Staff Reports
Flowers are blooming. The chill of March fades into April and May heat. And just like the cycle of nature, the cycle of campaigns is kicking off anew.
In Congressional races, we are starting to see real action. Political action committees are kicking up, and so is the end of quarter fundraising.
What this means: all the paper tiger campaigns will be tested by the heat of the process, an unforgiving sunlight illumination that offers no quarter.
Who are the contenders? Who are the pretenders?
Soon we shall know the difference.
PAC targets Waltz in CD 6
Fox News viewers in Florida’s 6th Congressional District starting Monday saw the first of many ads in the Republican primary.
The very first ad in the district that includes Volusia, Flagler and southern St. Johns counties, however, was from a political action committee targeting candidate Mike Waltz.
The committee seems to support opponent John Ward.
Via Advertising Analytics: “American Jobs and Growth PAC” bought $19,000 in ad time on Fox News Channel. Spots will run from Monday to Friday.
The PAC is opposed to Waltz, per the Federal Elections Commission webpage for the committee.
The 15-second ad features a Waltz voice-over from the 2016 campaign, saying “look at Donald Trump‘s real record and stop him now,” with graphics proclaiming Trump’s “real record” as being the tax cut package, and appointing Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.
The committee has only begun to spend money, per its list of contributions.
John Foley, a business associate of Ward, leads all donors with $100,000 contributed in what thus far is a ~$140,000 nest egg.
DeSantis denies Cambridge Analytica ties
Moving from the CD 6 race to the incumbent in CD 6 … Florida Democrats questioned, per the Daytona Beach News-Journal, whether or not Rep. Ron DeSantis may have used controversial data-mining op Cambridge Analytica for his campaign.
The connection: the PAC of new National Security Adviser John Bolton, which donated to DeSantis, also paid Cambridge.
No dice, says the DeSantis campaign.
“No, we didn’t,” wrote spokesman Brad Herold to the Daytona paper. “And tell the FDP, if they spent more time trying to figure out why their message hasn’t resonated with Florida voters in over two decades and less time playing Inspector Clouseau with finance reports, they’d win more elections.”
Zing.
Peanut, tomato dumping drives Lawson to back NAFTA revamp
Florida’s 5th Congressional District is far-flung, as Al Lawson’s town hall last weekend shows.
In Tallahassee, it focused on an issue that has nothing to do with the Jacksonville end of the district: peanut and tomato dumping.
“While Central and South Florida are major hubs of citrus and sugar production, North Florida and South Georgia produce peanuts and tomatoes. And those two crops, in addition to dairy, are being squeezed by overproduction from Canada and Mexico, say local farmers. For that reason, Congressman Lawson says he’s in support of renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement,” reports WFSU.
“Most farmers here, if you talk to the people who are tomato farmers they’ll tell you they have a big problem. So I think something is going to happen in that regard,” Lawson told the Tallahassee outlet.
Trump wants NAFTA renegotiated, but the movement has been slow.
Peanut interests support Lawson strongly as a candidate.
Brown fundraises
Former Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown, a candidate for Florida’s 5th Congressional District, had what he called a “big fundraiser” Wednesday evening.
Accompanying Brown was Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Congressional Black Caucus member who endorsed him over incumbent Democratic Rep. Lawson.
At the end of the last quarter, before Brown declared as a candidate, Lawson had lackluster fundraising.
Lawson, the incumbent in Florida’s CD 5, closed 2017 with $100,531 on hand, off $235,281 raised.
Duval legislators extol Legislative Session … for the most part
With the Legislative Session in the rearview mirror, Northeast Florida legislators are looking back at the 60 days with a sense of accomplishment, tempered in some cases with a sense that there are more battles to fight and win.
While the $12.5 million of state money for the Talleyrand Connector was the most significant win, every legislator Florida Politics talked to mentioned other wins as well.
The most candid comments were from Senate Minority Leader Designate Audrey Gibson, who was very out front about difficulties of the process: “Go figure, it’s life in an unbalanced Legislature which I am on a mission to change! I am so honored to serve and am on the battlefield in and out of Session because Session is not the only measure of success.”
Gibson, of course, will face a primary challenge from Jacksonville City Councilman Reggie Brown.
Gains in rough year, say St. Johns legislators
The St. Augustine Record was on hand for St. Johns County legislators talking about gains in a rough year.
U.S. Rep. John Rutherford said his introduction to Congress was “quite informative.”
