Tag: Florida

Trump storms into Florida to oust rival DeSantis from 2024 race

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Washington: Even as the Republican Party is still weighing in options between former US President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Trump is wasting no time to oust his rival DeSantis from the race in the 2024 primaries drumming up support for himself on the Governor’s home turf.
Republican Congressman Michael Waltz, who replaced DeSantis in the House, made it clear on Thursday that he won’t be supporting his predecessor’s expected run for the White House. He has endorsed Trump.
The Combat-decorated Green Beret Waltz has virtually waltzed his way to join as many as 11 of the 20-member Florida Republican delegation that has backed Trump.

Trump has also unveiled the endorsements of Representatives Gus Bilirakis and Carlos Gimenez in a fundraising email on Wednesday shaking DeSantis out of his comfort zone.
Waltz, media reports said, has over the years carefully threaded the needle when it comes to Trump, avoiding any criticism of Trump, simultaneously rejecting and voting against policies pushed by his administration. But he announced he was backing Trump in 2024 on Thursday morning.
“We need bold & experienced leadership back in the White House. That’s why I’m proud to endorse Donald J. Trump for president,” Waltz tweeted.
Meanwhile, DeSantis reached Washington to network with influential Republicans prior to an expected presidential run, but the former President has methodically racked up endorsements from Florida in a major blow to the Governor’s 2024 prospects.
Trump has pre-empted DeSaantish even before he could get his campaign off the ground, political observers said in their analysis of fast paced political developments. .

“I generally don’t put a lot of weight on endorsements. At the same time though, when your calling card is Florida like it is for Ron, and your folks are defecting in your own backyard, that’s never a good sign,” Ford O’Connell, a Florida-based GOP strategist, said.
It’s quite apparent that Trump’s campaign aimed at knocking out the plank from under DeSantis’s legs before he can be really up and running.
The sole Florida member, Laurel Lee, the governor’s former secretary of state, endorsed DeSantis at his Capitol Hill event this week.
“As Ron DeSantis Secretary of State, I had the honour of witnessing first hand his unparalleled leadership under pressure, his chapter and his commitment to core conservative principles,” Lee said in a statement.
“It was my honour to serve in his administration and it is my honour today to endorse him for president of the US.”
Republican sources claimed Trump is scheduled to host a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort Thursday night for all Florida Republicans, who have endorsed his White House bid, soon after DeSantis held his reception in Washington, D.C.
Byron Donalds, the closest to DeSantis of any Republican in the House delegation, has literally dropped a bomb over DeSantis while endorsing Trump.
At one stage, the DeSantis loyalist had called him “America’s governor”.
The governor also appointed Donalds’ wife to the Florida Gulf University board of trustees in March 2022.
“It felt like a small little bomb detonated in our state here when some within DeSantis’s operation, not the governor himself, started frantically reaching out to other Florida members who had yet to endorse,” a Republican political strategist said.
While DeSantis’ political strategist Ron Tyson was reaching out to the Florida Republicans for support, most of them were offended.
DeSantis did not approach them directly, even as Trump took the trouble of personally meeting the Florida members to garner support, which he has managed to get, reports said.
When DeSantis was in Congress, he was a loner, with not much of a network with the politicians inWashington D.C.
“I think the way I’d describe Governor DeSantis is transactional. He is only out for himself, and that has rubbed many of my colleagues and myself the wrong way,” a Florida Republican who recently endorsed Trump but desired anonymity.
Aides working with Republicans in the delegation claimed they found it difficult to get the Governor on the phone to discuss key issues in their districts.
A poll from Yahoo News/YouGov, conducted April 14-17, showed Trump leading DeSantis by 16 percentage points (52 per cent to 36 per cent).
But two weeks ago, the former president led DeSantis by 26 percentage points (57 per cent to 31 per cent). A recent University of New Hampshire poll, which found DeSantis leading Trump by 12 points in January, now finds Trump leading DeSantis by 20 points in April, Politico reported.
There are still a number of Florida lawmakers who are keeping their options open such as Representatives Kat Cammack, Maria Elvira Salazar, and Mario Diaz-Balart.
A number of political strategists and consultants in the state are doing the same, The Washington Examiner said.
Some Republicans in the state are alarmed over Trump’s endorsements and wanted members to set aside their personal feelings and assess which of the two candidates is most likely to win the general election in 2024.
Former Representative Francis Rooney, a known Trump critic retired in 2021, said: “Trump cannot win the general election. It’s not going to happen. It didn’t work in the midterms. We had a bunch of defective candidates, election deniers, they didn’t win. What we should have had was a 20-seat majority, and that’s not what happened.”
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 21, 2023
‘Deeply frustrated’: Florida legislators worn out by DeSantis

