The Florida Senate gave Ron DeSantis an inch. He's taking a mile.

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

Photo credit: AR767

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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.

Just after 7 pm on what was supposed to have been the final night of this year’s legislative session, the House of Representatives made a last-ditch attempt to stop Gov. Ron DeSantis from handpicking new university presidents.

The House proposed a host of reforms that, taken together, would have loosened the governor’s grip on presidential searches in Florida — a process that House Speaker Danny Perez, a Republican Miami, says has turned the top jobs at Florida’s public colleges and universities into gifts used to reward political allies and ideological loyalists.

For instance, the House plan would have repealed a three-year-old, DeSantis-backed law that allows presidential searches to be conducted entirely in secret — a law that the governor and his allies abused to install former Republican U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse as president of the University of Florida.

The legislation would also have closed a loophole the DeSantis administration used to have the governor’s running mate — former Lt. Gov. Jeannette Nunez — placed as interim president of Florida International University without any job search at all.

And it would have forbidden the governor or his aides from pressuring school leaders over whom to hire — like they did when the Governor’s Office forced tiny South Florida State College to abandon its preferred finalists and hand the school’s presidency instead a Republican state legislator who was, quite literally, unqualified for the job.

But the Florida Senate refused to go along with the changes. Amid veto threats from DeSantis, Senate President Ben Albritton (R-Wauchula) opted not to call a final vote on the legislation and lawmakers left Tallahassee last month without putting the governor on any kind of a leash.

DeSantis immediately pounced.

Less than 48 hours after the Legislature adjourned (sort of), the University of Florida revealed that it had completed yet another secret presidential search with just a single public finalist: Santa Ono, the current president of the University of Michigan. Ono would replace Sasse, whose brief tenure ended in embarrassment. (Ono’s selection has since drawn opposition from a number of prominent Republicans, though DeSantis has defended the selection.

Days later, Florida International University named Jeannette Nunez the sole finalist to become the school’s permanent president.

And a week after that, trustees at Florida A&M University picked Marva Johnson — a telecom lobbyist and DeSantis loyalist — to be the next president of Florida’s only public historically Black university despite widespread opposition from students and alumni. The decision followed allegations of political interference on Johnson’s behalf.

Most recently, Pasco-Hernando State College installed yet another DeSantis appointee — Eric Hall, currently the secretary of Florida’s Department of Juvenile Justice — as its interim president.

But the most defiant changes are coming at the University of West Florida.

Earlier this year, DeSantis attempted a New College-like ideological takeover at UWF, suddenly dropping an entire slate of new trustees on the Pensacola-based school — including a fellow at the far-right Heritage Foundation, the think tank best known as the architect of Project 2025.

“University of West Florida: Buckle up,” DeSantis said afterward. “You’re going to see a lot of changes there for the better.”

But supporters of UWF — a much larger institution than New College, with more than 2,400 faculty and staff, more than 14,000 students, and more than 100,000 alumni — rallied against the takeover. “There’s nothing wrong. We don’t need to be reconstructed,” former UWF President Judith Bense testified at a legislative hearing.

So lawmakers stepped in. The Florida Senate refused to confirm three of DeSantis’ five new appointees — including the Heritage Foundation fellow — two of whom subsequently resigned from the board.

But now DeSantis is doubling down. The Republican governor recently put another Heritage Foundation fellow on the UWF board. That fellow then helped force UWF’s president to resign — opening up yet another presidency for DeSantis to fill.

Now, DeSantis is widely expected to give the job to yet another political ally: Manny Diaz, a former Republican lawmaker who currently serves as DeSantis’ education commissioner.

The Florida Senate gave Ron DeSantis an inch.

The governor is taking a mile.

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

Rules for thee not for me

At this Tallahassee hotel, the public isn’t invited. DeSantis advisers are. (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

See also: DeSantis suspended prosecutors for ignoring laws but calls Uthmeier stance on gun law ‘different’ (Florida Phoenix)

Not over

Criminal investigation launched related to Hope Florida, prosecutors say (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

See also: Who was behind Florida’s latest public land deal? DeSantis won’t say. (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

Big win for Big Sugar

Palm Beach County votes ‘yes’ to advance controversial rock mine plan (South Florida Sun-Sentinel) ($)

Elections have consequences

Florida’s Housing Market Softens as Climate-Related Costs Mount (Bloomberg) ($)

See also: Disney tells Venezuelans on TPS: Find a new legal way to work or you’re out of a job (Miami Herald) ($)

Session fallout

Coalition wants DeSantis to veto bill expanding scope of noncompete agreements (Florida Phoenix)

See also: USF leadership drafted bill to give Sarasota campus to New College, emails show (WUSF)

See also: Florida bill could block communities from rebuilding stronger after hurricanes (Miami Herald) ($)

See also: USF professors alarmed by DOGE’s review of academic research (The Oracle)

Perspectives

Maxwell: Don’t overtax Floridians while giving corporations a pass (Orlando Sentinel) ($)

Money talks with Florida’s new attorney general (South Florida Sun-Sentinel) ($)

Florida lawmakers paralyzed over tax breaks they can't afford to give (Palm Beach Post) ($)

Gov. DeSantis’ latest plan to hand over preserved land united Florida – against him (Florida Phoenix)