Winner and Loser of the Week in Florida politics — Week of 1.19.25

A Special Legislative Session begins tomorrow in Tallahassee, and you’re forgiven if you’ve completely forgotten

What in the world is going on with this thing?

Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed for the Special Session out of nowhere earlier this month to touch on many topics, but with a focus on illegal immigration. DeSantis said he wanted the state to be ready to execute President Donald Trump’s agenda, but lacked specifics at the outset.

The same day, Florida’s legislative leaders came out with a statement that was the equivalent of an annoyed shrug.

“Florida’s Constitution compels our attendance at a Special Session unilaterally called by the Governor. However, the power to convene a Special Session also resides with the presiding officers. As the people’s elected representatives, the Legislature, not the Governor, will decide when and what legislation we consider,” Senate President Ben Albritton and House Speaker Daniel Perez said in the statement.

“It is completely irresponsible to get out ahead of any announcements President Trump will make, especially when uninformed or ill-timed state action could potentially impair or impede the success of President Trump’s forthcoming efforts to end illegal immigration, close our borders, and protect the sovereignty of our nation.”

Well, Trump later gave tacit backing to the Special Session. But aside from DeSantis throwing a Hail Mary by trying to round up support from local Republican Executive Committees, we haven’t heard much of an update.

In fact, last week came and went without a single bill being filed for the Special Session which, we remind you, begins tomorrow.

Will the Governor get the 2010 Charlie Crist treatment when lawmakers, who are obligated to gavel in the Session but do no more, just immediately gavel out? Will they agree to something to throw DeSantis a bone? And how will this all impact the upcoming Regular Session in March?

Get your popcorn ready, it looks like DeSantis’ final two years are going to give us plenty of intrigue in The Process.

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

Winners

Honorable mention: American Airlines. The company is likely getting more than their money’s worth on direct flights from Tampa, Miami and elsewhere to Washington with all of the Florida talent having migrated to the nation’s capital.

Marco Rubio has now been sworn in as Secretary of State, while Pam Bondi is awaiting confirmation as Attorney General. Mike Waltz is in place as National Security Adviser, a role that doesn’t require Senate confirmation, while Dave Weldon has been slotted as Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And on the staffing side, Susie Wiles will be White House Chief of Staff, with James Blair as Deputy Chief of Staff.

Florida Men Kevin Marino Cabrera and Dan Newlin also both snagged Ambassador posts. Keith Sonderling will serve as Deputy Labor Secretary. University of Florida alum Penny Schwinn will be Deputy Secretary of Education, and former state Rep. Amber Mariano Davis joined her as a policy adviser at the U.S. Department of Education.

All of them have booked or will book flights to Washington. And that’s not to mention all of the Floridians traveling this week for inauguration festivities (more on that later). Business was booming for airline companies doing business here in Florida.

Almost (but not quite) the biggest winner: Florida’s Jan. 6 rioters. Trump issued sweeping pardons to those convicted of their roles in the riots ahead of President Joe Biden’s election certification in 2021.

Those pardons extended beyond the people simply “wandering around the Capitol” who made for more sympathetic cases. Trump has been criticized for the move, which he reportedly pushed for instead of a more deliberative process and which even conservative outlets like The Wall Street Journal hammered.

Don’t take it from us, even Trump’s Vice President, JD Vance, spoke just days ahead of the inauguration where he said that “if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.”

Most everyone’s opinions on Jan. 6 are pretty calcified at this point. But warranted or not, those who are now free from prison or having their cases dropped are breathing a sigh of relief this week.

And boy, are a lot of them from Florida.

There were 16 rioters from the Orlando area who received pardons, another eight from Polk County, two Southwest Floridians, a former Miami-Dade GOP Executive Committee member and, of course, the sedition panda himself.

Is this bringing down the prices of groceries? No. Is it increasing the possibility for political violence going forward? Perhaps, but let’s hope law enforcement is ready to step in whenever any of these guys step out of line. It’s already happened in at least one case involving, yep, a Florida Man.

In the meantime, we hope the threatening talk from some of those freed is the exception and that the bulk of these men and women can show remorse while appreciating their second chance.

The biggest winner: Rick and Ann Scott. Yes, Rick Scott can celebrate now becoming Florida’s senior-most Senator after Rubio was officially sworn in as head of the State Department. But Scott and his wife are leading the list this week for another reason: Their spectacular job hosting the Sunshine State Ball, the best-run event of the entire inauguration.

Call us biased toward our home state, but Team Scott really went all out for this event as the official hosts. Everything ran smoothly, the entertainment was fantastic, and it provided a perfect retreat from the bitter cold in Washington.

This week was obviously a big deal for Florida, with the first ever Florida resident being sworn in as President, the flood of Floridians moving to Washington and the spotlight squarely on the Sunshine State.

