Rep. Edward Markey, who leads a special committee on energy independence, tells CBS' "Face The Nation" that the government's demand that BP drill two relief wells may be the key to success.
He says those wells, set to be finished in August, double the likelihood of stopping the oil flow.
The Massachusetts Democrat says BP only wanted to drill a single well.
``I see no financial path to victory,'' the Lakeland Republican told supporters in an e-mail laced with disappointment. ``And so today, with both resignation that the resources are not there and appreciation for the journey we shared, I am ending my campaign to be governor of the great state of Florida.''
Dockery's abrupt exit from the Republican primary came two days after a St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald/Bay News 9/Central Florida News 13 statewide poll showed her favored by just 3 percent of GOP voters. Attorney General Bill McCollum led with 46 percent and wealthy upstart Rick Scott captured 22 percent after spending more than $6 million on a TV ad blitz, with millions more yet to come.
For more than six months, Dockery had crisscrossed the state in her white Ford Explorer, criticizing politics-as-usual in the state capital where she has served for 14 years and in the Republican Party now under investigation for its spending practices.
Dockery entered the race last fall on a boomlet following her success at temporarily blocking the state from spending millions on an Orlando commuter rail project. (The plan was ultimately approved in a December special session.) She also was among the few elected Republicans insisting that her party publicly account for its lavish credit-card spending practices.
Along the way, Dockery picked up pockets of grass-roots support from people who were unable or unwilling to provide the money that is the oxygen needed to keep a statewide campaign alive.
Through March, Dockery raised $479,000, about one-tenth as much as McCollum's $4.7 million. To borrow a slogan from her campaign, there simply weren't enough ``People for Paula'' to make a difference.
Then in April, wealthy former Columbia/HCA CEO Scott recast the dynamics of the race.
For Dockery, 48, dropping out of the race was more frustrating because she has pushed a reform agenda and has forcefully argued against the role of money in politics.
``When Rick Scott came in and immediately put $5 million and was on TV statewide, it shows what would happen when there is a choice out there,'' Dockery said in a Bay News 9 interview Monday. ``It backed up my belief that this could be anybody's race from the very beginning if the resources were there.''
Dockery has a net worth of $2.9 million and owns four homes. Her husband, C.C. ``Doc'' Dockery, is a wealthy investor. But she said from the outset that she wanted to succeed by building grass-roots support, not by spending family money.
``I don't want to be governor bad enough that I'm going to have to throw a lot of money in to get there,'' she said in January.
Dockery's exit leaves a two-man Republican race between McCollum, a career politician who served 20 years in Congress and has run statewide three times, and Scott, a self-funded candidate with Tea Party support who has never sought office.
The McCollum-Scott race is sure to be framed as a contest between an establishment politician and an insurgent seeking to gain a firm foothold by running to the right of his opponent.
Scott quickly launched a new TV ad endorsing Arizona's controversial anti-immigration law and criticizing McCollum for opposing it. The ad lifts a McCollum quote from a West Palm Beach TV station report: ``We don't need that law in Florida. That's not what's going to happen here.''
Dockery is eligible to stay in the state Senate through 2012, but press secretary Rosemary Goudreau said no decision on her political future has been made. Nor has Dockery made any decision about whether to endorse either of her rivals. An aide said the senator was bound for her vacation home in Boone, N.C.
Dockery's farewell statement had a bittersweet tone, with appreciation for the people she met along the way: ``Our reform message resonated well with the thousands of people we reached and I am grateful and humbled by the outpouring of enthusiasm, encouragement and support I received as I logged thousands of miles in the white Ford Explorer.''
Steve Bousquet can be reached at bousquet@sptimes.com or (850) 224-7263.
Maj. Dorene Betsy Ross received the Airman's Medal -- established in 1960 to honor members of the U.S. Air Force who distinguished themselves by heroism in noncombat situations -- for risking her life to rescue a trapped serviceman.
Ross and the colleague she rescued, Tech Sgt. Fernando Magri, gathered at a Joint Task Force Haiti recognition ceremony Friday afternoon at the United States Southern Command headquarters in Doral.
Some 100 military personnel and visitors, including Ross' family members who flew in from Indiana, were in attendance.
When the Jan. 12 earthquake struck, Ross and Lt. General Ken Keen, SOUTHCOM's deputy commander, were at the home of the U.S. ambassador in Haiti.
``The entire earth seemed to come alive for what seemed like an eternity, but it was only 50 seconds,'' Keen said. ``We could see a cloud of dust rising up over the city like smoke, and we could hear the screams below.''
Ross ``sprung into action,'' Keen said, saying she was going to find the members of her group at the Hotel Montana, where they had been staying. ``She's a leader with a can-do attitude.''
There was no way to travel through the city by car.
Ross walked four miles to get to the five-story, 145-room hotel, which would become one of Port-au-Prince's most gruesome sites of death and destruction. The hotel had completely collapsed.
She found a small passageway in the debris. She crawled inside, but her passage was blocked.
Magri was buried beneath the roof of the hotel, wedged in a space the size of a dinner table, he estimated.
``I was hyperventilating,'' said Magri, who suffered fractured ribs and other injuries. ``Then, I began to think `this is an obstacle course. I need to get to that light.' ''
In the days leading up to the earthquake, Magri had an annoying cough. It was that cough that enabled Ross to locate him underneath the wreckage.
``It was amazing,'' said Magri when he first heard Ross. ``I heard a little tiny voice saying `Sergeant Magri?' like a question. When I responded, she said `Oh my God! I can't believe it.''
Five hours after the earthquake, Magri was freed.
The medal Ross received Friday has been awarded to only nine airmen in the past two years, Keen said.
``That just shows how rare this is.''
Ross, who appeared uncomfortable with the attention, described the ceremony as ``very humbling,''
Lawmakers also face another problem: They're confronting the fear that's made it hard to raise taxes for more than 30 years. Republicans and moderate Democrats think that any tax increase is political poison back home.
Republicans are pouncing on Democrats, charging that the party is eager to add a new tax burden to already-strapped constituents in the midst of a recession.
