Winner and loser of the week

Winner of the Week: State Sen. Ted Deutch. It looks more and more like the first term Democratic legislator from Boca Raton will walk into the Congressional seat Robert Wexler is vacating to take a well-paid middle east policy advocate job. No serious rival has emerged, Wexler essentially hand-picked his successor for a heavily Democratic district the well-regarded Deutch can probably hold as long as he likes.

Loser of the week: Department of Juvenile Justice Secretary Frank Peterman. Spending $44,000 in taxpayer money on travel over two years? Much of it to and from your home area? Come on, Frank. Tighten your belt and fix your political antenna or your own six-figure state salary will be be in jeopardy. Maybe you need to let somebody else do your St. Pete preaching gig for awhile.

Winner and loser of the week

Winner of the week: George LeMieux. We’re starting to think U.S. Sen. LeMieux really could be a super-human political genius, the way Charlie Crist started stumbling and looking more and more vulnerable since LeMieux moved to Washington and left his side.

Loser of the week: Erin Isaac. Soon after Crist named a former John McCain campaign aide, Andrea Saul, as his campaign’s new communications director, Crist PR chief Isaac announced she was leaving her six figure job in the governor’s office without another job. But don’t blame Isaac for the series of self-inflicted gaffe’s Crist has made to fuel a horrible run of publicity lately.

Winner and loser of the week

Winner of the week: Bill McCollum. The Republican gubernatorial candidate doesn’t seem to realize it yet, but a primary challenge from state Sen. Paula Dockery could be just what he needs to spark interest in his contest and in his campaign. Nothing like a solid primary win to make you look like a winner when its time to face Democratic rival Alex Sink -- who could find herself invisible amid all the attention on McCollum vs. Dockery and Crist vs. Rubio. Runner up: Paula Dockery, whose entry into the governor’s race was greeted with a mass e-mail from the NRA to its members: “ALERT Paula Dockery, A+ NRA rated Senator enters FL Governor’s Race.” It's a sign McCollum still has work to do with the base.

Loser of the week: Karen Thurman. The Florida Democratic Chairwoman made a big show of the party jumping into St. Petersburg’s officially non-partisan election to help elect Kathleen Ford mayor of Florida’s fourth largest city. Despite Democrats having a hefty voter registration advantage in St. Pete and the state GOP doing zilch to help Bill Foster, Ford  fell well short, Thurman gets to own that that loss. Runners up: Ken Welch and Rick Kriseman, either of whom would likely be St Pete mayor-elect today if they'd had the guts to run.

Winner and loser of the week

Winner of the week: Florida Power & Light. In the midst of a public relations crisis over its huge rate increase request, lavish spending on salaries and corporate jets, cozy socializing with regulators, Florida's largest utility received a giant hug from President Obama. Visiting FP&L's new solar power plant and hailing a $200-million stimulus grant to the company, Obama called it "a company that is doing well by doing good. I think it's a model for what we can do all across the country."

Loser(s) of the week: U.S. Reps. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, and Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville. Grayson's latest attention-grabbing stunt was to call a Federal Reserve adviser and former lobbyist a "K Street Whore." Brown-Waite's was insist Barack Obama seek Congressional approval before accepting the Nobel Peace Prize financial reward he intends to give to charity. Remember guys, Florida voters tend to prefer safe and dull politicians to those positioning themselves on the wingnut fringes.

Winner and loser of the week

Winner(s) 

of the week: Larry Williams, Deveron Gibbons, Scott Wagman, Jamie Bennett. The more people see and hear of St. Pete mayoral candidates Bill Foster and Kathleen Ford, the more we hear disgust with the choices. The also-rans in the primary look better with every passing day.

 

Loser of the week: Charlie Crist. So much for Gov.

Crist’s easy waltz into the U.S. Senate. Polls show Marco Rubio is closing the gap, even former conservative fans like the Cato Institute are turning on Crist eand now come revelations about how little actual governing time Crist schedules. Helping fuel the rap that Crist consistently puts his own self-interest above all else, the governor is dispatching his chief of staff to help stem Rubio’s momentum at a time when he could use all the horsepower available actually governing Florida.

