Florida Agenda

By JOE HARRIS

Walk with me, if you will, through the fields of my political imagination, while we analyze if former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s endorsement on Sunday of President Obama’s re-election campaign gives us a window into what turns him on. Although “comeback” is on the lips of many observers, the first word to pop into my mind is “punishment,” followed by “masochist,” and an image of the Once-and-[He Hopes]-Future- Governor playing a B&D/S&M scene with political operatives from both major parties.

The Republicans have already talked about Crist’s endorsement in the same terminology a dominatrix might use to scold a naughty businessman during a lunchtime quickie. Florida GOP chairman Lenny Curry slammed the former governor as “a self-centered career politician,” “repugnant,” “selfish,” and “looking after his own interests,” and then verbally spanked him, adding, “in spite of an approaching hurricane, no less!”

The notion of Crist as a “political masochist” seeking release through punishment is only heightened (exponentially) with the thought of how DEMOCRATS will go after him once his plans are known. It’s a pretty safe bet that Crist’s move was timed to maximize the media attention, and is another major step by the once-popular politician to crawl up from the ash heap of history towards rebirth as a Democrat and a return to competitive politics. It also increases the buzz to a fever pitch concerning Crist’s intentions to run for governor in 2014, or other elected office—but this time as a Democrat. You’ll have a chance to see his “audition tape” next week, when he addresses the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Republicans will have a field day condemning a recycled Crist, attacking him like they did John Kerry as a flipflopper, but also as a party traitor, and a collaborator with the hated Occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. They have already pointed to his abandonment of his previous positions, including his 2010 admonition against Obama that, “I don’t agree with the guy on hardly anything he does,” his self-description as a “pro-life” “Ronald Reagan Republican,” his opposition to ObamaCare, and his “cheerful” support of a state constitutional amendment banning marriage equality.

And the Republican Party “talking points” actually suggest, “You should take every opportunity with the media to remind Floridians that Crist has made a career out of bashing the Democrat Party and everything President Obama stands for.” Imagine how much hay other Democratic candidates will make of that when they stand against Crist during a future primary.

In the words of the Florida GOP’s Curry, “Charlie Crist has demonstrated, yet again, that his political ambition will always come first.”

For his part, Crist has been invoking the memory and paraphrasing the words of Ronald Reagan, suggesting that he didn’t leave the GOP in 2010, but that rather the party left him, by embracing extreme positions and beliefs. The GOP talking points try to blunt that defense by noting that the ex-governor jumped the party’s ship for an electoral opportunity, and “left because polls showed he had a better chance to win the [U.S.] Senate seat as an Independent.”

Does Crist have a right to a “second act” in politics? Sure he does. But Republicans have a legitimate right to cast him as an opportunist—a professional politician who is just looking for an elected office to occupy. South Floridians have seen this before (sorry, Jim Lewis). My own fascination with train wrecks leaves me wondering what kind of punishment the members of his own (new) party have planned for Crist: Florida politics’ Once-and-Future whipping.

By BOB KECSKEMETY
It appears the political pundits could have announced the final election results prior to Tuesday’s voting because all the pieces of the puzzle seemed to fall into their correct (or incorrect, depending on your point of view) place as predicted — like it or not.

Unfortunately, recent equal rights gained in Florida by the LGBT community now are less certain — especially the newly-gained right to adopt children. Both current Governor Charlie Crist and current Attorney General Bill McCollum have refused to challenge the court ruling permitting gay adoption in Florida.The same can’t be said for newly-elected Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) who said she would challenge the court decision and take that right away. Bondi ran against Dan Gelber (D) and won with 55% of the vote.

Democrat Alex Sink barely lost her bid to become Florida’s Governor to Republican Rick Scott by less than 2%. Scott too had said he would challenge gays’ right to adopt. Not surprising, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties were the last to finish counting their votes. Statewide, it was no surprise that Republican Marco Rubio won the U.S. Senate race with 49% of the vote with  Governor Charlie Crist (I) coming in second with 30% and Representative Kendrick Meek (D) picking up the leftovers. These final results were representative of most of the state, however, in South Florida, the final results were an almost 3-way even split with Crist slightly ahead.

Nationwide, after four years in the minority, Republicans have regained control of the U.S. House of Representative. Incomplete results show that Republicans gained 60 seats in the House and now have a 53 seat majority.

In Florida, the most surprising House win was in District 22 where Tea Party-backed Alan West (R) won over incumbent Ron Klein (D) with 54% of the vote. Most of the rest of the state with a large LGBT communities was as pretty much expected. In District 18, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R) was returned to her seat with 69% of the vote. Despite her party affiliation, Ros-Lehtinen has been a supporter of gay rights and was endorsed, once again, by the SAVE-Dade PAC. LGBT-endorsed Ted Deutch (D) won with 63%, and District 20’s Debby Wasserman Schultz won with 60% and Alcee Hastings (D) won, in what seemed like an almost non-contested race with 79%. In what was a particularly nasty race, David Rivera (R) won over Joe Garcia with 52% in District 25.

Equality Florida, the state’s largest LGBT rights organization, endorsed four candidates in the state’s forty Senatorial races. Kelly Skidmore (District 25-D) lost to Ellyn Bogdanoff with 38%, Kevin Rader (District 27-D) lost with 46% and Les Gerson (District 38-D) lost with 32%. However, in District 35, Gwen Margolis (D) won against Corey Poitier (R) with 78%.

Candidates for State Representative in key LGBT areas of Florida and endorsed by Equality Florida were trounced. In the Tampa Bay area, District 51’s Janet Long lost with 44% of the vote, Stacy Frank (District 57-D) lost with 44%, Russ Patterson (District 60-D) also lost with 44% and Keith Fitzgerald (District 69-D) barely lost with 49%. If there was some sunshine on the west coast, it was District 53 where Rick Kriseman (D) won with 58%.

Equality Florida backed State Representative candidates in southeast Florida fared somewhat better. Included were Mack Bernard (District 84-D) with 78%, Joseph Abruzzo (District 87-D) won with 53%, Jeff Clemens (District 89-D) won with 61%, Irving Slosberg (District 90-D) won with 63%, Jim Waldman (District 95-D) won with 61%, Ari Porth (District 96-D) won with 71%, Franklin Sands (District 98-D) won with 63%, Evan Jenne (District 100-D) garnered 67%, Luis Garcia (District 107-D) won with 51% and Ron Saunders (District 120-D) won with 55%.

Gwyndolen Clark-Reed, District 92, Democrat, covering much of Broward County ran unopposed.

In key County Commission races, Broward County’s first openly gay mayor, Ken Keechl (District 4) lost his reelection bid to the county commission with 45% but LGBT-backed Suzanne Gunzburger won reelection with 72% in District 6.

Both Hillsborough County Commission candidates backed by Equality Florida lost: John Dingfelder (District 1) with 46% and Linda Saul-Sena (District 5) with 43%.

Miami-Dade County Commission District 8 election is very close and may end up in a re-count. Equality Florida backed Eugene Flinn and his opponent Lynda Bell split the vote almost 50-50. Write in ballots, that are still to be counted, could make a difference in the final result.

Palm Beach County Commission candidates endorsed by Palm Beach County Human Rights Council were Sherry Lee (District 2) who lost, Jess Santamaria (District 6) who won and Priscilla Taylor (District 7) who also won.

Equality Florida-backed, Susan Latvala (R) won her bid for Pinellas County Commission District 4 with 56%. Key amendments to the Florida Constitution won allow for military personnel an additional tax credit on their property taxes and new redistricting rules for both state and national districts. It was a good day for the incumbents in Wilton Manors. Mayor Gary Resnick was returned to office with almost 66% of the vote. Also returning to city hall are commissioners Ted Galatis and Scott Newton. Former City Commissioner Julie Carson, who sat on the dais for a few months in 2009 replacing Resnick who became mayor. She was temporarily appointed to fill Resnick’s seat in the City Commission and lost that seat to Scott Newton in a special election.

By JOHN BRISENDINE

The freaks and monsters will be out full force this weekend — and I’m not just talking about the ghouls for Halloween, either. The politicos running for public office, and their minions, will be making the last-minute push to get their message out to garner votes for candidates and favored amendments.

First of all, what the hell is Amendment 4 and why should I vote against it? A check of the website Florida2010.org is a confusing mish-mash that still doesn’t clearly tell me what Amendment 4 is all about. However, I sure as hell see the signs in many front yards proclaiming “NO TO 4!” I know a lot of us in Central Florida would like to say “NO TO to I-4” but I’m still confused about Amendment 4.

As for the candidates on the ballots, I hear so much negativity coming from all sides about the local and statewide candidates that I don’t want to vote for any of them. The Tea Party is the new movement at the forefront touting candidates who are against the Obama administration.

Do these goofballs, in their George Washington powdered wigs, even realize how silly they look strutting around and clamoring for a change? A change for what? I mean, c’mon already, let’s just keep tea bagging in the bedroom where it belongs!

As for some of the candidates, I have to go with my gut. Sure, I’ll vote Alex Sink for governor. She reminds me of a lesbian with her short haircut and uber-butch first name. Furthermore, I like lesbians. Alex Sink does not identify as a lesbian at all, and she’s definitely not, but when I see her on TV, she reminds me of one and that’s why she has my vote.

Her opponent in the gubernatorial race is Rick Scott and I don’t like him at all. He looks like those lizards that my cat Izzy chases around on my back patio. However, I do like his mom who has been in his campaign commercials. She seems like a nice old lady who probably knows how to cook up a great Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe I will just vote for her.

In the U.S. Senate race, we have hottie Marco Rubio running on the Republican ticket, after usurping Charlie Crist in the primary earlier this year. Of course, good ol’ Charlie, with his metrosexual spray tan, isn’t one to sit idly by on the sidelines when there’s a race to run. Instead of gracefully bowing out, he is all of a sudden an alleged independent. If Charlie were so damned independent, he wouldn’t have been a Republican for so many years. How is it that when his own party shunned him, that he finally got a spine? He’s a bigger flip-flopper than a fry cook at McDonald’s. At least, the flip-flopper at Mickey D’s produces a tasty product. Charlie has just spent too much time under the heat lamp to be considered fresh anymore.

Kendrick Meek is the Democratic nominee and he’s to be the man I’m leading toward. He seems like a guy I’d like to share a “Bay Breeze” with at happy hour.

I’m just tired of Republicans, Democrats and Tea Partiers. I’m just gonna say to hell with it all and start my own party and call it the Pajama Party.

On a final note, check out all the great costumes in the many Halloween costume contests this weekend at most of the clubs here in the Orlando area. The grandest contest of all takes place at The Parliament House this weekend. On Saturday night, October 30th, the grand prize winner of that contest takes away $1,000 CASH! On Sunday, the 31st, the winner take away $3,000 cold, hard, throbbing CASH! For more info, log onto www.parliamenthouse.com.

Well, with this update on the monsters on the ballot or in the nightclubs, I hope you get out to vote no matter what. Twisted Tom will be here next week and I’ll see you again on November 11th. Bye for now.

By DMITRY RASHNITSOV

Florida Governor Charlie Crist, a man who has had two marriages for a combined less than three years in his life and has no legitimate children that he acknowledges, has come out with an interesting opinion on exactly those two subjects: marriage and child rearing.

After spending most of his political career fighting to deny the GLBT community the right to marry or adopt children, Crist — the now independent candidate for United States Senate — has changed his mind about GLBT rights.

While Crist’s current Senate website, www.charliecrist.com does not mention his recent change of heart, a position paper with the governor’s letterhead states some of his new positions regarding the toughest situations that are facing the GLBT community including adopting children, marriage rights, hospital visitation rights and the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’, the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military.

“I believe that the government should not make it harder for people to take care of their loved ones,” Crist wrote in his position paper. “I believe civil unions that provide the full range of legal protections should be available to gay couples. That includes access to a loved one in the hospital, inheritance rights, the fundamental things people need to take care of their families.”

The one-page paper articulates ten different policy points related to gay rights.

The positions that Crist now supports for GLBT individuals include:

• Civil Unions
• Hospital visitation
• Inheritance rights
• Adoption rights
• Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
• Employment Non-Disimination Act
• The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act
• Uniting American Families Act
• Appropriations for HIV/AIDS Programs
• Federal Safe Schools Improvement Act

Signs that the Crist campaign were thinking of targeting the GLBT vote came out this summer when the Governor mentioned a change of heart during a television appearance on CNN.

“I feel that marriage is a sacred institution, if you will.

But I do believe in tolerance. I’m a ‘live and let live’ kind of guy, and while I feel that way about marriage, I think if partners want to have the opportunity to live together, I don’t have a problem with that.

And I think that’s where most of America is. So I think that you know, you have to speak from the heart about these issues. They are very personal. They have a significant impact on an awful lot of people and the less the government is telling people what to do, the better off we’re all going to be. But when it comes to marriage, I think it is a sacred institution. I believe it is between a man and woman, but partners living together, I don’t have a problem with,” Crist said on TV, kind of playing both sides of the issue.

In 2008 Crist supported Amendment 2, a constitutional ban on gays and lesbians getting married in Florida that passed by less than 2 percent of the vote. Crist’s democratic opponent in the U.S. Senate Race, Kendrick Meek, immediately attacked his newfound position.

“Can anyone believe anything Charlie Crist says anymore?,” said Abe Dyk, Kendrick Meek’s campaign manager. “It’s obvious Charlie Crist is willing to say anything. The only thing Charlie Crist says today that you can believe tomorrow is that he wants to be elected. Kendrick, in contrast, has been a champion of LGBT rights. He co-sponsored multiple attempts to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and has been a leader in calling for the repeal of Florida’s gay adoption ban. Unlike Charlie Crist, Kendrick stood against Florida’s gay marriage ban, Amendment 2.”

