Florida Government and Politics Weekly Update

Politics: Rasmussen Polls Show a Tie in the Republican Primary for U.S. Senate and a Tightening Race for Governor
Surveys of likely voters released on December 15 and 16, 2009 by the Rasmussen Reports polling firm showed a tie between Governor Charlie Crist and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio (R-Miami) in the 2010 Republican primary for the U.S. Senate. In the race to succeed Gov. Crist, the survey indicated a shrinking gap between the likely Republican candidate, Attorney General Bill McCollum, and the likely Democratic candidate, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink.

In the Senate race, the survey of likely Republican primary voters showed Gov. Crist and Mr. Rubio tied at 43 percent, with nine percent undecided and five percent favoring a different candidate. As recently as October 2009, Gov. Crist led Mr. Rubio by 49 percent to 35 percent. The survey also indicated that either Republican would beat the likely Democratic nominee, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-17^th Congressional District). Mr. Rubio leads Rep. Meek by 49 percent to 35 percent, while Gov. Crist leads Rep. Meek by 42 percent to 36 percent.

Respondents were divided in their view of Gov. Crist’s job performance. Nine percent of respondents strongly approved, 43 percent somewhat approved, 25 percent somewhat disapproved, 20 percent strongly disapproved, and three percent were undecided.

Results for the 2010 gubernatorial election show a close race between Attorney General McCollum and CFO Sink, with the Republican leading by 44 percent to 39 percent. Two months earlier, Mr. McCollum had an 11-point lead over CFO Sink. In the December poll, five percent of respondents preferred some other candidate, and 11 percent were undecided.

Rasmussen Reports conducted the survey of 1,000 likely voters on December 14, 2009. The survey had a three-percent margin of error for questions asked of all respondents and a five-percent margin of error for questions asked of Republican primary voters.

Economy: Florida’s Unemployment Rate Rose to 11.5 Percent in November
On December 18, 2009, the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation (AWI) released statewide unemployment data for the month of November. The unemployment rate was 11.5 percent, which represents a total of 1,056,000 unemployed persons out of a total labor force of 9,202,000 persons. The November unemployment rate was 0.2 percentage points higher than the revised October unemployment rate of 11.3 percent and was 4.3 percentage points higher than the November 2008 rate. The November 2009 unemployment rate was the state’s highest since May 1975, when the unemployment rate was 11.9 percent.

The state’s November unemployment rate was 1.5 percentage points higher than the national rate of 10.0 percent.

According to the AWI, the construction industry lost the most jobs over the past 12 months. Construction jobs were down by 15.4 percent in the last year, representing a loss of  73,300 jobs. The only sector that gained jobs over the last year was private education and health services, which grew by 8,400 jobs, or 0.8 percent. All of the growth in that sector was attributable to increases in health and social assistance, primarily in nursing and residential care facilities.

The counties with the lowest unemployment were Liberty County (6.1 percent), Monroe County (7.3 percent), Jackson and Wakulla counties (7.8 percent each), and Alachua, Leon, and Walton counties (7.9 percent each). The counties with the highest unemployment were Flagler County (16.8 percent), Hendry County (14.9 percent), Hernando and St. Lucie counties (14.7 percent each), and Indian River County (14.6 percent).

Insurance: Regulators and State Farm Reach Agreement to Keep the Company in Florida
Insurance Commissioner Kevin M. McCarty announced on December 16, 2009 that the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation and State Farm Florida Insurance Co. had reached an agreement under which the company would abandon its plans to withdraw from the Florida property insurance market. Instead, State Farm will be allowed to non-renew up to 125,000 of its total of 810,416 residential property insurance policies and to implement an across-the-board 14.8-percent rate increase. The agreement also requires the company to allow its agents to place affected policyholders’ business with companies unrelated to State Farm.

Commissioner McCarty said that he expected the private market to absorb the policies that State Farm would not renew and that “a smaller, leaner State Farm is better than no State Farm at all.”

The company said that Florida still needs to address the overall property insurance marketplace, but State Farm Florida President Jim Thompson added that the agreement “is an important step. It helps stem State Farm Florida’s deteriorating financial condition. We were losing $20 million a month and we were both trying to work through some tough issues.”

Banking: In the 14^th Florida Bank Failure of 2009, Federal Government Closes Peoples First Community Bank
On December 18, 2009, the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision closed Panama City-based Peoples First Community Bank and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. The FDIC entered into an agreement under which Hancock Bank, based in Gulfport, Mississippi, will assume all of the deposits of the closed bank and take over all of its branches.

The FDIC reports that Peoples First had approximately $1.8 billion in total assets and $1.7 billion in deposits. In a statement, the FDIC said that the acquisition by Hancock Bank was the least costly resolution of the bank failure and estimated that the cost to its Deposit Insurance Fund would be $556.7 million.

Prior to the transaction, Hancock Bank had five offices in Tallahassee and two in Pensacola. Peoples First had 29 offices in the state, mostly in the Panhandle area.

The failure of Peoples First was the 14^th FDIC-insured bank failure in Florida in 2009 and the 135^th in the nation this year. 

Public Policy News Alert is part of our ongoing commitment to providing up-to-the-minute information about pressing concerns or industry issues affecting our clients and our colleagues. If you have any questions about this alert or would like to discuss these topics further, please contact your Foley attorney or any of the following individuals: 

Marnie George of The George Group assists Foley on a variety of government and public policy matters as a consultant.