Winner and Loser of the Week in Florida politics — Week of 6.1.25

Yes, we’ve seen plenty of progress on the budget this past week, with more conferences set to take place throughout the day and the Legislature seemingly on track to meet its June 16 goal to have a budget signed.

That’s all well and good and very important.

But how ’bout them Panthers???

We’ve needed a little bit of escapism with how fast things have been moving in Tallahassee, and the Stanley Cup Finals is delivering, with two stellar games to start the rematch series between Florida and the Edmonton Oilers.

This South Florida native isn’t even a true-blue hockey fan. But the Panthers have served as a welcome outlier among nearby major sports teams for those looking to support a contender.

The Miami Heat seem stuck in limbo barring a major move this offseason (which, to be fair, could be coming). The Miami Dolphins are entering a make-or-break season. Given their post-Dan Marino history, it’s hard not to bet on “break.” And the Miami Marlins just got swept by the worst team in modern MLB history.

So thank you to Florida for putting on a show with a riveting double-OT winner courtesy of trade acquisition Brad Marchand. Sergei Bobrovsky is again showing off and making history, and the Panthers are coming home Monday tied 1-1 after stealing Game 2 in Edmonton.

Hockey lover or not, if you’re a sports fan, this series is electric. And trust us, it beats staring at spreadsheets for another three hours. Game 3 is Monday night. Do yourself a favor and watch.

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

Winners

Honorable mention: Ralph Rosado. Despite being outraised more than 2-to-1, Rosado defeated Jose Regalado in a Special Election to succeed the late Manolo Reyes on the Miami County Commission.

Rosado won by more than 10 points even though Regalado added nearly $191,000 during the race to Rosado’s $79,500. And that’s not including money spent on behalf of Regalado by his father’s political committee, Proven Leadership for Miami.

Regalado also comes from somewhat of a political dynasty in Miami, with his father, Tomás Regalado, a former Miami Mayor and currently elected Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser. Raquel Regalado, Jose Regalado’s sister, serves on the Miami-Dade County Commission.

Nevertheless, Rosado was able to overcome all of that, along with a group of high-powered organizations such as the South Florida AFL-CIO, Miami Herald and Miami Young Republicans endorsing Regalado.

Rosado’s team utilized the Berthier Group, a consulting firm led by Jesse Manzano-Plaza, to engineer a win. And now Rosado will serve through at least 2027, perhaps one year longer if the Commission goes forward with shifting its off-year election cycle to match the regular election schedule.

Almost (but not quite) the biggest winner: School choice. New data is showing just how much Florida’s families are relying on alternative education choices.

The Florida Department of Education recently released data showing that in the 2023-24 school year, just under 1.8 million students out of 3.5 million total in Florida exercised school choice. That is, more than half are attending a school other than the public school they would be assigned to based on their residence.

That’s the first time that’s ever happened in Florida.

That’s a big win for school choice advocates who have seen the Legislature consistently push more resources toward allowing parents agency over where their children get an education.

Of course, critics contend more money should flow toward public schools. But the reality is that there will always be some districts where education quality is lacking, due to an insufficient tax base, poor teacher quality or some other resource shortage.

Having these alternatives has provided parents whose children would attend those schools an out.

That’s not to say Florida’s model is perfect; just look at the reported abuse of the latest expansion in availability for school choice vouchers.

But at the end of the day, families are making their voices heard. And it appears Floridians want choice and are exercising it.

The biggest winner: Education leaders. There was a lot of movement in the education world this week, with some assuming new roles, others returning to their positions, and one big new contract.

The week started with the Florida International University Board of Trustees finalizing its selection of Jeanette Nuñez as the university’s permanent President. That’s after Nuñez served a few months in an interim role, then became the lone finalist for the long-term position.

The State University System Board of Governors (BOG) must still approve the pick, but don’t expect a former Lieutenant Governor to get the Santa Ono treatment (more on that later).

The University of South Florida Board of Trustees also re-elected Will Weatherford as Chair and Mike Griffin as Vice Chair. They’ll serve at least another two years, guiding USF through its work landing a replacement for President Rhea Law.

At Florida A&M University, new President Marva Johnson finalized a $650,000 contract, with some bonuses to boot. The BOG must also approve that contract, but Johnson’s aims align pretty well with the Board’s makeup.

