Scott, Crist Committees Funnel Big Bucks To Parties
October 27, 2014
Political committees that play key roles in the campaigns of Gov. Rick Scott and former Gov. Charlie Crist are continuing to pour millions of dollars into the state Republican and Democratic parties.
Finance reports filed Friday show that a committee known as “Charlie Crist for Florida” sent $3.5 million to the Florida Democratic Party last week. Similarly, the Scott-supporting “Let’s Get to Work” political committee contributed $2.1 million to the Republican Party of Florida. Those contributions follow a pattern of the committees bringing in large chunks of money from contributors and passing it along to the parties, which can use it for such expenses as get-out-the vote efforts.
The Crist committee raised $1,264,700 from October 11 to October 17, bringing its overall total to $26,715,356, according to the newly filed reports. It spent $3,888,153 during the week-long period and had spent an overall total of $24,673,158 as of October 17.
Let’s Get to Work, meanwhile, received $1,585,000 during the reporting period, bringing its overall contribution total to $43,309,277. Almost all of the money received during the week-long period — $1.5 million — came from the Republican Governors Association. Let’s Get to Work spent $2,696,662 during the period and reported an overall expenditure total of $42,663,592.
by The News Service of Florida
A Little Rain Possible This Week
October 26, 2014
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Sunday Night Patchy fog after 1am. Otherwise, mostly clear, with a low around 54. Calm wind.
- Monday Sunny, with a high near 84. Light and variable wind becoming south 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon.
- Monday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 57. South wind around 5 mph.
- Tuesday Mostly sunny, with a high near 82. Southeast wind around 5 mph.
- Tuesday Night A 20 percent chance of showers. Partly cloudy, with a low around 61. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
- Wednesday A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly sunny, with a high near 82. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph in the afternoon.
- Wednesday Night A 20 percent chance of showers. Partly cloudy, with a low around 60. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming north after midnight.
- Thursday A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly sunny, with a high near 79.
- Thursday Night A 20 percent chance of showers. Partly cloudy, with a low around 52.
- Friday Mostly sunny, with a high near 74.
- Friday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 46.
- Saturday Sunny, with a high near 66.
Century Holds Surplus Auction To Prep Building For Hopeful Future Tenant
October 26, 2014
The Town of Century earned a little cash today while cleaning up an available industrial building in the name of economic development.
Most of the items sold were items left behind by the prior tenant of the former Helicopter Technology building in the town’s industrial park. The town was anxious to get rid of the items to get the building “show ready” in the hopes of landing a new industry.
The items were grouped into several lots – couches and chairs, a marble slab, office desks and chairs, plastic tanks, shelving and wooden tables. About 20 lots sold by sealed bid for $1,075.10 total. A group of industrial shelving sold for $450, while other groups sold for much less like assorted furniture sold for $100 and a lot of mostly outdated computer of office equipment sold for $35. All of the items were recently declared surplus property by the Century Town Council.
The town purchased the industrial building at public auction for less than $1 out of pocket back in August 2009, following the town’s foreclosure judgment against the now defunct Helicopter Technology company. The surplus sale is being held to clean out the building and increase its marketability as the town seeks a new tenant and new jobs.
Century – Heart and Soul: This was part of our continuing series on NorthEscambia.com featuring Century.
Pictured above and below: Some of the item lots sold Saturday morning by sealed by at the former Helicopter Technology building in the Century Industrial Park. Pictured inset: The sealed bids are opened and tabulated. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Election Preview: Floridians Still Figuring Out Rick Scott
October 26, 2014
Editor’s note: This is part of a series of election-related articles, including a previous story about Charlie Crist. This is not an endorsement for any one candidate or party.
In many ways, Rick Scott is still an enigma.
When he burst onto the scene more than four years ago, Scott was unknown to the majority of Florida voters. Any who did remember him likely had only a vague recollection of a TV pitchman opposed to President Barack Obama’s health-care law or, for those with longer memories, as the former chief executive of a company that wound up paying one of the largest fines for Medicare fraud in American history.
(Four years ago, Scott’s campaign took brought him to Molino, where he sat down with NorthEscambia.com for an exclusive interview, pictured top.)It was the former that helped propel Scott into a political life for which his skills and his instincts often seem ill-suited. It was the latter that political opponents have continued to use, more than 15 years later, to tarnish Scott’s reputation and to try to convince voters that he can’t be trusted.
Four years after his election, Floridians still have a mixed, at times almost-contradictory view of their governor, now running for a second term. The tea-party darling who won an election promising to slash spending but now boasts of the largest education budget in state history. The candidate who ran vowing to crack down on illegal immigration but later pushed the Legislature to approve lower, in-state tuition rates for undocumented immigrants. The outsider who has learned to play the inside game in Tallahassee well enough to get many of his legislative proposals approved.
