Antisemitic hate is on the rise. Did Trump snub DeSantis? And will a red wave hit Miami?
It’s Monday, Oct. 31. Happy Halloween! Early voting is now underway across all of Florida and the Election Day countdown clock begins.
It may be a holiday for pranks and costumes, but we call your attention to something truly frightening.
Incidents of antisemitic hatred are on the rise in Florida: On Saturday, at the end of the sold-out Georgia-Florida game attended by Gov. Ron DeSantis and his family, an electronic antisemitic message appeared at TIAA Bank Field, referring to antisemitic comments Ye (formerly Kanye West) made recently.
Earlier in the day, as if coordinated, banners with other antisemitic hate messages were hoisted on an Interstate 10 overpass in Jacksonville. And in Weston, antisemitic and racist graffiti also recently appeared on street signs. Local officials condemned it.
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
Biden is here Tuesday: President Joe Biden is scheduled to hold a fundraiser and get out the vote rally with Democrats U.S. Rep. Val Demings and Charlie Crist in Miami Gardens on Nov. 1, one week before the election. The visit to South Florida will be Biden’s first political event in the state since he took office.
Trump to rally with Rubio, not DeSantis: Meanwhile, tensions appeared to rise last week when former President Donald Trump’s political committee announced he would be campaigning for U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio at a rally in Miami the Sunday before Election Day but didn’t invite DeSantis. The failure to mention the governor is an apparent snub amid speculation the pair will be leading rivals in the battle for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
So when Trump was in Doral playing golf on Thursday, a Miami Herald reporter asked if he planned to campaign with DeSantis. Trump deflected. “Uh, no, he’s a nice man and I like him,” he answered.
‘A nice man’: Last week, Trump took a shot at DeSantis on his Truth Social platform by sharing a clip of podcaster and former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly being interviewed by BlazeTV host Dave Rubin about a potential Trump-DeSantis showdown.
“The only way DeSantis is going to become the Republican nominee is if Trump chooses not to run and endorses him or dies,” Kelly said, suggesting that hardcore MAGA supporters would never abandon Trump.
“I AGREE” posted Trump.
It’s the latest in a series of barbs Trump has aimed at DeSantis, whom he endorsed when DeSantis was running for governor in 2018. With DeSantis emerging as Trump’s top rival, the challenge is on DeSantis to keep the former president close as long as possible.
Crime as political weapon: A canvasser wearing a Marco Rubio T-shirt and a Ron DeSantis hat was attacked in Hialeah on Oct. 22. Rubio used the incident to claim that the attackers had political motives. But an initial police report mentioned nothing about politics and Hialeah police said Christopher Monzon didn’t tell them the beating was politically motivated until detectives re-interviewed him a day after the incident.
Monzon had been handing out Rubio fliers when two men attacked and beat him, he said. Monzon has a long history of supporting white supremacist causes and making racist statements. He has since said he regrets his past and is trying to move forward.
Rubio blasted the media for raising the issue of Monzon’s past. Monzon spoke out on Saturday, during a brief appearance at a Proud Boys rally in the Hialeah neighborhood where he was attacked. He said the beating was politically motivated and vowed to “clear my name.” Here is a timeline.
Lone debate for governor: For one hour last week, Crist and DeSantis hammered each other on COVID, abortion, violence and the economy during the only debate in Florida’s race for governor. Perhaps the most memorable moment was when Crist, breaking the agreement not to pose questions of his opponent, pointedly asked DeSantis if he would leave halfway through his second term to run for president.
Running for president? “Why don’t you look in the eyes of the people of the state of Florida and say to them if you’re reelected, you will serve a full four-year term as governor, yes or no?” Crist asked.
DeSantis was silent for about 10 seconds as he looked into the camera in the split-screen. Crist asked the same question again. DeSantis asked the moderator: “Is it my time?” Then, he glanced at his notes and responded: “I just want to make things very, very clear. The only worn-out old donkey I’m looking to put out to pasture is Charlie Crist.”
