Winner and Loser of the Week in Florida politics — Week of 10.30.22

When the dust clears from Tuesday’s Midterm Election, the most scrutinized numbers in Florida probably won’t center on the candidates. Polls suggest many of those races will be one-sided in favor of Republicans.

But voting rights advocates will pay close attention to the demographic breakdown of vote totals.

This is the first big election under Florida’s new enhanced voter (cough) security measures. The new law, pushed through the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, is supposed to reduce the chance of voter fraud.

Critics, however, say it’s designed to suppress minority voters.

So, we’ll see if the numbers reflect that concern.

Many Republicans continue to spew the garbage that faceless liberal gremlins stole the 2020 election from the Dear Leader of Mar-a-Lago. Don’t try to confuse them with facts to the contrary because that’s a waste of precious oxygen.

To prove — PROVE, I say — that voter fraud is rampant in Florida, the Governor whipped up a big news conference to announce his ballyhooed new elections crime unit arrested 20 people for illegal voting. They were mostly ex-felons, many of whom produced voter cards from election officials who registered them to cast a ballot.

Otherwise, things seem fairly calm throughout early voting. However, we’ll have to wait until workers count the ballots and the winners celebrate before we can say the new law kept things smooth or depressed turnout among minority groups.

Now, it’s on to our weekly game of winners and losers.

Winners

Honorable mention: Sleepyheads. Today, as you know by now, is “fall back” day when we engage in the annual ritual of moving the clocks back an hour to make up for the hour we lost in the spring.

There seems to be wide disdain for the practice, with public opinion — especially in Florida — strongly favoring the idea of picking one time and sticking with it. The Legislature a few years ago passed a bill seeking the elimination of “spring forward, fall back.”

Alas, that needs approval from Congress, and lawmakers have shown no interest in taking up the matter.

So, enjoy your extra hour of sleep this morning. You earned it.

Almost (but not quite) biggest winner: GOP’s rapid growth. Do you wonder how Florida turned red so rapidly? Renzo Downey of Florida Politics has the answer.

He reported that since March 16, 2020, Florida had received an influx of an estimated 394,000 active voters. The newcomers are twice as likely to be Republicans as they are to be Democrats.

He broke it down further.

According to L2 data, 193,300 Republicans and 96,900 Democrats moved here. The data suggests the approach to the pandemic by DeSantis played a big role in the choice by GOP voters to relocate here from blue states.

The biggest winner: Mori Hosseini. He’s the Chair of the University of Florida *UF) Board of Trustees, and he’s the person who guided Ben Sasse through turbulent waters to become UF’s next President.

Even though the vote to approve Sasse was unanimous, there was a lot of flak about his nomination and the way the Board conducted its search. Hosseini, however, is convinced UF made the right decision.

“From his background growing up the son of a teacher and wrestling coach in a middle-class family in a small Nebraska town, Dr. Sasse brings a commonsense, next-door-neighbor sensibility to working with others in tackling the complex matters that we will all face,” Hosseini said.

“For this and many other reasons, I am convinced he is the right person to lead UF into a bright and thrilling future.”

But now Sasse can prove to critics that Hosseini is correct. If he is successful, the controversy surrounding his hiring will go away.

And man, there were a lot of controversies. Students protested after the news broke that Sasse was the only finalist, and the UF Faculty Senate wanted him gone before trustees officially hired him.

The Independent Florida Alligator reported that by a 72-16 vote, the Senate approved a resolution of “no confidence” in Sasse. Many believe the Republican U.S. Senator from Nebraska is a political appointee who will be a puppet for demands from Tallahassee lawmakers.

The Faculty Senate focused on the lack of transparency in the search. The search committee interviewed a dozen candidates for the position. Trustees kept their names secret per a new Florida law, although the law also requires that UF to release the names of the finalists.

Sasse, however, was the only finalist.

The resolution read in part that the secrecy “undermined the trust and confidence in the University of Florida Faculty Senate in the selection of the sole finalist Dr. Ben Sasse.”

Welcome to Gainesville.

Mr. Sasse, Mr. Hosseini got you this far. Now, the ball is in your court.

Losers

Dishonorable mention: Keith Ingersoll. He’s pals with disgraced former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg.

Ingersoll pleaded guilty to five of 41 charges last month for his part in an investment scheme that bilked an investor out of millions of dollars. He promised to cooperate with investigators.

A judge allowed Ingersoll to remain free, but with the provision that he not leave the Central Florida area.

But as the Orlando Sentinel reported, Ingersoll blew it by boarding a cruise ship to the Bahamas, which definitely is not part of Central Florida. After he returned, U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie Hoffman Price ordered him held until his sentencing date on Jan. 18, 2023.

At least we know he’ll be in Central Florida. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison.

Almost (but not quite) biggest loser: The Jacksonville City Council. Laws? We don’t need no stinking laws!

That’s what the Council seems to be saying after members decided they wouldn’t even try to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The issue relates to the city’s district maps. A judge ruled the maps segregated council and school board districts by race.

As the Tributary reported, “For nearly a year, citizens, plaintiffs, and experts have urged the council to conduct voting-rights analyses to determine if the city needed to take race into account to comply with federal law. On Tuesday, General Counsel Jason Teal told the council’s redistricting committee there was not enough time to do so.”

Federal Judge Marcia Morales Howard was not amused.

After noting that she issued her original order on Oct. 12, she gave the Council until Nov. 8 to submit maps for the spring elections in 2023.

The voting rights act allows for the use of race in drawing district lines if there’s a compelling reason to do so. The NAACP and ACLU argued that there is sufficient reason to comply, but city lawyers aren’t sure.

In February 2021, city lawyers outlined steps the Council could take to see if the districts complied, but Council members didn’t follow up.

The biggest loser: Bigots who send bigoted messages. Florida loves to think of itself as the nation’s No. 1 family-friendly state. However, a steady increase in public displays of bigotry and antisemitism threatens that image.

Last weekend in Jacksonville, fans leaving the Florida-Georgia football game could see a message crawling on a video board outside the TIAA Bank Field. It said, “Kanye is right about the Jews.”

The same message appeared on a Jacksonville highway overpass and a downtown building.

That was a reference to recent antisemitic comments from the rapper Ye — formerly known as Kanye West.

It didn’t stop in Jacksonville.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that “someone spray-painted racist and antisemitic messages at the entrance of Weston’s Hunters Pointe subdivision. Swastikas and racist messages were painted on a sign to the neighborhood, the water pump area, speed limit sign, gazebo floor, stop sign and all over the playground equipment, a sheriff’s report said.”

How anyone can glamorize Nazis and hatred is beyond the capability of reasonable people to comprehend. But state lawmakers and law enforcement must get a handle on this. Otherwise, the hate will continue to ooze and pollute our state.