The Florida Roundup - Partisan school board races, DNC fact-check and environmental news

Episode Date: August 23, 2024

This week on The Florida Roundup, we checked in with Politico’s Andrew Atterbury to talk about the primary results in this week’s school board races (00:08). Then, we spoke with Rep. Spencer Roach (20:00) about the proposed amendment he sponsored that asks Florida voters to decide whether to make school board elections partisan. Plus, we checked some of the claims from the DNC with PolitiFact’s Samantha Putterman (33:48). And later, a roundup of environmental news from the weekend (37:15) and a Florida athlete makes it to the Wheaties box (48:26).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Great to be along with you. There was an election this week here in the Sunshine State. Did you miss it? A lot of Florida voters sat this one out. Only about one in five eligible voters bothered to cast their ballots in the August primary. Well, I think the people of Florida have election fatigue. Sean Foreman is a political science professor at Barry University in Miami. We vote in a presidential primary in March.

We vote in municipal elections in different months in different cities. We vote in the general election in November. So when you stick this Florida primary in August, it's just bound to get less attention. It's kind of an election irony that the public offices closest to voters attract less voter attention. Brian Corley is the supervisor of elections in Pasco County. Everyone gets all excited and races to the polls when the president's on the ballot.

But you look at the local offices that are closest to the people, county commissions, school boards, school superintendent, et cetera, have more of an impact in our lives daily than higher offices, and the turnout is considerably less. There was no presidential contest on this ballot, but there were lots of school board races, and that's what we want to talk about today. These races are nonpartisan for now. It doesn't matter what political party you're registered with or if you're registered as an NPA. You saw the school board candidates on your ballot this month if you voted. Just as he did two years ago, Governor Ron DeSantis endorsed a slate of school board candidates across the state, 23 of them from Pinellas, Hillsborough and Sarasota counties on the Gulf Coast to Duval, Brevard and Miami-Dade on the Atlantic Coast. Eleven of the 26 endorsed by the governor lost.

Six others did not win a majority, so they will face a runoff election this fall. The Florida Democratic Party, through its support behind 11 candidates, 7-1-2 are headed to runoff elections in November. This marks a significant step up in the partisanship of public school board elections. So did a political endorsement make a difference for your school board vote? And how has the so-called culture war in education impacted your vote? Call us now 305-995-1800. Dial 305-995-1800 or shoot us a quick note to our inbox, radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Our email address, radio at thefloridaroundup.org. The Sarasota County School Board has grabbed national headlines over culture war issues. A newcomer who promised to take politics

out of the process won a seat this week. Carrie Sheridan reports from our partner station WUSF, the loser had the governor's endorsement. In a tight race for the District 2 school board seat, Liz Barker, a PTO president and mom of four, eked out a victory over school board chair Karen Rose. Endorsed by Governor Ron DeSantis, Rose had poured $90,000 of her own money into her campaign in the final days. Despite decades of experience as a teacher and principal, Rose was seen as an increasingly political force on the board on decisions that proved costly to the district. Barker's victory shifts the balance slightly, bringing two Democrats to the five-member board. Three conservatives who were not up for re-election still have their seats. Incumbent Tom Edwards won easily against

two contenders who appeared to split the Republican vote. I'm Carrie Sheridan in Sarasota. The second largest school district in the state, Broward County, had five of its nine seats up for election, including two incumbents appointed by Governor DeSantis back in 2022. Reporter Carlton Gillespie from our partner station WLRN was at the Supervisor of Elections office as results rolled in Tuesday night. The school board elections were largely seen as a referendum on the political appointees of Governor DeSantis, and the results were clear and resounding. In District 1, incumbent Dan Fogel only ran a distant third behind both challengers to his seat,

with Maura McCarthy-Bullman clinching the win. In District 2, Rebecca Thompson nearly doubled the vote tally of incumbent Tori Alston. I'm Carlton Gillespie in Fort Lauderdale. And in Duval County, the local Moms for Liberty chapter continues to gain control of the school board. Megan Malacote covers education for our partner station WJCT in Jacksonville. We had four districts that had races for the school board this election cycle. four districts that had races for the school board this election cycle. And of the four candidates that were the conservative candidates, three of them were endorsed by Governor DeSantis, and three of them were endorsed by our local Moms for Liberty chapter, although it wasn't

the same set. The cloud that's hanging over Duval County schools right now is the master facility plan and how there's a projected $1.4 billion budget shortfall. And so this school board is going to have to make some decisions regarding how they're going to fix that. There'd been discussion in the last couple of months, particularly about potentially closing some schools. And that's been all anybody can talk about with regard to Duval County schools right now. The two Moms for Liberty endorsed candidates in Duval County won their seats. Now, for his part, Governor DeSantis minimized most of his school board candidates losing this election cycle, saying he didn't throw much of his political capital behind his favored candidates,

certainly compared to two years ago. I will confess, I mean, in 22, we had a whole operation dedicated to this. And we did a lot of resources and we had all that. You know, I wasn't in a position to do that this time, at least for the primary. Maybe we'll help in the general because I've got all these other things I've got to do. I'm raising money for the super PAC helping Trump against Harris. I've got stuff where we're doing with the legislature. I've got, you know, these amendments that they're doing. So we're doing a lot of different things.

