Marco Rubio had a good week, but Florida Power & amp; The light did not.
C.C. “Doc” Dockery was a successful businessman who was influential in politics, especially in the Republican Party. He was a staunch advocate of railroads and we worked together on Summit Consulting.
And he walked leisurely with the mighty, and they sought his wisdom.
At heart, however, Doc was a Polk County native who loved everyday people and listening to their stories. He loved to hunt, fish, travel and enjoy the peace of the day by the lake. Doc never sought the light, but he never ran from it, either.
He died last week at the age of 89, and the complications of his good life will continue for countless years.
But this is also a love story, seen through the lens of his wife of 33 years, former state GOP Sen. Paula Dockery.
“It was the last version, I think,” she told me. “He was my role model, mentor and friend. Men loved him because he was a gentleman and women loved him because he was kind. Women told me he was the best chest, and, yes, he was.
“He was a very private person, a very humble person, and he had the moral core of serving the community to serve the people. He became disillusioned with politics because it became a lonely place. ignoring the wishes of the electorate.”
Their story began when Paula went to Charles E. Canady to enter politics. Canaday, at the time, was Chief of Staff for then-U.S. Sen. Lawton Chiles.
“He said, ‘I can get you on Bob Graham’s staff,'” Dockery said. “I said, well, I never told you this, but I’m a Republican. He said, oh, in that case, you need to see Doc Dockery.”
She was going through a divorce, and when she told Doc that, he responded with his trademark wisdom.
“He looked at me and said, ‘As someone who has gone through a divorce, I can offer no congratulations or condolences.’ I thought, wow, this guy understands,” Paula said.
After being married for about seven years, Paula said she wanted to run for public office. Doc had other plans at the time – travel, mostly. She tried to tell him that being a state MP is a part-time job and there will be a lot of travel time.
“He told me I didn’t understand,” she said. “He told me, ‘I’m here. I know what it takes.’ People thought he pushed me to run, but he didn’t. But when I decided, he was behind me 100%.”
He was also a key figure in Tampa’s Bob Martinez’s decision to run for Governor in 1986. They maintained a lifelong friendship.
“One thing about Doc is that he knew where he stood, and he put his time and money into where he stood,” Martinez told the Lakeland Ledger newspaper. “I think that’s one of the things I remember most about Doc.
“He didn’t just talk the game, he played the game.”
I’ll leave the story to a friend’s chair.
Doc liked to stand on a bench at Hollingsworth Lake in Lakeland and see who hit him. It could be anyone – young, old, Black, White, it didn’t matter.
“He just listened to their conversation,” Paula said. “Most of them didn’t know who he was, but he listened to them. He said it was a friend’s chair and the people standing there were his friends. When we went to our summer house in North Carolina, he started a friend’s chair there. ah, too. That was just his way.
“I can’t even begin to imagine life without Doc. He was everything – my cheerleader, my strength, and my friend.”
A celebration of his wonderful life begins at 11 a.m. Thursday at First Lakeland United Methodist Church.
After that, maybe sit on a park bench and see who stops by. Say hello, and just listen to them. Be a friend.
Mentionable: Charlie Crist. The news continues to improve for Crist’s efforts to win the Democratic nomination for Governor.
St. Pete Polls released a survey showing Crist’s overwhelming support for Nikki Fried among registered Democratic voters.
Crist received 64.2% of those who said they had already voted compared to Fried’s 24.8%. Only 19.9% were undecided or did not say. Overall, Crist had about 56% compared to 24.3% of the fry.
The poll had only a 2.7 percentage point margin of error.
Almost (but not) the biggest winner: Laurel Lee. The former Florida Secretary of State entered the Republican CD 15 Primary late, but that doesn’t seem to matter.
St. Pete Polls gave Lee a huge lead in the race for her party’s nomination.
Lee has nearly 44% of Republican voters in the race, compared to 16% for state Sen. Kelli Stargel, sitting at 16% support, and 11% of Rep. Jackie Toledo.
There’s also this: Nearly a quarter of likely voters have already mailed in their ballots. Of those, 58% voted for Lee.
Lee didn’t enter the race until mid-May, but her presence appears to have turned the expected close race into a runoff. That stops the unexpected, of course.
Biggest winner: Marco Rubio. Both parties in Washington these days are about as rare as Bigfoot sightings. But Rubio worked through frustrating twists and turns and ultimately helped bring home the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act – aka the PACT Act.
And he worked with Democrats to accomplish that.
“We’re finally doing what we would have done twenty years ago,” Rubio said. “Once President (Joe) Biden signs this bill into law, our veterans will finally be able to get the care they so desperately need and have so generously earned.”
