Kelli Stargel has filed as a candidate for the Florida State Senate, District 15. This seat is currently held by Paula Dockery who has announced her gubernatorial campaign. Florida State Senate District 15 is composed of portions of Polk, Hernando, Sumter, Lake and Osceola counties.

“I am announcing my candidacy for the Florida State Senate because we need people in Tallahassee who have the right values, the right experience, and will make the tough but right choices,” Kelli Stargel stated.

“We need to turn our state’s economy around. I want to ensure that our hard earned tax dollars and being used efficiently. Most importantly we need to encourage businesses to produce good paying jobs. To do this, we must have fiscal conservatives who will control the state budget, limit taxes, and wisely invest in the future,” Kelli Stargel said.

“We cannot have a vibrant, diverse, and growing economy without a well educated and flexible work force. That requires education reform and that has been and will continue to be my focus,” Kelli Stargel promised.

“I am not a career politician; I am an average citizen who has been afforded a great opportunity to make a difference for the people of Central Florida. It has been a privilege to serve in the Florida House and I’m honored that so many have encouraged me to run for the Florida Senate.”

Kelli Stargel is a 6th generation Floridian and lives in Lakeland, Florida. She and her husband John have been married for over 25 years. They have 5 children: three teenagers living at home, a daughter serving overseas as an officer in the US Army, and a daughter who was recently married.

Representative Stargel was elected in 2008 and currently serves as the State Representative for District 64 in the Florida House. She is currently the Vice-Chairman of the PreK-12 Appropriations Committee, and also serves on the Education Policy Council, PreK-12 Policy Committee and the Public Safety and Domestic Security Policy Committee.

Jim Greer

Today I received an email from the Hillsborough Republican Executive Committee.  This email has been a long time coming.  If our readers recall a few months ago the Republican Leadership was to have a vote of no confidence in Chairman Jim Greer.  Much of this is due to his association with Charlie Crist and the party purge effort underway by the Republican Party of Florida.  Many Ron Paul supporters have fallen prey to this party purge effort.  With out further ado I give you the email:

November 5, 2009

Dear Chairman Greer,

It has become apparent to us that you and by extension the RPOF have failed to recognize the significance of the resolution passed earlier this year by a majority of the County Chairs and members of the State Executive Committee in our state, particularly with respect to following Rule 8 of our Constitution.

As recently as today, we’re being informed that an operative of the RPOF used a false “twitter” account to disparage a duly elected county Chairman.  Add this incident to the recent revelation that a contract employee of the RPOF, and “Senior Political Advisor” to Governor Crist, Mr. Rich Heffley, initially denied, then admitted,  that he was the author of an “anonymous” website set up to attack the record of a US Senate primary Republican candidate. Both of these compound the earlier allegations that your early and vigorous endorsement of Charlie Crist in his candidacy violated Rule 8 and resulted in the aforementioned resolution by a significant majority of the members of the State Executive Committee asking you to cease and desist the violation.

The fact that Charlie Crist’s U.S. Senate campaign has the same building address as the Republican Party of Florida is also of concern to many of our grass-root activists and members who are voicing their complaints about the appearance of coordination. Your repeated public appearances with U.S. Senate Candidate Charlie Crist as he is campaigning for the US Senate seat at  fundraisers, political events, and impromptu REC visits is being perceived by members as an endorsement, again in violation of Rule 8.  In fact, many of our members have voiced their concerns that if their donations to the State party are being used in any measurable manner to support a Federal candidate, it is in violation of Federal Election Commission rules and subject to investigation.

Our members are also fully aware that due to the lack of accountability in expenditures of RPOF resources, the Victory 2010 Committee was created with Speaker Allan Bense as a co-signatory on all checks issued to ensure your compliance with GAAP standards.  We believe, however, that since a significant portion of funding for the RPOF came and will come from the voluntary contributions of our grass-root members, the RPOF should be held to a higher standard than just GAAP standards. In fact, RPOF should be held to the highest standard of fiscal and ethical accountability.