Winner and loser of the week

Winner of the week: U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek. It didn’t get much notice, but two very significant names - Sens. Bill Nelson and Harry Reid - were listed as hosts a Washington fundraising reception for the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate. The clear message? The Democratic establishment is embracing Meek as their candidate.

 Loser of the week: Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp. The lieutenant governor raised just $180,000 for his attorney general campaign - less than both Democrats raised during the same period. Very weak indeed for a sitting lieutenant governor, and a sign he might even be the underdog in the primary as fellow Republicans Holly Benson of Pensacola and Pam Bondi of Tampa eye the race.

Winner and loser of the week

Winner of the week: Former state House Speaker Ray Sansom. Perhaps it's wrong to mislead colleagues, voters and taxpayers and hide in the state budget a $6 million airplane hangar project benefitting a friend and top Republican donor. But a circuit judge ruled that it's not illegal, and dropped an official misconduct charge against Sansom. Runner up: Marco Rubio, now a contendah

Loser of the week: Attorney General Bill McCollum: The Republican gubernatorial candidate not only was again outraised by Democrat Alex Sink - and gave Paula Dockery   
every reason to jump into a primary - but he wins the prize for the most inept roll out of fundraising totals Florida has seen in a long time. We still don't know (UPDATE: It's $853,000)  how much McCollum raised because the campaign kept trying to inflate/obfuscate his total by including in-kind donations and state party funds. And it doesn't exactly instill confidence in McCollum that his campaign co-chairman, lobbyist Al Cardenas, recently was among those helping introduce Alex Sink to Washington donors.

The rest of the print Buzz is here.

Winner and loser of the week

Winner of the week: U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson: Following the lead of Joe "You lie!" Wilson, Grayson, sadly, proved that these days it can pay to be outrageous or offensive. Nobody in America had heard of the Orlando Democrat until he went on the House floor and insisted, "the Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick." Now lefties are championing Grayson as a hero, and $150,000 has rolled into his campaign account. And no strong Republican challenger has emerged to capitalize on the backlash.

Loser(s) of the week: Chairman Matthew Carter and Katrina McMurrian. Charlie Crist bumped the two Jeb Bush-appointed commissioners off the Public Service Commission after weeks of controversy over whether the PSC is too cozy with the utilities it regulates. Interesting to note that at a time when some conservatives are souring on Crist, he ousted a Baptist minister, Carter, and appointed the owner of a bar that features pole dancing.

Winner and loser of the week

Winner of the week: Bill Nelson. After being awol most of the summer on health care reform, Florida’s Democratic U.S. senator has been all the national media lately sounding like a champion up for seniors and by trying to squeeze more money from drug companies and protecting the Medicare Advantage program. Who says pandering doesn’t doesn’t pay off?

Loser of the week: Scott Carruthers. The executive director of the Florida Justice Association, might think about changing his group’s name yet again to the Florida Sleaze Peddlers. Carruthers last week admitted the trial lawyer group funded a racist mailer sent in a heated state senate special election in northeast Florida. With pictures of Black Panthers, President Obama, the Rev. Louis Farrakhan and ACORN marchers the mailer asked: "Is this the change you want to believe in?"

Winner and loser of the week

Winner of the week: Jeb Bush. The former governor showed his political might among conservatives when former state House Speaker John Thrasher won a tough, competitive and widely watched special election for state senate Tuesday. By all accounts Bush’s endorsement was crucial in that northeast Florida district, a sharp contrast to Charlie Crist’s endorsement of Deveron Gibbons for St. Petersburg mayor which appeared to be zero help to the third-place finisher. Imagine what a Jeb endorsement could do for Marco Rubio?

Loser of the week: Pat Bean. Is Hillsborough County Administrator trying to force   commissioners to fire her from her $214,000 job? At a time when the county is cutting millions in expenses, she approves a $2,100 bonus for herself. "I didn’t use the best judgment," she said in the understatement of the century.

Loser runner up: Florida trial lawyers who in the Senate District 8 tried and failed to send a message they they can take out any politician who crosses them. What's that expression about payback?