Winner and Loser of the Week in Florida politics — Week of 6.25.23

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action sucked up a lot of oxygen in the room this week. But another recent court ruling could have a significant effect on Florida.

SCOTUS ruled against North Carolina lawmakers who argued the courts are powerless to review congressional maps put forward by a state Legislature. That ruling comes as Florida faces a lawsuit over its map, drawn in 2022.

The North Carolina ruling, when combined with the Court’s decision that Alabama must draw a map with an additional Black-controlled district, signals that Florida’s current map could go down the drain.

Let’s be clear on what happened in 2022: Gov. Ron DeSantis flexed his muscle by refusing to accept a map drawn by the Legislature that aimed to offer somewhat of a compromise and preserve certain Black-majority districts while also likely providing an edge to conservatives.

That wasn’t good enough for the Governor, who insisted that a previously court-ordered district drawn from Jacksonville to Tallahassee be eliminated.

Let’s also be honest: that district’s shape looked strange! It was clearly a bit geographically goofy in order to provide Black voters control of another congressional district to comply with federal law and accomplish the noble goal of ensuring Black voters were not disproportionately shut out of power.

DeSantis, however, wanted to prove a point and said that district had to go. His end goal, seemingly, was to use the courts to challenge the idea that a district like that had to exist. And in doing so, he drew a map that was clearly gerrymandered to benefit Republicans and shoved it down the Legislature’s throat in a Special Session.

Lawmakers backed down and approved the map, which moved Florida from a 16-11 GOP advantage in the House before redistricting to a 20-8 advantage afterward (Florida gained one seat following the Census).

It was a clear power play. But the Supreme Court in its recent rulings seems to be signaling they would not come down on DeSantis’ side here.

He took his shot, but it doesn’t look like he’s going to get his way.

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

Winners

Honorable mention: Black farmers. Black farmers got a major win this week when Gov. DeSantis signed legislation granting licenses to participate in the state’s medical marijuana industry.

The new law ends a yearslong fight for Black farmers after the state launched its medical marijuana program following a successful ballot initiative legalizing the medicine.

When the program first launched, no Black farmers were granted licenses by the state. That was due in part to application requirements that effectively shut out Black farmers. Applicants had to pay $60,000, and also had to prove they were in business for at least 30 years. That was a hard standard to meet for a demographic that did not have equal access to the industry decades ago.

This past September saw the first license to a Black farmer go out, but several others wanted in on the medical marijuana market. That prompted a lawsuit. But the new legislation will now provide licenses to many of those farmers, possibly allowing the state to end that legal dispute.

Rep. Spencer Roach sponsored the bill (HB 387), with Sen. Jason Brodeur backing the Senate companion.

That larger legislation allowed patients to use telehealth to renew medical marijuana certifications. But Sen. Darryl Rouson and Rep. Tracie Davis, both Democrats, pushed for an amendment expanding the licenses for Black farmers.

The Republican sponsors accepted the amendment, and now a Republican Governor has signed it, showing it’s still possible for the parties to agree on racially equitable measures even as Florida serves as a hotbed for the nation’s culture wars.

Almost (but not quite) the biggest winner: Step Up for Students. The nonprofit, which assists in administering the state’s scholarship programs, has helped approve at least 150,000 private school vouchers after lawmakers passed legislation opening up those vouchers to all Floridians, regardless of income.

“It’s going to be a world record for Florida and for the whole country actually,” said Doug Tuthill, president of Step Up for Students. “We will service about three times more students at step up for students than the other 49 states combined.”

The law was a boon to the organization, which is tasked with helping manage the as-yet-unknown demand for the new voucher program.

Legislators budgeted $642 million for the program, with a few extra hundred million dollars being available if demand is higher than lawmakers anticipated. But some analysts say costs could go much higher if a sufficient number of Floridians seek out the vouchers.

And those at Step Up for Students would certainly have their hands full if parents flood toward private schools in the years ahead. But as of now, it appears the organization is more than up to the task in helping families access the new resources.

