This is your first “Week in Review” webcast of 2013. Today, we’re talking about Florida lawmakers and their votes on the fiscal cliff and Hurricane Sandy aid. We’ve also got some Florida Freshman lawmakers being featured in politico and we’ve already got 2014 Florida house battle for the heart of Seminole County.
All of this and more in your Week in Review.
Video Transcript:
Florida Politics with Frank Torres. The first Week in Review of 2013, Welcome Back, I hope you had plenty of time to spend with your loved ones. Let’s get right to it with the beginning of the week with the fiscal cliff. Vice-President Joe Biden cutting a deal with Senate minority leader Mitch McConnel. Biden moving in on New Year’s eve, cutting a deal that would let the bush era tax cuts expire on those making 450,000 or 400,000 (depending on your classification, it also put a two month delay on sequestration, the deal ultimately went through the Senate where Marco Rubio voted against it (Bill Nelson for it) then on to the House of Representative where every Florida Congressperson voted against it, except Corrine Brown, the lone Democrat in the region. Why was this bill so unpopular with Republicans, basically President Obama got everything he wanted. He was able to let the majority of the tax cuts expire on those making the most and he didn’t have to give up that much as far as cuts. We move on to the next fiscal showdown and once again it will be about debt ceiling. Will we see more cuts then? The President vowed to work the deficit from both ends, with revenue increases and tax cuts. We’ve got a new Congress, what does that mean for these talks? That’s what kicked off the week.
Speaking of a new congress. We had several new members of Congress heading to Washington, some old faces and some were highlighted by POLITICO. One of those faces, the one closest to home was Alan Grayson, he’s either your biggest anti-hero or villain depending on where you stand, he was highlighted by politico in that Freshman year book, labeled as one of the most cable friendly members. You know he’s no stranger to that, he was doing it during his entire time out of office after losing to Daniel Webster in 2010. The other two Congressman being featured in that piece was Ted Yoho, who pulled off that upset over Cliff Stearns on primary night. That pigs article got him noticed, let’s take a look at that ad now.
YOHO PIGS AD
Yeah, so that ad worked very well not only during the election but with the national media as well. We’ll come back to him later he plays a role in one of the next topics we’ll be talking about. Also, you had Patrick Murphy from down south, the young Democrat was able to beat Allen West. West was the most televised Representative on cable tv in 2011, you wonder if he’ll do what Grayson did after being defeated and maintain a presence there. 3 lawmakers for one politico piece. Florida really making it’s mark in national politics.
Moving on to local politics, It was announced that Scott Plakon would take on Mike Clelland in a Florida House race in 2014. Of course, Plakon in that intense race against Karen Castor Dentel, Clelland beating Chris Dorworth who had that avalanche of negative media coverage, and Clelland was only barely able to beat him then. That’s how red the county was so, Plakon has the advantage in that match-up. He should win but a lot of space between now and 2014. So, Plakon jumping right back into things in a friendlier environment. After his loss last November. FDP already sent out an attack on Plakon in the form of an email blast, so we’ll see how that goes. It’s never too early to start declaring.
Moving back up to the congressional level. After the fiscal cliff was resolved attention then turned to Hurricane Sandy. Speaker of House John Boehner came under a lot of criticism from Republicans for delaying that vote. The vote ultimately did come forward and it did pass and every Representative in Florida voted in favor of sending that aid to the Northeast, thousands without homes, all of our representatives voting for it, except two. One of Ron Desantis from Volusia County and the other was Ted Yoho, the one just mentioned. Those two voting against it. Now there were claims of pork in the legislation, they were’nt the only two that said that but you would expect some more empathy from two lawmakers that hail from the hurricane capital of the world. There might be some strategy involved, this was going to pass with or without their votes. It was obvious, perhaps Desantis and Yoho were trying to establish themselves as fiscal hawks. The kind of lawmakers their constituents wanted them to be.
Very interesting week. We’re off to a fast start in 2013. We’ve got a lot happening. We’ve got that showdown over the debt ceiling in a couple of weeks, a lot going on at the county level. A lot of county level lawmakers taking office this week. 2013 is really going to be about the setting up 2014. The events and circumstances setting up the mid-term elections, so for Florida Politics with Frank Torres…
How did your lawmaker vote on the fiscal cliff?
