The Florida Roundup - Florida politics and its national influence; Special session recap 

Episode Date: November 10, 2023

This week on The Florida Roundup, we heard from some Florida voters about what’s on their minds ahead of the 2024 presidential election (09:06). Plus, we talked with a U.S. Rep. John Rutherford, a Republican member of Florida’s congressional delegation (02:17) and Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican U.S. lawmaker (10:54). And we spoke to veteran Capitol reporter Mary Ellen Klas about Florida’s influence on national politics (21:54). Then later, a recap of this week’s special legislative session from our partner stations (37:14).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being with us this week. Florida has been ground zero for Republicans this past week. Seven GOP presidential candidates made their way across a conference stage in Kissimmee on Saturday for the state's Republican Party Freedom Summit. Governor Asa Hutchinson, Doug Burgum, Governor Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Vivek Ramaswamy, President Donald J. Trump. Nikki Haley was not there because of family reasons. And then on Wednesday night this week, five of them were on stage near downtown Miami. Five Republicans battling to become their party's 2024 presidential nominee. And about 10 miles west the same night.

I'm thrilled to be here in the heart of Miami with thousands of proud, hardworking, God fearing American patriots. That's what you are. The 2024 presidential election is now less than one year away. So what are some Floridians thinking? My objective is to find the best guy. Who's going to be best for the country? I'm going to vote for Trump no matter what. Nothing's going to change that.

Honestly, I have tried really hard to be open-minded about the candidates that are running. I think a big one for me is just the housing market and real estate and interest rates. Well, I want to let the delegates and the people running for president know that we're supportive of Israel and America is supportive of Israel. I genuinely think that former President Trump did an amazing job in the Middle East. Oh yeah, I will support Trump a thousand percent. Even if he's in jail, I'm supporting him. I don't believe the polls, especially this far out. I think the national polls are a little,

I think it's a lot of fluff at this point. And I think people are keeping their decisions close to the vest. Voices of Florida voters this week. You can add yours now. What's the issue you're listening to over the next year? Or have you just tuned out politics? Email us radio at the floridaroundup.org radio at the floridaroundup.org. We'll take your phone calls in several minutes. You can line them up now though at 305-995-1800 305-995-1800. John Rutherford is a Republican congressman representing the fifth district includes parts of Jacksonville to St. Augustine. Congressman Rutherford, welcome back to Florida Public Radio. You endorsed President Trump in early April. You were one of the first members of the Florida delegation to do so. When you did,

you reminded folks that you're a former sheriff, and you said, I understand the importance of a fair and impartial system of justice. At the time, the former president had been indicted once on state charges. He's been indicted three more times. Do you still endorse the former president? Oh, I absolutely do. The two most important issues in my district, and really, I think, across the country, is the economic impact that the Biden administration has had in just a horrible sense. And then also the international and national security issues that President Trump clearly was performing in a much better way than what we see President Biden doing right now. So for those two reasons, I did endorse President Trump very early on.

You also wrote back in April, you said the systemic targeting of Americans with conservative ideals, especially our 45th president of the United States, disgraces our nation's legacy. The 45th president, of course, being now former President Trump. Do you still believe the president, after three more indictments, is being systemically targeted? I think that's evidence of his systemic targeting, yes. All of these cases revolve around political speech, political actions, except, of course, the one that they filed in New York. Dealing with his business dealings. Where the prosecutor literally ran on bringing him to trial, finding something to bring him to trial. And even in that case, they wind up prosecuting on a case that there really is no victim. The banks were all paid.

My understanding is nobody lost any money. You know, I'm not sure. Well, I guess the victim in that particular case would be the public, the state of New York in that case. But how is that in the federal cases? It sounds like you don't agree with any of the indictments. And do you think that it's somehow part of a, as you called it, a systemic targeting of conservative ideals? Right. How so? targeting of conservative ideals? Right. How so?

