Subject: POLITICO Florida Playbook, presented by Nuclear Matters: Bikers for Trump rev in Daytona – The prez race hurt Rubio’s likability -- Christian activist packs heat for transgender bathrooms – Meet the lawmakers who didn’t vote
From: Marc Caputo <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2016 05:00:56 -0600

04/26/2016 06:58 AM EDT

By Marc Caputo ([email-masked]; @MarcACaputo) with Ali Breland ([email-masked]; @AliBreland) and the staff of POLITICO Florida

Good Tuesday morning. Despite having contested primaries with tough opponents, Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson and Republican Rep. David Jolly declared themselves the frontrunners in the U.S. Senate race and stood side-by-side at a Monday candidate forum. The online-crowdsourced questions had a more liberal-leaning tone that clearly benefitted Grayson. He also had the mean-zing of the night.

CLIMATE-CHANGE SILVER LINING -- "The only good part of that [climate change] is Rush Limbaugh's house is right on the coast. So his house goes first," Grayson said.

--"Questions in new debate format give advantage to Democrat Grayson," by POLITICO Florida's Matt Dixon: Much of the roughly 75-minute debate was focused on issues like voting rights, whether or not to ban private prisons and included a question that asked the candidates specifically if "climate change is the greatest threat to our nation." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc5df6898a5ddbbe31a70701b1f0da063a47063341a51c64180

DOLPHINS (OWNER) FOR MURPHY-- "Dolphins' owner, and big GOP donor, helping Murphy's campaign," by POLITICO Florida's Matt Dixon: The campaign of Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Patrick Murphy is getting help from Miami Dolphins' owner Stephen Ross, a rainmaker who in recent years has been much more apt to give big checks to Republicans at both the state and federal levels.

Ross gave $5,400, the maximum amount allowed by law, directly to Murphy's Senate campaign and another $10,000 to a joint fundraising committee directly tied to both Murphy's campaign and the Florida Democratic Party. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc5cd4a83e137b0ef4f9b6ea9bb5d15898f7c98880ad7310a29

FLORIDA MATTERS MORE -- "State may decide Senate control," by Tallahassee Democrat's Ledyard King: "Florida's status as the most important swing state in the presidential race is no secret. But the November election could give the Sunshine State a chance to decide something almost as important: control of the Senate. With Republican Marco Rubio surrendering his seat to run for president, Florida has become one of a few states with vulnerable GOP-held seats - along with New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - expected to determine whether Democrats recapture the chamber.

"Only one Democratic seat, now held by the retiring minority leader Harry Reid of Nevada, is considered a toss-up. Republicans hold 54 of the chamber's 100 seats, so Democrats are hoping to keep all their seats and defeat at least four GOP incumbents - five, if they don't win the White House and no longer have the vice president to break ties." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc5889c7dad4239ff09044153daaeba86caf39c188149c19981

RUBIO WOES - Running for president is a great way to lose sleep, money and poll numbers. According to Morning Consult's weekly surveys, "For Rubio, it doesn't look great. Of all Senators who ran for president, his favorability took the biggest hit. Rubio's favorability dropped 6 points to 45%, and his unfavorability increased 7 points to 41% in Florida. Bill Nelson stayed in pretty much the same spot -- favorability is 52%, unfavorability is 24%, don't know/no opinion is 24%." (The surveys of 62,288 registered voters across America were conducted in each state between Jan. 8 and April 17). http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc5e816c026b598aaa42f746e8b03e77ecdb539fee3859ce6ff

FLORIDA BIKERS FOR TRUMP -- "Meet the Vigilantes Who Patrol Trump's Rallies," by POLITICO's Ben Schreckinger: It was Friday night and Chris Cox was sitting at the No Name Saloon in Edgewater, Florida, planning a pro-Trump rally during Daytona Bike Week, when he looked up at the television in the bar. Protesters were clashing with Donald Trump's supporters inside a packed Chicago arena, forcing the campaign to cancel the event and urge everyone to leave "in peace."

Cox decided that his 30,000-member group, "Bikers for Trump," would no longer be just a support organization focused primarily on holding independent rallies for the Republican front-runner. It would transform into a volunteer security force, patrolling Trump's events to identify protesters for paid security and police, forming barriers to protect Trump supporters, and playing backup to the cops as they removed unwanted attendees from the campaign's rallies. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc57a2a004f7f2ef470ea90bdec81443ad1885788bd77ffa98d 

RUMOR MILL -- "Bill Nelson for veep?" by Tampa Bay Times' Alex Leary: Sen. Bill Nelson is among the names being floated by Hillary Clinton's campaign as a possible running mate. Nelson appeared in a New York Times story that dropped a lot of names including, Tim Kaine, Sherrod Brown, Deval Patrick, Tom Perez and Julian Castro. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc5ac5920acded01952775cafb463c4913d7f2494f7308caf4b 

--Bill Nelson is a very likable senator. And so, as a favor to him, his name was on this list. I will print out a Florida Playbook and eat it if Nelson is picked as Hillary's VP.

