Latest / Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott / What Is Going On In Sunshine State Politics, Governance?

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What Is Going On In Sunshine State Politics, Governance? · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: All right, welcome third hour already of the Morning Show
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: with Preston Scott reminding you the kids are going to school.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: You probably know by now if you're on the roads
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: with the buses and the multiple stops and the school zones.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Just take your time. Everybody, Just relax. What is it,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers said years ago. R E L A X. Relax. Everybody.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Joining me on the program is Salnwzo from Consumers Defense
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the website Consumers Defense dot com.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Hello, good morning to you.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: How are you.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: I'm doing great. It's a fantastic Monday. The kids are
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: off to school, headed to Des Moine, Iowa in a
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: little bit to do some work, and apparently they got
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: their big state fair. So yeah, get to try out
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: a I think it's called a brown sugar pork belly
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: on a stick.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: So we'll see if you can't go wrong with pork belly.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, my wife might have some words to
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: say about that. But tell me, is this time of
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: year for legislative want and observer? Is the off season
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: more interesting to pay attention to than the nuts and
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: bolts of the session itself.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a really cool time right now.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Just normally you have this period in which kind of
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: the emerging themes are coming up for the next legislative session.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: But what's really really unique about right now is that
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: against the political backdrop and the dynamic of it is
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: the governor's last legislative session as governor, he turns out
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: and the election season will hit up. You have the
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: question of the prior drama with the House of Representatives
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: and leadership. How does that look? You have all of
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: these different things. You've got an appointed Attorney General who
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: will have to run for his first political office, a
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: ton of different things, and all of these are happening
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: at a time where we're now beginning to plan out
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: what gets tackled in the twenty twenty sixth session, which
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: starts January. I think it's thirteenth.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: What's the bigger liability for Rhonda Santis being a lame
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: duck or having political adversaries in his own party?
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I would say the latter. I think he has shown
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: himself a formidable policy and political force, so I think
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: that his policy heft has gone nowhere, So I wouldn't
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: put as much on the quote unquote lame duck status.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: I think the bigger challenge is by all intents and perfect,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: we don't have an opposition party. They're they're the Florida Democrats.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Just they're in disirest Yeah, they really just don't exist.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: So we do have it.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: But we do have an adversarial party. It's just the
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: same one.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have the various factions within the Republican Party that,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: as we saw in twenty twenty five's session, became a
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: little bit more public, and there's always debates and dialogues
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: within different you know, kind of coalitions within the party.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: You've got, you know, Republicans who represent different constituencies, different
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: parts of the state. They have different priorities. So that
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: has always been the case, but it always happened kind
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: of in at least one or two layers under the surface.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: This year, this past session, it did not what's.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: The bigger issue property tax tax reform, if you will,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: How Florida is going to get revenue, how communities are
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: going to get revenue if there's property tax reform or
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: insurance reform.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: I think on the insurance reform side. And there was
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: a great op ed piece in the Miami Hera from
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: former Speaker Paul Renner who talked about the fact that
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: on the auto insurance side, we're now seeing rates begin
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: to fall a little bit and they will continue to
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: do so. I think as long as the House, Senate
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: and the Governor resist any urge to tinker with the
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: reforms that were passed when Renner was speaker, I think
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: we're on the right track. I would say the affordability
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: problem and the tax in particular the property tax piece
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: of that is still driving a big wedge in between
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: kind of the haves and have nots. And a lot
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: of this has to do with the massive in migration
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: we have had as a state, particularly over the last
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: five years. Somewhere in the neighborhood a two and a
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: half million people moved in to the state with inflated money.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: We had a you know, we don't have the inventory
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: of homes. They get bid up proper. The taxes go
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: up as a result, and there's your problem.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Wealthiest member of Congress US Senator Rick Scott from Florida
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: famously flew a banner behind an airplane recently in and
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: around New York City saying, basically to paraphrase, you don't
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: like socialism, moved to Florida, and you know you brought
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: up immigration and its impact state immigration, people moving from
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: one state coming here. And I always make sure that
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: people understand when I say immigration, I'm talking to legal
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: kind anyway. Did they leave their politics behind?
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: It's a great question, and yeah, to piggyback on that,
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: I try to articulate it very in an enunciated in migration,
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: which is the people moving state to state, And the
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: answer is yes, by and large. So when you look
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: at the numbers, and I'm a data nerd at stats Hound, yeah,
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: one of the more remarkable ones anywhere I go, and
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: I tell this in people's eyes bug out. In twenty twelve,
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: when Barack Obama was running for reelection, there were I
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: believe it was roughly eight hundred thousand more registered Democrats
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: in the state than Republicans. Fast forward thirteen years twenty
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: twenty five, there are now one point four to one
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: point five million more registered Republicans than there are registered Democrats.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: That's a net two million swing. That is a remarkable swing.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: I don't know that any other state in history has
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: seen that kind of shift. And it shifted Florida not
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: from a blue state, but from a purple state into
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: probably the deepest red state. That exists given its size,
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: are other potential candidates for the governor her seat save
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Casey DeSantis aware of why that's happened. Does Paul Renner
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: understand why Florida's deep read? Does Byron Donalds understand why
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: Florida is deep red?