But it's evidenced by the fact that the way they have targeted his political speech, his political actions. So the document case is his valuations of properties. I mean, the banks don't do their own due diligence when they make those loans. But with the federal... You tell me, you said that the public was the victim in that case. Tell me how they're the victim when nobody lost money. Tell me how they're the victim. The state of New York brings the case in the state case, just as the United States tell me the people were the people were a victim. Tell me how they are a victim. What I said was that the people perhaps are the victim, given that it's the state of New York bringing the case, just as it's the United States government bringing the case against President Trump. Tell me how the people of New York are victims in that case. Tell me how they

were. And that's why I keep asking. Tell me how they were victimized. All right. I'm going to move on, Congressman, with your permission, if I may. All right. Do you believe the House will be able to pass spending bills to avoid a partial government shutdown in a week? We I believe we will be able to avoid a shutdown. We have to find a way now because of the three week loss of productivity that we've had because of changing speakers. Now, the runway is too short to get the remaining bills in. But I will tell you, since Speaker Johnson came in, we've passed three appropriation bills already in the last two weeks. We've got two that we're going to pass this, they're up this week, and two for next week. We still have to have time to go to the Senate, pass those bills to the

Senate, and then go to conference with him and negotiate all 12 individual spending bills. The individual spending bills is an important piece because that separate spending bill demand helped lead to Speaker McCarthy losing the speakership and leading to that leadership vote that we saw just a few weeks ago. That was an excuse. I can tell you we have and had then 12 appropriation bills, individual spending appropriation bills. The other argument was that there were not significant cuts in those bills. That was another falsehood that was perpetrated by the eight that really wanted to shut the government down at that time. Those bills had anywhere from 31 percent cuts uh i mean there's significant cuts in those i've got a whole list of them uh but all double digit cuts um significant except for of course like homeland where we actually plus it up a little bit those security

areas defense obviously and are you satisfied then with the direction that the spending is headed with these spending bills that are making their way through Capitol Hill to try to avoid this partial shutdown? Yeah, I am right now. What I'm concerned about is what kind of stopgap spending measure we're going to have to come up with. November 17th, one of the things that I would like to see is if we were to extend, you know, create a stopgap funding measure that had some cuts in it, extend that to, you know, the first week or two in January, that would give us the time, I think, for the negotiations with the Senate. Let me ask finally, Congressman, about a

subject you are putting your name to in a piece of legislation regarding exploration and drilling of potential oil and gas reserves off the coast of Florida. You want to extend moratoriums that are in place that would ban and prohibit the exploration and drilling of oil and gas reserves, if there are any, in the Atlantic coast, the Florida Straits, and the Gulf of Mexico. Republican presidential candidates have talked about the need for the United States to become energy independent, continue to be energy independent. How would your proposed legislation impact those efforts? It wouldn't impact it at all, because as you saw

under the Trump administration, we had energy independence. We had achieved energy independence. And we hadn't even begun to tap all of the reserves that we know exist in this country. Some of the biggest reserves, and by the way, Tom, some of the cleanest reserves. Clean in terms of fossil fuel reserves or clean energy? cleanest reserves. Clean in terms of fossil fuel reserves or clean energy? Yes, oil. Yes. Our oil is cleaner than, say, Russia by a lot.

It's a light crude oil as opposed to a heavy crude or a sour crude that is explored elsewhere in the globe. Exactly. What's important to Floridians is, number one, we can have energy independence, and we know that because we have all sorts of leases and opportunities to drill now. Here's another thing that I should mention. This only goes out to 2032. Then it gets reassessed.

The citizens of Florida voted to protect our beaches by putting a moratorium on drilling within the three-mile state waters. What my bill does is extend that out to the federal waters, which go out 200 miles. Congressman John Rutherford from the 5th District of Florida. Congressman, I appreciate the conversation. Thank you very much. Thank you, Tom. Appreciate you. Energy, inflation, the economy, investigations. What's driving your politics as we are one year away from the 2024 election? Radio at the Florida Roundup dot org is our email. We're open now.

Adam Kinzinger is a Republican or more accurately, still a Republican. He served six terms as a congressman from central Illinois, but it was his involvement with the Congressional January 6th Committee that led to the Republican National Committee censoring him. He was one of two Republicans who sat on the committee investigating the insurrection and former President Trump's role.

He's the author of a new book, Renegade, Defending Democracy and Liberty in Our Divided Country. I spoke with Kensinger late last month in front of a live audience at the University of Miami's Hanley Democracy Center. Florida politics has become more nationalized.

Yeah, it has. You guys are crazy here. I live in Texas though now, so who am I saying? Diagnose this a little bit more. What do you make of Florida Republican politics as it's been practiced in the statehouse, but also how it's been imported to some degree in other statehouses as well as the U.S. Congress? So the reason it's been imported somewhat is because the Republican Party in Florida has been successful in going from a swing state to basically solidly Republican state.

Now, whether that's anything the party did, the governors did, I don't know. But it gives people a model to say, well, that's what's happening. I mean, there's just massive shifts going on around the country, right? There are states that were never in play that are in play, that were in play, that aren't in play anymore. But I think the way to diagnose Florida is rage and fear and anger, right? It's actually amazing to me because when we have a member here, the history of the Republican Party in Florida is actually very rich history. Very good leaders, right? I was a Jeb Bush guy when he was running for president.