Sen. Travis Hutson discussed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act.
“Two words: We delivered,” said Rep. Paul Renner about the budget.
Rep. Cyndi Stevenson said it was a bit of a “rough” year, but not one without “a strong footing to go forward on.”
Patronis in Jax to highlight expansion of PTSD benefits
This week, CFO Jimmy Patronis joined Mayor Lenny Curry, state Sen. Gibson, Reps. Cord Byrd, Tracie Davis and Jason Fischer, as well as Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Chief Kurt Wilson and members of the fire service and law enforcement communities to highlight the signing of Senate Bill 376, expanding mental health benefits for first responders.
Gov. Rick Scott signed the bill this week in Tampa surrounded by hundreds of first responders from across the state. Sen. Lauren Book and Rep. Matt Willhite sponsored SB 376.
Zeigler running against unfair taxation in HD 15
Yacht broker Mark Zeigler entered the GOP primary in House District 15 last month.
Incumbent Jay Fant is currently running for Attorney General. Zeigler will face Joseph Hogan and Wyman Duggan.
Zeigler, alone among the field, is known for his tenure as a drummer in Pretty Boy Freud, the legends of Jacksonville’s club scene decades ago. As a drummer and an entrepreneur, his motivations for running are pretty straightforward and are rooted in unfair taxation.
One of the issues facing businesses like his, Zeigler says, is the estimated tax from the Department of Revenue.
“If you collect $200,000 in sales taxes [in a given year], in January you get a love letter,” Zeigler said.
That epistle contains an estimated tax, an added burden for businesses just as they try to navigate the January doldrums. And that tax affects investment in the business, including but not limited to new hiring and new equipment.
The National Federation of Independent Business is “looking hard at this issue,” Zeigler said. “I think I’m the messenger who can carry it.”
Pill suit moving forward
The Jacksonville Daily Record notes that the city of Jacksonville has retained lawyers with a track record for its lawsuit against Big Pharma.
Since 2007, Scott and Scott have brought in more than $1.2 billion in these cases, per the “144-page complaint for damages and injunctive relief filed in the 4th Judicial Circuit by the city against Perdue Pharma LLP and 24 other defendants.”
“The complaint alleges that the defendants engaged in a systematic plan to deceive doctors and patients about the products’ efficacy in the management of chronic pain and the addictive nature of their products,” the Daily Record asserts.
‘Open government’ task force
Jacksonville City Council President Anna Brosche wanted a task force to look at transparency in local government.
She got it.
The bill (2018-133) cleared Tuesday’s Council agenda after having passed the Rules Committee unanimously last week.
“The Task Force on Open Government” will “undertake an in-depth review of Jacksonville’s legislative process and the methods by which the public accesses government” and “make recommendations for how the City of Jacksonville can be more open and accessible to the public.”
Brosche originally wanted one-cycle approval of the concept so the task force would have more time to operate, but relented after Mayor Curry‘s office raised concerns that emergency legislation contravened the goal of “open and accessible government.”
The panel wraps by the end of June. As does the Brosche presidency.
JEA special committee not so special anymore
Big news from Jacksonville City Council amounted to a setback for Council President Brosche when her 19 colleagues decided to subvert her five-person “special committee” on the JEA sale by including all 19 members on the panel.
The debate was bruising, elliptical and lasted for hours; all kicked off by a floor motion from Councilman Matt Schellenberg to kill the committee. That didn’t fly. Neither did a move by Councilwoman Lori Boyer to keep the committee at five but kill its subpoena power.
Essentially, this will derail the committee from deep dives into relationships between JEA execs and the Mayor’s Office, moving the discussion to the pros and cons of a sale from “what did _______ know and when did he know it?” style questions.
After the discussion had wrapped, one prominent lobbyist was heard to remark that some of those who fought hardest against changing the committee were guaranteed political opponents in next year’s elections.
The principal opponent of kneecapping the committee structure, Councilman Garrett Dennis, on a Wednesday radio hit described a City Hall that pivots on intimidation tactics, and a Mayor’s Office that will get its way by any means necessary.
“Ray Charles can see who’s behind selling JEA,” Dennis quipped near the program’s end, after describing a “climate” where Curry’s team rules by fear, with “the stick and the stick.”
“If you don’t do this, we’ll do this”: Dennis’ summation of the strategy.
