Obama, Romney: Florida Up for Grabs

What's more patriotic than keeping informed about Florida politics?

Here's a special July 4th summary of Sunshine State politics from SaintPetersBlog.com Publisher Peter Schorsch.

The Associated Press reports that President Barack Obama and GOP contender Mitt Romey are staking out voter support in Florida, where polls suggest that the presidential race may be too close to call, giving Obama a slight edge.

"In the presidential battleground with the biggest prize, Democrat Barack Obama is focused on ratcheting up voter turnout in Florida's university towns, its Hispanic enclaves around Orlando and its Jewish communities in the south. Republican challenger Mitt Romney is working to squeeze as many votes as possible out of north Florida's conservative military bastions, the senior-heavy Gulf Coast and Miami's Cuban community.

"But their strategies to energize core supporters overlap in the central Florida swing-voting region that's key to winning the state and its 29 electoral votes. Voters along Interstate 4, which stretches from Tampa Bay to Daytona Beach, will determine the outcome if the race remains close into the fall, as expected. About 45 percent of the state's voters live in that 17-county area.

'Neither party has enough base alone, which is why those persuadable places, particularly along the I-4 corridor, are so important,' said Steve Schale, a Democrat who ran Obama's Florida campaign four years ago."

MOVEON.ORG (IN SPANISH) Slams Romney on Florida's Voter Purge

Politico's Morning Score has the scoop on MoveOn.org Political Action going on Florida TV with their first Spanish-language ad of the cycle to accuse Gov. Rick Scott of disproportionately targeting Latinos with his purge of the voter rolls and to say that Romney could benefit if Latinos are prohibited from voting. It's a five-figure buy but that will put the ad up in Miami, Orlando and Tampa from Thursday through Saturday.

Here's the translated script: "With exclusion from the voting rolls by Governor Scott, Latinos will be the most affected. And if the Latinos don't vote, Mitt Romney wins. This exclusion is not only illegal, it's also racist. Why doesn't Mitt Romney disapprove?' MoveOn has decided to make challenging voter suppression a top priority this cycle. Watch the 60-second spot here.

Rick Scott Defends Opposition to Obamacare

Continuing a national media blitz Tuesday against last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act, Gov. Rick Scott fielded some penetrating questions from radio hosts about statements he's made since the high court ruled, reports Margie Menzel of the News Service of Florida.

Those included queries based on a PolitiFact review - the fact-checking website by the Tampa Bay Times - which awarded Scott a "pants on fire" and two "falses" for remarks he's made since the ruling.

Southwest Doing Well at Northwest

A three-year agreement that helped woo Southwest Airlines to the new Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport worked so well that the airline agreed to terminate the pact early, officials for St. Joe Co. announced Monday.

St. Joe had entered an agreement with the airline to cover up to $26 million in operating losses if traffic from the new Panama City airport proved inadequate. Southwest, which began service in 2010, accounts for more than half of the passenger totals in and out of the new facility. The airport has seen its market share grow steadily among travelers to and from the region, increasing from 9 percent in 2009 to more than 25 percent in 2012. "In every respect, the agreement with St. Joe has been a triumph," said Bob Montgomery, Southwest vice president for airport affairs, said in a statement. "It has fulfilled its mission and achieved its intended purpose." Southwest recently extended its lease agreement with the airport through 2015.

The political digest is aggregated news from "Sunburn," an email newsletter  edited and published by Peter Schorsch of SaintPetersBlog.com. You can reach Peter at saintpeter4@gmail.com. Material from the News Service of Florida was used in this summary.