Weekly Update, September 2, 2010 from the Director Public Affairs

Great American REALTOR® Days (GARD Flyer) SAVE THE DATE!!!

Primary Election had big surprises; low voter turnout

The August 24th Primary served up some huge surprises on the state scene, such as Rick Scott’s stunning defeat of political insider Bill McCollum, as well as wins for political newcomers to the School Board. However, the very sad news was the turnout, which was extremely poor both state-wide and locally. The local election office offered these statistics on voters:

REGISTERED VOTERS – TOTAL 342,778
REGISTERED VOTERS – REPUBLICAN 153,653 - 44.83%
REGISTERED VOTERS – DEMOCRATIC 105,320 - 30.73%
REGISTERED VOTERS – NONPARTISAN 83,805 - 24.45%
TOTAL VOTER TURNOUT 23.68%

This is indeed a sad state when only 23.7% turn out for such a pivotal election. The election’s office had hoped for at least 30%. Republicans had a 36.99% turnout vs. 18% for Democrats and only 6.4% for nonpartisan voters.

Other than the big upset win by Rick Scott, who now was just endorsed by prior McCollum supporter Jeb Bush, the statewide races went according to most pundits: Marco Rubio and Kendrick Meek won their respective primaries for US Senate, and Alex Sink won the Democratic nod to run for Governor in her primary.

Other state races of interest to the Association included a primary win of Association supported Lizbeth Benacquisto-R for State Senate. She won here in Lee County which had enough pull to secure her the seat for the general election. On the Democratic side, Kevin Rader will be in the General Election. Florida Realtors® continue to support Lizbeth in the General Election.

Matt Caldwell-R won his primary for State Representative replacing Nick Thompson, now becoming a circuit judge. He will face off against Cole Peacock –D in the General Election November 2nd. These candidates will be screened on September 9th to determine if our Association wishes to offer one of them support.

In the School Board, Association supported candidate Mary Fischer will face Arnold Gibbs in a runoff on November 2nd. The two incumbents supported by the Association were not successful and therefore two newcomers to the School Board will be entering that arena: Mr. Don Armstrong and Mr. Tom Scott. The Association wishes them all the best in their endeavors.

County Commission races saw both Brian Bigelow and John Manning keep their seats through the primary and each will face an opponent in the General Election. Tammy Hall did not have a primary race but will face a November 2nd opponent. Stay tuned for the Association’s nod of support on these races.

Other elections of note saw both SW Florida friends Dave Aronberg and Jeff Kottkamp unsuccessful in their Attorney General races. Hopefully they will both continue in the political arena with so much to offer.

Florida REALTORS® candidate forum hosted top candidates at our annual conference
As usual, Florida REALTORS®’ candidate forum at the annual state conference didn’t disappoint, as the Public Policy team was able to get the top winners from Tuesday’s primary election to converge in Orlando. Gubernatorial nominees Rick Scott and Alex Sink, and U.S. Senate candidates Charlie Crist, Marco Rubio and Kendrick Meek each separately addressed the crowd of several hundred, meeting at a public speaking event together for the first time! Although all five candidates participated within a 90-minute span, the event was carefully choreographed so they did not appear together, but followed each other on the stage to speak to the entire group, and then had small meet and greets either before or after the event.

According to some media experts, these appearances underscored the politically influential that Florida REALTORS® have, as well as highlighting how underestimated and unpredictable Scott may be as a candidate. The controversial former chief of Columbia/HCA hospital chain drew louder applause than Alex Sink in his speech emphasizing deep cuts in government spending and government regulations, and his reception room drew more people than the Democratic chief financial officer did at hers.

Scott, a wealthy Naples businessman who spent at least $50 million of his own money to shock the GOP establishment and beat McCollum, refused to participate in any statewide televised debate during the primary and was noncommittal about what he would do with Sink.” I clearly believe we ought to debate," said Scott.
Talking to the enthusiastic crowd, Scott said as governor he would eliminate corporate taxes, push down property taxes by about 20 percent and "get rid of every regulation we can."

"We are going to be the state that has fair regulation and has the lowest taxes you can possibly have so that everyone will want to do business here," he said to cheers.

