Democrats are coming to Broward as part of a national voting rights effort

@alextdaugherty

Broward County was ground zero for claims of election fraud, blown deadlines, lawsuits and incompetence during the 2018 election.

Now, Democrats are coming from Washington to hold hearings in Fort Lauderdale as part of a national effort to examine voting rights and election administration issues.

On Monday, four members of the Committee on House Administration, along with local Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Alcee Hastings, will hold an official field hearing at the Broward County Governmental Center. Former gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, who is leading an effort to register one million new voters ahead of the 2020 election, is among the witnesses.

Since taking control of the House in November, House Democrats, led by Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge, had or are planning hearings and listening sessions in Brownsville, Texas, Atlanta, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Alabama and Washington, D.C. The Atlanta hearing included former Georgia gubernatorial candidate and Gillum ally Stacey Abrams, and Republicans argued that her testimony was being used to raise her political profile.

Democrats are using the hearings to build evidence for future legislation that would require certain states to obtain federal pre-clearance before changing any voting laws or practices. In a landmark 2013 case, the Supreme Court ruled that a provision in the Voting Rights Act designed to prevent laws or policies that deny people the right to vote based on race was unconstitutional. Since the decision, certain states have tried to pass voter ID laws or revived voter ID laws that were declared invalid by the federal government.

More here.

A key 2020 constituency: Florida’s Hispanic vote nearly doubled in 2018

@alextdaugherty

Florida’s Hispanic electorate grew by 81 percent between the 2014 and 2018 midterm elections, and Hispanics who registered to vote as independents grew by 101 percent, meaning Hispanics are the fastest-growing portion of Florida’s electorate heading into the 2020 election.

The Hispanic-specific data, compiled by Univision and Political Data Inc., shows that campaigns and candidates who make early investments in Spanish-language media and advertising efforts are reaching more potential voters in Florida than ever before. Hispanic voter registration and turnout trends in Miami-Dade County, home to 44 percent of the state’s Hispanic electorate in 2018, mirrored statewide trends.

“This data demonstrates that our community, especially its younger members, played a crucial role in the 2018 election where the Senate seat and various congressional seats in Florida changed parties less than a year ago,” Univision CEO Vincent Sadusky said in a statement. “2020 is shaping up to be an especially competitive election and, particularly in many large states including Florida with significant Latino populations, we have no doubt Hispanic America will play a key role in picking the next president and which party controls Congress.”

Univision will present Hispanic voter data from multiple states in an April 30 event in Washington.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott focused heavily on Hispanic voters in his successful 2018 campaign, spending millions to run Spanish-language ads during major events like the 2018 FIFA World Cup and touting his visits to Puerto Rico throughout the campaign. The Spanish-language TV campaigning, combined with an anti-socialism message in South Florida, helped Scott and Gov. Ron DeSantis win narrow victories over Democrats.

More here.

National Democrats begin defense of Mucarsel-Powell's seat

@alextdaugherty

National Democrats spent millions to get Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell into office last year. 

Now, they're beginning their effort to keep her there. 

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced Thursday that Mucarsel-Powell's district is one of a few dozen across the country where it's spending early money on grassroots organizers. Mucarsel-Powell is one of 44 House Democrats who are part of the organization's "Frontline" program to protect incumbents who may face competitive reelection bids. 

The DCCC said the investment is a "multi-million dollar effort to defend and expand the new Democratic Majority." It declined to disclose the exact amount of money being spent in Florida, though they are also spending money in a Tampa-area seat held by Republican Rep. Ross Spano. 

"As Democrats, we’ve always drawn our strength from the people we fight for each and every day – that’s why I’m so proud to announce that, in our first major investment of the 2020 cycle, we are launching March Forward to put boots on the ground in dozens of communities across America,” said DCCC Chairwoman Rep. Cheri Bustos. "Our March Forward Field Managers will play a vital role in our work to not just defend, but expand our new Democratic majority. By organizing early and aggressively, we will March Forward to build a better future for all Americans by winning on the doors, online and on the ballot in 2020."

The DCCC plans to hire almost 60 organizers around the country who will work on communications, digital, research and field tactics before the 2020 campaign gears up. 

Mucarsel-Powell was also named on the National Republican Congressional Committee's target list for 2020 along with Miami Rep. Donna Shalala. Both flipped Republican-held seats in 2018, though Mucarsel-Powell's seat is generally regarded as the more competitive of the two. 

Puerto Rico’s governor praises Rick Scott’s work after backing Bill Nelson in 2018

@alextdaugherty

Puerto Rico’s governor was no friend of Rick Scott’s during the 2018 campaign, even as Scott visited the territory eight times and pitched himself as Puerto Rico’s de facto senator in ads around the state as he sought votes from Puerto Ricans in Florida.

But Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said he’s impressed with Scott’s work on Puerto Rico during his first two months as a senator in Washington, even though Rosselló endorsed Democrat Bill Nelson after fighting with the White House over Hurricane Maria recovery efforts.

“Rick Scott has been a great friend of Puerto Rico,” Rosselló said in an interview in Washington on Friday. “There’s no doubt about it, he was a great friend prior when he was a governor and right now he’s used time on the floor, he’s submitted meaningful amendments and he has given a fight for some of these issues.”

Rosselló was referring to Scott’s first speech on the Senate floor, when he spoke in English and Spanish about his amendment to provide $600 million in nutritional assistance for Puerto Rico over the Office of Management and Budget’s objections.

“I rise today as a voice for the people of Puerto Rico. I intend to be their voice in the United States Senate,” Scott said in his maiden floor speech. “They are American as the people of Florida I was elected to represent. Their recovery is America’s recovery.”

Rosselló said he is in constant contact with Scott and his staff, and that his knowledge and dedication to Puerto Rico has continued after the 2018 election. Scott also has a close relationship with Jenniffer Gonzalez, Puerto Rico’s non-voting representative in Congress who is a pro-statehood Republican who endorsed Scott over Nelson last year.

Read more here.

Andrew Gillum, United Teachers of Dade's pick for governor, featured on robocall endorsing union leadership

Back when the Florida gubernatorial primaries were in full swing last fall, Miami's teacher's union went out on a limb for Andrew Gillum -- against its Tallahassee union leadership's pick of Gwen Graham.

Gillum appears to have returned the favor. The former Democratic nominee for governor sent a robocall to Miami-Dade County Public Schools teachers on President's Day endorsing the incumbent leadership of UTD in Wednesday's union election.

"Hi, this Mayor Andrew Gillum calling on the behalf of UTD's Frontline Caucus," Gillum said in the message, praising the "incredible leadership" of president Karla Hernandez-Mats, vice president Tony White and secretary treasurer Mindy Grimes-Festge.

"When Karla and Tony and Mindy told me they had a bold plan to campaign for the largest teacher pay raise in Miami-Dade history, I said, 'Count me in,' because you all deserve it," he said. "And wow, the Frontline Caucus delivered."

Gillum went on to call the base 12.5 percent supplement that came out of a four-year, voter-approved referendum, which he endorsed on the campaign trial, a "pay increase." In annual pay raise negotiations, UTD and the school district agreed to a raise this year that yielded 0.8 percent to 1.1 percent more for teachers.

UTD's political action committee, Teachers for Public School Excellence, donated $40,000 to Gillum's committee Forward Florida just before the November election. UTD also hosted Gillum's election night watch party in Miami.

Only UTD members can vote in Wednesday's leadership election. Member teachers vote on ballots at their school site, which will be taken to Firefighter's Memorial Building, 8000 NW 21st St in Doral, for the tally around 3 p.m. Candidates run for three-year terms.

The Frontline caucus faces opposition from UTD's Progressive caucus, which has named Mari Corugedo, Harold Ford and David Moss to its executive board slate. Candidates Ricardo Ocampo and Joseph Howard are also running for president.

The Miami Herald has reached out to Hernandez-Mats for comment.

DeSantis takes aim at Common Core in executive order

Gov. Ron DeSantis, appearing at Tampa Bay Technical High on Wednesday, announces plans to invest in Florida workforce programs. He said he wants to take Florida from 24th in the nation to first in workforce preparation. [TAILYR IRVINE | Times]

 

Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to create new state curriculum standards that would eliminate “the vestiges of Common Core,” he announced in Cape Coral on Thursday.

 

“We stuck with Common Core then we re-branded it … it’s all the same. It all needs to be looked at, it all needs to be scrutinized,” DeSantis said during the announcement at Ida S. Baker High School, flanked by commissioner of education Richard Corcoran and local school administrators.

 

DeSantis announced an executive order asking Corcoran to spend a year creating new state curriculum standards, which would then be presented to the Legislature for the 2020 session.

 

It’s true that Florida’s current standards are very similar to Common Core, even though they were tweaked and renamed in 2014. Despite criticisms of Common Core being a federal mandate, those curriculum standards were developed by private nonprofit groups and state education departments and then adopted by 45 states. Local districts then altered their lesson plans to meet those standards.

 

READ MORE: PolitiFact: Distortions on Common Core

 

But DeSantis said Common Core inspired concerns by parents who felt they were “imposed federally.”

 

“Also, you would have situations where the parents did not like some of the curriculum, I mean they had trouble even doing basic math to help their kids,” he said. “With Common Core a lot of people just didn’t feel like anyone was listening to them and I think that’s a big, big problem.”

