FL flack wars

With the start of hurricane season three weeks away, Gov. Charlie Crist's administration suddenly canceled a $450,000 contract for a public awareness campaign after two media companies protested the award of the project to a third firm. More here. Quote sampling:

"Pat Roberts is a sore loser," Ron Sachs said.

Said Roberts: "His greed exceeds anything I've seen in Tallahassee."

"(Mike Vasilinda) has a conflict of interest every time he draws a breath in this town," Sachs said.

Comments

Pat Roberts-- one of Tom Gallager's closest friends and earliest supporters who did a dramatic flip-flop to Crist when the handwriting was on the wall...The result was that neither side trusted nor respected him. Maybe "loyalty" does have its price and maybe we're seeing it paid to this duplicitous, loudmouthed jerk.

Pat Roberts has been a pig at the trough of state government for years. For him to call anyone greedy is laughable.

yes! that's the spirit. tear each other to pieces over mother's teats. you curs.

Woof! Woof!! Bite me!!

Unbelievable.It appears Pat Roberts wants everyone to kiss his ring and give him a taste of every broadcast project that comes out of state government.

It is time for someone to take a look into the FAB/Roberts empire and see exactly how much in taxpayer dollars they have received.

All three of these guys are small-time carney barkers. This is small-town, southern BS that would never, ever cut in nationally.

Crist was right to pull the plug. Maybe next time a professional firm will bid.

Why were all three bidders in Tallahassee anyway?

Word on the street is that Roberts blew a gasket last year because the gov's office brought Sachs to the table.Roberts apparently wanted about a million dollars.The gov's office split the baby.

there's the Navigator blog entry

I thought a Republican Principle was free market competition?

I guess Pat needs another $20k watch.

All three are too close to state's purse.

Mike Vasilinda can produce better TV ads and media strategies while in the crapper than Ron Sachs could in a week!

9:43: That's a stretch. The only reason Mike's strategies would be successful is because he is the one in charge of deciding how the media strategies he creates in the crapper gets television news coverage.

9:29 - maybe the Governor should just call a high level blogger such as yourself? Easy to call things small town and southern from your strip mall office in Dade County isn't it.

9:29 - Sachs Communications has won national awards, one for this very project in fact. Unfortunately, it is the people of Florida who lost because of egos and greed.

[suckingonthebottle]

Bush's former chief of staff diedre finn was part of vasilinds's team and is bitching up a storm BC she didn't get a piece. Talk about conflict. Didn't she oversee emergency management?

The interesting thing about this "Flak War" is that Vasilinda and Roberts are supposed to be newsmen, not flaks. How do they get to play both sides of the field?

9:56-
In fairness to Roberts and even though I agree with many of the other observations about him in prior comments, he is the association executive for the broadcasters and not a news person/journalist himself. It's not unusual for statewide associations to get contracts from government and private sources as a means of supplementing their income...nothing really wrong with it if/when they deliver a quality product.

9:56-
In fairness to Roberts and even though I agree with many of the other observations about him in prior comments, he is the association executive for the broadcasters and not a news person/journalist himself. It's not unusual for statewide associations to get contracts from government and private sources as a means of supplementing their income...nothing really wrong with it if/when they deliver a quality product.

Roberts will never let his gout get in the way of second helpings. Slob.

I'm amazed Vasilinda continues to get off the hook here. He's a reporter for most of the NBC stations in Florida but yet gets state contracts -- his company produces the nightly lottery drawings. How can you be fair and impartial when your company relies on state money.

He's had it both ways for far too long. Reporter or video production company? You can't have it both ways or at least you shouldn't have it both ways. Mike would say, at least in past articles, that he removes himself from the video side of the business. BS -- he signs the checks.

Sachs, on the other hand, does good quality work. So does Pat Roberts' broadcasters. In my humble opinion, ANYONE but Mike Vasilinda is good for this taxpayer.

HOLD UP. Deirdre Finn was NOT the chief of staff - just ACTED like it. Alia came from Vasilinda.

10:50: Here are some things that should make you go hmmm ....

Finn and Vasilinda were the team bidding on the state work at the center of this controversy.

Finn, who is a partner with Meridian Strategies LLC, brags on being the point person for Gov. Bush during the 2004-2005 hurricane season when she was Deputy Chief of Staff to the governor. Partners in the Meridian firm are Patricia Levesque aned Colleen Englert.

Vasilinda, who brags about being part of a Hill & Knowlton effort in 2005 to influence Florida legislative direction and decision making on the Hurricane Insurance reforms of that year is a newsman who covers the direction of the Florida Legislature.

they're swollen like ticks. pull 'em off.

omg. Pat Levesque and Mike Vasalinda on the same team? Pat, Pat, Pat, how could you? What would Jeb say?

What likely really Robert's ire up is the fact that the Florida Association of Broadcasters only had a score of 75 on the public preparedness media campaign bid proposal tabulation sheet -- more than 20 points behind the other bidders.

That's not just a loss. That's a rout.