** A Message from Nuclear Matters: Nuclear energy plants play a vital role in achieving our clean-energy and carbon-reduction goals. Florida's nuclear energy fleet supports more than 2,270 jobs and provides $1.9 billion to the state's GDP. Learn more at NuclearMatters.com. **

VOTING IS HARD -- "Florida lawmakers forget to vote for president," by WTSP's Noah Pransky: Lawmakers vote for a living, and many suggest whom you should vote for in national races. But 10Investigates found a number of those same Florida legislators didn't bother to vote in March's presidential primary. Similar to what WTSP reported in 2012, some lawmakers who endorsed candidates in the Presidential Preference Primary (PPP) didn't vote in that primary, according to county voting records. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc586d98ac1f5930ab06cc7fa69d17fcb661ae047d5f446501c 

ON RANDOLPH - People for the American Way today is expected to announce its endorsement of Susannah Randolph in CD-9. Board member and organizer Dolores Huerta praised Randolph for being a "grassroots organizer ... [who] has engaged and inspired members of all communities and has been a longtime advocate for those in need of a voice."

ANOTHER ONE -- "Candidate under fire for saying Obama stokes black 'envy'," by POLITICO Florida's Marc Caputo: We had a tease of this story in yesterday's Florida Playbook. What we didn't have was Freeman's comments about whom he saw as the opponents in the upcoming election: "We know what we're against, the coalition on the other side: women and minorities, young people, welfare people." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc5b249b7bd77a66acfc9b2ba422e4f6a29323c0c5356384dfa

BLACK AND BLUE -- "Police lieutenant suspended 10 days by Sheriff's Office for social media posts with racial slant," by The Florida Times-Union's Dana Treen: "Allegations of unbecoming conduct and violations of social media policy have been sustained against a veteran Jacksonville police lieutenant who posted derisive images and racial epithets on a photo and video posting site account.

"The Sheriff's Office did not find that she was racially biased in her treatment of others in her job, but by posting the comments online on Instagram she violated code of conduct rules, according to the 21-page Internal Affairs report. Lt. Trudy Callahan, a 20-year officer, was investigated in January after complaints that images and comments posted on her then-publicly accessible Instagram account truds137 were insulting and potentially racist and that profane remarks about the Sheriff's Office were unfitting." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc5598676530abb250321fa469e9e1dab0cd3b24a29c058478e

LAZY RAT MOUTH -- "Boca Raton is the laziest city in America, study says," by Sun-Sentinel's Selima Hussain: "The Beverly Hills of Florida,' as it's sometimes called, joined two other Florida cities on Realtor.com's 'Top 10 Cities Where Lazy Folks Can Thrive' list. Orlando and Miami were included as numbers 2 and 5." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc5c495869fb74883cd1a0434d3462e9a5e9ad3537b38becd4e

KILLER GREEN -- "Greening impacting majority of citrus trees," by The News Service of Florida via Ocala Star Banner: "The vast majority of Florida's citrus industry is being impacted by a bacterial disease known as citrus greening, or Huanglongbing, according to the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. The survey by university researchers found that 80 percent of the citrus trees currently in operation across Florida are infected with the disease, which decreases production, reduces fruit size and quality, and causes higher tree mortality." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc5c5174e30cacf340fcc68abaa91c780dec8d130b50a455d1b

ZIKA! -- "Zika funding battle steals states' public health emergency money," by The Washington Post's Lena H. Sun: "Cities and states preparing for possible Zika outbreaks this spring and summer are losing millions of federal dollars that local officials say they were counting on, not only for on-the-ground efforts to track and contain the spread of the mosquito-borne virus but also to respond to other emergencies that threaten public health ... The across-the-board funding cuts are part of a complicated shift of resources that the Obama administration blames on Congress and its refusal to approve the White House's $1.9 billion emergency request to combat Zika. In early April, officials
 announced a stopgap measure that moved money originally intended for the government's Ebola response." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc548c99b808b7539e3365c185a869d172ab64cf3ed676682b3

SILICON BEACH? -- "The Untold Story of Magic Leap, the World's Most Secretive Startup," by Wired's Kevin Kelly: "The world's hottest startup isn't located in Silicon Valley-it's in suburban Florida. KEVIN KELLY explores what Magic Leap's mind-bending technology tells us about the future of virtual reality." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc5f850d98b31db730e9ba16a7d192ae87ffca62f6e527ac30a

SPACE COAST -- "SpaceX targeting early May for Falcon 9 rocket launch," by Florida Today's James Dean: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc539872552b3f88eb65235c6d7c339f1746f89033556f8bec6

FINAL FRONTIER -- "Satellite company boosts high-tech manufacturing in Central Florida," by Orlando Sentinel's Marco Santana: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc5831aa97055d153eb8a763951bae32825d8e36fe89bc49c9d

PAYIN' RENT -The Tampa Bay Times sold its headquarters for $19 million last week. It signed a 15 year lease to occupy around half of the building as part of the deal. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc5e711f3becd4318385f24c86ca0ca7099aa793b94d1bea799

