You knew it was coming, and here it is.
Top GOP fundraiser Mel Sembler has contributed $100,000 to Drug Free Florida, a political action committee formed to oppose the medical marijuana initiative on November's ballot.
The Tampa Tribune's William March reports that the group is headed by another St. Pete resident, Carlton Turner of St. Petersburg, who served as a former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan for drug abuse policy. And the treasurer is Robert Watkins, the chairman of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority.
Drug Free America's debut comes just a few days after 63 of the state's 67 sheriffs came out in opposition to the medical pot measure. But according to United for Care, the group pushing for the initiative, they have some of their facts wrong.
In a statement released yesterday, the group claims the Florida Sheriffs Association "cherry picked statistics in order to present a thoroughly distorted picture," such as the allegation that of the 20 states with the highest driver acknowledgment of drugged driving, 15 were states that had legalized pot. But United for Care says that, according to a study of such figures over the past 20 years by the Journal of Law and Economics, "traffic fatalities have not only not risen, they've declined by 8-10% in states that have approved medical marijuana laws in the first full year after those laws came into effect." They also take exception to other statements the group made, concluding that "we encourage members of the Sheriffs Association to read the actual ballot language rather than resort to scare tactics. Floridians deserve better."
In other news… Tampa state Senator Arthenia Joyner is getting slammed for quashing a popular measure in the Legislature that would have reformed Hillsborough County's Civil Service Division. Although her maneuver was totally within the rules (and may have been the right call on a policy level), it's another reason to believe Tallahassee is dysfunctional and not answerable to the people.
Charlie Crist will team up with Bill Clinton in Miami Beach next week. To mark the occasion, the Republican Party of Florida trotted out some vintage Crist footage circa 1998 bashing the former president for the Monica Lewinsky affair.
And as Floridians (and Americans) continue the trend of voting in advance of Election Day, Hillsborough County's Supervisor of Elections, Craig Latimer, showed off to the media how he's about to prepare Vote by Mail ballots. In 2012, over 30 percent of voters cast their ballots this way.
