time the project has been put off without explanation.”

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.

Alex Sink

More proof that even though the 2010 gubernatorial election is 16 months away; the silly season is in full swing.

A Republican activist from Gainesville has launched a new Web attack ad against Democrat Alex Sink, the state’s chief financial officer who wants to be Florida’s governor.

Stafford Jones today sent out a notice touting a new video on his “Don’t Bank on Sink,” Web site that keys on recent criticism, including an ethics complaint, that Sink improperly used state aircraft for personal travel.

It’s a slick parody of the old “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” TV series. You can see the video at http://dontbankonsink.com/

The Web site is itself a word play on Sink’s former occupation as a banker.

Readers may remember that we broke a story on State Democrats touting a theme song for McCollum’s campaign called “Working 10 – 2” to the tune of Dolly Parton’s 9 – 5 song.

So the score is currently Dem 1 vs. Rep 1….

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

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 .

Members of the Florida GOP Congressional Delegation have endorsed Attorney General Bill McCollum to be Florida’s next Governor, the campaign announced today.

McCollum received the endorsement of U.S. Representatives Gus Bilirakis (9^th); Ginny Brown-Waite (5^th); Vern Buchanan (13^th); Ander Crenshaw (4^th); Lincoln Diaz-Balart; Mario Diaz-Balart (21^st); Connie Mack (14^th); John Mica (7^th); Jeff Miller (1^st); Bill Posey (15^th); Tom Rooney (16^th); Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (18^th); Cliff Stearns (6^th), and C. W. Bill Young (10^th).

“Bill McCollum has the vision, the experience, and the conviction of his principles necessary to lead our state during these challenging times,” said Congressman Vern Buchanan.  “Bill McCollum is the right candidate at the right time, and Florida’s Republican Congressional delegation is committed to ensuring we elect him as our next Governor and move our great state forward.”

“My years in Congress afford me a unique perspective on the importance of working closely with our Governor and Legislature to get the job done,” said McCollum.  “Florida has benefited greatly from our delegation’s commitment to bipartisanship and putting Floridians first, and I look forward to continuing in that tradition as our next Governor.”

The McCollum campaign recently announced the endorsement of Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Bronson, more than 60 state legislators and U.S. Senator Mel Martinez.  For campaign news and updates, visit http://www.billmccollum.com