It has been revealed that Mr. Heffley received $250,000 in consulting fees in an off-election year. He has now admitted responsibility of the amateurish attempt to discredit a fellow Republican and qualified Primary candidate.

Given Mr. Heffley’s proximity to you and to Governor Charlie Crist, US Senate Candidate and the long list of undisputed facts I mention above, it appears that the RPOF leadership continues to be in violation of the Party’s Rule 8, and choose to ignore the admonishment by a majority of the members of the State Executive Committee for you to comply with Rule 8 and to remain neutral in all Primary races.

Chairman Greer, your actions have consequences.  The consequences are being felt by us locally by the reduction of donations to the local parties and the growth of third-party associations and groups which are attracting voters that belong to the Republican Party.  In our respective counties many of our members are blaming the local leadership for the appearance of favoritism and endorsements of Primary candidates.  This is fundamentally severing the trust that exists between the local communities and the local leadership of our Party, this being the foundation for turnout on Election Day, and the ultimate goal of our Party.

We can assure you this is not in support or non support of any candidate but about the perception of the Republican Party of Florida as seen by our Florida Republicans.

We are demanding that you and RPOF cease and desist your interference in Republican primaries and discipline any employee or contractor that fails to follow this directive.  If you haven’t already done so, Mr. Heffley’s contract should be immediately terminated and you should demand a full internal and transparent independent investigation into who else might have collaborated with Mr. Heffley.  If other employees of the RPOF are discovered to have been assisting Mr. Heffley, they too should be terminated.  You should publicly give your personal guarantee to all Florida Republicans that you and your leadership team will follow the tenets of our Party’s constitution, particularly as it relates to Rule 8 and will not allow your personal ambition to allow employees or contractors to use wrongful means to slander or disparage any elected member of the State Executive Committee that may disagree with you personally.

Chairman, you have a choice to make.  Are you going to lead the broad and inclusive coalition that makes up our party and its supporters to victory or are you simply going to use your power as Chairman to impose your choice of who should become the Republican nominee for the United States Senate and violate every tenet of our Party?

We, the undersigned, hope it is the former.

Sincerely,

Deborah Cox-Roush
Deborah Cox Roush
Chairman Hillsborough County Republican Party

Agreed upon as written by the following:

AJ Matthews, State Committeeman HCREC
Tina Pike, State Committeewoman HCREC
Randy Maggard, Chairman Pasco County
Bill Bunting, State Committeeman Pasco County
Sid Dinerstein, Chairman of Palm Beach County REC
Tony DiMatteo, State Committeeman of Pinellas County REC
Peggy Simone, State Committeewoman of Manatee County REC
Virginia Bromford, State Committeewoman of Seminole County REC
John Salak, Bay County Chairman REC
Carol Carter, Former State Committeewoman HCREC
Art Wood, Vice Chairman HCREC
Robin Lankford, Secretary HCREC
Ken Lawson, Treasurer HCREC
Josh Burgin, Executive Director HCREC
Teresa Eaton, President Bay County Republican Roundtable
Matt Fleming, President New Tampa Republican Club

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.

Bill McCollum

Attorney General Bill McCollum bashed the “public option” included in President Barack Obama’s and Congressional Democrats’ proposed health care reforms, saying it would ration health care.

McCollum, the presumptive GOP candidate for governor, held a campaign event this morning in which he trashed the government-backed option to health insurance and challenged his presumptive Democratic opponent Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink to do the same.

McCollum, who served in Congress for more than two decades, announced the creation of a health care advisory board and dragged out a six-year-old report issued by businesses and the insurance industry as a guideline for health care fixes in Florida.

The best way to fix health care maladies in the Sunshine State, according to McCollum: more tort reform.

Medical malpractice premiums are the main cause for the state’s escalating health care costs, he said.

