First Read for Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023

The must-read morning roundup of Florida politics and government.

| January 3, 2023

January 3, 2023

Good morning. It's National Write to Congress Day. Find your member of Congress’ contact information here. Bear in mind the new Congress convenes this week.

FIRST UP

Gannett’s loss is City & State’s gain. When veteran state government reporter and columnist Bill Cotterell announced he was ending his “Capital Curmudgeon” column for Florida’s USA TODAY Network, I grabbed the phone. In his final column in the Tallahassee Democrat, Bill explained that he “finally got caught in the wave of staff cuts recently announced by Gannett.” I asked him if he’d like to move to City & State Florida. He said yes.

Today on our website (the link is here and below), you can read his inaugural column for us, a rumination on how “Florida has never had a governor like Ron DeSantis,” calling him “the most significant governor of Florida since Gov. LeRoy Collins had greatness thrust upon him nearly 70 years ago.” Bill will be contributing once a week. (We haven’t yet come up with a catchy name for the new column. I thought about “Capitol Ideas,” but it’s already taken.)

By way of history, I first met Bill in 1997, when I left the old Fort Pierce Tribune to join the Democrat as a City Hall reporter. During my first-day-of-work tour of the building, I ran across Bill in the cafeteria. “Oh, you’re the new City Hall reporter?” Bill asked me. “Well, you’ll have a lot of fun on that beat.”

I did, and now I hope you’ll have fun reading the continued musings of a man who spent nearly four decades covering thousands of Florida lawmakers and nine governors, and who has the honor of having some of his staff ID photos in Florida Memory, the online photograph repository of the State Archives and Library of Florida. Less hair now, but more one-liners. Enjoy.

– Jim Rosica

FROM CITY & STATE

* Cotterell: Florida has never had a governor like Ron DeSantis

* Local officials seek to block new Florida lobbying restrictions

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

* The political world will be watching Tallahassee today as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis prepares to kick off his second term, Business Insider reports.

* The Legislature will hold two days of committee meetings this week, part of the run-up to the 2023 Legislative Session, Florida Politics reports.

* After a five-year legal battle, a sharply divided federal appeals court upheld a St. Johns County School Board policy that prevented a transgender student from using boys’ bathrooms at a high school, the News Service of Florida reports.

* The governing body of the Seminole Tribe of Florida is attempting to banish two tribal women for talking to the Florida Bulldog about allegations of corruption involving Chairman Marcellus Osceola Jr., the website reports.

* At least 500 migrants have arrived in small boats along the Florida Keys over the last few days in what the local sheriff’s office described as a “crisis,” the Associated Press reports.

More news below …

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* A special district that oversees a public utility that serves large parts of Coral Springs and Parkland has become a haven for special interests, personal enrichment for board members and nepotism, the Florida Center for Government Accountability reports.

* Democratic U.S. Rep. Al Lawson capped a six-year run in Washington by securing more than $25 million for north Florida projects in the federal government’s 2023 omnibus spending bill, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.

* Orlando U.S. Rep.-elect Maxwell Alejandro Frost said he'll probably have to "couch surf for a little bit" as he begins his tenure in Congress, after he tweeted last month that he was unable to secure an apartment in D.C., the Hill reports.

* The Broward Sheriff's Office's agreement with the county to run the 911 system expired Jan. 1, with the county now making plans to transition to a different contractor who will take emergency calls and dispatch officers, WLRN reports.

* Drivers who frequently use Florida toll roads can now begin to tally credits for rebates as part of a program passed by lawmakers in a December special session, Florida Politics reports.

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DESANTIS WATCH

The governor, who had an “inaugural planning meeting” on his Monday schedule, will be sworn in to his second term today in a ceremony at the Capitol.

Also being sworn in for second terms are Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, Attorney General Ashley Moody and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis. Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, elected in November, will be sworn in to his first term.

2024 ROUNDUP

* Both political parties are opening the new year confronting critical questions about the people and policies they want to embrace as the next election speeds into view, the Associated Press reports.

* Former President Donald Trump’s lack of campaigning have left even former stalwarts wondering whether he is serious about another run for the White House, the Associated Press reports.

* Trump’s blaming Republicans midterm losses on extreme pro-lifers is a pile of nonsense atop a kernel of truth, National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru writes.

* A showdown between DeSantis and Trump could turn Latino evangelicals into a decisive swing vote in Florida, supercharging their influence and focusing national attention on their churches, politics and values, the New York Times reports.

ANALYSIS & OPINION

* From now on, everything DeSantis says and does will be scrutinized not just for what it means for our state but also for how he would campaign for the White House and how he would govern, the Sun Sentinel editorial board writes.

* Florida’s mean streak grew a mile wide in 2022. We can do better in the new year, the Miami Herald editorial board writes.

* “As my term comes to an end, I wanted to pause and reflect on some of the great work that we have been able to accomplish together,” outgoing U.S. Rep. Al Lawson writes for the Tallahassee Democrat.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: To Al Cárdenas, past chair of the Republican Party of Florida … to longtime Tampa-area political consultant & organizer Ella Coffee … to state Rep. Tom Fabricio of Miami Lakes … to former Hillsborough County Commissioner Ed Turanchik.

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

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KICKER

“The school board’s bathroom policy is clearly related to… its objective of protecting the privacy interests of students to use the bathroom away from the opposite sex and to shield their bodies from the opposite sex in the bathroom.”

– 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Barbara Lagoa, via the News Service of Florida, in her majority opinion upholding a St. Johns County School Board policy banning trans students from using the bathroom of the gender they identify as.

NEXT STORY: First Read for Friday, Dec. 30, 2022