Sen. Jim Norman could still face fines for failing to disclose a $500,000 Arkansas home his wife purchased with the help of the late Tampa businessman Ralph Hughes, the Tampa Bay Times reported this weekend.

According to the paper, the Florida Commission on Ethics on Friday found probable cause to investigate his failure to disclose the home, but cleared the Senator of related conflict of interest complaints.

“All the serious charges were dropped and cleared, and I’m very happy about that,” Norman told the Times. “Basically it’s a reporting issue.”

This fall, the federal investigators closed a criminal probe and announced they would not bring charges. Friday’s hearing was not part of the commission’s public agenda and was not open to the public or the press.

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When the 2012 legislative session started, it would have been safe to predict that redistricting would be the most-difficult — and politically divisive — issue to resolve.

But with House votes Friday, the Republican-dominated Legislature is close to finalizing its redistricting plans. The maps likely will face court challenges from Democrats and other critics, but Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, praised what he described as a “careful, thoughtful and deliberative process.”

Supporters of resort casinos and prison privatization can only wish their proposals had moved so smoothly.

The controversial casino idea appears dead this session, after House sponsor Erik Fresen, R-Miami, decided Friday against taking his chances with a vote in the Business & Consumer Affairs Subcommittee.

Senate President Mike Haridopolos, meanwhile, had to put off a vote this week on privatizing prisons across the southern half of the state after running into bipartisan opposition.

A round-up via The News Service of Florida.

DISTRICTS COMING INTO FOCUS: House members voted along party lines Friday to pass legislative and congressional maps and send them back to the Senate for final approval next week.

Republican leaders said the maps follow constitutional requirements, including complying with a 2010 ballot initiative aimed at eliminating gerrymandering. They said, for example, the maps will lump some incumbent Republicans into the same districts and also split fewer cities and counties than in the past.

“At the end of the day, this decision is bigger than us, this map is bigger than us, the Constitution is bigger than any one of us,” said House Redistricting Chairman Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel.

But Democrats blasted the maps, saying they were designed to help elect Republicans and violate the 2010 ballot initiative, which was known as the Fair Districts amendment. The Democratic arguments also set the stage for a legal fight in the coming months.

“This vote by the GOP is nothing less than a slap-in-the face to the 63 percent of Florida voters who approved Fair Districts — the maps passed today by the Florida House are unconstitutional, pure and simple,” state Democratic Party Executive Director Scott Arceneaux said in a statement Friday. “They represent just the type of partisan gerrymandering and incumbent protection voters rejected in 2010.”

CASINOS BILL GOES OUT WITH A WHIMPER

For weeks, swarms of lobbyists and public-relations people waged a battle in Tallahassee about “destination” resort casinos. Meanwhile, folks at home turned on their TVs and saw ads touting – or criticizing — the proposed move into a new realm of gambling.

But after all of that, the issue appeared to die Friday without House members taking a vote.

House sponsor Fresen decided against having the Business & Consumer Affairs Subcommittee vote on the bill (HB 487), after it looked like the panel would reject it. Barring a miracle, that dooms the issue for the 2012 session.

The bill’s opponents, such as Florida Chamber of Commerce President Mark Wilson, praised the move.

“For all intents and purposes, today’s decision to postpone consideration of the gambling legislation is a decision to let what happens in Vegas stay in Vegas and frees up the Florida Legislature to address critical issues facing our state,” Wilson said in a prepared statement.

But supporters signaled they would keep working on the issue, which could come back next year.

“Private investment is critical to the health of our industry and our state’s economy, and we firmly believe that this great opportunity should not be put to the wayside,” said Carol Bowen, a vice president of Associated Builders and Contractors Florida East Coast Chapter. “It’s important that the conversation continues on this issue and the job-creating efforts in Florida never rest.”

PRISON PRIVATIZATION SHACKLED

Haridopolos and Budget Chairman JD Alexander have pushed since last year’s session to privatize prisons across the southern part of the state, arguing it would save money that could be used for other needs such as education.

