Bill for 2004-2005 storms gets pricier

Floridians' bill for the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes is about to grow another $600-million.

The state catastrophe fund, which sells cheap reinsurance to insurers, needs to collect roughly 45 percent more than the $1.35-billion originally estimated to pay claims. Florida's State Board of Administration is expected to consider later this month a new bond sale, which means Floridians will be stuck with paying more in assessments for the old storms. Read it here.

Also, read more about how Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty can now ban Allstate from writing new auto business here.

Cyclist: I've never met a real, live governor!

Ken Magyar, an 88-year-old cyclist from Orlando, added little levity to a Florida Cabinet meeting on Tuesday when he announced to Gov. Charlie Crist: "I've never met a real, live governor before."

"Well, today is your day. I'm alive," Crist said to Magyar who was among those receiving a special resolution in honor Bike Florida, a nonprofit that encourages cycling across the state.

And then the white-haired cyclist complimented Crist's hair: "I wish I had hair like yours." And Crist answered, "you do."

McCollum refocuses attorney general's job

He is Florida's ultimate conservative, a small-framed, earnest family man who campaigned on fighting terrorism, pedophiles and child pornographers.

So when Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum inherited oversight of a committee studying problems facing African-American males, Democrat Frederica Wilson shuddered.

"Oh my God, this will never work," the state senator from Miami recalled thinking. "I wanted him to understand this was not a feel-good experiment where we put little black boys in a Petri dish."

A year later, she's swallowing her doubt.

(Click here for a look at McCollum's first 14 months on the job.)

Florida AG says Spitzer should resign

Buzz caught up with Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum and asked him what he thought about New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer who has recently been linked to a prostitution ring, although he has yet to be charged.

McCollum says Spitzer should resign, because he won't be an effective leader with this scandal hanging over him. He did praise Spitzer's consumer protection work, when Spitzer was New York's attorney general.

"I don't think anybody likes to see anything like this, but as a high ranking state public official he has done something which will keep him from being effective in the future," says McCollum who has a New York connection  --- a year's worth of campaigning for former Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Houses hires outside help to look into SBA

The Florida House wants to know what happened at the State Board of Administration. They are hiring an attorney, Thomas Tew of Tew-Cardenas in Miami, and a financial investment expert, Tanya Styblo Beder of New York, to look into how the Local Government Investment Pool fund was managed, House spokeswoman Jill Chamberlin confirmed. No word yet on the cost of the contracts.

Last week, Buzz ran into Al Cardenas in Tallahassee, fresh from his duties as Florida chair of the Mitt Romney campaign, and Cardenas said his firm was about to start looking into the SBA for the House. But the House wouldn't confirm it until this morning. Here's the letter the House Speaker wrote to SBA trustees.

UPDATE

House is spending $200,000 to tackle the issue --- $50,000 for Thomas Tew and $150,000 for Ms. Beder whose resume includes helping out Orange County in California, when it declared bankruptcy in 1994. Beder was tapped through her connections through the Tew-Cardenas firm.

Tew and Beder have to deliver an initial report 15 days from today.

Mermaids join state ranks

WEEKI WACHEE - Clad in red and blue bikini tops and tails, silvery bubbles rose from their air hoses in the aqua blue water as the Weeki Wachee Springs mermaids watched Monday afternoon as their historic attraction became a state park.

Attorney Gen. Bill McCollum went down to Weeki Wachee on Monday for the annoucement.

Read more here.

Fund didn't share worries

Key managers at a government-run fund knew they had a crisis brewing with questionable securities at least two months before they alerted stakeholders or their own bosses, new records suggest.

The State Board of Administration released a time line on Tuesday of the meltdown of its local government investment fund. The document reveals that a small SBA team held internal meetings and participated in conference calls with other investors of the same troubled securities starting in August.

Read more here.

 

McCollum, Muslims to discuss controversial film

Attorney General Bill McCollum and Muslim leaders will meet today to address concerns that McCollum showed the controversial film Obsession to his staff during work hours in state buildings.

Through an assistant, McCollum sent an e-mail to his 500 employees in January, urging them to attend one of three screenings of the film in order to understand "the terrorist threat to Florida and the West by radical Islam." Employees taped up posters of the crescent moon and star of Islam imposed over the wreckage of the World Trade Center.