Resign to run: in addition to dodging the question, DeSantis has done little to tamp down speculation that he plans to run for president. Polls show he is a party favorite, his campaign has steered more than $61 million to the Republican Party of Florida, which could return it to a federal DeSantis campaign in the future, and the RPOF has been sending mailers to people in several states, promoting the governor.
(Notably absent from the RPOF effort is any promotion of the former president or Florida’s other high-profile Republicans, Rubio and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott.)
So if DeSantis does run, will he have to resign his office? All indications are he does, but there are options.
Speaking of out-of-state: Florida’s governor spent time campaigning last weekend, in New York. Late Saturday, DeSantis spoke to crowd of several hundred people on Long Island on behalf of New York GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin. He amplified Zeldin’s “law and order” message on crime.
WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT
Could Hispanics deliver Miami-Dade for DeSantis? Home to 1.5 million Hispanics of voting age and a Democratic stronghold for 20 years, Miami-Dade County appears to be on the verge of making Ron DeSantis the first gubernatorial candidate to win in Miami-Dade in two decades. It would be a significant turn of events, but not wholly unpredictable after Trump gained ground two years ago. The last Republican governor to win the county was Jeb Bush, who spoke Spanish, owned a Coral Gables condo and was married to a Latina wife.
Democratic Cabinet candidates struggle: Aside from the unlikely scenario of Charlie Crist beating DeSantis in the governor’s race, Democrats’ best chance to thwart the Republican agenda lies with its candidates running for the state Cabinet seats: attorney general, chief financial officer and agriculture commissioner.
But the Democrats running for the seats are struggling. Fundraising has been anemic. And despite DeSantis’ national profile, the three Democrats have received little support from the state party or national donors — the latest sign of Florida’s slide from a swing state to a GOP stronghold.
Shifting responsibility for felon votes: A week after DeSantis announced the arrests of 20 people for alleged voter fraud, his administration quietly made a change to a form convicted felons must sign before they are released on probation. The new provision now says that by signing the form they “agree that you are solely responsible for determining if you are legally able to register to vote.”
Maintaining voter rolls is the responsibility of the state, and felons who have completed the terms of their sentence automatically have their rights restored.
But by shifting the burden of information to the felon to figure it out, advocates say they are creating another trap for many of them. The state has not created a streamlined or easily accessible system for felons and their families to determine if they are eligible or not to vote.
Parents lose right to determine child’s care: The situations may be rare but in the future, parents will no longer be allowed to obtain medical treatment for transgender children under 18 in Florida, according to a rule tentatively approved last week by the joint committee of the Florida Board of Medicine and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine.
The proposal, pushed by DeSantis, prohibits doctors from prescribing puberty-blocking, hormone and hormone “antagonist” treatments for patients under age 18. The plan also would ban surgical treatments for minors, which experts have said is rare. However, the committee stopped short of banning all treatment, and allowed children currently undergoing care to continue.
Judges orders DeSantis to produce records: A Leon County circuit judge ruled that the DeSantis’ administration has 20 days to turn over records sought by the Florida Center for Government Accountability about the controversial decision to fly migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
Judge J. Lee Marsh said the requested phone or text logs could provide information about communications by DeSantis Chief of Staff James Uthmeier about the flights.
DeSantis aide and legislators must testify: Judge Marsh also ruled last week that six lawmakers, five current and former legislative staff members and J. Alex Kelly, a deputy chief of staff to DeSantis, can be questioned about a controversial congressional redistricting plan that passed in April. The state also must turn over documents to plaintiffs suing the state for violating the constitution.
State pays company with undocumented workers: Meanwhile, a construction contractor has been paid more than $8 million by the state even though the record shows the company hired several undocumented workers — including two men who have been charged in connection with the death of a Pinellas County deputy.
Archer Western-De Moya Joint Venture has a standing contract with the Florida Department of Transportation to do work on the Gateway Expressway in the Tampa Bay area. The company says it has complied with all the requirements.
