Showing posts with label Dean Cannon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dean Cannon. Show all posts

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Again? Sunshine State News details more suspect behavior from FairDistricts Florida & their Democratic allies re 2012 redistricting: the very epitome of a backroom deal -theirs! Is that why FairDistricts NEVER submitted a plan in November?

Again? Sunshine State News details even more suspect behavior from the folks at FairDistricts Florida and their Democratic allies re 2012 redistricting: the very epitome of a backroom deal -theirs! 
Is that why Fair Districts NEVER submitted a plan in November?


Coming fresh on the heels of my email and subsequent blog post of Tuesday the 17th, titled

Hypocrisy on FL Redistricting: Why FairDistricts Florida & Florida League of Women Voters are early contenders for this blog's Turkey of the Year Award -all talk, little action and no submitted maps before the legal deadline
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/hypocrisy-on-fl-redistricting-why.html
and the rather stunning news Thursday from Peter Schorschsain at Saint Petersblog that showed how very suspect the judgement of someone at the top like Ellen Freidin (and her husband) were to even the appearance of impropriety... 


Saint Petersblog
Law firm of Fair Districts’ Freidin’s husband donates $500 to 3 FL Supr. Ct. justices before redistricting hearing
Posted by Peter Schorsch, April 19th, 2012
http://saintpetersblog.com/2012/04/law-firm-of-fair-districts-friedins-husband-donates-500-to-3-fl-supr-ct-justices-before-redistricting-hearing/
it's clear that the folks who, first, wanted my signature, and then months later, my vote -twice- are guilty of pulling a fraud all this time, despite their lofty-sounding rhetoric.


And now the specific details of that betrayal are starting to publicly emerge.


The total number of maps submitted by the public to the Florida Senate redistricting committee by the November 1st, 2011 5 p.m. deadline was 156.
Seriously, it's one thing to complain from the sidelines, but to remain on the sidelines and  submit ZERO actual plans to the state Senate to vote upon after you actually win a resounding victory from Florida voters with 63% of the vote?
What sort of geniuses do that?


Plus, in case you forgot the chronology, on January 27th, there was this bit of news regarding Senate Minority Leader Nan Rich from western Broward:
Rich decides not to file amendment for Dems redistricting map
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/01/rich-decides-not-to-file-amendment-redistricting-map.html


Yes, this all sounds remarkably like someone who wins the war but then loses the peace.
It sounds suspiciously and clumsily Dan Gelber-like to me.


As I wrote here on Tuesday in that referenced blog post, the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature, thru the Senate Redistricting Comm. had a terrific information-filled website, a  Twitter feed and a YouTube Channel to share information, including clips from the actual redistricting meetings that were held around the state.


Conversely, today, April 22, 2012, when you go to YouTube and do a search for "Ellen Freidin," assuming that over a period of three years, there surely must be at least a few dozen or so videos of her that are at least 30-seconds or longer that have been posted there where she was at least one of the guests -if not the sole interview- of one of the dozens of TV stations in Florida, or even newspaper-affiliated blogs with a YouTube Channel -another area where the Miami Herald is MIA- guess what you find?
No video results for “"Ellen Freidin"”
Surprise!


On the plus side, because most of the videos that were shown as results for the Freidin search were from the Ellen DeGeneres Show, no matter how many times you do it, we were reminded once again of "Kristen Bell's Sloth Meltdown"
Yes, the lovely, talented and clearly quite-a-handful Miss Bell.







Sunshine State News
Democrats Tried to Hatch Back-Door 'Deal' on Redistricting, Don Gaetz Says
By Kenric Ward
Posted: April 21, 2012 3:55 AM
While publicly posturing for "fairness" in redistricting, a group of top Florida Democrats privately pushed for maps that would benefit party brass, according to documents obtained by Sunshine State News.
Read the rest of the amazing story at: 
http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/democrats-tried-hatch-backdoor-deal-redistricting-don-gaetz-says


Well, it's not like we weren't warned in advance, is it?


Nope, over two  years ago there were clear signs of what has come to pass.
Ellen Freidin was given the opportunity by the Florida Senate to try putting together maps according to the parameters of the two Amendments to the Florida Constitution that I voted fo, after urging their passage here on this blog many times.


As Bill Coterell's column below shows, she turned them down.
Earlier this year, they renewed that same offer
She turned them down again. 
So what are we left to think?


Redistricting proposals under fire
Legislators challenge FairDistricts Florida head to redraw district lines
By Bill Cotterell, Florida Capital Bureau
February 12, 2010

Florida's two most powerful legislators challenged the head of the FairDistricts Florida campaign Thursday to draw a legal congressional map under the terms the group's proposed constitutional amendment would require if passed.

