A federal judge has denied Libertarian Adrian Wyllie the opportunity to participate in tonight's statewide televised debate between Governor Rick Scott and Charlie Crist at Broward College at 7 p.m. (locally airing on WFTS-Ch.28). Wyllie is naturally upset, and suggests that a conspiracy is the reason why the Florida Press Association worked to keep him out.
Wyllie claims that the FPA, one of the hosts of the debate along with Leadership Florida, moved the goalposts on him, telling him earlier this year that he needed 12 percent support in the polls to participate, and then moving it up to 15 percent, which no poll shows him attaining.
Now Wyllie is calling into question the relationship between Dean Ridings, president of the FPA, the Democratic Party "and possibly Charlie Crist." He bases these claims on the relationship between FPA, Intersect Media Solutions, and a well-known Democratic consulting firm, Greer, Margolis, Mitchell and Burn ( aka GMMB). Intersect Media Solutions is owned by the FPA's for-profit company, Florida Press Services.
GMMB has done a lot of work with the Democratic Party of Florida and Charlie Crist.
Wyllie says that in this election cycle alone, GMMB has been paid $6,455,903.22, with $1,888,859.67 coming from Charlie Crist, $4,101,653.40 from the Democrat Party of Florida and $465,390.15 coming from SEIU of Florida. "While it is unclear if GMMB used Intersect Media Solutions for either Charlie Crist or the Democrat Party of Florida in this year's gubernatorial election, it is clear that Intersect Media Solutions does and has profited from the Democrat Party and its candidates."
"At this point, given the circumstantial evidence of an incestious, multi-million-dollar relationship between Dean Ridings, GMMB, and Charlie Crist, I have to call into question whether this was the ultimate reason for my exclusion in the debate," said Wyllie. "It is clear to me now that when Ridings set the debate criteria specifically to exclude me, it was not based on public interest — it was based on personal profit motive."
The bottom line is you'll just be watching Scott and Crist tonight, but no Wyllie. And that's too bad for all of us.
In other news..
St. Petersburg will begin using funds collected from parking meters to pay for the homeless, as CL's Terrence Smith reports.
A Sunshine State Survey shows the Florida electorate to be truly purple, with support for same-sex marriage, medical pot and more gun laws, but against breaks for undocumented immigrants, and against repeal of Stand Your Ground or the death penalty.
Dwight Dudley is going after Duke Energy again. The St. Petersburg Democrat, locked in a tight battle for re-election, introduced legislation to mandate that electric utility companies in the state perform audits on customer accounts, and charge those customers the most advantageous rate, thereby potentially saving homes, businesses and institutions like churches millions of dollars per year.
And when Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Annette Taddeo said Monday that Bright Futures scholarships should be based as much on financial need as on merit, her statement didn't seem too radical, but the Republican Party of Florida says that the Crist camp is saying in effect that it's "the end of the Bright Futures Scholarship program as we know it."
This article appears in Oct 9-15, 2014.