THE FOLLOWING IS THE TEXT OF JOHN DELANEY'S CAMPAIGN KICK-OFF SPEECH IN JANUARY OF 1995

Thank you, Tom, and thank you all for coming tonight.

I’m John Delaney. I’m running for mayor of the City of Jacksonville.

I need you to help me.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we’re here tonight because we believe this city is in the opening moments of greatness. Jacksonville is making a fresh start. No more talk of potential. No more talk of opportunities. No more talk of partnerships. The time is now and the success is real!

We are right now stepping onto a world stage, competing in a world market. We’re boasting of Malcom Baldridge award-winners and recruiting Fortune 500 companies. We’re competing for world trade in our port and world leadership in our back-office and financial processing industries.

And you know as well as I do that in August the eyes of the world will be on Jacksonville, Florida. They’ll marvel at our beautiful river, our clean skyline, our quality of life, and they’ll want to come and live and work here.

We are on the move and nation and the world know it.

Greatness requires leadership. And here the choice is simple and clear. Do you want Tommy Hazouri to represent you in the boardrooms of Chicago? Do you want Jake Godbold to represent you in the bond houses of New York? Do you want Harry Reagan to represent you at half-time on Monday Night Football at the Gator Bowl?!

I mean no ill will towards them. They’ve served their role. It’s tough to be in the public arena, and we owe them thanks for their willingness to endure. I don’t want to talk about the past. I want to talk about tomorrow, of the changes we can make.

Greatness not only requires leadership, it requires hard work. And there is much work to do. Government simply isn’t getting the job done. It’s supposed to educate our kids, protect our homes, pave our road, drain our yards and bridge our rivers. It actually discourages job growth. The multiple levels of approval from local, state, regional and national regulators actually discourage business growth and job creation.

We need a fresh look at the government itself. There is a revolution in Washington, D.C. right now. Republicans are turning that government upside. They’re cutting staff, cutting regulations, cutting budgets. Meanwhile private industry is right-sized, continuous quality and getting more done with less.

But here, the bureaucracy just keeps on keeping on.

I have participated in the tightest budget and biggest public employee reductions in the history of this city. But the truth is we can do more. We cannot compete in the world-wide race at supersonic speeds if we’re driving an old clunker with big tailfins.

We must privatize, out-source, eliminate, deregulate. We must make this government better, smaller, cheaper, faster.

Ladies and gentlemen, during the next three months, you and I are going to take an unprecedented message to the voters of Jacksonville.

We’re going to re-engineer this government from the bottom to the top. We’re going to mount a vigorous effort to streamline the processes of government, and where we don’t see results fast enough, we’re going to bid it out to private companies who can do it better, smaller, cheaper, faster.

We’re going to fight the crime battle in Washington, in Tallahassee and in the neighborhoods of Jacksonville. We’re going to take this government out of City Hall and bring it to the neighborhoods of Jacksonville where the people who own the government and pay for it live.

We’re going to bring the very best our community has to offer to Jacksonville’s schools to ensure that our children have some future other than drugs and crime.

We’re going to compete throughout the nation and the world for economic opportunity for our citizens. We are not going to create an authority, a Commission, or a bureaucrat for Economic Development. For the next four years, Jacksonville’s mayor will be in charge of economic opportunities for Jacksonville.

You have my word we’re going to create the most aggressive package of governmental ethics rules of any city in the country. We’re going to talk about it in the Spring, enact it this Summer and enforce it in the Fall.

And finally, we’re going to embrace a new generation of leaders.

Three years ago, Senator Betty Holzendorf told me of the need to recruit the next generation of leaders.

Tonight, I’m calling out to people who haven’t been involved before… people who’ve been disillusioned about government… who felt it didn’t work or can’t be changed… people who felt that it didn’t matter what you do, that nothing made a difference, that one person couldn’t make a difference. Maybe that’s you, maybe it’s been all of us at one time or another.

I’m asking these people… I’m calling upon you… to get involved. We can change government. We can make it work. We can make it better, smaller, cheaper, faster. We can make it more professional, more responsive, more accessible.

We can make Jacksonville the Next Great American City!

Please help me meet this challenge. Please vote for me. Thank you all.