He asked Sink to join him in opposing the health care reforms now being considered by Congress if the plan includes:
- the public option or any government-run insurance;
- a $500 billion reduction in Medicare that would be passed on to the states;
- any expansion of Medicaid.
McCollum also asked her to reject the plan if it does not include significant tort reform.

McCollum showed more tolerance towards Obama’s speech to schoolchildren, which Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer has publicly pounded on national television.

“I have no problem with the president addressing schoolchildren,” he said when asked about it. McCollum also said he would allow his own children to watch it if they were school-age.

A group of Central and South Florida business, political and civic leaders are banding together to lobby the federal government for $2.5 billion to build a high-speed train linking Orlando with Tampa.

The message of the organization, which conducted news conferences Tuesday in Orlando, Lakeland and Tampa, is that a fast train would create jobs, encourage quality development around the stations and help the environment by moving people out of cars and onto a train.

“This is the future, and this is what we need to fight for,” U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, said during the event at Orlando International Airport.

Grayson spoke before a gathering of high-speed supporters who’ve created a group called ConnectUs. It is run by Ed Turanchik, a developer and former Hillsborough County commissioner who led Central Florida’s unsuccessful attempt to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Turanchik said ConnectUs is a nonprofit formed about two months ago with $50,000 donated by a variety of businesses and individuals.

The group is seeking additional contributions of up to $5,000 apiece to launch an advertising campaign, according to Turanchik, who is working for free but could be compensated in the future.

The main form of communication the group has now is a Web site called FastRail ConnectUs.com. It asks people to sign up and pledge their support for a train that could go as fast as 150 mph on the 90-mile route largely along Interstate 4, starting at Orlando International Airport and ending in downtown Tampa.

Eventually, a Miami leg could be added as well.

“Trains are very cool things,” Turanchik said. “What’s cool about them is they connect us.”

Turanchik said businesses and government agencies in Miami, Orlando and Tampa all support the state’s bid for the train.

That cooperation is significant, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said.

“We have to get away from competing with ourselves. … We’re Florida against the world,” Dyer said.

The federal Department of Transportation is planning to announce its first round of high-speed rail winners by mid-October.

Ten corridors are being considered, including Orlando to Tampa; Boston to Washington; Portland to Seattle; and San Diego to San Francisco.

If Florida is picked, construction could begin almost immediately, with service starting in 2014, the state’s pre-application says. Supporters say the train could create 25,000 jobs.

Only three of the 27 largest metropolitan areas in the country are without a fixed rail system. Orlando and Tampa are two of those, and Cincinnati-Louisville is the third.

Dyer is hoping support for a high-speed train will help SunRail, a planned, slower-running commuter train that would connect DeLand in Volusia County with downtown Orlando and Poinciana in Osceola. It could link with the fast train at a stop near OIA.

SunRail would cost $1.2billion, with $500 million or more possibly coming from the federal government. The first 31 miles, from south Volusia County to Sand Lake Road in Orange, could be up and running in 2012, with the remainder in 2014.

TAMPA — With the deadline looming to apply for federal stimulus money to build a high speed rail line, lawmakers, business leaders and community organizers will launch a campaign Tuesday to win funding for the project.

The group ConnectUs, a nonprofit founded by longtime rail supporter and former Hillsborough County Commissioner Ed Turanchik, is spearheading the effort.

“This is a grass-roots campaign that’s going to be working on this and elevating this in the public eye,” said Robert Armstead, a spokesperson for ConnectUs.

Florida is seeking $2.53 billion in federal stimulus money to start building a high speed rail line connecting Tampa to Orlando. Plans call for the tracks to eventually extend to Miami.

Three events in support of the effort are scheduled for Tuesday.

At 9:30 a.m., the Central Florida Partnership will host a rally at Orlando International Airport, with U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson-D, Orlando and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer as the featured speakers.

At 11:45 a.m., Republican Florida Sen. Paula Dockery will host an event at Lakeland City Hall.

And at 2 p.m., Democratic U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor and the Tampa Bay Partnership will host a rally at Stetson University College of Law.