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One GOP legislator privately said: “We’re not the party of cancel culture. We can’t keep doing this tit for tat.” The lawmaker was granted anonymity to speak freely about the GOP governor.
“People are deeply frustrated,” said former state Sen. Jeff Brandes, a St. Petersburg Republican who has been talking to his former GOP colleagues frequently this session. “They are not spending any time on the right problems … Most legislators believe that the balance of power has shifted too far and the Legislature needs to re-establish itself as a coequal branch of government.”
The vexation in Tallahassee comes as DeSantis has struggled to gain traction nationally after weathering weeks of criticism from former President Donald Trump and other Republicans ahead of his likely 2024 announcement. DeSantis’ momentum after winning reelection in November by historic margins is beginning to evaporate. Even Florida’s GOP Legislative leaders, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo and House Speaker Paul Renner, on Wednesday declined to endorse DeSantis. While both praised the governor, they said they would wait until after the legislative session before saying who they would back for the 2024 election.
DeSantis administration officials declined to comment for this story.
DeSantis had already positioned himself as one of the most powerful governors in state history during his first term, strong-arming the Legislature to approve his congressional redistricting maps and reshaping GOP power in the state through boosting Republican voter registration numbers and endorsing school board candidates. Ahead of the session, the governor rolled out a lengthy agenda designed to give him a long line of legislative victories that he could tout if he runs for president as expected.
But after seven weeks, the toll is wearing people down. POLITICO interviewed more nearly 20 people involved in the legislative process, including Republican and Democratic legislators as well as lobbyists and legislative staffers.
Many Republicans said they support many of DeSantis’ priorities but have seen their own priority bills get waylaid or slowed down to help him. They have chafed at orders coming from legislative leaders who are working in concert with the governor’s office. Some have suggested that the GOP supermajority has made it easier for legislative leaders to ignore complaints from rank-and-file members.
“I think our Republican colleagues are done,” said state Sen. Jason Pizzo, a South Florida Democrat. “I think they are fed up. There’s obviously still some true believers and there’s some very loyal and allegiant individuals and groups … They would like him to hurry up and announce and start focusing exclusively on other stuff other than here.”

By all accounts though, DeSantis has racked up some big wins this session. Lawmakers have already passed multiple bills that the governor backed, including a ban on abortions after six weeks, a measure letting people carry concealed weapons without a permit and legislation that will no longer require a unanimous jury recommendation in death penalty cases.
On Wednesday, the Legislature sent to the governor’s desk a bill that would bar the use of certain types of investment strategies that DeSantis and other Republicans have called “woke.” Lawmakers also agreed to put on the 2024 ballot a proposed constitutional amendment that would make school board elections partisan. And a bill that would block children from attending adult-themed drag shows is also heading to the governor.
Yet some of DeSantis’ top priorities remain up in the air with less than three weeks to go, including tough new anti-immigration measures that DeSantis called for ahead of the session. One part of that package — eliminating in-state tuition rates for undocumented college students who went to a Florida high school — has yet to be introduced.
Another bill that lawmakers appear unlikely to approve would alter defamation laws and was designed to potentially set up a challenge to New York Times v. Sullivan, the landmark 1964 Supreme Court ruling that limits public officials’ ability to sue publishers. The House and Senate versions of the bill, which drew criticism from both traditional media outlets and conservative media, have languished for weeks in committee stops and legislators have not advanced them.
Renner insisted, though, that legislators this session were living up to what they told voters last fall.
“We’re doing the very things we campaigned on, we’re governing as we campaigned,” Renner said.
He acknowledged that there was a “chokepoint” earlier in the session because the House was spending most of its time on legislation being pushed by the governor and legislative leaders.
“If people are frustrated it’s probably because we had a ton of bills that the governor’s put forward that we in House and Senate leadership have put forward but,” Renner said. “There’s going to be a ton of other bills that are coming forward.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 20, 2023
Florida poised to make DeSantis’ travel records secret