"I think the American people deserve the truth about the Democrats' $1.6 trillion takeover of our health care system: more bureaucracy, more taxes, more mandates and more government," said House of Representatives Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio, a complaint that he and other Republican lawmakers repeat daily.
The current House Democratic plan would raise an estimated $543.9 billion over 10 years by imposing what it calls a "graduated surcharge" on higher-income earners.
The total cost of the party's health care plan is estimated at $1.5 trillion, about $1 trillion more than the tax surcharge would raise. The other $1 trillion is supposed to come from a combination of spending cuts, business taxes and penalties for employers and individuals who don't get coverage.
Under the surcharge plan, beginning in 2011, couples who file jointly with adjusted gross incomes between $350,000 and $500,000 would pay an additional 1 percent in income tax, while those with incomes of $500,000 to $1 million would pay another 1.5 percent.
The surcharge would apply only to incomes above the minimum amounts. Those rates could go up to slightly after two years if health cost savings aren't achieved. Families with incomes of more than $1 million would be hit with a 5.4 percent surcharge.
The most widely heard criticism is that small businesses will be hurt. Surcharge backers cite data from Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation that indicate that 96 percent of small businesses wouldn't be affected.
Still, many Democrats remain nervous.
"Businesses that have revenues of $400,000 or $350,000 don't feel like they're millionaires," said Senate Small Business Committee Chairwoman Mary Landrieu, D-La. "They don't feel rich; they feel like they're just hardworking Americans."
Another problem, said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., is that selling the surcharge as part of a health care overhaul is tough, because it's hard to explain to constituents how raising general tax rates affects health care.
For all these reasons, said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, "the surcharge is not even on the table here," in bipartisan negotiations among members of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee.
What is on the table there is an excise tax on insurance companies that offer expensive policies. Legislation that the Senate Finance negotiators are considering would cost about $900 billion, and the aim is to have about one-third of it come from taxes.
While details are still being worked out, and therefore precise estimates of potential revenue aren't available, senators are talking about imposing a tax on insurers that offer policies worth at least $25,000, though some discussions have put the figure as low as $16,000.
Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told The Miami Herald that before leaving for Canada Sunday, he ordered the purchase of dry foods such as rice, pasta and beans to help feed the estimated 2 million people in need of nourishment after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on Jan. 12.
``We could not wait anymore that the international community organize by their standards,'' he said, noting that most of the aid is slow to go out because the 20-plus international aid groups distributing food need security escorts.
Haitian government food distributions started in Cite Soleil, with security provided by the Haitian National Police. More distributions are planned Wednesday in the Carrefour neighborhood, and further west of the capital, in hard-hit Leogane, Bellerive said.
While there appear to be contradictory reports on how much aid is in the country -- some say not enough -- one thing is clear: many more people have not received aid than those who have.
The World Food Program reported this week that since the quake struck it has delivered meals to about 400,000 people -- far below the organization's estimate of 2 million people in need.
WFP officials have cited security concerns, particularly tumultous crowds at distribution sites, for the slow pace of food distribution.
With many markets in Port-au-Prince closed, and the price of food reportedly doubling outside of the capital, the need for adequate food distribution is increasing, according to a WFP report on relief efforts in Haiti.
Inadequate distribution of food, water and medicine in the country has created the impression among of a leaderless state.
Bellerive said he went to Montreal for an international conference on rebuilding Haiti with some specific expectations -- and it was not to talk money.
``We wanted to erase the idea we had no government,'' he told The Herald. ``That was clearly stated.''
Bellerive also wanted international partners to know that Haiti's emergency needs will not end for months, maybe years.
Among the most pressing problems is the nearly 1 million people made homeless by the earthquake.
While more than 235,000 have migrated to the countryside, where many are staying family and friends, another estimated 800,000 are living in makeshift camps, mostly in Port-au-Prince.
At Mais Gate, a shantytown for the homeless near Port-au-Prince airport, one family used a Haitian flag to pitch its tent. Another fashioned its tent from a five-by-five cloth adorned with an image of Jesus.
Residents of the camp said only about a dozen of nearly 1,000 families there have real tents. The rest are makeshift dwellings erected with wooden branches, dug in the ground with machetes and rocks.
Haitian and relief officials are asking the world to send tents, tents and more tents to shelter hundreds of thousands of homeless who are sleeping outdoors before a mini-rain season starts next month.
``If it rains, we'll get all wet,'' said Dieubon Accine, 17, whose family improvised their tent from USAID rice and bean sacks. ``And the ground will turn into mud.''
From his makeshift dwelling, he could see over the airport wall to where U.S. Army soldiers have erected a sea of large green tents.
In state after state, voters are taking out their frustrations on the political establishment - and no place reflects the depth and diversity of their ire better than Arkansas. Unions, corporate interests and insurgent candidates all are hoping to ride high here on the mad-as-heck tide.
In the home state of former President Bill Clinton, as elsewhere, party leaders and structures are being bypassed - undermined, in some cases - by free-agent candidates who declare their independence from the establishment, even as they align themselves with special interests.
"This is an election like no other," says Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, a union-backed candidate who has forced Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln into a June 8 runoff. "The game is changing."
He should know.
Halter defied Arkansas' wait-your-turn tradition and jumped into the primary against Lincoln, a 16-year veteran of Congress who is backed by President Barack Obama, Clinton and much of the state's political establishment. That left Halter with one ally inside the Democratic family (and, even then, from outside Arkansas): organized labor.
Looking to punish Lincoln for her less-than-perfect labor record - and put other moderate Democrats on notice - unions pumped a staggering $5 million into a campaign against her.
While prohibited by law from coordinating with Halter, unions bought anti-Lincoln ads and used mail and phone banks to boost his candidacy. Labor officials suggest they may spend an additional $5 million on the runoff.
Both Halter and labor are taking advantage of Lincoln's greatest disadvantage: incumbency.
"Fed up with Washington getting nothing done?" reads Halter's ubiquitous campaign flier. "Then check out Bill Halter for U.S. Senate."
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is airing a television ad that criticizes the senator for moving her family to suburban Washington. Tellingly, they are not centering their campaign on union issues; Arkansas has an anti-labor tradition.