GOP says reject school referendum: In the midterm elections, Miami-Dade voters are asked to vote on two county and several municipal referendums on the Nov. 8 ballot. But the Miami-Dade County Republican Party is taking a stance on just one: It recommends a ‘NO’ vote on the district’s ballot question that asks voters to increase a homeowner’s property tax rate to raise teacher salaries and support school security officers.
Broward superintendent gets reprieve: After nearly five hours of discussion, the Broward School Board last week voted to keep Vickie Cartwright as superintendent for the next three months but ordered her to come up with a plan to address their criticisms.
Judge rejects ‘don’t say gay’ challenge: A federal judge last week dismissed a second challenge to Florida’s “parental rights in education” law limiting the ability of public school educators to address LGBTQ topics in the classroom. U.S. District Court Judge Wendy Berger, a Trump appointee, ruled that students and parents had not provided enough evidence to show they had been harmed.
DeSantis’ donor accused of fraud: Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign has not returned $213,000 in contributions from a fugitive charged with making illegal straw donations.
The donations came from Ahmad “Andy” Khawaja, the owner of an online payments processing company called Allied Wallet, Inc., and one of Khawaja’s companies. Khawaja now faces straw donor and wire fraud charges connected to his California-based business.
Complaint filed against FPL consultant: The secret fundraising network created by political operatives working for Florida Power & Light and other clients appears to have violated campaign finance laws and should be investigated, according to a complaint filed Thursday with the Federal Elections Commission. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) said that the operatives pitched clients on a funding structure with the intent “to illegally hide the identities of the true source or sources of contributions. “
Theories on misinformation: In the era of “fake news” and media skepticism, the Miami Herald spoke to some Miami voters to get their thoughts on disinformation, its sources and its impact ahead of the election. Everyone agrees there is a problem, but there is no agreement on the sources of it.
Electric bills to rise, again: After pouring workers and equipment into restoring electricity after Hurricane Ian, Florida Power & Light expects to seek approval to charge customers $1.1 billion to recover their costs, officials said Friday. It was not immediately clear when FPL will ask the Florida Public Service Commission for approval to recover the cost, or how the proposal would affect customers’ monthly bills.
What is known is that the company’s 5.6 million customers have seen their bills rise steadily in the last year and it’s conceivable the increase could match what customers are already paying from a $4.7 billion rate increase approved by regulators over the next four years. For every 1,000 kilowatt hour of electricity used by a residential customer, the base rate of their bill will rise by $13.82 a month. Those increases don’t include the rising fuel portion of the bill.
Taking no chances: John MacIver, who was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to chair the new five-member commission to regulate gambling in Florida, is one of 14 lawyers whose names were forwarded to the governor last week to choose from as he fills four vacancies on the state appellate court.. MacIver’s application included recommendations from 10 people, one of whom stands out: Nick Iarossi, a Tallahassee lobbyist close to the governor who is also one of the state’s top gambling lobbyists.
Yikes, another condo in crisis: The city of Miami Beach ordered the evacuation of residents of the Port Royale Condominium, a 164-unit tower, last week after engineers found significant damage to a critical structural beam in the parking garage.
Do yourself a favor, read this: If Hurricane Ian had slammed into South Florida, experts predict we would have seen nine-foot coastal surge and flooding inland all the way to Hialeah. But, they also told us, too many residents of the region do not thoroughly understand the threat posed, and are not sufficiently aware of the nuances in forecast data.
Insurance losses coming into focus: The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, a state program that provides critical backup coverage to property insurers, is expected to face $10 billion in losses from Hurricane Ian, officials said this week. The program known as the “Cat Fund” will be able to handle Ian’s financial hit, officials said, though it will go into the 2023 hurricane season with reduced amounts of cash.
Thank you for reading. Miami Herald Capitol Bureau Chief Mary Ellen Klas curates the Politics and Policy in the Sunshine State newsletter. We appreciate our readers and if you have any ideas or suggestions, please drop me a note at meklas@miamiherald.com.
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