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Republicans contend they are pushing for the bill, SB 1616, at the urging of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the agency which now manages the state plane used by the governor and which has been inundated with record requests. GOP lawmakers asserted that releasing the information would allow someone to look for “patterns” that could jeopardize DeSantis’ security.
“Everything we do is monitored,” said Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples). “Bad actors can find out a lot. … I think it’s perfectly appropriate. Here we have a young governor who has young children, a young family. God forbid something would happen because information is out there.”
Republican supporters also said there was nothing in the legislation that would alter campaign finance laws that require state political officials to disclose when they use political committees or campaigns to pay for travel.
But Democrats ripped the bill as a way to keep DeSantis’ actions out of public view while open government advocates called it one of the worst ever proposed exemptions to the state’s much-lauded Sunshine Law.
“It’s so clearly an attempt to protect this information from reporters wanting to know how taxpayer money is being spent,” said state Sen. Tina Polsky, a Boca Raton Democrat.
Barbara Petersen, the executive director of the Florida Center for Government Accountability, called the legislation “stunning” and “unbelievable.”
“It’s beyond the pale,” said Petersen, an attorney who has tracked open records laws and issues for 30 years. “It blows a hole in the public records law. … This is a governor who doesn’t want anyone to know what he’s doing.”
Under then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott — a multimillionaire who owned his own jet — the state sold off planes used by the governor and other top officials. Scott sharply criticized two of his rivals in the 2010 governor’s race by pointing to news articles that detailed how they had used the state plane at the expense of taxpayers. In one instance, a state auditor questioned whether then-Attorney General Bill McCollum had misused state resources in how he used the state plane.

After DeSantis took office, state legislators authorized spending millions to acquire a jet that could be used to get the governor around the large state and where commercial travel in and out of Tallahassee is not easy.
DeSantis routinely will use the state plane if he travels somewhere to hold a press conference or to deal with emergency response efforts. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has been slow to turn over record requests showing when and where the state plane has been dispatched.
Flight tracking websites show that this year, DeSantis has used private chartered planes — or planes used by prominent Floridians — on out-of-state trips such as those connected with his book promotional tours. The governor’s office has said no state dollars have been used on those trips, but DeSantis’ political operation has not answered questions about the private planes.
But the bill legislators are poised to pass would essentially shield all information related to “security and transportation services” provided to DeSantis, his family, as well as visiting governors and their families, legislative leaders, the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court and members of the Florida Cabinet.
Passidomo asserted that she was not worried about DeSantis misusing the state plane if his travel records were no longer public.
“He thinks about these things,” she told reporters.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 20, 2023
Florida expands ban on sexual orientation and gender identity teachings through high school

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“The curriculum and the standards taught in an academic classroom have nothing to do with the school’s compassion and being able to provide services to individual students,” Education Commissioner Manny Diaz said at the meeting in Tallahassee. “They’re not being shunned, none of this is being addressed here.”
“We shouldn’t be asking our teachers to be teaching mental health or providing that,” Diaz added. “They should be more of a conduit to pass that on.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to announce a bid for president soon, defended last year’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation and signed it into law in March 2022, saying at the time that “In Florida, we not only know that parents have a right to be involved — we insist that parents have a right to be involved.” At the time, Democrats and LGBTQ advocates decried the law and warned that it could marginalize LGBTQ students and their families.
DeSantis’ support for the legislation also sparked a yearlong fight with the Walt Disney Co., which opposed the bill and law. The governor pushed the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature to curtail the California-based entertainment giant’s authority over its central Florida theme parks, though the company and state are still feuding over it.
The changes backed Wednesday bolster a rule the board initially established in October carrying out the controversial bill from last year. This policy outlined that teachers “shall not intentionally” lead instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through grade 3.
Now, it stipulates that instruction on those two topics is also prohibited in pre-kindergarten and grades 4-12 unless the lessons are required by state standards or required for a reproductive health course, which parents can opt-out students.
These provisions are baked into Florida’s professional code of conduct for educators that are meant to hold teachers accountable. As such, the state education commissioner can pursue disciplinary action against the license of any teacher who violates that code, including the expansions approved Wednesday.
LGBTQ advocates opposed the rule change, contending it unfairly targets and bullies the LGBTQ community. They also argued that it puts the careers of educators in jeopardy for violating what some consider vague policies.