"Blanche Lincoln packed up and left us years ago," says the announcer hired by the Washington-based union. "Maybe it's time for Arkansas to send her packing - for good."
The message may resonate with growing numbers of voters who despise Washington.
"You know what? I think Blanche is very qualified and seems like a decent person. Heck, I like her," says Katherine Nance, a retiree from Marble Falls, Ark. "But she's run her course."
Nance fidgets with a Halter flier at a Little Rock buffet while watching the lieutenant governor move in quick steps between tables piled high with fried meats and potatoes.
"Bill Halter. Appreciate your vote," the candidate repeats before a restaurant manager tells him soliciting is not allowed.
With a smile and a nod to Halter, a man known at the state Capitol for his Clinton-size ambitions and go-it-alone political style, Nance says, "It's time for Blanche to go."
In other states, two longtime Senate incumbents have fallen - Republican Bob Bennett of Utah and Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. In Kentucky, a tea party favorite, Rand Paul, knocked out the GOP establishment candidate, Secretary of State Trey Grayson, in the GOP Senate primary.
In several states, tea party candidates also enjoy the backing of conservative special interest groups, raising a question posed in Arkansas about Halter and the unions: After Election Day, who will be beholden to whom? And what are the long-term implications for the political system?
A neck-and-neck contest between Republican Bill McCollum and Democrat Alex Sink, a wild-card surge by Republican Rick Scott, and more than one-quarter of Florida voters on the fence, according to a new poll conducted for the St. Petersburg Times, Miami Herald, Bay News 9 and Central Florida News 13.
More than five months before the Nov. 2 election, the Ipsos Public Affairs survey finds Attorney General McCollum backed by 34 percent and Chief Financial Officer Sink by 32 percent; McCollum's lead falls within the poll's 4 percentage-point margin of error.
McCollum is the clear GOP primary frontrunner so far, pulling 46 percent support compared to 22 percent for Scott and 3 percent for state Sen. Paula Dockery of Lakeland. Scott, a Naples resident completely unknown just two months ago, has gained double-digit support through a flood of TV ads and poses a potentially serious threat to McCollum.
``The fact that Scott made so much headway so quickly shows everything is not quite as stitched up as it might appear,'' said Ipsos director Julia Clark.
McCollum's campaign claimed a piece of the airwaves Friday with its first television ad, featuring former Gov. Jeb Bush. But the Scott campaign said it amounted to less than $200,000 in advertising.
A former 20-year congressman from the Orlando area who twice ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate, McCollum had less than $4 million to spend as of March 31, while Scott, a Naples resident, is on track to spend more than $25 million by the Aug. 24 primary.
Scott's ads naturally don't mention that he was CEO of the Columbia/HCA health care corporation that paid a $1.7 billion fraud settlement; they stress his commitment to the tea party movement and opposition to President Barack Obama's agenda.
``I'm very high on what I hear from him,'' said Republican Steve Bayless of Pinellas Park, a 62-year-old retired teacher. ``I think he really is speaking to the conservative members of the party. And I think he's saying things that the majority of Americans are thinking.''
He added, ``Bill McCollum, he's just kind of a political mystery to me. I don't really see him as being the leader that we need.''
McCollum responded to his new rival Friday in Miami.``I would suggest that there are real questions about Rick Scott's record as the CEO of HCA/Columbia and people ought to look at it,'' McCollum said. ``It's the responsible thing to do to say look at people's records, our backgrounds, and I think that we all know that that counts for a lot in terms of the character and the quality and the kind of leadership anybody's going to provide.''
State Sen. Dockery had hoped to be the main alternative to McCollum when she jumped in the race seven months ago, but she has been overshadowed by McCollum's establishment support and Scott's big spending. The poll shows her as a non-factor in the race.
Voters only know Scott because ``he's been on TV nonstop,'' Dockery said Friday while addressing the Suncoast Tiger Bay club. ''At some point people are going to say, is somebody coming to buy a seat?''
Then there's McCollum, Dockery said, ``who is a nice guy,'' but also a career politician.'' An insider is not what the voters in the state of Florida want this year.''
The poll shows 44 percent of Florida voters support a constitutional ban and 44 percent oppose it, according to the Ipsos Public Affairs survey of 607 registered voters. The poll has a 4-percentage-point error margin.
It takes a 60 percent vote to approve a constitutional amendment.
The poll found that voters support or opposition to such an amendment depends on where they live. Those who live closest to the oil drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico are more likely to favor a constitutional ban. Those who live inland, don't mind drilling as much.
Julia Clark, polling director for Ipsos Public Affairs, said it was a classic case of not-in-my-back-yard politics.
``It's NIMBY. It's not where I can see it or smell it and therefore doesn't affect me as much,'' she said. ``It's human nature.''
In the Tampa Bay area, 51 percent support a constitutional ban, while only 39 percent oppose it. In the Panhandle/North Florida region, 52 percent of voters favor a ban. Only 38 percent oppose. Voters are evenly split in South and Southwest Florida over the issue.
The only region that opposes the ban outright: Central Florida. There, 37 percent favor the idea of an amendment, while 51 percent oppose it.
Central Florida is the political base of Future House Speaker Dean Cannon, a Winter Park Republican who chartered a $200,000 consultant study to explore oil drilling last session. He has joined other House leaders to block Gov. Charlie Crist's proposal for a special session to consider a constitutional ban.
The proposed ban, though, wouldn't affect rigs like Deepwater Horizon, which drilled in waters beyond Florida's control.
Cannon, who pledged he won't try to push oil drilling as House speaker, declined to comment on the poll. Crist once favored oil drilling, but reversed himself after the Deepwater Horizon accident last month.
A majority of Floridians once favored drilling, with support reaching 61 percent in August 2008, according to a Mason-Dixon poll at the time. A Mason-Dixon poll this month showed that 55 percent of Florida voters were now opposed to drilling.
``Originally, I didn't have any views about it at all until this terrible disaster happened,'' said Rita Platman, 74, a Pasco County Democrat. ``Obviously, the companies themselves can't be regulated to do the right thing.''
