Ryan Nicol
As the year nears its close, we’re getting a better picture of who will land coveted newly open positions emerging from the musical chairs following President-elect Donald Trump’s appointments.
We mentioned last week that Randy Fine and Jimmy Patronis had a leg up in Special Elections for Congress. Well some other state offices are also opening up due to those races. And it appears a favorite is emerging for one of them.
Despite Trump backing Patronis, all but guaranteeing his win in a GOP Primary in Florida’s 1st Congressional District, state Rep. Joel Rudman is also going through with a bid for CD 1, hoping he can emerge from the chaos of a crowded Primary.
But he was forced to resign his House District 3 seat to run for Congress. Enter former Okaloosa County Commissioner Nathan Boyles, who now looks like the lead candidate in a yet-to-be-called Special Election to fill Rudman’s HD 3 seat in the Florida House.
Just days after announcing his planned HD 3 run this week, Boyles secured support from several other Panhandle-based state lawmakers, as well as the Sheriffs from HD 3.
Two other Republicans, Hayden Burkhard Hudson and Jamie Lee Wells, have also filed for the seat in the 2026 cycle, and would likely redesignate for the Special Election once it’s called. Perhaps others will enter the fray for an open seat as well.
But these early endorsements are a sign that the party is already coalescing around Boyles, and that means big money will follow. So Boyles is looking like he’ll be the favorite in this race.
Floridians will have several news names and faces to learn in the months ahead, and Boyles will likely land in that category.
Now, it’s onto our weekly game of winners and losers.
Winners
Honorable mention: State workers. DeSanta Claus is at it again.
Christmas came early this week for state employees, with Gov. Ron DeSantis announcing that state workers would have three extra days off this holiday season.
Workers are already off on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, along with seven other designated paid holidays. In addition this year, they’ll also be off on Dec. 23, 24 and 31.
“Florida is in great shape, and we want to reward our state employees,” DeSantis said in a prepared statement. “After a full year — including three costly hurricanes — we hope these extra days off allow for state workers to spend more time with their families and loved ones this holiday season.”
DeSantis also gave employees an extra day off this year on the day before Thanksgiving. It’s the second year in a row state workers have gotten four additional days off.
And let’s be honest, they are the ones who deserve it. Politicians are the ones who get all the camera time, but the bulk of the employees benefiting from this latest move are apolitical workers behind the scenes doing the hard work to make sure the state government is functioning. They deserve more time to spend on the thing that matters most: being with family and friends.
Bonus honorable mention: Aaron Bean. We don’t usually have two honorable mentions, but news broke late Friday that U.S. Rep. Bean snagged a spot on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, becoming one of four new GOP members on the panel.
“It is a tremendous honor to be selected to serve on the Ways and Means Committee for the 119th Congress,” he posted on X.
“With a $36 trillion debt, historically high inflation, and the largest pending tax increase in history, this is a critical time for our nation. I am eager to work with Chairman Smith and the Committee to advance a bold agenda that supports working families, lowers taxes, and accelerates our economy. America is worth fighting for. Let’s go get ’em!”
Bean’s ascension to the body is impressive given that it’s only his second term in the House. He’ll be the third Florida Man on the panel, alongside U.S. Reps. Vern Buchanan and Greg Steube.
Bean will join U.S. Reps. Max Miller of Ohio, Nathaniel Moran of Texas and Rudy Yakym of Indiana as new members on the committee.
Almost (but not quite) the biggest winner: Brian Mast. Say hello to the new Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Mast was a dark horse to lead the committee as the House Steering Committee decided the next Chair this week. The three other lawmakers seeking the post — Republican U.S. Reps. Darrell Issa of California, Ann Wagner of Montana and Joe Wilson of South Carolina — are all more senior members than Mast.
But Mast made a strong push for the post. Mast, of course, is a veteran who lost both of his legs in Afghanistan, and has also tied himself closely to Trump, including in his views of foreign policy.