Now let’s get to work!

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For more about John Delaney's 1995 campaign for mayor, see this month's print edition of the Jacksonville Observer Monthly.

The fate of the only scheduled statewide television debate between Bill McCollum and Rick Scott remained in doubt Wednesday, despite McCollum’s bowing to his rival’s demand that the contest be held in Jacksonville, not Orlando.

McCollum’s campaign wrote debate sponsor Leadership Florida saying the candidate was willing to take part in the Aug. 11 debate even if it was moved to WJXT-TV in Jacksonville from its originally planned location in the studios of WKMG-TV, Orlando.

“As the only debate that will air on commercial stations throughout Florida, we remain committed to participating in this important exchange of ideas on the future of the Sunshine State,” McCollum senior advisor Doyle Bartlett said in a letter Wednesday to Leadership Florida President Wendy Abberger.

The Scott campaign, however, has so far refused to sign-off on the change.

“We have not reached an agreement with Leadership Florida,” said Scott spokeswoman Jennifer Baker. “But we’re eager to begin our debate schedule next week.”

The first debate, scheduled to be taped Monday, will be aired Saturday on Univision stations in Orlando, Tampa and Miami. The second meeting, to take place Thursday, will be broadcast live from Tampa Fox affiliate WTVT and also will air in Orlando on a Fox affiliate.

Scott is leading McCollum in the Republican primary for governor, according to polls. But as a first-time candidate, Scott likely faces more risks in the debates than McCollum, who has been tarred by his rival in TV spots and campaign appearances as a “career politician.”

Baker, however, denied that Scott was ducking McCollum, pointing out the campaign originally sought four debates before the Aug. 24 primary. Scott earlier balked at the Orlando studio debate with the campaign saying he wanted a contest televised from North Florida with audience participation.

The Jacksonville TV studio proposal would be before a smaller crowd than the Orlando station could offer. But the debate would be in Scott’s favored North Florida, organizers said.

Dean Ridings, president and CEO of the Florida Press Association, which is jointly sponsoring the debate with Leadership Florida, said that some form of debate will be held whether Scott appears or not.

“We believe Floridians need to know more about both candidates,” Ridings said. “We are looking at options of presenting the views of the candidates somehow.”

But the candidate and the party hardly know each other.

Greene, a multi-millionaire who is largely self-financing his campaign, pulled nearly even with establishment Democratic favorite Kendrick Meek by buying millions of dollars worth of television ads to jumpstart a campaign launched on the final day of qualifying for federal races this spring.

But spending $6 million out of pocket meant Greene, a first time candidate who is also a relatively new resident of the state, spent little time getting to know the leaders of the party whose nomination he hopes to claim.

Greene talks often on the campaign trail and in ubiquitous television commercials about his tenure in the business world, when he made millions investing – critics say speculating - in real estate. The meetings he has these days are nothing like the ones he had then.

In addition to giving speeches and debating Meek – the pair have three scheduled before the Aug. 24 primary – Greene spends a lot of his days on the campaign trail this summer meeting with local Democratic elected officials, including a recent meeting at a Tallahassee coffee shop.

The difference is night and day, he said after 30 minutes of speaking with a Tallahassee state representative and members of the city and county commissions and board of education.

“When you own you’re own business, people are coming to sell me stuff,” he said. “Here, I feel like I’m trying to gain the confidence of community leaders.”

Most official Democratic officials have lined up behind Meek though, siding with the long-term Miami Congressman who has been in the Senate race since 2009. Even those who have not publicly taken sides are trying to feel out the man whose best man was Mike Tyson as much as the rookie candidate is trying to take the measure of local leaders.
It sometimes has the feel of an awkward first date. State Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda, D-Tallahassee, who talked energy with Greene during his visit to Leon County, said she was “pleasantly surprised” by the first-time candidate.

“Sometimes fellas coming straight out of business don’t understand that government is different than business,” she said. “They have an attitude that government should be run like a business, when really it isn’t like a business at all. But I think he’s thinking about the issues and he’s got ideas.”

Vasilinda said Greene’s roundtables with Democratic elected officials were a “good way to start to get to know the players” in the party, but she said he would be wise to meet with Democratic activists too.

