JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG

WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM. Winner of the prestigious Cushing Left Anterior Descending Artery Award.

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

ELECTION NIGHT 11/1/2010

Morning Update: Sink sunk. Now lets get to work. Rumpole says that the turnout in Miami-Dade, Broweird and Palm Beach was not enough. She needed close to 45% to safely put her over the top.


9:30 Update: Before Rick Scott and the Republicans begin celebrating a victory, we note that Miami-Dade and West Palm, both solid Democratic counties, have 0% reporting statewide races as per the Florida Elections website. Scott and her ticket are well within striking distance depending upon the turnout in those counties. Our information leads us to believe the turnout in Miami-Dade will not be sufficient to help Sink gain the ground she needs.

9:15 REGJB UPDATE: Both REGJB candidates- Rod Vereen and Lisa Lesperance appear headed for defeat. But we should all be proud of them. They entered the arena. They fought a good and honourable fight for what they believed in. They did not cower to the crowd, nor did they pander to the easy vote. They stood up for their principles and they did themselves proud. They are the proud combatants "In The Arena" that Theodore Roosevelt wrote about so long ago, and which we often quote when consoling friends in defeat.

UPDATE: Senator Rubio. And not only that, but by a margin that at the moment beats the combined votes of Crist and Meek. Mr. Rubio officially heads the short list of Republican Vice Presidential candidates. Romney/Rubio anyone?

First the important stuff: NFL= 18-21-1; our bankroll a healthy 1660 Pelosis'.
DOM is 4-3-1 and Rumpole is 6-2.

Election predictions 6:50 PM. : The Democrats retain the Senate; the House is closer than pollsters have indicated. However, the issue is turnout. If Democratic turnout is high, the Dems hold on to more seats and perhaps the House. If it is low, they lose the House. The poll numbers discussed for the last few weeks have the potential to become a self fulfilling prophecy as discouraged Democrats stay home because of the impending defeat.

Our own view today is that turnout is lower than the Democrats need. But we are crunching some numbers not yet available for public review, as we have some friends and experience in these matters, and some poll data has been emailed to us.

More later.

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's go Heat! You will be proven wrong Rumpy!

Rumpole said...

You may notice I have not published a comment. if you think about it, the comment was about a person's personal life that had no bearing on anything else. For that reason, although I know you comment to be correct, I shall not publish it.

Rumpole said...

I'm sorry blog readers, but believe it or not I am having all kinds of trouble with the Internet at the Ritz Carlton in DC. And I stay here often. Indeed I usually lodge in the same suite. The management has been notified, but as the last repairman looked at the router and gave it a wary tap with his wrench, I am not hopeful. I may not be able to provide the usual election night insight that you have come to expect.

Anonymous said...

Vice Presidential Canidate? What about Presidential? He will have had far more experience than Obama had when Obama ran and won.

Rumpole said...

More experience? Not so. More brains? Hardly. More conviction and ethics? Not so. More willing to compromise to get what he wants? Yup.

Anonymous said...

bye bye GELBER and hello PAM BONDI ... she is leading and will be a sweep with GOVERNOR SCOTT. All I know is David Young is going to be pissed as he campaigned hard for Sink / Gelber.

Scurred said...

Rumpy, Rick Scott wants to cut the government work force by 5%. I am a government attorney. Should I be afraid for my job? Can't believe the crook won!

Anonymous said...

Admit you are wrong about the Heat! Admit it!

Anonymous said...

ASA Carlos Trujillo handily elected State Representative with 90% of the vote after clawing through a tough primary.

This kid has brass balls.

Anonymous said...

Hey Rumpole, what kind of Judges will Rick Scott and Pam Bondi want on the bench??? Who were his big supporters in Dade?

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

The Captain Reports:

The only positives of this election, so far:

Constitutional Amendments 5 & 6 ..

While these two amendments have barely been covered as most others focused on Amendments 4 & 8, there will be dramatic change coming in 2012 and for the next ten years thereafter.

Finally, we can look forward to a day when the legisltive districts will be drawn in a more logical and fair way.

This is a huge win for the grassroots effort put forth by Fair Districts and their bipartisan supporters.

If the 61% and 62% hold up, Fair Districts should be congratulated and thanked for taking the bull by the horns and getting these importants amendments passed.

