Backroom Briefing: Happier close to home
By JIM SAUNDERS, LLOYD DUNKELBERGER AND JIM TURNER
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, October 27, 2016.......... As the old saying goes, all politics is local.
And a new statewide survey indicates Floridians are happiest with the politicians closest to home.
Results released this week from the annual USF-Nielsen Sunshine State Survey show that residents give their best ratings to city and county governments, followed by state government and then the federal government.
The survey found that 42 percent of Floridians said their city governments did a good or excellent job of serving the public and that 43 percent felt that way about their county governments. Only 12 percent said their city governments did a poor job, while 14 percent said that about their county governments.
But people aren't quite as pleased with Tallahassee. The survey said 29 percent of Floridians thought state government does a good or excellent job of serving the public. Nearly the same number, 26 percent, said it did a poor job.
As might be expected, however, the federal government does the worst in the eyes of Floridians. Only 24 percent said the federal government does a good or excellent job of serving the public, while 37 percent said it does a poor job.
The survey of 1,248 people was conducted from Sept. 1 to Sept. 19 and has a margin of error of 2.77 percentage points.
IT'S A BIRD, IT'S A PLANE …
Is Florida ready to ease off on its ban on the use of drones by the government?
That concept took flight this week, when the state Cabinet endorsed a legislative proposal from Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Executive Director Terry Rhodes to set up a pilot program that would use unmanned aerial devices to help manage traffic crashes. Gov. Rick Scott abstained from the vote since he is developing his own state budget proposal.
Rhodes said the drones, which would be used in a one-year to 18-month test period if approved by the Legislature, would not be used to issue speeding tickets or to find other legal violations.
The proposal came as the USF-Nielsen survey showed Floridians are already uneasy about the state's regulation of drone use by private citizens.
More than half of the respondents -- 54 percent -- said the state was doing either a fair or poor job of regulating private drone use. Another quarter -- 24 percent -- did not have an opinion, "most likely because of a lack of knowledge," the Sunshine State Survey said.
Twenty-two percent said the state was doing a good or excellent job of private drone regulation.
But public sentiment is not likely to be the thing that keeps government drones grounded in Florida. The drone proposal will only soar if it gets the backing of incoming Senate President Joe Negron, a Stuart Republican who was the key sponsor of a 2013 law that prohibits the use of unmanned aerial vehicles by law enforcement for surveillance and evidence gathering.
The law limits the use of automated surveillance aircraft by law enforcement unless a judge issues a warrant, there is a "high risk of terrorist attack" or officials fear someone is in imminent danger.
"It's important that, as American citizens, we respect the role of law enforcement," Negron said when Scott signed the bill in 2013. "But we just don't want a general practice of drones hovering in the sky monitoring the activities of lawful Floridians."
A LITTLE GLAMOUR DURING THIS ELECTION
Maybe we're just getting punchy as the end of the election approaches, but we couldn't overlook a piece that got plenty of social media play this week.
We're of course talking about Glamour magazine's report, "Patrick Murphy, Congress's #1 Male Feminist, Is Running for Senate to Protect Women's Rights."
The 3,000-word interview-style report, interspersed online with ads for Amazon, Buick and Victoria's Secret and edited for "length and clarity," highlights Murphy's "campaign on stalwart progressive ideas like combating climate change, overturning Citizens United, enacting campaign finance reform, and protecting women's health care."
The Florida Democratic Party and ProChoiceAmerica.org made sure the story found its way into email inboxes of supporters of the Jupiter Democrat, who is running for U.S. Senate.
But the report also drew a rebuff from the Republican-backing Senate Leadership Fund, which tagged its announcement, "NOT THE ONION: Florida Groper Who's Soft on Domestic Violence Named Glamour's 'No. 1 Male Feminist.' "
The fund was linking the Glamour piece with a Facebook photo that Republicans have used as Murphy criticizes his opponent, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, for supporting GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.
In the photo, Murphy is sitting alongside a woman with a few fingers of one hand close to her breast. Murphy, 33, said the photo was of him out with a college girlfriend.
TWEET OF THE WEEK: "Hillary has gone to more concerts during this campaign than I have in the last ten years. #INeedToGetOutMore" --- Miami television newsman Jim DeFede (@DeFede) after it was announced Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton would join Jennifer Lopez at a get-out-the-vote performance Saturday in Miami.
