Florida Republicans help DeSantis clean up legal and political dilemmas

The special session was announced by legislative leaders on Friday. By Monday afternoon, some of the first bills — including one designed to inoculate DeSantis’ controversial migrant relocation program from an ongoing lawsuit filed by a Democratic state senator — had already cleared its first stop.

Many rank-and-file GOP legislators either shrugged off or joked when asked about the timing of the special session — which is coming just weeks ahead of their annual legislative session. But some acknowledged the bills teed up for passage would help DeSantis’s agenda.

“Presidential campaigns aside, I have every interest in helping the governor,” said state Rep. Tom Leek, an Ormond Beach Republican and chairman of the main House budget committee which advanced the migrant proposal Monday. “What the governor is doing is helping the people of Florida.”

The 12-day special session comes amid an increasingly busy time for DeSantis. He has a much anticipated autobiography due out at the end of this month — followed by appearances before GOP groups in Texas, California and Alabama. The regular legislative session will also kick off in early March, where lawmakers are expected to take up more high-profile proposals from the governor, including changes in Florida’s higher education system.

Put it all together and it creates a ready-made checklist to sell to Republican primary voters if DeSantis officially joins the race later this year.

Democrats cast the entire special session as a clean-up exercise and giving DeSantis “cover” for an expected presidential bid.

“You have a governor who is overreaching and running for president so he is doing all these things because he can,” said state Rep. Dotie Joseph, a North Miami Democrat. “And you don’t have a Legislature to check him.”

The DeSantis administration has found that its rapid-fire approach can lead to legal and political scrutiny. Multiple lawsuits have bogged down or prevented some of DeSantis’s top priorities over the last few years from going ahead, including on a law that dictates how race is taught in Florida.

Three of the measures state legislators are expected to pass in the next two weeks center on actions that have given DeSantis plenty of national headlines but have been created a large amount of political blowback and legal scrutiny.

DeSantis last year led the charge to dismantle the special district that had been controlled by Disney for more than 50 years after the entertainment conglomerate opposed a measure that banned discussion of gender identity or sexual orientation in classrooms up until third grade. DeSantis promised repeatedly that the state would resolve unsettled questions about outstanding bonds and debts affiliated with the special district. Under the latest proposal, the special district would be renamed and placed under control of appointees selected by the governor.

“We’re not going to have a corporation controlling its own government,” DeSantis said again last week when he said the pending legislation would put the state in charge.

Another measure aims to resolve legal questions about whether the statewide prosecutor had the authority to pursue voter fraud cases that were trumpeted by DeSantis last August. Some of the defendants that were swept up in the arrests have successfully used that question to challenge their charges.

Lastly, legislators are poised to pass a bill that broadens the controversial migrant relocation program that resulted in the state paying to fly nearly 50 migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard last year. A lawsuit has challenged the program, in part, because it was created in the state budget and not in a stand-alone law.

But just as importantly, the bill would make it clear that DeSantis has authority to transport migrants from anywhere in the United States as opposed to limiting his actions to just those who are actually in Florida.

State Rep. Kelly Skidmore, a Boca Raton Democrat, derided the legislation as a “get out of jail free” card to let DeSantis carry on a political stunt. Other Democrats, including President Joe Biden, have denounced DeSantis’ flights, saying the Florida governor is using vulnerable people as pawns to score political points.

Lawmakers are pledging $10 million for the program, although state Rep. Tom Gregory, a Republican from southwest Florida, questioned why legislators weren’t considering whether to spend as much as $50 million or $100 million on relocation.

Rep. Randy Fine, a Brevard County Republican, also gave a forceful defense of the program after it was assailed by Democrats by saying that shipping migrants to “blue states” may prompt President Joe Biden to “care” about criticisms about border security.

“This will hopefully make that day come faster,” Fine said.