Florida Politics

The Miami Herald reports that the Florida Legislature session on oil-drilling ban in jeopardy.

The Republican leadership will tell you it is so they don’t give Charlie Crist a victory because he left the party. Garbage. The initial reports of the session being in trouble came from oil lobbyists, not politicians. The Republicans want to drill, and don’t want to admit it until after the election. They know that if they oppose a drilling ban amendment they will be killed at the ballot box, so they are going to fight it all the way. The leadership will probably block any attempt to bring it to a vote.

If they block it, anyone voting for a Republican is voting for drilling off Florida’s coast. It really is that simple.

The Pensacola News Journal has the unemployment figures for Florida and Escambia county, while the Local Puppy Trainer has them for Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties.

While Florida dropped to 11.4%, Escambia rose to 10.9%, Santa Rosa rose to 9.8%, and Okaloosa rose to 7.6%.

“This is the time when we would have hit our peak employment right now. We should be way up,” said David Goetsch, vice president for community relations and workforce development at Northwest Florida State College. “It’s an indication of what the oil spill is doing, unfortunately. In fact, that might be the best indicator we’ve got for the financial impact of that oil spill.

These are figures for the “non-farm workforce” and don’t count the fishing industry, which was heavily impacted, at all. Because of Eglin AFB, and farming in the North County, the Okaloosa County unemployment rate is normally in the 2 to 3% range. That number is further distorted by the construction industry, which normally comes in from out-of-state and isn’t counted in Florida statistics as all. The same thing is happening with the contractors working for BP.