News: POLITICO Florida Playbook: Vaccine PSAs coming? — Demings posts big early number

Friday, July 9, 2021

POLITICO Florida Playbook: Vaccine PSAs coming? — Demings posts big early number — Surfside death toll increases

Jul 09, 2021

Hello and welcome to Friday. It's been fun, but Gary is back next week. So, this substitute teacher is wheeling the TV cart back into the closet and giving Mr. Fineout his classroom back.

Push is on — Democrats in Florida are trying to amp up pressure on Gov. Ron Desantis to join other Republican governors, like Utah's Spencer Cox and Arkansas' Asa Hutchinson, to use his platform to encourage Covid-19 vaccination holdouts to get their shot. We "are urging you to join with your fellow Republican governors who are tapping the power of their office's to strongly urge reluctant residents to get vaccinated," read a letter sent from Senate Democrats to DeSantis' office.

PSAs coming? — DeSantis, who got his own shot in private, said in early May that the Florida Department of Health was going to start running PSAs encouraging people to get vaccinated, but those so far are not complete. DOH on Thursday told POLITICO the video ads are in the "final stages of production," and that radio ads in both Spanish and English are in rotation.

Red and Blue — Florida sits in the middle of the pack nationally, with 9.9 million people fully vaccinated, which is about 46 percent of the state's overall population. That trails the top-tier states, which are all over 60 percent. Vermont leads the country with 66 percent of its population fully vaccinated. There are clear partisan trend lines when comparing state vaccination rates. The top 20 states with the largest percentage of their population vaccinated voted for President Joe Biden. The highest Trump state is Iowa, with 48 percent of the population vaccinated.

WHERE'S RON? — Nothing official announced for Gov. DeSantis.

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CORONAVIRUS UPDATES

TIME RUNNING OUT — "Florida had a shot at herd immunity. Now it's slipping away," by Tampa Bay Times' Ian Hodgson: "Herd immunity may be slipping further and further out of reach. President Joe Biden set an aspirational goal to immunize 70 percent of the adult population against the coronavirus by July 4. But Independence Day came and went, and 33 percent of U.S. adults still haven't received a single vaccination shot."

COMING ON STRONG — "Delta variant of COVID-19 expected to take over in Florida as dominant strain," by Naples Daily News' Liz Freeman: "The highly contagious Delta variant will become the dominant strain of COVID-19 to circulate in Florida and potentially cause a new outbreak among unvaccinated young people and others who are not inoculated, experts say. 'I'm pretty concerned,' said Dr. Michael Teng, a virologist and associate professor at the University of South Florida's College of Medicine in Tampa. 'If you have a functioning set of lungs and no immunity, this virus will find you.'"

Driving the Day

AWFUL RISE — "Surfside death toll jumps to 60 one day after shift from search-and-rescue to recovery," by Miami Herald's Marie-Rose Sheinerman and Bianca Padro Ocasio: "Two weeks after the building collapse at Surfside, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said 60 bodies have been recovered from the rubble, as authorities pledged on their first official day of search and recovery to find every single victim. 'The work continues with all speed and all urgency,' said Levine Cava during a press briefing on Thursday morning."

THE VIDEO — "Video shows cracks, puddles in condo garage a year before it collapsed — but no red flag ," by Miami Herald's Sarah Blaskey and Ben Conarck: "On July 17 last year, Fiorella Terenzi, an astrophysicist who has a condo in Champlain Towers East, went to the sister building Champlain Towers South to check out an apartment on the sixth floor, with an eye toward buying the unit. She had wanted to live in the South building, and waited eagerly for a unit to come available. Then she saw the parking garage."

TO COURT — " In Florida, condo residents have little choice but to sue over building maintenance, other issues," by Tallahassee Democrat's Jeffrey Schweers: "When Linda Melton ran into a fence dispute with the homeowners association of her Lakeland mobile home community, she found out the hard way how little the state can do for people in her predicament. When she filed a formal complaint with the DBPR's Division of Condominiums, Timeshares and Mobile Homes, she was told they don't investigate issues with HOAs unless it has something to do with elections of board members."

NO WORD — "As evidence of agonizing injuries piles up, DCF still won't say boy died of abuse or neglect," by Miami Herald's Carol Marbin Miller: "Rashid Bryant seemed to all but vanish in the fall of 2020. Relatives said the toddler rarely left his bedroom — let alone his family's Opa-locka home. When his parents took the family to a pool party, Rashid sat in his father's Chevy in a car seat. When Rashid emerged from his isolation, it was on a slab at the Miami morgue. The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office reported that in the months before his death the 1-year-old had suffered two cracks to his skull — one healing, the other fresh. He also had a healing rib fracture and a recently broken leg."

SEPARATE PATHS — "DeSantis parts with Trump in response to Surfside," by The Associated Press' Bobby Caina Calvan and Steven Sloan: When the coronavirus ravaged Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis defiantly bucked mask mandates. He later cracked down on protesters advocating racial justice, blasted President Joe Biden on immigration, jumped into the fight over transgender athletes and signed sweeping legislation to toughen voting rules. But after a deadly building collapse, the Republican governor is largely hitting pause on the culture wars."

CAMPAIGN ROUNDUP

BIG BUCKS — "DeSantis raises $4.6 million in second quarter amid Senate launch," by POLITICO's James Arkin: Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) raised $4.6 million in the second quarter of this year as she launched her Senate challenge against GOP Sen. Marco Rubio. Demings, a third-term House member and former Orlando police chief, ended the quarter with more than $3 million in cash on hand after officially launching her Senate bid in early June, according to her campaign.