Ellen Freidin, who chaired the petition campaign that put two constitutional amendments on the November ballot, declined the offer. Worn out by more than three hours of what she described as often rude questions, she accepted software and a batch of paperwork from the 2002 redistricting but said she won't bother trying to draw congressional lines that might suit the openly hostile House and Senate committees.

"Many of the members of this committee are very concerned about losing their opportunity to redraw the districts in 2012 in order to insure their own political perpetuation," she said. "I actually wasn't expecting to be treated quite as rudely as I think that I was treated, quite frankly, but I was expecting a lot of resistance."

FairDistrict's proposed amendments, on the ballot Nov. 2, would prohibit new congressional and legislative districts drawn to favor or handicap any political party or incumbent officeholders. Districts would have to be as nearly equal in population as practical, be compact and respect the boundaries of cities, counties and other communities as much as possible.

They would still be subject to minority-access rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. But legislators would no longer be able to concentrate blacks, Hispanics and certain party members into a few districts.

Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, and Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, offered to fly Freidin back to Tallahassee, give her access to House and Senate staff and provide any other data or help she needs to draw a sample congressional map.

"This is not rocket science," Freidin, a Miami lawyer, said at a joint meeting of the House and Senate committees. "This Legislature is totally capable of drawing maps with these standards."

Haridopolos and Cannon then pounced.

"We'll give you the software, a week, two weeks, if it's so easy to do," said Haridopolos. "You take the 2002 census data and draw us 25 congressional districts that meet your easy-to-reach criteria."

He added, "Theory is one thing, practice is another."

Freidin asked, "Are you suggesting that redistricting maps can be drawn simply by putting data into a computer?" She said it takes census data, voter registration numbers, performance data from past elections, public testimony by voters and "the collegial work of the legislative body" — none of which she could duplicate in an experiment.

"Will you do it or not?" asked Cannon.

"I don't have a Legislature to work with me on this," she replied. "I don't have public hearings."

Senate Minority Leader Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, told Freidin he has been in the House or Senate through two remapping sessions, in 1992 and 2002, and that it would be impossible to protect minority districts without some "collusion" between the parties. He said the number of black members in the Legislature would decline if members were forbidden to consider party affiliation or incumbency when drawing district lines.

"I absolutely cannot say this more unequivocally," she replied. "There is not any reason to think this is going to impact negatively on minority representation."

She took the occasion to announce that the Florida State Conference of NAACP Branches has endorsed the two amendments.

"I know what took place at the table, at night, looking at maps," said Lawson. "We (Democrats) were in the majority then and when we drew them, we thought we were protecting Democrats, and they got defeated anyway."

More than two years later, it's clearly too late for Freiden, Gelber & Company to call a crisis management firm to save them.
They have met the enemy and it is themselves.
-----
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/florida-redistricting/


http://htpolitics.com/?s=redistricting


http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/category/buzz-tags/florida-redistricting


http://saintpetersblog.com/



www.floridaredistricting.org


http://mydistrictbuilder.wordpress.com/



http://www.capitaldatelineonline.com/


http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/


August 31, 2009 Buzz blog
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/ellen-freidin-fair-districts-fla-no-democratic-scheme 

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Elaine de Valle's Political Cortadito blog channels Sherlock Holmes and catches the crook red-handed: FL Rep. Frank Artiles. Blogger 1, Lying Pol 0

Elaine de Valle's Political Cortadito blog channels Sherlock Holmes and catches the crook red-handed: FL Rep. Frank Artiles. Blogger 1, Lying Pol 0
Elementary, my dear Watson!
http://politicalcortadito.blogspot.com/2011/04/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html



Above, Florida Rep. Frank Artiles, the guy who couldn't find a place to live since the election of November 2nd. How could you trust someone who was both so unethical and so stupid?
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/sections/representatives/details.aspx?MemberId=4529&SessionId=66

Score so far: Blogger 1, Egregiously-unethical legislative rep 0.


After reading the Marc Caputo story below that was posted online just before midnight Thursday morning, why-oh-why is there STILL no movement on the Joe Gibbons campaign registration/residency issue?

BrowardPalmBeach New Times
The Daily Pulp blog
House Pro Tem Investigated for Homestead Fraud
By Bob Norman
November 15 2010 @ 10:15AM
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/11/joe_gibbons_investigated_homestead_fraud.php


Naturally, it being the Herald, they didn't have an online link to Elaine de Valle's
blog, http://politicalcortadito.blogspot.com/

Common sense dictates that State Rep. Frank Artiles should've been expelled weeks ago.
To soon be followed by Gibbons if rules and laws mean anything.