Muslim leaders from the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles and the Council of American Islamic Relations describe the film as an "anti-Muslim propaganda film."

"We are gravely alarmed that a respectable, high-level official such as yourself would be promoting such inflammatory anti-Muslim propaganda through your office, " wrote MPAC executive director Salam Al Marayati on Jan. 23. "The office that hate crime victims turn to for legal aid and justice is itself igniting the fire of bias and fear through such events." (full story here)

Florida wins a water battle

The U.S. Corps of Engineers had worked out a deal with Georgia that changed the way it was handling the Lake Lanier reservoir in Georgia to provide more water for Atlanta. Alabama and Florida sued. While the deal was never fully implemented, it did give Georgia the upper hand, since it had been upheld in courts.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. changed that today and said Alabama and Florida are right that this kind of change requires Congressional action: "Because the Agreement'€™s reallocation of Lake Lanier'€™s storage space constitutes a major operational change on its face and has not been authorized by Congress, we reverse the district court'€™s approval of the Agreement."

Check out the opinion here.

Early miss of SBA audit

SBA trustees could have had access to the internal SBA audit that first flagged troubles in the fixed income group months sooner than they actually did. Most SBA trustees, that's Gov. Charlie Crist, CFO Alex Sink and Attorney General Bill McCollum, have complained they learned of a March 2007 SBA internal audit red-flagging the fixed income group's risky behavior only a few weeks ago.

But all trustees have one appointee to the SBA audit committee, which considered the controversial audit at their August meeting as the subprime mortgage crisis unfolded. The audit's processing delays were so glaring in August, that the CFO’s appointee to that committee, Doug Darling, asked auditor Flerida Rivera-Alsing  whether SBA management was dragging its feet.  He took her to task for not being tougher on management in getting responses. He told her that her role wasn’t to “negotiate with management” or  “make management feel good or look good.”

Darling also made the following foretelling statements, according to an audio transcript of the hearing:

“If management is not being responsive, I’ll tell you right now, my trustee wants to know that,” he said. “I can pretty well guarantee you that if we continue to get non-responsive replies there’s going to be new management," he added a bit later.

SBA Job may pay up to $350K

Florida State Board of Administration trustees will ultimately decide what to pay a new executive director, but interim director Bob Milligan had said back in December that anything less than $300,000 salary would not attract quality candidates. The trustees will discuss a job posting on Tuesday that lists the salary between $250,000 and $350,000.

By comparison, former director Coleman Stipanovich was a steal at $182,000.

Also, just finding good applicants is looking pretty pricey. Cabinet materials suggest that a thorough advertising posting national newspapers and financial press could cost as much as $49,000 ($37,000 would go for Wall Street Journal advertising). A special recruitment firm could cost as much as $111,000.

UPDATE!! The Trustees approved the salary and decided to hire a head-hunter with a 2-1 vote. Gov. Charlie Crist voted against the measure, calling it too expensive.

Romney returning to FL airwaves?

The Buzz is that the Mitt Romney campaign, having gone dark on FL TV is making inquiries with TV stations about going back on the air in Florida (or at least Tampa Bay) by this weekend.

The renewed optimism, we assume, comes from the GIANT win in Hernando County on Jan. 10: a straw poll at the Timber Pines Republican Club found Romney with 34% support, John McCain with 31%; Rudy Giuliani with 19% (ouch-this is Bill McCollum's native county!);  Mike Huckabee at 12% and Fred Thompson at 3%.

Lawmakers to SBA: Who's to Blame?

A bipartisan group of lawmakers got their first chance Monday to grill state employees about the troubled State Board of Administration fund that was invested in bad securities. They left without any answers.

Click here to read more.

McCollum and the global warming 'swindle'

Attorney General Bill McCollum isn't buying Gov. Charlie Crist's belief that global warming is a threat to Florida and the world. Shortly before Christmas, McCollum sent a memo to Crist and the other Cabinet members, advising them that "the science is not all in" on the subject and urging them to view the enclosed DVD, a British television documentary called The Great Global Warming Swindle. (It costs $19.99, and this is not exactly "It's a Wonderful Life.") Check out the web site here.