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Did they get it?
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: I would say yes, at least on the Republican side.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: And I think anybody who is plugged in enough to
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: the political atmosphere in the state to be considering a
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: run for any office in Florida statewide, House, Senate. You
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: know those numbers, they are a testament to the ground
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: game of the Republican Party of Florida over that period
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: of time. That is door to door knocking, that is
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: getting people registered, that is monitoring where people are moving
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: and getting your local state committeemen and executive committees in
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: those counties out and about and getting folks registered. That
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: is a credit to Evan power. That is a credit
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: to Joe Gruder's, that is a credit to Blake and Golia.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: All of those guys were chairs of the party that
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: moved those numbers over that period of time.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: So let's circle back to the biggest issues here. We've
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: got insurance, We've got property tax ballot initiative. I mean, well,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: and they kind of hit upon a theme and it
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: really dovetails from what we were just talking about and
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: that I see from the governor and from many others
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: as you watch him, in particular with media work, press conferences,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: this theme of protecting the state from backsliding.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: We have achieved great gains. Yeah, we have not only
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: achieved a supermajority in both houses and all for statewide
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: elected offices as well as the US Senate, but we
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: improved upon those supermajorities in the next cycle after achieving them,
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: making sure that we do not kind of leave anything
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: on the field and allow the op position a toe
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: hold or a crack to plant something in where they
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: can begin to get progress.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: What of those big issues are the most most vulnerable, Well.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: And you kind of touched upon them. I think the
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: big one that's going to be telling is the debate
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: that happens on property taxes. That is a heavy, heavy
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: lift to eliminate them all together. I'm really paying attention there.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: The other two are what we talked about in kind
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: of rolling back any of those insurance reforms. But one
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: I want to get to is that redistricting piece that's
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: been in the news. I think that there is a
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: vulnerability there that I don't know that folks are considering.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: But then you also mentioned the ballot initiative process. So
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: we've got a lot kind of going on that we
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: can kind of unpack.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Twenty two minutes past seal newso with me from Consumer's
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Defense and we follow the legislative action. And this, to me,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: this is sort of like when the storm forms. You know,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: it's paying attention to the nuts and bolts, the committee
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: weeks and all of that that intrigues me. We've talked
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: about some of the issues that really deserve a lot
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: of attention, and let's start with insurance reform. Yeah.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Sure, So if you can recall back in twenty twenty three.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: And if you may clarify for us, there's health insurance,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: there's auto insurance, and there's property insurance.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and so in the insurance realm, we're generally talking
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: about what's called property and casualty, so homeowner's insurance and
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: auto insurance as being some of the bigger cost drivers
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: for Floridians, in particular because of the runaway litigation environment
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: that we had had. So twenty twenty three happens. They
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: pass a series of very big reforms under Speaker Paul
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Renner and Senate President Pasadomo. Those reforms inevitably take time,
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: and so I think Floridians by and large were expecting
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: a quicker turnaround. The markets are what they are. We
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: need new insurance carriers to come in. They are been
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: doing that, and now we're beginning to see a little
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: bit of fruit from that. However, in this past legislative
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: cycle or season, you had even members of the Republican
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Caucus in the House moving bills that would have turned
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: back on those reforms, that would have said, no, we
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: gave the insurance industry everything they wanted. They didn't come through.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Therefore we got to hammer them. The governor wisely, in
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: my opinion, wisely saw that as a bad idea, came
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: out against it and really hammered home the points that
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: I was really just making. Those weren't necessarily just mine.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: And so I think one of the things that we're
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: going to need to pay attention to is does the
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: House of Representatives in particular take up something along these
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: lines again, or do they see the data and begin
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: to tack toward okay, the reforms are working, We've got
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: to stay the course. I know the incoming Senate President,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Jim Boyd fairly well, and he is an insurance broker,
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: and he is somebody who has seen it firsthand in
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: his employment capacity as well. And he's even said that
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: that the reforms are working. It's just not as fast
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: as we all want.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Okay, when we move then to the next topic, and
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: that's the property tax. Yeah, is there going to be
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: enough data to really make a compelling case for you know,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Governor DeSantis's plan to eliminate property tax.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: I think you can get the data. I think the
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: question is going to be where do in particular, local
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: governments make up the revenue that they need to perform services?
