And now for a little bit of Tallahassee-centric political content ... A PC getting into the thick of this year's city commission races has sent to Democratic voters a mailer that attempts to link @JackPorterTLH to Republicans such as Trump and MTG ... Porter did get aid from Republican-linked PCs back in her initial run for city commission. But Porter and fellow city commissioner @JeremyMatlowTLH represent the progressive wing of the city commission often at odds w other Democrats on commission

And that's a wrap. @GovRonDeSantis has finally acted on all the bills from the 2024 session. Among the final batch DeSantis signed was a contentious bill on short-term loans that one of his allies @GovGoneWild Sen. Blaise Ingoglia said was akin to legalizing loan sharking The bill that DeSantis signed that raises interest rates on loans passed the Senate on a 21-18 vote & several Republican legislators in opposition

During press conference @GovRonDeSantis was asked about veto of $26m in cultural/arts grants. He said he did it because some money would have gone to "inappropriate" outfits such as the "Fringe Festival" & the Legislature needs to "reevaluate" how's that done ... background .. The Legislature sets aside money for projects that go through a process that includes evaluation by a council appointed by the governor/Legislature. The Sec. of State - also appointed by governor - also reviews list before it goes to Legislature files.floridados.gov/media/706640/g…

Seeking clarification but it looks like @GovRonDeSantis may have vetoed nearly $57m used to pay for support services for the entire Florida Legislature. The aim may have been to wipe out a study dealing with credit card fees being paid for out of this line item. But still.. Legislature is evaluating the impact of this veto. But the 57m DeSantis vetoed is used to pay for lobbyist registration, IT for Legislature, legislative auditors, the Office of Economic and Demographic Research, joint committees ...

A hearing scheduled this morning in the Washington Post lawsuit against the Fla. Dept of Law Enforcement & @GovRonDeSantis administration was scrapped this a.m. after Judge Angela Dempsey recused herself ... Dempsey was supposed to hold a hearing on a request by FDLE and the gov office to shield a handful of top aides including Alex Kelly, who had been the governor's interim chief of staff, from being deposed in the lawsuit. A hearing on the underlying case was scheduled for April

DeSantis' chartered jet trade mission around the world cost nearly $1.6 million via @politico Enterprise Fla. said only private money was used for mission that included use of 2 chartered jetspoliti.co/3rISzEs In a summary about the mission Enterprise Fla asserted that it needed to use charter jets for DeSantis' trade mission that included stops in Japan, S. Korea, Israel and U.K.

The president of @FloridaState tells board of trustees that without a "radical" change of revenue distribution FSU needs to "seriously" look at leaving the ACC FSU President McCullough says he and other top officials have spent the past year looking at "every possible option"

Breaking: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has severed his connection to his long-standing state political committee and the tens of millions of dollars that it now controls, a step he needs to take ahead of a presidential campaign. politico.com/news/2023/05/0… Control of Friends of Ron DeSantis has shifted to State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a key ally of the governor in the Legislature. DeSantis is no longer listed as a person associated with Friends of Ron DeSantis, which has close to $86 million in the bank

In today's Playbook I outlined how the administration of @GovRonDeSantis has been pushing for a court to recognize executive privilege even though it has never been recognized previously - a move that would shield records and questioning of admin officials ... Attorneys representing the governor have been pressing the concept of executive privilege in several cases including ones dealing with redistricting & the migrant relocation program to name a couple ...

Fla Leg releases bills for next week's special session on Friday night 3 days before the bills have their first hearing .... In essence, the taxpayers will continue to bail out insurers, rates will likely go up for a lot of folks in the state, and insurers will avoid lawsuits The changes will be major for the more than 1 million Citizens customers - many of them in South Florida - including making it easier to force customers to leave Citizens and pay higher rates with other carriers

Today's Fla. civics lesson - A legislator cannot be removed from office by the governor even if arrested
Fla Constitution states that "each house shall be the sole judge of the qualifications" of members & each house may expel a member by 2/3 vote so with that - U.S. DOJ today announced that Rep. Joe Harding of Williston has been indicted on 6 counts, including wire fraud, money laundering and making false statements

During his acceptance speech new Fla. House speaker @Paul_Renner pledged to all members, including Democrats, that "we will have robust debate." Someone on the House floor let out a very loud laugh. Renner then promises to tackle inflation and contends the Legislature will reduce taxes, "tackle runaway insurance costs" and deal with housing costs, gas prices and utility costs....

DeSantis defies Legislature, nixes $175M for local projects...
subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2022/1…
So about this .... A senior administration official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said in an interview on Thursday that the governor took this action because he had constitutional concerns that the way the Legislature structured the spending violated the separation of powers.

Florida appeals court reverses ruling on Rebekah Jones - says she can stay on ballot

The court basically said that you can't challenge someone's signed candidate oath - regardless of the underlying facts ... Court said that the law doesn't require actual proof The court says well if the Legislature really wanted this candidate oath to count then they would have included additional enforcement mechanisms....so in other words the signed oath is ... meaningless...

Lawsuit seeking to knock Rebekah Jones off the CD 1 ballot will go to a final hearing on Aug. 5. The hearing scheduled to be held in TLH courtroom - depending on Jones' health. Her lawyer told Judge Cooper this a.m. Jones has Covid-19. She was at Leadership Blue last wkend Jones was on this morning's Zoom hearing to set up a schedule for the case. @peggyforFL1 and a voter are seeking to disqualify Jones on the grounds that she was not a registered Democrat for 365 days ahead of qualifying

In her opening statement of the Fried-Crist debate @NikkiFried has a gaffe and says she's the candidate who has been "pro life her whole entire life." @CharlieCrist cites Fried's remark and says "I just noted that my opponent said she's been pro-life her whole life. Sometimes that happens, Nikki. And I know
that's not the case. And I hope you know that's not the case for me."

Campaign of @NikkiFried circulates an internal poll that shows Fried down by just 4 points - 38% to 34% with 29% undecided - among likely Dem primary voters. Maintains it shifts decisively to Fried when voters learn more about her, inc that she won statewide in 18. Fried campaign takeaway is that they don't need to spend a lot of money on ads in order to affect the outcome of primary. now FWIW - campaign said MOE is plus/minus 4% Did not share questions, or crosstabs

So a tad confused. Here's a tweet noting that Fred Guttenberg endorsed Nikki Fried in June 2021. @NikkiFried campaign put out an "endorsement alert" today hailing the endorsement

https://twitter.com/friedanddemings/status/1403896501236027393

Here's a story from Feb. of this year that called Guttenberg the "best known supporter" of Fried

KA-BOOM In a hefty ruling where Judge Mark Walker goes over some of Florida's recent legislative history, he strikes down several provisions of last year's election law. BUT he also rules that Fla must obtain preclearance from the fed court before it enacts new elex laws in key areas

From earlier today .... GOP Sen. Marco Rubio is sponsoring the bill to rename Tallahassee courthouse. The no votes were nearly all from Republicans, including Rep. Dunn, who represents part of Tallahassee

https://twitter.com/CraigCaplan/status/1509276415371456519

Several Fla Republicans did vote to rename the Tallahassee courthouse - Reps. Diaz-Balart, Gimenez, Posey, Salazar, Waltz, Webster But other Rs -Buchanan, Cammack, Bilirakis, Mast, Gaetz, Donalds, Rutherford, Franklin, Steube were no votes

Florida prepares to rumble yet again over redistricting politi.co/3qOggHx via @politico A few takeaways re yesterday's action...
One - DeSantis general counsel made the same arguments about reconfigured CD 5 - and the diminishment of minority voters...that Democrats did when they voted against the map...