Coming to our region on June 14^th as part of a major statewide road show to “roll out” the Accessibility to Affordable Health Care initiatives enacted this legislative session is Gov. Jeb Bush who is reportedly “fired up” on the tax-free Health Savings Accounts which permit employers and their employees attractive new coverage options for their health care needs.  Watch in Every Monday for further details on the time and place for the upcoming regional Town Hall meeting.

With Lt. Governor Toni Jennings’ words last week of “Yes, I would like to be governor,” in response to a question while addressing a Women’s Forum in St. Petersburg, any doubt of her possible interest in becoming Florida’s next governor in 2006 were removed.  While not choosing to officially announce her candidacy at the time, she would likely face some stiff competition in the GOP primary from two other heavyweights known to have an eye on the Governor’s Mansion – Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher and Attorney General Charlie Crist.

Despite the inability of the legislature to comprehensively address Florida’s Constitutional Amendment crisis, there is some good news on the subject with the failure of the petition drive to place the Florida Hometown Democracy initiative on the 2004 ballot.  The ill-conceived land-use initiative, if approved, would remove all land planning and development decisions from county commissioners and instead give them to voters.   Proponents will continue nevertheless with efforts to place the issue on the 2006 ballot.

In other ballot initiative news, there is new polling out on the dueling medial liability ballot initiatives sponsored by the state’s warring trial lawyers and doctors which may appear on the 2004 ballot.  The polling offers good news for the lawyers and bad news for the doctors as voters appear sympathetic to revoking the licenses of bad doctors and requiring the same price for the same medical services but oppose capping fees in malpractice cases.

BusinessForce’s Executive Board met last week to plan for the 2004 campaign.  The Executive Board reaffirmed its earlier decision to initially focus efforts on the three Orange County Commission races along with two contested regional Senate races and three House races.  Other races could be added soon based on new developments.  With the decision by respected veteran Sen. Dan Webster (R-Winter Garden) to forego his U.S. Senate campaign and instead seek re-election to the State Senate, things became much less difficult for BusinessForce to sort through in House District 41 with prospective Senate candidate Rep. Randy Johnson (R-Celebration) choosing re-election to his Dist. 41 House seat and a host of candidates apparently planning to opt out of what once had been a race for an open seat there.  The Executive Board reversed an earlier decision and has now decided to take another look at the four Orange County School Board races in play.

There will be a new Chairman for the Chamber’s 2005 Tallahassee Community “Fly-In” which will again be hosted by GrayRobinson and it’s Derek Bruce from their law firm.  Bruce succeeds Dean Cannon who, with no apparent opposition in sight, stands on the verge of locking up his House race in the Winter Park area to succeed retiring Rep. Jim Kallinger.

Next week: We’ll be reporting from Amelia Island where Florida business and Chamber leaders will gather at the Florida Chamber’s Summer Board Meeting to prepare for the upcoming campaign season and lay plans for the 2005 legislative session.