“Who are you, really, Rick Scott?” asked then-Attorney General Bill McCollum in 2010, when the two were locked in a tight Republican primary.
Four years later, it’s not clear that Floridians have any better idea than they had when the question was asked.
That uncertainty has produced dueling images as voters head to the polls. In the telling of Scott’s campaign and allies, he is a not-always-smooth politician focused on creating jobs while learning the intricacies of his own. To opponents, he is at heart a corporate raider looking to close one final deal before returning to the hard-edged conservatism that drove him to near-historic lows in public popularity early in his term.
Which portrait voters believe could determine whether Scott wins a second term in November or becomes the first governor in 24 years to lose a bid for re-election.
THE PERSONALITY OF RICK SCOTT
During a speech at the Republican Party’s annual fundraising dinner in September, Scott quieted the crowd by saying that he had an announcement to make.
ri”Charlie Crist is a slick politician, a smooth talker, and unfortunately, I’m not,” Scott said, to laughter and applause.
In that statement, a governor not known for introspection laid out as well as anyone the differences between himself and his opponent, former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, now running as a Democrat.
Crist is almost universally known as a man perfectly at ease glad-handing at campaign events and talking to anyone, from constituents to lawmakers. Even political opponents say they come away from meetings with Crist feeling good.
In contrast, Scott comes across as distant and aloof. Things that come naturally to other politicians — highlighting the contributions of a member of the audience — seem almost forced coming from Scott.
“He’s just not a standard, slick politician,” said House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel. “He doesn’t want to be.”
The truth, friends and associates say, is a bit more nuanced. To be sure, Scott’s public persona is not necessarily a radical departure from his private personality: businesslike, intense and focused.
“My experience is that Rick Scott around the dinner table is the same Rick Scott we see at Cabinet meetings,” said Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville. “He’s not running for Miss Congeniality. He’s running for chief executive.”
Almost everyone who has worked with Scott says his work ethic is impressive. The governor needs little sleep, sets out detailed goals for each day and works relentlessly to achieve them — something that was apparent even during his initial run for office in 2010.
“He really was wearing out the 20-somethings who worked on the campaign,” said Susie Wiles, who managed the 2010 campaign.
Scott also has a sharp memory. He often easily rattles off detailed economic numbers during news conferences. Brian Burgess, who worked for Scott in the crusade against Obamacare starting in 2009 and was the governor’s first communications director through 2012, said Scott can give someone an assignment, not see them for three weeks, then ask them at their next meeting whether the task was completed.
“The guy never forgets anything,” Burgess said.
Some of those who have worked with Scott don’t dispute the image of him as distant. In her autobiography, “When You Get There,” former Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll wrote that despite trying, she never developed a close relationship with Scott. Carroll wrote the book after resigning — she says under pressure — in 2013.
“During my entire time in office, I never received a birthday card or an anniversary card or anything that showed a personal touch,” wrote Carroll, whose resignation came amid controversy about her past ties to a major player in the Internet café industry.
But others say the governor can be kind and thoughtful behind the scenes. Burgess recalled a time that his son and another aide’s daughter were having a birthday party at a Tallahassee establishment.
Scott’s SUV appeared, and Florida Department of Law Enforcement officers accompanied the governor into the party. Burgess had not expected Scott to attend.
Wiles said the governor looks out for those he cares about.
“It’s never loud or necessarily even overt, and it’s never anything he wants people to know, but his kindness is enormous,” she said.
That can extend to his work with others in Tallahassee as well. Gaetz’s wife, Vicky, uses a wheelchair — and the senator said that any time the two visit Scott, a small ramp is set up to make it easier for Vicky Gaetz to get into the Governor’s Mansion, and that the governor will ask her in the course of an evening whether he can help her with something.
“When we come to the Governor’s Mansion, it’s been unspoken, it’s been friendly, but there’s always been this accommodation,” Don Gaetz said.
It’s the kind of thing that would be almost expected from most politicians, but with Scott, it seems almost noteworthy — a signal that the man once lampooned by the Tampa Bay Times editorial board as the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz does, indeed, have a heart.
THE EDUCATION OF RICK SCOTT
Mike Weinstein, who served in the House and was one of the first elected Republicans to support Scott during the 2010 GOP primary, was sitting with the governor-elect at an airport shortly after the general election. Scott was telling Weinstein, who left the Legislature in 2012, that the public would see how Scott intended to govern when he submitted his first budget proposal to lawmakers.
