Winner and Loser of the Week in Florida politics — Week of 4.18.21

Nikki Fried’s long slog toward the Governor’s Mansion hit some potholes last week.

First, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the recreational marijuana initiative Fried strongly supported can’t go on the ballot, but it’s probably moot now. By a 5-2 vote, the justices ruled that the amendment’s wording was too vague.

Backers of the proposal already secured more than 62% of the nearly 900,000 petition signatures needed to put the proposal on the 2022 ballot.

We’ll have more on that issue several paragraphs down.

In the meantime, though, it appears U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist really will challenge Fried in the primary. And U.S. Rep. Val Demings continues to say she might run for Governor as well.

That could force Fried into a money-draining battle to win the nomination, which wouldn’t be easy. Meanwhile, DeSantis gets regular free media on Fox and could keep raising money instead of spending.

If Fried makes it to the showdown with DeSantis, she’ll need a big turnout in traditionally Democrat-friendly South Florida. It can’t be a coincidence that she appeared last week on CBS4 in Miami.

Host Jim DeFede, quite naturally, asked when she will announce her candidacy.

“That’s a question that I get asked every single day. And I think that more and more people keep coming up to me and not only asking me when, but please. Please run,” she said.

Fried pointed as attributes to her status as “our only statewide elected Democrat, and somebody who has been very vocal on what I believe is this mismanagement of COVID and the vaccine rollout,” and criticized DeSantis’ leadership style, “or lack thereof of.”

DeFede asked about a domestic dispute Fried had with her boyfriend last June in Fort Lauderdale. She reiterated that it was verbal, not physical.

Fried has a medical marijuana card to help with her sleep disorder. DeFede asked if that qualified as serious problems like cancer or AIDS that medical marijuana is designed for.

It’s way, way, way too early to predict how this race could end, but one thing is for sure. This is the grilling Fried can and should expect in a campaign to lead the nation’s third-largest state. And it’s just getting started.

Winners

Honorable mention: Gwen Graham and Bill Nelson. These two received plum assignments that allow them to keep a public profile.

President Joe Biden chose Graham to serve as an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education. Her job includes work with legislation and congressional affairs.

She served in the U.S. House from 2015-17 but then lost in the 2018 Democratic primary for Governor against Andrew Gillum.

Nelson, meanwhile, had confirmation hearings last week for the post of NASA Administrator.

His performance drew praise from both sides of the aisle.

Nelson also earned a headline for saying astronauts might return to the moon by 2024.  The Donald Trump administration set that original target date.

NASA officials privately say they don’t believe that is feasible.

Almost (but not quite) biggest winner: Wilton Simpson. The Florida Senate President hit the trifecta.

He was a major player in helping push the mega-millions gambling Compact with the Seminole Tribe. DeSantis signed the compact, but it still needs approval from the House and the U.S. Department of the Interior. That’s no sure thing.

The issue will end up in a Special Session in May.

Simpson’s leadership was critical to get the issue this far along.

Simpson also saw one of his top priorities head to the Governor’s desk for a signature. It’s S.B. 88, the Right To Farm Act.

He is an egg farmer in Citrus County, so this one might be personal. That doesn’t mean it isn’t needed.

The law could protect farmers from people who move into rural communities and then file complaints against them. It creates a high bar for lawsuits against farmers for things like environmental violations and so on.

Lastly, the wedding day arrived Saturday for Simpson’s son, Wilton Jr.

That capped off a pretty good week, wouldn’t you say?

But the biggest win of the week goes to …

The biggest winner: Sports bettors. You know that gambling compact we mentioned in the previous segment? It opens the door to legalized sports betting in Florida, which could bring a windfall to the state’s coffers.

For instance, Nevada sportsbooks reported $136 million in bets on just the 2021 Super Bowl between Tampa Bay and Kansas City. And that was just from legal wagers.

Major sports leagues traditionally opposed gambling on their events — just ask Pete Rose  However, that view softened in recent years..

Look at the ban on sports betting as the modern-day prohibition issue. People figured a way around prohibition in the 1920s.  It’s the same with sports betting.

It’s also crystal clear that people who wanted to take the Bucs plus-3 ½ points against Kansas City in the Super Bowl found a way — legal or not. Florida is smart to cash in.

Look on the bright side. This might put bookies out of business.

Losers

Dishonorable mention: Broward and Hillsborough school leaders. It was a bad week for those people.

In Broward County, FDLE officers arrested Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie and School Board attorney Barbara Myrick. Runcie is accused of lying to a grand jury investigating the district’s response to school-related safety laws.

Authorities charged Myrick with unlawful disclosure of statewide grand jury proceedings.

Both charges are third-degree felonies.

DeSantis impaneled the grand jury in 2019, a year after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.

Runcie’s indictment includes an allegation that the district routinely underreports crimes at its schools.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported in 2018 that many crimes that take place on school campuses are never reported to the state.

Meanwhile, Hillsborough Schools Superintendent Addison Davis faces fierce pushback over a plan to cut more than 1,000 jobs — including teachers. Ninety-two teachers received unsigned emails that their jobs are eliminated. They are not eligible to seek another position.

Davis said the cuts are necessary because the district has a $100 million budget shortfall.

A “Ditch Davis” Facebook group started a petition demanding his firing. It has about 4,000 signatures. If that’s not bad enough, now Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran is on their back. He threatened a state takeover of the district.

“Make no mistake about it,” he wrote to Board Chair Lynn Gray. “If your board neither possess the will nor the ability to develop an approvable plan … I will be forced to utilize the totality of powers…” his office has at its disposal.

Almost (but not quite) biggest loser: Recreational marijuana. The Florida Supreme Court deep-sixed a proposed Constitutional ballot initiative to legalize adult-use marijuana.

The proposal is “affirmatively misleading” according to the majority opinion in the 5-2 case.

Even if voters had passed the proposal, recreational marijuana remains illegal under federal law. The majority opinion held that is “no small matter.”

Maybe so, but 16 states and the District of Columbia legalized weed, and Virginia may soon be the 17^th.

You know, lawmakers, it might be simpler if you’d just legalize and regulate weed the way you do alcohol.

It’s just a thought.

The biggest loser(s): DeSantis and Anthony Sabatini. A two-way tie for last.

First, we’ll deal with Sabatini.

An unabashed supporter of former President Trump (it still feels good to call him former), Sabatini, we can presume, agreed with his Dear Leader’s position about NFL players who knelt during the national anthem.

However, kneeling that led to a murder conviction for a disgraced cop in Minneapolis? That’s different.

“Mob justice” Sabatini tweeted, although since that’s all he wrote, perhaps he referred to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. You think? OK, maybe not.

But the idea that jurors convicted Derek Chauvin to avoid a riot has a toehold in the Republican groupthink. Even DeSantis tiptoed to the edge of that.

During an appearance with Laura Ingraham on Fox, DeSantis said he hoped the jury didn’t convict Chauvin because members were afraid of riots.

“I’m not saying that’s what happened here,” DeSantis quickly said.

That’s straight out of Trump’s playbook. You hint at something outrageous and then add that’s just what you heard some people say.

And in a testament to bad timing, DeSantis signed the we-don’t-need-this bill to stiffen penalties for rioters shortly before the Minneapolis jury found Chauvin guilty. Legal challenges to the law are already underway.

Credit where it’s due, though. As we noted above, the Governor received praise from the Seminole Tribe for his work on the gambling Compact.

Maybe we can eventually bet on whether courts overturn the anti-riot law.