Greene has taken other steps to ingratiate himself to the Democratic establishment. In lieu of bringing flowers, his campaign purchased nine tables at the party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson fundraising dinner. During his speech, he promised to support Meek if he loses the primary to him.

The love has not necessarily been reciprocated – by Meek or the party. Meek has pointedly not said he will support Greene if he wins the primary and the state party has not wavered in its support of Meek, even as Greene has surged in polls.

Unbowed by the cold shoulder from the establishment, Greene, who blasts Meek regularly as a “career politician,” spends a lot of time doing the things people who hope to make politics a career do.

“This is what my days are like now,” he said as an aide pulled him away from an interview with the News Service. “I started in St. Petersburg…and I’ll finish in Jacksonville, with Tallahassee in between.

“It’s a big state and there are a lot of important issues,” Greene said. “I want to reach out to people.”

“If we figure out some day it's safe, then I think we ought to look at it,” he said. “But today it's not safe.”

Scott concluded a six-day tour across the state in the Panhandle talking to area residents and business owners. Their biggest concern, not surprisingly, was the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

“As you can see right now, all these boats, it's July 26, we should be fishing,” said Scott Robson, president of the Destin Charter Boat Association, pointing to a line up of boats that were docked instead of out in the water.

Robson chatted with Scott as he walked around a Destin pier talking to fishermen and touting his jobs plan. He didn't elaborate on his drilling views with area residents, instead asking questions about their businesses.

Robson said he did not know about Scott's views, but noted that many area people originally favored drilling. He wasn't sure how Scott's views would affect his chances with voters.

“At a time, we all did kind of support it,” he said. “I think fishermen even said, oh you know, if we put some rigs way far out that'd be cool and it makes good fishing. So we were thinking. I think everybody's a little ‘Whoops, ooo, I don't know.’”

Florida lawmakers were in Tallahassee last week to discuss a constitutional ban on oil drilling, but adjourned without taking any action. They are likely to return in late August or early September to take up a slate of economic issues related to the spill.

Scott said the state needs to hold BP accountable for the spill, but stopped short of giving lawmakers any specific tips for legislation to help deal with the state's economic woes related to it.. The U.S. Travel Association released a study this week done by Oxford Economics that said the oil spill is likely to cost the Gulf Coast in several states $23 billion over three years.

“I think the first thing is they hold anybody who caused any damage accountable, and they've got to make sure we don't put in caps on the company’s liability, things like that,” he said. “And as we find out where people are damaged, do anything we can in those areas to spur economic growth.”

Scott's primary opponent, Attorney General Bill McCollum, has also been unclear on his view on drilling. During a press conference two weeks ago, he said he didn't believe the special session was necessary, but then conceded that if he were a lawmaker he would probably vote for a constitutional ban on offshore drilling. He has voiced support for a special session to take up economic issues related to the spill.

A McCollum spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for clarification from the News Service.

Democrat Alex Sink and no party affiliation candidate Bud Chiles are both against new drilling in Florida waters, and Sink publicly scolded lawmakers for not taking a vote during their special session last week saying they showed a “stunning lack of leadership.”

Prior to launching his Congressional campaign in April, Nwasike was the driving force behind a March event called Keep God in America, a rally organized under the umbrella of a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Tens of thousands of dollars were raised to help put on the event, with the largest single contribution coming as a $5,000 donation from W.W. Gay Mechanical Contractors.

Other prominent leaders and organizations gave financially or lent their names to Keep God in America, including First Coast Tea Party organizers Billie Tucker and Carole McManus, Jacksonville City Councilman Clay Yarborough and several talk or Christian music radio stations. The rally’s website even features video interviews and endorsements from Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Congressman Randy Forbes of Virginia.

However, The Jacksonville Observer has learned that several of Nwasike’s former partners from Keep God in America are now raising questions over how some of the money donated to the rally was spent. The Observer has obtained documents showing that the rally’s treasurer, Jay Fields, was also acting as the Nwasike campaign’s treasurer until recently.

Acting on instructions from Nwasike, Fields issued a $2,000 check to his wife, Jorgine, for “services rendered” on April 28, 2010. That same day, Jay Fields also made a $2,000 contribution to the Nwasike campaign.