“This rule is by design a tool for curating fear, anxiety and the erasure of our LGBTQ community,” Joe Saunders, former state legislator and Equality Florida’s senior political director, told the board Wednesday.
The rule also had its supporters at the meeting, including conservative groups such as the Christian Family Coalition, Florida Citizens Alliance and Moms for Liberty. Members of Moms for Liberty contended the policy would strengthen relationships between parents and their children, and that it’s necessary to ensure teachers are leading lessons approved by the state.
“The crowding out of academic learning, which his already deficient, by inappropriate sexual classroom content should be considered educational malpractice,” Yvette Benarroch, who leads the Collier County chapter of Moms for Liberty, told the board.
The parental rights expansions approved by the state board go beyond grade-level scope of legislation GOP lawmakers are currently advancing in the Legislature.
One bill that already passed the House, FL HB1069 (23R), would broaden the state’s prohibition on teaching about sexual identity and gender orientation from kindergarten through third grade to pre-K through eighth grade. It also restricts how school staff and students can use pronouns on K-12 campuses.
The measure is part of the push by Florida conservatives to uproot what they say is “indoctrination” in schools and is one of several bills taken up this session focusing on the LGBTQ community and transness.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 19, 2023
Florida lawmakers vote to end state’s legacy as an abortion refuge

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The Florida House approved it on a 70-40 vote on Thursday. The state Senate approved it last week.
The six-week ban will help DeSantis show conservative voters in a primary contest that he’s solidly anti-abortion, but it also carries big risks in a general election. Republicans overall underperformed during the 2022 midterm elections, in part because Democrats and swing voters turned out in response to the high court’s abortion ruling.
Florida now joins at least 12 other states — including Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky and Louisiana — that have approved bans on abortions after six weeks, a point at which many people don’t yet know they’re pregnant. The Florida legislation provides exceptions for victims of rape, incest and human trafficking up to 15 weeks as long as they provide proof such as a police report. At least 13 other states have enacted near-total bans on the procedure.
The GOP-led Legislature’s move comes almost a week after a federal judge in Texas suspended the FDA’s approval of the abortion drug mifepristone, signaling that the battle over reproductive healthcare will continue long after the Supreme Court’s decision last year to overturn the constitutional right to abortion under Roe v. Wade. Late Wednesday, a federal appeals court ruled that the pill can remain on the market but restricted its availability.
Even after DeSantis signs the bill, the new six-week ban will face an additional hurdle at the Florida Supreme Court. The state’s high court is currently weighing a challenge to last year’s 15-week ban, with plaintiffs arguing the law violates a decades-old state privacy clause that previous justices cited in upholding abortion protections. The state is enforcing the 15-week ban as the court considers the challenge.
The six-week ban, once signed into law, will not go into effect until the court rules in the case because the legislation has a trigger provision that makes it dependent on the court’s ruling.
Much like the U.S. Supreme Court, Florida’s high court is dominated by conservatives after DeSantis appointed four of the court’s seven justices. Many court watchers expect the justices to uphold the 15-week ban.
“Here in the state of Florida we care deeply about life and we care about the most vulnerable in our society – babies in the womb,” said state Rep. Jennifer Canady, a Republican from Lakeland who co-sponsored the legislation in the House.

Canady also highlighted some of the other provisions in the bill, including providing $5 million to the state Department of Health for programs that promote causes such as contraception, and $15 million for programs that support mothers who give birth.
One of the most outspoken critics of the bill was state Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando), who told lawmakers that she grew up poor and first received contraception from Planned Parenthood when she was a teenager. She said the 6-week ban would unfairly punish poor women who can’t afford to travel out of state to have an abortion after six weeks.
“I’m a firm believer that bodily autonomy should not be dictated by how much money you have or where you live,” Eskamani, who previously worked at Planned Parenthood, said. “Those with means — we’ll figure out a way, but others won’t be able to do that.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement called the ban “extreme and dangerous” and said the administration “will continue to fight to protect access to abortion and defend reproductive rights.”
While House lawmakers were considering the bill, a group of abortion-rights protesters in the chamber shouted “abortion is healthcare!” before GOP Speaker Paul Renner cleared the room. Once outside the chamber, the demonstrators chanted “Hands off our bodies.”
Last year, when lawmakers voted on the 15-week ban, Capitol Police arrested a Planned Parenthood organizer on a charge of disorderly conduct and issued warnings to 25 others who were protesting. This year’s crowd appeared smaller and there were no arrests.
A handful of Florida Republicans who represent primarily Democratic areas voted against the ban but were outliers and like state Democrats, had no power to stop the GOP supermajority from approving the legislation.
House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa warned that Florida’s maternal death rate would increase if the 6-week ban becomes law and added that Republicans pushed through legislation even though voters don’t want it.
“It’s an imposition of the will of the minority on the majority,” Driskell said. “Do we not listen to our constituents and the people of Florida for what they’re asking for?”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 14, 2023
Donald Trump Jr. dings DeSantis for not canceling travel during Florida flooding