The makers of the program include Martin Durkin, who's no stranger to controversy across the pond. The Guardian newspaper in London reported in 1997 that Durkin considered himself a Marxist. At the time, he helped produce an anti-environmental broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 called Against Nature. Crist, by the way, says he'll keep seeking alternative energy sources to combat global warming in 2008, with or without McCollum's support. McCollum was campaigning Thursday with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Trust Jeb?

From the St. Pete Times editorial board today:  "The more Floridians learn about the near collapse of the state's local government investment pool, the more urgent the need becomes for a thorough investigation....Did Bush play any role in those investments? "The answer to your question is an emphatic no," Bush said in an e-mail message to the St. Petersburg Times. But Floridians and Gov. Charlie Crist should not take that denial at face value. Too much money and credibility are at stake. State officials should review all of the records, including any contacts with Stipanovich during that time, to determine what really happened."

McCollum pours gas on gambling feud

Attorney General Bill McCollum is suing the U.S. government to prevent the completion of the Seminole gambling compact with Gov. Charlie Crist.

“Today I have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior asking for an injunction to be granted preventing the Secretary from publishing and making effective our state’s compact to expand Indian gaming until the Florida Supreme Court rules on its validity," McCollum said in announcing the suit. "The issue at stake here is not how the Florida Supreme Court should rule on the matter before it, but rather the right our state has to resolve this matter before an action is forced by the Federal government. The uncertainty of the compact’s validity will create profound concern should the compact be considered valid Federal law before it has been clarified appropriately by the Florida Supreme Court.”

House Speaker Marco Rubio is challenging Crist's authority to negotiate a deal without Legislative approval. Oral arguments before the Florida Supreme Court are set for Jan. 30.

Jenny Nash leaves AG's press shop

Jenny Nash, Attorney General Bill McCollum's communications director, is serving her last day in state government, heading for wedded bliss and the rigors of studying for the LSAT. Her boss leaked the news during a year-end interview with reporters this afternoon.

Nash, who previously worked for the Department of State, is moving to the Destin area because her fiance is stationed at Eglin Air Force Base. A spring wedding is planned. You'll still see her at Jasmin Cafe, the restaurant she partly owns in downtown Tallahassee.

UF, McCollum reach agreement on 'Radical Islam'

It’s a truce for the flagship state university and Florida’s top lawmaker, and maybe the end of a monthlong controversy over religion, terrorism and censorship.

University of Florida officials told Attorney General Bill McCollum on Thursday that they will retract their recent demand for an apology from five student groups who promoted last month’s screening of a controversial documentary with fliers and e-mails that made UF Muslim students fear for their safety.

The Republican and Jewish student groups put up fliers for Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West that declared Radical Islam Wants You Dead. One group member then sent an e-mail to students that insinuated the UF group Islam on Campus sympathizes with radical Islam.

SBA Panel Asks: Who Steered the Money?

In ordinary times, no one pays much attention to the State Board of Administration's audit committee. But in the aftermath of a $14-billion raid on a local government investment pool, the three-member committee on Wednesday embarked on its own investigation of what went wrong.

"Who knew what when?" Asked Melinda Miguel, Gov. Charlie Crist's inspector general and chair of the audit committee.

The panel is being prodded into action by Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, who has cited inadequate transparency and a sudden loss in investor confidence after a chunk of the fund's portfolio was downgraded to distressed-asset status in July.

The audit committee members are (from left in photo) Kimberly Ferrell, chief auditor in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit under Attorney General Bill McCollum; Miguel, the panel's chairwoman; and Doug Darling, director of Sink's accounting and auditing division.

Darling urged the SBA's audit staff to look for emails that would determine whether securities brokers were "advising or pressuring or suggesting" that the state make risky investments.

-- Steve Bousquet

McCollum: Casino table games draw crime

Attorney General Bill McCollum takes a dim view of any casino deal that would allow the Seminole Tribe to operate table games, such as blackjack and baccarat. As he awaited the details of a negotiated compact between Gov. Charlie Crist's office and the Seminole Tribe, McCollum told reporters the law is clear that the Indians have a right to Vegas-style slots -- but those other games, now illegal, are bad news.

"If you went to full Las Vegas-style gaming where you have roulettes and blackjack and all of that, I think it could have a very negative impact on tourism, and the type of family tourist environment we have in our state," said McCollum, a former chairman of the U.S. House subcommittee on crime. "I think it will create more criminal behavior. It always does."

