State Sen. Dan Gelber may not have the knack for raising big money as do fellow U.S. Senate prospects Allen Boyd or Ron Klein, or the geographic base and statewide network of Alex Sink. But Gelber has Steve Schale, Florida's hottest Democratic consultant. From Schale's Facebook page:

"Dan's life values and his experience working across the aisle to get things done will suit him well in Washington and serve the state well. He understands the political and ideological nuances of Florida and was the most successful house caucus leader in terms of election wins that our party has ever seen, proving he knows how to win elections. But moreover, if the race is one against Jeb Bush (a man that once said that Dan would make a good Governor), Dan is uniquely capable to carry the torch. A skilled prosecutor and uncannily prepared on the issues, there is no one better prepared to go toe to toe with Jeb Bush, who has proven in previous elections to be one of the best, if not the best political debater in the nation."

Btw, anyone else noticing the growing number of Facebook groups for Florida pols and/or their admirers? We see Jeb Bush for Senate , Draft Dave Aronberg , Draft Alex Sink for governor , Marco Rubio for Senate . What else is out there?

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From the LeMieux report: "...An open Senate Seat is like an open flame drawing politicians like moths.  This will be the most contested race in Florida in 2010. If Governor Bush decides to enter the race, it will clear the field of Republicans, and may do the same on the Democrat side. If Bush does not run, look for a potential show down of fellow members of the Florida Cabinet, with Sink versus McCollum."

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Dan Gelber blogs about the maneuvering of those who might run for senate:

"...The truth is for anyone, like me, who is passionate about public service the job of a U.S. Senator is so important and the trust is so great, that it can only be looked at seriously. Even for someone like Jeb Bush who probably is not as awed by the position as others might be, such a decision to run requires a good deal of due diligence. So, stay tuned and undoubtedly this storyline will have many turns and surprises. As for me, I am seriously looking at it. Hope that wasn’t too coy."

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U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Monticello, is seriously considering a run for the Senate and will make up his mind by mid January. He didn't say it, but his tone in a phone conversation a few minutes ago sounded to us like a candidate more likely than not to jump in.

"I want a good partner for President-elect Obama in the United States Senate from Florida,'' said Boyd, 63, a 12-year incumbent and former state House member.

He said he is talking with family, prospective donors, and others as part of his due diligence, and weighing whether he wants to leave a job he enjoys. He has been talked about as a potential candidate for agriculture commissioner or governor, but Boyd said the Senate is the only new office he's really considering.

He said the decision this week by Republican Mel Martinez not to seek reelection in 2010 didn't change his plans, but "obviously changed the dynamics."

Asked whether she will run for Mel Martinez's soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat, State Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said, "I don't know."

Is she seriously considering it? "Of course. Shouldn't I?" Sink said. She said she'd decide sometime after the New Year, and news of former Gov. Jeb Bush considering a run wouldn't be a big factor.

"The decision for me will be a very personal decision," Sink said, walking back to her office Thursday afternoon after having lunch at Andrew's Capital Grill & Bar.

If Sink and Bush decide to run, it'll be personal. Sink's husband, Bill McBride , was beaten badly in 2002 in his run against Bush, who won by about 13 percentage points.

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Hey, a political writer can dream, right?

Let's stipulate that almost every name out there for Mel Martinez's senate seat is rank speculation at this point. But the fact remains that on the Republican side, only two people -- Charlie Crist and Jeb Bush -- could effectively clear the GOP field on a Senate race, just as Alex Sink, to a lesser extent, would on the Democratic side.

And for either Republican, the Senate seat would be their best shot at a long-term political perch that ultimately could lead to, say, the White House. Plus, wouldn't it be a fun to have a wide open governor's race in 2010 if Crist did decide to aim for Washington?

"I think the governor is really in the catbird seat right now. He's a formidable, formidable person,'' said 2004 Senate candidate Betty Castor. "And I don't know that the governor has to make up his mind right away. Everybody else probably does."

Her daughter, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, isn't expressing any interest, but how about Betty making another run for the Senate? "I would support Alex Sink,'' she said.

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U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez's abrupt decision to not seek re-election could have a titanic effect on Florida politics. Here's one of the first signs: Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink , who would be considered a formidable Democratic candidate, is reassessing.

Politico.com quoted an anonymous source Monday as saying Sink would seek re-election as CFO, rather than run for governor or Senate in 2010, and hours later, Martinez announced he won't run. The Florida Democratic Party was expected to issue a statement Tuesday confirming that but it didn't happen. Said Sink's spokeswoman, Tara Klimek: "I can tell you that she's not ready to talk about her future."

Sink beat Republican Tom Lee in the 2006 CFO race. She has 28 years of banking experience, is from the vital I-4 corridor, and is well-liked in the business community. A Sink candidacy would narrow the field of Democratic candidates in a hurry.

Politico has "a source familiar with her decision" saying that Alex Sink decided over the Thanksgiving weekend not to run for the U.S. Senate or governor in 2010 and instead to seek another term as CFO.

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Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, Florida's only Democratic elected executive officer, discussed the state of Florida's economy in a breakfast with reporters from the St. Petersburg Times and The Miami Herald. The former bank executive has begun calling banks on behalf of the Florida Home Builders Association, which has pleaded for a "time out" from banks calling in builders' construction loans.

The cratering of the construction and credit markets is all the more reason why Florida must continue to diversify its economic base, she said, and end its reliance on real estate. She cited the wildly overbuilt Fort Myers, now one of the foreclosure capitals of the world. "There's nothing else there, except for Chico's," she said.

On the subject of politics, Sink promised a decision soon on her political future which could include running for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Mel Martinez in 2010, running for governor, or staying put, and perhaps preparing for a run for governor in 2014 when the office will be open.

"I'm going to make up my mind very soon," Sink said. "It's all about what's best for me, and what's best for the state."

If CFO Alex Sink runs for higher office, who are the Democrats most likely to run for her Cabinet post? One name getting pushed is Palm Beach County Clerk of Court Sharon Bock .

Democratic Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink declined to endorse Karen Thurman for re-election as state party chairwoman. ""I haven't taken a position yet,'' she said today. "I've had several calls from other people who are interested in exploring running, so I owe it to them to talk to all of the possible candidates."

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson may be supporting Thurman, but Sink is the one elected statewide Democrat who will be on the ballot in 2010 (for what office remains to be seen).

Steve Bousquet

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Republican St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker has long struck observers as a guy with further political ambitions once he leaves office in 2010. The question is what next? He has pretty much ruled out running for Congress (if CW Bill Young retires), Charlie Crist has the governor's mansion, and Baker's political prospects will ebb fast once he leaves office and his profile dims.

Which is where Democratic Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink fits in. If, as many people expect, she winds up running for U.S. Senate (or governor), Baker is a prime candidate for the open CFO seat. The mayor insists, however, that he won't mull his future at least until mid 2009.

