Posts Tagged ‘florida’

From ino.com:

With billions at stake over Gulf oil damage claims and a pending lawsuit over new federal health care laws, the next attorney general Florida voters choose may be their most influential in years.

But there’s no clear front runner among the three conservative Republicans and two Democrats who have struggled to distinguish themselves from one another.

Republicans Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, Holly Benson and Pam Bondi are aligned in their support of gun rights, tougher immigration laws and calls to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care program. The two Democrats, state senators Dave Aronberg and Dan Gelber, are focused on rooting out public corruption and Medicare fraud.

“There’s going to be a lot of last-minute deciders,” said Susan MacManus, a University of South Florida political scientist.

With a slate of credible candidates, she said, voters likely will base their decisions on “gut feelings” and “perceptions of who could move up the chain politically after leaving the AG’s office.”

Current Attorney General Bill McCollum, in fact, is leaving the post to seek the governor’s office. Ahead of the Aug. 24 primary, he has helped fire up the immigration debate in Florida by declaring his support for a crackdown on illegal immigrants he says would be tougher than Arizona’s effort, but better defined and fairer.

Read the Rest…

From Sunnewspapers.net:

It was supposed to be a friendly contest between two friendly lawmakers, two lawyers, who wanted to be the state’s top cop. At the beginning they frequently referred to each other as “my friend” or “my colleague” in the most cordial way in public.

But the niceties are gone in the Democratic attorney general primary between state Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, and state Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, replaced with irritated rhetoric from both camps.

First, Aronberg accused Gelber of being BP’s lawyer after BP contracted Gelber’s firm Akerman Senterfitt for legal counsel related to the Deepwater Horizon spill. In recent commercials, he said Gelber was a partner at the firm. Gelber was not a partner at the firm, and ultimately left it after he learned that it had agreed to represent the oil giant.

Read the Rest…

From Fox4Now.com:

Floridians are out at the polls voting for Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate, Republican candidates for governor and casting ballots in the two primaries for attorney general.

The primary isn’t until Aug. 24, but Florida voters can cast primary votes beginning Monday. Candidates and party officials were rallying supporters to get out early to ensure they’ll have a chance to vote.

In the governor’s race, Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum faces Rick Scott, the former Columbia/HCA CEO who is spending tens of millions of his own dollars in the primary.

Read the Rest…

From TampaBay.com:

The Republican primary for attorney general remains wide open with an overwhelming majority – 69 percent – of likely Republican voters undecided. Among decided Republican voters, the three Republican candidates are close, with 12 percent supporting Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, 10 percent supporting Pam Bondi and 9 percent supporting Holly Benson.

Similarities exist in the attorney general Democratic primary, with 62 percent undecided and candidates Sen. Dave Aronberg and Sen. Dan Gelber close, with 20 percent and 18 percent of likely Democratic voter support, respectively.

Read the Rest…

From MiamiHerald.com:

Three’s a crowd in the most wide-open race on the statewide primary ballot: the Republican nomination for attorney general.

With the Aug. 24 vote less than four weeks away, this down-ballot race appears wide open, with most voters not paying close attention and all three candidates struggling to raise enough money to pay for targeted TV ad campaigns.

Read the Rest…

From tampabay.com:

A lawsuit challenging the federal health care legislation provoked the most conflict during a forum Friday for Florida’s attorney general candidates.

Republican candidates Holly Bensen and Jeff Kottkamp pledged to continue the lawsuit filed by current Attorney General Bill McCollum against the federal government.

“Access to health insurance is a privilege and personal responsibility,” not a right, Benson said.

McCollum’s suit claims the health care reform rules violate the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution by forcing people to buy health care from a private company or pay a tax or fine.

There are problems with the country’s health care system, Benson said, but the new law doesn’t solve those problems and will make them worse by adding 1.7 million to people to the Medicaid program, sinking it.

Read the Rest…

From Gainsville.com:

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum says his exclusion from a meeting earlier this week shows the Obama Administration doesn’t understand the seriousness of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In a two-page letter Thursday to Attorney General Eric Holder, McCollum said the administration has demonstrated a lack of competence in handling the spill.

McCollum was not invited to a meeting Tuesday when Holder met with Gulf state attorneys generals and U.S. attorneys after touring of areas affected by the massive oil spill.

Read the Rest…