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Fort Lauderdale and the surrounding area received more than two feet of rain, forcing the city’s international airport to shut down and flooding homes and highways.
DeSantis, who traveled to Ohio Thursday to attend a Butler County Republican Party event, declared a state of emergency for Broward County, including Fort Lauderdale later in the day. Reports indicate the rainfall and flooding may continue to disrupt critical infrastructure — including county roads, airports, hospitals and schools.
The governor’s office also authorized funds from the state’s emergency preparedness and response fund to pay for disaster relief.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management deployed staff to assist in recovery efforts including collecting damage assessment data. The Florida Highway Patrol increased staffing to coordinate coverage in response to the flood.
But Fort Lauderdale’s mayor, Dean Trantalis, a Democrat, said during a press conference Thursday that the governor hadn’t called him about the flooding and the ongoing cleanup effort.
“I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’m sure he’s very interested in what’s going on here, and we’re happy to work with his office,” Trantalis said. “I’m not sure if the governor himself needs to be involved, but the state agencies have been very helpful in working with us to take on this challenge.
In response, the governor’s office said it is wrong for the media and political critics to rush to politicize every national disaster.
“The governor left yesterday, and the unprecedented flooding intensified later in the night. He returns today,” DeSantis’ spokesperson Bryan Griffin said in a statement.

“Nonetheless, at the direction of Governor DeSantis, the state emergency response apparatus is in full swing responding to the flooding and the needs of the localities as they are communicated to us. This now includes issuing a state of emergency in Broward County,” he added.
Meanwhile, Democratic state senator Shevrin Jones criticizes DeSantis in a statement issued Thursday.
“It is disgraceful and telling about his priorities that Gov. DeSantis chose to campaign and continue his book tour in Ohio instead of govern in Florida. He has failed as a leader,” the statement says.
Gary Fineout contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 14, 2023
Florida Republican apologizes after calling transgender people ‘mutants’

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Named the “Safety in Private Spaces Act,” Republican leaders in Florida are moving on the legislation that would require people to use restrooms and changing facilities according to their sex assigned at birth at places like schools and restaurants.
After several speakers, some identifying as transgender, spoke out against the bill during public comment, Barnaby sounded off about the “evil, dysphoria, disfunction” he said is gripping society. His remarks embody the tense debate that has followed the culture war bills being pushed by Florida Republicans this year focused on how gender identity and sexual identity intersect with parental rights and education.
“The lord rebuke you, Satan, and all of your demons and all of your imps who come parade before us,” Barnaby said. “That’s right, I called you demons and imps, who come and parade before us and pretend that you are part of this world.”
Barnaby, 63, who identifies as Christian, was originally born in Birmingham, England and moved to Florida in 1991. He was elected to the House in 2020.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers on the panel seemed taken aback by his comments, which came as they debated the bill ahead of advancing it to the House floor.
“I’m still a little bit thrown off from the last comments here,” state Rep. Kristen Arrington (D-Kissimmee) said after Barnaby’s address.
She then turned to opponents of the bill, saying: “[I] just really want to let you all know that there are many here who understand and support you.”
Some Republicans attempted to distance themselves from Barnaby’s remarks and thanked the audience for speaking.

“You’re not an evil being,” said state Rep. Chase Tramont (R-Port Orange), addressing speakers at the hearing. “I believe that you’re fearfully and wonderfully made, and I want you to live your life well.”
Minutes after Republicans advanced the bathroom bill, Barnaby apologized for his comments.
“I referred to trans people as demons,” Barnaby said. “I would like to apologize to the trans community for referring to you as demons.”
By advancing the proposal, FL H.B.1521 (23R), House Republicans put Florida on the cusp of joining state such as Iowa, Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma and Tennessee in passing bills addressing bathroom use.
Florida’s legislation would open the door for any person 18 years or older to be charged with a second-degree misdemeanor if they enter a restroom or changing facility designated for a person that isn’t the sex they are assigned at birth and refuse to “immediately depart” when asked by someone else. It also requires local school districts to craft code of conduct rules to discipline students who do the same.
These policies would be enforced at educational institutions, hurricane shelters, substance abuse providers, health care facilities and public accommodations, which by law include lodgings, restaurants, gasoline stations entertainment spaces and more.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 11, 2023
Florida lawmakers, and DeSantis, charge ahead on 6-week abortion ban