Now THAT would set an example for the future: when you register to run for office, the information you write on the documents filed with the State of Florida are true and legally-binding, and you actually LIVE at the address you write down -in the District.
Otherwise, why abide by the rules?

That's why all the other legislative members ought to just pile-on these guys and ruin their political careers.
Seriously, w
hy would you want to have such low-lifes in your group?


Could you have any faith or confidence in someone who'd shown themselves to be incapable of appreciating that what they were doing was reprehensible?

It's
NOT really too much to ask that the Florida legislature enforce the State Constitution and the public's right to be represented in Tallahassee by someone who ACTUALLY lives in the legislative district.

In fact, that should just be the bare minimum one expects.



State Representative: an elector and resident of the district upon taking office and a resident of the state for at least 2 years prior to election.
Above, from website of State of Florida Dept. of State, Frequently Asked Questions,
Residency requirements for Florida House of Representatives.

http://election.dos.state.fl.us/gen-faq.shtml#link5



And yet, here we are in the Florida of 2011, with
Mike Haridopolos, the ethically-challenged Senate president and U.S. Senate wannabe, and Dean Cannon, the Florida House Speaker so little known outside of his own family and a small clique of Tallahassee-based reporters.

Lightweight legislators and junior-varsity crime-fighters are the "leaders" of the fourth-largest state in the U.S.A. and so far, they seem unable to even police their own minions and occasionally throw one smelly fish out before he infects the whole bunch.

It sure explains a lot in the Sunshine State, doesn't it?

------

Miami Herald

Busted by a blogger for not living in his district, Rep. Frank Artiles said he’ll move to his West Kendall district soon. But he could pay a hefty fine.
By Marc Caputo Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
April 21, 2011


TALLAHASSEE -- More than 170 days since Republican Rep. Frank Artiles was elected, he still hasn’t moved to the west Miami-Dade district he represents in the Florida House — a potential Constitutional violation that could cost him 5 months’ pay.

Artiles was caught living in his Palmetto Bay home two nights ago when a Miami political blogger knocked on the door of his Palmetto Bay home.

Wearing gym shorts and socks as he watched the Miami Heat basketball game, Artiles admitted to blogger Elaine de Valle that he didn’t live in his district...

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/20/2177854/state-rep-artiles-could-face-hefty.html

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Aaron Deslatte adroitly zeroes in on CSX and trial lawyers

There's not much that I can add to this excellent Central Florida Political Pulse blog post and Orlando Sentinel post mortem from Aaron Deslatte on the political aftermath of the Central Florida commuter rail imbroglio, other than that based on what I've read in the Orlando and Tampa Bay newspapers and blogs, there were a lot of supporters of the Central FL commuter train who wondered why there was, apparently, so little discussion among Florida Democratic legislators of pursuing the Amtrak angle months ago.

You know, a credible Plan B?
__________________________________
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/
Central Florida Political Pulse
Trial lawyers and the CSX saga revisited
posted by Aaron Deslatte on May 20, 2008

When Sen. Paula Dockery needed friends to help derail Central Florida's commuter-rail deal, she did something once unthinkable for a Republican legislator: She appealed to the state's trial lawyers.
Dockery was up against a political dream team. Central Florida supporters of commuter rail and Jacksonville-based CSX Corp. had public-relations firms in Tallahassee, Orlando and Tampa. The city of Orlando employed uber-lobbyists Southern Strategy Group.And two powerful legislators -- Senate Majority Leader Daniel Webster of Winter Garden and Rep. Dean Cannon of Winter Park, in line to be speaker in 2010 -- were leading the charge.
"I couldn't fight them all off. They were attacking from every single angle," said Dockery, who opposed the deal because it meant more freight trains running through her home city of Lakeland.
So Dockery seized on a little-noticed element of the $650 million deal...


For the rest of this story go to:
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008/05/trial-lawyers-a.html
_______________________________________
More from Deslatte on the above story along with some great graphics -and reporting of the sort that you never saw on this issue on local South Florida TV:

SPECIAL REPORT
Cash & Threats: How trial lawyers wielded new power to help block commuter rail at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-csx2008may20,0,1130274.story

Prior Orlando Sentinel stories on the Central Florida commuter rail plan are at: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-commuterrail-sg,0,3785419.storygallery and well worth checking out if you're at all interested in mass transit in Florida. _______________________________________
Also see this story on the SFECC:
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/apr/19/30gttreasure-coast-planners-hoping-to-draw-rail/?feedback=1#comments

Treasure Coast planners all aboard plan to draw passenger train service
By Derek Simmonsen
April 19, 2008