Staff Reports
Last Call – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.
First Shot
Gov. Ron DeSantis approves of condo safety legislation lawmakers passed last week, but he thinks it could have come much sooner and believes the House’s initial version of the bill wasn’t up to snuff.
“I think it ended up in a good spot,” he said of the measure (HB 913) that passed unanimously April 30 after undergoing changes in both chambers of the Legislature.
“I was not supportive of the House bill. I would have vetoed that and called them in for a Special Session. And don’t forget, I did the Special Session in January. In that Special Session, I called for the condo relief to be done then. There’s no reason the bill that was passed couldn’t have been passed in January.”
DeSantis called for a Special Session in mid-January to address a sharp increase in condo costs, crack down on illegal immigration and tighten restrictions on petitions for constitutional amendments.
The Legislature pushed back, delaying the condo relief and petition-stifling efforts until the Regular Session, when the state expected to have more data based on milestone building inspections, and proffering different immigration measures than the ones the Governor supported based on federal dictates.
The Governor said Tuesday at a stop in Miami that he preferred the condo bill language that Fleming Island Republican Sen. Jennifer Bradley proposed in her version of the legislation (SB 1742) over provisions originally in HB 913, which Miami Republican Rep. Vicki Lopez carried.
Read more on Florida Politics.
Evening Reads
—“A familiar Donald Trump attack forces Democrats to make an uncomfortable choice” via Nicole Narea of Vox
—“Trump team urged Ukraine to take U.S. deportees amid war, documents show” via Adam Taylor, Sarah Blaskey and Siobhán O’Grady of The Washington Post
—“Mark Carney tells Trump that Canada ‘is not for sale’ during visit to the White House” via Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Tyler Pager of The New York Times
—“Trump’s order to sanitize Black history meets institutional resistance” via Clyde McGrady of The New York Times
—“‘I don’t know where you are’: The race to fix air-traffic control” via Andrew Tangel of The Wall Street Journal
—“Why Maxwell Frost wants Democrats to ‘get caught fighting’” via Tim Murphy of Mother Jones
—“Noah Widmann launches CD 7 campaign, slams Cory Mills as ‘most corrupt Congressman in America’” via Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics
—”10 big issues from the 2025 Legislative Session” via Jim Saunders of News Service of Florida
—“Lawmakers’ addresses could soon be exempted from public records, if Gov. Ron DeSantis signs off” via Andrew Powell of Florida Politics
—”Orlando Commissioner Tony Ortiz switches from Republican to Democrat” via Ryan Gillespie of the Orlando Sentinel
Quote of the Day
“This is a total dog and pony show. This is not anything that is credible.”
— Gov. Ron DeSantis, on the House property tax reform panel.
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.
We’re all going to need a Novocaine once DeSantis follows through on his pledge to sign a ban on water fluoridation.
About 310,000 Orange County residents got a pretty amazing surprise in the mail. The rest of us will have to settle for the Surprise made with rum.
Serve State Attorney Melissa Nelson a Stand Down for asking Jacksonville City Council Republicans to hold their fire regarding a probe into an “illegal gun registry” at City Hall.
Breakthrough Insights
Tune In
Gators, Seminoles host in-state baseball games tonight
Florida and Florida State host out-of-conference baseball games against in-state teams this evening. The Gators host USF (6:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network+) while Florida State hosts Jacksonville (6 p.m. ET, ACC NetworkX).
Florida (33-16, 11-13 SEC) has won 13 of the last 15 games. Tonight’s game is the last scheduled mid-week game of the season. Florida has won all eight previous home midweek games this season.
It has been a rollercoaster season for the Gators. They began the campaign by winning 11 straight before slumping with 14 losses in 23 games to fall out of the Top 25. Despite the midseason slump, Florida is still in a good position to make the postseason with an RPI of 15 and the fifth-toughest schedule in the nation.
USF (24-21, 12-9 AAC) will likely need to win the American Conference tournament to qualify for the NCAA regionals.
Following the game against USF, the Gators open a three-game series against #1 Texas, followed by a three-game series against #23 Alabama to conclude the regular season.
Florida State (33-10, 14-7 ACC) moved up to the #2 ranking in the most recent D1Baseball top 25 poll. They are ranked in the top 10 in every college baseball poll. The Seminoles have played Jacksonville 179 times, with FSU winning two meetings this season, a 9-6 decision at JU on Feb. 26 and an 11-10 home win on April 1.
Jacksonville (27-18, 16-8 ASUN) has already clinched a spot in the ASUN baseball tournament.
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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.