But his preferred candidates also lost in Republican strongholds. Now, for her part, Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Freed celebrated the wins by school board candidates supported by the Democratic Party. We won a majority of the school board races. We contested and beat Ron DeSantis' backed Moms for Liberty candidates all across the state. Ron DeSantis has lost his culture war. Book bans, parental bill of rights in education, curriculum choices, teacher pay, tax rates. There's a lot at stake in these school board races in your community. So how did you vote? Why did you vote that way? Or if you chose not to vote at all, why did you stay home? 305-995-1800. Live on this Friday across the state, we would like to hear from you. 305-995-1800. Send us a quick email,

radio at thefloridaroundup.org. We're monitoring the inbox actively. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Andrew Atterbury is an education reporter with Politico. He joins us now via Zoom from Tallahassee. Andrew, welcome back to the program. How significant are these losses by candidates who were endorsed by Governor DeSantis? Hey, thanks for having me. Always a good time to talk about school boards. Indeed. That's a great question. I think that's the thing a lot of people are asking now. You guys really led it up well with the party chair of Nikki Free saying basically declaring that the culture wars are lost. But at the same time, the governor largely has downplayed some of these losses. And that's the thing from the governor's office.

They're really touting the wins in Duval, which were flipping that school board there in Jacksonville, you heard in that area dealing with a lot of issues especially around what they're going to do with school closures that was their big thing was saying hey we we helped this uh board flip to Morge conservative leaning that was a big thing for us and then they also kind of touted to their overall record which were there were a lot more wins in 2022 you know they helped reshape the board in Sarasota, Lee, Brevard and even won some seats in Miami-Dade at the time. So they're kind of saying, hey, look, we did this all this over time. And a lot of this, they're also kind of say, well, we also took a swing at some of these things that were in reality. They think that some of these conservative leading candidates may not do well in these more liberal areas like Tampa and Hillsborough and Pinellas, where they did lose.

Right. So they're kind of really, like you said, they're really downplaying that. And in Broward County as well, we should point out. But how about this push and pull? And, you know, the politicians are going to frame this in a way that favors their point of view, certainly between the governor and then the chair of the Florida Democratic Party. But when the Florida chair of the Democratic Party, Nikki Freed, says the governor has lost the culture war, can the Democrats claim victory here with the results this week? Freed says the governor has lost the culture war. Can the Democrats claim victory here with the results this week?

In some of those cases, I think that that's fair. I mean, you look like in Broward, though, that was those are really interesting cases where although the governor didn't endorse these candidates, he appointed them. And there also were some donations to some of these candidates from PACs who were like from former House Speaker Paul Renner. That PAC played a pretty big role in a lot of these campaigns, whether it's through mailers or donations. But I think the Democratic Party getting involved definitely like it definitely seems like they ramped up their efforts this year. There was a PAC created by a former school board member, Jennifer Jenkins. She's a Democrat and she had been targeted by DeSantis in 2023 as a seat that they wanted to take. She ended up fundraising and I think they endorsed 17 candidates, 10 of those won. And these are

not the exact same endorsements as the Democratic Party, but they're very similar, I think. And that was just some more pressure. And then the Florida Education Association, they endorsed dozens of candidates this year. So there was a lot of pressure. And not all of them, of course, are going against the DeSantis endorsed candidates, but there's just a lot of different endorsements and donations flying around. And it seemed, and if you, like the governor mentioned earlier, if he didn't donate as much, or spend enough time and efforts this year, then with all these other outward sources kind of pushing together, it does make sense that some of these races went the way they did, perhaps. Andrew, as you can imagine, a lot of folks want to join the conversation here on the telephone.

Yeah, let's hear from him. Andrew Atterbury covers education for Politico. We're talking about the school board races that happened probably in your community. Lots of big ones were on the ballot, although few Floridians actually voted in the primary this month. Let's hear from Johnny in Orlando, Orange County. Go ahead, Johnny. Thanks for calling. You're on the radio. month. Let's hear from Johnny in Orlando, Orange County. Go ahead, Johnny. Thanks for calling. You're on the radio. Yeah, I have a PhD in knowledge management, and I'm very surprised that we want to politicize our educational system. We should educate our children according to the First Amendment with open minds, and then let them decide once they are well-educated whether they want to be conservatives or liberal. I'm surprised that our elected officials who swore to the Constitution saying the First Amendment will not deal with religion and any of these things?