McCollum: More can be done in teen death

Attorney General Bill McCollum weighed in on the Martin Lee Anderson boot camp death, saying "there is more that can be done" to give the family "the justice they deserve."

At the same time, however, McCollum closed the books.

"While we have determined there are no further civil or criminal actions this Office can bring under its authority, I pledge to keep the resources of the Attorney General’s Office at the parents’ disposal," he said in a statement. "I believe there is more that can be done to give Martin Lee Anderson’s family and loved ones the justice they deserve. I am committed to assisting the family identify new avenues of justice and calling upon the appropriate licensing authorities to either initiate or continue any investigations that will hold the parties at fault, particularly the guards and the nurse, responsible for their actions."

The Mitt Mobile in Pinellas

Rudy Giuliani Florida chairman Bill McCollum had to share the spotlight with Craig Romney, the Mitt Mobile and Clearwater Mayor (and Pinellas Romney Chair) Frank Hibbard at the Veterans’ Appreciation Festival at Clearwater High School Sunday.

Major Donor Under Investigation

The U.S. Department of Justice is raiding WellCare's financial records down in Tampa today. See the release here. The Attorney General's Medicaid fraud unit is involved.

WellCare and its affiliates have given the Republican Party of Florida some $105,000 in contributions this year, according to state election records. They've also given the Florida Democratic Party $5,000 this year.

AG to Defense Attorneys: You're on Your Own

Attorney General Bill McCollum has declined to help the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers  challenge a new law that goes into effect on Oct. 1 changing the way defense attorneys handle conflict-of-interest criminal cases for the poor.

It used to be that if a public defender had a conflict of interest and couldn't represent someone, that case would get assigned to a private attorney paid by the state. On Oct. 1, that will change. A new type  of public defender on a government salary will handle these conflict cases, a cost-cutting move that saved the state about $50 million. Critics have said the law could undermine fair legal representation for the poor, saying these new offices are under-funded.

McCollum: Put UF Tasering in context

Attorney General Bill McCollum gave a brief statement to the Florida Cabinet about the Tasering of a University of Florida student Monday:

"Every single day police and and sheriff's deputies in our state put their life on the line for us and we should be aware that by far and aware most of these officers are extraordinarily careful in what they do ... On the other hand, the day before yesterday, when this instance occurred, I think most of us think that presumably this was excessive force and it needs to be investigated. Free speech is important in our country."

"I'm not happy with the situation, but I do think the Cabinet should recognize the fact that both the report and the activities going on with the investigation have to be put in context, because there are many, many fine police officers out there ever day. And Tasers are not lethal."

Fred Thompson hearts Pasco

As if Bill McCollum's speech and the drawing for the handguns weren't reason enough to hit the Pasco GOP's Reagan Day dinner. Now the Buzz is that Fred Thompson will be there too next Friday - becoming the first presidential candidate this cycle to hit the fast-growing Tampa Bay bedroom community.

Unexpected SBA Meeting

Gov. Crist on Friday called for the State Board of Administration to meet next Tuesday morning to consider asking that agency's staff to start looking into ways to make sure that there's enough cash to pay hurricane claims out of the catastrophe fund.

The Times reported that insurers are buying a special kind of new reinsurance that promises to start paying out claims immediately after a hurricane hits, in case the catastrophe fund can't.

SBA consists of only the Governor, the CFO and the Attorney General. (Ag. Commissioner Charlie Bronson isn't on SBA.)

Fighting the marriage amendment

A well-funded, bipartisan group is revving up to fight the likely ballot proposal for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriages in Florida. Prominent leaders of the "Florida Red and Blue" committee say they've pulled in more than $1-million over the last 60 days to defeat the so-called Marriage Protection Amendment, which already faces the steep hurdle of needing at least 60 percent support to pass.

"This is something that doesn't belong in Florida or Florida's Constitution," said Miami investor Jon Kislak, who is chairman of the group and a former finance chairman for Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum and for Republican former Rep. Clay Shaw. More here.

Surprise candidate in Orange County

Some suprising Buzz: Ace Republican operative Shannon Gravitte, a longtime Bill McCollum adviser and aide to former Orlando mayor Glenda Hood, is running for an open Orange County Commission seat. She's jumping in early to prepare for what she expects to be a crowded field in the southwest Orange county district now represented by term-limited Teresa Jacobs..