And it's always been this kind of mark of like, I don't know, professional way of doing politics. And then frankly, DeSantis learned something. He learned that, you know, you can mimic the voice of Trump and actually use that fear to compel stuff, to compel differences. And COVID obviously hurt a lot in terms of just our ability to talk

to each other. So I guess I would just diagnose Florida is not too differently from what you're seeing all around the country. It's just Florida is a powerful state with a guy who happens to be was the number two guy in line in the Republicans to be president has just completely collapsed, by the way. And I think that's why that's gets so much attention. And, you know, look, to the governor's credit, to an extent, I think he was forward leaning on some of the COVID rules that were a little over the top. And I say this as somebody that when he was doing it, I wasn't sure if it was the right thing.

But I think we went a little too far on COVID, particularly in education and how we were walking some of that down. So he has a right to talk and brag about some of that. He's way too far i mean he's taking on freaking disney guys i mean disney like disney's cool you can't win fighting disney by the way well so far he's done pretty well fighting disney at least in the courts and in the legislature. As the current governor of Florida is running for higher office and seeing his poll numbers drop nationally, what should we read into that in the state of Florida,

given his really a Florida landslide reelection that he had not that long ago? Well, two things. There's something unique about the governor, and I knew him in the House. He doesn't have a great personality. I mean, he's just not a good. He doesn't have a great personality. I mean, he's just not a good politician. And I have a funny story. I was talking to him in the cloak room, which is behind the house when you see it and we can sit in, that's kind of like a little

break area. And one of the few times I actually was talking to him because he literally would never talk to anybody. And he's sitting across from me and we're in a conversation and his phone rings. And instead of being like, if you have an important call and you're like, hey, can I take this, right? That's what human beings do. He goes like this. His phone rings and he just goes and walks away. I'm like, all right, well, I'm fine. I think he's not a good campaigner, but I think he won Florida in a unique time.

He had that big landslide reelection in a unique time that I think he assumed would transfer over to national. Now, if I could go back in time and I was advising him, the one thing I would say is take that momentum and don't try to be Donald Trump, right? He tried to be Donald Trump. The problem is Donald Trump is running. You can't be Donald Trump when there's a Donald Trump, right? So he tried to be a mini me. And I think that just didn't work. It looked like people like genuineness still. And I don't think Donald Trump is in any way genuine. I want to be clear, but he comes across genuine to people. They think he's saying what he believes and he's a man of the people. That's what the governor is missing. The manifestation of the problems within the Republican Party,

which have been on display with this fight over the U.S. House speaker, was led by a Florida man as well, Matt Gaetz, the panhandle. Yeah. It's your guys' fault. Well, not this congressional district. Yeah, but still, it's Florida. I'm going to blame you, okay? Just kidding.

Again, a congressman you served with. Yeah, yeah. I'll tell you a funny story about Matt Gaetz while we're here. So he comes in, he just gets elected. I have no clue who he is. He comes into the same cloakroom where all this magic always happens. And he goes, Adam, you're on TV a lot. And I'm like, yeah, I'm on a lot. And he goes, I want to be on TV a lot. What do you recommend? And I just remember thinking like, oh boy, this guy's going to be a problem. And it didn't take long. I mean, if you're wearing makeup when you're not on TV, like you have a problem. And so Matt Gaetz is the epitome of what has become a currency in politics. It used to be currency was you could talk about what you were able to achieve in Congress.

You could talk about the committees you were on, how you were able to serve the district. None of that matters anymore. Even fundraising, to an extent, matters less than fame. Are you stoking plenty of rage? Are you sufficiently angry? That's the new currency. And I'll tell you, Matt Gaetz has mastered that. It drives me nuts that he has, but he has mastered that going on Fox News and stoking rage and stoking popularity. I want to bring this around to governing and this Florida politic that we've experienced as Floridians also winding up on Capitol Hill

because the new House Speaker-elect, Mike Johnson from Louisiana, not that long ago introduced essentially a federal parental bill of rights, the so-called Don't Say Gay bill here in Florida. Didn't happen to go anywhere, but it's an indication of that influence of a state of Florida and the legislative power, I think, that the Republican Party has here and how national legislators, like you once were, are watching and listening. Yeah, I mean, it's true. It's what you see in this, though, is like in a particularly in Republican politics, the left has actually done a good job of there are left crazies, by the way. They've done a good job of kind of keeping them managed and the right has let the crazy right overtake it. And so what you see is