TO THE PANHANDLE — "Sen. Marco Rubio visits Panama City to tour progress of offshore patrol cutters for the Coast Guard," by Panama City News Herald's Nathan Cobb: "Sen. Marco Rubio says one of his top priorities in Washington, D.C., is to help Eastern Shipbuilding keep its contract to build offshore patrol cutters for the U.S. Coast Guard. With sounds of construction in the air, Rubio visited Eastern Shipbuilding on Wednesday to tour the first of four Heritage Class Offshore Patrol Cutters being built by the company for the Coast Guard."

DEADLINE MISSED — "Nikki Fried misses deadline to file financial disclosures," by Florida Politics' Jacob Ogles: "Financial disclosures were due last week, but Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried has yet to turn one in for 2020. Fried's team said that's primarily because she wants to make sure every detail is correct."

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TRUMPLANDIA AND THE SWAMP

ANOTHER ONE — "'Build the Wall' founder faces new tax violation charge in Florida," by POLITICO's Bruce Ritchie: Federal prosecutors have filed a superseding indictment against "Build the Wall" founder Brian Kolfage , alleging he committed a criminal tax law violation. This is in addition to 2020 fraud and money laundering charges filed last August when he was arrested along with former Trump White House strategist Stephen Bannon. The details: The U.S. Attorney's Office in Tallahassee said Thursday that Kolfage, of Miramar Beach, Fla., is being charged with filing a false amended tax return in December 2020 after his earlier indictment in New York became public.

... DATELINE TALLAHASSEE ...

MOVING ON — "Executive director of the Florida Police Chiefs Association resigns," by POLITICO's Matt Dixon: The longtime executive director of the Florida Police Chiefs Association resigned her post effective July, a decision that comes just days after Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed legislation that the group had opposed. Outgoing Executive Director Amy Mercer, in an email sent Wednesday to association members, said she does not have the "stamina and energy that I once had.

LONG GAME — "Enviro groups accuse Legislature of dragging out lawsuit over Florida conservation spending ," by POLITICO's Bruce Ritchie: A lawyer representing several environmental groups in a six-year legal fight with the Florida Legislature over state conservation spending this week accused the other side of stalling the case through a series of requests to the court. The timing: The Florida Wildlife Federation and other groups filed a lawsuit in 2015 claiming the Legislature misused voter-approved funds for land conservation. Lawyers for the Florida Senate and House in June asked a state Circuit Court judge in Leon County to schedule a trial for April 2022.

...HURRICANE HOLE...

ON THE RISE — "Duke Energy customer bills will go up to cover 2020 hurricane costs," by Tampa Bay Times' Malena Carollo: "Florida utility regulators gave Duke Energy Florida a green light Thursday to charge customers for costs related to Tropical Storm Eta and Hurricane Isaias. Beginning this summer, residential customers will see an average of 55 cents more on their bills for one year to cover the cost."

BIG QUESTION — "Did Tropical Storm Elsa impact Red Tide blooms along Tampa Bay coastline," by Tampa Bay Times' Kailyn Rhone: "Local experts say that Tropical Storm Elsa could have helped or hurt the Red Tide blooms that have plagued the Tampa Bay coastline in recent weeks. However, they will not know for certain until the next round of water sampling, which could happen late this week or early next week. Jim Ivey, environmental science and policy professor at the University of South Florida, said that Elsa could have diluted the blooms and flushed them out of the area."

PENINSULA AND BEYOND

THE SMOKE — "The smoke comes every year. Sugar companies say the air is safe," by Palm Beach Post's Lulu Ramadan and ProPublic's Ash Ngu and Maya Miller: "In the fall of 2019, brothers Donovan and Jayceon Sonson spent eight weeks lying in hospital beds, struggling to breathe. The young boys, then 5 and 6 years old, had developed upper respiratory infections on top of the severe asthma they'd had since they were toddlers."

— "Sugar companies said our investigation is flawed, biased. Let's dive into why that's not true," by Palm Beach Post's Lulu Ramadan, and ProPublica's Ash Ngu and Maya Miller

HELP COMING — "Biden team to assist in Moïse probe, urges democracy in Haiti as power struggle emerges," by Miami Herald's Michael Wilner: "The Biden administration confirmed Thursday that it recognizes Claude Joseph as acting prime minister of Haiti and said it would help the Haitian National Police investigate the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Administration officials emphasized the need for democratic elections this year, as it became clear that a power struggle was taking shape between Joseph and Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon appointed prime minister by Moïse the day before he was killed."

— " Fort Lauderdale man was involved in President Moïse's assassination, Haiti official says," by South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Jacqueline Charles and Michael Wilner:

ESCAPED — "Piney Point survives Tropical Storm Elsa without wastewater overflow," by Sarasota Herald-Tribune's Jesse Mendoza: "Despite a deluge of rain from Tropical Storm Elsa, the former Piney Point fertilizer plant did not experience any further damage and avoided wastewater overflow this week. The shuttered fertilizer facility in northern Manatee County maintains several reservoirs filled with hazardous wastewater. Heavy rainfall from storms like Elsa can increase capacity, and without proper management, potentially harmful runoff could spill out over the top."

WHERE TO? — " After Lake County rejection, where does statute of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith go now?" by Orlando Sentinel's Stephen Hudak: "When the Civil War ended, Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, the first native Floridian appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the last Southern general to give up the fight, fled his fractured homeland for Mexico, fearing he was marked as a man wanted for treason. Who wants him now?"

— " The KKK in Pensacola: What's in the UWF Historic Trust Wentworth Ku Klux Klan report released today?" Pensacola News Journal's Jim Little

ODDS, ENDS, AND FLORIDA MEN

BIRTHDAYS: Former state Rep. Matt Hudson … April Salter, CEO and founder of Salter Mitchell … Bob Sparks , former spokesman for Republican Party of Florida … Danny Diaz, a founding and managing partner at FP1 Strategies