But when Haridopolos brought the issue to the Senate floor this week, he ran into opposition from a coalition of Democrats and Republicans. That forced Haridopolos to twice postpone moving forward with the privatization bill, as he tried to gather enough votes to pass it.

The standoff intensified Wednesday, when Haridopolos stripped Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, of his role as chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Appropriations Subcommittee. Fasano has been perhaps the most-outspoken critic of the privatization plan.

Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, said he didn’t think Fasano was committed to making needed budget cuts, which includes the prison-privatization plan.

“I’m asking other budget chairmen to make difficult cuts,” Haridopolos said. “It became clear to me that Sen. Fasano was not willing to make those difficult cuts.”

But Fasano harshly criticized the decision and said he was standing up for the “little guy and gal.”

“No matter how big the bully in the schoolyard may be, if the loss of a chairmanship is the result of taking a stand for what is right, I wear that loss as a badge of honor,” Fasano said.

Haridopolos acknowledged this week what was obvious when the vote was postponed – the votes may not be there to pass it.

“It’s super-close,” he said. “There’s a good chance we could bring it up and not win.”

STORY OF THE WEEK: The proposal to allow up to three mega-resort casinos in Florida appeared to die, when the House sponsor pulled it from consideration in a House subcommittee. The subcommittee chairman and House Rules chairman both indicated the bill will not come up again this session in the House.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “It’s also a comfort today as I hear testimony and debate that I’m not the only one moving. I hope it will help the housing market in Florida, what we’re doing here today.”–Rep. Dennis Baxley, an Ocala Republican whose home was drawn into a district with another incumbent.

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From a new research paper in PS: Political Science & Politics:

“Many reformers continue to argue for a de-politicization of the redistricting process, claiming that partisan redistricting is responsible for declining electoral competition and increasing legislative polarization. Our analysis of evidence from state legislatures during the last decade suggests that the effects of partisan redistricting on competition and polarization are small, considerably more nuanced than reformers would suggest, and overwhelmed by other aspects of the political environment.”

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Mark Sharpe was prepared for the news Friday afternoon from Tallahassee.

He suspected the new political district maps for congressional and legislative races would pass the state House, and he knew what it would mean to his plan to run for Kathy Castor’s District 11 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

So he didn’t waste much time after the House approved the new maps 80-39, basically voting along party lines.

“I don’t like making formal statements or anything like that, but we’re working on something that will explain a likely suspension of our campaign, at least until the court rules on this,” said Sharpe, a Hillsborough County commissioner.

So there it goes. He said the official explanation will probably come next week.

Continue reading here.

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Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami, announced he was pulling back the bill (HB 487) as the House Business & Consumer Affairs Subcommittee listened to testimony from lobbyists, businesspeople and activists on both sides of the politically volatile issue.

While no final vote was taken, the subcommittee killed two relatively innocuous amendments. Fresen said later his decision to postpone consideration of the bill was a response to the “mood of the room.”

“I had a pretty good instinct that it was probably the right move,” he said.

Subcommittee Chairman Doug Holder, R-Sarasota, made clear to Fresen that the panel would not hear the bill again this year if he short-circuited the vote.

“There will be no opportunity to hear the bill before the 2013 session convenes,” Holder said.

A short time later, House Rules Chairman Gary Aubuchon, a Cape Coral Republican who plays a critical role in deciding which bills will be heard, issued a statement indicating that procedural moves also would not be allowed to revive the bill.

“As long as I am the chairman of the House Rules Committee, this bill will not be withdrawn from any committees and is dead for this year,” Aubuchon said.

It was not immediately clear how many lawmakers on the 15-member subcommittee supported the bill. But Ron Book, a lobbyist for Magic City Casino, a Miami pari-mutuel facility that fought the proposal, said he thought as many as 10 members opposed it before the meeting. Fresen said he did not know.

“I think if there had been a vote, it’s pretty clear it would have been defeated today,” said David Hart, an executive vice president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which was an influential opponent of the bill.

Jessica Hoppe, a senior vice president of Resorts World Miami, which wants to build a resort casino in Miami, said she doesn’t think the issue will “go away.” Supporters could try to get legislative approval in 2013 or take the issue to voters in the future as a constitutional amendment.