Nwasike’s campaign consultant, Bert Ralston, charges that the checks are not related and that no wrongdoing has occurred.

“This is nothing but a political smear job by people that are supporting one of Chris Nwasike’s opponents in the primary,” said Ralston. “The people spreading these lies are doing so because they were denied funds from Keep God in America to advertise on their now defunct radio show.”

Chris Nwasike, candidate for Congress

Nwasike’s partners in Keep God in America, Jerod Powers and Raymond Johnson, previously hosted a weekly radio program on ABC 1320 WBOB.

“Furthermore, Chris did not sign any checks,” Ralston adds. “He did not have the authority to do so.”

Powers and Johnson refute the notion that they are motivated by sour grapes over an advertising arrangement gone bad.

“Initially we did send him [Nwasike] a proposal for advertising,” said Powers. “When he responded that there wasn’t sufficient money in the budget for it, we still had him on the program several times as a guest, we had every speaker at the event on as a guest, and we also provided significant amounts of advertising for W.W. Gay. Ultimately, we gave the event thousands of dollars worth of advertising for free.”

In addition to the $2,000 check, several hundred dollars from the Keep God in America account were also used to pay business expenses for Jay Fields, who is a handyman. The charges were made to Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, Sherwin Williams, Wal-Mart and other retail outlets.

Keep God in America funds were used for this purpose because Fields was experiencing financial hardship and Nwasike authorized him to dip into the account to cover his personal bills. Though it is not immediately clear how much of that money has been repaid to Keep God in America, the fact that Fields was in such dire financial straits calls the legitimacy of his $2,000 campaign contribution into serious question.

Jay and Jorgine Fields

Making matters worse, at the time the $2,000 check was given to Jorgine Fields, Keep God in America was still carrying several thousand dollars in unpaid bills.

When pressed to explain why the contribution was returned to Fields after questions were raised by the media, Ralston responds that the whole matter “had become a distraction to the campaign. It was in the best interests of the campaign, for Mr. Fields and all involved to move on.”

Ralston maintains that Fields was intended to serve only as a temporary treasurer for the campaign, and that his replacement by Marcus Brooks had nothing to do with the questionable movement of money from Keep God in America.

The $2,000 contribution was returned to Fields on June 30 and he was replaced as Treasurer on July 5, more than two months after the campaign account was originally opened.

Nwasike was formerly employed by Wachovia, but left that position to run full-time as a candidate for U.S. Congress in April.  He was founder of the now defunct Duval County Young Republicans and was appointed by Mayor Peyton to the Northwest Jacksonville Economic Development Fund's Board of Directors.  Nwasike is currently serving as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the entity, which is responsible for watching over the use of millions of dollars in public funds to provide capital for project development in some of Jacksonville's poorest neighborhoods.

Ferre addressed crowds in both Tallahassee and Amelia Island, laying out his support for the ballot measure.

"Unfortunately, money has corrupted our democracy, at all levels," said the former mayor. "At zoning councils, city and county commissions, regional and state levels, the humongous, overbearing, over-threatening, abuse of money is ever present. We the people don't always play on a level playing field and thus get the short end.

The majority of the state's newspapers, the AFL-CIO, the Florida Chamber and most of the state's elected officials are opposing the controversial amendment, which would require voters to participate in a ballot referenda for every change to a county's comprehensive land use plan.

A May 3-5 poll conducted by the Mason-Dixon Polling & Research firm revealed that of the 625 polled registered voters in Florida 61% supported the proposed amendment. It will need 60% in order to pass successfully.

Ferre is perhaps the highest profile public figure to come out in support of Amendment 4 to date.

"As a City of Miami Commissioner, Mayor for twelve years and later, a Metro-Dade County Commissioner, I saw the pattern repeat itself time and time again," said Ferre. "There must be a process that gives the special circumstance relief, but it is time to tighten the noose on rampant, unrestricted development in Florida."

Ferre has raised only about $200,000 for his U.S. Senate campaign to date, and he trails Kendrick Meek and Jeff Greene by a significant margin.

