First Read for Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023

Good morning. It’s National Bootlegger’s Day. During prohibition, Florida was the place to go for bootleggers and rum runners looking to illegally import booze from the Caribbean. Check out these historic pictures.

FIRST UP

A Tallahassee judge has expressly recognized a defense of executive privilege in Florida law, seemingly where none has existed before. In a Jan. 3 order that surfaced last week, Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey said Gov. Ron DeSantis is protected from disclosing the identities of “legal conservative heavyweights” he consults before selecting state Supreme Court justices. Executive privilege usually shields the president of the United States from disclosing confidential information from the courts and legislative branch.

An anonymous requester – known as “J. Doe” and by the email address she or he used – sued after seeking public records that would lead to the discovery of the names of the “heavyweights.” “It is clear (the requester) seeks information – the identification of the (governor’s informal advisers) – which is not a public record, but is instead known only to the governor and his advisers,” Dempsey wrote.

There’s a lot more to the order, but here’s why a finding of executive privilege in Florida law is important: “In a line of recent cases, including one … involving the migrant relocation program, … attorneys representing the Republican governor keep trying to get a ruling that DeSantis is shielded by executive privilege. The goal, of course, (is) that his office does not have to turn over information to those challenging his actions in court,” Politico’s Gary Fineout wrote last week. 

The latest ruling undercuts the legal argument for disclosure, making it about separation of powers, and not to the right of access to public records enshrined in both state law and the Florida Constitution. Nonetheless, Doe’s attorney – Justin Hemlepp – told City & State he intends to appeal Dempsey’s ruling.

– Jim Rosica

FROM CITY & STATE 

* BILL COTTERELL: In this week’s “The Capitol Column,” is ‘constitutional carry’ good policy – or great politics? 

* MIGRANT FLIGHTS: A state court judge in Tallahassee rejected a request by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to dismiss a lawsuit filed after the state flew about 50 migrants from Texas to Massachusetts in September.

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

* White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, discussing Florida’s activating the National Guard, said the governor is “making a mockery of the (immigration) system" during a White House press conference, the Washington Examiner reports.

* DeSantis stirred controversy this month with his selection of six noted conservatives for the board of trustees at New College of Florida. Here’s more on who those six are, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

* After DeSantis’ office blasted the National Hockey League for hosting a "discriminatory" job fair that only allows certain groups of people to attend, the league backtracked and said the event is open to all individuals over 18, Fox News reports. 

* Florida’s red flag laws may have prevented a school shooting after it allowed law enforcement to remove guns from a Fort Lauderdale teenager who threatened a school shooting, the New York Times reports.

* Donald Trump’s unfinished dream to build a “big, beautiful wall” along the U.S. border with Mexico has proven to be a multi-million dollar bonanza for Florida’s AshBritt Inc., the politically-connected Deerfield Beach disaster contractor, the Florida Bulldog reports. 

More news below …

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* Some LGBTQ+ families are considering leaving Florida, citing a shift in tolerance and policies they view as marginalizing their community as reasons they're looking for friendlier communities elsewhere, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports. 

* The Hillsborough County Republican Party now has its first Black chairperson: Dana Galen, a retired musician and paralegal, the Tampa Bay Times reports. 

* The Broward Schools District is facing a leadership conflict, with Superintendent Vickie Cartwright fighting to stay on and the school board actively looking for her replacement, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports.

* Six people have applied to lead Broward County’s public schools to replace Cartwright if she ends up eventually being fired, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports.

* Despite a GOP majority in the U.S. House, members of Congress from South Florida – including Sheila Cherfilus McCormick and Jared Moskowitz – say they can get things done, the Palm Beach Post reports. 

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DESANTIS WATCH 

The governor had a call with Chief of Staff James Uthmeier, the only item on his official schedule for Monday. 

2024 ROUNDUP

* While DeSantis has gotten used to being the prize duck in the shooting gallery for 2024 for Democrats and liberal media, he is now starting to draw fire from some in his own party, Douglas MacKinnon writes in The Hill.

* The Washington Post has ranked the top ten potential Republican 2024 presidential candidates. 

* Republicans are anxious to find out whether DeSantis is just Trump 2.0, or something else entirely, Adrian Morrow writes in the Globe and Mail. 

* Trump’s path to another presidency isn’t smooth and secure; his path looks like a campaign with fewer insults and more insights, centering on the future, not the past, his former adviser Kellyanne Conway writes in the New York Times. 

ANALYSIS & OPINION 

* On Seminole land, Seminole Tribe members’ sovereign government won’t let them obtain information about their governance that other Floridians take for granted, Dan Christensen writes in the Florida Bulldog. 

* DeSantis is starting the new year off right by using it for a time of new beginnings and a fresh start, John Grant writes in the South Florida Sun Sentinel. 

* At a time when hundreds of Cubans are in prison for voicing dissent and more are fleeing the island in record numbers, the glossy American travel brochures peddling travel to Cuba are sickening, the Miami Herald’s Fabiola Santiago writes.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: To U.S. Rep. Carlos A. Giménez of Miami-Dade County … to AARP of Florida state director Jeff Johnson … to business consultant Will Rankin, the 2014 Democratic nominee for state Chief Financial Officer. 

ON THE MOVE: State Rep. Lindsay Cross announced the launch of the “Energy and Climate Caucus” within the Florida Legislature to tackle “climate change, reduce fossil-fuel dependence, and promote clean-energy production.” The caucus held its first meeting last week, choosing state Rep. Anna Eskamani as chair, Cross as vice chair, and state Rep. Rita Harris as secretary. 

Tallahassee-based reporter Renzo Downey is departing the Florida Politics news site to join the Texas Tribune as lead writer of The Blast, its premium politics newsletter. He starts Feb. 1. 

Florida State University Provost Jim Clark named Dr. Alma Littles interim dean of the College of Medicine. Littles, who has served as senior associate dean for nearly 20 years, succeeds Dr. John P. Fogarty, a member of the City & State Florida Health Care Power 100 who is retiring after 14 years as the College of Medicine’s dean.

Andrew J. Skerritt announced that he is starting a new position as Associate Director of the Office of Communications at Florida A&M University. He had been the school’s assistant director of media relations. 

GUBERNATORIAL APPOINTMENTS: Gov. DeSantis announced the appointment of Ben Assad Mirza and the reappointment of Dr. Christine Bojaxhi and Dr. Thomas McCawley to the Board of Dentistry.

DeSantis also elevated Javier Enriquez from Miami-Dade county judge to circuit judge in the 11th Judicial Circuit. Previously, he was general counsel and chief ethics officer for the Florida Department of Children and Families.

CONGRATULATIONS: Tallahassee and South Florida lobbying legend Ron Book is one of 21 lawyers to receive The Florida Bar’s 2022 Pro Bono Award. Among other things, he “contributed thousands of hours of pro bono service … over decades including serving as pro bono counsel to the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence since 2001.”

Corinne Mixon marks six years at Rutledge Ecenia, where she is a lobbyist. 

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

“I don’t see anything … that says you can go to Texas and pick up people, bring them to Florida for a few minutes and then take them to another state.”

– Circuit Judge John Cooper, via the Miami Herald, during a hearing in which he refused to toss out a lawsuit over the DeSantis administration’s migrant flights.