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Broward Dems Chair Mitch Ceasar on NBC 6 Impact with Jackie Nespral

Mitch Ceasar talks about Florida’s 2014 year in politics.
Segment begins at the 14:00 mark

Post Election Note from Broward Democratic Chair Mitch Ceasar

From: Chairman Ceasar
Election 2014 is concluded and it was not a pleasant experience in Florida or nationally. However you should all be proud of your work during this cycle. You where magnificent. You volunteered for phone banks, knocked on doors, worked early voting and distributed Palm Cards.

The Crist Campaign had informed me that they needed a Broward margin of approximately 175 thousand votes. Broward delivered 176 thousand. With a turnout of almost 46 percent. This is a substantial increase over 2010. That was accomplished even through many of our senior super voters have been lost over the last four years. We spent advertising dollars in the minority community. This was about boosting turnout and “doing the right thing”.
We picked up numerous municipal seats by beating Republicans. In fact, the Coral Springs City Commission is now a Democratic majority. Additionally our north end folks ensured a return of Congresswomen Lois Frankel and State Senator Maria Sachs.

You performed all of these good works despite a National Republican wave. I so much appreciate your endless days of hard work. Thank you for being so awesome.

Broward Dems Chair Mitch Ceasar on the Ed Show

Democrats aim to make Florida ‘Scott-free’
Early voters in Florida are energized, based on the issues, and have been getting out the vote for Democratic Gubenatorial Candidate Charlie Crist. Ed Schultz traveled to Fort Lauderdale to speak with voters and candidate for Lt. Gov. Annette Taddeo. Mitch Ceasar and Adam Smith also join the conversation.

Mitch Ceasar on The Ed Show Discussing Rick Scott and Early Voting

Rick Scott’s hypocritical ballot backtrack

In Trenders, George Bush Sr. wants out of Democratic ads, while a horse ditches work for a wild ride in New York City. Ed Schultz and Mitch Caesar discuss Rick Scott hypocritical take on Florida’s early voting.

Gov’s staff offers up incomplete timeline of prison cover-up; governor can’t find words to explain it

Miami Herald | Julie Brown and Marc Caputo | Friday, Sep. 26, 2014

Gov. Rick Scott’s office came to the defense of his chief inspector general Friday saying that the reason she couldn’t investigate claims of a suspicious inmate death brought to her by an anonymous letter nearly two years ago was because the case was under an open investigation.

But, according to a detailed timeline released by the media office in response to a Miami Herald report, there was no investigation pending in the gassing death of Randall Jordan-Aparo when Melinda Miguel received the letter.

The 27-year-old inmate died in September 2010 after being doused with chemical agents three times in 13 minutes while in a confinement cell. Florida prison officials and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement had closed the case in July 2012, concluding there was no relationship between the gassing and the inmate’s death.

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Rick Scott deserves an F on public education

Tampa Bay Times Editorial Board | Friday, September 26, 2014 3:52pm

As he campaigns for re-election, Gov. Rick Scott portrays himself as a champion of public education who has increased spending, befriended teachers and ensured Florida’s schoolchildren will be better prepared for to enter college or the job market. His record is at odds with his rhetoric. In 16 years since Republicans took over the Governor’s Mansion and began pushing major education policy changes, no governor has been so coldly calculating and cynical about what happens to Florida’s traditional public schools.

From his first year backing steep budget cuts and nonsensical teacher assessments to his repeated favoring of private interests, Scott has all but ignored the state’s constitutional duty to provide uniform, high-quality and free public schools. The state has its fourth education commissioner in four years. The governor’s Board of Education has pandered to the tea party’s misinformation campaign on the Common Core State Standards, and it has set the stage for a potentially disastrous standardized testing change this spring. This is not the work of a governor engaged in enhancing the state’s investment in children but of a former CEO who treats education like an expense line to be managed and squeezed.

In four years, Scott has done far more to undermine public education than to support it.

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Politics, not families, matter most matter to Scott

Sun Sentinel|September 27, 2014|By Randy Schultz, By Randy Schultz

Last week, Gov. Rick Scott campaigned at Capt. Anderson’s, the popular restaurant in Panama City Beach owned in part by State Rep. Jimmy Patronis. Two days later, Scott named Patronis one of Florida’s five utility regulators. It was another serving of smelly Florida politics.

Patronis has no background in energy and law, the best training for those on the Florida Public Service Commission, which Patronis joins on Jan. 1. Patronis does have experience in regulation when it comes to his time in the Florida Legislature, but that background should have disqualified him for a job in which he is supposed to balance the interests of utilities against the interests of customers.

When it comes to regulation, Patronis has tried to abolish it. Since 2009, he has become known for annually sponsoring terrible environmental bills that special interest lobbyists write. He has gutted wetlands protection and made it easier to open phosphate mines. He has tried to forbid local governments from requiring supermajority votes on large development projects. Last year, his bill again delayed the Everglades cleanup deadline, and gave sugar growers a chance to stop paying a share even if the water isn’t clean enough.

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Broward Dems Chair Mitch Ceasar on the Ed Show Discussing Rick Scott’s Environmental Plan

Missing piece to Scott’s environmental plan

Ed Schultz and Mitch Ceasar discuss Rick Scott’s plan to avoid climate change.

Marc Yacht: Voters should oust the politicians who refuse to expand Medicaid

Marc Yacht, Context Florida

Because Florida Republican officials are refusing federal Medicaid dollars, about 1.3 million low-income Florida residents will not get health-care coverage.

Obamacare pays the full cost of expanding Medicaid for the first three years. After that, the federal government pays 90 percent of the cost.

A family of four could qualify for Medicaid earning up to $32,000 per year. Salaries to 400 percent of HHS federal poverty guidelines would qualify for subsidies.

Prior to Obamacare, 4.1 million Floridians lacked health insurance. Despite Gov. Rick Scott’s efforts to block Medicaid expansion and enrollment, the number of uninsured has been reduced to 3.4 million.

Despite all the opposition from state Republicans, Medicaid signups in the state have beaten projections. Through February, 440,000 people have enrolled, many with the help of volunteers, including college students, citizen groups, and health insurers.

The state’s refusal to accept federal Medicaid-expansion dollars has lethal implications for the uninsured. It is projected that 1,158 to 2,221 uninsured people will die because the state refused to provide the expanded coverage.

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