Thanks to all our supporters and friends who made this amazing fundraising success possible!  See the press release below.

-Loranne

July 22, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Jonathan Ducote 850-222-0007 or jonathan@ausley.net

Today Democratic candidate for CFO, Loranne Ausley, announced that she raised over $317,000 for the fundraising period ending July 16, 2010.

Ausley will post $202,893.86 raised from individual donors, plus $115,000 from the Florida Democratic Party for a total of $317,893.86 raised for the quarter.

“I’m pleased with our fundraising success thus far.  People are tired of the pay-to-play culture that has taken over our state government and Jeff Atwater is the poster child for what’s wrong in Tallahassee today,” stated Ausley an attorney and former lawmaker.

With polls showing the CFO race in a statistical dead heat and with the public tiring of the current leadership in Tallahassee, these figures put Ausley in a very strong position to win.

“This campaign is ready to compete. With these strong figures, there is no longer any doubt that we are positioned to win this race,” said her campaign manager, Jonathan Ducote.

“I’m ready to clean up the mess in Tallahassee,” said Ausley.  “Atwater’s failed leadership and his waste of tax dollars in the recent gavel-and-go special session continues to remind voters of his chronic inability to address the real problems facing Florida,” she added.

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The Special legislative session on oil drilling begins in less than 24 hours.  Please take a minute to join me in calling for Senate President Jeff Atwater to show leadership and use his authority to let this vote happen and to provide relief to Floridian’s affected by the spill.

The legislature is scheduled to convene at noon tomorrow and the current plan by Atwater and House Speaker Larry Cretul is to DO NOTHING!

FLORIDIANS WANT ACTION NOW.
We should demand that an oil drilling ban be voted on NOW and sent to the ballot for voters to decide in November. We should demand that legislators do their work NOW to provide economic relief for Florida citizens.

Sign our petition and let your voice be heard today…tell Senate President Atwater to let lawmakers vote and not waste our tax dollars.

CLICK HERE:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/24hourstoshowleadership/

On July 9th Loranne Ausley received a polling memo from Hamilton Campaigns regarding her race for CFO. The memo is explained below. This is the second poll that shows Ausley within single digits of her opponent.

Loranne Ausley has a path to victory in the race for Chief Financial Officer. Ausley begins in a statistical dead heat with State Senate President, Republican Jeff Atwater (31% Ausley – 34% Atwater – 9% other – 26% undecided in the initial vote preference). After voters hear information about each candidate, Ausley opens up a large lead over Atwater (50% Ausley

25% Atwater – 11% other – 14% undecided in the informed vote preference).

Ausleyʼs background as a lawyer and former state legislator who will clean up the mess in Tallahassee and hold politicians accountable for their spending helps her overcome Atwaterʼs initial name identification advantage. Meanwhile, Atwaterʼs record as vice president of a bank that failed in April of this year, costing the FDIC $500 million dollars, and the repeated examples of pay-to-play politics, is something voters completely reject as they become more aware of Atwaterʼs actions in office. With proper funding to communicate the messages on Atwaterʼs record, Ausley can be considered the favorite in the November general election.

In a generic vote preference that places business experience versus cleaning up Tallahassee and increasing accountability, voters prefer a candidate who will clean up the mess in Tallahassee, by a wide margin. Loranne Ausleyʼs profile attracts voters across the state, while Atwaterʼs business experience and background do not appear to connect with voters. Moreover, the two NPA candidatesʼ support is 64% Republican and Independent, meaning they pull more support from Atwater than Ausley.

He even took over $340,000 in political contributions from insurance companies while voting to allow insurance companies to increase rates on homeowners by over 72 percent. Loranne Ausley is in a strong position in the general election for CFO of Florida. She has the right background and the right message to win voters who are tired of the status quo, and special interests that run the state capitol. For Ausley to win, she must continue aggressive fundraising efforts to increase her name identification and show voters how she will end the pay-to-play politics of Tallahassee, while Jeff Atwater has worked the system to give millions of dollars in state contracts and special projects to political supporters.

By Loranne Ausley

Our state has failed our kids.

During the past week, I personally watched the struggle of a family whose honor roll student will not graduate from high school and they are not sure why.

This family learned – too late – that their hard-working child, who has maintained a strong GPA and has been an active leader in his community and church, will not walk with his graduating class.  Not only is this devastating news to all of them, his plans for college are now in jeopardy as well.  Indeed his entire future hangs in the balance.

Why?

They are not sure!

It appears that he did not pass the FCAT after multiple tries…but they have no faith that this is the truth.  Further, nobody can honestly explain to them or demonstrate to them how or why he “failed”.

With the recent news about millions of FCAT scores being delayed past the end of the school year and with the futures of literally hundreds of thousands of Florida families left hanging in the balance, it is time to re-examine some fundamental policies of our state.

• Where is the wisdom of outsourcing core functions of government to out of state contractors?