FL's Christian right bulldog

For a combative Christian political crusader like John Stemberger, these are trying times. The front-runners for the Republican presidential nomination are thrice-married Rudy Giuliani, who openly supports abortion rights, and John McCain, who once called Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson "agents of intolerance." Charlie Crist, whom Stemberger bashed last year as a "conservative impostor, " now sits in the governor's office with soaring approval ratings after clobbering Stemberger's preferred candidate in the Republican primary.

Stemberger, the loudest voice in Florida's Christian right movement, lately looks like he's all mouth and little might. But in the same week that Falwell died, Stemberger sounds neither cocky nor chastened. "It's not our job to be victorious. It's our job to be faithful. It's our job to stand up for truth and to speak the truth, " the Orlando trial lawyer said in an office sprinkled with photos of Jeb Bush and Robert Bork and a "Beware of Attack Lawyer" warning sign.

More here.

Giuliani likes paper trails

Taking a few questions in Orlando, the Republican presidential candidate said Charlie Crist's push for voter-verifiable paper trails on electronic voting machines was the right call. "Of course it is,'' he said. "We want to encourage everybody to vote that is entitled to vote to vote. But then we want to make sure that the votes are counted accurately because if the votes aren't counted accurately your votes and mine get wiped out."

Giuliani, who once fought stiff federal efforts to force city workers to report undocumented immigrants, was unenthusiastic about  the new Senate immigration proposal, saying he wanted a database on all non-citizens in the U.S. and tamper-proof ID cards. "What i would like to see come out of this bill or an any bill on immigration, I'm not sure is there. I think the focus here has to be on the security of the united states."

Accompanied by Attorney General and Giuliani Florida campaign chair Bill McCollum, Giuliani was campaigning in Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa today. In Orlando, his campaign announced that Orange County Property Appraiser Bill Donegan will be his central florida campaign chair and  insurance executive Johnny Jallad would be his central Florida finance chair.

McCollum slaps Busch

Attorney General Bill McCollum scolded Anheuser-Busch today for promoting TILT and other caffeinated alcoholic drinks to young adults. 

“These alcoholic energy drinks are promoted and packaged in a way that is highly attractive in both taste and appearance to underage youth,” McCollum said, joining 28 AGs from other states in the protest. “If Anheuser-Busch is going to hold itself out as a partner in the fight against underage drinking, the company must stop marketing the youthful appeal of these drinks.”

McCollum will use teens to help nab Internet predators

Attorney General Bill McCollum will enlist tech-savvy teens to help his Child Predator CyberCrime investigate cybercrimes against children.

Students on the council will help identify Internet trends and popular online activity.

McCollum v. Crist

Bill McCollum did what no politician has yet dared to do. He took off the gloves and took on Gov. Charlie Crist.

More of Steve Bousquet's column here.

Dueling McCain, Giuliani endorsements

State Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff will be southeast legislative co-chair for John McCain 2008, where she will provide strategic and organizational guidance to the campaign. "John McCain has been on the right side of the issues that are most important to the American way of life," said Bogdanoff, the House majority whip. "Whether it’s growing the economy or providing strong leadership on defense issues, John McCain has the credibility and the passion we need in our next leader."

Rudy Giulliani's campaign announced these state House endorsements today: Thad Altman, Carl Domino, Greg Evers, Rich Glorioso, Peter Nehr, Pat Patterson, Juan Carlos "J.C." Planas, Julio Robaina, Juan C. Zapata.

McCollum for Giuliani

The Buzz is that Attorney General Bill McCollum will endorse Rudy Giuliani today when the presidential candidate is in Tallahassee. The former New York mayor will also meet with Charlie Crist, but don't expect the governor to make his endorsement any time soon. Later Giuliani will campaign in St. Petersburg and raise money in Naples.

UPDATE: Sure enough, McCollum stood by Giuliani after an appearance at the Governor's Club. McCollum said he will serve as statewide chairman of the campaign, adding: “Of all of the candidates, all the would-bes ... alone Rudy Giuliani has demonstrated the capacity and competence to lead our nation in the troubled years ahead."

AG on Felons Voting Rights

Attorney General McCollum says that on Thursday, when the Clemency Board meets to consider Gov. Crist's proposal for restoring felons' voting rights, he plans to offer an amendment.