 

DeSantis also said the new standards, which Corcoran will work to craft as long as the state Board of Education is also in agreement, should make civics education even more of a “central part” of what students learn so they can “discharge the duties of citizenship." Civics education and learning the Constitution was one of DeSantis' common refrains on the campaign trail, even though students are already required to learn the Constitution.

 

READ MORE: Ron DeSantis and others want to put the Constitution ‘back’ in Florida schools. It’s already there.

 

This was DeSantis' second education policy announcement in two days, after he made a stop in Tampa on Wednesday to propose beefing up Florida’s vocational training programs.

DeSantis: Broward Superintendent Runcie’s job appears safe, no elections “circus” in 2020

Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to reporters on AP Day in Tallahassee on Jan. 30, 2019. ELIZABETH KOH | Times/Herald

 

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday that based on legal advice he’s received, he does not feel confident he can suspend Broward County Superintendent Robert Runcie, who has come under intense fire for the way his district handled the Parkland shooting and the confessed shooter, Nikolas Cruz, who was a former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

 

“This came up during the campaign (and) I went back and actually looked at the statute and it seemed pretty clear to me that the statute applied to county-wide elected officials and that it didn’t apply, on its face, to appointed officials,” DeSantis told reporters at the Associated Press' annual AP Day news conference in Tallahassee. “The balance of the advice I’ve gotten since then has said that that’s probably the way to do it.”

 

DeSantis did say that he is looking at other “options” related to the School Board of Broward County and that he would come to a decision on that in the next two or three weeks.

 

“If you talk to those Parkland parents, I think they’re frustrated not just with the superintendent but also with the school board. It seems there’s something every day where someone is not being listened to or whatever,” DeSantis said. “There may be options where we can look at accountability there but it think it will be different than me saying, ‘The superintendent is out’ or whoever is out.”

 

Runcie did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Andrew Pollack, the father of murdered Parkland student Meadow Pollack, said he’s hopeful that DeSantis can put pressure on Broward’s school board members to remove Runcie or face suspension from office. Pollack and several other Parkland families have repeatedly called for Runcie’s ouster, and he said the fact the board hasn’t removed Runcie yet is “despicable.”

 

The school board members “have to look themselves in the mirror, do the righteous thing and remove the superintendent,” Pollack said. “They should get ahead of it before they are removed ... We all know (DeSantis) will be quick to pull trigger on board members who don’t act.”

 

Shortly after he took office, DeSantis suspended and replaced Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel over his department’s failings during the Parkland shooting. Multiple deputies hesitated to go into the building where the shooting was taking place. Israel formally requested a hearing to contest his suspension with the Florida Senate.

 

At the Tallahassee event, DeSantis also said that he expects Florida to do much better in its 2020 elections than the debacles that happened with his own election in the 2018 midterms, after the triple machine recount saw blown deadlines, broken ballot machines and accusations of liberals trying to “steal” the election from former Gov. Rick Scott.

 

“We need to do 2020 where there’s not any type of circus after the votes are in,” DeSantis said. “They should be counted and let the victor go on to take the state of Florida.”

 

He said he’s evaluating potential changes to Florida election law, but thinks it’s more important that the supervisors of elections both in Broward and Palm Beach counties have been replaced because much of the state’s woes in 2018 were because of their individual problems rather than systematic failures.

DeSantis: aircraft malfunction “strange deal,” but FDLE has fixed faulty drug plane

SCOTT KEELER | Times New Florida Governor Ron DeSantis gives the crowd the thumbs up as he holds his son Mason. Florida's First Lady Casey De Santis applauds, left at the Old Capitol after DeSantis was sworn in, Tuesday, January 8, 2019 in Tallahassee.

 

Being the new governor of the nation’s third-largest state already has a steep learning curve. But it got much sharper when, three days after he was sworn in, Gov. Ron DeSantis' plane had a critical mechanical issue and was forced to make an emergency landing in St. Petersburg while he was on his way to Fort Lauderdale.

 

New details about the emergency landing emerged Tuesday, when DeSantis recounted the harrowing event to reporters at a regular press conference in Tallahassee.

 

“We’re in the plane and we’re flying. I have my chief of staff, the attorney general, Helen (Aguirre Ferré) our communications (director), and the masks ... drop from the ceiling. And I’m thinking, ‘Oh, it’s an old plane, maybe something just triggered, whatever,’” DeSantis said, chuckling. “I just look around like, ‘We’re not actually supposed to do this?’ And the pilots are telling me, ‘Put it on.’ So we’re all huffing into this thing.”

 

After the emergency landing, DeSantis and the rest of the passengers took another plane to Fort Lauderdale to still make their news conference that evening. But since then, DeSantis said he took the original plane to Sebring last week after a shooter killed five people there and DeSantis joined law enforcement in a press conference.

