Last Call for 6.29.23 — A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics

Last Call — A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.

First Shot

This time Saturday, Donna Deegan will be the new Mayor of Jacksonville. But first, there will be a weekend full of events.

Tomorrow, Deegan will have what is billed as the “Mayor’s Inaugural Prayer Breakfast.” That ticketed event, to be held at the Garden Club at 1005 Riverside Ave., begins at 9 a.m.

Saturday will see a pair of events.

The main draw is Deegan’s swearing-in, which will take place at the Jacoby Symphony Hall, located on Water Street at the Center for Performing Arts. Proceedings kick off at 11:30 a.m. and the ceremony is open to the public.

Jacksonville Bold’s A.G. Gancarski and Tributary founder Andrew Pantazi will be on First Coast News starting at 11 that morning to offer some insight into the historic moment.

The celebration continues in the evening when River Club at 1 Independent Drive will host the ticketed “Mayor’s Inaugural Ball” event. The festivities begin at 7 p.m.

After a long Fourth of July weekend, the real work begins for the new administration, with high-profile issues on tap for the first few months of her tenure, most notably negotiations of the Jaguars stadium deal for the city.

Deegan, the first female Mayor in Jacksonville history and only the second Democrat in three decades, will be the face of the city at least for the next four years.

She enters office with a 14-5 Republican supermajority on City Council, which will serve as a counterweight to some of her priorities — if incoming City Council President Ron Salem has anything to say about it, a relocated Jacksonville jail may be in the future.

Evening Reads

—“Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action in college admissions and says race cannot be a factor” via Mark Sherman of The Associated Press

—“Curtailing affirmative action is a blow against a rising generation” via Ronald Brownstein of The Atlantic

—“Ketanji Brown Jackson bashes ‘let them eat cake’ conservatives in affirmative action dissent” via Ryan Bort of Rolling Stone

—“Can college diversity survive the end of affirmative action?” via Kevin Carey of Vox

—“Largely ignored by Congress, Ron DeSantis woos state lawmakers to help lift his campaign” via Alex Roarty of the Miami Herald

—“DeSantis agency sent $92 million in COVID relief funds to donor-backed project” via Michael Scherer, Isaac Arnsdorf and Josh Dawsey of The Washington Post

—“Comedian Austin Nasso on how he formulated his DeSantis impression” via David Catanese of Too Close to Call

—“A $100 billion wealth migration tilts U.S. economy’s center of gravity south” via Michael Sasso and Alexandre Tanzi of Bloomberg

—“Fleeing Florida” via Rebekah Robinson of Coda

—”A bad Disney analogy” via Charles C.W. Cooke of the National Review

—“Chris Christie rips DeSantis’ ‘ridiculous’ Jan. 6 take” via A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics

—”After hurricane, Florida beach resort tries to put even more people in jeopardy” via Craig Pittman of the Florida Phoenix

—“Fred Hawkins will leave Florida House on June 30” via Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics

—”As sports ad market stays hot, Warner Bros. Discovery bets big on ‘The Match’” via Alex Weprin of The Hollywood Reporter

—”The family of a former Supreme battle for control of her life” via Julia Jacobs and Christopher Petkanas of The New York Times

Quote of the Day

“We had people trying to hunt down the Vice President of the United States, chanting ‘Hang Mike Pence,’ and Donald Trump the entire time sat outside the Oval Office, that little dining room of his, eating a well-done cheeseburger and watching TV and doing nothing to stop what was going on until it got to the point where even he could no longer stand it. … And Ron DeSantis doesn’t have any opinion on that?”

— Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, on DeSantis’ dodging a Jan. 6 question.

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Breakthrough Insights

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Last Call is published by Peter Schorsch, assembled and edited by Phil Ammann and Drew Wilson with contributions from the staff of Florida Politics.