The jockeying continues to see who will be the next chairman of the Republican Party of Florida. Former RPOF Chairman Tom Slade endorsed former Rep. Dave Bitner this week, praising the current Jefferson County RPOF committeeman for his commitment to conservative values.
Meanwhile Sarasota County GOP Chairman Joe Gruters won re-election to his current position, setting the stage for continuing his own shot at the RPOF chairmanship Incoming Attorney General Pam Bondi continued to name key members of her team this week. Bondi named Pat Gleason, who was director of Cabinet affairs and special counsel under Gov. Charlie Crist, as special counsel for open government. Bondi also named Nick Cox, who served as assistant state attorney in Hillsborough County, as the statewide prosecutor Speaking of Bondi, she joined incoming Gov. Rick Scott and incoming Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll touring the state Wednesday, with events in Fort Walton Beach, Panama City, Jacksonville and Miami. During the whirlwind tour of the state, Scott pledged to fight for smaller and more efficient government
Is former Gov. Jeb Bush looking to take on President Barack Obama come 2012? Brent Budowsky of The Hill seems to think so. In his predictions for 2011, the noted Washington insider insisted that the former Florida governor will emerge in the spring as a surprise candidate to follow his father and his brother as a presidential candidate Budowsky also had his eye on two other Floridians. He predicted that incoming U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio will be one of the top prospects to end up as vice president on the 2012 Republican ticket. Budowsky also predicted that Crist, who lost out to Rubio when he left the Republican Party to continue his campaign for the U.S. Senate seat with no party affiliation, would end up in the Obama administration or as a potential independent presidential candidate in 2012 ... House Democratic Leader Ron Saunders of Key West is insisting that Florida gaining two congressional seats will not automatically favor Republicans -- even as the GOP overwhelmingly controls both houses of the Legislature. Saunders opined that Republicans may have reached their maximum number of seats in Florida
This week, Attorney General Bill McCollum and the statewide prosecutor released an interim report from a grand jury looking at public correction. The jury, led by Broward County Chief Justice Victor Tobin, called for expanding the definition of public employees to include private contractors working for the state, increasing penalties and creating an independent inspector generals office overseeing inspectors general across the state In the meantime, the FBI continues to investigate Nassau County Sheriff Tommy Seagraves on corruption charges. Seagraves was in the hospital earlier in the month and is recovering from illness -- and after not talking to the media for weeks, even as the FBI continued to issue subpoenas, he held a media event on Thursday. After issuing a statement, Seagraves dashed away from reporters Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Posey will be holding an entrepreneurship summit in Melbourne on Jan. 11 ...
It looks like former Hillsborough County Commissioner Rosa Ferlita will have made the ballot in the Tampa mayoral race. She filed petitions with almost 4,000 signatures and became the first candidate in the race to file Speaking of Tampa, Charlie Miranda announced this week that he will seek his sixth term on the City Council With outgoing U.S. Sen. George LeMieux headed to the sidelines for the moment, Vivian Myrtetus, who served as the senators deputy chief of staff, is coming back to Tallahassee. Myrtetus, who was in Tallahassee as a spokeswoman for Crist, is setting up the Beacon Communications Group, a public relations company Kevin Cate, who served as director of communications under CFO Alex Sink and former Rep. Loranne Ausleys CFO campaign, is also setting up his own public relations outfit in Tallahassee. Cate, who also served as a spokesman for Barack Obamas Florida operations, will be leading Kevin Cate Communications.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