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To outsiders anticipating a DeSantis run for president, the governor’s support for the proposal may seem politically risky, especially after Tuesday’s Supreme Court election in Wisconsin, where the winning candidate ran on abortion rights. But it’s a direction that DeSantis — a likely Republican presidential contender — has been moving in for years, even before the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.
DeSantis signaled support for such a law during his first race for governor, some five years ago. It’s a stance that could earn him support from abortion opponents in key presidential primaries, answering GOP concerns that Florida’s more limited 15-week restrictions allowed the state to become an abortion sanctuary in the Southeast.
“It makes it clear that DeSantis is solidly pro-life, and he’s trying to move the ball for the protection of the unborn and he can be trusted to do that in the future,” said John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family Policy Council and a long-standing proponent of abortion restrictions.
The Florida Senate approved legislation Monday that would impose the six-week ban, and the state House is preparing to act next. When legislators do pass the proposal — which has exceptions up to 15 weeks for victims of rape, incest and human trafficking — it will be just one of many recent policy victories for DeSantis, whose Legislature has been rapidly sending him bills that achieve key conservative priorities.
The governor is sure to plug the busy Tallahassee session if and when he jumps in the 2024 race, something he may not do until at least June.
“If he decides to run, he wants to have the most robust cultural and policy conservative list of accomplishments,” said a top Republican consultant in Tallahassee, who was granted anonymity to talk freely about DeSantis. “This makes him impervious to hits from the right.”
Many critics of the bill say the measure would outlaw most abortions in the state since pregnancy often goes undetected for six weeks or more.
Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, tried to make abortion rights a centerpiece of her unsuccessful run for governor. She contends that, if adopted, the measure could trigger an enormous backlash in the Sunshine State.

“Democrats did not show up in November of 2022. This is on us,” said Fried, who was arrested this week after protesting against the legislation outside of Tallahassee City Hall. “We are going to show up and we are going to have a message — the reckoning will come.”

Nikki Fried tried to make abortion rights a centerpiece of her unsuccessful run for governor.
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Marta Lavandier/AP Photo
The six-week ban is too much for even some Florida Republicans.
When the bill passed by the Senate earlier this week, it drew “no” votes from two GOP legislators, both of whom flipped Democratic-held districts that went for President Joe Biden in 2020. Republican Sen. Rick Scott — who signed abortion restrictions into law when he was governor — said in an television interview last month that he supported existing Florida law on abortion.
“I think where most people are is reasonable restrictions,” Scott told Telemundo. “And probably most people are about 15 weeks with all the exceptions.”
Florida’s current 15-week ban was enacted just last year in anticipation of the repeal of Roe. The measure has been challenged to the Florida Supreme Court on grounds that it violates an explicit right to privacy enshrined in the state constitution — a clause that the court has used to strike down previous abortion restrictions passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature.
The court — which now consists primarily of justices appointed by DeSantis — isn’t expected to rule until later this year. The pending bill includes a clause that says the six-week ban will not take effect until 30 days after the court rules.
After the Supreme Court struck down Roe, DeSantis said he supported additional “pro-life” restrictions but he did not spell them out on the campaign trail. Late last year, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo suggested she favored a ban on abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, but by early March, she joined with Renner in backing the bill after six weeks. DeSantis then quickly endorsed it.
“There was no doubt in my mind,” Stemberger said. “He had no reason to.”
There is an “unusual political alignment” in Florida when it comes to abortion restrictions, Stemberger said.
“I think for the first time in a long time we have somewhat of a trifecta of leadership in support of the same thing,” he said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 7, 2023
Florida Senate approves ban on transgender treatments for kids