 

READ MORE: Gov. Ron DeSantis’ plane makes emergency landing near St. Petersburg

 

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said “they’ve got it fixed,” DeSantis said, adding: “I have never had to do that before in all my years of flying in different aircraft whether it’s a civilian or military, so it’s a little bit of a strange deal ... (but) we’re back at it again.”

 

The governor had an announcement of his environmental budget scheduled in Naples for Tuesday afternoon, and they would be taking the formerly faulty plane to that event as well, he said.

 

The entire ordeal has been a consistent reminder of now-Sen. Rick Scott’s move to sell off the state’s airplane fleet when he took office as governor in 2010, instead insisting he would use his own private plane to travel the state. Years of controversy plagued the planes when officials used them for trips outside official business.

 

Scott is a millionaire who made his fortune as a chief executive of the Hospital Corporation of America.

 

But DeSantis, whose financial disclosure filed during the campaign lists his net worth at $310,971, does not have his own private plane and thus has been forced to get creative. Because the Florida Department of Law Enforcement provides his security detail, he’s been allowed to use a Beechcraft King Air (a small, twin-turbo prop plane) that the agency seized as part of a drug raid.

 

That leaves the rest of the Cabinet — Attorney General Ashley Moody, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis —to fend for themselves, because they are not granted the same protections from state police. Before Scott took office, Florida’s governor, lieutenant governor and Cabinet could all use three planes that made up the state fleet.

 

Fried, the only Democrat on the Cabinet, has said previously that “as statewide public servants in one of the largest states in the nation, an efficient method of air transportation is prudent to best serve our constituents." However, there hasn’t been any visible movement toward adding more planes, and Fried has been driving or flying commercial to her events throughout the state.

 

Andrew Gillum joins CNN as a political commentator

@alextdaugherty @elizabethrkoh

The election may be over, but Andrew Gillum isn’t leaving your television screen.

The former Florida gubernatorial candidate announced Tuesday he is joining CNN as a political commentator, the latest 2018 also-ran to snag a television gig.

“Thrilled to be joining CNN as a political commentator,” Gillum tweeted.

Gillum, whose recent meetings with Barack Obama and big-time Democratic donors fueled speculation about a 2020 bid for president, is still facing political trouble from his time as mayor of Tallahassee.

The CNN announcement comes on the heels of an advancing ethics complaint alleging Gillum flouted ethics laws on two trips in 2016. The trips, to Costa Rica and New York City, were taken with a lobbyist and former friend who is believed to be a center of an FBI investigation into public corruption in Tallahassee, and the second trip also included two undercover agents who were part of the investigation.

More here.

DeSantis retracts 46 of Scott’s last-minute appointments in rebuke of his predecessor

Rick Scott, right, attends the inauguration of his successor, Ron DeSantis on Tuesday, before he left early. [SCOTT KEELER | Tampa Bay Times]

Ending what had become a public feud over former Gov. Rick Scott’s last-minute appointments, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday retracted 46 of Scott’s picks.

 

DeSantis retracted all the appointments that required approval by the state Senate — in other words, all the late appointments that DeSantis had power over once he took office. Scott made 84 appointments to various boards, committees and courts on Jan. 4 and 7, against the wishes of the DeSantis team. DeSantis was sworn in Jan. 8.

 

READ MORE: Rick Scott made 84 last-minute appointments. That’s not going over well with Ron DeSantis.

 

DeSantis chose to retract the entire batch of appointments rather than a select few, following the advice of some of his advisers. So the action affects even those picks who are popular in conservative circles, such as Parkland parent Andrew Pollack, who was appointed to the State Board of Education and already had his first meeting as a board member this week.

 

Pollack said Friday he was unconcerned by the news and is looking forward to continuing his mission to advance school safety. He has been a strong backer of both Scott and DeSantis, so it’s likely he will remain on the board.

 

“I’m more concerned with where I’m going to eat tonight than if the governor is going to reappoint me,” he said. “I’m behind both of these guys ... so I’m going to let them do their thing.”

 

It also includes more controversial picks like developer Carlos Beruff, who was appointed to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission despite facing a pending ethics complaint from when he chaired a water management district board, one of his developments being accused of illegally moving an eagle’s nest and heading up a company accused of ripping up a taxpayer-owned conservation area.

 

Also rescinded is the re-appointment of Thomas Grady to the State Board of Education, who is a friend and key ally of Scott’s, and four members of the Board of Governors in charge of state universities.

 

In a statement, DeSantis said all the appointees will have the opportunity to be re-appointed, if he chooses.

 

"I agree many of these individuals are outstanding citizens who are experts in their respected fields,”he said. “I thank these individuals for their willingness to serve our state. They will be afforded every consideration as my office re-opens the application process to fill these critical appointment vacancies.”

 

DeSantis sent a curt letter to Senate President Bill Galvano announcing his decision and listing all the affected appointees. That letter can be viewed here.