Deirdre Finn is bright, talented and a class act. She was a trusted advisor to Governor Bush and was in fact his go-to person on ALL emergency management issues. She was at the center of all of the preparedness, response and recovery issues during the unprecedented two hurricane seasons that brought 8 hurricanes to Florida in 15 months.

Floridians would have been well served by this team's preparedness campaign.

Let's see, isn't Ron Sachs the guy who put Lawton Chiles in a bullet proof vest (for all the fotogs to record)when the Gov was touring some site of unrest?
What a creative genius he is.
Mike, yes his conflict of interest is evident.
Pat, all the creativity of a mouse.
Earlier post is right, the state needs to get out the narrow-eyed, big eared state capitol and into the more professional circles.

Didn't someone just put John McCain in a bullet proof vest when he was visiting an outdoor market in Baghdad? Don't the Navigator guys have a connection to McCain's communications?

11:30: Yes, and, if I remember right, his message was how safe the U.S. military had made the area.

11:22 - Deirde may be slightly talented (most from Jeb's admin were), but not nearly to the extent she claims - add that mediocre talent to her attitude and it's a sum loss. It's a shame, really. She could be good if she'd lose the condescending, patronizing, elitist attitude. And she had not NEARLY the involvement in the hurricanes as you think. Just ask Craig Fugate. Jeb (and Craig) led the way, not the other way around.

Vasilinda's deals with the state deserve scrutiny. Someone should find out:

1. The current total value of Vasilinda's contracts with the state.

2. The value of the contracts he has had over the past 10 years.

3. The number of contracts he has pursued.

4. The contracts he has won and lost.

5. His editorial/news coverage of the issues for which he receives state money.

6. His editorial/news judgement on issues he has covered as a newsman while being contracted to help shape legislative opinion ... See hurricane insurance, 2005.

Happy hunting.

11:56 - If that's what you think, you weren't really there now, were you?

For a party that supposedly hates government, the Republicans can't seem to tear themselves away from it. What would so many of these "small-government" conservatives do without government largesse and slush funds? How would these people survive? What would they do? Republicans go into government to do well, not to do good.

they don't want to own a cow, they just want to milk it through the fence.

Pat Roberts is a pig. Glad to see him lose again. He spread the worst crap about Charlie and then turned on his life long pal TG. What a poor excuse for a human. I hope they re bid it so he can lose again.

Yes, Alia did previously for Vasilinda, but most recently she served as Governor Bush's very able and talented communications director. She is well versed in emergency management and crisis communications issues and is serving Ron Sachs well.

[Nikki Jerger]

11:22 - funny - you are, or were, clearly in the EM biz with that language! I love it. So what now? Who's getting the state's message out in the next month?

Hey, is Alia married yet? I seem to remember someone announcing she was engaged on this blog.

A pox on all of their houses. Where was Don Yaeger when the state really needed him?

not sure about the hurricane involvement but i can definitely see 11:56's point about the personality traits.

Roberts=Pig

Instant karma's gonna get you. Gonna knock you on the head.

...and Vasilinda's wife is running for HD9 (Ausley), as, guess what, a Democrat.

Now we know why Corey Tilley is supporting McCain.

So, how's Mike plan to cover the Legislature if his wife is a member?

The St. Pete Times and every other newspaper has an advertising division. They all swear the ad side doesn’t affect how things are reported. That’s exactly the same thing thing here. Vasilinda is an honest journalist and a good businessman.

[Mitt Romney]

Sach’s Office rigged the bid, and got caught in the process. Robert’s office is angry because they feel like they’ve lost their entitlement to the easy state money.

The biggest losers are the citizens of Florida, because this all proves how inept, corrupt, and mismanaged our State’s government is, because they went along with the fix!

Vasilinda’s outfit unwittingly raised the curtain on it all, therefore they all become the scapegoats.

[Mitt Romney]

How many of the entries above this one do you suppose are coming from inside Ron Sachs Office or from inside Pat Robert’s office?

Why do you suppose there is such venom out there? Typically those making the loudest protest are the most guilty.

as opposed to coming from the Mitt Romney campaign??!!!

Vasilinda is finally going to have to account for profting for years off the very state government he is paid to cover as a journalist by NBC stations across Florida -- and by even CNN, etc. He is a living conflict of interest and a textbook example of journalism that appears to be for sale.

For years, capital press corps 'peers' have tolerated this -- and modestly looked the other way, with few exceptions, out of some ridiculous courtesy that is undeserved. Now, Mike's mini-empire is likely to collapse in part because of his unwillingness to decide: 'am I a newsman, or a PR producer? Hey -- I can make more money being both.' The gig's over.

The real story is how a newsman seeking state contracts wins them sometimes because -- hey -- he covers us...we don't want to upset him.... and when he loses and files a protest, he sometimes gets the money for thesame reason -- so bad coverage doesn't come.

Ethical breach? No -- because you actually must have some ethics to commit a breach.....

[The egg man]

Do you think anyone outside of Leon County is reading the petty child-like commentary included above? Are all you bloggers so self absorbed you think "this song is about you"? It's not! Florida, your goverment is broken, and we need someone to fix it!