| | | | |  | | By Gary Fineout | Hello and welcome to Friday. Context — Ben Sasse won't be the first politician to take the helm of a Florida university. It's happened numerous times over the last few decades when both Democrats and Republicans have been in charge in Tallahassee: Betty Castor at University of South Florida, Frank Brogan at Florida Atlantic University, John Delaney at the University of North Florida and John Thrasher at the University of Florida. The pitch — But the argument for hiring a politician was that it would give universities someone well-skilled at walking the halls of the state Capitol because of their connections and familiarity with Florida politicians. (This was being done in some cases to blunt the influence of UF because that school was already wired in Tallahassee.) Enter the outsider — Then there's the all-over-but-the-shoutin' hiring of Sasse, a Republican senator from Nebraska, to run Florida's "flagship" university. Sasse does have a doctorate from Yale and was for a few years president of tiny Midland University in Nebraska. But he doesn't have quite the professional or even the usual political resume of other Florida university presidents selected in recent years. Remember — First off, this probably doesn't happen without the assistance of Democrats in the Legislature, especially a handful in the Florida Senate. A handful of Democrats (Sens. Janet Cruz, Shevrin Jones, Linda Stewart, Darry Rouson) sided with Republicans and passed the bill this year that allowed universities to do their presidential searches largely out of public view. The legislation required a supermajority vote and enough Democrats crossed over to help the GOP legislators pushing for this change. What was that? — There was this argument during session that the public would still learn about a handful of finalists before a final vote. Well, the bill didn't really say that and it allowed a way to have only one finalists. And that's what happened at UF, where the search committee announced that Sasse was the only candidate they were recommending for the job. Trust us — A UF spokesman said that other candidates considered included nine who were sitting presidents at major research universities, and seven who were from schools that are members of the Association of American Universities. Of course, there's no way of knowing that thanks to the records exemption. Fallout — It will be interesting to see how a conservative Republican senator will fit in Gainesville, but Sasse's nomination is already drawing opposition from one notable politician: Former President Donald Trump. As pointed out by Tampa Bay Times' Emily L. Mahoney, Trump took to his social media account to say UF will "regret" its decision to hire Sasse, who was one of a handful of Republican senators who voted to convict Trump following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Trump lumped him in with "weak" and "ineffective RINOs." Sasse's hiring, however, has been praised by the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis. Hmm. — WHERE'S RON? — Nothing official announced for Gov. DeSantis. Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for Playbook? Get in touch: gfineout@politico.com PROGRAMMING NOTE: Florida Playbook will not publish on Monday, Oct. 10. We will back on our normal schedule on Tuesday, Oct. 11. Please continue to follow POLITICO Florida.
| | | | JOIN NEXT WEDNESDAY FOR A TALK ON U.S.-CHINA AND XI JINPING'S NEW ERA: President Xi Jinping will consolidate control of the ruling Chinese Communist Party later this month by engineering a third term as China's paramount leader, solidifying his rule until at least 2027. Join POLITICO Live for a virtual conversation hosted by Phelim Kine, author of POLITICO's China Watcher newsletter, to unpack what it means for U.S.-China relations. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | LONE FINALIST — Ben Sasse in line for presidency of Florida's flagship university, by POLITICO's Andrew Atterbury: Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska is slated to become the next University of Florida president after the search committee at the state's flagship school on Thursday named him as the sole finalist for the job. Sasse, who's appointment will soon be weighed by UF trustees, would represent a new firmly conservative leader for the university as Florida's GOP continues to fight a perceived liberal bias in higher education. He joins several other former Republican lawmakers to take top college jobs in Florida, including former state Senate President John Thrasher, who led Florida State University and Sen. Ray Rodrigues, who was recently named chancellor of the state university system.
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In choosing Sasse, UF's search committee pointed to his leadership in higher education, government and the private sector. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo | COUNTERPOINT — "Trump says UF will 'regret' decision to hire Ben Sasse as president," by Tampa Bay Times' Emily L. Mahoney: "Thursday's news that Republican U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska would likely become the next president of the University of Florida further fueled speculation of a looming showdown between former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis. 'Great news for the United States Senate, and our Country itself. Liddle' Ben Sasse, the lightweight Senator from the great State of Nebraska, will be resigning,' Trump wrote in a pair of posts on his social media site, Truth Social. 'The University of Florida will soon regret their decision to hire him as their President ... We have enough weak and ineffective RINOs in our midst.'"