Scott was the biggest unknown at the REALTORS®' candidate forum that drew every major statewide candidate: Sink and Scott for governor; and independent Charlie Crist, Republican Marco Rubio, and Democrat Kendrick Meek for the Senate.

"I'm running against two good people. I have no complaint about them, but they're tied to their party. I'm not. I'm a free agent — a free agent for Florida," said Crist, who has had a close allegiance with Florida REALTORS®, and cheerfully posed for pictures after his appearance, one with our 2010 President Christie Knight.

Still, some felt that the crowd of roughly 500 cheered Rubio louder than Crist. None of the candidates took questions in the larger venue, but did so at the smaller meet and greets. Rubio was very well received in his small reception. "If we stay on the road we are on right now, this extraordinary country of ours will be diminished, and that's what this election is about," Rubio said.

Meek offered a speech about his middle-class upbringing and track record as a fighter.
More Statewide News Updates –Chiles dropping out; Scott to pick running mate It appears that Bud Chiles' days as a candidate for governor are numbered. Sources state that Chiles is calling supporters to tell them he is ending his independent bid. An announcement is likely to come by the end of this week. The day of his expected announcement is not coincidental - it's the last day before overseas ballots begin printing. Chiles name - the same as popular former Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles - was expected to pull votes from Democrat Alex Sink in her battle against Republican Rick Scott. Chiles does not wish to be a spoiler for Sink.

Meanwhile, Rick Scott is expected to pick an insider for his running mate, also to be announced by the end of the week. Once thought a front runner for this post was Paula Dockery, who has now stated she isn’t interested. Some feel it must be an insider to help Scott understand Tallahassee politics and operations. Also, one of the first orders of business at Scott’s campaign headquarters last week was to hire up all of McCollum’s state-party-financed fundraising team, so he could essentially implement McCollum’s general election fundraising plan and not have to self-finance his general election contest against Democrat Alex Sink.

In other state news, House Republicans announced on Tuesday that one of their own - Rep. Matt Hudson of Naples - had been named to the executive committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Hudson is one of only 60 state legislators across the country to be so honored. The organization serves as a conduit for state legislators to exchange information and represents all 50 state Legislatures to the federal government.

Amendments 3, 7, 9 stricken from November ballot
The Florida Supreme Court has upheld lower-court decisions and tossed off November's ballot three proposed constitutional amendments. The three stricken amendments were all proposed by the Legislature. The court voted 5-2 in each case, with Chief Justice Charles Canaday and Justice Ricky Polston dissenting from the majority three times.

Amendment 3 would have offered expanded property-tax breaks to first-time homebuyers and lowered the amount assessments on non-homestead property could go up each year. This Amendment was being supported by the Florida REALTORS®, and is a disappointment that it won’t be on this years’ ballot.

Amendment 7 was a legislative answer to two other amendments - those remain on the ballot - setting additional criteria for drawing lines for state and congressional districts. Amendment 9 sought to prohibit health-care mandates in Florida like those passed by Congress earlier this year.

Those three amendments won't appear on the November ballot now. However, the rest will and bear noting, particularly the Vote No on Amendment 4, highlighted in the following story.

Vote No on 4’s Ryan Houck Speaks Out By: Kevin Gale, South Florida Business Journal - August 31, 2010
Ryan Houck, who is leading the fight against the proposed Amendment 4 to the Florida constitution, is very adamant that the measure would create lengthy ballots.

Bett Willett, South Florida coordinator for Hometown Democracy, disagreed with Houck and said in a phone interview that if a city revises an entire comprehensive plan with one vote, "that's the same thing we would vote on. We would not vote on all 816 items."

Interest in the Amendment 4 debate seems to be growing. Bob Norman of the Broward-Palm Beach New Times wrote on Saturday about $7 million raised to fight Amendment 4. Norman, who has written extensively about public corruption, wrote that Amendment 4 would give a lot of power back to voters.

I asked Houck whether the corruption issue was resonating as much in other parts of Florida as it was down here. He politely declined to say whether South Florida is more corrupt than other areas. However, he did admit its part of the debate.