“Hopefully, we’ll be here in one form or fashion to bring destination resorts to Florida,” Hoppe said. Resorts World Miami is part of the Malaysian-based Genting Group, which also has other resort casinos.

The casino issue has spurred one of the biggest lobbying fights of the 2012 session, with proposals filed in the House and Senate. The Senate version, sponsored by Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, was approved by the Regulated Industries Committee last month but has not been heard again.

Under Fresen’s proposal, the state would allow up to three “destination” resort casinos in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, with each project costing at least $2 billion to develop. Each of the casinos would have to be approved in local referendums.

More broadly, however, Fresen said the bill was aimed at trying to get better control of gambling in the state. As an example, the bill would revoke pari-mutuel permits for facilities that don’t currently operate and would bar the state from issuing new permits.

Fresen also proposed banning Internet cafes, which have popped up throughout the state in recent years. Critics say those businesses use a loophole to offer computerized games that are similar to slot machines, though the Internet café industry says it offers legal sweepstakes-style games.

Associated Industries of Florida and parts of the construction industry have been major supporters of the resort-casino idea, saying it would create tens of thousands of desperately needed jobs.

“On Main Street, people are wondering what Tallahassee is going to do today,” carpenters union official Miguel Fuentes told the subcommittee Friday in arguing for the bill.

But the bill faced an influential collection of opponents, including the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association, law-enforcement groups, religious conservatives and the three state Cabinet members. The chamber and the restaurant and lodging association, for example, argued the proposal could hurt existing businesses and damage Florida’s family-friendly tourism brand.

Also, parts of the pari-mutuel industry lobbied against the bill. South Florida pari-mutuels particularly were concerned they could be hurt by resort casinos that would be able to offer a broader range of games, such as blackjack and craps.

“We fear we would have gone out of business and probably quickly,” said Izzy Havenick, a vice president of Magic City Casino, which is about two miles from the site where Resorts World Miami wants to build a facility.

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About that proposed open congressional seat in Pasco County? It lasted about a week.

Florida’s House Redistricting Committee switched gears Friday, approving a new congressional map that shifts the state’s 12th District farther west.

“This map has big political ramifications for Pasco County,” Rep. John Legg said. “To my disappointment, the map includes north Pinellas and northwest Hillsborough, but it picks up Palm Harbor. It’s pretty much everything in Pinellas north of Tampa Road, which puts it in (U.S. Rep. Gus) Bilirakis’ seat.”

A week earlier, the committee endorsed a map that contained only a small segment of Pinellas (East Lake) and would have stretched as far east as Lutz. Two-thirds of the district’s population would live in Pasco.

Bilirakis has served three terms in Congress and has raised more than $334,500 for his re-election in 2012.

Both Legg, R-New Port Richey, and Redistricting Committee Chairman Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, voted for the new map. “This was a compromise that was reached with the Senate,” Legg said. “We voted for it. It was a strict party-line vote. But it wasn’t my first choice. It wasn’t even my second choice. It was a solid C choice.”

In the latest version, scheduled for a House vote Friday, the 12th District loses voters in Lutz and Carrollwood but picks them up in Oldsmar, Palm Harbor and Tarpon Springs.

“Now it will cause Gus Bilirakis to run in a district that’s two-thirds Pasco,” Legg said.

Continue reading here.

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Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, said Thursday the Senate’s soon-to-be-released budget allocations — big-picture numbers showing how money will be divided among different parts of the budget — will not require as deep of health and human-services cuts as expected earlier. Negron had anticipated proposing $850 million in general-revenue cuts.

Negron, who is expected to release his budget plan next week, said he will not propose Medicaid rate reductions for nursing homes or cuts in Agency for Persons with Disabilities programs. He also said he wants cuts in hospital Medicaid rates to be a “last resort” — after the rates were cut about $510 million last spring.

But other programs could face major changes. Negron said his proposal will include significant savings from moving many Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled in what is known as the “MediPass” program into HMOs or other managed-care plans.

