Florida's Insurance Commissioner -- forced to explain his role in
raising campaign money for an employee's spouse -- is ready to talk.

Not to the public.

To his other bosses.

Kevin McCarty intends to discuss his extra-curricular fundraising
activities with those he works for: Gov. Charlie Crist, Attorney General
Bill McCollum and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, according to
his chief of staff, David Foy.

CFO Alex Sink, the one Cabinet member most steamed about McCarty's
solicitation of those he regulates for money, is off the list, Foy said,
because McCarty and she spoke last Wednesday, before the whole business
was made public by a Gannett story.

It's not just Wednesday night's fundraiser at the Governors Club for
Leon County prosecutor Robin Lotane that is on the table for discussion.
Sink also is questioning McCarty's efforts to raise money for the March
of Dimes every year by asking insurance companies to buy expensive
sponsorships for the Tallahassee Wine and Food Festival, co-hosted by
your friendly neighborhood regulator.

The campaign event took place Wednesday and McCollum learned about it
Thursday, when reporters started raising questions. Foy did not say why,
by the end of the day Friday, McCarty still had not made the rounds of
his employers.
.

Gov. Charlie Crist is unsure what to make of Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty's asking lobbyists and officials of the companies he regulates to contribute to the campaign of an employee's spouse.

"Well that doesn't sound great," Crist said. "People have a right to participate in democracy, right? But I'd have to see it to be able to … I'd have to learn more to be able to opine better. It doesn't sound great."

McCarty on Wednesday night hosted a fundraiser for Leon Circuit Court candidate Robin Lotane, the wife of McCarty's press aide, Bob Lotane. She already has received heavy contributions from insurance-related lobbyists and individuals.

The insurance commissioner to date has provided no comment.

Gov. Charlie Crist is being very careful not to take sides on a bill -- rejected by a House committee Wednesday -- allowing employees to carry guns with them to work.

"Obviously you have two rights here, private property rights and second amendment rights to bear arms," Crist said. "The Legislature has to do its job and apparently they've done it."

But half an hour after Crist said it was improper to link the bill debate to Virginia Tech shootings, he told reporters he is certain it played a part.

"It wouldn't surprise me... how can you not be impacted at least some way by as horrific a tragedy as that in our country. It's the worst mass murder in our country, I think."

Could gun laws have prevented the tragedy?

"Some things are hard to forsee," he said. "There's always a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking... but trying to find somebody to blame for it can go on a bit long, too."

How much weight should the massacre of 31 people at Virginia Tech this week carry in Florida's debate of a guns-at-work bill?

Alot, some lawmakers say.

"It's highly inappropriate," said Rep. Baxter Troutman, R-Winter Haven, who cited the tragedy as he attempted to stall a bill allowing Floridians to carry weapons in their cars even when their employers object. He did not succeed.

Gov. Charlie Crist said he is "not surprised" the legislation and the shootings are discussed in the same breath.

However, asked point blank if combining the issues is appropriate, he said it was not.

"I think what happened at Virginia Tech is just a horrific tragedy," Crist said. "I think it ought not to be used to direct policy here."

Remember the budget?

The only thing the Legislature is required to do while in session?

Lawmakers were on a fast-track a week ago when both chambers passed their versions of the budget, adopting spending plans $1.6 billion apart.

Florida's financial blueprint remains on the back-burner while the Legislature wrestles with the politics of property tax reform.

Three budget conferences pre-scheduled long in advance have come and gone without meeting.

And while the Senate has a list of negotiators, there is no match from the House.

Why aren't the insurance rate cuts promised homeowners being realized, CFO Alex Sink wanted to know.

Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty says they are.

He told Sink and Florida Cabinet members Monday that premiums are reduced an average 18 percent -- pretty close to the 24 percent predicted by agency consultants in January.

But there's fine print to McCarty's claim. It's based only on the reductions his agency has approved so far, and represents only about a fourth of the state's market.

An analysis of ALL of the proposed rate cuts for homes showed reductions would average, by company, about 11 percent.

It's not just on conservative politics that two of Florida's top
elected Republicans disagree.
Attorney General Bill McCollum, unhappy with Gov. Charlie Crist's
attack on the insurance industry, bemoans what that policy is doing to
the industry, and his company in particular, USAA.
The insurance exchange -- which covers members of the military and
their families -- announced it is trimming its exposure in Florida some
10 percent, by no longer insuring secondary residences. McCollum, a
retired Navy JAG commander, is among USAA's 280,000 policyholders.
"They're one of the most conservative of our insurers. What does that
tell us?" McCollum asked Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty at
Tuesday's Cabinet meeting. "I'm deeply concerned."
USAA blasts actions by Crist and the Legislature, requiring insurers
to reduce their rates as well as unleashing Citizens Property Insurance
to compete with the private market.
Crist shared some of McCollum's concern that USAA is retrenching, but
in the next breath, added, "thank God we have competition."