“If you are yes on 4, you don't want this to be a referendum on Amendment 4, you want it to be a referendum on a lot of different issues," he said. Money in politics is one of the biggest rallying cries, he said.

He rhetorically asked: "So, the answer is to make sure we have more money in politics by making every planning decision into a high-priced political campaign?"

In other words, developers and their opponents could end up spending a lot of money trying to convince voters of their viewpoint if Amendment 4 passes. Houck said there is no doubt Floridians, and Americans in general, are frustrated with politicians, but said of Amendment 4: "Does it address those concerns? No."

The process would remain the same, except elected officials then get to punt to the ballot box, rather than being held accountable, he said. Houck said he appreciates the role of the media in giving both sides of the issue, but said there's little doubt that precedent and case law is on his side. I invited him to send some substantiating documentation, and he replied in an e-mail. Here's what he had to say:

“The courts have routinely upheld the doctrine of ‘single-subject’ and prohibited the practice of ‘logrolling’ (combining multiple proposals into a single ballot question). In particular, Fine v. Firestone, a 1984 Florida Supreme Court decision dealing with statewide measures, provides insight into the commonsense reasoning behind single-subject. The court points out that voters cannot be forced to support a measure they don’t want (let’s use an Amendment 4 example, like a drainage issue) in order to obtain a change they do want (for example, a change in traffic signalization). Specifically, here’s what the court had to say in Fine:

The purpose of the single-subject requirement is to allow the citizens to vote on singular changes in our government that are identified in the proposal and to avoid voters having to accept part of a proposal which they oppose in order to obtain a change which they support.

Ultimately, there are three reasons that Amendment 4 would lead to ballots littered with dozens and potentially hundreds of plan revisions:

Court precedent Court precedent on single-subject is fairly abundant and quite clear. Florida Supreme Court rulings have strictly enforced “single-subject” when it comes to statewide amendment proposals. The sound, commonsense reasoning behind these decisions make as much (if not more), sense for local planning proposals (which deal with multiple, individual applicants) as for statewide initiatives (which only deal with one sponsor). In fact, many county charters contain single-subject rules for local measures that are similar to Article XI, Section 3 of the Florida Constitution, which contains the single-subject rule for statewide amendments.

Political pressure Bundling charter amendments on the timing of county commission meetings with a question of whether the city attorney should be on staff or retainer is one thing; but voting on separate and distinct planning proposals originating from multiple applicants, affecting dozens of planning elements and altering distinct land uses on numerous parcels of land is quite another. There will be tremendous political pressure from plan amendment applicants to break up proposed comprehensive plan amendments into their constituent parts. For example, the applicant for a residential community is unlikely to wish for their proposal to be rolled into the same ballot question as the applicant for a new jail. And, the reverse is problematic, as well – it’s one of the reasons the court has been so strict on single-subject. As the Florida Supreme Court wrote in Fine v. Firestone:
… the purpose of the single-subject requirement is to prevent logrolling, pairing a popular measure with an unpopular one in order to enhance the likelihood of passing the less-favored measure.

Threat of litigation The threat of litigation would strongly encourage elected officials to break up proposed plan amendments and place them on the ballot separately. If the applicant for a residential community loses because his/her proposal was tied to the proposal for a new jail, it opens the floodgates for litigation on multiple grounds. In order to guard against such litigation, many elected officials have already signaled that they would ensure proposals are voted on individually, even if they had the option of logrolling (and it doesn’t seem that they would).
And, practically speaking, it’s virtually impossible to accurately condense a 900-page comprehensive plan – or even a 100-page plan amendment – into a 75-word ballot summary (including maps, traffic patterns, density graphs, etc.). Attempting to do so would invite litigation from the side that loses the referendum (on the grounds that the ballot language was “unclear”), which, not coincidentally, is exactly what happened in St. Pete Beach, where the town has now been stuck with roughly $750,000 in legal bills, courtesy of the same lawyer who co-authored Amendment 4.

