More than 35 years after Anita Bryant’s crusade to have gays and lesbians denied basic rights in Miami-Dade and following a more recent political battle that saw a once powerful county commissioner defeated earlier this year, the county’s Human Rights Ordinance now finally protects citizens on the basis of gender…
Back in 1963, Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety Bull Connor turned firehoses on African-Americans who were protesting his virulent segregationist policies. Those tactics, along with the use of attack dogs on protestors, were considered so violent that they actually helped turn public opinion against segregation and lesser civil rights for…
Charlie Crist won the Cuban vote by four points, according to the day-of Edison Research exit polls used by most of the media. Those polls also showed Crist winning the overall Hispanic vote by 20 points. Rick Scott’s own internal polls, however, claim that he won the Cuban vote by…
Episcopalian Bishop Leopold Frade had some strong words for President Obama last week: “I am asking President Obama to stop being a sodomite!” Now, before jumping to conclusions, know that Episcopalians are totally down with the gays, and in 2012 Frade personally authorized the church’s first recognition of gay marriage…
Rick Scott has a Gmail account. He also has his official state email account. He swore he’d just used the personal Gmail account for private, family matters, telling the press back in August that “if anybody sends me an email to my private account, I do the right thing.” Meaning…
In this week’s Miami New Times, we profile 30 of the most interesting characters in town, with portraits of each from photographer Stian Roenning. See the entire Miami New Times People Issue here. After November’s Republican shellacking at the polls, you’d imagine the few Florida Democrats who emerged unscathed are…
As Joe Garcia desperately fought to hang onto his Congressional office this fall, we described it as the battle for “Florida’s dirtiest district.” After all, Garcia’s predecessor, David Rivera, has faced down repeated investigations from the feds and watched former colleague Ana Alliegro head to prison over an election scheme…
Four years ago, Florida voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment with a simple mandate: Legislators had to stop drawing absurd state congressional districts that virtually ensured the GOP would dominate in Tallahassee forever. Instead, voters wanted fair districts — boundaries that would create actual competitive races instead of Democrat- or…
After a reelection campaign that cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million total, Rick Scott has decided to scale back traditional inaugural events. Because, you know, he wants you all to know he’s a budget conscious, thrifty guy…
Florida’s public campaign financing laws mean that candidates for governor and the three cabinet offices can qualify to have any donations of $250 or less matched by public money with a few caveats. Charlie Crist received about $2.4 million in public financing during his run against mega-loaded Rick Scott. Attorney…
Gov. Rick Scott just spent four years as one of America’s most deeply unpopular elected officials. Thanks to his days running a firm that earned the largest fine in U.S. history for Medicare fraud, he has skeletons in his closet that would make Hannibal Lecter flinch. He had to blow…
After some embarrassing losses in the midterm elections, the Florida Democratic party is full of some finger pointing and infighting at the moment, but the party’s State Chairwoman Allison Tant is sick of it. She told the News Service of Florida that, “the bed-wetters need to shut up, and we…
Senator Bill Nelson is just about the only problem the Florida Democratic Party doesn’t have. The 72-year-old senator is in his third term and always cruises to an easy reelection, and has held one elected office or another since 1973 save for a four-year gap in the early ’90s. But…
For the past few presidential elections, Florida has been the grand prize of swing states. It’s 29 electoral votes could have conceivably gone either way. President Obama was able to win Florida in the past two elections, but that was only after hard campaigning and a sophisticated “get out the…
Rick Scott and his fellow Tallahassee Republicans’ strong opposition to the Affordable Care Act has resulted in the state refusing to allow the federal government to expand Medicaid in Florida. But their refusal could cause Florida hospitals to miss out on billions in funding, with Miami’s cash-strapped Jackson Memorial Hospital…
Last week we urged you to go vote, even if you didn’t want to vote for Rick Scott or Charlie Crist: At Least Vote for Third-Party or Write-in Candidates. It’s not throwing your vote out. The only way to throw your vote out is not to vote. If 60,000 voters…
It seems like anytime we elect a new mayor in Miami we’re also kickstarting the political career of at least one of their children as well. Raquel Regalado, a School Board member and daughter of current Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado, announced this morning that she’s very possibly eying a run…
Marco Rubio hasn’t even completed a full term in the Senate, but he’s taking the presidential buzz that surrounds him (or used to, anyway) seriously. He says he’ll decide whether or not to make a bid for the White House in the coming weeks…
When Philip Levine announced last year that he wanted to become mayor of Miami Beach, many people wondered why a multimillionaire would spend a chunk of his fortune in pursuit of a $10,000-per-year position. That question was answered yesterday as Levine held court for more than a half-hour to boast…
Want to know why polling indicated Charlie Crist was about to pull off a narrow victory only to end up being defeated by Rick Scott? Well, yes, low turnout in South Florida had something to do with it, but the fact that Scott ended up pouring $13 million into his…
For four years, Florida Democrats giggled with glee at every Rick Scott failure. They practically drooled with expectation as Scott’s approval ratings sunk further than a boat in the Bermuda Triangle. They thought there was no way they could lose to this guy again, but last night they did, and…
Last night’s election results didn’t look a lot different from 2010’s election. Rick Scott snuck out a small but definite win over his Democratic opponent, but if you look at the exit poll data you will notice some shifting allegiances in Florida’s electorate even if it didn’t make much of…