The state considers MediPass as a form of managed care, at least in part because primary-care doctors provide case-management services to Medicaid beneficiaries. But unlike with HMOs, the state pays for treatment based on each service provided — a fee-for-service system that Republican leaders blame for higher Medicaid costs.

Negron’s proposal likely would eliminate MediPass in counties where there are at least two choices of Medicaid managed-care plans. Negron’s Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee received information in November that such a change could affect more than 400,000 beneficiaries in 31 counties and offers potential savings of $87 million a year.

The shift of MediPass beneficiaries also could be an interim step, as the state seeks federal approval to eventually move to a statewide Medicaid managed-care system. Nevertheless, such a shift likely would face opposition from advocacy groups who argue beneficiaries should not be forced into HMOs.

Negron’s budget proposal also is expected to call for cuts in substance-abuse and mental-health treatment programs for adults. Negron has long questioned whether such programs are a spending priority when the state is making cuts elsewhere in health and human services.

The $390 million in general-revenue cuts would result in many programs losing federal matching money, so the actual effects of the cuts would be deeper.

The allocation, however, would bring the Senate closer to the House’s overall level of proposed health- and human-services cuts, though it appears the chambers would need to resolve key differences. As examples, the House’s budget proposal calls for a 7 percent rate reduction for hospitals and would avoid cuts in mental-health and substance-abuse programs.

The proposed cuts stem from a budget shortfall that, by some estimates, is as much as $2 billion for the upcoming 2012-13 fiscal year. Republican leaders have chosen to make cuts, as opposed to looking for additional tax dollars to close the shortfall.

Also, health and human services programs could get squeezed in the budget because Gov. Rick Scott and legislative leaders want to increase spending on public schools.

Three Democratic lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Nan Rich, appeared with members of health-care and teachers unions during a news conference Thursday to call on Republicans to close corporate tax loopholes to bring in additional money.

Rich, D-Weston, argues that Republicans are pitting education against health care and said they offer a “false choice.”

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As long as the Republican National Committee doesn’t accept a pending challenge to the winner-take-all rule for Florida’s primary by the campaign of former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who lost Tuesday’s primary to Romney by double digits. Fox News reported Thursday (via The News Service of Florida) that Gingrich campaign officials were going to launch a challenge to the new delegate allocation rules.

The Gingrich campaign says Florida’s decision to award all of its delegates to the winner of the race violated RNC rules. The RNC said it doesn’t think it can now tell Florida how to divvy up its delegates. Even a Gingrich campaign memo given to Fox News suggests that the matter is “unclear.”

Speaking on Fox, Gingrich backer and former Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum conceded that the Gingrich campaign wouldn’t have complained had it won Florida and been awarded all 50 delegates.

“But Romney would be,” he said. “You’ve got to realize that whoever was going to lose is going to make this challenge.”

The RNC and the Republican Party of Florida have said repeatedly that Florida will be a winner-take-all state, and RPOF Chairman Lenny Curry reiterated that stance in a statement issued Thursday.

“Florida was winner take all before Election Day, we were winner take all on Election Day, we will remain winner take all. … It is a shame when the loser of a contest agrees to the rules before, then cries foul after losing,” Curry said.

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

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Well, the circus has left town.

With the GOP primary over, the presidential campaigns and the national media have moved onto the next state.  So it’s back to local politics for a moment.  And here’s where shit stands.

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St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster chatted me up last week after asking “Should I really read your blog? My wife reads it and then asks me ‘Why does Peter hate you?’

Aww, come on now, I don’t hate the Mayor.  He’s my fraternity brother, after all. I just like to ask about the road not traveled.

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Anyone who talks of a falling out between Rep. Jeff Brandes and Sen. Jack Latvala simply doesn’t know what they’re talking about. I’ll leave it at that.

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If Charlie Crist were going to run for Governor in 2014, appearing on a slew of national news programs to discuss Tuesday’s GOP primary is exactly what he should have done.

But…

If Charlie Crist were not going to run for Governor in 2014 and instead remain a well-liked public figure who brings positive attention to his employers and business associates, appearing on a slew of national news programs to discuss Tuesday’s GOP primary is exactly what he should have done.

