Orlando

Jacob OglesDecember 8, 2018

Outgoing Cabinet members like won’t meet again to address a pardon for the Groveland Four. But Attorney General-elect Ashley Moody said the cause won’t go ignored. Asked about how her office will address the pardon for the Lake County men falsely accused of raping a woman in 1949, Moody told Florida Politics she will look […]

Drew WilsonDecember 8, 2018

State Rep. Randy Fine launched his 2020 re-election bid on Nov. 19, and thanks to his prodigious fundraising effort last cycle he was able to hit the ground running. A newly filed campaign finance report shows the Brevard County Republican already has $21,500 in the bank. The bulk of that money — $20,000 — marked […]

Scott PowersDecember 7, 2018

Republican state Rep. Tyler Sirois heads into his first term in the Florida House with high hopes of addressing two widespread Florida issues that have a particularly strong impact on his Brevard County, water quality protection and vocational education. And he’ll be looking for ways to use the Florida Forever fund to address the water […]

Scott PowersDecember 7, 2018

A challenge of Orange County’s Republican leadership fell flat Thursday night returning Chair Charles Hart and his team for new terms, this time full terms backed by strong showings in elections. Hart fended off a challenge from insurgent Randy Ross in a vote of 81 to 23 Thursday night, and the party’s designated slate of […]

Scott PowersDecember 6, 2018

Calling the Valencia College-University of Central Florida Creative Village campus going up a “living, breathing opportunity escalator,” Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer focused most of his annual State-of-the-Downtown address on anticipated improvements for the historically-segregeted and long-distressed downtown neighborhood of Parramore Thursday. “Education can change lives. It can change neighborhoods, it can change the downtown, it […]

Scott PowersDecember 6, 2018

Winter Park’s U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy has received another leadership role in Congress, elected chair of “Future Forum,” a caucus of young Democrats in Congress seeking to pursue positions of interest to millennials. Murphy’s office announced Thursday that she was unanimously elected to head the 50-member group of young Democrats in Congress, just over a […]

Scott PowersDecember 5, 2018

Republican state Rep. David Smith will be heading to Tallahassee with a broad platform of ambitions covering education, the economy and the environment, but the retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel gets particularly excited about prospects he sees to improve the lot for Florida’s military veterans. Smith was elected Nov. 6 to succeed Jason Brodeur in […]

Scott PowersDecember 5, 2018

The Orange County Republican Party and Democratic Party are both heading for what may be tumultuous executive committee elections this week that have Republican Chair Charles Hart and Democratic Chair Wes Hodge each playing defense but likely heading for re-elections. Hart, who took over the party in June after the retirement of longtime Chair Lew Oliver, […]

Scott PowersDecember 4, 2018

Progressive organizer Kristellys Estanga is becoming the new legislative aide to Democratic state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith of Orlando, as Ida Eskaman leaves to go into lobbying for progressive groups. Estanga, who worked on Andrew Gillum‘s Democratic gubernatorial primary campaign and Florida’s voting rights restoration amendment campaign, most recently served as senior advisor to Smith’s successful […]

Scott PowersDecember 4, 2018

When it came to talking about how far he’d come, the son of a taxi driver from the hardscrabble Orlando neighborhood Washington Shores, to Orange County’s most powerful office, newly sworn-in Mayor Jerry Demings finally cracked for a moment Tuesday. Demings, who just two hours earlier ended a 10-year tenure as Orange County sheriff and […]

Orlando

Ashley Moody: Groveland Four will be ‘one of the first things I look at’

Randy Fine starts off 2020 bid with a bang

Tyler Sirois heading to Florida House with water, vocational education in mind

Orange County Republicans return leadership

Buddy Dyer focuses on Creative Village impact on Parramore, downtown Orlando

Stephanie Murphy to chair Democrats’ Future Forum in Congress

David Smith riding new wave of veteran-advocates in the Florida Legislature

Orange County Republican, Democratic leaders dig in for re-election challenges

Kristellys Estanga succeeding Ida Eskamani as Carlos Smith’s aide

Jerry Demings, new commissioners take control in Orange County