FL's presidential cash machine

The presidential campaigns' third quarter reports show the Florida money raised from July through September:

Rs--Rudy Giuliani: $960,000; Mitt Romney: $725,000; Fred Thompson: $523,000; John McCain: $241,050; Ron Paul: $184,000; Mike Huckabee: $58,000; Sam Brownback: $28,000.

Ds--Hillary Clinton: $1,437,000; Barack Obama: $814,489; John Edwards: $310,131; Bill Richardson: $206,420; Joe Biden: $60,021; Chris Dodd: $33,198; Dennis Kucinich: $9,200;

Comments

The party of family values really needs to do a lot of housecleaning; it seems to be up to 2-3 pervs a week that turn up in the headlines.

The chairman of the Republican Party in Brown County faces criminal charges for allegedly fondling a 16-year-old Ethan House runaway and providing the boy with beer and marijuana late last year.
Donald Fleischman, 37, of Allouez, was charged last month with two counts of child enticement, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child and a single charge of exposing himself to a child.

The WisPolitics Courtwatch blog has even more details of this sordid story and has a copy of the criminal

Fleischman allegedly allowed at least two 16-year-old boys to stay at his house and told one of them he could "smoke pot and drink alcohol" at his house and not have to worry about anything, according to the criminal complaint.

...The boys lived at home for at-risk youth receiving court-ordered treatment that is located across the street from Fleischman's house. Fleischman allegedly offered the boys marijuana, and one of the juveniles alleged that Fleischman said he could stay at his house if he ever ran away.

One of the victims said Fleischman allegedly told him "it would be cool for him to have two 16-year-old roommates and he stated he would even do their laundry for them."

That graphic is awesome. Well played, Buzz blog.

That graphic is awesome. Well played, Buzz blog.

relevant comment 5:37....good job

[CDRomniac]

Seems the Romney machine throughout the state - the county chairman, the various committees, and the paid staff - have had little if any impact. Have they folded their tents already?

This is an incredibly poor showing when compared to Giuliani's meager campaign infrastructure in this state.

Good luck Romniacs as you slide into single digits and watch NH and IA evaporate

www.DixieStrategies.com

While some reports have claimed Mayor Giuliani to be the "only candidate able to beat Hillary," the polls show that is not true.

In fact, Senator McCain and Governor Mitt Romney are both polling better against Senator Clinton than Mayor Giuliani. A recent Rasmussen poll showed Senator Clinton still beating all Republican opponents.

Governor Romney fares best against Senator Obama with Senator McCain and Mayor Giuliani following:

Hillary Clinton vs. GOP Candidates

Clinton 44% McCain 43% Undecided 13% (McCain -1%)

Clinton 47% Romney 41% Undecided 12% (Romney -6%)

Clinton 48% Giuliani 41% Undecided 11% (Giuliani -7%)

Clinton 52% Thompson 37% Undecided 11% (Thompson -15%)

Barack Obama vs. GOP Candidates

Obama 46% Romney 43% Undecided 11% (Romney -3%)

Obama 46% McCain 41% Undecided 13% (McCain -5%)

Obama 47% Giuliani 42% Undecided 11% (Giuliani -5%)

Obama 48% Thompson 39% Undecided 13% (Thompson -9%)

http://rasmussenreports.com

The poll does not factor in a third party conservative candidate, which pundits and Christian leaders say would be likely if Rudy Giuliani is the Republican Nominee.

Washington Times yesterday

Editorial 10-14

Romney and Giuliani

At Tuesday's Republican presidential debate in Dearborn, Mich., home of Ford Motor Co., the once-thriving automaker that lost $12.7 billion last year (the fifth year of the Bush expansion), rhetorical fireworks erupted between the two Republican front-runners — former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who leads in the national polls, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who leads in Iowa and New Hampshire. Both candidates battled over their tax and spending records.

On the spending front, Mr. Giuliani charged that "under Governor Romney, spending went up in Massachusetts per capita by 8 percent; under me spending went down by 7 percent." Mr. Romney immediately countered, citing analysis by the Club for Growth, whose anti-spending and anti-tax credentials are impeccable. "They said my spending grew 2.2 percent a year," Mr. Romney declared, adding, "Yours grew 2.8 percent a year." Indeed, the Club for Growth concluded that Mr. Romney's spending record "comes out more positive than negative, especially when one considers that average spending increased only 2.22 percent over his four years, well below the population-plus-inflation benchmark of nearly 3 percent." For Mr. Giuliani, the Club for Growth reported: "Over his eight years, city spending increased just barely, by an average of 2.84 percent — a remarkable number given the 2.9 percent population-plus-inflation benchmark." Mr. Romney won this round.

Mr. Romney attacked Mr. Giuliani for leading the charge to the Supreme Court to have the line-item veto declared unconstitutional in 1998. Mr. Giuliani replied that he was merely acting as a "strict constructionist." But it's a little more complicated than that.

An integral part of Newt Gingrich's 1994 "Contract with America," which propelled Republicans to majority status in the House for the first time in 40 years, the line-item veto was overwhelmingly approved by Republicans in both chambers in 1996: 221 out of 224 in the House and 50 out of 53 in the Senate. Bill Clinton courageously used his line-item authority to strike about $200 million worth of Medicaid pork heading for New York City hospitals. Then-Mayor Giuliani sued and won a 6-3 Supreme Court decision whose majority opinion was written by Justice John Paul Stevens, hardly a "strict constructionist." (If Justice Stevens, arguably the court's most liberal member, is Mr. Giuliani's idea of the kind of "strict constructionists" he would appoint to the court as president, conservatives will be as dismayed as they have become after President Ford appointed Justice Stevens and President George H.W. Bush appointed David Souter.)