That's my comment. I'd love to hear from the panel. Yeah, no, I appreciate that, Johnny. Thanks for joining the conversation. I mean, the First Amendment certainly has a number of rights that are enumerated in that. Of course, freedom of speech, freedom of religious practice is in there. I don't believe there's anything in there regarding partisanship and school board elections here in the state of Florida or elsewhere, for that matter. But I guess maybe to the broader point Johnny perhaps is bringing up here, Andrew, and it is, of course, the partisanship and the stepped up,

is, of course, the partisanship and the stepped up, arguably the stepped up partisanship that we've seen in these in these traditional nonpartisan elections here in Florida for school board. Sure. And I'm really fascinated, as you mentioned, with turnout being as dismal as it usually is for school board races. There's an amendment coming up. We'll talk about that later, I'm sure, about whether these races should be partisan. I'm really curious. Will the turnout for that be much better? Do people really know? And I'm really curious, do they really care? Like, I think I've heard both sides of that. You know, people, some people I've talked to,

they say, we definitely need to keep it. Like the caller said, we do need to keep these things nonpartisan, keep the politics out of it. You don't need to know where they're from. They're, you should all have the same goal, which is educating students. But then I also hear some candidates say,

well, this is a way to keep people from saying what different things to different groups of people like the government, one organization, they say, oh, this is what I believe in. And they go to another and they say something different. So they think it brings more transparency. Yeah, of course, the Saints is in 2022 when the Saints first endorsed candidates. That was a really big swing in the first time a governor had ever done that. But to him and to conservatives, they say that's just trying to counteract the influence that Democrats and unions have typically put on some of these races in the past. We will be speaking with Representative Spencer Roach in all about 10 minutes or so. He is the Republican legislator who led the effort to put what is the Amendment 1 on the fall ballot, which is asking Florida voters to allow for partisanship when it comes to school board elections. We'll be speaking with the representative coming up

in just a few minutes. You can email us some questions that you may have. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org is that address. Dave in Melbourne has been listening in. Dave, you're on the radio. Go ahead. Good afternoon. Thanks for having me on. But any candidate that's been endorsed by either Governor DeSantis or Moms for Liberty, I found is the red flag. So I went to my polls and voted against the DeSantis-backed candidate for school board, number Bard. We'll see what happens in November. It's going to lead to a runoff. I certainly hope that with maybe some more sane voices in school boards will help strengthen schools in the state. Dave, let me ask you, as a registered NPA, non-party affiliated voter, you mentioned you voted against those candidates that were on your ballot who were endorsed by the governor. by the governor.

Do you feel the same way if a candidate was on your ballot who was supported by the Florida Democratic Party, or for that matter, the state teachers union, for instance? I think so, to an extent, just because I just, as mentioned, I don't think politics should be that involved with education or with just how schools need to operate. There are professionals, there are teachers and other administrators that should be able to help out children and be able to construct curriculum that they'd be fit with their experience. Dave, I appreciate you lending your voice from Melbourne to the conversation here. Andrew Atterbury, education reporter for Politico, still with us on Zoom. Dave's made an interesting comment to me talking about the partisanship of school board members. You know, politics is a fact of life, right, Andrew? Even, you know, regardless of education or not, public education or not. But talk about kind of the evolution and the the boiling up, I suppose, of of partisanship in public school governance here in Florida, which can be traced, at least in recent history, of course, to responses to the covid pandemic.

Yeah, I feel like covid is like the easiest thing to be like. This is like it was a huge turning point because people were getting more involved in their education. They saw more about what kids are learning. They didn't like certain aspects of it, whether it was they didn't want in person. They didn't want person. They want at home learning. They want in person learning. They didn't want masks. Maybe they didn't want masks. And of course, I think you've done something there. I think that's that's a lingering issue was at that point. It was a lot. There were a lot of school boards who went against the Board of Education, which is de facto Governor DeSantis' education arm. So I think you saw that happen.

And then as it evolves, school boards historically, in some cases, have also gone against DOE with their regards to how they want to approve different school choice options like charter schools. That's a big thing with some school boards going, kind of seeing more adversarial charter schools, which goes against school choice, which is a huge part of their conservative agenda here. I think that's something you saw crop up a lot in these local races where candidates like, well, these are candidates who support parents who are the ones who are conservative. And if you're a more liberal, you know, you're an anti-parent extremist. You don't believe in parental rights, that kind of thing.

So and that's really that's what you see. And I think a lot of this you'll see in I think a big part of this is like in parental rights, that kind of thing. And that's really what you see. And I think a lot of this you'll see in, I think a big part of this is like the mailers that go out of this, which is really kind of hard to correct. But there's a ton of those flying around. I've seen cases where people were saying there were 16 or 17 mailers in one race for one seat out of three in a county. So, I mean, that's a lot of stuff flying around. And a lot of the stuff is as a tag. Some of it's more positive.

But, I mean, it's a lot of stuff flying around, and a lot of the stuff is as a tag. Some of it's more positive, but, I mean, it's a lot. Yeah. My home mailbox is a lot less crowded Wednesday, Thursday, Friday of this week compared to what it was just a week ago after election, before the election day. Brenda is listening to the conversation here, Andrew, from Jacksonville. Brenda, thanks for your patience here on the radio. Go ahead. Hi.