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After being stripped of his committee chairmanship yesterday, Senator Mike Fasano is much closer to running for the State House than  he was before the incident, two sources close to the senator tell me.  If he does, Fasano would run for the seat currently occupied by Rep. John Legg, who is term-limited.

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There’s a good reason why Shawn Foster won’t be running for the seat on the Pasco County Commission vacated by Ann Hildebrand: he’s in talks to join powerhouse lobbying firm Southern Strategies to open an office in Tampa, where he’d partner with friend-of-SaintPetersBlog Laura Boehmer to focus on the burgeoning local lobbying business.

While I’m sorry to see Shawn not run, this is a win-win for both he and Southern Strategies.

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I peg the likelihood of Rep. Rick Kriseman running for Mayor of St. Petersburg in 2013 at 66%.  But I put the likelihood of a strong Republican running in 2012 for Kriseman’s legislative seat at 100%.  Look for an announcement from at least one game-changing candidate in as soon as the next couple of days.

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Although she adamantly denies it, Janet Long has been given a not-so-gentle recommendation from her bosses at the Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions to fish or cut bait about running for the County Commission.  Expect a decision from Long about whether she will run against Neil Brickfield in the upcoming weeks.

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Far, far right-winger David McKalip, the local surgeon who made national headlines because of his forwarding of a racist email about Barack Obama, is threatening promising to run for the St. Pete City Council in 2013. Not surprisingly, McKalip has already handed his opponent a sledgehammer with which to bludgeon him.

In a post on his actually-interesting blog, McKalip weighed in on the controversy surrounding the redevelopment of the St. Petersburg Pier.  What was McKalip’s solution? He suggests that “the rights to the pier were sold to a private developer…”

I’m sure I don’t know what the best answer is for the St. Petersburg Pier, but I am also sure any candidate who suggests selling off the rights to The Pier is not going to make it far in city politics.

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Every Democrat I talk to tells me Bill Nobles is dropping his challenge to Rep. Jeff Brandes for a seat in the Florida House.  Now, why would they say such things? Perhaps because Nobles raised a whopping $20 during the final quarter of 2011. What I can’t figure about that $20 is why Nobles even bothered to raise that; why not just raise nothing, submit a waiver and take the high-ground by claiming you’re not taking political contributions?

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Pinellas Democrats have Alan Grayson slated to speak at their Kennedy King Dinner on March 10.  The theme of the dinner is “Democrats – serving our communities at the local level.”

The dinner will be co-chaired by Reps. Rick Kriseman and Darryl Rouson and Commissioner Ken Welch, and will honor the many Democrats that serve in their local city and town governments.

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No official word yet, but Pinellas Republicans are said to have US Senator Marco Rubio slated as their keynote speaker for their Lincoln Day Dinner, the party’s annual major fundraiser.

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Ken Welch had a decent campaign kick-off event last week.  The crowd really reflected Welch’s post-partisan persona with Chamber of Commerce folks mixing with activists from Midtown.  Even former Governor Charlie Crist was in the crowd, as was St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster (who sat down to chat with me and Michelle).

Be sure to read our conversation with County Commissioner Ken Welch here.

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As Florida lawmakers toss terms such as “parent empowerment” and “teacher protection,” the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association wants to refocus the debate, reports the Gradebook.

The union plans to rally at two major Pinellas intersections — N. McMullen-Booth Rd. at State Road 580 in Clearwater, and 38th Avenue North at 4th Street in St. Petersburg – at 4 p.m. Thursday “calling on the Florida Legislature to end legislative trickery and get to the real business of funding education to Make Our Schools a Priority!”

“Florida’s budget problems are the result of an unfair tax system riddled with special interest tax loopholes designed to ensure that the biggest corporations and the richest of the rich don’t pay their fair share. All of these devastating changes to our public schools are the direct result of Rick Scott and Tallahassee politicians rewarding their political backers in a shameful “pay to play” scam that will devastate our public schools, in every Florida community, and cost taxpayers billions in exclusive special interest contracts.”

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