Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine will be the first mayor of a city in Miami-Dade to visit Cuba in an official capacity since 1959 he announced today. Levine is framing the trip as a learning opportunity and hopes to scope out what effects the opening of Cuba to American visitors…
Ted Cruz never called out Marco Rubio’s so-called Miami values. Unlike efforts to paint Barack Obama as a product of that “corrupt Chicago political machine,” few opponents have smeared Rubio as a product of Miami’s banana-republic-as-usual political world. In the 2010 Senate race, a Charlie Crist ally once lambasted Rubio…
Donald Trump has not rolled out a textbook campaign to appeal to Jewish voters. First, he gave a speech laced with anti-Semitic jokes to the Republican Jewish Coalition. Then he started demanding a “loyalty pledge” that gave his rallies a distinctly Munich circa-1933 vibe. And just this past weekend, a…
For more than a century the heterosexual couples living together in Florida have had to live in the shadow of the law unless they decided to enter into legally recognized holy matrimony. Thanks to a law dating back from the 1800s, the oppressed Florida heterosexual, or “straight” couples as many…
Early voting days wrapped up in Florida this weekend, and the share of Floridians heading to the polls before election day has hit record numbers. On the Democratic side, early and absentee voting is up more than 200 percent since the 2008 primary. For Republicans, the number is up roughly…
Ask anyone a year ago who they’d think would win the Republican primary in Florida and they probably would have told you either our Florida former Governor Jeb Bush or current Senator Marco Rubio. Both are home-state boys, and both looked like they were gearing up for well-funded, serious runs…
Florida Republican lawmakers have been chipping away at abortion rights for years, but yesterday the Florida legislature passed its most sweeping anti-abortion law to date. The bill is now headed to Governor Rick Scott’s desk, but significant parts of the law may be struck down by the Supreme Court by…
One of Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s most persistent tics is to start yelling, “Jobs!” over and over whenever he’s pressed with a tough question. This is the same guy, after all, who once pleaded the Fifth more than 500 times in a deposition. He’s an Olympic-level non-answerer, and most interviewers…
Last night, Bernie Sanders managed to pull a historical upset against Hillary Clinton in the Michigan Primary but to capture the nomination he’ll have to pull off a few more of those magical upsets. A strong showing in Florida, the state with the fourth most Democratic delegates, next week would…
Last month, Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine asked the state ethics board for guidance on a slippery question: Could he vote on a new mega-condo project on Purdy Avenue even though he owns property next door? Although critics said the mayor’s own investments might get a significant boost from the…
The GOP establishment’s concentrated push against Donald Trump seems to have paid some dividends over the weekend with Ted Cruz besting Trump in two states that Trump had a previous polling lead in. The attacks, concentrating on Trump’s questionable Trump University business, also appear to have dealt some damage to…
Marco Rubio had a no good, very bad weekend. He’s now the de-facto establishment candidate, and in the four states voting on Saturday, he racked up tons of high-profile endorsements. He spent more per spent more per vote this weekend than any other candidate on either side of the aisle. It…
One of the odder habits of Donald Trump is that he likes to cut out articles from newspapers or prints them out from online, write notes on them in sharpie, and then send them off in an envelope in the mail to various people. This appears to be one of…
Marco Rubio’s website these days is basically an online fanzine for the anti-Donald Trump crowd. New visitors are prompted to join the effort to “Stop Trump.” The store hawks everything from “Dump Trump” yoga pants to #NeverTrump T-shirts. On the campaign trail, Rubio’s spent weeks slamming the real estate mogul…
The race to replace Marco Rubio in the Senate is already one of the strangest soap opera-worthy down ballot races in the nation, and it might get even more bizarre. GOP operatives are apparently pressuring Ben Carson to make an official exit from the presidential primary to run for Senate…
In 2008, Patrick Murphy was a Republican who cut a $2,300 check to Mitt Romney. In 2016, he’s a Democratic congressman running for Senate who just got the endorsement of Barack Obama. My, my, how things can change. This despite the fact that a poll released yesterday shows that while the majority…
The winds of change are blowing through American politics. Americans are sick of business as usual, sick of the establishment and sick of incumbent politicians. Insurgent, outsider candidates have been gaining steam over the past few years. It’ snot just present in the Presidential primaries. The phenomenon can be found…
Today is a day the GOP establishment never could have imagined. If neither Marco Rubio nor Ted Cruz surge in the dozen states casting primary ballots on this Super Tuesday, Donald Trump could all but wrap up a Republican presidential nomination tonight. And there are hints that Florida’s Trump-lite governor,…
If you’ve been on the internet today you’ve probably seen John Oliver’s epic takedown of Donald Trump (AKA Donald Drumpf). The HBO comedian takes a shot at Trump’s tendency to threaten to sue people without ever actually filing suit. True, Trump never did get around to taking Rosie O’Donnell to court,…
After putting his superdelegate vote up for an online vote, Democratic Rep. and Senate Candidate Alan Grayson announced today that Bernie Sanders won the online poll in such a landslide that he’s decided to officially endorse him. Sanders diehard supporters are usually ecstatic when a sitting Democratic politician breaks with the…
Florida’s primary isn’t officially until March 15th, but polls are already open at 20 early voting locations across Miami-Dade County. Sure, the dynamics of the primary races may change a bit between now and then (especially on the Republican side), but if you’ve already made your mind up you can…
With twelve states ready to cast their primary votes in Super Tuesday tomorrow, Marco Rubio has very little left to lose. Yes, Rubio has finally managed to consolidate the establishment GOP behind him. But his best finish so far is second place, and Donald Trump is obliterating him in polls…