I wanted to say that I came out specifically to vote for Hank Rogers in District 5, and I don't actually know his affiliation because I vote on issues. And the school board's facing a threat from charter schools with the consolidation plan, and he's against that. Brenda, issue-oriented voter there in Duval County for the school board. Brenda, appreciate you lending your voice to our conversation. Finally, Andrew, I just want to ask you bigger picture here. How do the results this week impact the governor's clout in public education, which has been tremendous over the course of his six years in office? That's a really good question. A lot of people I think are quick, like you mentioned earlier, the party chair, Nicky Freed saying, you know, he's he's he lost big, you know, his his culture wars are over. I think I think over time, people would try to say that. I remember back in the day, people were saying that he lost on COVID and then kind of things kind of shifted people. Some people now really like what he did with COVID. So there's it's really easy to say stuff like that. Yeah, it is. It is interesting that there were races. A lot of the races he did lose were in these liberal leaning areas. But then, like you mentioned, there were these races in Sarasota, Indian River and Flagler County and Indian River and Flagler.

It's basically two Republicans for every registered Democrat. So some of these areas, it's really curious to see. And even like you mentioned earlier, an endorsed candidate who is a chair in a Republican leaning area had lost. So some of these races really do say something. But from the picture, I think we're also going to have to see. The governor mentioned that he might kind of hinted that he would get involved in more races than the coming up here in November. So it'll be interesting. He's got six already candidates still standing in. We'll have to watch that space. Andrew Atterbury covering education in the state of Florida for Politico with us from Tallahassee.

Representative Spencer Roach, the supporter behind the partisanship in public education school board members, is next on the Florida Roundup. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for listening. Next week on our program, the job market. Job growth here in Florida has been slowing down somewhat. The unemployment rate has nudged up just a tad from historic lows, and earnings growth has plateaued in recent months. So ahead of the Labor Day holiday in, well, a week and some change, we're going to speak with the Acting Secretary of Labor for the United States,

Julie Hsu, will be on our program in one week. We want to hear from you now, though. How's your job and your paycheck here in the Sunshine State? Are you looking for work? What are you finding? You can email us now, radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Tell us about your job prospects.

We may share your story next week on our program. The election this week here in the Sunshine State was crowded with school board races across the state. Those races are nonpartisan, at least for now. Voters this fall will be asked whether or not to change the state's constitution to make school board elections partisan. If enough voters in Florida approve the change, it would end almost three decades of practice, which stripped political party designations for school board campaigns. 305-995-1800. Live on this Friday is the phone number to join our conversation.

Representative Spencer Roach, Republican from North Fort Myers, with us from our partner station, WGCU. Representative, welcome back to the program. Nice to talk to you again. Todd, thank you. Good afternoon and happy Friday to you and your listeners. It's great to be here with you. Indeed. again. Todd, thank you. Good afternoon and happy Friday to you and your listeners. It's great to be here with you. Indeed. Late August and the Atlantic is clear, at least for now. So we're

going to have a good conversation here, Representative. 1998. Let me take you back there. Florida voters decided that school board candidates should not use political party labels. About 40 other states have nonpartisan school board elections. So why do you think Florida should reverse course and add political party labels to school board candidates? Well, look, let me go back to 1998 with you for just a minute. And I think when people realize that we've had partisan elections only for 22 years in Florida's history, people try to act like returning to partisan elections is somehow a radical idea and a departure from historical norms. But it's important to note that for the first 155 years of Florida statehood, these elections were partisan. So what I am advocating for is really a return to Florida's

historical method of electing these school board members. What's happened over the last 22 years, I argue, has been an aberration and an anomaly. And you did point out that there are a lot of states that have these nonpartisan, but there are also a number of states that don't. I mean, we have four states that require partisan elections, five other states that permit but do not require. And we have seven states that even elect Supreme Court judges on a partisan basis. So the reason I brought the bill, really, I have a couple of points I can go over. The overarching purpose of this provision, this question that Florida voters will get to answer on November 5th, is to ensure that elected school board members reflect the social values of their communities. That's it, period.

And how you get there is you increase transparency. And I think as a policymaker, as a lawmaker, our obligation, our responsibility to voters is to give voters as much information about a candidate as possible and then allow the voters to make the decision. And that should include party affiliation. I just don't see why anyone should be able to use the cover of the law to hide who they are from voters. Let's give voters full information about a person and let them make the decision. Representative, you spoke first about the historical precedence of partisan school board elections in Florida. I suspect you would agree

that historical precedence isn't a blanket reason to return to voting practices of the past. Would you agree with that? I would agree with that. And I pointed that out only because the opponents of this amendment try to make it seem like this is a radical idea and a departure from historical norms in Florida, when really it's a return to historical norms. Right, but I guess the point is there's a lot of historical norms when it comes to voting in Florida that I suspect most folks do not want to return to. Yeah, and I'd say that's true of all over the country, right? So why is that a particular justification for this return to historical

norm, but not other types of voting restrictions, frankly, that have been put on women, for instance, people of color and other types of historical precedents of voting? Well, if you're trying to make the assertion that I'm calling for a return to those laws which restricted people of color and women to vote, that's preposterous. No, I'm not making that. That's preposterous. And I'm not. To be perfectly clear, I'm just asking about the rationale you're providing here is to return to an historical precedence of voting. And I'm trying to find the limits of that return to historical precedence that you support.