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Yarborough’s bill was approved on party lines. The measure is now headed to the House, where the similar HB 1421 is awaiting consideration on the chamber floor. There are differences between the two bills, but both measures would also grant state courts with temporary emergency jurisdiction in child custody cases where a child in Florida is receiving “or being threatened” with taking prescription hormone blockers or undergoing surgeries under the care of a parent in another state.
Senate Democrats also brought up testimony from people who spoke against the bill during committee meetings, saying that the bill and last year’s agency rulemaking have led some transgender children to consider suicide. Democratic state Sen. Shevrin Jones, who is the first Black openly gay legislator in state history, said transgender children think the Legislature has rejected who they are.
“They’re committing suicide because of how they’re treated,” Jones said. “Do we want to be that type of body where we’re continuing on pushing, pushing, pushing these young people who may look different and there may not be like your child?”
Health advocacy groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association support gender-affirming care for adults and kids. Medical experts also said gender-affirming care for children rarely, if ever, includes surgery. Instead, doctors are more likely to recommend counseling, social transitioning and hormone replacement therapy.
Yarborough’s bill expands on similar policies enacted through new health care regulations that were pushed by DeSantis last year. In August, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, which DeSantis oversees, banned the state’s Medicaid program from covering gender-affirming surgeries and hormone therapy treatments after the agency published a report that concluded there was not enough evidence to show that the risks outweigh the benefits.
Using that AHCA report, state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who is one of DeSantis’ top health advisers, subsequently convinced the state’s two medical boards to adopt rules known as care standards that barred all doctors from treating minors with the surgeries and prescription treatments in November.
The bans that were established by the medical boards and AHCA are each facing legal challenges filed by a coalition of transgender rights groups in Tallahassee federal court. Both court cases were ongoing as of Tuesday, federal court records show.
Florida is one of 13 states in the U.S. that have enacted bans on transgender care. Another 19 states are considering similar measures, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 5, 2023
Florida Republicans poised to make more changes to election laws

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“We can all be proud that the 2022 election ran very smoothly across the state, but it is critical that we continue to safeguard against abuse, seek input from a variety of stakeholders, and make process improvements where we can,” said State Sen. Danny Burgess (R-Zephyrhills) in a statement about the legislation. “These efforts ensure we continue to maintain the integrity of our free and fair elections — a cornerstone of our nation’s democracy.”
The legislation does not address the state’s resign-to-run law, even though GOP legislative leaders said they were willing to tweak the law to make sure that DeSantis does not have to give up his office should he become the Republican nominee for president.
But Democrats still reacted sharply to the proposed bill, which was released about one day before it is scheduled for its first vote in the state Senate. The House has yet to release a similar bill, but House Speaker Paul Renner has already said he expects his chamber to push through elections-related legislation.
“It is absolutely absurd to drop a 98-page elections bill with just a 24 hour notice for its first hearing,” said Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando). “Not only is it absurd, but it’s undemocratic and clearly designed to avoid public scrutiny. We should be introducing election reforms that make it simpler for people to vote and get registered to vote; not policies that make it harder.”
The DeSantis administration last year highlighted the arrest of nearly two-dozen people for voting illegally because they had prior convictions for murder or sex offenses. But some of those arrested said they thought they were eligible because they had been issued a voter ID card. Under the process it is usually up to the state to figure out if someone is eligible.
The proposed bill (S.B. 7050) would now require a disclaimer to be placed on the card that says it is “not legal verification of the eligibility to vote.”
Desmond Meade, executive director and president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, called the proposal “a rush job” and a “legislative cover up to fix a flaw.”
Meade led the push for a 2018 constitutional amendment that restored voting rights for many convicted felons. Many people registered to vote after its passage, but there is not one central database available that can tell potential voters if they meet the new criteria.

“If a returning citizen can’t rely on the state to figure out if they are eligible, who can they rely on?” Meade said.
Since the 2020 election — where mail-in voting was repeatedly criticized by former President Donald Trump — GOP legislators in the Sunshine State have pushed through several changes to mail-in voting, many of them at the insistence of DeSantis. Democrats and voting rights groups widely criticized a 2021 law that place a two-ballot limit on how many mail-in ballots someone could gather for elderly or sick voters.
Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd had recommended several additional changes to voting laws this year including blocking voters from being able to request a mail-in-ballot by telephone. That change, however, was not included in the proposal released on Monday.
But some of the notable provisions in the bill would increase fines and penalties against outside groups that conduct voter registration drives. The proposed measure would require these organizations to give someone a receipt after they register.
The legislation would also make it a felony for anyone to intimidate or threaten election workers, a move that comes after local election officials have reported coming under repeated pressure the last few years after Trump falsely asserted there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
The measure would also tweak campaign finance laws by reducing the frequency that candidates and political committees have to file reports except for a five-month period during election years. It would also alter vote-by-mail request deadlines and require first-time voters to vote in person if they do not have a social security number or Florida driver’s license or state issued identification.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 4, 2023