Former Miami Mayor and U.S. Senate candidate Maurice Ferre (blue shirt) speaks to supporters.

Sink became the second major gubernatorial candidate to release a comprehensive energy proposal following independent candidate Lawton “Bud” Chiles, who said last month that Florida power companies will produce 20 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources in a decade if he takes office next year.

Sink didn’t go that far Tuesday. Instead, she said she would study the long-sought renewable energy standard that environmentalists have unsuccessfully tried to push through the Legislature. Sink called an RPS “critical to providing investors with confidence in Florida's commitment to promoting a robust marketplace for renewable energy development,” echoing supporters she met with at last month’s Clean Energy Congress in Tallahassee.

But where Chiles said he was for a 20 percent increase by 2020, Sink hued close to her carefully cultivated penny-pincher image and raised issued of cost.

“She supports moving Florida toward adopting a Renewable Portfolio Standard that will not negatively impact ratepayers,” her campaign said while touting what she dubbed “the plan for Florida's New Energy Future.”

“To facilitate those efforts, Alex will create an RPS task force of all key stakeholders to review the experience of other states with RPS programs and recommend a strategy for Florida,” the campaign’s statement on the plan said.

The RPS was once vocally supported by current Gov. Charlie Crist, who cemented a reputation as one of the nation’s most environmentally-conscious Republicans when he signed an executive order calling for the 20 percent by 2020 mandate in his first year in office. But Crist, who has since bolted the GOP, never put any muscle behind the plan, and the Republican candidates to replace him have focused on hot-button issues with their party’s base, such as immigration and abortion.

Republican gubernatorial candidates Bill McCollum and Rick Scott have not made extensive proposals on the renewable mandate, even as supporters attempted to push lawmakers to include it in last week’s special session to consider a constitutional ban on offshore oil drilling. McCollum and Scott have only said they would not currently support new offshore oil drilling in Florida waters in the wake of the massive Gulf spill.

Speaking with vocal supporters of the RPS plan last month, Sink cautioned that eventually, a study won’t be enough.

“Ideas are not good if they only stay on a piece of paper. Ideas are not good if you produce a report that ends up on a shelf,” Sink said during a speech at the Clean Energy Congress. “The only ideas that are great ideas are the ideas that we, through effective leaders and good policy, make a reality. I commit to you to make your ideas into reality."

Though she remained hesitant about the top priority of the environmental lobby, the energy plan Sink unveiled Tuesday contained lots of other ideas. Among them are “public-private partnerships with Florida's research universities, industries and entrepreneurs to grow jobs for solar, biofuels and other clean technology industries” and seeking more federal money for clean energy and energy efficiency.

“By expanding public-private partnerships already being fostered through the state's research universities we can grow the clean energy sector and shrink Florida's reliance on fossil fuels,” her campaign said.  “Alex Sink will seek opportunities such as the ocean energy collaboration being considered by Florida Atlantic University, the State of Florida and US Department of Energy.  She will also push to expand opportunities for small-scale power generation through offering additional tax credits and other incentives for renewables.”
Sink said she would continue programs like the recently-approved bill to allow municipalities to issue bonds for energy efficiency, known as the Property Assessed Clean Energy bill. Differing from Chiles, Sink said she would also pursue expanded use of nuclear energy as governor, which Chiles said last month “there are lot of problems with.”

“There's disposal problems, there's insurance problems, there's siting problems,” Chiles said while touring the Florida Solar Energy Center in Cocoa Beach last month. “Before I would do (more) nuclear in Florida, I'd want to get serious about conservation, because if we can incent the utilities to do conservation we can save enough power that we don't have to build another coal plant. Nuclear's not going to create the jobs for Florida that doing conservation and renewable will."

Sink said after touring a separate solar company in Miami on Tuesday that she would “focus on the next generation of nuclear plants - smaller, modular reactors - that are being developed around the world.” She said also that she would push “smart-grid” technology that would allow electric consumers to better monitor their usage.

Some might be intimidated by the complex matters before the Florida Public Service Commission, which regulates electric and telephone companies in the state.

Not newly appointed Commissioner Art Graham.

