Gov. Jeb Bush makes a rare national media appearance this morning on ABC News' This Week with George Stephanopoulos, defending the fairness of Florida's election system, predicting victory for his brother and dismissing talk of his own presidential ambitions.
Bush also said he "absolutely" agrees with African-American leaders in Duval County who contend the elections office there should open more than one early voting location, according to a transcript.
Asked about the political effect of the hurricanes, the governor said his brother won a lot of goodwill from Floridians for his response, but that the storm could hurt Republican turnout.
"The hurricanes hit some places that are bedrock Republican areas, and these folks are really hurting," Bush said. "And a lot of people don't consider politics their first priority right now."
THE ACCOUNTING PROBLEMS are continuing with the Florida Democratic Party. Last month the party acknowledged to the St. Petersburg Times that it had to amend its federal campaign finance reports because of incorrect information. Now it turns out the party is still grappling with reporting problems going back three years.
The Federal Election Commission recently completed an audit of the Florida Democratic Party that found a slew of discrepancies and misstatements on federal reports for 2001 and 2002, many of them totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. The problems precede the arrival of Scott Maddox as party chairman, but he could still have to deal with the consequences. Other state parties have had to come up with hundreds of thousands of dollars to correct reporting violations.
THE KATHERINE HARRIS experience was a sobering reminder to Florida elections overseers to keep a safe distance from other people's partisan elections. But the elections supervisor in Brevard County, Fred Galey, has allowed his name to be listed on the host committee for a fundraiser for Mel Martinez's U.S. Senate campaign.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans is the headliner for the event, scheduled Tuesday at the Courtyard Marriott in Cocoa Beach ($100 a ticket, or $500 to attend a VIP reception).
Galey must oversee what everybody hopes will be a fair election, and he is one of three members of the county's canvassing board that would have to convene if the election is too close to call. This enthusiastic Martinez supporter sees no problem.
"It's okay," Galey said. "They wanted to use my name on the host committee. That's all it boils down to. I do my job as well as anybody and better than most."
VOTERS LOOKING FOR Betty Castor's Web site might end up somewhere they don't want to be.
The Web site www.castorforsenate.org is actually an anti-Castor site that provides three reasons to vote for her Republican opponent: Castor would vote to repeal the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, she supports human cloning and she "opposes all other common-sense restrictions to abortion."
Much of that is wrong, though.
Castor favors a partial birth abortion ban as long as it includes exceptions for the life and health of the mother, and she favors stem cell research but not for cloning.
Dan McLaughlin, Castor's spokesman, said the Web site is a front for her rival, Mel Martinez.
But Saint Gerard Productions has had the Web site up for about six months, even during the Democratic primary. Andrew Jaspers, listed as the contact, said he is looking at Senate races across the nation. He said the Castor Web site has received less response than usual at just 1,423 hits.