Weinstein said he chuckled that Scott didn’t seem to realize “that his budget really didn’t matter,” because House and Senate leaders would look out for their priorities first in the negotiations over the spending plan.
The discussion between Scott and Weinstein foreshadowed what would become an early theme for the governor’s administration: At first, Scott didn’t seem to grasp the difference between being the chief executive of a company and the chief executive of a state.
“There were a lot of growing pains in there,” Burgess said.
Scott set the tone in his inaugural address: The new governor still saw himself as an outsider.
“The truth is, he who pays the piper calls the tune,” Scott said. “Now we’re going to call the tune, not government.”
Still, the governor tried to reach out to the key players. A week after he took office, he met with Senate Republicans at Andrew’s 228 Restaurant in downtown Tallahassee and expressed confidence about the coming session.
“I think this is going to be a lot of fun,” Scott said. “And I think it’s going to be a lot of fun because I think we’re going to get a lot of things done.”
There were many adjectives later used to describe the 2011 legislative session. “Fun” was not one of them. The conclusion of session dissolved into chaos because of a feud between the House and the Senate, which didn’t adjourn until almost 4 a.m. the day after the session was scheduled to end.
In between, Scott further alienated an already-suspicious press by putting velvet ropes in front of his podium at one news conference to keep reporters from following him; angered African-American lawmakers by trying to relate to them based on his growing up in public housing; and drew a letter from then-Senate Budget Chairman JD Alexander suggesting Scott might have broken the law by selling state planes — a goal Alexander supported.
Scott’s focus on jobs also rankled some lawmakers who said he took it too far. The new governor used “job” or “jobs” 31 times in his first State of the State address, but ran into opposition when he tried to get rid of programs in his office dealing with drug control and adoption — which Scott said duplicated other agencies and didn’t help his focus on the economy.
“I commend him for wanting ‘jobs, jobs, jobs,’ but he has (a) whole array of things for which he is responsible and … which he must support,” said then-Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach.
In later years, Scott would explain his obsession with jobs in personal terms, talking about the financial struggles his family faced as a child.
“Not having a job is devastating to a family,” Scott said during his 2013 State of the State address, according to the prepared remarks. “I remember when my parents couldn’t find work. I remember when my dad had his car repossessed.”
Eventually, Scott got most of the policy changes he wanted from the Legislature in 2011, though they were often pared back. Pension changes Scott signed were not as sweeping as what he wanted; his corporate tax-cut request was completely reconfigured to have a dramatically smaller price tag; and Scott’s push for a crackdown on illegal immigration and a two-year budget were not adopted.
THE EVOLUTION OF RICK SCOTT
In later sessions, the governor would scale back his ambitions, pushing for one or two major priorities. And lawmakers would say he grew into the role, no longer seeing the Legislature as a corporate board of directors that would quickly line up behind Scott’s ideas.
“The Florida Legislature is made up of 160 people with about 200 different opinions on any given issue,” Gaetz said.
By 2014, Scott was able to use his bully pulpit to help push through a bill granting cheaper, in-state tuition rates to some undocumented immigrants who had been in Florida for years. He enlisted two former Republican governors — Bob Martinez and state GOP icon Jeb Bush — to push for a Senate committee vote. When the committee refused, Scott’s team summoned reporters to his office so that he could demand action.
“We’ve got to give these children the same opportunities of all children,” Scott said. “Whatever country you were born in — whatever family or ZIP code — you ought to have the chance to live the dream.”
Scott had not started out as a strong supporter of the bill. In fact, years earlier, he had voiced opposition to similar legislation. But the Senate eventually caved, and Scott later signed the bill into law.
“That bill would not have passed the Senate if it wasn’t for Governor Scott,” said Weatherford, who first made the proposal a priority.
Opponents, of course, have a more unsparing opinion of the governor.
Incoming House Minority Leader Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, summed up the lessons of the past four years this way: “When you run on tea-party principles, you can destroy a state in four years.”
And Scott’s shifting opinions on the tuition bill and other issues — including education funding and his support for an unsuccessful proposal to expand Medicaid in Florida — haven’t convinced Democrats. They have no doubt that the governor is still an ideologue, but one who is doing what is necessary now to get re-elected.
“The most frightening thing that we should all think about is if this guy gets re-elected, he goes back to being the true Rick Scott that he is, which cut education to the bone, destroyed our environment, wouldn’t fight for the middle class, doesn’t believe in raising the minimum wage,” Crist told reporters recently. “I mean, it would be a nightmare.”
But supporters say Scott is now in the fight of his young political life precisely because he has, by and large, stuck to his principles.