The biggest winner: Beer, burgers and the American way. Happy Fourth of July. It’s a time to put away many of the petty squabbles that dominate political life nowadays and relax, hang with family and friends and just enjoy a good beer.

Well, except Bud Light, of course. You see, the company sent one can with a transgender influencer’s face on it to her in order to promote it. That caused conservatives — you know, the ones who repeatedly mock liberals for getting too triggered over “microaggressions” — to get very angry (but definitely not triggered!!!), so much so that they relentlessly pushed a mass boycott of Bud Light.

So maybe stay away from that brand (and anything else from Anheuser-Busch just to be safe). But good old-fashioned American food staples are fine: burgers, hot dogs, pizza, etc.

Well, not wood- or coal-fired pizza though. New York City’s liberal-leaning government wants to cut emissions, and has targeted certain pizza joints (reportedly less than 100, to be fair) to push them to pay thousands to install scrubbers to comply with new rules. The Democrat-led city — which certainly has more serious problems — is cracking down, courting conservative outrage. So maybe just stick to the grill.

At least faith in America is something we can all get behind and celebrate. Except, polling shows clear majorities of Americans think the nation’s standing will decline in several major ways by 2050. And two-thirds say the Founding Fathers would be disappointed in today’s America.

Hmm, I guess we can all just pack it up and go home then. We had a good run.

Isn’t a lot of this getting a bit ridiculous? Are we happy living in a political atmosphere where we are 10/10 offended at every single thing the other side of the political aisle does? Where Joe Biden is a dictator and Ron DeSantis is a fascist?

When everything is an emergency, nothing is. And as we villainize the other side, spark mass boycotts over things that don’t jibe with our personal social views so they get taken away for everyone else, and always assume the worst intentions of our political rivals, the more we retreat into our partisan caves and cement a split between the country.

The Founding Fathers gave us the amendment power to change parts of the Constitution we don’t like. We have free speech to speak up about things we’d like to see change. America isn’t perfect, but by and large, the tools are there to improve it. Isn’t that alone worth celebrating?

We have to first operate in political life with the understanding that we are one nation and one people. Hopefully this holiday weekend, we can put down the pitchforks, pick up the grill forks, and enjoy what we love about this country without getting perpetually enraged at every little thing we don’t.

Losers

Dishonorable mention: DeSantis’ mass appeal. DeSantis made a series of policy statements this week. And rather than appeal to a more mainstream base that could be open to a candidate other than Trump, DeSantis seems intent on mounting a campaign to out-Trump the former President, despite Trump’s grip on the base.

Just this week, DeSantis pushed a plan to end birthright citizenship, reiterated support for shooting down cartel members who cross the border, and repeated calls to bring back the Fort Bragg name.

That’s in addition to DeSantis saying he wants to renew Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy while also ending the Biden administration’s policy of releasing migrants who are awaiting asylum hearings.

Ending birthright citizenship would require an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, so that’s a long shot right out of the gate.

Promising to gun down cartel members surely fires up Republicans frustrated with Biden’s border policy. But is cartel members physically crossing the border the main problem here? Or is it that they push drugs into the U.S. and operate a system to bring in migrants, often while abusing them?

It’s quite clearly the latter, so the promise to shoot first and ask questions later looks like tough guy talk that isn’t really going to fix any underlying issues.

As for Fort Bragg, Braxton Bragg was a Confederate general. But beyond representing individuals who betrayed the United States, he was also just a really bad general who lost multiple key engagements. If serving for the Confederacy isn’t disqualifying for some, shouldn’t being a third-rate general be enough? Why is this the hill to die on?

The answer to that, and the reason DeSantis is pushing all of this stuff rapid fire, appears to be that he’s locked in to attempting to appeal to as rabid a base as possible and is just deemphasizing, or giving up entirely, any effort to appeal to a broad mass of Republicans and Americans at large.

That’s true outside of policy as well, as DeSantis had this gem at a New Hampshire town hall when asked if Trump “violated the peaceful transfer of power” with his actions on Jan. 6.