I think the preponderance of evidence is clear that Amendment 4 will lead to ballots littered with seemingly endless technical planning provisions – whether it’s due to precedent, political pressure or the threat of litigation. However, if, in spite of the evidence, Amendment 4 ends up condensing hundreds of distinct planning proposals ranging from schools to hospitals to capital improvements to intergovernmental coordination to scenic beauty to drainage to sewage management to jails to landfills to EAR [evaluation and appraisal report] amendments into one or two giant ballot measures, then Amendment 4 is as much a reckless, ruinous and costly proposal as ever. Transforming 900-page comprehensive plans into 30-second sound bites may be a stimulus package for special interest lawyers, but it’s a terrible disservice to Florida’s taxpayers, voters and communities.

The bottom line is this: The sample ballots look ridiculous because Amendment 4 is ridiculous. It is poorly written, badly worded and prone to litigation – as the people of St. Pete Beach can attest. Any way you slice it, it’s utterly unworkable. The litigation that has resulted from Amendment 4 experiments in St. Pete Beach is not surprising. This measure was written by the very lawyers who stand to benefit so richly should this measure pass.”

Upcoming Meetings of Importance

BusinessPeople United for Political Action Committee (BUPAC)
SPEAKER schedule:

Sep-09 Carla Johnston, candidate County Commission D-1
Oct-07 Tammy Hall, County Commission Chairwoman D-4
Where: Edison State College, Taeni Student Services Hall room S106
Cypress Lake Dr at Edison Lane, Parking Lot-6, Look for Clock Tower
When: 7:00 a.m. Breakfast; Program 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.
Cost: $8 with food, or $4 without food

FORT MYERS MAYOR SPEAKS AT REIS LUNCHEON
Fort Myers Mayor Randy Henderson will discuss the city’s challenges and opportunities at 11:45 a.m. Sept. 14 in the Osprey Room at Pelican Preserve’s clubhouse in Fort Myers at the Real Estate Investment Society’s (REIS) September luncheon meeting. A former banker, Henderson is president of Corbin Henderson Co., a real estate firm, and a member of REIS. Admission is $25 for members and $35 for guests, which includes lunch. Reservations are required by Sept. 8 and may be made at the REIS website, www.reis-swfl.org.

September 15th Trade show and RPAC Raffle
The annual REALTOR® Association Trade Show will feature a fantastic RPAC booth with several special technology prizes including Apple and Nikon products to be raffled off to benefit RPAC. You won’t want to miss this very special and exciting event! The booth will be at the front of the show, near the entrance and decorated in red, white, and blue!! Come and enter our raffles for several tremendous prizes. All proceeds help RPAC. This is an easy way to give and get at the same time!!! This year will be the best year ever for the trade show, so don’t miss it!! A silent auction for our Association’s charities will also be held, sure to be a very good time for all our members.

SEPTEMBER 17th FOR THE INDUSTRY APPRECIATION AWARDS
The Horizon Council’s Industry Appreciation Awards will take place September 17th at Harborside Event Center in Fort Myers. Special attention at this event will be placed on giving out “Vote No on Amendment 4” yard signs, bumper stickers and literature. Be sure to come to the luncheon and also receive free yard signs to help us defeat Amendment 4!!

Remember, if you loved the recession you’ll love Amendment 4! NOT! And do not believe the other side’s ads stating amendment 4 will help your home values. IT WILL NOT. This is a fraudulent attempt to lure voters. The Horizon Council and your REALTOR® association know this amendment will be a deterrent to increasing home values, so read through the lines, and support our diversifying economy by supporting the Horizon Council and defeating Amendment 4.

GOLD MEDALIST TO SPEAK AT BLUE CHIP LUNCHEON NOVEMBER 4TH
Olympic gold medalist Nikki Stone will appear as the returning keynote speaker for the 16th annual Southwest Florida Blue Chip Community Business Award luncheon on Nov. 4 at Harborside Event Center in Fort Myers. Coordinated and sponsored by BB&T-Oswald Trippe and Company, the Blue Chip Award program recognizes small businesses that have overcome adversity to achieve success. Applications, which must be submitted no later than Sept. 13, can be requested by contacting Stacey Mercado at (239) 433-7189 or smercado@bbandt.com. Stone won America’s first-ever gold medal in inverted aerial skiing in the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan after overcoming a career-threatening chronic spinal injury less than two years earlier