This law specifically addresses victims of toxic emissions from burn pits used to destroy medical waste on battlefields. Thousands of soldiers who breathed in the fumes of the pits later contracted various serious diseases.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs rejects 70% of disability claims from burn pits for lack of evidence and information from the Department of Defense.
Rubio has been a champion of expanding health care benefits for veterans by removing red tape. He and Democratic US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand introduced the bill in 2021 and received broad support from both major parties.
Despite a deadlock in late July that threatened its passage and led to a national crusade by comedian and veteran advocate Jon Stewart, the final version of the bill passed the Senate 86-11.
Rubio’s presumptive Democratic nominee, Val Demings, blasted TV ads calling him “one of the worst voting records” in the Senate. This bill can help meet that cost.
Nickname: Lake County Republican Party. Ever since his namesake from Mar-a-Lago started his baseless mantra about a rigged election (it wasn’t rigged), Republicans in many parts of the country have The Big Lie is a preemptive strike on their race.
That’s true in Deep Red Lake County, where Republicans are locked in a deadly battle with County Elections Supervisor Alan Hays, who happens to be a… REPUBLICAN!
The Orlando Sentinel reported that the email appeared in thousands of mailboxes with the Lake County GOP letter. It read, “Did you get a vote in the mail? Whether you applied or not, this is one of the BIGGEST sources of election fraud.
Hays was not amused, calling the email a “blatant lie.”
“It’s absolutely impossible,” Hays told the newspaper.
He added, “I’m not going to let anyone — I don’t care Republican, Democrat, or anybody else — get away with lying about my office and the people who work there and run the elections.”
Hays is up for re-election in 2024 and knows what this could cost.
“I’m not in this game to be chosen,” he said. “I’m in this game to run the election as best I can.”
Almost (but not quite) the biggest loser: Andrew Warren. It became national news on Thursday after Gov. Ron DeSantis was fired by Warren as Hillsborough County State’s Attorney.
That’s tantamount to being fired because Warren said in June that he won’t sue women who get abortions, and he won’t sue the doctors who provide them.
I hesitate to put him in this category because during his six years as Hillsborough’s twice-elected chief prosecutor, Warren was a champion of justice. He has kept away a lot of bad people, but he is also not a lock and throw away the important person.
You could argue that the real losers are the Hillsborough voters who strongly approved of the way Warren handled his business.
But it’s an election year, and DeSantis wants the GOP base to see him as a crackin’ boss, a leader of law and order. And Warren’s flawed approach to prosecution made him the perfect target for the Governor to actively look into those things.
Keep in mind, Warren has yet to speak out about any of those cases, so one could argue that he was exercising his First Amendment right to free speech.
It was time for the Governor’s chest to beat.
As usual, the decision pleased DeSantis supporters and opponents, which, I think, was the idea. It’s how he manages things.
The state Senate, sitting and shouting orders from DeSantis, will decide Warren’s fate. We all know how that will turn out.
However, there is a new facet of opposition to ruling by executive action. Warren’s time in the State Attorney’s office may be over, but his leadership role may be just beginning. On the other hand, however, the Governor may have actually raised Warren’s standard.
Biggest Loser: Florida Power & amp; Light. It was bad last week when word came out of FP&L officials that the bank’s “independent” website The Capitolist was acting as an enforcer for things they wanted or wanted to stop.
But the dot, dot, dot disclosure paints a darker picture.
POLITICO reported that FP&L has its own, invitation-only space for lobbyists and lawmakers. It is located on the third floor of the company’s $2 million, 13,000 square foot downtown Tallahassee offices.
The utility is the nation’s largest electric company, and the company has acknowledged it as a place for lobbyists to make their case to lawmakers.
“That is its purpose; it’s the ‘friends of the FP&L program’ who were invited,” a bar attendee told POLITICO. “If you’ve been there, you’ve probably been with them before.”
FP&L maintains that the arrangement is legal.
Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani isn’t sure, saying she doesn’t understand why the company would need something like this.
She told POLITICO, “Not only could this be a serious violation of the Sunshine Laws and legislative gift prohibitions, but it all feeds into our collective concern that FP&L is using corrupt business practices to influence politicians, sell it to the media and undermine democracy.”
The Orlando Sentinel reported how the company kneeled down state Democratic Sen.
Hey, wait a minute, that would pass FP&L!
The Sentinel reported that CEO Eric Silagy fired two vice presidents.
He ordered, “I want you to make his life a living hell…literally.”
Rodriguez lost his re-election bid.
Rep. Kathy Castor, a Tampa Democrat, also spoke.
On Friday, the Miami Herald reported how FP&L managed the 2018 state senate race in Gainesville to ensure that a strong Democratic challenger would not defeat the GOP.
It asked the US Department of Justice to investigate allegations that the company used black money to hide political funding and to sway the results of the Florida election.
You may want to follow this story. It seems that it is far from it.