if some insanely cruel bill comes out, for instance, that now becomes the new standard for your conservatism. Do you support that insanely cruel bill? If you don't, then you're not sufficiently conservative. If you do, great, but then somebody is going to come out with a two week abortion ban or a one-day abortion ban, right? There's always a next level, and that next level always becomes the new standard by which you measure somebody's conservatism against. The thing the pro-life movement should have done when Roe v. Wade was overturned was not then start saying, okay, well, now it's banned at six weeks, now it's banned at four weeks. What they should have done is turn to how do we now help people that find themselves in a situation, unwed mothers, that

kind of stuff, or people that are pregnant too young. How do we now create an environment where adoption is becoming more easily encouraged? Those are the kinds of things you pair with a fairly unpopular stand like that. But this party was instead focused on how cruel can we be. Speaking with former Illinois Congressman Republican Adam Kinzinger last month at the University of Miami's Hanley Democracy Center, Kinzinger was one of two Republicans on the Congressional January 6th Committee. All right, your emails and phone calls are next. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org.

Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. 305-995-1800. I'm Tom Hudson, and you're listening to The Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. This is The Florida Roundup. Thanks again for being along with us. I'm Tom Hudson. Next week on our program, legal sports betting comes to the Sunshine State. I want you to put the word out there,

but we back up. Understand me? We back up. Seminole Hard Rock Casino used that internet meme from the HBO show The Wire to announce it was relaunching its sports betting app. Now, it's not available for everyone in Florida, at least not yet. There's been a court fight over bringing sports betting to Florida. Does this represent an expansion of gambling or is this allowed under the gambling deal with the state? Are you a gambler? Do you want to bet legally on football over your phone? What about the billions of dollars this could mean for the state? Email us your thoughts now, radio at thefloridaroundup.org. You can email us a voice memo too, radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Do you visit Florida's casinos and card rooms?

Maybe you work at one. What do you think about being able to bet on your phone? Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Legal sports betting coming to Florida here in some cases. That will be next week on our program. Today it's politics and politicking. We are taking your emails and your phone calls at 305-995-1800. 305-995-1800. Jackson emailed us writing, to be honest, I still don't know who I'm going to vote for.

What I do know is that Joe Biden shouldn't be elected again. Jackson calls President Biden too old, completely out of touch. Jackson continues in his email, if I'm being honest, I really wish we had more candidates who weren't senior citizens. How do you feel about the choices as they're shaping up now a little bit less than a year away from Election Day 2024? 305-995-1800. Well, you know the old saying that all politics is local. It's both more true than ever before, thanks to gerrymandered political districts, and it's also a bygone notion, thanks to the erosion of public local news and the amplification provided by social media.

Immigration, foreign relations, national defense, we've seen how local and state governments get involved in these issues, which had largely been the domain of the federal government for years. And some local school board elections now gain national attention over what's taught, how it's taught in your neighborhood schools. So how has this nationalization of our politics affected your community, maybe even your neighborhood? Sure, there'll be a presidential election in less than a year, but your ballot also will be filled with plenty of state and local races. How does your vote for president affect what you think about your local leaders? 305-995-1800. Mary Ellen Klass

is back with us here on the floor, Duran, a politics and policy columnist now for Bloomberg Opinion. Mary Ellen, welcome back. Great to have you again. Good to be here, Tom. Thank you. Let's start with the GOP presidential debate this week. The Republican hopefuls were here in Florida, including Governor DeSantis, taking the stage on Wednesday. How do you think the governor's track record in Florida is playing out? Well, you know, I think the governor is using his track record in Florida as the primary reason why he should be the Trump alternative. And, you know, in the debate, he did what he does at every campaign appearance. And that is cite his large 2022 victory as the reason why he's a stronger candidate.

The polls show, however, that Trump continues to, you know, outdistance him, even in Florida. That's putting it mildly, right? Yeah, yeah. And, you know, he used a lot of his campaign or a lot of his time on the debate stage to raise some issues that kind of are the governor injecting himself onto the national stage or into national politics. He cited the claim that Biden had left Americans in Israel stranded and, you know, said he used state resources to rescue people. Of course, that claim is still questioned, is being questioned, you know, how much state resources the governor's office is refusing to turn over receipts for that. We still don't know whether these flights would have happened on their own.

