Free Republic

According to the latest Florida Chamber Political Institute (FCPI) poll released today at the Future of Florida Forum in Orlando, likely voters continue to have a more positive view of the future and favor Governor Rick Scott in the state’s top leadership race. Jobs and the economy (29 percent) continue to be the number one issue among voters, followed by education (19 percent) and healthcare (6 percent). “Florida voters are smart. They continue recognizing Governor Scott is doing what he said he would do,” said Marian Johnson, Senior Vice President of the Florida Chamber Political Institute. “More than 640,000 private-sector...

Just before Election Day, thousands of Florida families who participate in prepaid college savings plans will receive refunds, or major cuts in their monthly payments, and Governor Rick Scott is not shy about taking credit for the windfall. ....political observers say the governor is well within campaign ethics boundaries.... Scott is seeking re-election... A bipartisan higher-education package approved by the state legislature this spring slashed the annual tuition increases at state universities, eliminating them altogether for most colleges. The reductions mean refunds totaling nearly $200 million for about 18,000 families with paid-up tuition plans purchased since 2008, when the differential...

The Supreme Court’s conservatives cleared the way Monday for Ohio to restrict early voting in the state, on the eve of the day it was to start. The court granted the state’s request to stay decisions of lower courts that threw out the state’s new plan, passed by the Republican-led legislature. But the court’s four liberal justices said they would have stayed out of the case and left those decisions in place. Ohio argued that the new plan--reducing from 35 to 28 the number of days voters could cast an early ballot--could not be seen as violating the rights of

Thanks to state preemption law, only the Florida Legislature can enact measures regulating the sale, possession, transfer of firearms in the Gunshine State. But that’s not going to stop some city and county officials from attempting to implement ‘voluntary’ gun-control, the Sun-Sentinel reports. Under a proposal backed by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, city and county officials would ask gun shops and ammo suppliers who have sales contracts with law enforcement departments around the state to follow certain “sales and marketing safeguards,” when conducting business. Those safeguards include asking the stores to run background checks on employees, train personnel to...

A divided Supreme Court has put off the start of early voting in Ohio, which had been set to begin Tuesday. The justices' order by a 5-4 vote Monday granted a request from state officials, who have been trying to trim the number of days for early voting and restrict weekend and evening hours. The moves prompted a lawsuit from black churches and civil rights groups that the new rules would make it difficult for residents to vote and disproportionately affect low-income and black voters Early voting in the swing state now will start on Oct. 7, under a state...

This week, all across the state of Florida, absentee ballots are being distributed, signaling the beginning of voting for the 2014 elections. Obviously, the most closely watched race is the one for Florida governor between Republican incumbent Rick Scott and the Democratic challenger, former Gov. Charlie Crist.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin urged Kansas Republicans on Thursday to unite behind U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, alleging his independent opponent is trying to “snooker” voters in what has become a surprisingly close race. Palin, the 2008 vice presidential nominee, donned an apron and flipped pancakes alongside Roberts, once considered a near lock for re-election but now facing a tough battle....

Last week, the voters of Scotland, in a heavy turnout and from age 16 up, decided not to disunite what has been arguably one of the most successful and beneficial nations over the last 307 years, the necessarily clunkily named United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It was a relatively close-run thing: 45 percent voted for an independent Scotland, just 383,000 fewer than voted for Scotland to remain part of the now-not-necessary-to-be-renamed UK. Had Queen Elizabeth II not allowed herself to be overheard telling a churchside crowd that Scottish voters should "think very carefully" about the issue, the...

Mary Wilkerson is aware there's a governor's race on the November ballot, but "it's not on my radar,'' says the 60-year-old from Jacksonville. Wilkerson, a black Democrat and reliable supporter of Barack Obama, is the kind of voter who is pivotal to the candidacy of Charlie Crist, the former Republican governor turned Democrat. His campaign has put a premium on building a field operation aimed at turning out the vote in key communities and has crafted a careful message of inclusion that aims to avoid the mistakes that imperiled Alex Sink, the Democrat who lost to Gov. Rick Scott four...

If you want to join the audience of the daytime television show "Live with Kelly and Michael," the tickets are free. But if you want to go see an evening with Kelly and George (Norcross) — an event that won’t be televised — it’ll set you back $1,000. Kelly Ripa — the daytime television personality — is the special guest at the Camden County Democratic Committee’s 27th Annual Seafood Gala on Oct.1.

