Winner and Loser of the Week in Florida politics — Week of Feb. 9

If you hear the sound of pounding on a trash can, it can only mean one of three things: 1) fastball; 2) curveball; 3) the Houston Astros are back in Florida and deserve your scorn.

Yes, those jolly pranksters from Houston are set to grovel through Spring Training as penance for the 2017 World Series they stole, um, won*. The title will forever merit an asterisk because they cheated by stealing the signs from opponents that signal what pitch was coming. Someone in the Houston dugout relayed the information to the hitter by striking a trash can.

You may have heard something about that.

Knowing what the pitcher is about to throw gives the hitter an enormous advantage.

The Astros’ manager and general manager lost their jobs over this, but from the sound of things the team’s owner, Jim Crane, may have lost his mind.

Crane amazingly said, “Our opinion is that this didn’t impact the game.”

That should be enough to make him a Lifetime Loser in this little weekly exercise we call “Winners and Losers.”

Now, on with the show.

Winners:

VISIT Florida: It once again may escape the destruction state House budget hawks, including Speaker Jose Oliva, want to inflict. The Senate budgeted $52.5 million to keep VISIT Florida going through 2028, and Oliva signaled a reluctant concession.

“I think it’s an ongoing process,” he said. “But I think that the Governor will end up doing as he did last year – well overall.”

VISIT Florida is a favorite of Gov. Ron DeSantis. That explains why it survives.

President Donald Trump: The Washington Post reported it will cost couples $580,600 to attend a dinner and fund-raiser that was scheduled for Saturday night at the Palm Beach estate of billionaire Nelson Peltz.

Attendees get a photo with the Prez, so there is that.

But the week’s biggest winner is…

Mike Bloomberg: Remember how Florida was looking like it was in the bag for Joe Biden? Well, Bloomberg has taken the lead now, according to St. Pete Polls.

Biden, once the darling of Sunshine State Democrats, fell 15 percent in one month, according to that survey.

Many Democrats remain skittish about Bloomberg’s self-funded tactics, but he is rapidly gaining ground.

Losers

Ross Spano: Speaking of beleaguered, Spano, a Republican who represents Florida’s 15^th Congressional District, is back in the news. He has a standing reservation to appear in this space.

Remember that likely illegal $180,000 campaign loan he received from two supporters? It continues to stick to his shoes like bubblegum on hot pavement.

He was already facing a federal ethics probe over that. Now, the Florida Bar confirmed to the Tampa Bay Times that it is investigating Spano over the same issue.

Spano admitted the loans broke the rules but said it was an honest mistake. That’s political-speak for “the dog ate my homework.”

“In short what happened was I took a personal loan from friends and then I loaned that money to the campaign,” he told WTSP-TV. “We believed we could do it. I’d never done it before and got some council that we could — and operated under the assumption that we could.”

Florida print journalism: It’s another bad week for the state of newspapers.

The giant McClatchy Co., the second-largest local news chain in the country, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday. McClatchy owns, among many other properties, the venerable Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald, and the Bradenton Herald.

If the court accepts the reorganization plan, the new owners probably will be Chatham Asset Management LLC, a hedge fund. They would operate McClatchy as a privately held company. Also, they will accelerate the move from print to digital.

But the biggest loser tag goes to a group that should be an example of to do things correctly.

Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence: There’s a bad moon rising at the state’s flagship organization to address domestic violence. Multiple investigations are underway to find out what kind of party boat they were running on the public tab. Apparently, it was a dandy one.

There have been concerns about obscenely high executive salaries and other issues at FCADA. But it really hit the fan last week after the non-profit caved to an audit demand for 104,000 documents. Officials kept finding reasons to withhold the papers, and now we know why it took a subpoena to get them.

Documents showed some eye-popping stuff. Start with this: former CEO and President Tiffany Carr received more than $7 million in compensation and 210 days of annual paid leave.

Nice work if you can get it.

“The Florida House will act swiftly to secure evidence while ensuring that no program assisting victims of domestic violence is disrupted,” Speaker Oliva said. “In addition, if we determine it is warranted, we will refer any criminal activity to appropriate law enforcement agencies.”

Stay tuned.