But, you know, he he also raised some other issues, you know, as his as his record. And former Governor Nikki Haley tried to strike a blow against DeSantis by, you know, claiming that he promised to ban fracking and oil drilling. And that was pretty much a failed, I think, a failed hit. Voters, of course, approved a constitutional amendment that banned offshore oil drilling. constitutional amendment that banned offshore oil drilling. And so DeSantis was able to suggest that what voters didn't want was fracking in the Everglades, which is exactly right. Yeah. So, you know, he's used these positions to elevate himself, I think. Yeah. He also talked about that relatively new state law banning Chinese and other foreign nationals from a few countries from buying property in most of Florida. He talked about how he stepped in with state funding to ban any support or prohibit any support with college student registered chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine, although there's some questions about some of those chapters being able to continue. What do you make about the parts of the governor's record that he is choosing to

highlight in these debates to a national audience? Well, Tom, I think this kind of goes to the point that you had mentioned earlier, and that is that it's sort of the nationalization of all politics. And the governor is taking advantage of the fact that Americans don't understand the difference between what a governor can do and what a state can do, or what the federal government does. State has to balance its budget, you know, and Florida gets the benefit of all kinds of federal money in order to do that? People don't get that. So when he claims he's balancing the budget, he doesn't go into the detail. He's no different than any other governor in Florida in modern times that has had to balance the budget.

That's right. Yeah. And in regards to the federal dollars that flow to Florida, you've covered the budget for decades, Mary Ellen. It's now over $100 billion. But what, roughly half of that are federal government transfers for education and healthcare primarily. That's right. Yeah. I mean, it's $119 billion budget. And I think it was Jeff Atwater who first gave us the number that about- he's a former chief financial officer of Florida. Yes. Sorry. Yes. Former state Senate president and chief financial officer. And he talks about how the the only the amount of the budget, about 25 percent of the budget is what the state really can control. Yeah. Yeah. Talking about politics, politicking, local politics, national politics, how really some of our local, a lot of our local politics anymore seem to be seen through a national lens.

305-995-1800, 305-995-1800. Arthur has been listening in from Coral Gables. Arthur, go ahead. You're on the radio. Hey there. I'd like to express an opinion about the national politics. Yeah, go ahead. You're on the radio. Hey there. I'd like to express an opinion about the national politics. Yeah, go ahead. I've had a lot of callers, callers who call in, people I speak to personally,

for deciding on a presidential candidate based on the person and the personality. And what I want to suggest to them is that they look at the major issues, whether it's taxes, immigration, abortion, health care, and decide where they stand on those issues and pick the party that aligns with those positions. And with one exception, which is Donald Trump, because we've seen him try to thwart democracy. But the people that are talking about Joe Biden now,

if you believe in the Democratic ideal, that's who you vote for, regardless of who the candidate is. Arthur, yeah, I hear you. And it's a great point, Arthur. Do you think that that the parties, as they are constructed now, represent perhaps, for instance, the way you feel about all of those issues? what you feel about all of those issues? Is there, again, I guess the other way I want to ask this, Arthur, is there a party that represents your views on all of those issues? Or perhaps it becomes more nuanced? It's more nuanced. I think if we pull the majority of people, we're going to be somewhere in the middle, and we don't have a party that's sufficient in the middle. I call myself center-left, So that's how I aligned. It could be

Republican white. It could be Democratic conservative. But the extremes on the right are at least half of that party's population. The extremes on the left, I want to hope it's a much smaller number, 10 or 15 percent. So there's a false equivalency. But most people would prefer candidates that are more in the middle. And the way to get there is open primary and ranked voting. We know how to reduce the extremism. But the current politicians that are in place, they'd have to vote for these things unless we get them all done through referenda at the state level. Arthur, I appreciate you joining the conversation from Coral Gables.

Thanks for mentioning some of these ideas. Mary Ellen Kloss with the Bloomberg Opinion. This idea of ranked choice voting has been one that's been tried in some local elections, some statewide elections, well outside of Florida. Florida is still a closed primary state, meaning that you have to be registered with a political party in order to participate in that party's primary. So for instance, if you want to have your voice heard in March of 2024 about a presidential preference that you have here in Florida, you have to register as either a Republican or a Democrat in order to select someone from the ballot from those two parties. Yeah, that's right. And, you know, ranked choice voting is one of those ideas that is being experimented with around the country. It's failed in some places,

succeeded in others. I think it goes to the point that people are in search of some alternatives. They think that the party structure that we have right now is, you know, it rewards often at the forefront of this conversation. We've seen members of the Florida GOP congressional delegation play a major role in the U.S. House speaker race, for instance, in recent weeks. What do you think of Florida and how it's become such a powerhouse for Republican politics in other states? Well, I think it's very interesting. You know, I think in many ways, Ron DeSantis is. Overwhelming victory in 2022 really elevated his platform and and amplified what he was doing in the state.

