NewsMax's Chris Ruddy rejects suggestion he run for GOP Senate nomination

Chris Ruddy, CEO of the influential West Palm Beach-based conservative publication NewsMax, has ruled out jumping into the 2012 GOP Senate race.

But the fact that Ruddy was encouraged to consider running by Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio ("flattering," says Ruddy) is a sign of how unsettled the contest is for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

Additional confirmation comes from last week's Quinnipiac University poll that showed 53 percent of Republican voters undecided in the Senate primary and Plant City tree farmer and retired Army Reserve Col. Mike McCalister leading the current four-candidate field with a meager 15 percent.

Trailing McCalister were former appointed Sen. George LeMieux (12 percent), former Ruth's Chris Steakhouse CEO Craig Miller (8 percent) and former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton (6 percent).

"This is a wide-open race for somebody with resources and a compelling message," says veteran GOP strategist Roger Stone, the Richard Nixon-tattooed operative who's been encouraging wealthy Delray Beacher Nick Loeb to get in the race. Loeb says he'll decide after his girlfriend, actress Sofia Vergara, gets past the Emmy Awards next month.

Ruddy was backing state Senate President Mike Haridopolos, who dropped out last month. Of the remaining candidates, Ruddy says, "I like George LeMieux and Adam. But I think there could be other candidates emerging, and I'm keeping an open mind."

Want to hear that story again? Voters can expect to hear some embarrassing reminders of recent Palm Beach County Commission history if commissioners put a question on the 2012 ballot asking voters to change constitutional officers such as the clerk, tax collector and elections supervisor from independently elected officials to commission appointees.

"Last count, three county commissioners in prison. How many constitutional officers are in prison?" Clerk and Comptroller Sharon Bock said at a county Democratic Party meeting Thursday, where Tax Collector Anne Gannon and Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher also spoke against making their offices answerable to the commission.

Former commissioners Tony Masilotti, Warren Newell and Mary McCarty have done federal prison time for corruption since 2007. A fourth former commissioner, Jeff Koons, pleaded guilty to state extortion charges last year and avoided jail time.

Parsing the ethics law: It depends on what the meaning of "business entity" is.

The Florida Ethics Commission recently found probable cause to believe that former Democratic state Rep. Kevin Rader of Delray Beach violated disclosure laws by not listing an interest in a limited liability company, Advanced Insurance Underwriters LLC, on his 2009 personal financial disclosure form.

In a response to the commission, one of the arguments made by Rader attorney Mark Herron is that the portion of Florida law dealing with financial disclosures says "'business entity' means any corporation, partnership, limited partnership, proprietorship, firm, enterprise, franchise, association, self-employed individual, or trust, whether fictitiously named or not, doing business in this state."

Herron contends it's "not clear that the term 'business entity' as used in Section 112.3145(5), Florida Statutes, includes a limited liability company."

Consistent with that interpretation, Herron notes that Rader did disclose his interest in Rader Insurance Inc., a corporation that owns stock in the LLC.

~ george_bennett@pbpost.com