Sunday, September 1, 2024

Winner and Loser of the Week in Florida politics — Week of 8.25.24

By Ryan Nicol on September 1, 2024

We were pretty harsh on former University of Florida (UF) President Ben Sasse when news of his spending spree for new hires at the university first broke.

Based on new revelations this week, maybe we weren't harsh enough.

On Friday, Fresh Take Florida revealed that those overly compensated employees, who had long ties to Sasse and were mostly allowed to work remotely, racked up eye-popping amounts in travel expenses.

"More than half the $211,824 itemized expenses attributed to six of his senior UF hires working remotely over 17 months was for airfare or train tickets, plus nearly $50,000 more for hotels," Fresh Take Florida reported.

Add that to their exorbitant salaries, and Sasse's hiring escapades cost the university even more than we thought.

But somehow, that wasn't the only slam on Sasse emerging this week. While Sasse is now out as UF President, he has stayed on as President emeritus and plans to teach. Oh, and he also secured a fat severance package paying him more than $1 million annually through 2028.

How many ways can this guy sap the UF balance sheet?

Even fellow Republicans like U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz criticized Sasse for taking the severance package. "Golden Parachutes like this should be illegal with taxpayer funds," Gaetz said.

The only bright side is that those payments may stop if Sasse finds another job. But with payments this cushy, why would he?

Hopefully the school's next leader is more cautious when it comes to budgeting. UF could have used that money to help improve the sorry state of their football program.

Now, it's onto our weekly game of winners and losers.

Winners

Honorable mention: College football fans.

The above may have been the experience for many this weekend (sorry, Gators fans). But regardless, aren't we glad to have college football back?

The sport was finally back in full force on Saturday. (That Seminoles game in Ireland last week was just an exhibition, right?)

And boy, did it deliver.

The biggest Sunshine State matchup featured No. 19 Miami going into The Swamp and eviscerating the Gators, 41-17. Florida was unranked coming into the season, and one game doesn't kill a season. But the Gators looked like a team that has a lot of work to do to improve from last year's 5-7 record.

The Hurricanes, meanwhile, looked every bit deserving of their ranking. Quarterback Cam Ward appears to be the real deal, while the Miami defense largely shut down the Gators offense.

In other games of note, No. 1 Georgia absolutely flattened No. 4 Clemson, winning 34-3 to take the SEC-ACC matchup. Fellow SEC squads No. 4 Texas, No. 5 Alabama, No. 6 Ole Miss, No. 11 Missouri, No. 15 Tennessee and No. 16 Oklahoma also looked dominant (though many played cupcakes). And No. 13 LSU has a prime time matchup with No. 23 USC Sunday night.

Take it all in, we've got four-plus more months of this to go. It truly is the greatest time of the year.

Almost (but not quite) the biggest winner: Joe Gruters. News broke Saturday that former President Donald Trump is backing Amendment 3, which would legalize recreational pot if 60% of voters approve it on Nov. 5. And Trump's move to throw his weight behind the ballot initiative (more on that later) makes Gruters look even more ahead of the curve on this issue.

We gave Gruters credit a few weeks ago for giving a level-headed argument in favor of Amendment 3, breaking through a lot of Republican hysteria typically surrounding the possibility of legalization. He followed that up with reasonable calls for limiting public use of the drug should voters approve the November initiative.

Gruters certainly stood out for being pro-Amendment 3, as the majority of the state Republican apparatus — including Gov. Ron DeSantis — is strongly anti-legalization.

Well, with Trump now adding his support to the pro-pot push, Gruters now looks like a leader breaking through the bipartisan gridlock to potentially get this measure over the finish line.

Speaking of which ...

The biggest winner: Amendment 3. Could Smart & Safe Florida and other Amendment 3 backers be any happier with this weekend's news?

Yes, Kamala Harris has yet to directly voice her position on this amendment (one of many issues the Vice President still needs to give clarity on before Election Day).

But this measure is already seen as one where Democrats would generally turn out to support. Now, the head of this year's Republican ticket is also encouraging voters to go out and support it.

Some polls have already shown Amendment 3 above the 60% support level needed to pass in November. Others have at times shown the initiative a few points short, but all surveys indicate some number of undecided voters that would be more than enough to reach that 60% mark.

Trump coming out and officially pushing voters to support the measure can only help, and could be the difference on Election Day.

Yes, there is still that anti-Amendment 3 crusade by state-level Republicans. But one need only to check the 2024 GOP Presidential Primary scoreboard to see who carries more weight with actual GOP voters between Trump and DeSantis.

This was a huge get for the pro-Amendment 3 team.

Losers

Dishonorable mention: DeSantis comms staff. Kenny Rogers' classic tune "The Gambler" sums up one of the main keys to being a good poker player: You need to know the strength of your hand relative to the table, and act accordingly.

Well, for reasons we'll discuss shortly, now is not the time for DeSantis' comms team of Taryn Fenske, Christina Pushaw, Jeremy Redfern and others to be going all in against fellow Republican lawmakers.