In one of his first public appearances since he joined the race last month, Greene criticized U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson for traveling last month to Cape Canaveral with President Barack Obama, who has proposed scaling back the space shuttle program that employs thousands of people.
Nelson -- who has served in public office since 1972 and flew on a space shuttle in 1986 -- has urged Obama to preserve NASA funding.
``I was kind of disappointed when I saw Sen. Nelson flying down with President Obama to terminate those jobs,'' Greene told about 100 members of the Kings Point Democratic Club in Tamarac. ``I would rather see the space program stay here because the space program has spawned lots and lots of high-paying, great jobs in that area.''
Nelson's office did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment.
In a political climate where incumbents appear headed toward the endangered species list, Greene's jabs at Nelson -- and at U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, the likely Democratic nominee -- didn't seem to offend the crowd.
Polls show the Miami congressman lagging behind Republican Marco Rubio and the newly independent Gov. Charlie Crist in the race for Florida's open U.S. Senate seat.
``Meek is going nowhere and we need someone who is going somewhere,'' said Kings Point President Len Ronik. ``If I had Greene's money, I could be a U.S. senator.''
Greene has told some Democrats he will spend $40 million before the Aug. 24 primary. He launched a statewide TV ad campaign this week estimated at $1.3 million so far.
``The career politicians have had their chance. I have a real plan to bring back and create jobs in Florida, jump-start the housing market and revitalize our economy,'' Greene says in one of two TV ads.
Just as polls show that Republican gubernatorial front-runner Bill McCollum has lost more than 20 points amid an avalanche of ads by little-known businessman Rick Scott of Naples, Meek faces a serious threat from Greene. McCollum and Meek each have less than $4 million available to spend against their deep-pocketed rivals.
``When you look at the kind of bounce that Rick Scott has seen against Bill McCollum, Jeff Greene is going to move up very quickly in the polls because neither one of these two men start from the point of being well-known,'' said Democratic pollster Tom Eldon. ``But that's not to say he's going to sustain that lead once people look into his background.''
The Wall Street Journal dubbed Greene a ``meltdown mogul'' because he became a billionaire betting on the implosion of subprime mortgages, which helped crater the U.S. economy.
A Florida resident for two years, Greene was among the first individuals to invest in complex financial instruments known as credit default swaps, complex financial instruments that were basically insurance against bundles of risky mortgages.
At Kings Point, Greene described his business strategy this way: ``I found a way to go up against Wall Street and beat them at their own game.''
He told the heavily Jewish crowd that he once taught Hebrew school and spent seven months as an exchange student in Israel. He invoked a Hebrew phrase when discussing the threat posed to Israel from the ``Holocaust-denying country'' of Iran.
``I absolutely support the president, but I have to tell you that if I were in Washington I would be pushing much harder for crippling sanctions,'' Greene said.
He also played to the elderly crowd by repeatedly mentioning his 83-year-old mother who lives in the Century Village retirement community in West Palm Beach.
The Democratic establishment in Tallahassee and Washington is backing Meek.
``He is the hands-on leader who has been fighting to bring good jobs to our state and works every day to get things done for the people of Florida,'' said Eric Jotkoff, spokesman for the Florida Democratic Party.
Beth Reinhard can be reached at breinhard@ MiamiHerald.com.
The governor narrowly leads Florida's topsy-turvy U.S. Senate race, despite nearly half of the voters saying he made a ``purely political'' decision to bolt the GOP and run as an independent candidate in the Nov. 2 general election, a new St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald/Bay News 9 poll finds.
Of the registered voters surveyed, 30 percent were for Crist, 27 percent for Republican Marco Rubio and 15 percent for Democratic front-runner Kendrick Meek.
The race remains volatile: Crist's lead over Rubio is within the poll's four-percentage-point margin of error, and nearly one out of four voters are undecided.
``This is a bit of a petri dish in some ways because Crist is a popular guy -- people like him, they like his policies,'' pollster Julia Clark, director of Ipsos Public Affairs, said of the outsized influence independent and swing voters may have on the race. ``He is stripping away support from both the Democrats and the Republicans, and I think that's going to confuse things a lot for both of those parties.''
The secret to Crist's success so far: his broader appeal across the political spectrum in the newly reconfigured three-man race.
He is backed by 39 percent of independents, 38 percent of Democrats and 26 percent of Republicans.
Rubio, a former House speaker from Miami, and Meek, a Miami congressman, are drawing most of their support from members of their own parties.
For a governor leading one of the country's most economically ravaged states and who only a few weeks ago faced near-certain defeat against Rubio in the Aug. 24 GOP primary, Crist remains remarkably well-liked.
Only 38 percent disapprove of his job performance, while 52 percent approve -- including more than six in 10 independents and Democrats.
Even among Republicans who all but drove him from their party, more voters approve of his performance than disapprove.
The poll surveyed registered voters, rather than more partisan likely voters.
``I like what I see about the guy,'' said Democrat Bill Caddey, 76, of Port Charlotte. ``He's kind of a back-and-forth guy on certain things, but I think he's a decent human being.''
***
Meek has been nearly invisible while the political world fixated on the Crist vs. Rubio drama, which mirrored the ideological battle within the GOP playing out around the country.
Some analysts argue that Meek will wind up pulling the overwhelming majority of Democrats, but five months from Election Day, the unaffiliated Crist is leading among Democratic voters, 38 percent to 33 percent.
``I don't know anything really about Meek. Only recently has his name come up. He's not a proven person as far as I'm concerned,'' said Rita Platman, 74, a registered Democrat in Trinity, the Pasco County community.
She had been considering changing her registration to vote for Crist in the Republican primary but said, ``I'm glad he took away that choice of mine.''
Despite the Democratic establishment lining up behind Meek, more than 40 percent of the Democrats surveyed were undecided in that primary.
Meek drew the support of 33 percent, former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre 10 percent, and billionaire investor Jeff Greene had 9 percent.
Greene, a Palm Beach resident who made hundreds of millions betting on the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, is a wild-card candidate who spent $1.3 million on ads last week and booked the same for this week.