"I don't rule anything out at this point,'' Baker said.

One wrinkle: Baker's media consultant is Adam Goodman of Tampa, whose clients include another potential CFO candidate, state Senate president Jeff Atwater of North Palm Beach.

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Quinnipiac 11/11-16 Fla poll (moe +/-2.7%): " Florida Gov. Charlie Crist remains overwhelmingly popular with a 68 - 18 percent job approval rating that makes him a strong favorite for re-election in 2010, but Sen. Mel Martinez's 42 - 33 percent approval rating makes him much more vulnerable, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. ...

The State Board of Administration, which manages many of Florida's public investments, has seen its assets plummet by $62-billion, a third of their value, in the past 13 months.

The decline ? the steepest in the agency's 65-year history ? reflects both big investment losses in the global financial crisis and the decision by hundreds of local and state agencies to withdraw money from shaky SBA accounts. In both cases, the SBA plowed money into higher-risk investments with the potential for bigger profits. But in the ongoing financial meltdown, they generated big losses instead.

Story here .

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There's buzz among Democratic activists about this Facebook page for Alex Sink, which was updated to describe Sink as a candidate for governor.

But it seems to be wishful thinking by Sink fans. The CFO does not have a Facebook page, at least not one she maintains, says spokeswoman Tara Klimek.

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Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink held a press conference Wednesday to talk about the need for a special session, as all reports indicate that the budget deficit is only continuing to deepen with less money coming in than expected.

"The time is now," she said. "The election is over and we know who the new legislators are. . .the time to act and a build a plan of action is right now."

She also highlighted a problem with borrowing money from the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund, whose investment she helps oversee as a trustee of the State Board of Administration.

UPDATE: FEA says: We second her call for a special session. Read more below.

An interesting new blog called " Draft Alex Sink " notes that websites like " AlexSink2010.com " and "AlexSinkforGovernor.com" appear to be registered.

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A group called Public Policy Polling reports that in three polls this summer that Sen. Mel Martinez's job approval rating had tanked. The group works primarily for Democrats.

In June his approval rating was 23%, in July it was 24%, and in September it was 23%.

They found that CFO Alex Sink would beat him in a hypothetical 2010 race, 37-31.

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Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink told the Council of 100, a private nonprofit business group meeting in Palm Beach this morning, that the Legislature needs to come back for a special session in December or January to cut the budget because of the deteriorating economy and tax collections. She said the state can't wait until the regular session in March.

CFO Alex Sink has appointed Sean Shaw as the new insurance consumer advocate. Shaw starts on Nov. 17.

General Bob Miligan who had lately been on temporary assignment running the State Board of Administration, has retired (again).

Shaw, 30, currently works as an attorney at Messer, Caparello & Self, P.A., He got his bachelor's from Princeton University (on scholarship) and go his law degree from University of Florida. Shaw's father Leander J. Shaw, Jr. was the first African-American judge to serve as chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court.

Carl Quintanilla to Alex Sink on CNBC: "Can you blame the likes of Wayne Huizenga for saying he wants to sell a bigger piece of the Dolphins early because he's worried about an increase in capital gains taxes (under Obama)

Sink: "I'm not worried about Wayne Huizenga. He can certainly take care of himself. I'm worried about the person who works at Dolphin Stadium and the little small businesses who rely on the activities of our sporting franchises here. So let's get our focus in the right place here. That's the problem with the McCain message. He's more worried about Wayne Huizenga than he is worried about the everyday small business owner down in Fort Lauderdale."

Video here.

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Well, not exactly. But both he and the CFO have public service announcements up for regional Emmys. For Gov. Charlie Crist it's his "Explore Adoption" campaign ad , and for CFO Alex Sink, it's her "My Safe Florida Homes" public service announcement. The Suncoast Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences nominated the ads, but they won't be competing with Grey's Anatomy , as the Suncoast Regional Emmy Awards are limited to programs aired in Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Puerto Rico.

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More from that Hamilton Beattie poll below:

"U.S. Senator Mel Martinez appears to be facing an uphill battle for re-election, with only 44 percent of voters saying they will vote to re-elect the Republican Senator and 40 percent supporting a generic Democratic candidate, with 16 percent undecided. Governor Charlie Crist maintains a stronger (but by no means safe) lead in a bid for re-election, receiving 52 percent of the vote over 34 percent for a generic Democratic candidate, with 14 percent undecided."

"The trend of close elections between well-funded candidates looks to continue in 2010, with real competition for the U.S. Senate seat and with a governor who is personally popular, but who barely receives a majority of the vote against an unnamed candidate," said polster David Beattie. Beattie said he conducted the poll for public release rather than any client (he doesn't have a statewide client this year and wants to have Florida benchmarks to compare with past cycles), but remember his clients include Alex Sink and Bill Nelson.

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Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said it was "very disappointing" that Congress failed to pass the bailout on Monday during a press conference on Tuesday.

"Nobody likes the legislation. Nobody likes everything it it," Sink said. "But given what the administration started with, which was 'just give us a blank check for $750-billion dollars,' it ended up certainly not being that."

"They scaled back the dollar amount. There has to be accountability in there. And we have to get these markets stable, otherwise we're going to be in a really, really serious situation," Sink said. "They've got to come back on Thursday with a plan that's going to stabilize the markets and open up credit."

"They've got to come back on Thursday and do the responsible thing for our country and pass that bill," she said.

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CFO Alex Sink has put together a task force to look into changes to annuities laws, with an eye toward safeguarding seniors from fraud.

Earlier this year, she had pushed for legislation, read about it here, that would have increased penalties on companies that coerce seniors into buying financial products that they don't need nor want. (Like annuities that cost thousands of dollars if you try to collect before 20 years is up.) She got some strengthened penalties, but she didn't get it deemed a felony. She blamed Met Life.

"I said I wasn’t gong to quit … and we’re coming back to stories like these about how their constituents are being impacted," Sink said.

The task force will look into fraud cases and suggest more legislative changes.

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Two top aides to Florida CFO Alex Sink abruptly handed in their resignations Thursday night. Out are Doug Darling (pictured, right), chief of the state Division of Accounting and Auditing, and Herb Fillyaw , chief of the Division of Information Systems. Sink confirmed both men were asked to resign.

The ouster comes days after the auditing firm Deloitte & Touche completed an audit of the agency's internal controls following the discovery of a scheme to defraud the state of millions of dollars by a Lebanese man living in Broward County. The audit found a lack of internal controls. The scheme was spotted by alert employees of Regions Bank and the road contractor Anderson Columbia.

"One of my concerns about state government is that you have an environment where people have been doing the same thing the same way, year after year after year," Sink said in an interview Friday. "We just uncovered some things that I would call 'Control 101.'^"

Darling earns about $111,000 a year and Fillyaw about $116,000. Replacements have already been named to both posts.