---

On a separate note, while Sink is now only down by some 75,000 votes, I still don't see her math getting her a victory.

There are about 400,000 votes left to count and she needs to win approx. 240,000 of them to claim victory. That means she has to win 60% of the balance of the votes. And that is just not going to happen. The only Counties she carried by more than 60% were Broward, Leon & Gadsden and 97% of their votes have been counted already.

Only possible way is for this alleged problem with the vote counting of absentee ballots in Hillsborough. If there are 35,000 ballots sitting in a box to be counted, or the ones counted were somehow counted incorrectly, then maybe, just maybe, she could close the gap, (given that Hillsborough is her hometown; although, right now she is only winning her hometown County by 50% to 47%).

I guess we will just have to wait until sunrise to see what happens.

-------------

Congrats to Vereen and Lesperance for their commitment and dedication. It hurts to lose, but it takes lots of courage just to put up the good fight.

And congrats to ASA Carlos Trujillo, a three year prosecutor, who tonight was elected to the State House in District 116.

------------

Nationally, two observations.

First, I wonder how many of you caught Rubio's speech tonight where he slipped in a one sentence referral to the possibility (indirect reference) that he could be running on a national stage in the not too distant future.

He will be the Keynote speaker in 2012 at the Elephant's convention, if not on the ticket itself. He is a rising star. And while your politics may not be the same as his, just think about what kind of race he ran in the past 24 months. He was a barely a blip on the radar when he decided to challenge the most popularly elected person in this State. He was a Hispanic from South Florida, and Hisapnics from South Florida do not wins votes North of Palm Beach County. They do not win elections in the I-4 corridor and they do not win elections in the Panhandle. Rubio spent many days and night doing it the grassroots way. He went to many places where 25-50 people showed up and he stayed on message and little by little people started listening. He should have been pounded in this election (if you look back two years) and instead, after an amazing campaign, he was the one that did the pounding.

And second, the fact that someone actually spent $142 million dollars to get elected to anything, and lost; I am not sure which fact is more depressing about where we are in this democratic process we call elections.

Meg Whitman ran Ebay and she obviously ran it very well. She profitted handsomely and she has every right to spend her money how she chooses. But I wonder how much our founding fathers are turning over in their graves seeing the amount of money spent in elections.

Cap Out .....

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...
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CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...
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Almost tossed out the SCT doors said...

Interesting is that Supreme Court Justice Lambarga came close to being voted out of his seat on the NO vote.

Click link above

Anonymous said...

Lookout, PD! I see 2012 coming!

"Change You Can Count On!"

Anonymous said...

Now today we are going to hear from BHO about 'working together,' 'compromise,' 'getting things done for the good of the people.' Where was this sentiment, this rhetoric, for the past two years. Shortly after Obama and the Dems won their super majority BHO rebuked Senator John McCain in a meeting by stating something to the effect 'The elections over John, get over it.' Well Barak, the election is over, you've got little to show the American people for having a super majority for two years, in your words 'get over it.' For two years BHO did what he wanted without regard of the will of the people. Now that he lost and no one wanted him to campaign for them, he'll want to compromise. Karma. 'The election is over Barak, get over it.'

Anonymous said...

I will never understand the American voter:

2 years ago, people voted for the cooler candidate rather than the candidate with the experience to do the job. Yesterday, people voted for candidates who used government credit cards for their own personal use and who bilked Medicare and the Federal government out of millions.

American voters stick their heads in the sand and deny the fact that Bill Clinton was the only president in recent history to have us in a surplus; rather they want to give the credit for that to Reagan. Those same people deny that it was Bush's actions that got us to the economic crisis we are currently in.

Kendrick Meek - thanks guy. You could have been a hero. Great job buddy.

The voters get what they deserve, unfortunately, I have to go along for the ride. BTW - Todd Micheals, as much as I like you, you need to take a look inward my friend.

Anonymous said...

Great now we have an alien for Governor!

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

to 4:36 am:

Go back and get some more sleep. The man won by 780,000 votes. Close? What have you been smoking this morning?

Cap Out .....

DATELINE .... 10:40 am.....

Sink finally concedes.

Rick Scott is our Governor-Elect.


Cap Out .....

EyeOnSink-n-Shumie said...

Sink called the Shumie this morning. Kinda sad.