“So I wasn’t anywhere near Washington that day. I have nothing to do with what happened that day,” DeSantis responded, without ever actually answering the question. “Obviously, I didn’t enjoy seeing, you know, what would happen, but we’ve got to go forward on this stuff.”

In other words: Move on, nothing to see here.

So how’s it working? Well in the aforementioned New Hampshire — where DeSantis spent a good bit of time this week and is concentrating in an effort to make an impressive early showing — he’s down almost 30 points to Trump and falling.

This is, as we’ve said before, not to pile on DeSantis or declare his candidacy dead. But it’s clear right now his candidacy is failing to to catch on and spark a serious challenge to Trump’s dominance.

Perhaps the Governor is behind the scenes praying for Trump’s legal troubles to catch up to the former President and kick him out of the field, where DeSantis will be ready to take the mantle. Ideally, you should run a campaign with an actual executable strategy where you take control of your own destiny. But hey, maybe parking himself on the far Right and just hoping for the best will work out for him.

Almost (but not quite) the biggest loser: Gainesville. The Governor was active in signing legislation this week, and one move had significant consequences for Gainesville.

DeSantis signed a measure axing the Gainesville City Commission’s control of the city’s power infrastructure, allowing the Governor to appoint members to a new Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority board.

The City Commission has controlled the utility for a century, and as The Gainesville Sun recounted, debates surrounding utilities have been an important part of local politics there. But with rates rising, and with $1.7 billion in debt hanging over the utility, the Legislature has pulled the plug on the City Commission’s power.

As of Saturday, when the bill took effect, the Governor has 120 days to issue a notice seeking nominations to fill the new five-person board. Once that notice is triggered, the nomination period will last a minimum of 30 days, and the Governor will then have 60 days to make his selections final.

City officials for years have promised plans to cut rates and lower the debt to a sufficient extent to appease the Legislature, and they’ve failed. Once the nomination process goes through, the state’s takeover of the utility will be complete.

While Gainesville city officials are losing out here, perhaps these changes can finally get the utility under control and bring some savings to residents.

The biggest loser: Francis Suarez. Uyghur (noun):

1) A Turkic ethnic group native to China’s northwest Xinjiang region. Most identify as Muslims.

2) A topic which may have just killed the Miami Mayor’s long shot presidential campaign.

Suarez stepped in it during an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt Tuesday. As the two discussed Chine, Hewitt asked about the abuse of the group, about 1 million of which have reportedly been abused while placed in “reeducation camps.”

“Will you be talking about the Uyghurs in your campaign?” Hewitt asked.

“What the what? What’s a Uyghur?” Suarez responded.

Hewitt replied by saying Suraez has “to get smart” on the issue before moving on. But not content with whiffing on the question once, Suarez brought it up again at the interview’s close.

“You gave me homework, Hugh. I’ll look at — what was it? What’d you call it, a weeble?”

About six hours after the gaffe, Suarez gave this rationale for his answer: “Of course, I am well aware of the suffering of the Uyghurs in China. They are being enslaved because of their faith. China has a deplorable record on human rights and all people of faith suffer there. I didn’t recognize the pronunciation my friend Hugh Hewitt used. That’s on me.”

No one is expected to be an expert on everything. And Suarez, who has played up his interest in tech while Mayor, probably knows things in that sphere that other candidates don’t.

But having a complete lack of awareness about human rights abuses perpetrated by arguably America’s No. 1 geopolitical rival is unacceptable. Suarez can try brushing this off as a “pronunciation mix-up,” but the pronunciation Hewitt used is commonplace in reporting on China’s treatment of the Uyghurs. Voters can evaluate whether that explanation is legitimate or a scrambled damage control effort after Suarez was relentlessly mocked for his answer.

Anyone can run for President. And Suarez’s sphere has convinced him that he has a shot to pull off a miracle win. But to do so, there is little to no margin for error. And Suarez made a major one this week.