Notes For Sunday, November 17, 2002

Lucy Morgan reports: Senator Bill "Nelson is eyeing a return engagement for the governor's race in 2006." 8:20 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

Tampa Politics Never Ceases Th Amaze. Read Daniel Ruth's "The Pettiness Of Commissioner Storms Stripped Bare". 8:17 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

Is this My Florida? Meet Johhnie Byrd Jr., our new Speaker of the House: A staunch conservative, a fervent opponent of taxes and government, a prime sponsor of the Florida Defense of Marriage Act, and sponsor an ''affirmative-action bill for faith-based organizations' (Byrd's words), aimed at requiring state agencies to contract with religious groups for services. This guy makes Feeney look moderate. 8:11 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

Voters Say They Will Punish NonFeasance on Amendments (Unless you're John Ellis Bush): A poll shows that "voters say they are willing to punish elected officials who refuse to carry out constitutional amendments."

- "Sixty-five percent said they found it 'very appealing' to immediately remove from office any politician who doesn't follow constitutional amendments. Twenty-two percent said they found it 'somewhat' appealing, while 12 percent were opposed to the idea."

- "Sixty percent said they found it "very appealing' to bar a politician who doesn't carry out a constitutional amendment from seeking office again. Twenty-one percent said they found it 'somewhat' appealing and 17 percent said they opposed the concept."

- "Only 47 percent said it was 'very appealing' to fine a politician who blocks the implementation of a constitutional amendment"

- "Sixty-two percent said they would support allowing Florida's courts to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to say that an elected official has 'violated the oath of office.'"

"Florida lawmakers in the past have routinely ignored constitutional amendments, such as ones that made English the official language of Florida and a measure that said polluters should pay to clean up Everglades pollution." The high speed rail amendment has likewise received little substantive attentiom. We can absolutely expect more of the same on the calss size amendment. After all, is this not the same electorate that voted for the class size amendment and for Bush? As pundit Pamela Hasterok observes, in a very nice column, Bush's election makes it "obvious voters weren't making the connection between the man and his deeds."
7:57 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

The Quiet Man Moves On: Steve Seibert, selected by John Ellis Bush in 1998 to run the Department of Community Affairs resigned Friday. There is no indication that Seibert - who took his agency subterranean during the past four years - was forced out. With Bush at the helm, the Department of Community Affairs has essentially been a do nothing agency, just the way developer interests wanted it. 7:44 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]