Gelber: Crist in "right direction" on environment

State Rep. Dan Gelber, the minority leader in the House, was on WINZ 940AM this morning preparing to attend the environmental summit where Gov. Charlie Crist is to announce his plan to impose targets to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in Florida. Gelber said it will be "a very big first step in the right direction."

This is not just a Florida story: The NY Times writes it up today, noting the caveat that federal law may not permit Florida to depart from federal rules on auto emissions.

As we've been hearing for some time, the term-limited Gelber will run for the state Senate seat being vacated by Gwen Margolis, who is retiring after a laudable career as a Democrat in elected office. She was in the state House in 1974-1980 and the state Senate 1980-92, and was the first woman to serve as Senate president. After losing a race for the U.S. House of Representatives to E. Clay Shaw in 1992, she was elected to the Dade County commission, and then in 2002 she was elected again to the state Senate from the 35th district.

If you weren't up at 7:24 to listen, click this link to hear what Dan Gelber had to say on the Jim Defede Show.

Gelber: Seismic shift in politics

Gelber with DFAM members

Rep. Dan Gelber, minority leader in the state House of Representatives, said the proposed property tax amendment will “fail badly” in Miami-Dade County next Jan. 29.

Gelber spoke informally Sunday to a reception of Democracy For America Miami-Dade at the home of Bret Berlin, state committeeman, with about 20 people attending.

Among his points:

• Florida has been ruled by out-of-step right-wingers but now there’s a seismic shift in national and state politics.
• New Gov. Charlie Crist is good on felons’ rights and other issues. “I like him a lot.” He’s less of an ideologue than Jeb Bush.
• Where to claw back some revenue: in recent years $18 billion was given in tax concessions mostly to discreet companies and industries.
• Term-limited, Gelber may run in 2008 for the State Senate if Gwen Margolis decides to retire.

Blinded by Charlie’s light?

Some people seem to think that our Republican governor is such a mensch that everything will be OK. We’re forgetting that he had a running mate, and in fact while Charlie has been basking in approval, the other guy made quite a booboo. It was rumored for days in the blogosphere, and finally emerged into print in Thursday’s Miami Herald.

Here's a link to one of the blogosphere reports.

It was the Florida Progressive Coalition that did most of the detective work, so it gets an extra star for good effort.

Now, what's this about? The Republicans will claim some doofus ignorance about the "internets," as W says, or "the tubes," as the elderly Alaska senator for life says. But what was happening here was a little censorship. A Republican official (the lt. governor) editing out some unflattering personal information about himself. And doing it on a public forum where editing is only supposed to be done by qualified persons -- certainly not the subject of the critical item.