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: And I emphasize need as opposed to want. And what
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: we're seeing now and I would love to kind of
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: dive in a little bit on our new CFO and
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: a you know, kind of a little bit later today
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: is what we're seeing is this juxtaposition of the governor
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: and the cabinet looking very specifically at local governments saying,
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: all right, you have been living high on the hog
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: for a long time as property values have been bumping
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: up and reassessments have been happening, and people have been
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: migrating in no rollback rates, no rollback rates. And think
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: about this. If a home is two hundred and fifty
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars and someone from New York comes down and
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: bids up that home and now buys it at five
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars, that increases the property tax revenue of
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: that local government and it avoids the three percent save
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: our homes trajectory. So local governments have been getting far
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: more fattened, so to speak. And we're now seeing that
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: analysis and that effort go public on all right, what
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: can we do about this to make that property tax
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: elimination more feasible?
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Well, and then you have municipalities. I don't know how
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: many are, like the capital city, but where they also
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: in essence are taxing people through their local utility as well,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: and they're transferring massive sums of money and that becomes
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: a de facto property tax too.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: And what I do know there are a number of
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: municipal utilities around the state. What I don't know, and
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: there may be data out there, is how many of
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: them are doing what the City of Tallahassee does where
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: they send money from the utilities into the general fund.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: And that artificially has been masking property tax issues for
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: years in the local government.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely, thirty five minutes.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: The things we talk about pass the hour here on
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: the Morning Show with President Scott sal newsa with Consumer's
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Defense can suomers Defense dot com is the website to
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: learn a little bit more about all of that. We
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: were talking about the different big issues, and we talked
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: about the ballot initiative thing, and I just want to
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: bring up that, you know, I know what they passed,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: and they said that, you know, they're making it more
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: difficult to get ballot initiatives on the ballot, and as
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: well they should, I would say, they're they're making it
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: more secure and ensuring that the ballot initiative process is
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: not thwarted by a number of nefarious actors out there. Well,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: you got Kim Rivers smooching it up with schmoozing it
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: up with Donald Trump at a fundraiser, and of course
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: she wants to get his help and he's lending it
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: to getting marijuana passed. But sal I've observed personally, on
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: three separate occasions, people collecting signatures for the marijuana petition
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: and in none of those cases has anyone been asked
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: to provide a driver's license, an identification, or the last
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: four theirs. So they were simply asked to sign, they signed,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: and they walked away. That's against the law.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: That is a big problem. That is against the law.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: The House passed in just this past legislative session, House
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Bill twelve oh five, which required one of those things.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: And so if any petition signatures are signature gatherers are
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: out there collecting signatures and they are not getting that,
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: there will likely be a challenge of a certain number
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: of signatures. Isn't the idea to make sure that they
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: are able to sign that petition as a resident of
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: the state of Florida and they're an eligible voter. Yeah,
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, it is a check and balance system to
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: ensure that everyone who is signing a petition, and it's
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: not a small number of signatures that are required. At
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: some are approaching nine hundred thousand, I believe at this point,
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: and so they we need to ensure that all of
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: those nine hundred thousand signatures are actually people who are
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: voters and eligible to vote in the state of Florida.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about the CFO appointment of Blazing Golie.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so big news in between when we were last together,
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: and now the governor finally made the appointment for Florida's
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: Chief Financial Officer. Reminder, the prior CFO, Jimmy Patronis, ran
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: successfully for Congress, and so the governor made that appointment.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: And there was a little bit of political dynamic there
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: because you had had State Senator Joe Gruders had already
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: announced that he was going to run in twenty twenty
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: six for that role. He's a Republican, the senator had
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: the endorsement of President Trump for that role. The governor
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: has a stalwart ally and blazing goalie in the Senate.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: But Blaze had been kind of made it known he
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: was interested in the role, and the governor and him
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: got along very well, and so what do you do?