The visit was marked by the critical move by Haitian President René Préval who told the former presidents that he signed an executive order declaring the right to seize land through eminent domain, Clinton told The Herald. The issue is key: American aid organizations saw their operations slow down because the government had not moved fast enough to find land for transitional housing.
``So we should be able to take some of the camps that are too crowded and those that are too low and therefore in danger of flooding and move them,'' Clinton said.
Asked by the Herald whether he had accepted the job as reconstruction czar as several sources told the Miami Herald, he said he had not yet been offered a post.
``I will do whatever I can,'' he said.
At a brief press conference, he told reporters that the Clinton Bush Fund aimed at finding long-term economic recovery solutions.
``Our mission is to help fill the gaps of human needs and help create jobs,'' Bush said. ``By stimulating the entrepreneurship we believe small business will help lead this nation's recovery.''
Clinton acknowledged that some of the U.S. legislation he and Bush signed while in office exacerbated Haiti's woes, and he promised to urge Congress to make changes.
Clinton cited the U.S. Congress-approved HOPE II as one piece of legislation in need of revision. As it is, the act -- which gives local garment manufacturers duty-free access to the U.S. market -- has already created 11,000 jobs. Revisions would bring even more.
``I think we can create 100,000 jobs in short order,'' Clinton said.
Rubio's tax returns show that his income increased from $82,710 in 2000 when he was elected to the Florida House to $301,864 in 2004 -- the year he stepped on the political track to become House Speaker, one of the Legislature's most powerful posts.
During his last year in Tallahassee, Rubio earned nearly $400,000, with the bulk of the money coming from the Miami law firm of Broad & Cassell.
Gov. Charlie Crist, who has made public his tax records and is now running as an independent candidate against Rubio, has been pushing the Republican front-runner to release his tax records since late March. The leading Democrat in the Senate race, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek of Miami, released his returns earlier this week.
Unlike Crist and Meek, Rubio did not release itemized tax deductions that would show property taxes and interest paid on mortgages.
The records Rubio posted Friday on his campaign web site are expected to be reviewed by the Internal Revenue Service as part of its inquiry into his use of an American Express card issued by the Republican Party of Florida.
The Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times reported in April that the IRS is also looking at spending of party donations by Jim Greer, the former party chairman, and Delmar Johnson, the former executive director. The IRS requires party money to be spent exclusively on political activities.
Rubio frequently used the party credit card for personal use, though he has said he covered those expenses with about $16,000 in checks to American Express. As a lawmaker, he also raised about $600,000 for two political committees that reimbursed him for tens of thousands of dollars in unitemized meals and travel expenses.
After term limits forced Rubio to leave office in 2008, he started his own law firm and stitched together an income from a number of clients and consulting contracts. In February 2009, he launched a campaign for the U.S. Senate that involved constant travel for public appearances and private fundraising events.
Since 2009, Rubio has earned $230,754 from his law firm, $60,265 in consulting fees and $72,674 from his teaching job at Florida International University, according to a personal financial disclosure form he filed last week with the Secretary of the Senate.
Rubio's recent sources of income include a number of South Florida institutions that regularly lobby in Tallahassee for millions of dollars in state funding.
He and former legislative aide, Vivian Bovo, signed consulting contracts worth $102,000 and $96,000 with Miami Children's and Jackson Memorial hospitals, respectively. Rubio has said his FIU hiring had nothing to do with his support for the university getting a medical school.
His campaign said his taxes from 2000 to 2008 totaled $410,000 and that he contributed more than $66,000 to charity. Rubio did not release his 2009 tax return because he has filed for an extension. Over the years, Rubio, who is married with four children, has carried a heavy personal debt.
More than $900,000 in home, car and student loans deflated his net worth to $8,332 in November 2008 when he left public office, according to his state financial disclosure form.
``Some people have gotten so rigid about their adherence to the party before doing what's right for the people, it's hurting our country,'' Crist told the Miami Herald editorial board this week.
He said he met with the director of Fair Districts Florida and supports Amendments 5 and 6, which would require lawmakers to adhere to redistricting standards that don't favor incumbents or the party in power when they redraw legislative and congressional lines.
By contrast, Crist has nothing good to say about Amendment 7, the alternate redistricting amendment put on the ballot by the Republican-led Legislature. Lawmakers said it was needed to ``clarify'' and preserve minority districts but supporters, including most minority Democrats in the Legislature, said it guts the amendments.
The governor called the Legislature's amendment a ``silver bullet'' and said he would have vetoed it if the Constitution hadn't allowed lawmakers to escape his reach by putting it directly on the ballot.
Crist's rival in the U.S. Senate race, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, already has supported Fair District's Amendments 5 and 6, as have many other Democrats. Republicans supporting the proposal include Thom Rumberger, a lawyer who represented the Republican Party in the 1992 redistricting lawsuits, environmental activist Nathaniel Reed and former state Comptroller Gerald Milligan.
But Ellen Freidin, director of Fair Districts Florida, said that while the organization does not support any individual candidates, Crist's platform ``could not be more in sync with what Fair Districts is trying to do -- which is to end partisanship and political favoritism.''
When Crist was still a registered Republican, he refrained from embracing the amendment, telling The St. Petersburg Times in March 2009 that he would reserve judgment on the proposal until he learned more about it, then noted: ``It always seems like the party that's not in power doesn't like the way the districts are drawn.''
In 1993, Crist supported a similar amendment when he was first elected to office after defeating Democratic state Sen. Helen Gordon Davis -- from a seat redrawn to include more Republicans. Crist was one of the sponsors of a constitutional amendment to create a seven-member redistricting commission that would adhere to similar redistricting standards being proposed by Fair Districts.
The proposal passed unanimously in the Senate, where both parties divided the chamber evenly with 20 members, but it died in the House, which was still controlled by Democrats.
Mary Ellen Klas can be reached at meklas@MiamiHerald.com
A neck-and-neck contest between Republican Bill McCollum and Democrat Alex Sink, a wild-card surge by Republican Rick Scott, and more than one-quarter of Florida voters on the fence, according to a new poll conducted for the St. Petersburg Times, Miami Herald, Bay News 9 and Central Florida News 13.