“The irony is that his popularity isn’t so high,” Weinstein said, “but he’s done exactly like he said he was going to do.”
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Pictured top: Rick Scott sat down on his campaign bus in Molino for an exclusive NorthEscambia.com interview. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
NWE Senior Chiefs Beat Jay, Head To Escambia River Championship
October 26, 2014
The Northwest Escambia Senior Chiefs football team beat the Jay Royals Saturday night in Jay, 46-6. With the win, the Senior Chiefs would play for the Escambia River Conference Championship at Tommy Weaver Memorial Stadium at Northview High School on November 1. Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Janice Marie Harris
October 26, 2014
Janice Marie Harris 43, of Atmore, passed away October 3, 2014, in Robinsonville. She was a registered nurse, graduating from Jefferson Davis Community College. She was born in Atmore on January 16, 1971, to Leo and Verna Mae Harrison Harris. She was employed by The Meadows and Oakwood Nursing Home in Bay Minette.
She is preceded in death by her mother, Verna Mae Harrison.
She is survived by her father, Leo Harris of Atmore; siblings, Tammy Harris of Molino, Judy Harris of Atmore and Jerry Harris of Stockton; four nieces and nephews, Krystal Harris, Daniel Pierce, Heather Moize and Justin Harris; companion, Hollis McKinley of Robinsonville.
A memorial service will be held Saturday, November 1, 2014, at 3 p.m. from the Atmore Church of God with Rev. David Harrison officiating.
In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the United Bank in memory of Janice.
Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Dennis G. Helton, Jr.
October 26, 2014
Cmd. Sgt. Maj. (USA, Ret) Dennis G. Helton, Jr, 84, of Molino, passed away Wednesday, October 22, 2014, in Pensacola.
Sgt. Maj. Helton retired from the U.S. Army after 24 years of service and was an Army ROTC instructor at J.M. Tate High School before retiring after 20 years of teaching.
He was preceded in death by his wife of 53 years, Jean Morello Helton; brothers, Frank, Alton, Ronnie, Kenneth and Walter; and sisters, Shirley, Henrietta and Juanita.
He was also preceded in death by his grandson, Air Force 1st Lt. Joseph Helton.
He is survived by his children, Joey of Kingston, Washington, Jim and Lynn of Navarre, John and Lisa of Washington, D.C., Janet and Richard Pfalzgraf of Navarre, Jeff and Julie of Fayetteville, Tennessee, Jerry and Shelley of Clear Springs, AL, and Jennifer and Scott Burt of Milton; 13 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
He is also survived by a sister, Evelyn Eaves of Biloxi, Mississippi; and brother, Eugene (Ardeth) Helton of Phoenix, Arizona.
Graveside services will be held on Wednesday, October 29, 2014, at 12:30 p.m. at Barrancas National Cemetery with full military honors.
Visitation will be Tuesday, October 28, 2014, from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. at Faith Chapel North Funeral Home.
Faith Chapel Funeral Home North is in charge of arrangements.
Photo Gallery: Hundreds Attend Williams Station Day; Dancers Dazzle Crowd
October 26, 2014
Hundreds attended the annual Williams Station Day in Atmore Saturday, including a large crowd for the day’s opening entertainment — dozens of dancers from a Byrneville group.
Williams Station Day takes its name from Atmore’s early history when in 1866 the community was a supply stop along the Mobile and Great Northern railroad.
Festival-goers were entertained by a wide variety of musical acts, and a wide variety of arts and crafts were also available. After an opening ceremony that featured a pink balloon release to recognize Breast Cancer Awareness month in October, Heather Leonard’s Danceworks of Byrneville entertained the crowd.
For a Danceworks photo gallery, click here.
For a Williams Station Day photo gallery, click here.
For results and photos from the Williams Station Day 5K, click here.
Pictured top: Crowds attend the annual Williams Station Day in Atmore Saturday. Pictured inset: Dancers perform. Pictured below: Peanut sales benefiting the Northview High School Tribal Beat Band. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Ash, Miller Top Williams Station Day 5K Winners
October 26, 2014
About 50 runners finished the Williams Station Day 5K Saturday morning in Atmore, including runners from the Northview High, West Florida High and Ernest Ward Middle school cross country teams.
Overall male winner was Alan Ash (pictured left) with a time of 18:14. Over female winner was Lisa Miller (pictured right) with a time of 25:07.
For a NorthEscambia.com photo gallery, click here.
Results were as follows:
FEMALE RUNNERS
MALE RUNNERS
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Robotics Competition Prepares Local Students For High Tech Future
October 26, 2014
Young scientists from 14 area middle and high schools tested their science, math and problem-solving skills at the seventh annual Emerald Coast BEST Robotics competition Saturday at the University of West Florida.