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: And kind of news went out very early on mid July.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: I guess it was Trump all of a sudden came
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: in and endorsed Joe Gruders to be the head of
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: the Republican National Committee the RNC, because the existing chair
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: was vacating that role to run for the US Senate
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: in North Carolina. So Joe Gruders is now the only candidate.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: He's running with no opposition for RNC chair, and it
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: looks like unless something crazy happens, that Blazing Golia will
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: have the kind of the role and the only path
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: forward on the Republican side for reelection or election in
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: twenty six. De facto incumbency, Yeah, de facto incumbency. Same
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: thing with the Attorney general. Yeah, you also have our
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: appointed Attorney general, James Uthmeier. He's been making all kinds
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: of news since taking on this role. He took action
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: against a number of ESG players, which, as you could
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: imagine in my role as music to my years, He's
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: going after a lot of these asset managers that are
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: using factors for making investment decisions that lead to poorer
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: returns to the taxpayer, to the public pension program. He's
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: gone after target, He's suing a couple of shadowy groups
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: called the Climate Disclosure Project and another related to it.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: He also last week announced he's taking on a lot
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: of the companies, the tech companies that run these adult
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: sites because they're violating the age verification laws. And I
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: believe kind of politically there's a dynamic here where he
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: absolutely I expect he will run for election is what
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: would be his first election to public office. He's got
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: to establish some name recognition. And so I'm not sure
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: if there's any other individuals on the Republican side that
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: are looking to challenge him. I haven't heard of any.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: I know they'll be a Democrat challenging. And so he's
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: going out there tackling via his principles those issues that
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: are going to be important to Floridians. And so those
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: are two state level cabinet posts that you are doing
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: a whole lot. And with CFO and Golia, he is
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: taking on local governments via the Doge audits, and he's
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: bringing the Doze teams in and he's been to Orlando,
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: to Jacksonville's plotting Miami Hillsboro. They're tackling that local government
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: revenue issue like I've never seen before.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Buy I'm a happy meal if he comes to Tallahassee.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Redistricting is an interesting topic in the news right now,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: and even Democrats are pointing out that they have no
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: moral authority on the subject because they've redistricted Republicans out
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: of existence in multiple states. You've got the debacle going
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: on with Texas where they're threatening to arrest Democrats in Texas, Well,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: they should they are abdicating their responsibility as elected officers.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: Well, they're leaving the state. They're abdicating their responsibilities by
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: leaving the state. And so where you know, they're considering
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: going after them and bringing them back.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: So where is Florida And all of this redistricting talk, well,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: very intriguing. Just in the last week or so, the
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: governor has put out a desire to have a mid
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: decade reapportionment just of congressional lines. We're not talking the
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: State House or the state Senate. And right now the
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: breakdown is we have twenty eight members of Congress. There's
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: twenty Republicans and eight Democrats. There was a challenge to
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: the lines that were drawn after the twenty twenty census
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: related to District five that was tossed. We eventually want
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: or the governor won, and so there's talk about can
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: they do a reapportionment that better reflects population boundaries where
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: people are moving to And you know, the political dynamic
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: at play is would it necessarily be better for Republicans
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: running for office? Would they potentially pick up a couple
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: of seats? But the thing that you know kind of
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: is in the back of my head is I always
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: wonder if and when a particular party, Republicans or Democrats,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: overplay a hand. And that's the one that I wonder
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: where folks begin to say, well, I'm not really comfortable there.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: I think that maybe a little bit too much of it.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's a power grab, maybe it's you know, you know,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: a kick somewhere. I don't know, but that's something that
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: I'm wondering about. Do they have to settle the issue
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: about the census first and the undercount that likely took place.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: No, this would be completely separate and apart from that.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: This would be a mid decade reapportionment basis.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Doesn't that but congressional seats all base it's on that census.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Yes, so this would only be on the lines that
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: are drawn for the existing twenty eight seats. Okay, so
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: we would not be adding any now. When they redo
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: the census in twenty thirty and they release the results
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: and do reapportionment, which would arguably give Florida another minimum
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: one congressional seat, maybe even two depending on how the
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: path goes, we would then redraw the lines again to
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: add those seats. But right now, this would just be
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: shuffling deck chairs not on the Titanic. Sure it would
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: be shuffling deck chairs among the existing twenty eight seats.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Is there ever any argument that can be made, I
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: know it has been made, but that if you factor
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: in race at all. We were talking with Hans von
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: Sbakofsky about this just last week, that any time you
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: factor race as a consideration in districting, you have violated
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: the law. Yes, and I remember talking with Hans not
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: long ago when we were at an event, and I
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: do believe the Supreme Court is going to take up
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: a case I believe out of Louisiana. Yeah, that's this
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: fall in the coming term that will likely decide the
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: answer to that very question. So much intrigue it is,
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: and like a funny little anecdote you mentioned, it's not
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: confined to just Republicans or Democrats. California's redoing their lines.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: Texas is considering.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Are they allowed to illegals.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: They would say yes, and they will get challenged on this.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: But in the greatest anecdote of this, the governor of
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: the state of Massachusetts decided she needed to get in
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: on this action. They want to redraw their congressional lines,
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: but guess what. There are nine members of Congress in
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: the state of Massachusetts. They're all Democrats. They have nobody
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: to reapportion out. So you know the state that gives us,
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: Elizabeth Warren.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: You gotta love it Focahontas, Yes, indeed, gotta love it
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: all right, Thank you, sir.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: Always a pleasure to be with you.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Salnuzzo. He'll be back in September as we'll catch up
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: on all things legislative and political and governance in the
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: state of Florida.