First Read for Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023

Good morning. It’s National Wedding Planning Day. There are on average 337 weddings (and 177 divorces) every day in Florida.

FIRST UP

In a legal matter attracting growing attention, the state’s solicitor general now has filed an appearance in the case over the identities of “legal conservative heavyweights” Gov. Ron DeSantis consults before selecting state Supreme Court justices. Henry C. Whitaker filed his notice with the 1st District Court of Appeal, saying he will represent DeSantis and the Executive Office of the Governor. 

“The Solicitor General represents the Attorney General’s Office in cases before the United States Supreme Court, the Florida Supreme Court and legally advises on appellate cases in state and federal courts,” according to the office’s website. A circuit judge in part had ruled that the governor is protected from disclosing his unofficial advisers’ names under executive privilege – creating a defense in Florida law where none had existed. 

Whitaker, appointed in July 2021 by Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody, previously worked “at the U.S. Department of Justice where he advised the White House Counsel and cabinet secretaries” and once clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He also holds the title of Richard Ervin Visiting Professor at the Florida State University College of Law. 

Whitaker also has things in common with his new client: Like DeSantis, he went to Yale as an undergraduate and Harvard for law school. He also has been a speaker at events held by The Federalist Society, the increasingly influential organization of conservative lawyers and legal scholars that’s a favorite of the governor.  

– Jim Rosica

FROM CITY & STATE

* WAR ON WOKE: DeSantis’ current education battles keep the culture wars alive. But will the governor's latest front in the war on wokeness win him voters in a 2024 run for the White House?

* DEATH PENALTY: With backing from DeSantis, Florida lawmakers could scrap a requirement that unanimous jury recommendations are needed before death sentences can be imposed.

* OPINION: And attorneys Melanie Kalmanson and Maria DeLiberato argue that the proposed legislation would “significantly reduce the procedural safeguards that ensure the constitutionality of death sentences imposed in Florida.”

NEW THIS MORNING

* The governor rolled out a slate of higher-education proposals that included eliminating spending on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, a move he said would lead such programs to “wither on the vine,” the News Service of Florida reports. 

* A slate of new board members at the New College of Florida installed by DeSantis earlier this month replaced college President Patricia Okker with Republican former state House speaker and education commissioner Richard Corcoran, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports. 

* In what is also scheduled to be a legislative committee week, DeSantis is expecting a special session next week to consider the proposed state takeover of Disney World’s Reedy Creek Improvement District, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

* Before the vote last year to ban trans youth healthcare, the Florida Board of Medicine allowed more public comment from toward those that supported the ban, USA TODAY Network-Florida reports. 

* Floridians would be on the hook to pay when they lose lawsuits that oppose building new homes on undeveloped lands under a newly filed bill, the Orlando Sentinel reports. 

More news below …

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* DeSantis, who previously served in the U.S. House, wants a legislative investigation of recent decisions by cable carriers to remove One America News Network and Newsmax from their programming lineups, Florida Politics reports. 

* With a new conservative majority on its board of trustees, New College of Florida is poised to undergo major changes and many affiliated with the school are worried it could lose what makes it special, Sarasota Magazine reports. 

* Florida lawmakers ordered an audit of Winter Springs after residents raised concerns about the city’s water and wastewater systems, a massive sewage spill into a neighborhood pond and allegations of public documents being withheld, the Orlando Sentinel reports. 

* Jacksonville City Council member Nick Howland wants an investigation of the involvement of council member LeAnna Cumber's husband in the attempted sale of JEA and “omission of this information” in a disclosure she gave the council, the Florida Times-Union reports. 

* The Miami metro area experienced the largest inbound increase in residents from before the pandemic, seeing gains of nearly 60% in 2022 compared to 2019, Axios reports.

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DESANTIS WATCH 

The governor began his day with a call with his Chief of Staff James Uthmeier before holding a press conference in Bradenton. In the afternoon, he had meetings with Policy & Budget Director Chris Spencer, Deputy Chief of Staff Alex Kelly and Communications Director Taryn Fenske, according to his official schedule. 

2024 ROUNDUP

* The long-simmering tensions between former President Trump and Gov. DeSantis are nearing a boiling point amid signs that the governor and his team are actively moving toward a 2024 presidential run, The Hill reports.

* DeSantis hit back at Trump’s criticism of his COVID-19 handling, pointing out that he scored a record reelection victory that showed voters supported his hands-off response to the pandemic, Politico Florida reports. 

* Trump pleaded the fifth more than 400 times in his New York fraud case, New Republic reports.

ANALYSIS & OPINION 

* Tom Van Lent, the former top scientist at the Everglades Foundation, has created a GoFundMe account to help defray the cost of defending himself against charges of “electronic espionage” that his former employer alleged, the Backstory Blog reports. 

* It should surprise absolutely no one that U.S. Rep. George Santos’ web of lies somehow found a way to include Miami, the Miami Herald editorial board writes.

* Florida should not make it easier to execute people, the South Florida Sun Sentinel editorial board writes. 

* DeSantis is leading an unrelenting assault on truth and freedom of expression in the form of laws that censor and suppress the viewpoints, histories and experiences of historically marginalized groups, Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel of the Legal Defense Fund, writes in the New York Times. 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: To state Rep. Chuck Brannan … to former state Sen. Oscar Braynon II, now with The Southern Group. 

ON THE MOVE: Citizens Property Insurance’s Board of Governors chose Tim Cerio to become president and CEO of the state-backed insurer. Cerio, among many other posts, was general counsel to then-Gov. Rick Scott. 

National politics reporter Marc Caputo is leaving NBC News, he announced on Twitter.

CONGRATULATIONS: State Rep. Alex Andrade and wife Jessica announced the birth of their daughter, Gillian. 

Theresa Marsenburg, former “Capitol Update” anchor for The Florida Channel, marked her first year “as the first black anchor on WROC-TV in Rochester.”

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

“You cannot ask me to go forward and argue that we are indoctrinating students here. I do not believe it.”

– Outgoing New College of Florida President Patricia Okker, via the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, during the meeting where she was fired without cause on claims her university does “woke” indoctrination.