• Is it really wise to sign a $250 million contract with an out-of-state corporation with limited accountability and no real responsibility to the people of this state?

• Does this latest outsourcing calamity raise, once again, a more fundamental question about the accuracy of these tests?  And, frankly, how will we truly ever know?

Let me be clear.  I strongly believe that our schools need consistent and measurable accountability standards.  I also believe that uniform testing is a great tool for schools, teachers and administrators.  But the FCAT has been a debacle from its inception.  From the secretive methods, to changing criteria and potential conflicts of interest; the FCAT has come to symbolize much of what is wrong with the current leadership’s approach to governing and is what the current leadership wants to expand with similar measures such as they tried to do in SB 6

The people we elect have a clear obligation to ensure that all aspects of Florida’s government are properly managed, are open, and are honestly accountable to the people of this state.

When it comes to taxpayers’ dollars, it is the clear duty of our elected leaders to ensure that we know exactly how every dollar is spent and how every program is run.  When it comes to the investments that taxpayers make in our kids, we should be no less diligent and no less accountable.

This gross incompetence of those who were given $250 million of our money to run the FCAT and those who hired them is completely unacceptable, but quite frankly, entirely predictable.

The only thing more stunning than the clear failure of the FCAT to serve the interest of our students and taxpayers has been the failure of our leaders to do anything about it.

It’s time to replace the FCAT with true testing measures that help our students reach higher goals.  And, it’s time for Florida to rethink the current policies that dole out core and vital government functions to politically connected private contractors whose only real skill is knowing how to offer the lowest level of service at the lowest bid.

It’s time for the political insiders to accept the fact that the FCAT is an experiment that has failed us, has failed our schools and – most importantly – has failed our kids.

By CHRISTOPHER TUFFLEY, NewsSun.com

SEBRING — Loranne Ausley, Democratic candidate for Florida Chief Financial Officer, spoke at a fundraiser held by the Democratic Women’s Club Sunday night at the Quality Inn in Sebring.

Ausley, who is a sixth-generation Floridian and former member of the state House of Representatives who served from 2000-2008 representing Leon and Jefferson counties, said she is excited about the race.

She said she is running because she believes in a life of public service.

After graduating from Randolph-Macon Women’s College and law school at Washington & Lee University in Virginia, she first practiced law in Miami, then worked for a time at the Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development in Washington.

Returning to Florida, Ausley worked in the administrations of Bob Graham, Lawton Chiles and Buddy McKay, for whom she was chief-of-staff.

According to campaign literature, as a State Representative Ausley was the lead sponsor of legislation that created the Children and Youth Cabinet and was appointed by two successive Republican Speakers of the House to serve on the cabinet. She has also served as the chair of Whole Child Leon since 2004.

In 2009, Ausley was selected by Alex Sink, the current CFO who is a Democratic candidate for governor, to serve as chair of the Florida Healthy Kids Corporation, a $300 million public/private institution providing health insurance for children in Florida.

“I feel blessed to live in Florida,” she said. “That’s what drives me, and finding a way solve problems practically.”

Ausley said the basic American dream — a home, a job, health care and education — “is slipping away. People are staying in dead-end jobs just for the health care.

“It is our homes in foreclosure, our kids in over-crowded classrooms. How did this happen?”

Looking out over the small but attentive audience Ausley said, “It was a failure to invest in the long-term, and spending too much in the short run.”

For example, she cited the legislature for spending $6 million on a plane hanger, and $100 million on a private prison.

“The legislature doesn’t recognize problems and operates with smoke and mirrors,” she said. “They use non-recurring money to pay recurring debts, which is like using your VISA card to pay off your Master Card.

“(Federal) stimulus dollars are the only reason the budget was balanced. Stimulus dollars the Republican members protested. Trust funds have been raided and fiscal conservatives have doubled fees for drivers’ licenses and new car registrations, impacting the people who can least afford it.

“It is time to fight back,” she said as the audience applauded.

“Jeff Atwater (the Republican candidate for CFO), is the ultimate political insider,” Ausley said. “He was the architect of Senate Bill 6 (a proposed educational reform which targeted teachers and was vetoed by Gov. Charlie Crist) and the proposed legislation to mandate women considering abortion to have a sonogram at their own cost.

“He is looking out for the banking and insurance industries, and meanwhile the Republican Party implodes.

“There is palpable anger and frustration out there, and how can we blame (the public)?”

Ausley said she has a special reason to understand the terror of having no health insurance.

Her son Will, now 7, was born after only 22 weeks of gestation weighing less than two pounds.

“It was touch and go, a long hard road managed with the power of prayer and fine medical help,” she said. “But we had good insurance, (access to) good medical (facilities) and even we had to fight and scream and crawl to get what we needed. We were blessed, very blessed. It’s a maze out there.”

This is one of the reasons, Ausley said, that she is driven to public service, “to leave behind something better than we found it.”