McCollum wants felons to wait at least five years before they get their rights automatically restored, because, "waiting is going to help determine whether or not they're repeat offenders."

He said that once they get their rights restored, they can also serve on a jury and get occupational licenses, which really worries him. He called repeat offenders a potentially "dangerous group of people," and "I don't think I want to give them that occupational license."

AG Makes Game, Misses Cabinet

Attorney General Bill McCollum watched the Gators win the NCAA championship live in Atlanta but he didn't make a 9 a.m. Cabinet meeting that started less than 10 hours later. McCollum said he knew he probably wouldn't make it back in time for Cabinet, but that he was "also aware that the Cabinet agenda was not very serious" compared with past meetings. (It was among of the quickest Cabinet meetings this year.)

McCollum, a doube gator who got his bachelor's and law degree at UF, made the 11 a.m. forum on global warming, and he asked lots of questions.

Gov. Charlie Crist was also at the game and at Cabinet.

UPDATE!

Buzz was incorrect: Crist did not take the state plane. He flew on a private plane with Bill Belichick, coach of the New England Patriots.

McCollum wants more clemency staff

Attorney General Bill McCollum proposed today adding 10 staffers to the Parole Commission to decrease the backlog before the Executive Clemency Board. The extra staff, to come from current Cabinet divisions, would serve for one year and the frequency of clemency meetings would increase.

"At the end of that time, I believe that you would have nobody who applied for civil rights restoration, with or without a hearing, that would have to wait longer than a year for that application to be resolved," McCollum said.

His position is at odds with the direction Gov. Charlie Crist is headed. Crist has said he may issue an executive order single-handedly restoring civil rights to felons who have completed their sentences. McCollum said the "vast majority" of cases are resolved without hearings but he does not favor expanding the type of cases that are waived through. He said he would add child predators to the list requiring a hearing.

The new-look Florida Cabinet

Florida's new-look Cabinet made its debut Thursday, with Gov. Charlie Crist front and center, flanked by the two new members: Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink at Crist's left and Attorney General Bill McCollum on his right.

There wasn't much on the agenda -- mainly the confirmations of Mike Sole at the Department of Environmental Protection and  LeRoy Collins Jr. at Veterans Affairs -- so Crist made time for a delegation of Brevard County residents to sound off about high insurance rates and policy cancellations.

"Your presence here in Tallahassee does make a difference," Sink told the Brevard visitors in their windbreakers and "Insurance Reform Now" buttons. She added: "We have plenty of lobbyists walking around the halls -- trust me. They're the guys in the suits. We pay more attention to the people in the T-shirts."   

Crist ended a Tallahassee tradition of the governor descending a spiral staircase to the basement-level Cabinet room to meet reporters. The governor has opted for a more formal, and (at least on Thursday) longer Q-and-A with reporters in his large conference room adjacent to his office.

That room also now sports an oval rendering that says "The Capitol, Tallahassee, Florida" on it, which is really a likeness of the historic and picturesque Old Capitol -- with the new tower seen behind it.

Picking Sink Outta the Crowd

If Alex Sink keeps on her overcoat to ward of this morning's chill in Tallahassee, she won't be hard to see up on the rostrum today as she's awaiting being sworn into office.

Sink, the CFO-elect, and the only Democrat and woman in the incoming state Cabinet, showed up at this morning's inaugural breakfast in a cherry red long overcoat, easy to spot in a crowd of 1,000 mostly dark-suited folks.

Also sitting nearby on the floor of Gaither Gymnasium at FAMU: Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, Attorney General-elect Bill McCollum, the Florida Supreme Court justices, former U.S. Sen. Connie Mack, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, former Govs. Bob Martinez and Claude Kirk, Senate President Ken Pruitt, Tallahassee Mayor John Marks and a slew of other legislators.

But St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker, his wife Joyce and their two children didn't hang on the floor with other dignitaries. As they munched on their share of the complimentary breakfast of muffins, orange juice, apples, bananas and coffee, they sat in the bleachers.

High Powered Line Up, Sans One

Click on the image at left to see for yourself, but there's a lineup of three former and one-in-waiting Florida Attorney General: Richard Doran, AG-elect Bill McCollum, Jim Smith and Bob Butterworth. The photograph was distributed right before Christmas by McCollum's transition office.

Our only question at Buzz: Where was the current Attorney General, Charlie Crist?