Yeah, yeah. I would say that, you know, pointing out the historical way elections have been conducted in Florida, it's not a rationale for returning to partisan school board elections. But it is a rebuttal to those folks who say, oh, my God, this is radical. It's never been done before. Why are we doing this? And then there are even those folks who'd like to say, you know, Florida is a lone sort of a lone state that's doing this when, in fact, there are other states in doing this. So it's not the rationale.

But it is it is a reason to dispel this idea that this is something radical that's never been tried before, and it's going to be kind of the end of democracy and the end of education in Florida. But the rationale is, as I said, to increase transparency. I think it will enhance participation in elections. I mean, you look at the average primary turnout in the last four cycles is 26 percent, and in a general election election cycle it's 67 percent so if if we i would argue that that my proposal will result in more people having a voice in selecting school board members which is what we want we want maximum participation we want maximum transparency and we want these school board members to reflect the values of their communities and having a

partisan label on the ballot helps voters make that assessment. So might another solution to voter engagement with school board elections be to provide school board elections in a general election environment in November, but perhaps retain a nonpartisan nature of those elections? Yeah, and I think we have sort of a version of that now. I mean, right now, if you have multiple NPA candidates running, they would be on a general ballot. And going back to some of your guests that we heard earlier, I got to tune in for a little bit of the show, but not all of it. is people say, look, I really feel that we should keep politics out of the schools and the goal should be for education to be apolitical. And to those people I say, I absolutely agree with you. I wish in a perfect world these positions should and could be apolitical. But even if you're a Florida voter who really wants education to be apolitical,

that means you want to vote for an NPA candidate, you should support this proposal because right now you have no way of knowing who the Npa candidates are on the ballot so even if you wanted to select a candidate that that does not have any allegiances to any political party you don't know who that candidate is and if it's true that the majority of florida voters want non-politically aligned candidates then what would happen if this bill passes and you'll see a surge of npa candidates winning school board elections so i agree that that ideally these should be apolitical,

but right now the voters don't have the tools to select that candidate. Florida is a closed primary state. A voter has to register as a Republican or a Democrat in order to vote in those primaries. One out of every four registered voters in Florida in July was an NPA. Wouldn't this amendment exclude them then from voting in a school board election, like many communities had just this week? Yeah, a couple points there. You're absolutely right. The voting block for NPAs is outpacing even Democrats and Republicans in the Sunshine State. And that's been consistent now for at least five years.

So that is the fastest growing group of voters in the state of Florida, which tells you a lot of people are dissatisfied with the two major parties. But look, you're right. It's a closed primary state. But those MPAs would go on to the general election ballot. But again, I come back to and this is an argument we had on the House floor about, you know, whether it results in more or less people voting. But the average primary turnout is in 26 is 26 percent. So you have right now you have 26 percent of these voters in some elections. In my county last week, it was only 19%, an abysmal turnout. And these candidates win these elections with 50 plus 1% of the vote, right? So you could have an extreme minority of Florida voters in a primary selecting the general election winner in the primary. So I would argue that by

having these partisan designations, you're going to restrict the primaries to two-party affiliated voters. But then the average general election voter will have a much better chance of vetting both of these candidates. You'd go from a 26% turnout in the primary to almost 70% in the general, and I suspect it will be much higher. I'm predicting an 80% to 85% turnout this presidential election cycle. So you would have more people able to have a voice in selecting these candidates in the general. Representative Spencer Roach is our guest, a Republican from North Fort Myers. He is the legislative sponsor of Amendment 1 on the fall ballot for Florida voters that will allow school board elections in Florida to become a partisan again. school board elections in florida to become a partisan again uh we've got uh lots of listeners here uh typing some uh questions and responses here representative and calling in i want to get

a few of these and have you respond to them sue in absolutely sue in the key and i appreciate you doing that sue in the keys writes us that the legislators who sponsored amendment one suggests the amendment is solely about transparency and identifying candidates by their partisan affiliation the real impact impact, she writes, however, will be giving political parties the power to close school board elections to the general public, thereby disenfranchising large swaths of voters from electing the individuals who will operate, control, and supervise their community's most valuable asset, their public schools. How would you respond to Sue? Well, I would go back to some of the numbers that we talked about earlier. Sue is correct that if we had partisan primaries, only those registered partisans would be able to vote in that election. But I still think just running the numbers, you would still have more people selecting these candidates in the general.

Look, the real problem that Sue is talking about, and I agree, look, the real problem we have in this country is voter apathy, voter disillusionment, and voter disengagement. I wish we could get more people to vote in these primaries. I mean, 26%, in my opinion, is just an abysmal number. But I would argue that that's happening now, Sue. That's happening right now. You have, you know, you take a 26% turnout, then you're looking at 13 percent of voters that can determine the next school board member versus 70 percent of the voters in a general election. I think that's I think that's that's terrible. You could have 13 percent of voters making a decision versus having 70 percent of voters participate on election day.