More than five months before the Nov. 2 election, the Ipsos Public Affairs survey finds Attorney General McCollum backed by 34 percent and Chief Financial Officer Sink by 32 percent; McCollum's lead falls within the poll's four percentage-point margin of error.
McCollum is the clear GOP primary front-runner so far, pulling 46 percent support compared with 22 percent for Scott and 3 percent for state Sen. Paula Dockery of Lakeland. Scott, a Naples resident and a political unknown just two months ago, has gained double-digit support through a flood of TV ads and poses a potentially serious threat to McCollum.
``The fact that Scott made so much headway so quickly shows everything is not quite as stitched up as it might appear,'' said Ipsos director Julia Clark.
DUELING ADS
McCollum's campaign claimed a piece of the airwaves Friday with its first television ad, featuring former Gov. Jeb Bush. But the Scott campaign said it amounted to less than $200,000 in advertising.
A former 20-year congressman from the Orlando area who twice ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate, McCollum had less than $4 million to spend as of March 31, while Scott, who lives in Naples, is on track to spend more than $25 million by the Aug. 24 primary.
Scott's ads naturally don't mention that he was CEO of the Columbia/HCA health care corporation that paid a $1.7 billion fraud settlement; they stress his commitment to the tea party movement and opposition to President Barack Obama's agenda.
``I'm very high on what I hear from him,'' said Republican Steve Bayless of Pinellas Park, a 62-year-old retired teacher. ``I think he really is speaking to the conservative members of the party. And I think he's saying things that the majority of Americans are thinking.''
He added, ``Bill McCollum, he's just kind of a political mystery to me. I don't really see him as being the leader that we need.''
McCollum responded to his new rival Friday in Miami.``I would suggest that there are real questions about Rick Scott's record as the CEO of HCA/Columbia and people ought to look at it,'' McCollum said. ``It's the responsible thing to do to say look at people's records, our backgrounds, and I think that we all know that that counts for a lot in terms of the character and the quality and the kind of leadership anybody's going to provide.''
State Sen. Dockery had hoped to be the main alternative to McCollum when she jumped in the race seven months ago, but she has been overshadowed by McCollum's establishment support and Scott's big spending. The poll shows her as a non-factor in the race.
Voters only know Scott because ``he's been on TV nonstop,'' Dockery said Friday while addressing the Suncoast Tiger Bay club. ''At some point people are going to say, `Is somebody coming to buy a seat?' ''
Then there's McCollum, Dockery said, ``who is a nice guy,'' but also a career politician.'' An insider is not what the voters in the state of Florida want this year.''
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat, says he hopes to determine "the cascade of failures that caused the catastrophic blowout" on April 20.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is the leadoff witness. He was to be followed by other federal officials.
Lawton ``Bud'' Chiles III, the son of the late governor, is looking at running against Sink in the Democratic primary for governor.
``He's got some very strong convictions and a yearning for a Florida that was simpler and more about solving its problems than what we see today,'' his wife, Kitty Chiles, said on Friday. ``The family is talking. That's where we are right now. A lot of this is a result of the encouragement he's gotten over the past year.''
Much like his father's famous 1,000-mile walk from the Panhandle to the Keys, the 57-year-old Chiles has been walking across Florida much of the past year promoting children's issues through a ``Worst to First'' initiative of the Lawton Chiles Foundation, which he leads. The Tallahassee resident could not be reached for comment Friday but has been vocal and blunt in criticizing Florida's leadership and the direction the state is heading.
Chiles, a real estate investor, had considered running for chief financial officer this year, but ruled it out. He started to run for governor in 2006 but ran afoul of a state constitutional requirement that the governor be a Florida resident for at least the past seven years.
Chiles left Florida in 1993 to be a vice president of Hope Worldwide, a charity that provides education and health care for the poor abroad. He moved back to Florida from New Jersey in 2003.
Chief Financial Officer Sink has more than $5 million in her campaign account, widespread support from the Democratic establishment, and would be the heavy favorite against Chiles, a first-time candidate.
``Florida Democrats are united behind Alex Sink and her campaign's momentum continues to grow,'' Sink campaign spokeswoman Kyra Jennings said.
Chiles has plenty of political experience and contacts across Florida and at the very least could force Sink to have to fight for the nomination. She has faced complaints about being too cautious and lacking a clear message, and her campaign has undergone a number of staff shake-ups.
The deadline for qualifying for state office is June 18, but Kitty Chiles said the decision would come ``pretty quick'' and that Sink's financial advantage was not a big concern. ``We sort of see that as a plus,'' she said. ``We see the big money as a huge part of the problem and a lot of other people do, too.''
Adam C. Smith can be reached at asmith@sptimes.com.
Lawmakers with shaky re-election prospects have been highly visible, promoting themselves as champions of the embattled consumer and the small-business owner.
Democrats have been particularly aggressive in using the debate, which entered its third week Monday, as a political platform.
"There aren't a lot of issues where Democrats can play offense," said Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Connecticut. "The public is thinking about the economy, debt, health care and Afghanistan, and in every case, the White House has to play defense."
When it comes to Wall Street, however, Democrats could have the edge. "People still tend to think of Republicans as the party of the rich," Brown said.
Nowhere is that likely to be more evident than in Arkansas, where two-term incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln has been locked in a primary duel with Lt. Gov. Bill Halter.
Halter, a favorite of liberals, tried to paint Lincoln as out of touch with the average Arkansan, but Lincoln, who polls find has opened up a commanding lead in Tuesday's primary, struck back by toughening the financial overhaul bill.
As the chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, she defied Democratic leaders by pushing through measures to require banks to spin off their lucrative but opaque derivatives practices into free-standing subsidiaries. Derivatives are the exotic financial instruments that helped trigger the nation's 2008 economic collapse.
"Everyone was convinced she'd do what she's always done, craft a narrowly tailored compromise, and she may have done that if Halter hadn't been in the race," Arkansas Poll Director Janine Parry said.