That all was enough to convince the Steering Committee to give Mast the job ahead of the next Congress. It also gives Florida another important voice — along with secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser nominee Mike Waltz — in a policy area expected to be a major focus of the Trump administration.
“I’m grateful and humbled by the trust my peers within the Republican Conference have placed in me by electing me the next chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee,” Mast said in a prepared statement following the win. “Under my leadership, our committee will have a clear mission statement: Every dollar and every diplomat will put America First.”
The biggest winner: Dana Young. Young is retiring as President and CEO of VISIT FLORIDA, and boy is she going out on top.
The state saw 140.6 million visitors in 2023, generating $127.7 billion, per the agency. During her full tenure, which started in January 2019, visitation to Florida is up 7.3%, and economic impact rose by 32.4%.
“The valuation of the state’s vacation brand surged from $106 billion to $142 billion, cementing its status as the premier global travel destination,” the agency added.
And let’s remember the political climate in which Young was doing all of this. The same year Young took over, state lawmakers were threatening to defund VISIT FLORIDA entirely. Threats of funding cuts persisted throughout Young’s tenure.
But she plowed ahead, continuing to break travel records and ensure that one of Florida’s most important economic drivers stayed strong.
Lawmakers have hinted at funding cuts going forward due to the state’s long-term economic outlook. Could that mean VISIT FLORIDA will be in the crosshairs once again? If so, that will make Young’s successful tenure stand out even more.
Losers
Dishonorable mention: Jessie Thompson. The Volusia County School Board Chair looks poised to lose her Chair post after making some absolutely wild comments at a conservative conference.
Thompson spoke at a Moms for Liberty summit titled, “How to Work With Your School Board.” It appears Thompson got a little too comfortable preaching to the choir about her thoughts on local governance, as summed up by a report from Mary Ellen Ritter of the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
“In the video, she implied Deltona High School students didn’t actually graduate, but received ‘participation trophies’ and said she wouldn’t trust some of them to fill her gas tank,” the report said of Thompson. “She also referred to a board member as a ‘tan man,’ which Avila has stated is Ruben Colón.”
And that’s not all. Thompson also admitted to pushing knowingly false information to fellow School Board members to push forward certain agenda items, saying her colleagues would “not research it.”
“Trust me, I’ve done it to a couple people,” she said. “That’s how I got some safety and security things passed. I knew the other Board members didn’t read long contracts, and so I worked with our Sheriff’s Department to get something put into that contract, and then they voted to pass it without reading it through. It was magical. They still don’t know what’s in there. It’s going to be great, though. It’s great for safety and security.”
Colón, by the way, was the person who nominated Thompson to serve as Chair. After outrage over her remarks emerged this week, he filed a motion at a Board meeting to reassess that designation. The Board agreed unanimously to look at other Chair candidates.
Pro tip: When you are speaking in public and have a microphone in your hand, it’s probably best not to insult your colleagues and admit you’re relying on fake information to pass policy for your community.
Content aside (and that content definitely warrants this move as well), Thompson being so clueless as to openly brag about this stuff in public shows she belongs nowhere near a leadership position.
Almost (but not quite) the biggest loser: Glen Gilzean. We mentioned last month our surprise about how much Gilzean continues to generate negative headlines despite being expected to quietly leave office after voluntarily deciding against running for a full term as Orange County Supervisor of Elections.
Well, it appears this guy has a knack for generating controversy so consider us surprised no longer.
The latest? After the County Commission cut off funding for Gilzean’s Office due to multiple instances of million-dollar expenditures that other county officials say were not issued properly, Gilzean last weekend still managed to write 224 checks for $4.3 million. That nearly emptied his Office’s bank account, which was supposed to fund employee paychecks during the freeze until Supervisor-elect Karen Castor Dentel takes over.
Gilzean, meanwhile, argues these 200-plus new checks were for already generated expenses.