That would be my rebuttal to that. I want to get to as many calls as we can here. Cliff and Vera Beach has been listening. Go ahead, Cliff. You're on the radio. to get to as many calls as we can here. Cliff in Vero Beach has been listening. Go ahead, Cliff, you're on the radio. Well, I my personal experience with relatives that were best qualified, they ended up winning

the election in a very partisan city because it was nonpartisan race. And I think that is the best way to get the most qualified people to run and serve. Cliff, I'm going to build upon that a little bit. And Representative Roach,

the nonpartisan nature of the current school board elections allows a majority of those voters who vote to select their candidates, as opposed to a majority of Democrats or Republicans in the closed primary system. Right, or even a majority of voters. Right. And Cliff, God bless you, sir. I always say every election cycle, I want to vote for the most qualified person, but they're never a candidate on the ballot, right? I mean, we need more good people to run for office. I suspect you voted for yourself once or twice, Representative. Yes, yes, absolutely. But yeah, look, you know, there's something that voters like to romanticize about the idea of nonpartisan races. I mean, we like to assume, and it would be great if it were true, that because a race is designated

as nonpartisan, the candidates are non-dogmatic, they're apolitical, they're kind of as pure as the wind-driven snow. But this is false. These races are already partisan. It's just time to bring that out in the open. And look, at least in Florida, and I would argue nationwide, there are real differences in the two parties' major positions and governing philosophies on school board-related issues. And I could go into that in more detail. But Cliff, amen. I certainly want the most qualified person to win the election, and I think that most voters would agree with you on that. Representative, I want to squeeze in one more caller from your neck of the woods. Ted's been listening in from Fort Myers.

Go ahead, Ted. You're on the radio. Ted told our producer he's a school bus driver, so perhaps he got pulled away to work there. Ted, go ahead. You're on the radio. I think you're with us now. Yes, I am. Can you hear me now?

Loud and clear. Go ahead, sir. I've got just a few moments, but I want to hear from you. Yes, I'm against the partisanship in the school board elections. It should be nonpartisan, in my opinion. That's really the extent of it. We need school board officials that are rational, objective, and have no political affiliation, none whatsoever. Ted, I appreciate you lending your voice there. A school bus driver in Fort Myers, talk about a very important job these days. We know what important work that is, Ted, and we appreciate you doing it. Finally, Representative Roach, you need 60 percent of

Florida voters who show up during the November election to prove this. Are you are you predicting a victory? Well, Todd, real quick, I know we've got just a limited amount of time, but but it sounds like Ted should vote for this proposal. He wants to vote for people that do not have any political party affiliation at all, which is an NPA candidate. But right now he doesn't know who those candidates are on the ballot. To your question, 60 question 60 very high threshold i had a conversation with the governor about this at the end of session and i asked him his thoughts he said look i don't know i think it's going to be close and i agree uh i simply don't know todd

i have not seen any polling i don't know that anyone's paying for polling i do think the teachers union is going to spend money to defeat this i'm not as confident that the republican party or the democrat party themselves are going to spend money to support or defeat this. We'll see. And of course, like any good politician, if it fails, I'll pretend I never had this idea. I never heard of it. And I'll blame Joe Gruters. If it if it wins, I'll take full credit. The your Republican colleague in the Florida Senate, Representative Spencer Roach, Republican for North Fort Myers from WGC, your partner station representative. Thanks for your time today. Thank you, sir. You are listening to the Florida Ronda from your Florida Public Radio station.

Both Republicans and Democrats now have their official presidential and vice presidential candidates. Not that there was a whole lot of suspense. The Democrats finished up their national convention Thursday night. Sam Putterman with our news partner, PolitiFact, has been listening closely to four days and nights of speeches. Sam, welcome back to the program. Nice to have you. All right. Thanks for having me.

Let's focus on claims by the two candidates, beginning with the presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris. She accepted the nomination Thursday night, made this claim about taxes, and her opponent, former President Donald Trump. He intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax, call it a Trump tax, effect, is a national sales tax, call it a Trump tax, that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $4,000 a year. Now, presumably, Sam, Harris is referring to the former president's pledge to slap a 10% tariff on imported goods, right? Yes. Yeah. Trump has promised to propose a 10% tariff on all non-domestic goods sold in the U.S. And although tariffs are levied separately

from taxes, economists say that much of their impact would be passed to consumers, making them comparable to a tax. And so what do you make of her effect here, of the argument she's making? Yeah, well, economists have told us that examples of tariffs working as intended are rare and that consumers of the tariff levying country are typically the primary victims by having to pay higher prices for the imported goods. So while the Treasury does get paid when tariffs are levied, exporters aren't making that payment. The importers do, usually U.S. companies. And when U.S. companies have to pay more, that's when they raise prices on products for consumers. I want to get to multiple claims by the vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, when he accepted his nomination Wednesday

night. If these guys get back in the White House, they'll start jacking up the costs on the middle class. They'll repeal the Affordable Care Act. They'll gut Social Security and Medicare. And they will ban abortion across this country with or without Congress. Lots of claims there. But I want to focus, Sam, on his claim that Republicans would, in his words, gut Social Security and Medicare, awfully important programs here in the state of Florida for millions of Floridians. What say you? What's the PolitiFact ruling here? Right. In a March 2024 interview, Trump said of entitlement programs such as Social Security, that there's a lot you can do in terms of cutting. But Trump quickly walked back that statement,