This year’s theme, Blade Runner, involved students using teamwork and innovative thinking to execute five sets of tasks to assemble and position a wind turbine into a completed state.
Each team was judged on its robot performance, marketing presentation, team exhibit, technical notebook and spirit and sportsmanship. The top two overall teams and the team with the top robot advance to the regional competition December 5-7 at Auburn University.
Woodlawn Beach Middle School took the overall competition and will be joined by Brown Barge Middle School to represent the Emerald Coast BEST hub at Auburn.
Gulf Power has sponsored the BEST Robotics competition for the past seven years. The event teaches teamwork, problem solving, project management and pride in task completion.
BEST Robotics Inc. — Boosting Engineering Science and Technology — is a non-profit, volunteer-based organization whose mission is to inspire students to pursue careers in engineering, science and technology through participation in a sports-like, science and engineering-based robotics competition.
“This annual competition has continued to grow in popularity because it provides local students the opportunity to learn engineering, science and math skills in a hands-on practical setting,” said Jeff Rogers, Gulf Power spokesman. “Gulf Power is very proud to sponsor an event that has such a visible impact on local students.”
Area schools have been competing in BEST since 2004, when Gulf Power sponsored eight local teams to compete in the BEST hub in Mobile, Ala. The funding of hub operations depends entirely on corporate and individual sponsorships. Materials kits to build the robots are provided to the teams by the hub. No fees are paid by students or schools participating in BEST robotics.
AWARD CATEGORIES
Advancing to Regionals at South’s BEST – Dec. 5-7 at Auburn University
- Robotics: Brown Barge Middle School
- BEST: Woodlawn Beach Middle School
BEST Award — The BEST Award is presented to the team that best embodies the attributes associated with “Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology” in its development which include teamwork, diversity of participation, sportsmanship, creativity, ethics, positive attitude/enthusiasm, school/community involvement and exposure to and use of the engineering process.
- Woodlawn Beach Middle School
- Woodham Middle School
- Sims Middle School
Robotics Award — Awarded to the teams whose machines finish first, second and third in the tournament bracket.
- Woodlawn Beach Middle School
- Brown Barge Middle School
- Capstone Academy
Founders Award for Creative Design — Awarded to the team that makes best use of the engineering process in consideration of offensive and defensive capabilities in machine design; awarded in recognition of BEST founders Steve Marum and Ted Mahler.
- Woodlawn Beach Middle School
Most Robust Machine — Awarded to the team whose machine requires the least maintenance during and between matches and is generally the sturdiest machine in the competition.
- Pace High School
Most Photogenic Machine
- Brown Barge Middle School
Gulf Power Blood, Sweat and Duct Tape Award
- Little Flower Catholic School
Best T-Shirt Design
- West Florida High School
- Sims Middle School
- Woodlawn Beach Middle School
Web Page Design Award — Awarded for the best team website; based on page functionality, creative use of the game theme, information about team members and community efforts.
Woodham Middle School
Best Spirit and Sportsmanship — Recognizes the vigor and enthusiasm displayed by team representatives and the outward display of sportsmanship (e.g., helping other teams in need), grace in winning and losing, and conduct and attitude considered befitting participation in sports.
- Seaside Neighborhood School
- Pace High School
- Sims Middle School
Best Team Exhibit and Interview — The purpose of this category is to communicate through a display, and through discussion with judges, information about the team’s efforts to promote BEST in the community and schools; foster BEST spirit, camaraderie and participation and give evidence of sportsmanship.
- Woodlawn Beach Middle School
- Woodham Middle School
- Seaside Neighborhood School
Best Marketing Presentation — Teams should view themselves as employees of a “company” that is marketing their “product” (robot) to a potential buyer (judges). This marketing team is an integral part of the engineering team that has designed a specialized robot.
- Sims Middle School
- Seacoast Collegiate High
- Seaside Neighborhood School
Best Project Engineering Notebook — The purpose of the notebook is to document the process the team used to design, build and test their robot.
- Seacoast Collegiate High
- Sims Middle School
- Pace High School
2014 Teams:
- Avalon Middle School
- Brown-Barge Middle School
- Capstone Academy
- Creative Learning Academy
- J.M. Tate High School
- Little Flower Catholic School
- Max Bruner Jr. Middle School
- Pace High School
- Seacoast Collegiate High School
- Seaside Neighborhood School
- Sims Middle School
- West Florida High School
- Woodham Middle School
- Woodlawn Beach Middle School
Pictured: The seventh annual Emerald Coast BEST Robotics competition Saturday at the University of West Florida. Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