Steve Bousquet, Times Capital Bureau Chief

[Photo: Steve Bousquet, Times]

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Florida's top elected female executive was adamant in a Cabinet meeting last month: The state should be more diligent about hiring minorities as parole commissioners because they make important decisions about a population over-represented by minorities.

No one disagreed. But Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, fellow Cabinet officers and the governor aren't setting the best example when it comes to diversity in hiring. A St. Petersburg Times survey of the top staffers in the offices of Sink, Gov. Charlie Crist, Attorney General Bill McCollum and Agricultural Commissioner Charles Bronson show less than 9 percent of their top staff are minorities. Women account for 43 percent, though they are concentrated in lower-paying posts.

Story here.

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Democratic CFO Alex Sink blasted John McCain over the economy in a conference call with reporters today, seizing on his "the fundamentals are strong" comment Monday: "I just had to ask myself which cabbage patch he's been living in, because anybody who's out there talking to real people and looking at statistics and numbers like I like to do knows that the fundamentals of our economy are in trouble. ... We can't have another president who is so incredibly out of touch with what's going on in real America.''

And Sink's take on McCain's promise Tuesday of tougher regulation and reform of Wall Street? "John McCain has been in Washington for 26 years. Where has he been and what has he been doing? It's a little late, isn't it?"

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Florida's CFO Alex Sink says it's nice that the Republican Party could join the 21st century, but she's so over the Sarah Palin hype and wants the national debate to move on to real issues. "I’m past all that," she says.

"I’m really glad the Republican Party has broken their glass ceiling. I think I’m focused on the real choice, which is Obama vs. McCain. And I want to focus on issues and policy. . . and to focus on the economy and Florida."

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DENVER - They're loyal Democrats, they care deeply about their party's priorities and they want to change the direction of the country. So how in the world can so many of them talk about skipping the presidential election because instead of Hillary Clinton, it's Barack Obama who broke a historical barrier Wednesday and became the Democratic presidential nominee?

"If I can't vote for him it will break my heart, because I have been supporting minorities my whole career and he represents the hope of so many people,'' said Hillsborough County Clerk of the Circuit Court Pat Frank, recounting that she was 2 when her mother died and that she was largely raised by an African-American woman. "But on the other hand, the intellectual part says, 'Can this person handle the responsibility?' I go through this every single day, and I read absolutely everything there is about Obama."

Story here .

Surveying the Florida Democratic scene here in Denver a few things are clear: The party is finally developing a bench of credible statewide candidates, though everyone wants to run for U.S. Senate in 2010 and almost nobody sees a good shot at unseating Charlie Crist two years out.

It's also clear that for Florida Democrats at this point, Alex Sink calls the shot. One more thing: Keep an eye on Allen Boyd.

STORY HERE.

CFO Alex Sink on Friday held a press conference to announce she's creating a "Financial Action Team" to look for ways to get federal dollars and tax incentives to help Floridians who are losing their homes.

They're looking at what's available from the recently passed Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 to "maximize Florida’s share of the billions in available federal dollars to help taxpayers weather a range of economic challenges," according to a press release.

The Agency for Workforce Innovation reported on Friday that the unemployment rate is at 6.1 percent and that nearly 100,000 jobs have been lost from July 2007 through July 2008, mostly due to construction bust.

Term-limited Rep. Loranne Ausley has been appointed to take CFO Alex Sink's spot to run the board of Healthy Kids, the two announced in a press conference on Thursday.
The job running the Healthy Kids board is volunteer.

The Healthy Kids program is the public-private partnership that aims to insure children of working class families whose parents' income levels prevents the children from qualifying for Medicaid.

Three key Barack Obama staffers announced for the Panhandle: Deputy Political director Northeast Florida: Kenneth D. Pratt , a lawyer and legislative aide for State Rep. Geraldine  Thompson, D-Orlando  is a native of Tallahassee and currently serves as the President-Elect of the Virgil Hawkins Florida Chapter National Bar Association.

Deputy Political Director Northwest Florida: Jon Wright most recently served as the Obama Political Director in his home state's primary. He also worked field operations in Texas, New Mexico and Nevada for Obama. Prior to joining the Obama campaign, he served as Bill Richardson's Nevada GOTV Director and Iowa Deputy Field Director for the 2008 Presidential caucuses.

Deputy Communications Director Kevin Cate , a Florida native, comes   from Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink's office, where he served as Deputy Communications Director. Cate previously served as Director of Communications for the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice and as Press Secretary for the Florida Department of Heath.

CFO Alex Sink told the Buzz Thursday that while she hasn't taken a formal position on the Constitutional Amendment 5, she's leaning against it.

If passed by 60 percent of voters, the so-called the "tax swap" amendment would eliminate most property taxes that now fund education and would plug that funding gap by directing the Legislature to consider things like increasing sales tax, eliminating sales tax exemptions and reducing spending.

"I'd like to hear the governor and legislative leaders tell the voters where the shortfall is coming from, and unless I hear that I'm not sure we ought to take a gamble," Sink said. "Education funding is very important for Floridians. Part of our economy has to be based on attracting and keeping good-paying jobs. And we can't do that without a well-educated work force."

Florida CFO Alex Sink and her husband Bill McBride took the stage at Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa on Sunday during a Get Out the Vote concert fundraiser sponsored by the Hillsborough County Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Allied Democratic Caucus. Sink said not to be fooled by reports that Hillsborough County is turning increasingly red and said the youth vote is critical to winning the White House. After Sink spoke, the crowd chanted for McBride to take the mike. "I'm proud to be here with you and stand with you on the issues that are important to you," he said. His wife, he said, will do the same. "If you will help her, she'll change the course of state government."

About 150 people attended the event that featured three bands at the bar with the slogan "We Smoke Everything." Other speakers included Bill Mitchell , a candidate for the District 9 U.S. House seat now held by Gus Bilirakis and E.J. Ford , who's challenging Ed Homan for his state house seat.

A scheme to defraud state taxpayers out of millions of dollars was thwarted by some alert Regions Bank employees and one of the state's biggest road contractors ? but not before some of the money was transferred to Beirut, Lebanon.

FBI agents caught Ali Hassan Hammoud, 35, minutes before he was to board an Air France flight to Lebanon, but they were too late to stop the transfer to Lebanon of some of the $5.7-million stolen from the state treasury. The money was transferred in four installments after state officials received bogus paperwork directing them to ship the money to an account Hammoud controlled instead of sending it to Anderson Columbia, a Lake City construction company.

More here.

The Tuesday meeting of the governor and Cabinet promises to be livelier than usual, as it's their first session following news media revelations of people with criminal records being issued state licenses as mortgage brokers. On the hot seat is the state's top banking regulator, Don Saxon, head of the Office of Financial Regulation, who reports to the Cabinet. Saxon will appear early in the meeting "to address the issues that were brought up by the Miami Herald investigation," Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink told reporters Monday.