THE GANNETT GOBBLER -- "Newsonomics: After Gannett's $815 million Tribune bid, here are eight things to look out for: How big would Gannett become? Is resistance futile?" by Nieman Lab's Ken Doctor: "Why does Florida matter in this deal? Gannett has long wanted the Orlando Sentinel and Sun-Sentinel in southern Florida. That would make it Florida's second biggest newspaper publisher, with 12 papers, most of them dailies. That's a lot of cost consolidation and savings. Gannett might then try to pick up the neighboring Miami Herald, whose owner McClatchy is struggling to find its own future." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc54bc3e0c723dbdca8ed7afc1df49208b25389dc80ceb5aa60

DUDLEY OUT, DIAMOND IN? -- "Dudley dropping out sparks shakeup in Pinellas House seat," by POLITICO Florida's Matt Dixon: Democratic state Rep. Dwight Dudley of St. Petersburg said Monday he would not seek re-election, a move that immediately prompted party leaders to get behind attorney Ben Diamond, who will now run for the seat. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc54c5a6bb595e792fe67cfb69a69a39f80ea10b55025231bd9

WHY? -- "Enterprise Florida funding ad attacking California minimum wage hike," by POLITICO Florida's Matt Dixon: Enterprise Florida, the state's mostly taxpayer funded economic development arm, is paying for radio ads in California that criticize the state's "politicians" for raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. "Seven hundred thousand. That's how many California jobs will be lost thanks to the politicians raising the minimum wage," a female narrator in the ad says. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc5060dddb3184064dbd2538c872c4aeded21275bd0a656fd98

HERE'S WHY -- Gary Fineout @fineout: "Spox for Jerry Brown adds they welcome @FLGovScott to a state where they have acted on issues Scott ignores like poverty & climate change."

BIG MONEY FIGHT -- "Scott, Atwater squabble over insurance chief," by Associated Press' Gary Fineout: Thanks to an arcane state law, Florida could enter hurricane season with no one firmly in charge of the state agency responsible for regulating the state's insurance industry. The reason? The two Republican elected officials responsible for picking a new commissioner are locked in a stalemate over who should be hired to replace outgoing Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc566b29f21266dc8dbd5f278426b87bff510c39474c61527f2

CUE THE ARCHIES SONG -- "Sugar sweetens congressional campaigns," by TCPalm's Isadorra Rangel: Two of the 12 people running to replace U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy accepted political contributions from the sugar industry, a controversial move in a congressional district that's ground zero for Lake Okeechobee discharges.

The donations represent a small portion of the total raised by Army veteran Brian Mast and sugar farmer Rick Roth, both Republicans. Yet the issue has caused outcry in the past as some voters and environmentalists blame the sugar industry for the discharges and some of the pollution in the Indian River Lagoon. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc5ed549fd606f7cd7cf04ee28464e774755a698c2d718f24f4 

ODDS AND ENDS...

 -- "Florida's prison system is a mess," by Tallahassee Democrat's Kent Miller: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc503aef7c99223cedcbd0c759aa0f520a30c01498102275161

-- "Cash dominates, but less so," by Herald-Tribune's John Hielscher: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc59ee40619dbf89d65687d8367d0d61190dc4f5385768d897a

-- "Naples spent $47,412 on investigation that reached no conclusions on claims against fired fire chief," by Naples Daily News' Joseph Cranney: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc55c5a13253d1e14adaa192c8b83c234b97df0e7c48e81e8ed

--@NorthPortPolice: "Bull loose on 75. Ofcrs able to get it back behind fence. Bull, nor officers harmed during brief, yet tense standoff." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc594b86600b385d95f470e5c19a77f64c4189afa73f0aca209

-- "Horse gets spooked, ends up being rescued from a canal," by Miami Herald's Carli Teproff: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc5a9ac7b99b7e9487fb5ae34e933d7a7e2f2f0767fc3983cde

-- "Video of shark in Siesta surf goes viral," Herald-Tribune: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc5168ec93ca57c9cf78b0e70ae148f7f1c5b379129a9bed41b

-- "Six Cuban migrants make landfall on Miami Beach," by Miami Herald's David J. Neal: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc597b460195ea0826875a2ae2b7c06783b3ceb9fa0dc2cae32

FLORIDA WOMAN -- "Orlando woman plans to take her gun into Target bathrooms to protect herself from transgender people," by Orlando Weekly's Monivette Cordeiro: "After Target announced its transgender customers and employees can use store bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity, Orlando-based Liberty Counsel president Anita Staver said she would be taking her Glock .45 into Target's restrooms, saying the gun "identifies as my bodyguard." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=03f7b4911e835dc56f7e6703f5546a430f2ffe818162a3028ebf4a0b4242a431

** A Message from Nuclear Matters: America's fleet of nuclear energy plants support 475,000 jobs nationwide and provide more than 62% of America's carbon-free electricity. Our existing, state-of-the-art nuclear energy plants play a vital role in achieving our clean-energy and carbon-reduction goals.

In Florida, nuclear energy plants provide 12 percent of the state's electricity and a large majority of our carbon-free electricity. The existing nuclear energy plants in Florida also support more than 2,270 jobs and provide $1.9 billion to the state's GDP. To help keep Florida working, we need the state's technologically advanced nuclear energy plants continuing to work for all of us. Join us at NuclearMatters.com. **

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