While Scotland’s voters weighed whether to separate from the United Kingdom Thursday, another decision involved its most famous institution separating from 260 years of tradition. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews voted overwhelmingly to admit women, echoing a similar decision at the far younger Augusta National Golf Club in 2012. In both cases, a private organization made a decision it was entitled to make. But the environment surrounding both decisions, and the reactions thereafter, paint a disturbing portrait of a thickening cultural fog. Let us begin with a premise that will drop jaws on both sides of...

Play With Closed Captions Gov. Rick Scott widened his lead in the gubernatorial race, taking a 5-point lead over Charlie Crist, according to the latest News Channel 8 poll. Scott pulled 44 percent compared with 39 percent for Crist in the poll. Scott actually dropped a point from the 45-44 tally last week, but fared better as Crist lost support and dropped below 40 percent for the first time since the poll started this spring. Libertarian candidate Adrian Wyllie more than doubled his share, taking 7 percent in the survey. Nine percent were undecided. Crist's lead has slipped in Southeast...

A new poll today in Kansas shows independent Senate candidate Greg Orman faring well against pro-life Sen. Pat Roberts, who has a long and extensive pro-life voting record in Congress. One national pro-life group says Kansas voters who don’t know much about Orman need to be aware that, though he is an independent, he would be just another pro-abortion Democrat working with Harry Reid to stop pro-life legislation in the Senate.

When Joni Ernst burst into public consciousness here this past spring, she was talking about castrating hogs as a child on an Iowa farm. Another ad showed her wearing a leather jacket and stepping off a Harley-Davidson to point a pistol at the camera. Well, meet the new Joni Ernst. Iowa’s Republican Senate nominee went on the air this week with an ad in which she sits at a kitchen table, speaks directly to the camera, and says she cares about protecting Social Security, good schools, good-paying jobs and affordable health care. Ernst’s effort to project a more moderate image...

About half say there is too much regulation; 22% say there is too little .....From 2003 through the remainder of the George W. Bush administration, however, these attitudes settled into a pattern in which Americans were more likely to say there was too much rather than too little government regulation of business. After Barack Obama took office in 2009, the percentage saying "too much" regulation rose into the high 40s, including a reading of 50% in 2011, and has remained at these relatively high levels since. Less than a quarter of Americans have perceived in the last two years that...

With less than two months...Ohio Sen. Rob Portman was out in California last week hustling for dollars and briefing Republican donors about what he said was the party’s critical need for resources to compete in the tossup states that could determine control of the U.S. Senate. “There are probably five states on the knife’s edge,” Portman, the vice chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and a potential 2016 presidential contender, said in an interview during his California visit.

"Centralists in America fear that, if Scotland votes yes, it may set a chain of events in motion that could affect many more western regions," the movement organizers wrote. "Suddenly, the impossible seems possible." With some new attention on Texas nationalism comes repeated arguments for independence: Yahoo columnist Rick Newman notes that — with its GDP of $1.6 trillion and population of 27 million — Texas would be the 13th largest country in the world if it obtained independence from the United States. He also wrote Texas could lure companies away from the United States and survive on the strength...

President Obama told congressional leaders at a White House meeting on Monday he wouldn’t need their authorization to expand his military campaign against Islamic terrorists. The president offered the assurance at a private White House meeting one day before a primetime address he’s scheduled to give to the nation. Wednesday’s address is a pivotal moment for the president just months before a midterm election in which the Senate’s majority hangs in the balance. Polls show that confidence in Obama’s foreign policy is eroding just as anxiety over the threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has...

Cameron's spokesman said: "No. There has been no change here. The government's entire focus ... is on making the case for the UK staying together."

Who is Vernice Guthrie, and where was she at 11 a.m. West Africa Time on Friday, Aug. 26, 2011? On that day, terrorist group Boko Haram carried out a suicide bombing at the main UN building in Abuja, Nigeria, killing 24 persons and injuring more than 100. Since then Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and other lawmakers have three times during hearings asked State Department officials whether Americans were in that building. Three times those officials have hedged. Now, Boko Haram’s rise has led to the deaths of thousands of Nigerians, the destruction of hundreds of churches, and the kidnapping this...