Dennis reiterated claims of “threats” levied on him “in offices,” “comments from the Mayor” in which Curry purportedly said that he would “make sure the money spigot is turned off in [Dennis’] district.”
“Now you see the full staff at Council meetings,” Dennis said, with “all the [Mayor’s] top lieutenants on the first and second row” with an “intimidating” look and “subliminal tactics.”
Kids Hope CEO hopeful feels hopeless, withdraws from search
The Florida Times-Union reports that the field of Kids Hope Alliance CEO hopefuls is a bit narrower after one candidate said the process was unfair and withdrew.
Afira DeVries, who leads the United Way of Roanoke Valley in Virginia, withdrew via email.
“After carefully reviewing the qualifications for the position in contrast to the current scoring and ranking outcomes, it seems that inherent relational advantages enjoyed by other candidates impair my chances of being awarded the position,” DeVries wrote. “Although I remain confident that my talents, skills and experience align perfectly to this exciting role, continuing at this point appears to be more of an exercise than a progressive action toward a viable opportunity.”
Among those candidates: former board member Joe Peppers, who launched his run while still on the board.
Councilman Garrett Dennis, a frequent antagonist of the Curry administration, says there is a “cloud” over that candidacy and that Peppers should withdraw his bid.
District pushback dominates ‘lunch and learn’
Jacksonville’s former Southside Generating Station was the subject of a City Council “lunch and learn” Monday.
Specifically, the proposed District redevelopment, which was described as a “labor of love” by the head of the Downtown Investment Authority, but which was not regarded quite so uncritically by Jacksonville City Council members.
Politically connected developers Peter Rummell and Michael Munz have a deal, as of January, to buy the land for $18.6 million from the JEA Board. The city proposes also putting $26 million into infrastructure, though that’s still to be determined.
Councilwoman Lori Boyer, liaison to the Downtown Investment Authority, noted there were “questions and concerns” about the process in January, and that the meeting Monday was to “share where we are, get input, answer questions.”
While some questions were answered, others remain to be addressed.
Jax opportunity zones have urban core flavor
Jacksonville advanced some proposed “opportunity zones,” and many of them will be in the Urban Core.
The City of Jacksonville last week advanced suggestions to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity for Opportunity Zones, each with an urban core focus.
Per Neighborhoods Director Stephanie Burch, five census tracts have been chosen in the downtown area, under the aegis of the Downtown Investment Authority.
The areas chosen have the existing infrastructure, can absorb private capital, and have community redevelopment agencies, Burch wrote in a letter to DEO Director of Strategic Development Michael DiNapoli.
San Marco’s Southbank likewise is on the list, even as metrics show a real upswing, with an unemployment rate of just 2 percent (down from 32 percent in 2000). Curiously, the opportunity zone there overlaps with the District development, which could see $26 million in infrastructure spending and an additional $56 million in REV grants from the city, benefiting political power broker Peter Rummell‘s long-delayed development.
Gov. Scott will nominate these areas by April 20; ultimately, it will be the federal Department of Treasury‘s decision. Areas chosen will be eligible for tax breaks that expect to spur private investment and economic growth.
This week in appointments
Florida State College at Jacksonville District Board of Trustees
Laura DiBella, 39, of Fernandina Beach, is the port director of the Fernandina Ocean Highway and Port Authority and the executive director of the Nassau County Economic Development Board. DiBella succeeds Jimmie Mayo for a term ending May 31, 2019.
The Fiorentino Group looks back on Session
Jacksonville-based The Fiorentino Group takes a comprehensive look back on the 2018 Legislative Session, “one of the most unusual in recent memory.” Session began with calls for the Senate to address sexual harassment claims, and finishing with the Parkland tragedy, which brought “thousands of students and citizens to Tallahassee to push for gun safety regulations.”
Early funding priorities for both Gov. Scott and legislative leaders took a back seat to the aftermath of the February 14 mass shooting At Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which left 17 students and adults dead and shifted the focus of lawmakers to passing “comprehensive legislation relating to school safety, the purchase of firearms in Florida, and mental health services.”
But, in the eyes of The Fiorentino Group, Session was mostly successful for leaders, particularly in a “major election year” where politics played a role for Gov. Scott, House Speaker Richard Corcoran and Senate President Joe Negron.
The firm’s website offers a detailed breakdown of all the critical issues addressed in 2018, including the budget, public safety and firearms, transportation, environment, gaming, education, health care, hurricane response and preparedness, and economic development, taxes and incentives.