Instead, "she did something that could be a win for her. It's not that anyone understands what derivatives are, but there's a perception she's helping the little guy."
It's widely expected that Lincoln's derivatives package will be diluted before a final vote on the bill, but Democratic leaders have put off any such action, and even serious discussions, until after Tuesday's primary.
Courtney Rowe, a Lincoln spokeswoman, said the senator "absolutely has not asked" for any such delay, adding, "She's said repeatedly, 'Let's have this debate.' "
Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said party leaders were trying to "spread amendments throughout the caucus," including "those that are up (for re-election) — and the freshmen that want to play a key role in reforming Wall Street."
Other Democrats also are positioning themselves to get maximum exposure from the bill, which would make it easier for the government to break up ailing financial institutions.
The first vote on an amendment, on May 5, was a bid by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to assure that taxpayers aren't responsible for any bailouts of financial institutions.
While the legislation included no such bailouts, Boxer, who could face a serious challenge for re-election this fall, told the Senate, "The American taxpayers should never again have to bail out Wall Street firms that gambled away our savings and wreaked havoc on our economy."
"President Barack Obama's approval rating has slipped, as a growing number of Americans see him listening more to his party's liberals than to its moderates, and many voice opposition to some of his key economic proposals," the Pew Center concluded.
Its new survey finds Obama's approval rating falling to 59 percent from 64 percent in February. It also finds the ranks of Americans who disapprove of the president's job performance rising, to 26 percent from 17 percent.
Among those who registered a jump in disapproval were Republicans, up 15 percentage points, and independents, up 13 points, Pew found.
The survey was taken among 1,308 adults last Monday through Thursday and has an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
One reason for the erosion of support could be that a plurality sees Obama aligned more with the liberal wing of his party as he pushes an agenda that calls for broad increases in government spending and taxes.
Pew found that Americans think by 44 percent to 30 percent that the president listens more to liberals than to moderates in his party. The sentiment was a mirror image of what it was in January, when 44 percent thought he listened more to moderates and 34 percent thought he listened more to liberals.
Since then, Obama has signed a $787 billion economic stimulus package and proposed a $600 billion-plus down payment for a health-care overhaul and raising taxes on wealthier Americans to pay for it. He also proposed a $3.55 trillion fiscal 2010 budget and projected that the federal budget deficit for the current fiscal year would hit a record $1.75 trillion, or 12.3 percent of the gross domestic product.
The Pew poll is the latest finding that the president has lost some support as he's started to flesh out his governing agenda.
A McClatchy-Ipsos poll last week found his approval rating dropping from 69 percent to 65 percent. An average of six public polls in the last few weeks — Pew, Gallup, Rasmussen, McClatchy-Ipsos, Newsweek and Fox — put Obama's approval rating at 60.3 percent.
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Confronted with a lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of a state corrections program that allows Christian ministers to rehabilitate prisoners, the First District Court of Appeal has asked the Florida Supreme Court to define a century-old constitutional provision that prohibits diverting state dollars toward sectarian institutions.
The ban, one of the strictest in the country, bluntly states: ``No revenue of the state or any political subdivision or agency thereof shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.''
In the broadest interpretation of the provision to date, the First District Court of Appeal ruled that the law does allow the state to direct funds to faith-based groups, as long as the money isn't used to advance religion.
If the state appeals the decision, the Florida Supreme Court could weigh in and set new guidelines on a religious ban long under attack by Republican leaders.
CLOSELY-WATCHED
``The question is, under what circumstances can the state provide funds to a religious organization,'' said Caroline Mala Corbin, an associate professor at the University of Miami School of Law. ``It is an issue that has not been resolved by the highest court of Florida.''
The case is being closely watched by First Amendment advocates and religious groups, both of whom are preparing for what could be the state's most significant debate on religious freedom to date.
``If that's what the no aid provision means it almost becomes superfluous,'' said David Barkey, southern area counsel for the Anti-Defamation League. ``If you are giving money to a house of worship how do you determine whether that money is or isn't being used for religious purposes?''
Conversely, if the Florida Supreme Court strictly interprets the law and disagrees with the district court's ruling, sectarian leaders and supporters fear the decision could potentially jeopardize funding to any program affiliated with a religious institution, including many health and social services.
``If all religious organizations were no longer funded, some would have to stop operating,'' said Frank Murphy, president of Catholic Charities in Pinellas County, which receives state money to operate the area's largest homeless shelter.
``It becomes, who is going to take care of people?''
The so-called ``No Aid'' ban was added to the state constitution in 1885 as anti-Catholic sentiment swept the nation. Roughly 37 states passed similar bans.
Conservatives launched an effort to weaken or wipe out the measure after the Florida Supreme Court canceled one of Gov. Jeb Bush's voucher programs in 2004 because it funneled money to religious schools.
Republicans have tried twice to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would repeal the ban.
The most recent effort died before it reached the floor of the House or Senate this year.
``It has had a stagnant effect on private, faith-based entities,'' said Sen. Thad Altman, R-Melbourne, who plans to introduce the legislation again next year.
``There is not going to be a lot of investment to develop programs when the threat of lawsuits is hanging over their heads.''
The recent district court ruling puts the debate back into play.
The state has not decided whether it will appeal or seek Supreme Court review. But officials have indicated the case could go forward.
MEANING OF FREEDOM
Critics also want answers.
They complain faith groups directly or indirectly getting money from the state have offered social services in an extension of their religious work for decades in violation of the state constitution without reprimand.
``We were concerned about the whole faith-based programming in Florida, which no one seemed eager to challenge,'' said Ronald Lindsay, president of the Council for Secular Humanism, the national group based in Amherst, N.Y., that filed the lawsuit.
Lindsay said any interpretation of the law that would allow government to fund houses of worship would violate Florida's historic division of church and state.
``Religious freedom means freedom for everyone including minorities,'' he said.
``So if the majority is going to decide how everyone's money is going to be used, that is the negation of religious freedom.''
Cristina Silva can be reached at csil va@sptimes.com.
Jim Rimes, who once was deputy chief of staff for Gov. Charlie Crist, told the Sun Sentinel that he was ``just a fact witness.'' He declined to elaborate on what he meant or to discuss what prosecutors asked him about, other than to acknowledge that it involved Mendelsohn.