Graham, a former Jacksonville City Councilmember and wastewater engineer by trade, told the News Service of Florida this week that he relishes digging into the PSC’s sometimes-dense subject matter.

“I’m big into problem-solving. That’s what drew me into politics,” he said in a telephone interview in between meetings with PSC staff. “The solution doesn’t always walk through the door. Sometimes you have to hammer it out.”

As a member of the five-member PSC, which comes under intense scrutiny when it weighs requests from the state’s investor-owned-utilities, there will be plenty for Graham to hammer out. One thing he is not trying to nail down, however, is the circumstances that led Gov. Charlie Crist to appoint him and former state Rep. Ronald Brisé to the panel earlier this month.

Crist appeared to bow to concerns raised by some lawmakers about a lack of diversity on the PSC by tapping Graham and Brisé, both black, to replace former PSC Commissioners David Klement and Benjamin Stevens.

“It’s a lot of inside baseball stuff that was beyond me,” Graham said. “I try to keep myself away from all that. I thought about going back and watching the tapes (of Klement and Stevens confirmation hearings), but I decided not to.”

What he missed was Klement and Stevens being voted off the panel by lawmakers. While race was mentioned – Klement and Stevens are white and the panel was all white at the time - others also noted that Klement and Stevens were part of a commission that voted to reduce rate increases for the state’s largest power companies. Consumer advocates howled that lawmakers had sided with influential utilities and Klement and Stevens became ratepayer-friendly martyrs.

Graham, who was praised by Crist upon his selection for being consumer-friendly too, vowed to be neither pro nor anti-ratepayer.

Jacksonville has a municipal utility that’s not regulated by the PSC in the way the investor–owned power companies are. That means Graham isn’t a consumer of the companies he will regulate.

“I’m not fighting rate increases or pushing rate increases because they don’t affect me personally. I don’t worry about having to answer to constituents and I don’t worry about having to answer to utilities,” Graham said. “I just look at the facts and do what the facts say.”

Graham is a native of suburban Atlanta, Ga. A full-time job at the PSC, which pays $130,036 a year, will be a sharp departure from elected offices he has held, but Graham said he would keep paying his electric bills on the First Coast.

“I’ll definitely be here during the week, but I don’t plan on moving my homestead from Jacksonville,” he said.

Graham said the possibility that he was appointed to the PSC because of his race did not bother him, especially since Brisé, a Haitian-American, was selected too.

“People (sometimes) want to be PC and pick somebody because they’re a woman or black or Hispanic, but then somebody can say you were just trying to fulfill a quota,” he said. “But if it’s not just one (selection), the governor just thought we were good choices.”

Graham also pointed out he has worked in the industries he will now regulate. Lawmakers had also criticized Klement and Stevens for not having backgrounds in the fields the PSC oversees.

Graham said the maelstrom of controversy that enveloped the PSC in 2009, in which staff and commissioners were accused of communicating improperly with utility officials, wasn’t something he thought much about.

“I try to come in with an open mind,” he said. I don’t know what happened in the past.”

Graham, who has already begun serving on the PSC, does not plan to have a formal investiture ceremony.

“For me it was enough to just put my hand on the Bible,” he said. “I didn’t go to the (graduation) ceremony in college. I just put in my hard work, said ‘thank you Lord and give me my degree.’”

He was lieutenant governor and a candidate for the Republican nod for Attorney General, trying to tell the conservative base why they should make him the nominee. Then his boss pulled the GOP rug out from under him.

Gov. Charlie Crist, Kottkamp's political partner, bolted from the Republican Party in late April to run for the U.S. Senate as an independent. And Kottkamp was left in the uncomfortable spot of having to continue to work with a man who left the party while convincing voters he was the ideal Republican candidate.

Kottkamp is trying to beat out former Hillsborough County prosecutor Pam Bondi and former Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Holly Benson for the nomination. Like the Democratic race though, voters remain largely undecided about who they will vote for in the August primary. A Florida Chamber of Commerce poll from June said 79 percent of voters were undecided.

Kottkamp does have a slight advantage over his opponents in that he is a little better known because of his current job. In that capacity, he runs the Children and Youth Cabinet, chairs the board of Space Florida and oversees the Governor's Office of Drug Control.