Sink has called for Saxon's resignation, but said she does not plan to make a motion to fire Saxon, a comment that suggested that Saxon has the votes to stay put or will determine his own fate. Sink said despite Saxon's strong reputation as a regulator, "other issues" involving OFR concern her, including a "damning report" by the statewide grand jury on state regulation of money-service businesses. "I just happen to believe it's time for new leadership there, and I've discussed it with him," Sink said. (To dismiss Saxon requires at least two others of the four-member body, including Gov. Charlie Crist).

Jim Malone has been appointed to chair the board that oversees and advises the state-run insurer. Malone has never served on the Citizens Property Insurance Corp. board and he succeeds Bruce Douglas who is stepping down at the end of the month.

CFO Alex Sink announced Friday she was appointing Malone, 65, from Naples. She says he has more than forty years of experience as an entrepreneur, manager and CEO of several Fortune 500 companies. Malone is on the board of trustees for Florida Gulf Coast University.

Malone is a registered Republican as of June 2008. He gave $1,000 in direct campaign contributions to CFO Sink in 2006. By law, the CFO gets to appoint the board chairman.

Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, a Miami Republican, blasted CFO Alex Sink, a Democrat, for not using her bully pulpit to attack mortgage fraud until the Miami Herald investigation brought to light problems within the agency that regulates the mortgage industry.

See the response from CFO Sink's office here. And read Rep. Lopez-Cantera's criticism of the CFO here.

--Jennifer Liberto, Times Staff Writer

Don Saxon who runs the recently beleaguered Office of Financial Regulation sent a letter to nearly all Florida media publications giving his side and blasting the Miami Herald's investigation. Read the letter here .

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink's brief turn on a Dateline NBC segment Monday was successful beyond the agency's expectations. She appeared as part of a story called "You Might Be Rich!" on efforts to return millions of dollars worth of unclaimed property to its rightful owners, including a stray Purple Heart that belongs to a Vietnam veteran living in Ocala.

The segment ran Monday night. By Tuesday, Sink's state Bureau of Unclaimed Property web site , with a searchable database of unclaimed items, was getting so much traffic (45,781 unique visitors in a day) that it crashed for an hour, CFO spokesman Kevin Cate said. The site is back up, with a note that attributes heavy traffic to the Dateline NBC segment. Is the heavy traffic the result of TV exposure? Or perhaps another reflection of how hard-pressed people are these days?

Rep. Dennis Ross wrote Gov. Charlie Crist a letter saying he's disappointed to see the end of the My Safe Florida Home Program. The inspections help consumers get discounts on their property insurance bills and it also helped 35,000 get small grants to harden their homes.

CFO Alex Sink had asked the Legislature to extend funding for the My Safe Florida Home program to serve more homeowners during the last session. See Ross' letter below.

Eighteen months ago, as Florida's newly elected Democratic chief financial officer, Alex Sink was clear: Her political ambition didn't include the 2010 governor's race.

But that's not so clear anymore. Recent clashes with Gov. Charlie Crist over offshore drilling and the state's hurricane risk have raised her profile. And a recent poll suggests she could be positioned for a high-profile campaign, perhaps for the U.S. Senate.

"I never say never," Sink said last week, adding that she could be very happy remaining CFO for another term. "I'll have to make a decision after the first of the year about what I'm doing next." (story here )

SBA is going to start negotiating with Ash Williams about becoming the SBA's new executive director. He had been the SBA's executive director back in 1996.

The State Board of Administration held a last-minute meeting on Wednesday morning where they decided they needed a back-up plan for the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund.

The state would pay $220 million for a guarantee that if hurricanes hit and the catastrophe fund has been tapped to the tune of roughly $25 billion, that the state will be guaranteed access to another $4 billion to pay claims.

Both Attorney General Bill McCollum and CFO Alex Sink agreed that they didn't like this option at all but they agreed it needed to be done.

Public Policy Polling robo poll : Barack Obama 46%, John McCain 44%. "It's shaping up to be another tight contest in Florida, but based on much greater Hispanic support than John Kerry saw in 2004, Barack Obama has the early lead. George W. Bush won Hispanic voters in the state 56-44 last time, but this survey shows Obama leading among them 51-37."

The poll also finds a mighty vulnerable Mel Martinez in 2010, with an abysmal 23% approval rating. Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, a Democrat, beats the Republican 37% to 31%. Rep. Robert Wexler (Sorry Dan Gelber , guess this N.C. pollster hasn't heard of you yet) ties Martinez 33% to 33%. "By contrast Democratic Senator Bill Nelson enjoys a 42/29 approval in the state. Even among Republicans just 37% of respondents approve of Martinez, with 31% disapproving. Just 15% of independents and 12% of Democrats expressed support for the job he is doing....This poll provides pretty strong evidence that Martinez will be one of the most endangered Republican Senators in the country in 2010."

Has Florida's populist-in-chief accurately sensed a shift in public opinion, or is it a calculated move to bolster his chances of being chosen as McCain's vice presidential running mate? Story here.

"You don't philosophically go against the guy who's going to be the Republican presidential nominee if you want to be his running mate," Tom Slade said. Having just spent $60 to fill up the tank of his SUV, Slade said, "$4 gasoline can change one's mind."

"This governor can read the vox pop better than anyone I've ever seen," said Allison deFoor, a prominent Republican and environmental activist who was on Crist's transition team. "If he's willing to touch it, he believes the people are shifting their mood a little bit."

Earlier today, the governor touted that some 115,000 former felons have regained their civil rights over the past 14 months under a streamlined civil rights restoration process he championed.

Florida CFO Alex Sink, sounding as much a Hillary Clinton fan as her husband is, endorsed Barack Obama today. Her statement was released on the same day Clinton told supporters to unite around Obama.

"Barack Obama has secured enough delegates to assure him the Democratic nomination for president, and he has my whole-hearted and enthusiastic support. Senator Obama has run an extraordinary campaign and has demonstrated a remarkable ability to bring people together and lead our nation forward.

Alex Sink has joined the advisory board of Florida Red and Blue, fighting the anti gay marriage amendment. See here .

From this story : "I believe I read that Lehman had decided in December of '06 that they wanted to reduce their own firm's exposure to these types of investments,'' Alex Sink said. "It just makes you wonder if they're going to reduce their exposure, then they have to sell off their investments to some other purchasers.''

"(Crist) said he understands that the Wall Street firms tried unsuccessfully to sell some of the "investments that went south'' to other states. So why did the SBA buy them? he asked. Crist also said that Bush was an honorable person and that he couldn't believe he would ever be "involved in anything nefarious.'' But he suggested that Lehman Brothers may have hired Bush to try to gain influence with the SBA.

"I hope that he wasn't sort of used,'' Crist said.

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.

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."

