First Read for Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023

Good morning. It’s Pancake Day. Try this recipe from Florida’s Natural for Orange Pancakes, with each one “like a big round sun, with happy rays of citrus sauce.”

FIRST UP

There’s a new honcho at the Republican Party of Florida. Christian Ziegler was elected the party’s next chair during a meeting in Orlando this past weekend. Leon County Republican Executive Committee chair Evan Power, who ran against Ziegler, came up short by a vote of 126-100, and has become vice chair. 

His election comes as the state party is at its peak, securing the governorship, all three state Cabinet positions, and ⅔-plus supermajorities in the Legislature this last election. In a statement, Ziegler noted that Republicans' eyes elsewhere are on Florida’s success: “We are looking forward to promoting the great work being done by our Republicans, while exposing and defeating The Left at every level of government across Florida.”

Joe Gruters, the immediate past RPOF chair, took to Twitter to congratulate Ziegler “as we fight to … take back the White House in 2024!” Ziegler had been vice chair under Gruters, a state senator. Critics hastily pointed out that Ziegler, a former Sarasota County commissioner, had attended former President Donald Trump’s rally in Washington that preceded the Jan 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol. But at the time, according to WFLA, Ziegler “called the violence that erupted ‘unacceptable’.”

Next up: The Florida Democratic Party will hold an election this weekend in Maitland for their state chair. The candidates are Carolina Ampudia, chair of the party’s Progressive Caucus; former state agriculture commissioner Nikki Fried; Broward County Democratic Party chair Rick Hoye; and former state Sen. Annette Taddeo. 

– Tristan Wood

FROM CITY & STATE

* CONSTRUCTION POWER 100: The contractors, advocates and government officials building a better state.

* EXECUTION EXPLAINER: With the first execution since 2019 set for Thursday, here’s how the state of Florida prepares, right down to the clothes an inmate wears to the death chamber.

* BILL COTTERELL: Rick Scott has just given us new proof – as if any were needed – that touching Social Security and Medicare is fatal to any politician’s reelection plans.

* EDITOR’S NOTE: How did Ron DeSantis single-handedly take over state government, becoming – as conservative columnist George Will once said of New Jersey’s governor – an “American caesar”?

NEW THIS MORNING

* A Republican lawmaker has filed a bill backed by DeSantis to make it easier for plaintiffs to win defamation lawsuits in Florida, including creating a presumption that statements by unnamed sources are false, Florida Politics reports. 

* After pulling state government, schools and universities to the right, DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature are honing in on a new target, with city and county governments now in the crosshairs, USA TODAY Network-Florida reports. 

* As DeSantis explores alternatives to the College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP) curriculum, state officials have been meeting with the founder of an education testing company supporters say is focused on the “great classical and Christian tradition,” the Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau reports. 

* After DeSantis threatened to eliminate AP classes, some parents have discussed moving out of the state to protect their children’s chances at a good education, the Washington Post reports. 

* When DeSantis floated the possibility of eliminating AP, he left out that he was once “AP U.S. History student of the year,” according to his high school yearbook, The Daily Beast reports. 

More news below …

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* With two weeks before this year's legislative session begins in Florida, there is still no abortion bill on the books – but Republican lawmakers say they are working on one, WPTV reports. 

* Richard Corcoran’s $7,000 per month housing perk as New College interim president would likely not be enough to cover the expenses of the expected lodgings of a college president in the immediate area, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports. 

* The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, the group that spearheaded the campaign to restore voting rights to felons in Florida, has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

* Public records show Nahshon Nicks, a Democratic candidate for Jacksonville’s City Council At-Large Group 5, may have violated the city’s charter by living outside of the residency boundaries for the seat, the Tributary reports. 

* Tallahassee City Commissioners will consider whether to approve the first steps in opening up two housing projects that could create close to 200 apartments, the Tallahassee Democrat reports. 

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DESANTIS WATCH 

The governor on Friday was in Destin to announce “that $205.7 million would go toward boosting resources in the state battling the opioid crisis,” ClickOrlando.com reported. He also attended a James Madison University-Florida State University baseball game, his official schedule shows. 

On Saturday, he attended the Global Liberty Institute Rising Leader Summit and the Everglades Foundation's Foreverglades annual gala, and no official events were on his calendar for Sunday and Monday. 

The governor, however, was in New York City Monday, “kicking off a tour meant to highlight the issue of crime in Democratic-led cities in an apparent attempt to position himself as a law-and-order candidate in a presidential campaign he has yet to announce,” The New York Times reported. He also visited the suburbs of Philadelphia and Chicago later in the day. 

2024 ROUNDUP

* Trump kicked off his first public speech in Palm Beach County since launching his White House comeback bid with salvos at two fellow Florida Republicans, one a seemingly erstwhile ally and the other a threatening potential rival, the Palm Beach Post reports.

* DeSantis appears to have decided not to speak at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), held this year in Maryland after the last two years in Florida, The Floridian reports. 

* DeSantis gave an exclusive interview to the New York Post’s Salena Zito while on a tour of his Florida hometown, the outlet reports, in which he said he supported moving some federal agencies outside of Washington. (His official schedule shows he met with Zito on Feb. 9.)

* Trump lashed out at Rupert Murdoch's media empire after the New York Post published what he said was a “puff piece” about DeSantis, Raw Story reports.

* Trump said he wouldn’t use the nickname “Meatball Ron” to describe DeSantis, a likely rival for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, Politico reports.

* Senate Republicans nervous about former President Trump’s lead in presidential primary polls are impatiently awaiting DeSantis to jump into the race, The Hill reports. 

* While the realistic slate is five, here are the top ten Republicans most likely to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2024, Chris Cillizza writes in his ‘So What?’ SubStack. 

* Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley criticized the so-called Don’t Say Gay measure signed into law by DeSantis last year, saying it doesn’t go “far enough,” The Hill reports. 

ANALYSIS & OPINION 

* Residents of The Villages banded together to reject a property tax hike but were blocked by powerful players, including DeSantis, according to The Intercept’s “Deconstructed” podcast.

* DeSantis and others who would overturn landmark press protection want to dodge accountability, the St. Louis Post Dispatch editorial board writes. 

* The governor is playing a game of smoke and mirrors with Floridians in order to consolidate power while Republican legislators have his back, the Miami Herald editorial board writes.

* Florida’s education system could be its most shining asset, but DeSantis and his legislative acolytes keep trying to turn Florida’s classrooms into backdrops for their divisive, self-aggrandizing culture wars, the Orlando Sentinel editorial board writes.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: To state Rep. Joe Casello … to Jigsha Desai, former head of digital optimization for the USA TODAY Network-Florida … to state Sen. Jay Trumbull. 

ON THE MOVE: Molly Best has departed the Department of Corrections to join the Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles as communications director. 

CONGRATULATIONS: Courtney Heidelberg, public relations manager at Pathward, marks one year at the financial services company.  She has previously worked in communications for the Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles and the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs. 

COLLABORATIONS: Tallahassee’s Proof Brewing Co. and the Florida Division of Emergency Management have collaborated on an American pale ale, “Halfway Full, Halfway There,” to encourage people to “remember to keep gas tanks at least halfway full during hurricane season to evacuate quickly and avoid long lines” at gas stations.

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

“My No. 1 concern as a parent right now is that my kids will be cut off from additional information about the world. Will they be able to learn beyond what our state is going to allow them to know?”

– Stephana Ferrell, via the Washington Post, on how she is considering moving her family out of Florida if her children are blocked from being able to take Advanced Placement courses.