Since at least 2004, Club Madonna owner Leroy Griffith has been clamoring to overturn a ban on adult entertainment venues serving alcohol on South Beach. It’s unfair, he says, that he has to serve ARIEL wine and O’Doul’s at his strip joint when others across the causeway can be one-stop-shops…
Well, Republican-turned-Independent-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist officially announced he’s running for his old Governor gig again this morning, cementing one of the more improbable political evolutions in Florida history. Crist’s name instantly started trending on Twitter, and the Twitoverse isn’t sure what to make of the announcement. See also: Is Charlie Crist…
On Monday it becomes official. After more than a year of speculations, Charlie Crist is reportedly set to announce he’s running for Governor as a Democrat. What was once Florida’s biggest political “What if?” scenario is actually happening…
Back in 2007, the city of Opa-locka made headlines by passing an ordinance aimed directly at the hip-hop trend of sagging your pants so low that half of your boxer shorts are on public display. Any man caught exposing his underwear in public could be fined $250. Now the city…
Bill Nelson finally dragged his feet to supporting a bill that prevent job discrimination for LGBT citizens, but his fellow Florida senator, Marco Rubio, continues to sip on some watered-down Anita Bryant-style orange juice and has reiterated his opposition to the bill. What’s his excuse? Oh, a bunch of things…
Aside from Senator Bill Nelson, former CFO Alex Sink is the only Democrat to get elected statewide in Florida in recent memory, which makes her one of the party’s highest profile pols. She ran a close race with Rick Scott for governor in 2010, opted out of a rematch, and…
Last month, Riptide revealed Michael Góngora’s shady connections to a smear campaign launched against his rivals for mayor of Miami Beach. Now the man targeted by those attacks ads is hitting back, filing complaints and a lawsuit against his detractors. Philip Levine, a self-made millionaire who has spent at least…
Up until this morning Florida’s Bill Nelson was one of just three Democrats left in the Senate who didn’t support the Employee Non-Discrimination Act. After Equality Florida launched a “twitterbomb” on him last week though, Nelson announced he’d sign on as a co-sponsor…
City of Miami residents won’t be given much of a choice when it comes to exercising their right to democracy during the November 5th mayoral elections. Despite an early fund-raising lead, commissioner Francis Suarez dropped out due to some minor campaign hickups and his wife’s pregnancy, leaving the city without…
If there’s any doubt that former Republican governor Charlie Crist will challenge Rick Scott as a Democrat next year, Crist’s new online ad released with the relaunch of his website should erase that uncertainty. It’s not technically a campaign ad, because Crist hasn’t officially announced his candidacy, but it sure…
Pollo Tropical. Snapper. TGIF Friday’s. Dunkin Donuts. McDonald’s. Miami City Commission candidate Richard Dunn loves him some food. And, according to yesterday’s campaign finance report — which arrived three weeks late — he will spend, and spend freely when it comes to terrible food. While other candidates sashay and schmooze…
Since July, one petition has been Florida dope-smokers’ great white hope. By August, People United for Medical Marijuana had already collected 100,000 signatures from people who favor medicinal weed. That milestone meant an amendment to legalize medical marijuana would appear before the Florida Supreme Court. By the latest count three…
Something is rotten in Miami Beach. Construction is soaring in Sunset Harbour. Lincoln Road is log-jammed with tourists. And Art Basel once again approaches like a billion-dollar beast ready to take a platinum piss all over SoBe. But underneath all of this commerce is the cloying odor of corruption and…
Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi has been doing a lot of fundraising lately, but she hasn’t drawn a Democrat opponent yet. Well, George Sheldon, who most recently was an undersecretary in President Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services, has announced he’ll run, setting up a duel that could focus…
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi just got a big, fat $25,000 contribution to her reelection PAC from one of Donald Trump’s foundations. Which is sort of odd, because many feel Bondi’s office should follow the lead of New York’s attorney general and investigate Trump’s shady online “Trump University.”…
If you woke up this morning with a hard-on for sky-high interest rates, a hankering for anarchy, and hopes of seeing the sobbing shell of our once-stately president crumpled over the corpse of Obamacare, we have some bad news for you. Last night, Congress voted to end the 16-day government…
Apparently when it comes to the government shutdown battle over the implications of Obamacare, all Senator Marco Rubio has to offer is lame pop culture jokes. In the same day that Rubio said he will not vote for a deal to end the shutdown and raise the debt limit, he…
Less than a year after gaining seats and ending the Republican’s supermajoirty in the state house, Florida Democrats picked up another seat last night in a bit of a special election upset. Despite being out-funded by a near 3-to-1 ratio, first time candidate Amanda Murphy beat Republican Bill Gunter in…
Bill Edwards is one of Rick Scott’s top individual donors. He wrote a $500,000 check to Scott’s Let’s Get to Work re-election PAC. Ironically, almost 500 of Edwards’ employees will not get to work soon. One of his companies, Mortgage Investment Corp. (MIC), abruptly announced yesterday it’s laying off 476…
There’s still tons of people who actually live in Miami Beach who have no idea who they’re going to vote for in the November 5th election for Miami Beach’s next mayor, but apparently ex-President Bill Clinton has made up his mind already. Clinton turns out is buddy-buddy with multi-millionaire candidate…
Since the day he was elected, Rick Scott has been one of the most unpopular governors in America, often hovering below 30 percent in polls. He’s tried everything from casual Fridays to flipping hamburgers in local restaurants to boost his numbers. But the most recent Q poll still shows nearly…
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is such a part of Miami-Dade’s political firmament it’s hard to imagine the moderate Republican losing her seat until she’s ready to retire. But a new poll shows Ros-Lehtinen trailing a generic Democratic opponent by two points. Is this just a temporary manifestation of the anti-incumbent and…