As we trade the 2008 legislative session for the pending start of the 2008 hurricane season, let's take stock: ? The average cost of homeowner's insurance in Florida is now more than $2,000 a year, about twice what it was three years ago.

? State-backed Citizens Property Insurance, the insurer of last resort, remains the state's largest property insurer with about 1.2-million policyholders, about the same as it had in 2006. It also finds itself in a weakened financial state.

? Allstate, State Farm, USAA, Nationwide and others have either stopped writing new policies in the state or have cut back what they will write. And most of the smaller, newer companies that took their place limit the number of older, coastal homes they insure. About two-thirds of the homes in Florida fall into that category.

? For another year, a record $28-billion will be sitting in Florida's hurricane catastrophe fund, which offers cheap backup coverage to insurers. If insurance companies need to tap into a major chunk of that fund, or if Citizens runs a deficit, all Florida policyholders are in deep trouble.

Sen. Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, revealed on Tuesday that the property insurance bill he's been pushing ( SB 2860 ) to crack down on insurers is linked inextricably with CFO Alex Sink's bill ( SB 2156 ), which would reduce risk in the catastrophe fund.

Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink today urged House Speaker Marco Rubio and Senate President Ken Pruitt to change the liability protections for CSX that part of the $650-million "no-fault" deal to run commuter trains in the Orlando area. House and Senate votes are due next week.

"While the expansion of commuter rail is a laudable and important component of wise transportation planning, Florida's taxpayers should not assume an undue amount of liability," Sink wrote in a letter  ( Download csx_letter_to_pruitt_rubio.doc ) that attacks deal negotiations that happened "under the clover of darkness."

For folks who don't yet have any say in their presidential nominee, it was a remarkably upbeat group of Democrats who met at Gray Robinson in Orlando today to elect 27 party leader and elected official delegates.Hamilton County Democratic Party Chair Rhett Bullard received the most votes, surely because he distributed cookies and candy to everyone with a vote. The elected delegates - none recognized by the DNC at this point - are listed below.

CFO Alex Sink - who hopes to be tapped as a unpledged delegate at the convention - has been pretty quiet on this FL Democratic delegate mess. So Buzz asked whether she thinks uncommited superdelegates ultimately have an obligation to back whoever is leading in pledged delegates and popular votes. Nope. "The rules are the rules,'' said Sink, who is officially neutral though husband Bill McBride is backing Clinton.

Meanwhile, TPM has Chris Korge of Miami among 20 top Clinton fundraisers chastising Speaker Nancy Pelosi for suggesting the supers must support the pledged delegate leader.

CFO Alex Sink has come out against the proposed revenue and spending cap before the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission tomorrow. Read her letter to Chairman Allan Bense here .

"The citizens of our state, many of whom are overwhelmed by the rising costs of living, seek pragmatic solutions. TABOR, however, is not the answer," Sink writes, using the shorthand version of taxpayers' bill of rights.

At Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, Gov. Charlie Crist urged a three-member team of state auditors to be more aggressive in finding out who was responsible for the investment choices that resulted in last fall's meltdown of a local government investment pool. 

"I really want you to dig in and instruct the law firm to be an independent counsel," Crist told Kim Ferrell, the audit team member from Attorney General Bill McCollum's office. "It's very important to me." Ferrell, in updating the Cabinet, reported that the audit team has hired the law firm of Berger Singerman as its outside counsel. The firm's name partner, Mitchell Berger, is a leading Democratic politico.   

Audit team member Doug Darling from CFO Alex Sink's office said Berger Singerman was chosen from a competitive process. Crist said he did not consider it ironic that a firm led by a major Democrat is in charge of finding the truth in the investment-pool meltdown. "It doesn't make them bad, does it?" Crist said. 

In the wake of a $10-billion run last fall on Florida's local government investment fund, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink unveiled 10 proposals on Thursday to strengthen safeguards over the investments.

Topping the list? To decide if there are grounds for a lawsuit against investment firms that sold to the state mortgage-backed securities that were soon downgraded.

Sen. Charlie Justice and Rep. Scott Randolph, both Democrats, want the Legislature to ask Congress to rotate early primaries among certain regions starting in 2012, an idea endorsed by the National Association of Secretaries of State.

CFO Alex Sink has a more immediate solution: "Chill out for another week."

"Let's see what happens in Texas and Ohio. Either the waters will be murkier, which I hope they're not, or the future might be more clear," said Sink, who is a Democratic delegate. "I'm sure we'll deal with the issues then."

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.

A Florida House committee on Thursday unanimously passed a bill championed by CFO Alex Sink that would reduce risk in the hurricane catastrophe fund, by forcing insurers who buy into the catastrophe fund to also buy more private reinsurance.

Sink has been particularly worried about the risk of paying for hurricanes, when they hit under the current system. The bill was officially introduced on Tuesday in the Senate.

Gov. Charlie Crist appointed a foreclosure task force to called the Home Ownership Promotes the Economy to address the rising rate of foreclosures statewide.

CFO Alex Sink will be on the committee, as well as Sen. Bill Posey, Rep. Franklin Sands, as well as several others yet to be appointed. The goal is to present recommendations that the Legislature might consider this session to help those who are losing their homes in the housing crisis.

CFO Alex Sink has taken no end of teasing on Wednesday, as she's sporting a removable plastic boot for a sprained ankle she got when she took a small tumble. She was told if she wears the boot for two weeks, she can shorten her recovery time.

People keep coming up to her asking her if it's her new "sh*t-kicking" boot, she said. Or they ask her who she kicked to wind up like that. When Sink joined Gov. Charlie Crist in a press conference, the first thing Crist did was look at Sink's foot, and say:  "I didn't do that."

(Photo courtesy of Rick Flagg, Florida News Network)

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.

Business owners in Florida could have the option of buying a commercial property insurance policy that does not carry the threat of an assessment from state-backed Citizens Property Insurance, according to a state bill being drafted by Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, and Rep. Garrett Richter, R-Naples. Read about it here .

Also, a House committee takes a look today at an idea CFO Alex Sink has to shed risk. Read about it here .

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the top Democrat in state government, says Amendment 1 on next Tuesday's ballot is bad for public safety. In her first public statements on the property tax proposal, Sink said the risk of diminished public services outweighs the estimated tax savings of $240 a year for the average homeowner.

"For 20 dollars a month," Sink said, "I'm not willing to take the risk that my fire service is going to be deteriorated, my schools aren't going to be supported, and I'm not going to get my potholes fixed."

Sink, whose duties include serving as state fire marshal, says she's heard from fire chiefs throughout the state concerned about having to lose positions. She added that she agreed with Florida TaxWatch, which opposes the amendment, and does not think tax policy should be embedded in the Constitution.

"If the policy's in the Constitution and it's not working right, how do you unwind it?" Sink said.

