The Ballot Strategy Initiative Center has a new report grading the 24 states that allow citizens direct access to the ballot.
Their standards are pretty tough: only five states got a C or better. Florida got an F.
I'm not sure this is entirely fair, as it fails to account for the important role of the state courts in policing Florida's ballot access system. See, for example, Patrick Gudridge, Complexity and Contradiction in Florida Constitutional Law.
Adam Smith of the St. Petersburg Times delves into Jeff Greene's history. It's telling stuff about the would-be Democratic candidate for Florida Senate. Here's just one of many anecdotes:
Harlan Hoffman, 37, was in a Fort Lauderdale yachting apparel store in 2007 when he saw a help wanted ad for Summerwind.
“There were two people from Australia there who said, 'Oh, good luck with that one… . We're still waiting to get paid by Summerwind.' I should have listened,” Hoffman said.
The deckhand was shocked while buffing Greene's yacht and wound up hospitalized.
A boat's owner is supposed to take care of on-the-job medical costs, but Hoffman said Greene — whom he never met — told the insurance company he had never heard of Hoffman and that he didn't work on Summerwind. It took eight months and legal action that included affidavits from other crew members vouching for Hoffman and trashing Greene to get his bills paid.
“This guy Jeff Greene threw tons of money into new diving gear, but the crew's basic equipment — food and supplies — he didn't want to spend any money on. Summerwind has a terrible reputation,'' Hoffman said. “Mr. Greene's yacht is known to be a party yacht. When it went to Cuba, everybody talked about the vomit caked all over the sides from all the partying going on.”
Just what Florida needs in a Senator: contempt for the working man so deep that he has to stiff them.
Previously: Meek Fights Back
Amendment 7 is the poison-pill amendment added by our glorious state legislature in an effort to preemptively undo the effects of Amendments 5 and 6. Today a judge in Tallahassee held that Amendment 7 is too confusing and misleading to be on the ballot. See The Jacksonville Observer, Judge Yanks Redistricting Amendment from Fall Ballot, for more. (The headline is misleading: Amendment 7 is better thought of as the anti-redistricting amendment.)
It's important to understand just how raw a move Amendment 7 is. Florida is a state that is, most of the time, pretty finely balanced between Republicans and Democrats — we were, after all, the ultimate 50/50 state in the Bush-Gore election. But our state electoral districts are heavily gerrymandered to produce an overwhelming Republican majority.
As a result, the only way in which progressive legislation ever happens here is by referendum. That was, for example, how we got the maximum class size amendment passed. (Jeb Bush and other GOP leaders then spent years trying to repeal or undermine it, but generally failed.)
The referendum process is far from perfect, and may even discomfit those small-r republicans who see republican virtue in representative processes and demotic danger in direct democracy, but it has on balance been good for Florida. (See Of Pigs and the Ballot Box.) It was, therefore, particularly unfortunate — but in no way surprising — that Florida Republicans recently managed to enact a constitutional amendment requiring a super-majority for all future amendments.
Florida progressives then decided to attack the root cause of our electoral problems by putting two amendments on the ballot which would eliminate gerrymandering by requiring rational and compact districts. Amendments 5 and 6 — the result of a popular campaign to attract the large required number of signatures — may not be perfect, but they're pretty good. There were certainly good enough to frighten Tallahassee politicians. In fact, from afar it seems the state political establishment panicked. Sadly, this panic was not limited to the State's GOP but also included entrenched Democrats in minority districts who knew that their electoral prospects would be harmed if black voters were no longer lumped together in a small number of political ghettos but instead distributed more rationally according to political and geographic boundaries.
The result was Amendment 7, surely one of the most undemocratic ideas to emanate from Tallahassee in some time. Not even willing to wait to see the results of the popular vote — perhaps they knew what was coming? — our legislators voted to put a poison pill on the ballot which, were it to pass, would largely if not totally undo the effects of the two amendments on the ballot before it. In other words, in response to state constitutional amendments placed on the ballot as a result of a signature campaign, legislators voted to have a counter-amendment designed to keep the current undemocratic structure, and not incidentally keep themselves in power.
I have not yet read the judge's decision. It is certain to be appealed, and will almost certainly end up in the Florida Supreme Court. I hope he is right. There is no question that Amendment 7 is a sneaky trick and an insult to democracy. Kudos to the League of Women Voters and the NAACP who brought this suit and are fighting for all of us.
The Reid Report, which seems to be one of the canniest Florida poliblogs, asks What is he thinking? How Bud Chiles is knifing Alex Sink:
Lawton “Bud” Chiles' run for governor is good for precisely one thing: screwing Alex Sink.
<pedantry>While I find The Reid Report's political analysis admirable, I wish to register a protest to the use of an apostrophe without an “s” to indicate a singular possessive for names happening to end in an “s”.</pedantry>
Chiles to run for Fla. governor. That's Lawton Chiles III, son of the legendary walkin' governor. And he's running as an independent, making it a three-way race.
Lawton Chiles III announced Thursday he would run for governor of Florida as an independent, setting up a potential three-way race in November.
Chiles, the son of the former Democratic governor and senator of the same name, told reporters in Tallahassee that he would accept only small contributions and that he would not take funds from political action committees.
Chiles ran in 2006 as a Democrat…and had to withdraw because he had not lived in Florida long enough to meet the state law residency requirement.
I suppose the idea behind this run as an independent is to squeeze the Democratic vote and add in what there is of the sensible Republican vote and hope it makes the biggest pile.
Or is the plan to ride on Crist's coattails? Will there be coattails?
So, what does Chiles stand for? Children, it seems. Hard to find much else so far.
Even so, the Florida Governor's race could use some livening up, as it currently seems likely to feature two unexciting candidates, Sink and McCollum. Neither has their party's nomination yet, however, and both are being challenged in primaries by somewhat weird multi-millionaires. And on the Republican side, Rick Scott (the less sleazy and more extreme of the two millionaires) is making enough gains thanks to a bottomless-pocket self-financed TV ad campaign that McCollum must be sweating.
So maybe that's the Chiles strategy (if there is one): if Rick Scott wins the GOP nomination, there could be more than a few Republicans looking for an alternative and their number could be added to Democrats unenthusiastic about Sink. Whether a former Democrat could provide an alternative Republicans would swallow is unclear, but this is a weird state and a weird year. Plus the Chiles brand has some nostalgia value in Florida.
On the other hand, Democratic concerns about Sink are either that she's dull, or that she's too right-wing; running to her left won't pick up any Republicans; running to her right won't pick up many Democrats as there isn't that far to her right among the Democratic party mainstream. There are, though, all those independents, and in a three-way race it takes less to win….
Progress Florida has launched SpillBabySpill, a website dedicated to BP's man-made environmental catastrophe and especially its effects on Florida.
Admirable work, but depressing to read.
Jotwell Blenderlaw