The line is considered a top contender in the competition for $8 billion in stimulus money attached to President Barack Obama’s vision for “world-class passenger rail” in 10 major corridors, including Florida. Obama has pledged another $1 billion for high-speed rail for each of the next five years.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has singled out Florida and California — where the line would connect San Diego to San Francisco and Sacramento — as being “way ahead of the curve” with their high speed rail plans, meaning they could quickly meet Obama’s goal of creating jobs.

In Florida, environmental and ridership studies have been completed. The right-of-way for the tracks is largely in place, with plans to run trains in the median of Interstate 4.

Land for bullet train stations already has been committed in downtown Tampa on the site of the former Morgan Street jail and in Lakeland, Disney World and the Orlando International Airport.

“The only thing Florida has been lacking so far is a visible show of support from the citizens, the elected officials, communities, environmental groups and the business community,” Dockery said. “That’s really the purpose of ConnectUs, to gather all that support. Because it’s there. We just need to showcase it. If we can do that, Florida’s application is going to be heads above others.”

On July 31, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson sent a letter to state Senate President Jeff Atwater, House Speaker Larry Cretul and state Democratic leaders, saying they need to get behind the effort if Florida wants to win the stimulus money. He suggested they write a letter to LaHood expressing support.

Last week, Republican state Sen. Mike Fasano did just that, making more than a dozen points about why the state should get the award. Among the arguments Fasano made: Work on the Tampa-Orlando line could begin in less than two years; the train would provide a safe transportation alternative for seniors; and it would help with hurricane evacuation.

Ten members of Florida’s federal legislative delegation also sent a letter in June to LaHood showing support for the project.

Signers included Democrats Castor, Grayson, Corrine Brown, Kendrick Meek, Robert Wexler, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Alcee Hastings, and Republicans Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart and Adam Putnam.

LaHood will be in Florida around the first of September to meet with state and local officials about the project, said Brown, who chairs the U.S. House transportation committee’s subcommittee on railroads, pipelines and hazardous materials.

“He’s very interested in Florida,” said Corrine Brown, but noted that state lawmakers need to make financial commitments to the line. “I know the federal government wants to be partners. I know the locals want to be partners. But we’ve got to have the state at the table.”

To those of you who have been supportive of high speed rail for many years, we now have a great opportunity to show that support. In the recent stimulus package, President Obama included $8 billion for High Speed Rail projects nation-wide.

In view of this opportunity, the state of Florida has submitted several applications for these funds, one of which totaled $2.5 billion and would adequately fund Phase 1 of the HSR project, to run from Tampa to Orlando. Because this project has completed the NEPA process and is closest to being shovel-ready, this application is considered to be one of the strongest in the nation.

Ed Turanchik from Tampa is starting a grass roots organization known as “Connect Us” to help develop support for Florida’s High Speed Rail. On Tuesday, August 18, from 11:45 AM-12:45 PM at the Lakeland City Commission Chamber (228 Massachusetts Avenue), Ed and a group of supporters from Miami and Orlando will be coming to Lakeland to kick off this grassroots support with a media event. The group will then continue their support in Tampa.

Senator Paula Dockery will serve as emcee for the event. Appearances and comments will be provided by Lakeland Mayor Buddy Fletcher (confirmed), County Commissioner Bob English (confirmed), and City Commissioner Howard Wiggs (confirmed). Congressman Adam Putnam and City Commissioner Justin Troller are also invited to attend, but have not yet confirmed their attendance.
Attached for your information is an event flier highlighting the occasion. Please feel free to forward this email to other supporters. If anyone is interested in going on to the Tampa event afterwards, please let us know so that we have an idea of who is attending. Should you have any questions or need further information, please contact Yadira Holmes at 863.413.2900 or via email at yapulido@aol.com.

Thank you for your support of High Speed Rail. We encourage and look forward to showing your support on Tuesday, August 18.

See flyer