Yet, here we are.

Yes, DeSantis and Rep. Randy Fine have their issues and Fine has shown he's not shy at taking shots against the Governor, such as his recent criticism of DeSantis for visiting Ireland during the Seminoles football game, a country Fine called "antisemitic."

But here's the thing (and we know this is going to be a huge shock to the DeSantis comms team): Sometimes, it's OK not to tweet.

Just saying nothing is, in fact, an option.

But that's not the option they took this week, repeatedly targeting Fine on social media. That led Fine to threaten investigating and defunding those staffers.

"If one of my taxpayer-funded staff ever engaged another elected official in the manner in which three members of the Governor's staff has tonight — and often and routinely does — I would fire them immediately," Fine posted on X.

"I will be calling on the Senate President and the Speaker of the House to investigate whether certain positions in the Governor's office are necessary given how frequently they are involved in personal and political activities for the Governor. This behavior is not only inappropriate and unprofessional, it could be illegal. The Governor had no issue vetoing the budget for legislative support staff; it is time for the shoe to be on the other foot."

Will any serious repercussions come from this? That depends on how strongly Republicans want to push back against the Governor for repeatedly boxing them in bad positions and allowing staff to behave like this.

But will anything good come of this for Republicans? Certainly not.

So why, in a highly anticipated election with two amendments on the ballot dealing with high-profile social issues — DeSantis' bread and butter — is he playing games like this?

And the Fine flap was only one of two examples of this behavior just this week.

After Trump came out supporting Amendment 3, the DeSantis comms team went after ... well, not Trump. They're not going to dare start poking that dragon again. No, they targeted Gruters even though the Senator announced his decision on Amendment 3 about a month ago.

"How much has Joe Gruters, who is preparing to run for a statewide office, taken from one large marijuana corporation that has funded over $70M towards this effort? It begs the question… What's in it for them?" Redfern posted on X.

"It's a shame that someone like (Gruters) would support an amendment that has virtually no checks on where and how marijuana can be consumed — putting kids at risk," added DeSantis Chief of Staff James Uthmeier. "Someone should check who has given him political $ and then see who is backing this amendment. Hmmm …"

We're all for elected officials speaking truth to power when it comes to their own party. But these are petty personality fights seeping out in public. What is even the play here?

Almost (but not quite) the biggest loser: DeSantis. Because, as we implied above, DeSantis by no means has the strongest hand right now. If he was holding ace-king suited two to three years ago, he now has, at best, maybe a nine-five off suit? It's not completely unplayable, but you are going to go broke quick if you are consistently shoving with it.

The recent parks debacle was a terrible look for Team DeSantis. And his laughable attempt to distance himself from it this week and blame a leak of a "half-baked" plan to a "left-wing group." when his own Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced the plans is ridiculous.

This after last week's absurd attempt by DEP to appear as though they were responding to "overwhelming interest" from the public (read: overwhelming outrage) to better schedule these meetings for the public when they easily could have done that from the get-go.

That is, if they weren't trying to slip this by the public all along.

And Governor, it wasn't the "left-wing" that tanked this plan. You can spin up straw men all you want, and you can attack the media in the process. But it was your own side that shredded you in public and on repeat over this.

The Governor overstepped because he's used to getting his way. This time, he didn't.

And the more he continues taking Republican support for granted, the less he will have.

One of the more revelatory anecdotes from DeSantis' doomed 2024 run was how members of Congress largely ended up endorsing Trump simply because Trump asked himself. Trump reached out, and dealt with lawmakers man-to-man.

DeSantis, meanwhile, sent out an underling to pull in support. All while Trump wined and dined them, literally.

DeSantis acted entitled and that, in part, caused his campaign to crash and burn. He's still acting entitled. Is his political future next to go up in flames?

The biggest loser: Carolina Amesty. The sitting Republican lawmaker, up against a serious electoral challenge this Fall, is now facing felony forgery charges thanks to information uncovered by intrepid reporting from Annie Martin and Leslie Postal of the Orlando Sentinel.

We've shouted out their reporting on multiple occasions as the controversy around Amesty swirled. In June, we noted that news about the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigating Amesty could finally lead to criminal charges. Two months later, here they are.

Amesty and her team have tried to push back against the idea she may have committed any wrongdoing throughout this process. And legally, she is innocent until proven guilty. She'll have a chance to prove her innocence via the justice system instead of just posturing on social media.

So we'll leave any final judgment on her legal woes to the courts. But politically? Yikes.

Former Disney executive Leonard Spencer, Amesty's Democratic opponent in House District 45, is a serious opponent who may have beaten her outright sans scandal. Federal charges only weaken her case to voters.

But in the end, she shouldn't even be making such a case. Amesty should do the right thing and resign, and if she beats these charges, come on back in the future and play out your redemption arc.

For now, we don't need someone like these taking up one of the state's 120 House seats.

Maybe if we had a Governor with some juice, he could convince her privately to do the right thing and save the Republican Party the embarrassment of having to defend this.