and the comment stands at odds with essentially everything else he has said during the campaign. His campaign website says that not a single penny should be cut from Social Security. And he's repeated similar lines. And on Medicare, Trump released multiple annual budgets as presidents that proposed cutting the program. But experts are divided on, you know, how much those cuts could have hurt beneficiaries rather than saving money for the program by reducing payments. But Trump, meanwhile, has said repeatedly again during the campaign that he will not cut Medicare. Sam Putterman with our news partner, PolitiFact, listening to four days and nights of speeches at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Sam, thanks for joining us here on The Florida Roundup. Much appreciated. Thanks for having me. Thanks. You can always get in touch with us, radio at thefloridaroundup.org, radio at thefloridaroundup.org. We know the economy and inflation are important issues here this voting cycle. Well, next week on this program, we'll be speaking with the acting U.S. Labor Secretary about the job market. We'd love to hear your story. You can email us your employment story, your wage story, the story of your paycheck. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org.

Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. More to come. Stick around. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being here. A few of you emailed us this week about a story that made headlines on Monday. It was a surprise plan by the Florida Department of Environment Protection to jazz up wild spaces in several state parks with golf courses, hotels, and pickleball courts. Parks from St. Augustine to Miami are included in this plan, and the idea is drawing a lot of fire from conservationists. Environment Editor Jenny Stoletovich from our partner station WLRN in Miami reports. For park lovers, the unexpected plans would turn stretches of beach and scrub,

beloved for their staggering beauty and cultural importance, into tourist draws normally found at resorts. You don't want to do that on a piece of land that was protected just for the benefit of the fact that it's a rare and a special place. Eric Draper was director of the State Park Service from 2017 to 2021. He says the proposals violate state rules that govern changing park plans because they fail to include input from local park staff, volunteers, and support groups. The plans also leapfrog over decades-old maintenance backlogs. At Mizell-Johnson Johnson, really beautiful park close to the Fort Lauderdale Port, we couldn't figure out how to fix the bathrooms. Mizell Johnson, where weighed-in

protests were held in the 1950s and 60s to desegregate beaches, would get pickleball courts. The proposals also call for golf courses on scrub jay habitat at jonathan dickinson state park and pickleball courts at olita river state park state officials did not respond to requests for more information hour-long public meetings at all eight parks have been scheduled for august 27th i'm jenny stiletovich in miami now as i mentioned we've already heard from a lot of you lynn emailed us writing please do a story on how the governor's cronies are planning to develop eight state parks with golf courses, resort hotels and pickleball. Lynn, we will have more reporting on this in the weeks to come, so be sure to stay tuned. to the uproar across Florida over using state park land to build golf courses. We want to protect our own beloved Jonathan Dickinson State Park, as well as the other state parks across Florida from the people who are supposed to be protecting this natural

land and the species that rely on it. And then Jody in Palm Beach County put this in our inbox saying, please tell me you guys are on this. We are. Keep the emails coming. Radio at the Floridaoridaroundup.org. We're going to have more reporting on this next week on this program. Email us now.

Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Now, while we're outside here in the Sunshine State, last summer's ocean heat wave is generating more bad news for coral. It wiped out the last remaining wild elkhorn in the lower keys. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says wild elkhorn can now only be found on 16 reefs between the upper Florida Keys and coastal Broward County. The remaining few are so far apart in the ocean, the agency says natural reproduction is likely impossible. The community wasn't expecting this kind of off a cliff catastrophe. That's Ilsa Kuffner. She's a research biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. She says the heat waves show just how dangerous the effects of climate change can be

for coral. It's easy for people to look at the global trends in ocean surface temperature and assume that it's going to be this linear gradual increase. But that's not what drives extinction events. It's these episodic disturbances. Kupner says scientists will now have to depend largely on coral bred in the lab, not in the waters off Florida. And speaking of those waters, a federal judge has struck down an environmental move issued in the final weeks of the Trump administration. It would have allowed oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico to continue without adequately protecting endangered species. Now, that includes the planet's last remaining rice swales.

Only about 100 remain. Environmental groups sued back in 2020 after a federal wildlife manager said the risk of another large oil spill was low. The judge wrote in her ruling that wildlife managers should not have relied on the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for the determination that bureau manages offshore drilling. Now, in 2007, this same agency concluded the risk of a spill was low. and this same agency concluded the risk of a spill was low. Fast forward three years, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf,

killed or harmed more than 100,000 endangered or threatened animals. One animal some Floridians are listening closely for is the frog. Eddie Stewart from our partner station WGCU in Fort Myers tagged along with one citizen science expedition dubbed Frog Watch. Fort Myers tagged along with one citizen science expedition dubbed Frog Watch. Dr. Wynne Everham, professor of ecology and environmental studies at Florida Gulf Coast University, has been leading groups of volunteers into the marshes of Estero after sunset for over 20 years now. But these nighttime excursions aren't just walks in the park. They're part of Frog Watch USA, a national citizen science program collecting data on how abundant and diverse frog populations are across the United States. The observations all have a routine.

