The Buzz

Labor unions' new attack ad criticizes Marco Rubio's 'priorities'

Two liberal labor unions have teamed up to launch a new attack ad on Friday that criticizes Republican incumbent Marco Rubio's legislative "priorities" and casts him as out of touch with Floridians.

The ad from AFSCME People and AFT Solidarity accuses Rubio of favoring cuts to Social Security and Medicare and also says he "voted to slash school funding by billions of dollars and would eliminate the Department of Education."

MORE: "Fact-checking Democratic attacks on Marco Rubio's statements on Social Security and Medicare"

The 30-second spot will air in the Tampa and Orlando media markets through the end of the month, AFSCME PEOPLE said. AFCSME and AFT's political committees are jointly funding the $1.3 million ad buy. 

Both of the labor unions support Rubio's opponent, Democratic U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy. …

Trump adds Miami fundraiser to Tuesday schedule

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Donald Trump is raising money in Miami on Tuesday, his first of two fundraising events that day. He'll likely add campaign stops.

As Rubio blasts slumlord, Democrats accuse him of looking that other way

On the same day U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio was testifying before a U.S. Senate subcommittee about deplorable living conditions in government-subsidized housing he visited in three Florida cities, state Democrats were calling him out for not doing more to resolve the problem sooner and suggesting past campaign donations influenced him.

Early on Thursday, Rubio, a Republican, and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, testified that when they visited public housing properties owned by Global Ministries Foundation in Jacksonville, Orlando and Riviera Beach, they found crumbling staircases, exposed electrical wiring, damaged roofs and mold.

Both Rubio and Nelson blasted inspectors for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development which gave the complexes passing grades when the conditions suggested otherwise.

“These slumlords caused the problems but HUD has enabled it,” Rubio said during the hearing on Thursday. …

Patrick Murphy hires top Miami strategist to lead Hispanic outreach

With polls showing he remains largely unknown among Florida’s crucial Latino voters, U.S. Senate candidate Patrick Murphy hired a prominent Hispanic communications and strategy chief Thursday — just 47 days before the Nov. 8 election — to help him take on Sen. Marco Rubio.

Freddy Balsera will advise Murphy on Hispanic media, communications and outreach, the campaign said. Balsera, of Coral Gables, crafted President Barack Obama’s Hispanic TV and radio messaging campaign in 2008. He’s also a 2016 political analyst for the Miami-based Telemundo network.

“Patrick Murphy is not going to automatically assume that Marco Rubio is going to run away with the Hispanic vote simply because of his heritage and because he speaks Spanish,” Balsera told the Miami Herald in a phone interview. “Hispanic voters are quite sophisticated and informed. They’ve been paying attention to Marco Rubio for the past six years.” …

More mental health, campus security funding again a priority for Florida universities

The Florida Channel

The Florida State University System's Board of Governors met this week at New College of Florida in Sarasota, where they discussed legislative budget requests for lawmakers to consider in the upcoming 2017 session.

After the Florida Legislature failed to act on similar budget requests for this year, state university officials are once again asking for money to increase staffing levels and beef up resources for campus police forces and student counseling centers at Florida’s 12 public universities.

The public university system’s Board of Governors wants lawmakers to designate an extra $28.5 million for those efforts, $8 million more than the unfulfilled request they’d made for the current 2016-17 budget year.

But rather than asking for all the money at once, as they did for this year, officials plan to ask the Legislature to spread the dollars over two years — giving the universities time to hire more qualified police officers and counselors.

While meeting in Sarasota this week, the Board of Governors emphasized that additional dollars for mental health services and campus security is among their foremost priorities for the 2017-18 budget, which lawmakers will craft next spring.

Data show Florida’s university police forces and campus counseling centers are understaffed, officials have been saying for more than a year now.

More here.

Rick Scott directs $25M toward Zika vaccine research

In an unusual move, Gov. Rick Scott announced Thursday he'll use his emergency powers to direct $25 million from the state for Zika research.

The Florida Department of Health will dole out the money through a competitive grant for speeding up the development of a Zika vaccine and "innovative, cost-effective" methods to test for the virus.

Scott has traveled to Washington, D.C., to urge congressional action and routinely called out the federal government on cable news for failing to pass a Zika funding bill. On Thursday, he did the same.

"Every minute that passes that Congress doesn’t approve funding means more time is lost from researching this virus," Scott said in a statement. "For the sake of our state’s future children, this is time we cannot afford to waste."

