Ron DeSantis wants lawmakers to sanction his election interference

Florida in Five: Five stories to read from the past week in Florida politics.

Photo credit: Erik Hersman

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Welcome to another installment of Florida in Five: Five* stories you need to read from the past week in Florida politics.

Last month, about a week before Christmas, the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis agreed to cut in half a six-figure fine it had been trying to impose on the group that sponsored Amendment 4, the November ballot initiative that would have overturned Florida’s near-total ban on abortion.

The DeSantis administration agreed to shrink the proposed penalty after extracting an important promise from Floridians Protecting Freedom — a promise that the group would not pursue claims against the governor, his staff, or his state agencies for any violations of state or federal law that they may have committed while trying to stop Amendment 4.

An except from a Dec. 16 settlement agreement between Floridians Protection Freedom and the Florida Department of State.

The immunity agreement, first reported by Gary Fineout of Politico Florida, effectively shields DeSantis from legal liability following an unprecedented campaign in which the Republican governor turned the power of state government against the abortion-rights ballot measure, which ultimately fell just short of the 60 percent supermajority needed to pass constitutional amendments in Florida.

Now DeSantis wants the Florida Legislature to let him do it all again next time.

That’s a central theme of a sweeping anti-ballot initiative bill that DeSantis is demanding state lawmakers pass during a special session he called beginning on Monday.

The most draconian changes in the governor’s 35-page piece of legislation would essentially make it illegal for Floridians to collect petitions in support of a ballot measure — whether they are paid to gather signatures or they wish to do so voluntarily. That’s what has prompted a wave of headlines over the past week warning that DeSantis’ changes could effectively end citizen-led constitutional amendments in Florida. (Just imagine trying to collect 1 million petitions when everyone who wants to sign has to go and get their own petition directly from government officials.)

But the bill goes beyond making it much harder to collect petitions. The measure drawn up by the governor’s staff is also meant to legalize the many dubious ways that DeSantis wielded state power against Amendment 4 last year — changes that would ensure he and future Florida governors can engage in the same kind of strong-arm tactics against petition drives they personally oppose.

For example, long after local elections officials had validated the nearly 1 million petitions gathered in support of Amendment 4 — and just before Floridians were about to begin voting on the measure — DeSantis ordered his state elections police force to go selectively fishing for evidence of fraud.

DeSantis then used the thin scraps they found to argue that the abortion-rights ballot measure should never have been placed in the ballot in the first place. And the probe served as the basis for a private lawsuit — filed by a GOP attorney at a firm that gets lots of business from the DeSantis administration — seeking to stop the election or to have Amendment 4 invalidated if it were to pass.

The anti-ballot initiative bill that DeSantis wants the Legislature to pass this week would give his administration clear authority to investigate petition drives even after signatures have been vetted by local Supervisors of Elections. It would permit DeSantis’ handpicked Secretary of State to unilaterally remove a measure from the ballot if they conclude that it was improperly approved. And it would explicitly empower opponents to file private lawsuits attempting to undo ballot measures — even after they have been approved by voters.

Then there are the changes that DeSantis wants to make to a little-known government body called the “Financial Impact Estimating Conference,” a small group of state economists tasked with analyzing the fiscal impacts of proposed constitutional amendments and writing short statements to appear with them on the ballot.

The Financial Impact Estimating Conference was — at least until last year — one of the few remaining nonpartisan corners of Florida government. It has a very narrow focus. And it is run by professionals: The four-member body typically includes Florida’s chief economist, plus one staffer each chosen by the governor, the president of the Senate, and the speaker of the House — each of whom must have appropriate fiscal experience in the subject matter of the amendment.

DeSantis hijacked that process for Amendment 4. With an assist from former state House Speaker Paul Renner (R-Palm Coast), DeSantis replaced some of the usual professionals on the panel with anti-abortion zealots. They then pushed through an analysis and ballot statement that was so vague and speculative that Florida’s chief economist refused to sign off on it.

State law says the conference is only supposed to analyze the impact an amendment will have on government revenues or costs. Yet the Amendment 4 panel went far beyond that, writing a meandering impact statement that claimed that the measure would lead to “significantly more” abortions, that it “could” prompt courts to strike down other abortion laws, and that there was “uncertainty” about whether it might require taxpayer money to be spent on abortions.

It was an attack ad masquerading as neutral analysis — and it was probably illegal. But Florida’s Republican Supreme Court, as it so often does when asked to rein in Ron DeSantis’ executive overreach, found an excuse to reject the lawsuit on procedural grounds and avoid addressing any of the underlying legal questions.

DeSantis wants to make sure he has the freedom to write whatever he wants on future ballots. The bill his staff has drafted would allow the governor to pick all four members of the financial impact panel. It would eliminate the rule requiring appointees have expertise in the subject matter they are analyzing. And it would give them far more latitude over what they could include in their ballot statement.

The measure could even take away the ability of anyone else to challenge a mistaken or intentionally misleading statement in court.

Now, it’s not yet clear if Florida’s Republican Legislature will pass any of this bill during this week’s special session, which DeSantis called without consulting GOP leaders in the House and Senate. It’s not yet clear whether they’ll do anything at all, even though the special session gavels open less than 24 hours from now.

But even if lawmakers do nothing this week, there will still be a big fight over ballot access during the Florida Legislature’s regular session, which begins in March.

Because it has become very clear that — after Florida voters came so close to enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution — Ron DeSantis wants to make sure Floridians never get another chance to vote on the issue.

*To paraphrase Barbossa, five is more what you’d call a guideline than an actual rule.

When Big Business lobbyists and billionaire-backed think tanks write unemployment laws

They waited months for unemployment aid. An eviction notice came anyway (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

See also: Thousands of jobless Floridians face meager unemployment benefits, due to cuts under Gov. Rick Scott (Orlando Sentinel) ($)

See also: Ron DeSantis was warned about Florida’s broken unemployment website last year, audit shows (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

See also: Florida next to last in paying unemployment benefits during the pandemic (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

See also: ‘Florida Is a Terrible State to Be an Unemployed Person’ (New York Times) ($)

New journalism rising

Nate Monroe to join The Tributary as Executive Editor (The Tributary)

See also: A Jacksonville columnist says goodbye, but he's not going far (Florida Times-Union) ($)

See also: News outlets in Central Florida will collaborate to examine impacts of homeless camping ban (Winter Park Voice)

See also: How Some Christian Group Homes Avoid Florida’s Standards (Reveal)

Kicking kids off health insurance

State of Florida sues feds in children's insurance fight (WLRN)

See also: Medicaid cuts could devastate rural Florida, affecting children (Public News Service)

See also: How Florida became the national leader at denying health insurance to kids (Seeking Rents – The Podcast)

Rome is burning

St. Petersburg officials craft bill that would outlaw wakes on flooded streets (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

A republic, if you can keep it

Exclusive interview: Proud Boys’ Enrique Tarrio returns to South Florida after Jan. 6 pardon (WPLG Local 10)

See also: Tampa Bay Jan. 6 convicts show little remorse, thank Trump for pardon (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

Perspectives

Is Florida’s Migration Tide Turning? (The American Prospect)

Why Is Ashley Moody Replacing Marco Rubio? Loyalty (Bloomberg)

DeSantis’ pro-corporation agenda led to Florida’s higher energy rates (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

Florida DCF is failing. Our lawmakers must demand transparency. (Palm Beach Post) ($)