And so that became an opportunity, I think, for the national media to look at some of these ideas. When you dig deep into some into the ideas that the governor has been pursuing, you know, the the bans on transgender, you know, the the athletes, right. Transgender athletes and and care, medical care, the politicization of school board elections, the restrictions on books, things that have to do with, you know, his going after prosecutors he doesn't agree with. Those are all ideas that have been bubbling up in other conservative states. But DeSantis had the platform and the audience. And so that's why. And plus, we've got a state. Everybody knows Florida. Florida also is. They think they know Florida, Mary Ellen, right? When you and I travel outside,

people tell us what they think of Florida, which may be slightly different. Yeah. And many people have traveled here, vacationed here, so they think they have some sense of it. They know somebody maybe who's moved here. I think, and the fact that we have this enormous population growth, we've had a successful economic growth, All those things make us a focal point. Yeah, yeah. We're talking politics and politicking here on the Florida Roundup with Mary Ellen Kloss of Bloomberg Opinion, 305-995-1800. You can also email us radio at thefloridaroundup.org. I'm Tom Hudson.

You are listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Let's go to Lake Worth where Harriet has been listening in. Harriet, you're now part of the conversation here on the radio. Go ahead. Hi. Thank you for having me. So I just wanted to express my support for Joe Biden and the idea that he's too old sort of bothers me. And that if you look at the things he's been able to accomplish, they're pretty amazing. And so I'm a supporter and will work to support his election. I'm opposed to what Ron DeSantis has been doing in the state.

I'm very worried about children's books being banned, about transgender children losing their rights. And I'm also a supporter of the Florida Protecting Freedom ballot initiative and working hard to get that on the ballot for 2024. Is that the possible abortion referendum? Is that what you're referring to, Harriet? Yes. Got you. Okay, yeah. Got you. Harriet and Lake Worth, thanks so much for lending your voice to the conversation. Let's hear from Brian, who is joining from Orlando. Go ahead, Brian.

Hey, good afternoon. Thank you for having me. I just want to say that I believe some nuance should be provided when we say that Ron DeSantis wanted a landslide. That election was a record low voter turnout. I think we need to address issues of voter suppression in the state of Florida when we make that statement as well. The lack of or non-allowance of souls to the polls, the removal of mail-in ballot locations, all of the Republican attempts to suppress voting. And also that the initial election between him and Gillum was much closer than the latter. And again, I believe that is as a result of voter suppression tactics. latter. And again, I believe that is as a result of voter suppression tactics.

So you're referring to the 2018 gubernatorial election where Ron DeSantis won by, I think it was less than a half a percent of total votes cast. Correct. Yeah, much, much more even. And it showed that there was a more moderate position of Florida voters. But in turn, once he was elected, he went to an extreme. He didn't govern from a position of middle ground. You know, he really went to that extreme. And I believe that we have to talk about the issues of the African-American history standards that have been changed. From a national perspective, people see this. This is not a governor who governs for the people. He's a governor who governs for that radical wing of this country that is an extremely dangerous part of this country.

And I believe we really should lend nuance, particularly to bills like when the voters decided to allow convicted felons to restore their voting rights. Right, the restoration of rights that was approved by voters and the implementation that the state legislature put into that and the court fights over that. Brian, I appreciate you calling from Orlando. Mary Ellen, Brian is certainly a highly informed voter there in Orlando. Lots of issues there. What do you hear from him as we look toward the election cycle in the next year?

Well, I really appreciate the idea that he says we need to speak with more nuance. It's really hard to have discussions like this, get into those kinds of details. But he's right. You know, what has happened with every executive that's come into power in the last 30 years, or at least the last 25, is that they get in and then they find a way to keep their voters and keep out the voters that voted against them. And it's a pattern and it's not unique to Florida. But while Ron DeSantis has been governor, there have been a systematic number of bills to make it more difficult for people to vote the way they got the votes in. For example, Republicans used to rely on absentee voting, vote by mail for decades. And that's shifted entirely to almost day of voting on election day, right? That's right. And now they've put enacted reforms to make it more difficult to do vote by mail. Mary Ellen Klaas is a columnist with Bloomberg Opinion

covering policy and politics. Mary Ellen, always great to have your deep perspective and nuance on the program. Always, always welcome. Good to be here, Tom. Thank you. Sure thing. We got plenty more to talk about, including we will look back at the special session, the special legislative session this week and what was accomplished. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks again for being with us this week. On Tuesday afternoon... All in favor say yay, opposed no, show the motion is approved, the House is adjourned. The Florida House finished its special legislative session,

and then on Wednesday, without objection, the Senate is now adjourned for the day. The Florida Senate wrapped up its business too. So let's round up what legislators did this week during their special legislative session. Lawmakers passed four bills and some resolutions during this special session. It was a session called by Governor Ron DeSantis to support Israel in its war against Hamas. Other items were added to that agenda, including Hurricane Adalia relief, school vouchers for students with disabilities, and more grant money for Floridian homeowners to shore up their homes against storms. From our partner station in