Fake Blecher said...

i have no comment on any possible job offers in the new Scott administration. It would be imprudent for me to comment on such pedestrian matters at such an important moment in our state's history.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if our new Republican overlords are going to follow through on their promises to reduce the budget deficit. Maybe they will follow the lead of the Cameron government in the U.K. If they do, then the two obvious places to start are: (1) to eliminate the Bush tax cuts for top bracket filers; and (2) to reduce the defense budget from its present ridiculous level (including $2 billion a week to fund the criminal scumbags who run Afghanistan). Even as I write this, it is clear that these things will never happen and that, instead, the first thing that the Republicans will try to do is to make sure that the megarich do not have to pay any more taxes followed by an increase in the defense budget. It is beyond me how anyone (other than the megarich or defense industry people) can be believe anything they say let alone vote for them.

Anonymous said...

Think Clerks, PDs and ASAs have problems now? Wait till Scott gets ahold of the budget. Florida is screwed with government services across the board. Juvenile might as well fold up shop. Cuts were bad anyway, Scott will be destruction.

old guy said...

Nice to see Weiner -- that self-proclaimed criminal defense guru --try to sink another defendant after his client gets sentenced.

Good going, Jeff. Always knew what kind of guy you really are.

Reporter said...

Seeking to do New Times type article on Miami DUI firms of the 1990's. Any info on:

1) Blecher, Shuminer, Best, Palomino &Assocs?
2) Potemkin, Cassidy & Myerberg?
3) Essen & Essen?
4) Schwartz, Gutierriez & Sole'?

Thanks. Please post and I will contact you.

Anonymous said...

Honestly rumpole, do u really think a reporter gives a fuck about dui lawyers?? Take that post of shameless self promotion down...

Its embarrassing

FACDL listserve leaker said...

Now that the elections are done, and the winning candidates start figuring out how to pay back all the favors they got, it's going to be interesting to watch how the first class of Robed Ones since Caperton v. Massey are going to handle the requirements of that case.

In particular:

"We conclude that there is a serious risk of actual bias—based on objective and reasonable perceptions—when a person with a personal stake in a particular case had a significant and disproportionate influence in placing the judge on the case by raising funds or directing the judge’s election campaign when the case was pending or imminent."

This should be entertaining. Any fair reading of the case is going to require massive, rolling self-recusals. Because the judges are good like that, right?

If not, watch for a Help Me Howard style motion -- if the PDs can find time between depos.

Anonymous said...

Captain, I was talking about compared to the other justices on the ballot. He received the lowest "NO" vote I have ever seen including those of the district courts.

58% Yes
41% NO

That 41% is a huge number when you look at the other Judges.

Anonymous said...

Damn, it is a pleasure to watch all of the pinkos sitting shiva. Get used to it. It is going to be around for a while.

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

to 6:03 PM

New Times Reporter??????

If you really are a reporter, then you must know that you can look up any practicing lawyer at:

www.floridabar.org

Cap Out ...

Reporter said...

I am researching the firms, their practices, the way they got cases, what they may have promised clients, what their former employees are saying, including some secretaries who have told me that sex was used to sign clients and in one instance, sex was used to get a law enforcement officer to refer a particular firm (not necessarily any of those mentioned) clients.

Is this information on the Fla Bar website?

Anonymous said...

"reporter"

why don't you sign your name your rat fink

Anonymous said...

Did anybody tell 11:05 that communism and the cold war both disappeared twenty years ago. Wow, I haven't heard the word "pinko" in a long time. What a moron.

reporter said...

put your email address here and i will send you an email. Why am I a rat fink for following a story?

former client said...

I was a client of one of those "top" DUI firms. I had a third DUI. Received a large color brochure in the mail. Made an appointment, went to the office, was met by a receptionist who looked like she worked at Tootsies. Met with the lawyers. Was quoted 35 thousand but they would drop it to 25 if I paid cash up front. Wasn't sure what to do. Called my brother. The receptionist came in the room when they left to bring me a coke. She leaned over, her breasts rubbed against me. She asked if she could do anything else.....dropped to her knees, and to make a long story short it was the most expensive BJ I ever got. Hired them. Paid cash. The cop didn't show. Big f'ing deal. Their legal work left a lot to be desired including a generic motion to suppress that had two spelling errors in it.