Florida 2010 Governor's Race: Old Politics, New Money, Confusing Ballot Amendments

TAMPA, Fla. -- Florida's frontrunning gubernatorial candidates should face tough questions from voters before the Aug. 24 primary -- if the citizens educate themselves.

We Floridians are faced with staid politicians, millionaire candidates and confusing ballot amendments. The days of voting "straight party" and taking random guesses about how we should be governed are over.

Old Politics

Just this month, Lawton ("Bud") Chiles III, the son of Florida's 1990 to 1999 governor, the late Lawton Chiles II, joined the race as an independent. This is a defection from his family's long-time allegiance to the Democratic Party. He will possibly draw votes from leading Democratic hopeful Alex Sink.

Sink is currently Florida's Chief Financial Officer, having been elected to the position in 2006. Ironically, it was Gov. Chiles who appointed her to the Commission on Government Accountability to the People, and then his Commission on Education during his time in office.

Attorney General Bill McCollum, the leading Republican candidate, is seen as a "career politician" by some. The former United States Naval Reserve Commander entered the U.S. House of Representatives in 1981 where he served through 1999. That career ended when he ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2000 and 2004. He wasn't elected attorney general until 2006.

New Money

Enter businessman and multi-millionaire Rick Scott (R) to challenge McCollum. Although Scott recently made a forward jump in the polls, he may still have a hard time overcoming what most people remember him for: the Columbia/HCA health care CEO who had to resign after the health care giant was found to be involved in a large scale Medicare fraud scandal (1997). The federal investigation didn't uncover anything directly against Scott, but as CEO he took responsibility for the crime and resigned.

Since then, Scott founded an organization called Conservatives for Patients Rights.

Issues facing Florida's Gubernatorial Candidates and Citizens

There are nine amendments coming up on the November ballot. They include changes to campaign finance spending, land-use plans, property tax limits and tax breaks for military personnel.

But perhaps the three most controversial actions are to be taken on the size and student allotment of Florida's public schoolrooms, stop-gaps at the state level for the new federal health care mandate and limiting the redistricting of voters to favor certain candidates.

Revisiting Classroom Size

Gov. Jeb Bush, who served 1999 to 2007, fought one of his hardest battles after the Classroom Size Amendment of 2002 passed by citizen vote. This amendment sought to restrict the number of students in Florida's classrooms, calling Bush to task to find the money for more teachers and more space while cutting other budget items. Some say it was the downfall of his administration.

The Classroom Size Amendment has never been fully implemented. "Waves" of class size reduction and other restrictions were due to take place in different years, and proved difficult. Even with the current Gov. Crist's advocacy of gambling and lottery money flowing toward education, the dollars aren't there.

The issue is now back on the November ballot as Amendment 8, with an option of flexible classroom size with caps. Most citizens still feel smaller classes are better for teachers' attention to the children and teacher workload. But it's a question of the struggling state budget.

Proving to be a bipartisan cause, all four candidates weighed in on June 23 as supporting flexible classroom size with caps. Readers can see information at the Sun-Sentinel and Jacksonville News.

Redistricting for Elections

This is so controversial that there are three amendments concerning redistricting (Amendments 5, 6, 7). Re-assigning portions of the citizenship so that certain demographics fall within certain candidates' range has long been considered a back-handed tactic to get favorable votes. It's been so bad in Florida that adjacent neighborhoods, which should be one district, have sometimes been split to allow a different district in-between; making deference to race, language, and walks of life.

Two amendments are wording almost exactly alike, with the third somewhat contradictory. If voters don't educate themselves, they'll be making random guesses in the voting booth.

Health Care Services

Amendment 9 looks like a long list of legalese that seeks to prevent forcing people to enter health care plans they don't want, to protect people against long waiting lists for care and to guarantee the right to buy private insurance within the state (among other things). Whether this would hold up against the new Federal Health Care Bill is unknown.

The full text of all nine amendments can be read here at WFTV.com.

What Should Be an Amendment, but Isn't?

As a Florida homeowner, I wish there were an amendment to stop insurance companies from randomly canceling families' home insurance where there has never been a claim. Many of us have been canceled "at random" just before hurricane season so insurance companies can save money.

Sources (No direct quotes):

-Text of Florida 2010 Ballot Amendments: "Legal Free-For-All Over Fla. Redistricting," WFTV.com, 6/25/10.

-"Lawton `Bud' Chiles joins gubernatorial race as an independent," Lee Logan, Miami Herald, 6/4/10.

-"Gubernatorial candidates back class-size referendum," Akilah Johnson, Sun-Sentinel, 6/23/10;
and "Florida gubernatorial candidates back changes to class-size law," Matt Coleman, Jacksonville News, 6/23/10.