Tallahassee, WFSU, Regan McCarthy sets the stage from the opening day. In her opening remarks, State Senate President Kathleen Pasadena said Governor Ron DeSantis is committed to supporting Israel. And she said DeSantis wants to ensure Florida has tough sanctions against any regime that, quote, supports terrorism. His continuous leadership makes it clear that Florida will not tolerate anti-Semitism or hatred of any kind. Meanwhile, Florida Democrats pushed to expand the special session to cover a broader range of topics. House Minority Leader Fentress Driscoll spoke on the House floor. She says there are many

time-sensitive issues that she'd like to see the legislature address now. Some of the most vulnerable and helpless Floridians, including hundreds and thousands of children, are facing termination of medical coverage through unprecedented Medicaid disenrollment. Families across the state are struggling with unaffordable housing costs, including skyrocketing insurance costs, and they're no longer able to make ends meet. Driscoll says Democrats filed bills for the special session that touch on those issues and asked lawmakers to expand the scope of the session, but the Republican-controlled legislature voted against that move.

I'm Regan McCarthy. Boca Raton Democratic State Senator Tina Polsky was one of those critical of calling a special session. She would have liked to have added property insurance reforms to the agenda. We are here in a special session doing good things that should be done. But first of all, they could have all been done in a regular session. Nothing is so pressing that it required an emergency. Granted, we were up here for committee weeks anyway. But nonetheless, you know, it's very clear why we're here.

It's to help the governor's presidential campaign. Now, the biggest drama came on Tuesday when Democratic Representative Angie Nixon from Duval County proposed a resolution that called for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. Dozens of lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats turned their backs to Nixon as she was arguing for her resolution. Honestly, it's about the babies, the Israeli babies and the Palestinian babies. Democratic State Representative Mike Gottlieb, who is Jewish and represents parts of Broward County, spoke out against the proposed resolution. When I hear a ceasefire that does not understand our history or has contempt for our history, I believe it to be born out of ignorance and anti-Semitism. The House eventually voted 104 to 2 to reject the resolution.

Here's Representative Nixon again. I'm heartbroken, especially for my Muslim, the Muslim community and the Palestinian community. They've been demonized, and it's not right. Lawmakers did pass resolutions expressing support for Israel. The Senate passed one. The House passed two. The resolutions condemn the Hamas' October 7th attack on Israel. Randy Fine is the only Jewish Republican in the House.

He represents parts of Brevard County. So this resolution, again, does two things. It says that we stand with Israel, but it also says that we stand with Florida's Jews as we're all going through something, frankly, that none of us ever thought that we would have to go through again. Among the bills passed was one that would provide $25 million to pay for security at Jewish schools, another $20 million that can be used at locations, including synagogues. This is Palm Beach County Democratic State Senator Lori Berman. We have to think twice about where we are going and what security will be in place. Many synagogues have metal detectors as well as armed guards, and you don't see that in many churches. The bill passed the Senate and the House, but in the House, it didn't pass until after Democratic Representative Patricia Williams and other Democrats knew for certain that historically

Black colleges will also be protected from threats. As we go over bills by bills and issue by issues, understand that we don't feel there's one life more important to the other. And as we debate, respect is due to anyone. Another bill will expand restrictions on using state pension money to invest in businesses with ties to Iran. This bill expands a 2007 law requiring the State Board of Administration, which manages Florida's massive pension fund, to divest from what are known as scrutinized companies with links to Iran's petroleum industry. The investment restrictions passed this week would expand to other industries, including financial, construction, textile, and the manufacturing

sector. State Representative John Snyder from Martin County sponsored the bill. We are doubling down to send a clear message that Florida will not be in the business of funding terrorism. I'm Lynn Hatter in Tallahassee. Some of the proposals, like the disinvestment measure, did come with questions, like whether the state is currently doing any business with companies that would be impacted. I want to just make sure that we're doing real things here as opposed to puffery. That's Democratic Senator Jason Pizzo of Hollywood. The bill's sponsor says he does not know what companies, if any, would fall under the expanded language. All measures cleared the Senate unanimously after receiving majority support in the House.

