Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Redistricting, Elections Heat Up

July 19, 2015

The mid-summer classic in baseball usually means Florida gets to settle into a sweltering, snowbird-free serenity, with eyes throughout the peninsula shifting to the tropics for hurricanes and the near horizon for the latest brush fire.

In Tallahassee, summer also means a slowdown in the pace of life, including a respite from lawmakers, fewer cars on the road, open barstools and even more talk than usual about Florida State University football.

http://www.northescambia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/floridaweeklly.jpgBut this summer, it’s hard to escape the politics filling the capital air.

Courts have moved lawmakers toward holding the second special legislative session of the year, this time to redraw congressional district lines.

Also, the 2016 presidential contest, with Floridian Marco Rubio hoping to capture the White House, has created a spillover effect of an open U.S. Senate seat. That drew in Florida’s lieutenant governor this week and has also started a chain reaction in at least three congressional districts involving ambitious state and local politicians.

Accompanying the maneuvering by politicians, Floridians also found out this week that rival groups will pitch alternative constitutional amendments in 2016 on solar energy.

RAINING SOLAR AMENDMENTS

Floridians got a preview of just how messy the battle over expanding solar energy might get during the next year.

Conflicting constitutional amendments about the future of solar energy in Florida are now being proposed by competing groups.

The state Supreme Court is already reviewing the language in a constitutional amendment proposed by Floridians for Solar Choice. That proposal would allow businesses and homeowners to generate and sell relatively small amounts of solar energy.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, Florida Power & Light, Duke Energy, Tampa Electric Co., Gulf Power, the Florida League of Cities and a number of influential business groups in recent weeks expressed their opposition to that proposal.

On Wednesday, a new group emerged proclaiming it too wants to place before voters an amendment.

Former state Rep. Jim Kallinger, a co-chairman of Consumers for Smart Solar, said during a brief news conference in Orlando that his group is making the counter proposal because the amendment now before the state’s top court “will result in subsidies, higher taxes or user fees, and an unfair balance for consumers, meaning that some will pay more than their fair share to maintain the cost of the grid while others get a free ride.”

Kallinger’s group also released a video that contends the coalition behind Floridians for Solar Choice is a front for what is actually a “shady” power grab by out-of-state solar companies.

Floridians for Solar Choice — which counts among its members the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, the Florida Retail Federation and the Sierra Club Florida — responded that the newest opposition “is a slickly developed campaign to potentially confuse voters” and said it believes the effort is supported by energy companies.

“We’re the grassroots, we’re the people begging and asking for choice,” Tory Perfetti, chairman of Floridians for Solar Choice, told reporters during a conference call Wednesday. “What this is, is an attempt by us to open up and give citizens further control of their own bills and have the ability to lower them. And anyone who is standing against this is representing the actual elite class which controls how much people pay in this state.”

Floridians can expect to find both groups outside libraries and other public venues for the rest of this year trying to collect signatures of registered voters.

CLOCK TICKING ON REDISTRICTING

The Florida Supreme Court made clear last week lawmakers would have to move quickly to redraw congressional districts that the court found unconstitutional. Then, a circuit judge turned up the pressure even more.

On Wednesday Leon County Circuit Judge George S. Reynolds III told lawmakers that a special legislative session to redraw the districts and a subsequent trial must be finished by Sept. 25.

Oh, but first Reynolds — who one could kindly guess is an extreme optimist — said he wants attorneys for lawmakers and voting-rights groups challenging the congressional lines to try reach an agreement on the time needed for the latest changes.

“The court will do its best to accommodate everyone’s schedule, but clearly there is not much time to do all that is required and the court reserves the right to enter a scheduling order that it believes is necessary to provide for a fair and expeditious resolution of this matter,” Reynolds wrote.

The Supreme Court last week tossed out eight congressional districts because it found that lawmakers violated a 2010 constitutional amendment aimed at preventing gerrymandering. Redrawing the eight districts, however, also will affect other districts.

SENATE PRIMARY LINES

Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, who on Wednesday jumped into the U.S. Senate race, may not have gotten any rousing endorsement from the man who he accompanied in the 2014 gubernatorial election.

In fact, Gov. Rick Scott was in Jacksonville for a ceremonial bill signing as his number two was in South Florida kicking off the senatorial campaign.

But others have quickly taken sides in the Republican primary for Rubio’s seat.

Chief among those stepping up to support Lopez-Cantera was Bondi, who some earlier this year speculated would also run for the Senate in 2016.

However, Lopez-Cantera will have to overcome criticism from the far-right that he may not be conservative enough.

Ken Cuccinelli II, president of the Senate Conservatives Fund, which is backing Northeast Florida Congressman Ron DeSantis, has wasted little time labeling Lopez-Cantera, a former state House majority leader, as a “RINO,” the infamous “Republican in name only” moniker.

“Lopez-Cantera’s record includes supporting wasteful spending at the state level, in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, and former governor Charlie Crist’s budget that raised taxes by $2.2 billion,” Cuccinelli wrote to members in a “RINO alert” memo.

Meanwhile, a few more big name Republicans may also come off the bench to run, with decisions expected from Tampa Bay-area Congressman David Jolly and Northwest Florida Congressman Jeff Miller.

And the GOP fight shouldn’t overshadow what is expected to be an equally contentious scrap on the Democratic side of the ledger as Congressmen Alan Grayson of Orlando and Patrick Murphy of Jupiter seek Rubio’s seat.

The move by congressmen to run for higher office is already rippling through the state and county levels. State Sen. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, announced Thursday he is running in Grayson’s district, joining at least three other Democrats. Also, the candidacies of Murphy and DeSantis have touched off races in their congressional districts.

STORY OF THE WEEK: The 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee heard arguments Tuesday from Florida Carry Inc., which contends students and other people residing in on-campus housing at the University of Florida should be allowed to have firearms.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:”Are you going to ask the congressmen who are running for this office the same question?” — Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera when asked if his campaign for U.S. Senate would interfere with his duties as lieutenant governor.

by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News