His job gives him some natural publicity, but he also needs to go campaign more, he said and “talk to people, let them know what's in my heart,” he said.

Prior to serving as lieutenant governor, Kottkamp served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2000 to 2006, where his tenure was largely marked by work on tort reform issues. Following his 1987 graduation from the University of Florida School of Law, he worked as a law clerk for two federal judges, a defense lawyer and a trial lawyer.

His career as a trial lawyer has also made the lieutenant governor a little more popular than many Republicans among that constituency, which typically backs Democrats. Kottkamp is quick to point out though that that doesn’t make him anti-business at all - he has represented a large slate of clients, defending clients such as Publix and other corporations and small businesses in lawsuits.

“It's not rhetoric, it's a record,” he told the News Service.

PRIORITIES IF ELECTED....

“One would be (to) carry on Gen. [Bill] McCollum's lawsuit to undo Obama-care,” Kottkamp said. “Two will be obviously dealing with the aftermath of the oil spill. And three would be challenging the EPA's imposition of water quality standards that would cause us to more than double our property taxes. And those are things that don't happen every year. So those are things that would have to be immediate priorities.”

WHETHER THE ATTORNEY GENERAL SHOULD BE AN ACTIVIST...

“I think that job one of government and job one of the attorney general is to keep the people safe,” he said. “It's working with law enforcement, working with a statewide view, a statewide plan of attack against crime, so we're not inefficiently using resources and we're all on the same page when we're going to get rid of pill mills or how we're going to attack cyber crime.”

ON THE ARIZONA IMMIGRATION LAW...

Kottkamp said he supports Republican Rep. Will Snyder's proposal to craft an Arizona-style immigration bill. But, he noted, Florida is a very different place than the southwestern state and his approach would be to sue the federal government to recoup costs the state incurs to “secure our borders.”

“I think that anybody that's critical of Arizona doesn't understand Arizona,” he said. “They don't understand that this very violent drug war has spilled over their borders and innocent people, innocent law enforcement officers, are being killed. And people are afraid to walk on their streets.”

Congress passed and President Obama signed legislation this week that extends federal jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed for another six months.

Florida’s extended benefit program, which pays up to 20 weeks of additional jobless benefits to people who have used up their regular benefits, which typically last up to 79 weeks. But that program expired in June in Florida when lawmakers declined to extend it during the regular session, leaving the state unable to take advantage of the new federal dollars being made available to the long-term unemployed.

Florida had an unemployment rate of 11.4 percent last month. In addition to about 250,000 people who will now be eligible for extended benefits between now and December because of Crist’s executive order, about 900,000 other unemployed Floridians already were set to get additional help because of the new law approved in Washington this week.

The cost of the supplemental benefits is paid by the federal government.

Democrats in Florida had urged Crist to either call the Legislature into another special session – lawmakers were in session one day this week but didn’t address the issue – or to issue an executive order to change the law to make the extra benefits available.

“Unemployed Floridians are struggling in this challenging economic climate, trying to figure out how to pay their bills and support their families,” said Crist, an independent. “We simply cannot desert the 250,000 Floridians who qualify for the extended federal assistance signed into law yesterday.”

Crist had been unsure earlier in the week whether he could unilaterally make the change or whether the Legislature’s approval was needed. House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, said Thursday that lawmakers would probably try to address the issue when they return for a special session next month or in September.

But Crist, who is running for U.S. Senate, said Friday he had determined he had a “constitutional duty” to authorize the use of available federal funds.

Advocates for the unemployed said they were pleased the governor acted, rather than waiting for lawmakers to return. People who have been out of work for months, and without unemployment benefits since June, will not only benefit, said Karen Woodall, an advocate for the unempoyed. “It’s businesses too – because that money gets spent and put into the economy,” Woodall said.

Crist’s executive order made the benefits retroactive to June 5 when the state law expired. They’ll continue through Dec. 4.

Agency for Workforce Innovation Secretary Cynthia Lorenzo said the state still needs guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor on some issues related to the newly approved benefits, but that the state should begin issuing checks within a couple weeks. The agency is mailing notices of the new eligibility dates to beneficiaries, Lorenzo said.