How The Electoral College Mistrusts Voters
That flaw is the Electoral College. For the fourth time in our history, and the second in 16 years, it has given the presidency to the candidate who polled fewer votes — 2 million fewer in this case —...
View ArticleSenate Leader Eyes Constitutional Amendment Requiring Two-Thirds Majority For...
The Florida Constitution Revision Commission, which meets every 20 years, has the power to place constitutional amendments on the November 2018 ballot. The post Senate Leader Eyes Constitutional...
View ArticleProposal To Create Open Primaries in Florida Moves Forward, But With Issues
All candidates seeking the same office would run in a single primary regardless of party affiliation. The top two vote-getters would run in the general election. The post Proposal To Create Open...
View ArticleExecutive Overreach? Supreme Court Considers Rick Scott’s Rule-Making Powers
In oral arguments today, justices seemed unconvinced by the case of a blind woman on food stamps. The case speaks to Scott's rule-making power--and where the Legislature's power ends. The post...
View ArticleWhy Attending Local Government Meetings Has Nothing To Do With Being Involved
No one was in the audience when school administrators making $97,000 a year made their pitch for raises. Don't blame the public for not being there. It's not the public's fault, and there are far...
View ArticleBackyard Beirut: Florida’s NRA-Loaded Gun Rules Drill Bullets In Local...
Guns in child care centers. Guns in county parks. Guns at city hall. All allowed now in Florida. So is your neighbor's right to shoot off guns in the backyard, even if bullets stray over to yours as...
View ArticleTerm Limits for County Commissioners? Florida Supreme Court Will Decide
The cases, brought by voters in Broward and Sarasota counties, presented the court with the question of how much power charter counties have to impose qualifications and disqualifications on candidates...
View ArticleFlorida’s Gang of 10: How You Got Robbed of Representation by Lawmakers’...
Just 10 of Florida’s 160 legislators voted recently on a $58-million budget amendment that carries large policy implications for citizens across the state. Few citizens were representedby this or any...
View ArticlePartisanship Works. One-Party States Don’t.
They are two of the most repeated claims you’ll hear every four years: That this is the most important election in our lifetime. And that partisanship is demolishing the country. Rubbish on both...
View ArticleMitt Romney’s , and Republicans’, Goldwater Moment
Blowing an election it should have won, the GOP might finally realize it has strayed far out of the mainstream and become a little too odd for the American public, writes Bill Cotterell. The post Mitt...
View ArticleRepublican Presumptions Aside, Florida Is Not a One-Party State Yet
Florida is dominated by Republicans, but to argue against the election of a Democrat to the Florida House--as the GOP's Travis Hutson is arguing in his bid against Milissa Holland--is a reflection of...
View ArticleOther People’s Money: How Flagler County Is Closing on a Raw Deal at...
The proposed $1.23 million county acquisition of the old Memorial Hospital property in Bunnell reveals, especially in its fine print, its secrecy until now and gun-to-the-head May 6 deadline for...
View ArticleFlorida’s Political Scientist: Five Questions for Susan McManus
Susan MacManus is probably Florida’s most-quoted political scientist. A distinguished professor at the University of South Florida's Department of Government and International Affairs, she's also a...
View ArticleIf You Think Businessmen Have Any Business Running Government, Think Again
Government is about essential services; business is about profit. Essential services must be improved, not cut. Government is designed to protect the common good, and has never and will never be...
View ArticleWhy Voters Don’t Give a Damn Anymore: Government Of the Few, By the Few, For...
Barely a third of the eligible voting-age population — 36.4 percent — voted in the midterms this month. The major reason people don’t vote is that they don’t think it will make a difference, argues...
View ArticleSteven Nobile Thrust For Broad Charter Review Has Rest of Palm Coast Council...
A push for a charter review by Palm Coast City Council member Steven Nobile provoked an at-times heated discussion at council today as members largely opposed the notion absent a more defined public...
View ArticleWhen Liberal Democracy Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be
The puzzle is not why democracy so often turns out to be illiberal. It is that liberal democracy can ever emerge. The post When Liberal Democracy Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be appeared first on...
View ArticleClowns on the Campaign Trail and the Revolt Against Professional Politicians
Donald Trump is part of a wider phenomenon of disaffected voters turning away from mainstream political parties and following populists and political entertainers, or clowns if you like, argues Ian...
View ArticleCharter Review Proposal Finally Dies Amid Accusations of “Political Ploy” and...
Palm Coast Council member's proposal for a charter review got no support as fellow-council member Jason DeLorenzo called the move a "political ploy" and Council member Heidi Shipley's attempt to have...
View ArticleThe Politics of Resentment: Why Poorer Areas Are Increasingly Voting Republican
A political puzzle: Parts of the country that depend on the safety-net programs supported by Democrats are increasingly voting for Republicans who favor shredding that net. The reason: the poor don't...
View ArticleFor Millennials, Government Is a Gap of Generations and Representation
Millennials, those born after 1980 who entered adulthood at the turn of the century, hold just 5 percent of state legislative seats, while comprising 31 percent of the U.S. voting-age population. The...
View ArticleLow Gas Prices Are Great For You and Me. For World Security? Not So Much.
Banditry, corruption and tyranny from Saudi Arabia to Iraq to Russia depends on high oil prices. As prices fall, the bandits in charge will quarrel more among themselves – and with their neighbors. The...
View ArticleScalia’s Last Laugh: The Battle Begins
With roughly 11 months remaining in his term, Obama undoubtedly will nominate a replacement for Antonin Scalia. Anyone he names will surely be more liberal than Scalia, and anyone he names will tip the...
View ArticleFlagler County Royalty: The Trouble With Uncontested Elections
Property Appraiser Jay Gardner and Tax Collector Suzanne Johnston have no competition, Tom Bexley for clerk of court barely does: Good as they are at their jobs, it's not good for Flagler or for the...
View ArticleEarly Voting: A Dissent
Early voting gives political parties and special interests a chance to manipulate, to lock up blocs of votes in advance of Election Day and to keep opposition parties and candidates from offering...
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