Bøger i Florida Government and Politics serien

This brief review of the evolution of redistricting standards, processes, and outcomes underscores the importance of scholarship examining the dynamics of each redistricting cycle. Jigsaw Puzzle Politics in the Sunshine State, edited by Seth C. McKee, chronicles the redistricting controversies that emerged during the 2012 cycle.

Goes behind the scenes to examine the history and impact of the 1966-68 revision of the Florida state constitution. With storytelling flair, Mary Adkins uses interviews and detailed analysis of speeches and transcripts to vividly capture the moves, gambits, and backroom moments necessary to create and introduce a new state constitution.

"e;Addresses fascinating aspects of obtaining justice in Florida: both historical court systems before Florida became a state and alternative courts operating within Florida now. Anyone with an interest in the diversity of Florida's legal past and present will find this book invaluable."e;--Mary E. Adkins, author of Making Modern Florida: How the Spirit of Reform Shaped a New State ConstitutionPushing past the standard federal-state narrative, the essays in Florida's Other Courts examine eight little-known Florida courts. In doing so, they fill a longstanding gap in the state's legal literature.In part one, the contributors profile Florida's courts under the Spanish and British empires and during its existence as a U.S. territory and a member of the Confederate States of America. In part two, they describe four modern-era courts: those governing military personnel stationed in Florida; adherents of specific religious faiths in Florida; residents of Miami's black neighborhoods during the waning days of Jim Crow segregation; and members of the Miccosukee and Seminole Indian tribes.Including extensive notes, a detailed index, and a complete table of cases, this volume offers a new and compelling look at the development of justice in Florida.

In 1992, Florida voters approved an amendment to the state's Constitution creating eight-year term limits for legislators-making Florida the second-largest state, after California, to implement such a law. Eight years later, sixty-eight term-limited senators and representatives were forced to retire, and the state saw the highest number of freshman legislators since the first legislative session in 1845.Proponents view term limits as part of a battle against the rising political class and argue that limits will foster a more honest and creative body with ideal "e;citizen"e; legislators. However, in this comprehensive twenty-year study, the first of its kind to examine the effects of term limits in Florida, Kathryn DePalo shows nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, these limits created a more powerful governor, legislative staffers, and lobbyists. Because incumbency is now certain, leadership races-especially for Speaker-are sometimes completed before members have even cast a single vote. Furthermore, legislators rarely leave public office; they simply return to local offices, where they continue to exert influence.The Failure of Term Limits in Florida is a tour de force examination of the unintended and surprising consequences of the new incumbency advantage in the Sunshine State.

For nearly a century in Florida and throughout the South, election to the United States Senate virtually guaranteed a lifetime position, especially if you were a Democrat. Certainly no Republican candidate stood a chance in the general election, and it was nearly unthinkable to imagine a serious challenger emerging in the primary.Claude "e;Red"e; Pepper first ran for the U.S. Senate in 1934. Though unsuccessful, despite allegations of voter fraud, he won a special election two years later after both senators from Florida died in office. Reelected to full terms in 1938 and 1944 as a vigorous supporter of the New Deal, he had every reason to suspect the seat was his indefinitely--or at least until he decided it was time to seek higher office.Pepper saw himself as the national heir to Roosevelt's foreign policy; he encouraged cooperation with the Soviet Union, our World War II ally, and actively worked to defeat Truman's presidential nomination in 1948. After nearly fourteen years in office, Pepper had earned the enmity of the president, alienated most of his colleagues in the senate, and aligned himself with the ultra-left-wing politics of Henry Wallace. Still, in the entire history of the state, no sitting Florida Senator had ever been voted out of office. However, the political world was changing, and it was the right-leaning "e;Gorgeous"e; George Smathers, not Pepper, who recognized and took advantage of this fact.Smathers fought a vicious, bare-knuckled campaign, employing ferocious and divisive attacks against Pepper. He helped make "e;iberal"e; anathema to aspiring southern politics, and was the first of a new breed of conservative politicians--though not yet Republican--to rise to power. Eventually the era would be named for a junior senator from Wisconsin, but it was Smathers who first successfully employed the strategies of McCarthyism to unseat an incumbent.He was so successful, in fact, that before the general election Smathers had to reassure President Truman and other potential supporters that his loyalties did, in fact, lie with the Democractic Party. His resounding victory inspired others--including Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater--to adopt similar tactics in their senatorial campaigns. It also helped set the stage for the complete reversal of the political power structure that had ruled the South since the end of Reconstruction.Red Pepper and Gorgeous George is a fascinating look at the campaign that changed everything in Florida--and the South. It is also a shocking, sobering reminder that, despite introducing the phrase "e;hanging chad"e; to the national lexicon, the 2000 presidential election was merely the second most important national election to take place in the state.

Against the backdrop of the Tea Party-dominated GOP, former Florida governor Jeb Bush may appear comparatively moderate, but his record tells a different story. In Conservative Hurricane, Matthew Corrigan probes beyond the mild veneer, the sound bites, and the photo ops to examine the real evidence of Bush's political leanings-his policies, politics, and legacy as the state's most powerful governor.After remaking himself from a strident ideologue into a restrained conservative policy wonk, Bush became Florida's first two-term Republican governor. The small-government conservative-who in his second inaugural address dreamed of an idyllic Tallahassee free of government employees-was unstoppable. He presided over the largest accumulation of executive branch authority in the state's history and advanced a multitude of social and economic reforms, the effects of which are still felt in the Sunshine State today. It was the beginning of a new kind of conservative activism, one that has only gained strength in the years since Bush left office.From the culture wars to the management of state government, Corrigan examines the governor's indelible mark on Florida. He demonstrates how the issues most closely associated with Bush's leadership, including education reform, end-of-life decisions, and gun rights, would guide Republican governors in other states as they rode the rising tide of conservative populism.For anyone curious about a potential Jeb Bush presidency, this book is required reading.

"e;Saves a piece of Florida political history by narrating the personal stories of the state's 'minority trailblazers' from the Civil Rights Movement to the present day."e;--Richard E. Foglesong, author of Immigrant Prince: Mel Martinez and the American Dream"e;Captures Florida's ongoing political transition from a 'yellow-dog,' lily-white state to one where diversity is beginning to make an impact on politics."e;--Doug Lyons, former senior editorial writer, South Florida Sun-SentinelFlorida experienced a population surge during the 1960s that diversified the state and transformed it into a microcosm of the nation, but discrimination remained pervasive. With the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, along with later rulings on redistricting and term limits, the opportunity to participate in government became more and more possible for previously silenced voices. Drawing primarily from personal interviews, Susan MacManus recounts the stories of the first minority men and women--both Democrat and Republican--who were elected or appointed to state legislative, executive, and judicial offices and to the U.S. Congress since the 1960s. She reveals what drove these leaders to enter office, how they ran their campaigns, what kinds of discrimination they encountered, what rewards each found during their terms, and what advice they would share with aspiring politicians. In addition to the words of the officeholders themselves, MacManus provides helpful timelines, photos, biographical sketches of each politician, and election results from path-breaking victories. The book also includes comprehensive rosters of minority individuals who have held state offices and those who have gone on to represent Florida in the federal government. Full of inspiring stories and informative statistics, Florida's Minority Trailblazers is an in-depth rendering of personal struggles--guided by opportunity, ambition, and idealism--that have made Florida the vibrant, diverse state it is today. Susan A. MacManus is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Government and International Affairs at the University of South Florida and the coauthor of Politics in Florida and Politics in States and Communities.A volume in the series Florida Government and Politics, edited by David R. Colburn and Susan A. MacManus