Rimes went before the grand jury without an attorney. Two federal prosecutors thanked him after he left the grand jury room.
Mendelsohn, the former chief fundraiser for the Florida Medical Association, is accused of siphoning more than $350,000 from political action committees for his own benefit, including buying his mistress a house and bankrolling his children's education.
A Hollywood eye doctor, Mendelsohn has pleaded not guilty to a 32-count federal indictment charging him with fraud and lying to federal agents.
Mendelsohn, 51, is set to go to trial in January 2011.
Rimes' appearance before the grand jury is yet another indication that federal prosecutors are far from done with Mendelsohn's case.
They told a federal judge last month that they hope to file criminal tax charges against the physician in the coming weeks.
In addition, an unnamed former public official is accused in Mendelsohn's indictment of taking $87,000 from him between 2003 and 2006.
Rimes, who served as the state Republican Party's executive director from May 2007 to January 2009, has been in the news in the past week after the party publicly released its credit card records for ousted chairman Jim Greer's three-year tenure. The party racked up more than $7 million of charges during that time.
Rimes charged more than $2.12 million on his party credit card, the records show. His card was used to book party expenses, such as $100,000 blocks of rooms at the Rosen Shingle Resort in Orlando, where the party had its quarterly meetings.
Most charges on his card were for party expenses such as car rentals, airfare and hotel stays in Florida and across the country for Republican officials.
The card also was used to fly Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, his family and staff to Minnesota for the Republican National Convention.
There is no apparent connection between Rimes' credit card charges and the Mendelsohn investigation.
Miami Herald staff writer Josh Hafenbrack contributed to this report.
The 8-year-olds -- three girls and one boy -- were killed at Petite Ecole Francaise shortly after noon when dirt and boulders tumbled down from a mountain and into a wall that crashed through an elementary school classroom. The school in Carenage, a residential neighborhood in Cap-Haitien and sits at the bottom of a mountain. Many of the students come from well-to-do homes or have professional parents.
``It was madness,'' said Jess Lozier, coordinator for Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group, who arrived at the scene an hour after the accident. Lozier's group works to provide sanitation, electricity and clean water to developing countries.
Haitian National Police officers and doctors from the group Help Haiti Heal scrambled to dig surviving children from the rubble, as did U.S. Army troops. It was not known how many other children were in the classroom at the time.
``The director of the school said all the other kids were accounted for,'' Lozier said.
Cap-Haitien had been experiencing heavy downpours for the past two days, and officials say more mudslides in a severely deforested Haiti are expected.
Also, city residents reported experiencing two small earthquakes overnight in Cap-Haitien and its surrounding villages, but the U.S. Geological Survey had no reports of earthquakes in Haiti's northern region, which sits on a different fault line than the one that triggered a magnitude-7 earthquake in the capital and several cities on Jan. 12, killing more than 200,000 Haitians.
In 2008, weeks after four back-to-back storms battered Haiti, a school in Port-au-Prince collapsed, killing 91 students and teachers, and injuring 162 when the College La Promesse Evangelique caved in. Many blamed poor construction on the collapse.
Charles reported from Miami and Daniel from Haiti. Herald Staff Writer Fred Tasker contributed to this report from Miami.
He's a multimillionaire political rookie who could be Bill McCollum's worst nightmare as a Republican rival. Or the dream client of political consultants who stand to make a bundle off of Scott's ego and long shot campaign. Maybe both.
What's clear in this vast state where political viability is defined in dollar signs is that Scott can't be dismissed.
In one month, the controversial co-founder of Columbia/HCA healthcare system has spent more than $4.7 million introducing himself to Floridians in TV and radio ads -- more than McCollum has raised in 12.
The GOP has spent about $1 million on ads attacking Democrat Alex Sink, and her campaign spends a fraction of that on TV spots responding.
Scott, who moved two years ago into an $11.5 million waterfront home in Naples, is on pace to spend more than $25 million by the Aug. 24 primary, and his campaign has signalled no hesitation to paint McCollum as a useless career politician.
``If ever there were a time for a conservative outsider who understands business the time is now,'' Scott said in an interview. ``There's going to be a clear choice between career politicians with their old ideas and stuck in the status quo and a complete outsider with fresh ideas. . . . I've built companies, I've created jobs, I know the frustration of small businesses with higher taxes.''
LARGELY IGNORED
Scott's last-minute candidacy caught the McCollum campaign -- and most everybody else -- flat-footed. Publicly, the Republican attorney general has largely ignored his wealthy rival.
``Bill McCollum has been a faithful Republican, he's been tried and true, and this guy jumps in like an interloper,'' lamented veteran Republican fundraiser Ann Herberger, who questioned whether it is too late for Scott to overtake McCollum.
``This is a fundraiser's worst nightmare come true. It could be a game-changer, but time is Rick Scott's enemy.''
Florida Democrats have signaled they see Scott, 57, as a potential Republican nominee, with the state party blasting Scott's business background in news releases and Web ads.
``I think Rick Scott's going to be the nominee. McCollum's known, but he is not that known,'' said Democratic front-runner Alex Sink's normally conservative pollster, Dave Beattie of Jacksonville, acknowledging the motherlode of ammunition available against Scott.
``If McCollum only has a week [of TV commercials] to tell that story, I don't think it gets through,'' Beattie said.
Scott appears to differ little with McCollum on issues, and so far offers only broad platitudes about cutting waste and making government accountable. But in a year when voters are fed up with incumbents, Scott is campaigning as a tea party outsider who knows business.
The McCollum campaign scoffs at the potential threat.
``Rick Scott is a relatively unknown candidate that will have to answer some very serious questions about his history if he is to be viewed as a credible candidate,'' said spokeswoman Kristy Campbell.
The main question centers around Scott's leadership at Columbia/HCA, the healthcare mega company he helped found and expand. Scott was ousted from the firm amid a federal fraud investigation into the company's business and billing practices. The company wound up paying a record $1.7 billion settlement after pleading guilty to overbilling the government.