And finally, Florida has a new Education Commissioner after Manny Diaz Jr. took over as interim President of the University of West Florida.

Stasi Kamoutsas, who most recently served as Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Deputy Chief of Staff, got the nod from the State Board of Education after DeSantis backed him.

He and these other leaders, old and new, will be part of a sea of fresh leaders helping execute the Governor’s vision for Florida’s education. We’ll see if they are up to the task of maintaining Florida’s strong higher ed reputation.

Losers

Dishonorable mention: Department of Children and Families. More apparent nonsense from the DeSantis administration to try to message its way out of the Hope Florida scandal, as DCF actually issued a cease and desist letter to a reporter covering the story.

The letter accused the Orlando Sentinel’s Jeffrey Schweers of “calling foster families in Florida and threatening or coercing them to say things about Hope Florida.”

By our read, that translates to Schweers calling around and asking questions that the administration doesn’t like.

Of course, that’s just a guess on our part, because DCF failed to cite a single example of purportedly problematic activity on Schweers’ part.

Indeed, the Sentinel essentially called BS on the letter.

“We stand by our stories and reject the state’s attempt to chill free speech and encroach on our First Amendment right to report on an important issue,” said Roger Simmons, the Sentinel’s Executive Editor. “The state’s characterization of our reporter’s conduct is completely false.”

Let’s keep this simple. There are two possibilities here.

The first is that DCF is right and Schweers is crossing a line. In that case, how can anyone believe the state would hold back on showing examples as a way to dunk on a media target? They’d be reposting those examples nonstop through the DeSantis X army of totally human supporters so much that it might rival the attention paid to this week’s Donald Trump–Elon Musk brouhaha among Florida political followers.

But they didn’t do that, which brings us to possibility No. 2. This is nonsense, and DeSantis is simply trying to message to rally his media-skeptic base to assume something is wrong here.

We’ll let you decide what’s going on here. In the meantime, we’re looking forward to continuing reading coverage by the Sentinel, Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times bureau, and our staff on the goings-on in and around Hope Florida.

Almost (but not quite) the biggest loser: Marcos López. López’s tenure as Osceola County Sheriff has been controversial for years. Now, he’s been arrested and removed from office while facing criminal charges.

López is facing two first-degree felonies in racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering and could serve up to 30 years in prison.

Prosecutors say López was involved in a gambling ring that brought in more than $21.6 million. Four others were charged, but López’s involvement obviously generated the most headlines given that, you know, he’s supposed to be in charge of enforcing the law in Osceola County, not breaking it (allegedly).

Of course, López is innocent until proven guilty and will rightfully have his day in court to fight the charges. But DeSantis has already removed López as Sheriff and replaced him with Christopher Blackmon of the Florida Highway Patrol.

For many, López won’t be missed. He and his agency have been hammered repeatedly, perhaps most horrifyingly for López accidentally posting a photo of a murdered child on his social media.

He may or may not serve time behind bars, but his career in law enforcement is thankfully over.

The biggest loser: University of Florida. UF’s men’s basketball team may be champions once again, but their shot to install a new President, which seemed like a slam dunk, was just blocked at the buzzer by the BOG.

The UF Board of Trustees, led by Chair Mori Hosseini, unanimously picked former University of Michigan President Ono as the university’s next President. All that awaited was a BOG vote that in all of Florida history had served as a simple rubber stamp for what a university wanted to do.

But not this time. As we wrote last week in naming Ono a winner following the unanimous UF vote, the placement was temporary pending the BOG’s decision.

“This week’s unanimous vote in front of the UF Board is surely a good sign, but this saga is not over yet. Stay tuned.”

And those who stayed tuned witnessed fireworks at the hearing, perhaps the most contentious in BOG history.

And the politics were simply baffling here. The BOG is full of DeSantis appointees, but Hosseini is a major DeSantis backer. Ono went down amid conservative criticism regarding so-called “woke” comments he made while leading Michigan, but DeSantis tentatively backed Ono despite leading the charge in Florida against such policies in the state’s education system.

But regardless of what you make about the political fallout here, UF got completely screwed.

Yes, it’s bad enough their choice went down. That’s embarrassing. But after what just happened, what self-respective successful leader is going to want to sign up for this job? Say what you want about Ono, you don’t lead an esteemed university like Michigan without being an impressive figure.

Where in the world does UF go now to find its next leader?