In his dissenting opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia, a strict constructionist, wrote: "There's not a dime's worth of difference between Congress's authorizing the president to cancel a spending item, and Congress's authorizing money to be spent on a particular item at the president's discretion." Justice Scalia declared that the title of the Line Item Veto Act "succeeded in faking out the Supreme Court."

Mr. Giuliani repeated his claim that he "cut taxes 23 times when I was mayor of New York." It turns out that many of those cuts were instigated by Republican Gov. George Pataki and the state legislature. One of several glaring flaws in Mr. Giuliani's record on taxes was, as the Club for Growth says, his 1994 "opposition to Republican [gubernatorial] candidate George Pataki's proposed cut in the state income tax," whose rates were among the highest in the country. Also worth noting is the fact that Mr. Giuliani opposed the candidacy of Mr. Pataki in 1994. Instead, the mayor vigorously supported the re-election of three-term Democratic incumbent Mario Cuomo, another pro-choice Catholic who is widely regarded as one of the most liberal governors in the nation's history.

Ed Helm and his wife, plus Jon Ausman must have maxed out to Dennis.

I will be curious to see if Ron Paul raised more than some of these Rep candidates with armies of staff in Florida.

What the heck is Dixie Strategies other than apologists for Romney? Its the same YRs who ran the straw vote in his favor at the YR convention.

[politicalspectator]

I'd give money to Ru Paul not Ron Paul.

[mike]

Okay 11:34, I checked it out on the link YOU posted to rassmussen and I don't know what it is that you are smoking but Romney never got above 18%. Ummmmm, call me crazy but I don't think an 18%er can win. Thats just been my experience.

Why would any of you Dems contribute to candidates that won't campaign in the 4th largest state in the country? They'll gladly take your money, but then dump on you?

09:46 AM
Is that all you have?
GRASPING AT STRAWS

I thought “GRASPING AT STRAWS” is what you see at a political cocaine party up on The Hill?

[R Mills]

Maybe you love Rudy or maybe you hate him. But whatever you may think of him, check out his foreign policy team, because that's the key to knowing what to expect from a Rudy presidency. Especially for candidates with little or no foreign policy experience of their own, the folks advising the candidate are key. And Rudy's team is made up, more or less, of all the guys who were too nuts or too extreme to make the cut with George W. Bush. If you really, really want to go to war with Iran as soon as possible, vote Rudy. here are the highlights

http://www.youtube.com/v/IHfel3twH0w

I thought Hillary opposed wiretapping and government surveilance??

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/gop-targeting-clinton-on-phone-call-snooping-2007-10-16.html

Obama numbers to date

Florida

$3,706,000.91 Raised Year to Date (1st Qtr to 3rd Qtr)

$1,035,303.81 Raised 3rd Quarter

16,594 Donors Year to Date

6,445 Donors in 3rd Quarter

4,362 New Donors in 3rd Quarter

24,187 Donations Year to Date

7,862 Donations in 3rd Quarter

$257,394.56 Raised in Contributions under $200 in the 3rd Quarter

$869,749.69 Raised in Contributions under $200 Year to Date

$215,239.34 General Money Raised Year to Date

$74,485.16 General Money Raised in 3rd Quarter

President Bush made good on his threat to veto the expansion of the SCHIP program to extend health insurance to another 4 million children, notwithstanding the bi-partisan support of 43 governors and an 84 percent majority in a CBS-New York Times poll. He complains that such a move would federalize, even socialize, health care. So will he now end Medicare and Medicaid?
Yes, it would cost another $35 billion annually, but that would be entirely covered by a proposed increase in the tobacco tax. It's revealing that an administration which didn't veto any spending bills for six years and didn't sweat $50 billion in oil subsidies and $10 billion a month for Iraq now draws the line against providing health care to children at no-cost to the federal budget. It approaches political suicide for the Bush Administration and four top GOP presidential candidates to elevate the rhetoric of free-market fundamentalism over the reality of millions of children lacking health insurance.
Pro-war and anti-growth, anti-minorities, anti-children. Not a good way to run for election.
Beyond these four problems, a variety of other realities combine to dig Republicans into an even deeper hole. Recent polls show Democrats are more trusted on every domestic and foreign policy issue: education, health care, environment, economic growth, fiscal discipline, even terrorism. The number of Americans who self-identify as Republican is at a seven year low. While Americans believing the country is "on the wrong tack" was 50 percent in 2002 and 2004, it's now 67 percent. National Democratic committees and presidential candidates are outraising their Republican counterparts better than 2 to 1. And then there's the fact that Republicans are defending 22 Senate seats in 2008 compared to 12 for the Democrats. Nine Republican Senate seats are now considered vulnerable (Alaska, Colorado, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Maine, Minnesota, Oregon and Virginia).
Adding it all up: look for Democrats to end up with a near filibuster-proof 58 Senate seats (up from 51) and 260 House seats (up from 213 in 2005 and 233 in 2007). The 2006 and 2008 elections would then be the equivalent of a rolling realignment, comparable to the 51, 49 and 53 House seats that switched hands in 1958, 1974 and 1994 respectively. For when there's a tidal wave of sentiment, it doesn't tip some close contests but nearly all close contests. What John Kenneth Galbraith said of Black Monday 1933 is true for the GOP today: "The end had come, but it was not yet in sight."

WOW
I thought this was suposed to be Thompson Country, He is running third in dollars?

5:37
Interesting info...but what state are you talking about? Florida doesn't have a Brown County.