Florida political leaders struck their claim this week in the presidential primary land grab as they pushed the state's contest to Jan. 31 and forced traditionally early primary venues to also move their contests earlier.
A committee created to pick the date for the primary decided the risk of losing half the state's convention delegates in both parties was a small price to pay for placing the heavily-populated swing state near the head of the line, giving it more clout in choosing the Republican nominee.
The committee wasn't alone in looking ahead to 2012 elections. House Speaker Dean Cannon said his chamber will challenge a judge's ruling affirming the FairDistricts Floridaconstitutional amendments passed last year that restrict the way lawmakers can draw congressional and state political boundaries.
While political leaders met at the Capitol on Friday to pick the primary date, a circuit judge across the street shot down a plan to privatize 29 South Florida prisons and work camps. Union representatives who filed the lawsuit on behalf of state prison guards and other correction workers claimed victory, while privatization proponents studied options to put out for bid a huge chunk of the nation's third largest prison system.
Providing a somber backdrop to the flurry of forward-looking activity, streams of well-wishers, former colleagues and political foes paid their last respects this week to former Gov. Claude Kirk, an idiosyncratic leader who became Florida's first Republican governor since Reconstruction. Kirk died this week at the age of 85.
PRIMARY DECISION CAUSES NATIONAL FLAP:
In a move certain to provide fodder for Sunday morning talk shows, Florida political delegates decided this week the state will buck the national parties and hold its presidential preference primary on Jan. 31.
Setting the stage for a last-minute flurry of decisions in traditionally early primary states, a committee of state political leaders voted 7-2 for the Jan. 31 date, a move that will likely result in the state losing half its voting bloc of delegates at the nominating conventions now less than a year away.
Florida would still be behind Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina -- states which have typically led off the presidential selection cycle -- but is breaking the parties' rules by going earlier than March 6. And all those early states may now move their own primaries up.
"We're the biggest swing state in the Union," said former Gov. Bob Martinez, a Republican on the panel. "Texas is red, New York is blue, California is blue and we're 10 electoral votes greater than Ohio. So, I think this is a real, real election in Florida."
Two Democrats on the panel, Sen. Gary Siplin of Orlando and Rep. Cynthia Stafford of Miami, voted against the proposal, pushing instead for a March 6 date that would assure that both parties' delegates will be seated.
"I believe that Florida should respect the integrity of the process and comply with the rules that both political parties agreed to," Stafford said. "I don't want the voices of Floridians to be diminished and the state penalized because Florida failed to adhere to the agreement."
Republicans on the panel dismissed such concerns, saying it has been decades since the conventions played key roles in the selection of a candidate.
"Today's modern convention, I believe and others believe, has become a formality and a coronation of the nominee who's been determined by the momentum and coverage he gets in a 24-hour news cycle based on the victories achieved in the early stage," said state Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami.
One Democrat, Al Lawson, joined the Republicans in voting for the Jan. 31 date.
In other election news, House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, told reporters this week that the chamber will appeal a federal court ruling upholding the constitutionality of a pair of constitutional amendments offered by FairDistricts Florida, which places restrictions on how lawmakers can draw political boundaries.
The House has joined Florida Congresswoman Corrine Brown, a Democrat, and Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, a Republican, who have challenged the constitutional amendments.
The suit contends that the U.S. Constitution sets aside the task of redrawing the lines for the Legislature, and that state voters can't override that through the state's Constitution.
Despite the lawsuit, Cannon said the state House and Senate will continue to draw maps under the standards in the FairDistricts amendments, overwhelmingly approved by voters in last November's elections, because the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta is unlikely to rule on the suit before lawmakers have to finish redrawing the lines during next year's legislative session.
JUDGE THROWS OUT PRIVATE PRISON PLAN:
Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford on Friday struck down a plan backed by Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, and supported by Gov. Rick Scott to privatize prisons in the southern third of the state.
In a ruling that is likely to be appealed, Fulford said lawmakers overstepped their authority by including the proposal in the proviso language of the 2012 state budget.
By doing so, Fulford said lawmakers sidestepped the legislative process in an effort to transfer control of 29 South Florida facilities in 18 counties into the hands of the private sector.
"This court concluded that if it is the will of the Legislature to itself initiate privatization of Florida's prisons, as opposed to DOC, the Legislature must do so by general law, rather than 'using the hidden recesses of the General Appropriations Act,'" Fulford said, quoting an earlier case.
Backers say the move would save taxpayers $22 million a year --estimates that some critics say were pulled out of thin air.
Attorneys for the Police Benevolent Association and three correctional officers argued that legislative leaders -- attempting to avoid a debate about the controversial issue -- sidestepped legal requirements by sticking the privatization plan in the fine print of the state budget.
"We believe justice has been served for the 4,000 men and women who faced the prospect of privatization," said Matt Puckett, PBA executive director. "This is a victory for the officers and the citizens of Florida. It validates what the PBA has been saying all along -- the Legislature is not above the law."
Agency officials say they have not decided whether to appeal Fulford's ruling. The legislative session begins in January.
GOODBYE CLAUDIUS MAXIMUS:
Former Gov. Claude Kirk, a larger-than-life political outsider who made history when he was elected governor of Florida as a Republican in 1966, died this week at his home in Palm Beach County. The first GOP governor of Florida since Reconstruction oversaw the rewrite of the Florida Constitution and has also been credited with raising environmental awareness in the development-fueled state.
But he may have been best known for his flamboyant personality, outspoken nature, and quirky sense of humor. His nickname during his tenure was "Claudius Maximus." Kirk got married while he was governor, after having shown up at his inauguration with his future wife, Erika Mattfeld. Asked by reporters who the lady accompanying him was, Kirk wouldn't say, identifying her only as "Madame X."
Later in life, long after he left the governor's office, Kirk said he wanted to be buried at the Capitol. "Being buried up there would be a good idea, so I can keep an eye on them," Kirk said a few years ago in a newspaper interview. The veteran of World War II and Korea will be buried, however, at a national cemetery in South Florida.
STATE EXECUTES INMATE WITH NEW DRUG REGIMEN:
Florida prison officials this week executed Manuel Valle for the 1978 murder of a Coral Gables police officer. After more than 30 years on death row, Valle, 61, was executed by lethal injection under a three-drug procedure that for the first time included the anesthetic pentobarbital.
The new drug was added to the injection protocol after the drug it replaced was pulled from the market. The new drug survived a court challenge before it could be used.
STORY OF THE WEEK: In a News Service first, "Story of the Week" honors was a three-way tie as Florida says goodbye to colorful former governor Claude Kirk, political leaders approved a controversial presidential primary date and a circuit judge throws out a plan to privatize a third of Florida's prisons.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "The garden of controversy must be continually cultivated; otherwise, nobody knows you are alive." -- Gov. Claude Kirk (1926-2011) to TIME magazine in 1967.