A Florida insurance program for children will spend $250,000 this year to pay two executive directors due to a generous clause in a five-year-old contract.

Rose Naff, former executive director of Florida Healthy Kids, is being paid her annual salary of $120,293 and full benefits from the point she stepped down in August until this coming August. Current executive director Rich Robleto earns $130,000 annually.

It all had to do with when exactly Naff stepped down in a year. Essentially the contract guaranteed her 17 months of pay when she stepped down last August. The CFO's office negotiated the contract down. Read more here.

Sen. Nan Rich, who has worked toward funding children's health care programs in the Senate, said Friday she didn't know Naff was still being paid. She noted that Naff has given many years of service to the Healthy Kids program. "My inclination would be that a small severance or some way of helping her through health benefits would be appropriate," Rich said.

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.

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.

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.

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."

Bloomberg takes a hard look at the SBA mess: "...What Stipanovich, 58, hadn't told his boss, Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, was that Lehman Brothers was the same firm that had sold the state fund $842 million of mortgage- backed debt in July and August. Those securities defaulted within four months, and totaled more failing debt than any other bank sold the state, Florida records show. ``At the time, I never knew it was Lehman Brothers that actually sold us these investments,'' Sink says.

"Sink also was unaware that former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who incorporated Jeb Bush & Associates in February 2007, a month after completing his second term, had been hired as a consultant to Lehman Brothers in June. Bush is the brother of President George W. Bush. ... Florida CFO Sink is riled up about more than Stipanovich. She says JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Lehman Brothers were offloading tainted debt on Florida and other states at a time when those assets were plummeting in value. "

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

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink announced Wednesday that grants to homeowners under the MySafeFloridaHome program are not subject to federal income tax. She received a clarifying letter from the IRS which said that the mitigation grants, to protect homes from future hurricanes, are not considered gross income for tax purposes.

Without the IRS ruling, Sink said, homeowners who get MSFH could have faced a flat-tax payment of 25 percent, or $1,250 on a $5,000 matching grant. Sink's agency runs the MSFH program, at www.MySafeFloridaHome.com .

Gov. Charlie Crist passed up a chance Monday to endorse Coleman Stipanovich, the state's investment-fund overseer at the center of a controversy over a recent run on a local government investment pool that has forced the state to suspend fund withdrawals.

Asked how high is his confidence in Stipanovich's ability, Crist said: "How high? It's hard to say. I think he works hard. He works hard." Asked if Stipanovich's job were in jeopardy, Crist said: "I wouldn't say that."

A panicky raid by local governments on a state-run investment pool and move by state officials to temporarily suspend withdrawals raises a question: Do the three trustees of Florida's retirement system still have confidence in Coleman Stipanovich, executive director of the state Board of Administration?

The key to his future employment could be Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, who was pointedly critical of Stipanovich last week at an emergency meeting where the suspension of withdrawals was imposed. (Gov. Charlie Crist closely followed Sink's lead; the third trustee is Attorney General Bill McCollum, who participated by speakerphone and whose body language can't be assessed).

"I can't comment on that right now. I am very, very focused on the investors," Sink said when asked if she has lost faith in Stipanovich's stewardship of state investments. "We, as a board, will have to evaluate performance in due time."

As cities, counties and school boards withdraw billions of dollars from a shaky state investment fund, Gov. Charlie Crist and two other top state officials voted Thursday to suspend all future withdrawals from the fund, pending a review by an independent advisor.

The action, in an atmosphere of crisis, came at a special meeting of the State Board of Administration, which consists of Crist, CFO Alex Sink and Attorney General Bill McCollum -- the three officials with the responsibility of overseeing the state's investments.

"Let's stop the bleeding," Crist said, echoing Sink's proposal to suspend all withdrawals from the fund.

The mass exodus of withdrawals -- at least $3.5-billion on Thursday alone before the vote, and $10-billion over the past two weeks -- has come from a fund known as the local government investment pool, managed by the state. The 25-year-old fund has a solid track record of producing healthy rates of return.

CFO Alex Sink met with London Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron, pictured here, on Monday. Gavron is spearheading London’s efforts to reduce their 1990 carbon emission levels 60 percent by 2025, wrote Tara Klimek, spokeswoman for the CFO.

On Tuesday, Sink traveled to Scotland to meet with those leading the Scottish government efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Klimek wrote. So far, in Scotland, they've reduced emissions by 16 percent between 1990 and 2004. Scotland is exploring economic growth of new industries, such as green-tech and biofuels.

We chatted with Alex Sink about the recent series of Wall Street Journal editorials hammering Charlie Crist over Florida's attempted property insurance fixes. "Those were planted by the insurance industry,'' the Democratic Chief Financial Officer scoffed, after taping an interview for "Political Connections" on Bay News 9.  "(Crist) hasn't given the industry the access that they're used to."

The industry even tried to get former Gov. Jeb Bush to intervene with Crist, Sink said, but "to his credit" Jeb declined to do so.

CFO Alex Sink announced proposed legislation that would reduce risk in the catastrophe fund and put the catastrophe fund more under the control of the Cabinet. She plans to suggest that these initiatives should be taken on during a special session or some time before the regular session.

Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill McBrideis endorsing Hillary Clinton. He's part of Clinton's national veterans and military retirees campaign committee.

"I'm really excited. I'm going to work really hard on her campaign,'' said the decorated Vietnam vet. "She'll be a fabulous president. I think she's acquited herself really well on the campaign and in the Senate. She's shown she knows how to win, and this is an extremely important election for America."

And McBride's wife, CFO Alex Sink? Still uncommitted, but "I'll lobby her hard,'' McBride said.

CFO Alex Sink joined Gov. Crist at a TaxWatch news conference this afternoon and was asked to speak. But as she stepped toward the podium, Sink had to avoid recreating the skirt-raising scene millions of movie watchers remember of Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch .

"Whoa, this fan!" Sink said in her distinctive North Carolina twang. One of the governor's trademark fans was at her feet. "I think we better ..." The fan was quickly twisted away and Sink laughed it off.

CFO Alex Sink sent the following letter to lawmakers and the governor today asking them to add  auto insurance to the Oct. 3rd legislative agenda. She asks that they toughen enforcement standards, which are set to sunset with PIP and also require some sort of auto injury coverage.

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink has been invited to go to London in November to discuss with British government leaders the impact of climate change on the world's financial markets. In a brief meeting with Gov. Charlie Crist Wednesday, Sink asked if she could bring on the trip Chris Kise, the legal troubleshooter in Crist's office who helped to organize Crist's climate change summit. "Sure," Crist said.

While in England, Sink told Crist, she's interested in finding out whether Lloyd's of London is interested in securing part of the state's catastrophe fund.

If you put a bunch of wilted, 3-week-old lettuce in one pile ...And Florida's governor, state chief financial officer and Legislature in another pile ...