“The Comptroller was operating with a failed understanding of the Supervisor’s Office’s other liabilities, including outstanding invoices for election services, security services provided by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, and additional Early Voting sites,” Gilzean said in a prepared statement.
“A significant portion of these bills arrived in our office following the November General Election and have been processed, totaling more than $4.5 million.”
Here’s the thing though: when random seven-figure expenditures keep popping up, you lose the benefit of the doubt, both with your county government colleagues and the public at large. Speaking of which, this week also saw Comptroller Phil Diamond say he discovered yet another $1.1 million check Gilzean’s Office gave to a nonprofit.
Diamond’s Office is reviewing the newest slate of transactions. Gilzean said during the week that he was without money to pay employees. But then Thursday, he magically found money to make those payments.
But this has got to be a stressful situation for the hardworking government employees who are now sitting around during the holiday season wondering if they’ll continue getting payments they’re owed.
And whatever emerges about this latest spending spree, the fact remains: This entire situation could have been avoided if Gilzean went through the proper channels to dole out millions in county funds in the first place.
The biggest loser: Andrew Bain. Gilzean wasn’t the only DeSantis-installed Central Florida official who generated controversy this week. Orange-Osceola State Attorney Bain gave us a double dose of double-takes.
First, Bain generated an entirely manufactured controversy by announcing he would not be helping newly elected State Attorney Monique Worrell during the transition period.
A reminder: DeSantis appointed Bain to this post after the Governor suspended Worrell for her performance. So Worrell ran for the post again this cycle, Bain switched to an independent amid some other shenanigans to give him a shot at winning a full term, and Worrell beat him fair and square.
That should’ve been that. But Bain this week invented a theory that because DeSantis never revoked the executive order suspending Worrell, that Bain’s hands are tied when assisting with the Worrell transition.
“I do not feel I can lawfully assist in a transition to an individual whose lawful suspension was affirmed by the Florida Supreme Court,” Bain wrote in an email to staff. “We are living through an unprecedented legal event without clear answers. While I will immediately comply with an order of the Governor rescinding his prior executive order, I do not know if or when that will come.”
That even triggered speculation that Bain was setting the table to outright refuse to leave office and argue Worrell cannot retain the position.
But after getting rightfully raked over the coals for the move — which just came off as petty and sour grapes — Bain reversed less than 24 hours later and explicitly stated Worrell would take over on Jan. 7.
That wasn’t the only decision by Bain that earned significant blowback. His Office decided to drop four felony charges against now-former Rep. Carolina Amesty, who lost her re-election bid in November after being hit with those forgery charges.
Coincidentally, Amesty is a Republican, just like the Governor who put Bain in his current position.
A Bain spokesperson said Amesty’s alleged crimes were “diversion-eligible,” and that the former lawmaker would be required to “complete a financial crimes course, a financial literacy course and 30 hours of community service.”
Now, Bain gets credit for requesting the original Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation that led to charges from a grand jury in the first place. But if you’re truly committed to that process, why not let the charges stand and allow the trial to go forward?
Switch parties around here and ask yourself if you’d be OK with a Democratic power structure allowing this process to play itself out, and then as soon as an election ends — removing any potential taint of messing around with proposed charges — the Democrat-installed State Attorney lets a target off the hook. Would you think everything was on the up-and-up there?
We aren’t trying to stir things up for the sake of it. This is Amesty’s first offense. She likely did not deserve a serious jail sentence. And maybe would’ve earned probation at the end of a trial anyway. Who knows?
So we aren’t stomping our feat and yelling that this was clearly, unequivocally outright corruption.
But please, to Republicans who cry foul about the deep state and corrupt Democrats handing out favors to their politically connected friends: Spare us. Amesty had friends in the process and that helped her get a sweetheart deal here. This is the system. And if you want to be taken seriously while crying foul against it, start enacting reforms that apply to your team too.
