DAVIS NOT HAPPY WITH HOW FLORIDA IS RUN AS HE SEEKS GOVERNOR'S OFFICE

Associated Press writer Brendan Farrington has a feature today on Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis (D - Tampa).

He discussed how he disapproves of how Jeb! has attempted to make the federal/state partnership of Medicaid like just another private health care programme.

"Medicaid does need reform, but there's a right way and a wrong way to do that. What Gov. Bush was proposing was to balance the Medicaid budget on the backs of people who depend on Medicaid to stay out of hospitals, stay out of nursing homes, stay in nursing homes...I don't think that's the way you reform Medicaid."

While Florida Republican Party chair Carole Jean Jordan says Davis' congressional record is "unremarkable", one of his collegues in the House notes his reputation of being able to strike agreements that members on both side of the aisle can feel comfortable with.

"He's got tremendous leadership qualities with both forward vision and optimism, but more importantly he works incredibly hard to find the sensible center on policy and to build bipartisan coalitions to get things done," said U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, (D-WI).

"He does not fit any ideological pigeon hole, which I think is what makes him so successful and effective as a leader...He's not afraid to take good ideas from the other side and craft that into good policy. And that, I think, is what's desperately needed these days in public service at all levels, from Washington to state government and even locally."

Davis and Kind co-chair the centrist New Democratic Coalition.