The two piles would be just about equal in the leadership they are providing on this big change in car insurance that is happening on Oct. 1. The governor, Charlie Crist, is darned worried about it. But he respects the Legislature, you know, and doesn't want to seem too bossy. Good grief! Where is Jeb Bush when you need him?

More of Howard Troxler's column here. And check back here at noon for a live Troxblog chat.

CFO Alex Sink is working under the assumption that the state's laws requiring all drivers to carry mandatory personal injury protection are going to expire on Oct. 1.

Her office launched this website today intended to start preparing drivers.

CFO Alex Sink was expected to talk to Tiger Bay in Tallahassee on Wednesday about her new idea about the best way to manage the state's catastrophe fund. Maybe the Florida Cabinet, not the Legislature, should manage it.

Since the Legislature only meets in the Spring, that gives insurers, like Florida Farm Bureau, the excuse to say they didn't know that the Legislature was going to do anything with reinsurance before they went out and bought their reinsurance. If the Cabinet managed the catastrophe fund, they could tinker with the catastrophe fund, if need be, during the fall season, before reinsurance contracts go out.

"There's a big January open window period in the global reinsurance market, although some companies buy in June," Sink said.

"It's not a budget issue. So it makes sense to me to have the Financial Services Commission, in the fall, establish the rate and contract issues," Sinks said.

Sink added that she just came up with the idea and has yet to float it by the Legislature of even the rest of the Cabinet.

CFO Alex Sink told the Buzz on Wednesday that she has heard, at least unofficially, that there is no chance that the Legislature will take up auto insurance during the special session in September.

Her office is working towards coming up with a way of telling motorists what they can expect October 1.

When asked if she thinks motorists will go without coverage, she said her office is advising everyone to buy some type of insurance coverage. But she acknowledged that some agencies are saying they plan to interpret the sunset to mean that nobody will be mandated to buy property damage coverage. Her office is still looking into the issue.

"Let's make sure, or find out, if these companies are adhering to the letter law. It's the law!" Crist roared, punctuating each word with a fist to the desk. "And there are consequences to not adhering to the law."

Crist heightened his anti-insurance rhetoric, wondering out loud whether companies are colluding to keep rates high despite new laws designed to lower them. More here . Alex Sink, meanwhile, suggests it may be time to undo the insurance law changes Florida enacted, apparently to little effect, in January.

CFO Alex Sink shares the aggravation over lawyers and lobbyists trying to get a bigger share of Minouche Noel's claims award .

“My heart goes out to Ms. Minouche Noel and her family, who have suffered for far too long after an incident of medical malpractice almost two decades ago," Sink said in a statement. “I thank President Pruitt and Speaker Rubio for their leadership on this issue. I too, share their concerns for Ms. Noel and her family. My legal staff is aggressively moving forward to protect the Noels.  Further, I would like to work with the Legislature to standardize our claims payment process so that in the future families will not suffer as the Noels are today.”

Senate President Ken Pruitt and House Speaker Marco Rubio on Thursday wrote a letter (read it here: MNoel.pdf ) to CFO Alex Sink, asking her to remove liens filed against Minouche Noel by lawyers and lobbyists seeking more in fees than the Legislature originally ordered.

Noel is a South Florida teenager who was paralyzed as an infant by a state-contracted doctor; the Legislature awarded Noel $8.5 million. But it specifically limited attorney's fees to $1 million and lobbyists fees to $85,000.

The case was controversial because only Noel and the family of Martin Lee Anderson won awards for their claims bills, while the Legislature bypassed wrongly convicted Alan Crotzer spent 25 years in jail for a crime he didn't commit.

CFO Alex Sink has spent time investigating the sunset of No-fault insurance and its implications. Today, she sent a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist and legislative leaders summarizing the findings. Read the letter in comments.

"As you can see, any decision on the future of the No-Fault Law carries enormous consequences for citizens, employers, insurers, the legal system and healthcare providers," Sink wrote. "I encourage you to carefully deliberate over this important issue, and I will be happy to assist you as you move forward."

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.)

There are ominous signs for the Florida GOP when it comes to the state's fastest-growing ethnic group. Consider:

• When Democrat Bill McBride lost his bid for governor in 2002, he won just 36 percent of the vote in one of Miami-Dade's most heavily Hispanic, reliably Republican state House districts. Last year, McBride's wife and fellow Democrat Alex Sink was elected chief financial officer and carried 53 percent of the vote there.
• In Florida's virtually tied 2000 election, overwhelmingly Republican Cuban-Americans made up about 75 percent of Florida's Hispanic electorate. Today? More like 40 percent.
• Jeb Bush in 2002 performed more than 7 percent better in Central Florida's Osceola County, with its booming population of non-Cuban Hispanics, than Charlie Crist did in 2006. More here .

The state's insurer of last resort is on a blistering pace to add more than 100, 000 new policies in June alone. The company originally designed as a backup for people who couldn't get insurance anywhere else is well on its way to shouldering at least half of the state's total property insurance risk. In other words, more than half of the estimated $1-trillion total value of all insured homes in Florida could be insured by Citizens by year's end. No other state in the country comes even close to that kind of coverage for a public insurer.

More here.

Howard Dean isn't getting much help from Florida's top elected Democrats as he tries to convince the state to back off plans to hold one of the country's earliest presidential primaries. Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink on Wednesday said she opposes a plan to make Florida's Jan. 29 Democratic primary nonbinding and officially meaningless. Sen. Bill Nelson also opposes that idea.

"If people take the trouble to express their opinions and everyday Florida Democrats take the trouble to go to the polls, they ought to have some assurance that their voices will be heard and taken into account and the results will mean something, " said Sink, the only Democrat on Florida's Cabinet. More here .

See how New Hampshire is mulling its options in response to Florida here.

CFO Alex Sink on Thursday suspended all state work on Project Aspire, one of the most  expensive outsourcing ventures of recent years. The cost to date is $89-million with "no end in sight," Sink said.

Run by the Department of Financial Services under Sink's predecessor, Tom Gallagher, the new financial management system to track all checks issued by the state is over-budget and unfinished and may be destined to live on as a symbol of outsourcing's limitations.

In a statement, Sink said: "We need to stop spending the people's tax dollars until we have a clear strategy in place to make the project a success."

Project Aspire was intended to replace FLAIR, the state's outmoded accounting and cash management system. But a consultant's report from February 2007 concluded Florida did not follow industry best practices in the "piecemeal fashion" it went about building a new system. It is one of three major outsourcing initiatives of the previous administration that Sink, Gov. Charlie Crist and other state officials ordered be reviewed three months ago to see if they really were saving taxpayers' money.

TAMPA - Massachusetts, California and more than two dozen other states have been taking strong steps to deal with global warming in recent years - but not Florida. "Florida's leaders have not been leading on the subject of climate change; we've just been on the sidelines," Alex Sink, the state's chief financial officer, told a crowd of about 300 gathered for a conference on global warming Wednesday. More here.