Lawmakers approved bills on two other issues, education and disaster relief, coupled with storm protection. Now, one lifts the cap on school voucher money for students with disabilities. The program has a waiting list of more than 8,000 names after handing out its 41,000 vouchers that could be worth more than $20,000. Republican Senator Jay Collins from Hillsborough County says he sponsored the bill for families like his. As a parent of a unique abilities child, there are a cavalcade of different things that you deal with. And making sure that we provide those opportunities to those parents and those families is unequivocally and unquestionably the correct thing to do. The bill does away with a cap this year and increases it by 3% next year.

I'm Tom Hudson. You are listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Another bill funnels more money to help recovery after Hurricane Adalia along the Big Bend region and spends another $176 million to help Floridians shore up their homes against storms. That money replenishes the My Safe Florida Home program that makes matching grants up to $10,000 to homeowners to make repairs to their homes, making them better protected against tropical storms and hurricanes. The money will go toward those who applied before October 16th. According to the legislature, about 3,000 homeowners have completed the grant and repair process, and of those, about half report having their home insurance premiums drop by an average of $1,000. However, the Tampa Bay Times reported that average comes from homeowners self-reporting any savings, and those savings range from 7 cents to over $31,000.

I want to bring you up to date now on a story we brought you a couple of weeks ago on this program. It was about the Pasco County Schools debating whether or not a book by radio show host Dave Ramsey is appropriate for the state's new financial literacy standards. Well, there's been a decision. Carrie Sheridan reports now from our partner station in Tampa, WUSF. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes.

The vote was unanimous. The book will be used for a new course in personal finance required by law for the class of 2027. In Pasco, it's already underway. Leah Mitchell is with the Pasco School District. What we know is we have children sitting in courses right now and their teachers are asking us for support. asking us for support. 57 people objected to the textbook. They said it leans heavily on Ramsey's personal views against credit cards and debt and was too hastily adopted. Pascoe mom and former teacher Jessica Wright. We'll be setting both our teachers and our students up for failure should we pass this overall book and require it to be taught to every single student. Ramsey's textbook Foundations in Personal Finance, is on the state's approved list of materials.

But Pasco officials acknowledge that it's not actually approved for the new course. Mitchell says that's because legislators keep adding new courses and requirements, and districts can't keep up. The misalignment of state timelines puts every single school district in the state of Florida in a very hard position. Deleting course codes, making new graduation requirements, all in the midst of annual adoptions really does put us in a position where we have to make decisions for what's best for our students in the moment. Going forward, Mitchell says the district

plans to wait a year before adopting new textbooks, and she says they will not buy the Ramsey book for a five-year cycle as initially planned. I'm Carrie Sheridan in Tampa. Finally on the Roundup this week, more than a snake, it was a monster. That's how Mike Elfenbein describes what he and his teenage son came across a week ago. They were driving down one of those backcountry dark gravel roads and saw something. Another car with three other guys, strangers from Tampa, saw it too. It was late Friday night in the Big Cypress National Preserve in Collier County. Now Mike knows his way around the Florida wilderness. He's worked on conservation efforts for a long time in southwest Florida. What Mike, his son,

and the three other guys saw was a python. Not unusual, except for the size of this one. Grabbing its head was like grabbing hold of a football, Mike said. It stretched across the gravel road, 17 feet, two inches, 17 feet, two inches, 198 pounds of female python, the scourge of the Everglades. The five of them fought the snake for 45 minutes. Mike then called a professional python hunter. Yeah, we have those here in Florida. She came out and fought the snake for 45 minutes. Mike then called a professional python hunter. Yeah, we have those here in Florida. She came out and killed the snake. It was the second heaviest Burmese python caught in Florida. Oh, and Mike, like the true Floridian he is, Mike was wearing flip-flops. And that's our program for this week.

The Florida Roundup is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF Public Media in Tampa. Bridget O'Brien produced our program. WLRN's Vice President of Radio and the program's Technical Director is Peter Meritz. We get engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson and Charles Michaels. Richard Ives answers the phones. Our theme music is provided by Miami jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at aaronleibos.com. If you missed any of today's program, you can download it and check out our past programs by going to wlrn.org slash podcasts.

Thanks for emailing, calling, listening, and supporting public radio. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend and a happy Veterans Day. To those vets, thank you for your service.