Notes For Thursday, February 13, 2003

BYRD BACKS DOWN, AT LEAST IN PART. The drumbeat of editorials apparently got to Johnnie Byrd, who has decided to back off his phone call plan. Apparently the remainder of Speaker Byrd's bloated "communications" scheme remains intact. 7:58 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

ACCORDING TO THE ORANGE COUNTY, FLORIDA GOP, YOU ARE A "BIGOT" IF YOU DISAGREE WITH REPUBLICANS. After two Orlando City Council members (and Dyer supporters) revealed their concerns about Orlando mayoral candidate Pete Barrs views on women and minorities (including the allegation that Barr uses the "n" word), Barr fired back yesterday by accusing his opponent, Dem Buddy Dyer, of being a "bigot". Barr, a professional PR flak, alleges in a mailer "Make no mistake. Buddy Dyer has a history of Intolerance and Bigotry". The flyer, "paid for by the Orange County Republican Executive Committee but researched and approved by Republican candidate Pete Barr Sr.'s campaign", claims Dyer is a "bigot" due to his:

- "Opposing the governor's nomination of former state Rep. Rudy Bradley to the Public Service Commission in March. Dyer was one of four Democrats to vote against the appointment of Bradley, who is black. Dyer said he voted against Bradley because he wasn't qualified for the post. Bradley had angered many Democrats when he switched from the Democratic Party to the GOP to mount an unsuccessful Senate campaign two years before."

- "Voting against then-Senate President John McKay's tax-reform proposal last year. The mailer failed to indicate, however, that McKay's plan was opposed by then-House Speaker Tom Feeney, a Republican, and by Gov. Bush and most Republicans in the Legislature."

- "Threatening to stage a walkout of Democrats about a planned speech by former President Bush to the Florida Legislature. The elder Bush had been invited by Republican legislative leaders to address the Legislature just five days before the Florida presidential primary in which then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush was the leading Republican candidate." This speech was a nakedly partisan effort to prop up George W Bush's nomination effort, and who can blame Dyer for being uninterested in not wanting elected Dems to sit through that.

- "Blocking a Republican-led effort to create a new state agency to focus solely on protecting fish and wildlife in 1994, a proposal supported by environmental groups. Dyer referred the plan for further study after then-Gov. Lawton Chiles said he wanted to concentrate on merging two environmental agencies into a single entity."

Some in the local Republican party - which paid for the mailer - are upset: "'When you make these kind of outlandish, clearly inaccurate statements, you tarnish the image of the Republican Party,'" said one member of the Republican executive committee (who is supporting Dyer, the Dem). He continued, "'No one on the Executive Committee approved this language, and I'm going to call for an investigation of how this came about.'"

Source: "Barr slams Dyer as 'bigot'"
7:58 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

BUT DO THE DEMS HAVE BRIGHT FUTURES? In an attempt to appear relevant in the sea Repubs in Tallahassee, "Democratic lawmakers recommended Wednesday taking $60 million from Gov. Jeb Bush's FCAT school recognition program to create a needs-based scholarship program. The lawmakers also pledged to fight to keep the Bright Futures Scholarship program and persuade Bush and the GOP-dominated Legislature to restore general revenue dollars to higher education so the state's 11 universities aren't forced to increase tuition by 12.5 percent. 'Tuition increases are nothing short of a tax on education,' said Sen. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston." Associated Press.
7:56 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

BUSH CAGEY ABOUT LT. GOV. PICK. Gov. Bush is being evasive about who he is seriously considering to be Lt. Gov. Is Bush seriously considering a Dem (in name only) like Julia Johnson? Another name that has surfaced is former Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary and current administrator in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Ruben King-Shaw, Shaw, like Johnson, is Black, but unlike Johnson is more than qualified for the position. And then, there's John Thrasher. See " Speculation on lieutenant governor simmers".

7:52 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]

HASTEROK - WHEN FLORIDIANS VOTED TO RECUCE CLASS SIZE, "WE MEANT IT". "When 3,169,541 Floridians and I voted to put fewer students in public school classrooms, we weren't kidding." Daytona Beach News Journal political columnist Pamela Hasterok vents at the Florida GOP trying "everything from subverting the constitutional amendment we just passed to delaying it, to trying to repeal it.
6:48 AM [Go to current Florida Politics site (no popup ads)]