CFO Alex Sink and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson are asking Gov. Charlie Crist to expand the June special session and make it include legislation that would help enroll more kids into the state's health insurance plan for uninsured children who don't qualify for Medicaid.

A bill to shore up KidCare enrollment didn't get to the Senate floor during the last week of session, because Senate leadership said there were too many questions about it (like whether children of state employees and undocumented immigrants should be covered) to pass so late in the regular session.

So Democrats CFO Sink and U.S. Sen. Nelson are asking a Republican-controlled legislature to take up KidCare legislation during the special session.

Florida's insurance commissioner solicited campaign money from lobbyists for the industry he regulates, urging them to attend a Wednesday night fundraiser for a judicial candidate whose husband also works in the state Office of Insurance Regulation. The CFO's Office is investigating, read more here .

Commissioner Kevin McCarty said through a spokesman that he made phone calls and left messages seeking support for Robin Lotane, wife of OIR spokesman Bob Lotane.  Some of those calls went to insurance lobbyists.

Bob Lotane, who resigned yesterday, emailed this save_the_date.doc for the fundraiser on Sunday to several people in the insurance industry. (Computer geek tip: click on "properties" under "file" menu in Microsoft Word, and see where the invitation was created.)

McCarty said through a spokesman that he didn't know he was the featured host and he hadn't seen the invitations before they were distributed. McCarty skipped the fundraiser.

CFO Alex Sink has criticized Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty for hosting a political fundraiser for the wife of his spokesman.

"The Offices of Insurance Regulation and Financial Regulation were established to remove those offices and the Commissioners from direct political activity related to their regulated industries. I am concerned that Mr. McCarty may have used his position as Insurance Commissioner to solicit political contributions from the insurance industry."

The candidate was Robin Lotane, wife of OIR spokesman Bob Lotane. She's an assistant state attorney at the Leon County running for circuit judge, but this morning, she was suspended with pay, the state attorney's office reports.

But this high profile politician's snub probably won't bother the Democratic presidential frontrunner much. It's Joe Redner , who says he's so far most impressed with Barack Obama.

"I don't like Hillary Clinton,'' the strip club king and Tampa city council candidate said after taping a "Political Connections" interview to air this weekend on Bay News 9. "I don't think she has any settled principles. She can't even admit that what she did (authorizing force in Iraq) was wrong."

Meanwhile, look for Bill and Hillary Clinto n to swing through Florida March 31, raising money in Orlando, West Palm Beach and Miami. Hosts include: Chris and Irene Korge , Alex Heckler and Tiffany Zientz , Philip Levine , Ira and Cynthia Leesfield , Hugh Westbrook and Carole Shields , Dan Levine , Jennifer Long , Alfy Fanjul , Elaine Bloom , Dr. Rick and Barbara Boxer , Sidney Dulman , Ambassador Steven Green , Brian M ay, Jared Moskowitz , Hemant Patel , Abigail Montjoy Pollak , Sonia "Tita" Puopolo , John and Charlotte Rodstrom , Judith Stern , Lola and Michael Thomas , Debbie Wasserman-Schultz .

Crist and Sink said a newly-created seven-member Council on Efficient Government will initially conduct a top-to-bottom review of three big privatization deals involving Convergys Corp.'s People First, Accenture Corp.s MyFloridaMarketPlace and Project Aspire.

The review will include questions of waste, inefficiency and breaches of security of state employee personnel data. The two officials did not rule out the possibility of shifting some services back to government, in what would amount to an unraveling of a big part of Bush's changes.

--Steve Bousquet

General Bob Milligan was named the Consumer Advocate in the CFO's office.

Milligan, 74, is a Republican. Back before there was a CFO, he was it. (He served as comptroller from 1994 to 2002. He said he's ready to come back to government. "I wouldn't have taken the job if I wasn't prepared."

He said Sink called him up over the weekend and asked him if he'd be interested in applying for the job. He said he'd have to think about it. Then he met with Sink this morning and they talked over what the job would involve. General Milligan said he'd take it.

General Milligan served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 35 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant general (3 stars).

He's been living in the Panhandle and now plans to move back to Tallahassee.

The Hillsborough County legislative delegation has a "ought to be a Law" contest where high schools nominate ideas, and the delegation picks one to push. Armwood High's sensible idea comes from Lexi McBride, daughter of former gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride and CFO Alex Sink.

During her mother's campaign, Lexi learned that political parties don't have to file frequent financial reports in the weeks immediately preceding an election. She thinks they should so the public can know who's influencing elections. "I've been exposed to a lot of politics," she said. "You see how it's a problem."

For more on the contest entries see here .

Alex Sink may be planning to stick around and run for governor.
Jim Cassady, the former Bank of America executive and longtime associate of Sink's, seemed to be confirming the speculation Friday as he spoke to Capital Tiger Bay.
Cassady, now chief of staff at the Department of Financial Services, was a last minute stand-in for Sink who was flying around the state with Gov. Charlie Crist to inspect storm damage.
He suggested Tiger Bay members might want to keep an eye on future meetings between the governor and cabinet now that Sink is the only Democrat on board.
""I think cabinet meetings this year and going forward over the next several years, four years, eight years, 16 ? I didn’t say that - are going to be interesting,'' Cassady said.
Let's see. Eight years as chief finance officer and then eight years as governor?

--Lucy Morgan

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.

CFO's office has hired Dan Sumner as interim general counsel and Kathy Baughman McLeod as deputy chief of staff.

Also the first new Cabinet meeting of the year is scheduled for Jan.18.

Early in the evening, you knew you had arrived at the Alex Sink gala by the rows of older-model sedans plastered with Jim Davis stickers in the FSU stadium parking lot. As more lobbyists arrived, so did the newer cars.

The Sink event had an exclusive "private party" room, two floors above the public event, mostly to reward big donors with free liquor. (They charged for liquor on the public party on the third floor.) Lots of lobbyists were spotted there. Sink went up to visit the room for about 20 to 30 minutes. Word is it got pretty warm and crowded.

The public party also drew a pretty good crowd, including dignitaries like Tallahassee Mayor John Marks, a couple of Tallahassee City Commission members, Sen. Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee and Sen. Burt Saunders, R-Naples. Karen Thurman, chair of the Florida Democratic Party was also there, as was her predecessor Tallahassee attorney Scott Maddox. The crowd was a mix of Tallahassee and Tampa Bay area Democrats and CFO office employees.

Best move all night: Bill McBride dancing with his daughter Lexy to the Doobie Brothers' "Listen to the Music." He dipped her so far that she nearly kissed the floor, but then he scooped her back up with a quick recovery.

Sink wore a stunning sequined cocktail dress, knee-length and navy in color with white stripes. Her husband wore a gray suit.

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.