The coordinator starts a clock. Volunteers walk around and listen for frog calls. And at time, Time! they report back what they've heard. I heard something in the canal. It was wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. Then they're off to the next site, at times up to 15 locations in one night. The amount of calls is tallied using a national-based system. We're following a protocol established by the USGS

for the National Amphibian Monitoring Program. They established a subjective calling intensity. One is where there is only a few frogs calling and their calls are not overlapping. So it's not a single frog, it's just the intensity of one. One calls over there, then one calls there, then one calls there. You could count them. The scale goes to two, where there's plenty of calls, but they can be told apart,

and then to three, which Everham describes. Where there are so many calling, there's so much overlap, and at some point they refer to that as a chorus, you know, just a blur of noise. So what's bringing all these frog watchers out after dark? According to Everham, frogs are a sentinel species, meaning key indicators on the health of environments they live in. As we grow, if we drain the landscape to put humans on it, we are going to see the frogs disappear. And if the frogs disappear, it means that we're losing critical wetlands that have a whole suite of functions. So that's this idea of frogs as an indicator, as a canary in the coal mine. Southwest Florida has

experienced rapid development since the Frog Watch program began in 1998. More buildings and less green space generally means less frogs. However, Everham says that with restorative development techniques, it doesn't necessarily have to be that way. We had data close to a decade, and this was old pasture. I think there's more native frogs calling here than there were before the church was built, because when they built it, they had to do a restoration, and here they did a good job in the restoration. As Southwest Florida and the rest of the country continue to develop, the data collected by FrogWatch and other scientific surveys could be key for scientists in pushing for more restorative efforts by developers. But beyond just the data collected, Everham says many FrogWatchers come out for the sense of peace that it brings them.

I think you connect to the land in a different way. Going out at night and learning the sounds of the night, to me, is a little like that. You're fitting yourself into the landscape. Frog Watch is open to anyone who's interested, provided they're willing to stay up late. That's Eddie Stewart in Fort Myers, and I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. So you want to picture how many voters voted in the election this week here in Florida? Well, imagine a basketball team. There are five players on your team on the court at the same

time. If those players are all voters, four of them stayed on the bench for this election. Statewide voter turnout was a little over 20 percent. Voting is a habit for Betty Novak in West Palm Beach. She's a retired nurse who's been voting for half a century. I believe if you do not vote, you have no reason to complain about the politicians who are in office. I'm not happy with the economy. I'm not happy with the border. If I don't vote for someone to change that, I have no leg to stand on. Hair salon owner and actor Karen Stevens drove to the Palm Beach County Library to make sure her voice was heard this week. Affordability was her number one issue. The high prices is affecting everything. It's

affecting service personnel and teachers who can't afford to live here, but we need them in order to have a functional society. Russ Hindeman is an independent voter in Boca Raton. Education issues are what brought him to the ballot box this week. Political issues should be between adults, not children. Just focus on education. Those other things, we don't have time for that right now. We're failing our kids. Now, if you're not registered to vote, you have until October 7th to get your paperwork in if you want to vote in the election this fall. Finally, on the roundup this week, food and Floridians. First, from Tallahassee to Hawaii, Wally Amos was famous for his cookies. Famous Amos cookies. He was born in Tallahassee, lived there until his parents divorced,

and he moved to New York when he was 12 to live with an aunt. And that's where he started baking cookies and talking to cookies and singing to cookies. And then his cookies and Wally himself became famous. The cookie has put me in a position to help other people, to help Literacy Volunteers of America, to help the various charitable groups that we get involved in. This is from that old TV show Real People back in the early 1980s. While he became so famous, he did TV commercials for other companies. With United's West Coast

service, I can keep my business cooking and still stay in the chips. People who fly for a living fly United's friendly skies. He eventually lost control of his company and started others, including Cookie Kahuna, which he pitched to the Shark Tank in 2016. Mr. Wonderful, he looks anything but wonderful. I got something to make you smile. Don't go away. Neither Mr. Wonderful nor Mark Cuban nor any of the other sharks that day invested with it. Cookies for the sharks! Cookies for the sharks! Amos died earlier this month, and now Tallahassee City Commissioner Diane Williams-Cox wants to publicly commemorate him. The cookies are still around, but he's gone on to glory.

And the very good cookies, too, especially the oatmeal raisins. As she works on that, how about another Floridian that is being recognized on food? Tennis champ Coco Gauff from Delray Beach is on boxes of Wheaties cereal. Hey guys, I'm so excited for you guys to see me on the Wheaties box. It is such an honor to be on this box. Gauff won the U.S. Open last year when she was just 19. She starts defending that title next week. For this week, that is our program.

The Florida Roundup is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF Public Media in Tampa by Bridget O'Brien and Grayson Docter. WLRN's Vice President of Radio and our Technical Director is Peter Meritz. Engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Charles Michaels, and Jackson Harmon. Richard Ives answers our phones. Our theme music is provided by Miami jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at aaronleibos.com. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening, and supporting public radio in your neck of the woods. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend.