Charlie Crist: a Wolf in Progressive Clothing

Over at RockridgeNation right now, there is a posting up about Florida's new and so far hugely popular Governor, Charlie Crist, entitled A John Lennon Conservative?

As a resident of Charlie Crist's hometown, I can bring an up close and personal perspective. I have known Charlie Crist for over 20 years. One need make no mistake about Charlie - he is a consummate politician. I think he is doing these "progressive" things because he does believe in them. But I'm not so sure he believes in them in and of themselves, but as in where the political advantage lies.

Florida is one of those states that really makes people shake their heads, especially progressives. Florida is about 4 states in one. There is the very progressive Southeast Florida (tempered by the reactionary ant-Castro Cubans in Miami), We have the very conservative Southwest Florida. We have the moderate I-4 corridor through the middle of the state. And we have conservative North Florida (tempered by the two big university cities, Gainesville and Tallahassee.)

Boiling all this down, Florida actually comes out as much more moderate than folks on either end of the political spectrum want to admit. Charlie Crist knows this very well. His biggest political defeat, and his springboard onto the state political stage, came when he took on the moderate and hugely popular US Senator Bob Graham.

Charlie Crist is hugely popular right now because he is trying to be all things to all people. The RockridgeNation posting did not mention Charlies' number one priority - his "anti-murder" bill. He demanded and received it as the first bill he signed from the regular legislative session. This bill requires judges to keep probation violators in jail until the judge certifies the person is not a danger to society. The cost of building the jail cells needed for this could well bankrupt the state. My guess is the Florida Legislature is not going to provide all the necessary funding for this, thus creating an onerous burden for the County jails where most of these folks are going to be housed.

Charlie Crist also knows that for every progressive action he takes, he must do something to satisfy his political base. Thus his support of the failed school accountability test program and tax cuts. Crist is playing both ends against the middle. Whether he can continue to pull it off is an open question.

Stay tuned.

Friday Morning Mojo Moment

This past Friday, February 2nd, may have been a watershed mojo moment for the Friday Morning Group. Not only were we honored to be joined by Pinellas County Commisioner Ken Welch, we were also able to extend a Friday Morning Welcome to St. Petersburg City Council Member Leslie Curran.

The admonition to arrive promptly at 8 AM was adhered to by a hardy group of talented folks and Ken started right off by asking how we wanted to proceed. Herb Snitzer laid out for Ken the nut of the issue for the Friday Morning Group artists - respect and recognition. Ken was also exposed to the idea of getting tourist development dollars to promote the City and the County as an art buying destination. That will help to support our Community Based artists, but also meets the Tourist Development Council and Convention and Visitors Bureau's missions of heads in beds.

Herb and Bob Devin Jones also expressed their disappointment that the Pinellas County Cultural (nee Arts) Council's failure to extend honors to any Little a artists at their annual awards banquet. Bruce Kotchkey was asked by Ken for his take on that issue. Bruce replied that the criteria for an award to an artist was based on community participation in the furtherance of the arts. Surely we had artists at the table Friday morning who met that criteria. Stay tuned on that one.

Ken must have asked at least three times, if not more, for the group to tell him what it is we wanted him to do for us. Ken left us at 8:30 to go to his dentist's appointment. When asked to comment on which he thought was going to be more fun, Ken was unwilling to declare. He has declared that he is running for re-election to the County Commission in 2008. Thank you, Ken, for taking the time to meet with us. Please know that you have an open invitation to join us any time that your schedule permits.

After Ken left us, Leslie Curran took out her hammer and beat us over the head, gently. She admonished the group to make sure and follow through to deliver our wish list to Ken. It was clear to Leslie, and she made it clear to us that Ken wanted to help us, but he needed guidance on exactly what we wanted him to vote on.

Sandy Tabor volunteered to lead a mission statement and goal visioning session and or sessions. This is to be the first step in creating a strategic plan for the Friday Morning Group. (Scary, isn't it?) Bob stressed that the mission of the Friday Morning Group needed to be focused on Little a artists and how to support them. Group consensus seems to have formed generally around that premise. The first strategic visioning session for the Friday Morning Group will be this Monday afternoon at 2 PM at the Studio at 620.

Leslie Curran could not have been more supportive of the mission of the Friday Morning Group. Seated on her left was Ann Wykel . In the category of two degrees of separation, Ann's very presence in St. Petersburg was due to the efforts of Leslie Curran. In her former incarnation on the St. Pete City Council, Leslie pushed for the creation of a Cultural Plan. Ann Wykel's position at the City of St. Petersburg came out of that Cultural Plan. Leslie is currently asking that the Cultural Plan be reviewed and updated, since it is getting nearly a decade old.

All in all, this Friday had to be one of the best meetings ever held by the Friday Morning Group. If you were in attendance and either agree or disagree with that statment, please let me know. You can either email me at gatordem at verizon.net or you may post a comment at Local Politics is All.

Until next week, here's looking at your art kids.

2007 Predictions - Local Politcs

OK, over on Florida Kossacks, I posted national predictions for the first quarter of 2007. I then cross posted to DailyKos. That's where the fun started.

OtisisHungry posted this comment predicting, anongst other things:

1. Mary Mulhern wins her race for Tampa City Council and kumbaya breaks out all over Tampa.
2. Joe Redner is named Arts and Cultural Czar of Tampa.
3. Brian Blair is exposed in a gay pay for play meth scandal.
4. And a great snark about Janee Murhpy and the Hillsborough DEC that you just have to read for yourselves.

So when I stopped rolling around on the floor laughing my a** off, I thought, self, let's have some more fun with Local Politics Predictions.

OK, here are some of mine:

• St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker takes the job as State Director in Charge of Cleaning up Charlie Crist's screw ups. He gets paid 4 times the Governor's salary and says, "This is the greatest job in the world, and its another great day in the State of Florida".
• Pinellas County Commisioner Bob Stewart gets snowed in in his real home out west and misses 6 months of County Commission meetings. No one notices.
• The City of St. Petersburg recognizes that the Opus South 400 Beach Drive building is 20 feet closer to the street than is allowed. The building is blown up as the opening scene of Lethal Weapon XXV.
• Bill Foster beats Renee Flowers in a close election to replace Baker as mayor of St. Petersburg. The GLBT community endorses Foster, who promises to lead the Gay Pride Parade in July.
• The City of St. Pete Beach approves charter ammendments that require every beach front building to be 50 stories tall.
• St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster signs a peace treaty with County Commission Charman Ken Welch that ends the bloody war between the County and the City. As part of the treaty Susan Latvala has to stay north of Ulmerton Road, but St. Petersburg gets to keep Karen Seel who was captured near the end of the conflict in a daring raid led by new St. Petersburg Police Chief Rudy Guiliani.

So there's my silly six. Let's hear yours. Got game?