A spokeswoman for one prominent Florida gay rights group praised Crist’s position paper. “This is the furthest a sitting Florida governor has ever gone in publicly supporting [gay rights] issues,” said Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida. “There’s no position he’s taken that a majority of Floridians and Americans don’t already support.”

His whole political career, Crist has fought rumors that he himself is a gay man who has been in the closet. These rumors were fueled on by allegations from former interns, but Crist has never publicly acknowledged that he has engaged in homosexual behavior. Crist and Meek are also running against the Republican Senate nominee Marco Rubio in what’s amounting to be the most exciting political race in the midterm elections.

Election Day is November 2. The three candidates have agreed to participate in a series of debates on national television.

Former Republican Chair Comes Out

It has been rumored for several years and those rumors were amplified when he bought a luxury apartment in the ultra-gay neighborhood of Chelsea in New York City last June, but former Republican National Committee chair- man, Ken Mehlman came out of the closet as being gay. In an interview in The Atlantic, Mehlman stated that he is, in fact, gay and that he plans to be an advocate for legalizing same-sex marriage.

According to the New York Times, Mehlman’s “announcement makes him apparently the most prominent Republican official to come out.” This disclosure followed years of him avoiding and denying inquiries about his sexual orientation. During his RNC chairmanship, Mehlman supported social positions of the Republican Party, including opposition to same-sex marriage. Mehlman claimed that he could not have gone against party consensus, but acknowledged that, had he come out of the closet earlier, he could have impacted Republican efforts to pass state initiatives banning same-sex marriage.

TV Astronomer Dies

Jack Horkheimer, executive director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium died from a respiratory ailment he had since birth. However, Horkheimer was most famous for his PBS television show, “Star Gazer” which was produced locally at WPBT, channel 2 in Miami and picked up by other PBS stations throughout the country. In “Star Gazer”, Horkheimer would describe celestial events that could be viewed with the naked eye during the week. Episodes of “Star Gazer” only lasted a few minutes and would generally be shown late at night. Horkheimer would also be seen on other networks, such as CNN, discussing astronomy. Horkheimer started his astronomy career in 1964 after he moved to Miami. Shortly after, he began working at the Miami Science Museum planetarium and worked his way up to become the director in 1973. He remained executive director for 35 years until his retirement in 2008. Horkheimer’s final installment of “Star Gazer” is currently being broadcast on channel 2 and carries its viewers through this Labor Day Weekend. Horkheimer was 72.

Charlie Crist Comes Out Against Gay Marriage

Florida governor and U.S. Senatorial candidate Charlie Crist said that he favors a constitutional ban on gay marriage on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, August 29, 2010. Both Crist, an independent candidate and Kendrick Meek, the Democratic candidate appeared on the show in separate inter- views. “When it comes to marriage, I think it is a sacred institution, I believe it is between a man and a woman,” Crist said, “but partners living together, you know, I don’t have a problem with it. … It’s just how I feel.”
Within hours of the telecast, Crist issued a clarification on his position of same-sex marriage: “In an interview that aired today, I was not discussing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning same-sex marriage, which I do not support, but rather reaffirming my position regarding Florida’s constitutional ban that I articulated while running for Governor. In fact, the interviewer’s question reflected just that. I am fully supportive of civil unions and will continue to be as a United States Senator, but believe marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman.”

Julie Carson Starts Her Campaign

Former Wilton Manors City Commissioner, Julie Carson has started her campaign to return to the city’s dais. Carson was the first openly lesbian com- missioner in the city’s history. On November 4, 2008, then-City Commissioner Gary Resnick ran for and won the mayoral seat on the Wilton Manors City Commission leaving his commission seat open. Carson was voted in unanimously by the commission to fill Resnick’s old commission seat on an interim basis until the February 10, 2009 election which she lost to former Wilton Manors City Commissioner, Scott Newton. Carson moved to South Florida from Nashville, Tennessee eight years ago. In Nashville she was active in her synagogue and in politics.

Six years ago she moved to Wilton Manors from Fort Lauderdale. Carson has already earned the endorsement of Broward County Mayor Ken Keechl and Broward Property Appraiser Lori Parrish.

4 Year Old Turned Away From School Due to Lesbian Parents

Olivia Harrison was not allowed to start prekindergarten at St. Vincent’s School Christian School because school administrators did not approve of her parent’s lesbian relationship. School was to begin on Monday, August 23, 2010. The child’s parents, Jill and Tracy Harrison were married in California in 2006 and filled out their daughter’s application in June. Last week, the women were told they could not enroll their daughter because their relationship does not fit in with the traditions of the Anglican Church. The Harrisons found a new, nonreligious school for their daughter.