Staff Reports
Last Call – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.
First Shot
Legislation to allow guns on college campuses died in its first committee hearing after too few GOP lawmakers were in the room to keep it alive.
The Senate Criminal Justice Committee voted 4-3 against the legislation (SB 814), which would have enabled lawful gun owners to carry their weapons onto any college or university campus, including dormitories and resident halls.
Brevard County Republican Sen. Randy Fine said the change is needed after Jewish college students faced threats of “on-campus Muslim terror” following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
“A child going to a university — an 18-, a 19-, a 20-year-old — deserves to be able to walk through campus, deserves to be able to fight their way out of a building if people hold them there, deserves when a mob surrounds them and attacks them — it’s happened at my alma mater — that they can do something about it,” he said.
Too many of Fine’s Senate colleagues thought the bill was too drastic a change. Republican Sen. Ileana Garcia joined Democratic Sens. Mack Bernard, Jason Pizzo and Carlos Guillermo Smith in voting “no.” Republican Sens. Jennifer Bradley and Corey Simon were absent from the vote.
Tuesday’s vote marks the end for SB 814, which lost its House counterpart (HB 31) early this year when Republican sponsor Joel Rudman, a former Navarre Representative who resigned for an unsuccessful run at Congress, withdrew the proposal.
Read more on Florida Politics.
Evening Reads
—“Long waits, waves of calls, website crashes: Social Security is breaking down” via Lisa Rein and Hannah Natanson of The Washington Post
—”The 19 weirdest lines from Donald Trump’s interview with Clay Travis” via Chris Cillizza of So What?
—”Trump prompts European calls for a homegrown nuclear umbrella” via Daniel Michaels, Noemie Bisserbe and Michael R. Gordon of The Wall Street Journal
—”But her emails?” via David A. Graham of The Atlantic
—”Former Social Security Chief courts Florida seniors enraged by Elon Musk’s cuts” via Justin Glawe of Rolling Stone
—”DOGE cuts are testing some conservative voters’ faith in special election for Matt Gaetz’s old seat” via Kate Payne of The Associated Press
—“Formula, fries and Froot Loops: Washington bends to Robert F Kennedy’s ‘MAHA’ agenda” via Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times
—”Ron DeSantis says Florida is ‘returning’ unspent federal money to show DOGE support” via Jeffrey Schweers of the Orlando Sentinel
—”Tampa state Senator doesn’t rule out exploring USF President’s job” via Divya Kumar and Romy Ellenbogen of the Tampa Bay Times
—“The Major League teams with a minor problem: No stadium of their own” via Jared Diamond of The Wall Street Journal
Quote of the Day
“Any time Florida doesn’t spend the federal money allotted toward us, it’s literally us taxpayers writing a check back to the feds for money that we never see again.”
— Rep. Anna Eskamani on Ron DeSantis celebrating the state returning unspent federal funds.
Put it on the Tab
Look to your left, then look to your right. If you see one of these people at your happy hour haunt, flag down the bartender and put one of these on your tab. Recipes included, just in case the Cocktail Codex fell into the well.
By this time next week, Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis will have left his seat, and he’s urging the Governor to pour someone an Heir Apparent before he heads out the door.
Raise a Hound Dog in memory of Dexter, and to cheer the forward march of Sen. Tom Leek’s bill ensuring animal abusers are named and shamed.
Sorry insurance adjusters, it seems the Legislature doesn’t want you sipping on a Shortcut when you decide whether to shell out for property damage claims.
Breakthrough Insights
Tune In
Gators, Seminoles square off in Jacksonville
Florida and Florida State play their annual baseball game against one another in Jacksonville tonight (6 p.m. ET,
The Seminoles (20-3) enter the game ranked fourth in the nation in the latest D1Baseball.com Top 25. FSU’s only losses this season have come against then-seventh-ranked Florida, Mercer and Miami.
Florida (18-8) fell out of the poll this week after being swept by Georgia over the weekend. It is the second series in which the Gators have been swept this month. They also lost three straight at then-#2 Tennessee.
The Gators and Seminoles have met 262 times on the baseball field, with FSU holding a six-game edge in the all-time series. Last year, Florida State won the game in Jacksonville 14-3. It was the Noles’ first victory over the Gators in Jacksonville since 2015 (the teams did not play in Jacksonville in 2020 or 2021 because of the pandemic).
FSU has been led by the hitting of Alex Lodise, who leads the team with a .458 batting average and tied for a team-high with 26 runs batted in. Slugger Max Williams leads the Seminoles with 10 home runs. Five FSU batters have driven in at least 20 runs this season.
Florida’s offense has been led by Brody Donay and Bobby Boser, who each have eight home runs this season.
The two programs are scheduled to meet again on April 8 in Gainesville.
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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.