The Scotts more than delivered.

Team Scott sent out a message to supporters showing appreciation for the support.

“We want to sincerely thank you for celebrating President Donald Trump’s inauguration and Republican wins with us in Washington, DC,” Team Scott’s email read.

“And thank you Kid Rock for the surprise concert! As always, we appreciate your continued support and we hope to see you soon!”

Keep throwing parties like this, and you’ll definitely be seeing repeat faces.

Losers

Dishonorable mention: Joe Carollo. The legal woes for the Miami City Commissioner are adding up, with Carollo now facing a lawsuit accusing him of misusing his position chairing the city’s Bayfront Park Management Trust.

That agency helps oversee the city’s bayfront area and collects funds from major events. The agency’s former Executive Director, Jose Suarez, and former Finance Director, Jose Canto, are now suing Carollo and Javier Baños, a Trust board member, and making some eye-popping allegations, all of which Baños and Carollo denied.

“Carollo and Baños both threatened, and then set out to undermine and force the departures of Suarez and Canto after Suarez and Canto began questioning the Trust’s lack of proper accounting practices,” the lawsuit says, according to the Herald’s write-up.

The outlet sums up the lawsuit as allegations of Carollo “attempting to use public funds to cover a yacht party for his family and friends, paying a TV station owned by ‘close personal friends’ to broadcast an event, storing cash parking payments in an easily accessible ‘money room’ that was prone to theft, and supporting the purchase of a ‘suspicious’ mobile veterinary truck that was later searched by police when an employee discovered ‘controlled substances and prescription drugs’ intended for animals at the agency office.”

We would encourage you to read the Herald story in full to get the full breadth of what Canto and Suarez say was going on at the agency.

And of course, as Baños and Carollo blast the allegations, they’ll have their day in court to defend against the claims.

But Carollo certainly was not looking for any more legal trouble after dealing with a $63.5 million judgment against him in another lawsuit filed by local businessmen accusing the Commissioner of abusing his position on the Commission to target them.

Looks like these accusations are becoming a pattern.

Almost (but not quite) the biggest loser: Carolina Amesty. Speaking of unwanted new legal woes …

Just last month, Amesty walked away with a sweetheart deal, courtesy of the DeSantis-appointed State Attorney, Andrew Bain, who was on his way out of office after losing in November.

While Bain resolved Amesty’s state-level woes regarding forgery charges, she’s now facing charges from the feds in a completely separate case — and it’s one we’ve seen in the state before.

The Department of Justice is accusing Amesty of fraudulently acquiring $122,000 in COVID relief money. She faces two counts — one for each of two businesses that prosecutors say benefited from the funds — with each carrying a maximum 10-year sentence.

With Trump now in office, will a prosecuting office led by a Republican executive once again come to Amesty’s aid?

That remains to be seen, but she is certainly looking to make it happen. To defend herself against these charges, Amesty hired attorney Brad Bondi.

Yes, that name sounds familiar and yes, it’s for the reason you think. Brad Bondi is the brother of incoming U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who could be approved in just over a week.

That’s certainly a play by Amesty to avoid mimicking disgraced former Republican Rep. Joe Harding, who threw away his relevance in The Process after pleading guilty to wire fraud, money laundering and making false statements after obtaining $150,000 in COVID relief funds.

Harding resigned his seat and hasn’t been heard from since. Amesty lost her seat in November. Can she avoid the same fate going forward?

The biggest loser: Immigrants. Trump is reportedly moving to kick out immigrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti who were invited into the U.S. under Biden via the CBP One app.

The move is expected to affect close to 1 million people.

Just like Trump followed through with his promise, and then some, to pardon those who rioted in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, so too is Trump carrying out arguably his top policy in cracking down on immigration in the U.S.

Thing is, most Americans are not blindly advocating for anyone and everyone to come into the country, outside perhaps the fringiest left-wing activists. Deporting violent immigrants who entered the country illegally would likely garner support from the vast majority of those here.

The pushback against Trump is twofold: First, there’s the question of how those expulsions will be carried out, something Trump never fully explained on the campaign trail and that still remains undefined in the early days of his second term.

But the second is what we have here: a push to deport migrants who entered the country legitimately. More than half of the million threatened by Trump reversing this Biden policy entered the U.S. under a program where they were vetted and were required to have a financial sponsor to support their stay. And they’re from nations led by individuals Republicans have hammered for years.

Is punishing people who escaped those countries via legitimate means really the priority here?

We’re about to find out. And Americans delivered Trump a second win last year despite his repeated calls for policies that upend the norms of American politics. In many areas, that may be a good thing. But with Trump given another four years, we’re going to have to take the bad with the good for the foreseeable future.