First Read for Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022

Good morning. It's National Chocolate Candy Day. Eater Miami lists the “14 great places to load up on chocolate in South Florida.”

FIRST UP 

A September trial has been scheduled in a federal-court challenge to a congressional redistricting plan that Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through the Legislature this spring. U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor issued an order Friday that said the trial will start Sept. 25. 

The lawsuit, filed by Common Cause Florida, Fair Districts Now, the Florida State Conference of the NAACP and individual plaintiffs, alleges that the redistricting plan violates the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment and 15th Amendment. The 14th Amendment ensures equal protection, while the 15th Amendment prohibits denying or abridging the right to vote based on race. 

DeSantis called an April special session after he vetoed a redistricting plan that lawmakers passed. During the special session, the Republican-dominated House and Senate quickly passed a map that DeSantis’ office proposed. 

The map helped Florida Republicans in the November elections increase their number of U.S. House members from 16 to 20. A three-judge panel in November rejected a request by the DeSantis administration to dismiss the lawsuit.

– The News Service of Florida

FROM CITY & STATE

* Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony has issued the county an ultimatum: Either allow his Sheriff’s Office to have complete and unfettered control of the Regional E-911 Communications System or he won’t sign another contract to run it.

* Beefed up lobbying restrictions and breaks for motorists who frequently use toll roads are among state laws and other changes that will arrive with the new year.

THIS MONTH’S MAGAZINE

The Florida Women Power 100

* Who are the most influential women in Florida politics and government? City & State Florida's Women Power 100 identifies the most important government officials, high-powered lobbyists, leaders of the worlds of business, nonprofits, strategic messaging and social justice in the arena of Sunshine State politics and policy.

 ▶ Read This Month's Issue

NEW THIS MORNING

* DeSantis top aide Larry Keefe used a private email address with the alias “Clarice Starling” – a reference to the Hannibal Lecter serial killer novels – to help a former client win a state contract for Florida’s migrant flight program, the Miami Herald reports. 

* The governor joined 24 other Republican governors in asking President Joe Biden to end a COVID-19 emergency declaration that has helped lead to a surge in enrollment in Florida’s Medicaid program, the News Service of Florida reports.

* In a blow to the Biden administration's ability to set the nation's immigration policy, the Supreme Court said the government could not halt the expulsion of migrants for public health reasons under the controversial Title 42 program, USA Today reports. 

* Through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), the state is formally investigating a “Drag Queen Christmas” event that took place in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, the Floridian reports.

* A new federal law, sponsored by Democratic U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, prohibits enforcement of nondisclosure agreements that have been used to silence victims of sexual assault and harassment, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports. 

More news below …

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YOUR MESSAGE HERE: City & State First Read is the must-read morning roundup of Florida politics and government. Reaching thousands of subscribers each morning, it's the most effective and targeted digital ad venue to get your message in front of city and state elected officials, agency and industry leaders, and the staff, advocates, media and operatives who drive the issues of the day – all by 7 a.m. each weekday. For advertising information, please email: advertising@cityandstatefl.com

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* Florida has changed much over one year, with stark increases in the cost of housing, the number of Republican voters and the number of monthly opioid overdoses, the Miami Herald reports.

* U.S. Sen. Rick Scott’s 2022 included a widely disparaged plan to tax every American, Republicans losing ground in the Senate and a doomed bid to become Senate minority leader – but none of that may matter when he runs for reelection in 2024, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

* Safety legislation that passed earlier this year in the wake of the deadly Surfside building collapse could plunge the condo market into turmoil, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

* Columbia County Emergency Management Director Shayne Morgan has been tapped to provide logistical support for inauguration ceremonies and festivities in the state capital on Jan. 3, the Lake City Reporter reports. 

* After Chaya Raichik was revealed by the Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz to be behind Libs of TikTok, a popular account that trafficked in anti-trans rhetoric, DeSantis offered her refuge in the guest house of the Governor’s Mansion, Buzzfeed News reports.

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DESANTIS WATCH 

The governor met with Chief of Staff James Uthmeier, the only item on his official schedule for Tuesday. 

2024 ROUNDUP

* According to a person familiar with the timing, former President Donald Trump’s tax returns will be made public Friday morning by the House Ways and Means Committee, Politico reports.

* DeSantis appears focused on gaining some distance between himself and Trump, and he is doing it by moving to Trump’s right, Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift write in Reflector.

* Longtime Republican activist and provocateur Roger Stone says the governor would be "working in a Dairy Queen" if it weren't for Trump, Newsweek reports. 

* The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol released 18 additional transcripts that provided more details about how Trump considered “blanket pardons” for those charged in connection with the Capitol riot and how several top political allies pushed unsuccessfully to be included in such pardons, the New York Times reports.

ANALYSIS & OPINION 

* DeSantis will never be president unless he runs in 2024, because if he waits he will be term-limited out of office and have no job prospects in any relevant political role, the Washington Examiner’s David Freddoso writes.

* Reproductive rights have generally always been a scam, because they’re not really about rights or privacy – they’re about power, and who gets to have it, The New Republic's Tori Otten writes. 

* There’s an important but underreported story after the 2022 midterms: the record number of Americans turning to ranked-choice voting for better choices, better campaigns and better representation, Rob Richie writes in the Miami Herald.

* The cruise ship industry and tourism is contributing directly and indirectly to the coral diseases that are rapidly killing the reef system in the Florida Keys, Carl Lopez writes in the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

ANNOUNCEMENTS 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: To state Rep. Nicholas X. Duran of Miami … to Dallas Morning News managing editor Amy Hollyfield, formerly of the Tampa Bay Times  … to Ana Navarro, co-host of “The View” … to News Service of Florida assignment editor Tom Urban. 

ON THE MOVE: Jessica Kelleher, deputy communications director at the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, will be moving to the Capitol to take the same job at the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services under incoming Commissioner Wilton Simpson. She will report to Communications Director Aaron Keller, who also headed “comms” at DHSMV.    

CONGRATULATIONS: The INK! 2022-2023 Teacher of the Year campaign honors educators in St. Johns County. Finalists are Tracy Clauson at Sebastian Middle School; Amanda Devany at Osceola Elementary School; Teresa McCormick at Valley Ridge Academy; Brianne Seplocha at Picolata Crossing Elementary School, and Gomati Sutaria at Liberty Pines Academy. They were recognized for their “outstanding demonstration of instructional skills, student interaction, professional excellence, and importance in the lives of students,” a press release explained.

Have a birthday, career change, birth, death or life event to announce? Email us: editor@cityandstatefl.com. 

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YOUR MESSAGE HERE: City & State First Read is the must-read morning roundup of Florida politics and government. Reaching thousands of subscribers each morning, it's the most effective and targeted digital ad venue to get your message in front of city and state elected officials, agency and industry leaders, and the staff, advocates, media and operatives who drive the issues of the day – all by 7 a.m. each weekday. For advertising information, please email: advertising@cityandstatefl.com

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KICKER

“This is the antithesis of open government.”

– Michael Barfield, director of public access at the Florida Center for Government Accountability, via the Miami Herald, on Larry Keefe’s use of a private email account to help a former client win a state contract to operate Florida’s migrant flight program.