Puerto Rican Climate Refugees to Tilt Florida Politics

168,000

New York Times: “More than 168,000 people have flown or sailed out of Puerto Rico to Florida since the hurricane, landing at airports in Orlando, Miami and Tampa, and the port in Fort Lauderdale. Nearly half are arriving in Orlando, where they are tapping their networks of family and friends. An additional 100,000 are booked on flights to Orlando through Dec. 31… Large numbers are also settling in the Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach areas.”

Florida Is a State, Not a Place

serveimageOn his blog, Steve Shale, a veteran of decades of Florida politics, nails why Florida is a battleground state in this presidential election and why it’s especially problematic for pollsters and political insiders this year:

Most states are places. Think about Texas, or even a state like Iowa, there is a sense of place to it, a commonality of experience – or as marketers might say, almost a brand. Most states have it. Florida really doesn’t.”

“Florida isn’t a place in the same sense. It is a political circle, drawing 20 million people from vast, and I mean vast experiences and cultures into one spot. And almost everyone here has come from somewhere else.”

“Florida is the new Ellis Island, except our ships come as cars and planes, from inside the borders of the country, and outside. Over the next 15 years, we might add as many as 5 million more residents, grow to as much as 30% Hispanic, with a total population of well more than 50% coming from what are typically considered ethnic minorities.

Rubio Has Better Name Recognition in Florida than Bush

92%

Of Floridians who voted when Marco Rubio was last on the ballot, in 2010, are still registered, a Bloomberg Politics study conducted with University of Florida has found. By contrast, political scientist Daniel A. Smith found that nearly three-quarters of Florida’s 12.9 million currently registered voters have never even seen Jeb Bush’s name on a ballot.

Gaetz Says Tallahassee Looks Like Washington

We ought to wave a copy of the Constitution under everybody’s nose and say we have a constitutional obligation to pass a budget … If not, we’re Washington. We look like Washington.

— Florida Sen. Don Gaetz (R), on the Florida legislature closing its session three days early, sine die, with no date set for a special session to create a budget — the only legislative act required by the state’s constitution, the Tampa Bay Times reports.