The first cases of Zika spread by mosquitoes in the continental United States began this July in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood. …

PolitiFact Florida: Patrick Murphy attacks Marco Rubio for voting against gun ban for people on no-fly list

When U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio unveiled a gun safety bill Sept. 15, his Democratic rival for re-election attacked him for failing to support important gun safety legislation months earlier.

"After the tragedy in Orlando, Rubio used the deaths of 49 innocent Floridians to run for re-election while voting against every bill that would have helped keep our families safe," U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy said in a campaign statement. "He even voted against a bipartisan measure, introduced by a Republican, to prevent people on the no-fly list from purchasing guns."

Rubio, a Republican, has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association. Murphy has been endorsed by the Pride Fund to end Gun Violence, an LGBT group formed after the June 12 Orlando mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub.

Rubio voted for and against gun bills following the shooting, including those related to the no-fly list, a subset of the terrorist watch list. One vote was a procedural move against a Republican-sponsored compromise effort that failed.Full Story

College faculty, students vow to get high education into political discussion

Alarmed by the lack of discussion about higher education in state and national elections, college faculty and graduate students on Florida campuses are promising a big push to get the topic more on the radar of political candidates.

This week, an alliance of college professors, adjunct faculty and graduate assistance announced they are starting a aggressive statewide voter education effort that they hope will boost turnout in November and get candidates talking about conditions on college campuses.

“There is not really a conversation about higher education right now,” said Cheryl DeFlavis, an adjunct professor at Hillsborough Community College who is part of the effort called Faculty Forward.

Beyond calls for affordable tuition and helping reduce college debt, DeFlavis said there needs to be an effort to improve working conditions and pay for adjunct professors and graduate students.

It’s not just Florida either. The Faculty Forward project is on 45 campuses in 16 states with the help of SEIU, the Service Employees International Union, which is helping unionize adjunct professors and fight for higher wages. …

Hillary Clinton: Mosaic must be held accountable for sinkhole spill

The spill of 215 million gallons of contaminated water into a sinkhole at a Mosaic phosphate plant in Mulberry is hardly typical fare for a nationwide presidential campaign.

But with Florida a key battleground state, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has added her voice to those criticizing the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Mosaic for failing to notify the public about the recent spill.

In an interview with WFTS during her Wednesday campaign stop in Orlando, Clinton said Mosaic must be held accountable for the spill and be required to clean up the contamination.

“I think what happened as I understand it about Mosaic was terribly risky and posed serious threats to the aquifer and clean water,” Clinton said. “It went on for weeks without there being any kind of announcement.”

Mosaic workers discovered the spill Aug. 27 and informed the DEP and U.S. Environmental Protection agency one day later.

But it was only after the spill was reported in the media three weeks later that neighbors of the plant, many of whom use well water, learned of the spill. The water that drained into the hole is acidic and includes sulphur and sodium. …

Here are the Florida Chamber's legislative endorsements

“We believe these candidates will put Florida’s long-term future ahead of short-term fixes and will help ensure our state remains competitive,” said Marian Johnson, Senior Vice President of Political Operations for the staunchly Republican-leaning Florida Chamber of Commerce. “We are proud to support these candidates that we believe will help create jobs and economic opportunity in our state.” …

Florida poll: Trump up 1, Rubio up 9

Suffolk University, the pollster (we will never stop reminding you) who a month before Barack Obama won Florida and Virginia, stopped polling those states because concluded they were in the bag for Mitt Romney, has a new Florida poll showing Donald Trump with 45 percent support, Hillary Clinton with 44, Gary Johnson at 3 percent at Jill Stein at 1.

In the Senate race, Marco Rubio leads Patrick Murphy 43 to 34, and the medical marijuana ballot initiative has 67 percent support.

Poll: Clinton's lead among Hispanics smaller in Florida than in other battlegrounds

Hillary Clinton maintains a big advantage over Donald Trump among Florida Hispanics, according to a new poll.

Florida Atlantic University found Clinton ahead of Trump by 53-34 percent. That's a robust, 19-point margin that's nevertheless smaller than the once Clinton holds over Trump among Latinos in Colorado (51 points), Nevada (29 points), North Carolina (38 points) and Ohio (22 points). Florida Hispanics tend to lean less Democratic because older Cuban Americans are heavily Republican.

"Hispanics are one of the fastest growing populations in the United States. Republicans cannot continue to underperform with them and maintain a realistic ability to win some of these battleground states," Kevin Wagner, an FAU associate professor of political science, said in a statement. "The electoral map becomes increasingly difficult for Republicans if they cannot narrow these large margins." …