| | ...HURRICANE HOLE... | | SITUATIONAL AWARENESS — As the recovery from Hurricane Ian continues slightly more than 118,000 home and businesses remain without power, according to new figures posted this morning by the Florida Public Service Commission. The death toll is still rising. Official numbers from the state released on Thursday evening said there had been 92 fatalities associated with the storm, including 50 deaths in Lee County. In a number that keeps growing each day, insurers have reported more than $3.27 billion in estimated insured losses and nearly 375,000 claims. 'IT JUST GOES ON AND ON' — "Amid tragedy on Fort Myers Beach, hope persists in rebuild from Hurricane Ian," by Fort Myers News-Press Phil Fernandez: "Now Fort Myers Beach has its own MASH unit, and it's about saving the island. Saving the community. Repumping life into its battered soul. With Town Hall hammered by Hurricane Ian, an encampment is becoming the government hub on the beach for awhile, the center of activity, Mayor Ray Murphy said. 'City Hall is shot. It's ruined, like everywhere else. What we have is we've got a whole City Hall complex, command center being set up right next door. The fire district owns the piece of the property of the former Topps grocery store property. That's one huge slab. So all these assets have been coming in,' Murphy said. 'The contractors have set up all kinds of housing over there for people, showers, bathrooms, offices, trailers.'" 'SHE IS HIS SECRET WEAPON' — "Governor's wife has high-profile role after Florida hurricane," by The New York Times' Patricia Mazzei: "Though she holds no formal position on the board of Volunteer Florida, a tax-exempt state commission focused on community service projects, [Casey] DeSantis, 42, has become the face of Florida's efforts to collect charitable donations in Ian's wake. Shortly after the storm struck on Sept. 28, the governor's office announced that Ms. DeSantis had "activated" the commission's disaster relief fund. While Florida is also seeking significant help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, [Gov. Ron] DeSantis has emphasized the importance of private donations." 'A WHOLE SEASON GONE' — Complete decimation: Florida farmers reel from hurricane damage, by POLITICO's Meredith Lee Hill: Hurricane Ian carved a path of destruction through the Sunshine State's famed produce region that will take years to recover from while sending shock waves through U.S. grocery stores for months to come. The violent storm has killed hundreds of dairy cows, washed away whole fields of tomatoes and green peppers and devastated Florida's iconic citrus groves, some of which are still under water days later. Winds topping over 100 mph passed directly over Marsh Groves, a 300-acre, family-run citrus grove in Arcadia — blowing away buildings and tearing trees from the ground. — "Hurricane Ian evacuees took refuge in a South Florida campground. Now it's their makeshift home," by South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Angie DiMichele — FPL says few of more than 35M solar panels were damaged by Hurricane Ian, by POLITICO's Bruce Ritchie — "FEMA pays out $3.5M in federal flood policy claims from Ian, " by Florida Politics' Gray Rohrer — "First 12 hours back on Sanibel 'very successful,' city manager says," by Fort Myers News-Press' Amy Bennett Williams
| | CAMPAIGN MODE | | SPEAKING OUT — "Drag queen featured in Marco Rubio campaign ad speaks out," by NBC News' Jo Yurcaba: "An Arizona drag queen said she has one question for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio after he featured her in a campaign ad: 'Why are you so obsessed with me and Drag Story Hour?'Lil Miss Hot Mess, a drag performer who lives in Arizona and performs in Los Angeles, said a friend messaged her on Sept. 28 telling her that they saw her in one of Rubio's campaign ads while watching the Weather Channel in Florida. 'The radical left will destroy children if we don't stop them,' Rubio says in the ad, which is also on Facebook. 'They indoctrinate children, try to turn boys into girls.' As Rubio is speaking, the ad shows a video of Lil Miss Hot Mess reading to children during a Drag Queen Story Hour — a national program started in 2015 in which drag performers read to kids to encourage reading and celebrate diversity, according to the program's website." P.O.V. — "87,000 IRS agents are 'worst thing' of Biden presidency, says Jared Moskowitz, congressional candidate. They'll 'be turned on the middle class ,'" by South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Anthony Man: "Jared Moskowitz, a Democratic candidate for Congress, said Thursday the worst thing that's happened during President Joe Biden's time in office is a new law adding "87,000 more" Internal Revenue Service agents. Moskowitz said the new IRS agents will target the middle class. Democrats in Congress, whom Moskowitz hopes to join, and the Biden administration have said the new agents will go after corporations and people making more than $400,000 who don't pay what they're required, resulting in a gusher of new money for the federal government." GAME OVER? — "Silenced Florida voters: Races for Congress, Legislature decided before voting even begins," by USA Today Network-Florida's John Kennedy: "Even before any one of millions of Floridians casts a vote in this fall's pivotal congressional elections, the outcome is almost a foregone conclusion. In the race to represent Floridians in Congress, only two of 28 contests – at least on paper – appear competitive: District 27 in Miami-Dade County and District 15, in Polk, Pasco and Hillsborough counties. Most of the other districts heavily favor Republicans, with a handful of remaining districts dominated by Democrats." CAMPAIGN ROUNDUP — Florida Planned Parenthood PAC has launched a new digital ad backing Charlie Crist in the governor's race against Ron DeSantis. The PAC is spending six figures on an ad that assails DeSantis for signing into law a measure that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy and includes no exception for rape or incest. … Republican Anna Paulina Luna has launched a new campaign television ad in her bid to win Florida's 13th Congressional District that targets Democratic rival Eric Lynn as a "career insider" because Lynn worked in the Obama administration. … Crist has more stops on Friday for his "Together Florida" tour. During the tour Crist is collecting supplies and necessities for people in southwest Florida. He is scheduled to make several stops St. Augustine, Inverness and St. Petersburg. …. Annette Taddeo's campaign for Florida's 27th Congressional District is touting a new poll done on behalf of the candidate. The poll shows that Taddeo is up 1 point (47 percent to 46 percent) over incumbent Rep. María Elvira Salazar in the South Florida district — making the race a statistical tie. The poll, taken Oct. 3 through Oct. 5, has a margin of error of plus/minus 4.9 percent. … Rep. Val Demings — the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate — is spending Friday campaigning in Gainesville, including holding a labor roundtable and attending the University of Florida homecoming festival. — "Challenger to U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez targets votes against certifying 2020 election," by Miami Herald's Charles Rabin — "' Grassroots' Haitian American faces Senate president for Florida agriculture commissioner," by News Service of Florida's Jim Turner
| | ... DATELINE TALLAHASSEE ... | | DESANTIS STRIKES BACK — DeSantis defies Legislature, nixes $175M for local projects, by POLITICO's Gary Fineout: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is blocking the release of $175 million that state legislators wanted to spend on a variety of hometown projects, ranging from airport runways to targeted health care and children's programs. The governor's decision — which is directly at odds with the wishes of the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature — is the culmination of a simmering power dispute that has been going on behind closed doors in the halls of the Capitol. Rationale — A senior administration official said in an interview on Thursday that the governor took this action because he had constitutional concerns that the way the Legislature structured the spending violated the separation of powers. "It upended and reversed the normal process," the DeSantis administration official said. The DeSantis administration also decided to hold off spending the money now because of Hurricane Ian, which is forcing the state already to spend hundreds of millions on recovery efforts due to the devastating blow the storm had on parts of the state.
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | TRUMPLANDIA AND THE SWAMP | | AS THE PAGES TURN — "Justice Dept is said to believe Trump has more documents ," by The New York Times' Michael S. Schmidt, Maggie Haberman and Katie Benner: "A top Justice Department official told former President Donald J. Trump's lawyers in recent weeks that the department believed he had not returned all the documents he took when he left the White House, according to two people briefed on the matter. The outreach from the official, Jay I. Bratt, who leads the department's counterintelligence operations, is the most concrete indication yet that investigators remain skeptical that Mr. Trump has been fully cooperative in their efforts to recover documents the former president was supposed to have turned over to the National Archives at the end of his term." WHAT CHRIS KISE IS READING — "Boutique law firm in Miami joins Trump's legal fight after others steer clear," by NBC News' Marc Caputo: "Big law firms didn't want Donald Trump as a client. Now a boutique Miami-area firm is elevating its profile by representing the former president. In an announcement first shared with NBC News, the president's newly hired lawyer, Chris Kise, has joined Continental. The firm has a stable of Trump loyalists with deep Florida GOP ties and attorneys who describe their mission as a legal antidote to 'woke cancel culture' that they say has taken over 'Big Law.' Kise, a former solicitor general for Florida who also was attorney for the gubernatorial transition teams of both Govs. Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott, who's now a U.S. senator, said Continental has 'exceptional firepower' to represent Trump and other clients, including conservative figures and causes."
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Donald Trump's attorneys Chris Kise and James Trusty arrive at Brooklyn Federal Court on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, in New York. | Brittainy Newman/AP Photo | | | CORONAVIRUS UPDATES | | COMING TO AN END — Court rules Florida can keep its ban on vaccine requirements, days after Norwegian drops theirs, by POLITICO's Tanya Snyder: A federal appeals court has vacated an injunction that for more than a year has blocked Florida from banning Norwegian Cruise Lines from requiring proof of vaccination from its passengers — just days after the cruise line itself stopped requiring such proof. Norwegian sued Florida's surgeon general in July 2021, arguing that the state's ban on businesses requiring proof of vaccination violated the free speech and commerce clauses of the constitution. A lower court granted an injunction, blocking Florida from enforcing the ban against Norwegian, which the state appealed.
| | THE GUNSHINE STATE | | WRAPPING UP — "Testimony ends in Stoneman Douglas mass shooting trial. Closings scheduled for Tuesday," by South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Rafael Olmeda: "Testimony in the Parkland mass shooting trial came to an end Thursday, and the judge presiding over the case told jurors to get ready for closing arguments on Tuesday. Confessed gunman Nikolas Cruz is facing the death penalty for each of 17 counts of murder. He pleaded guilty to the killings nearly a year ago, willing to accept a life sentence without putting Broward County through the spectacle of a trial when his guilt was never really in doubt. But prosecutors have insisted from the beginning that the defendant's fate will be decided by a jury. A unanimous vote is required for a death sentence. A dissenting juror would have to vote no 17 times." — "'Keep this quiet': A top Parkland cop repeatedly tried to downplay crime, including guns at school, his agency finds," by South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Lisa J. Huriash
| | PENINSULA AND BEYOND | | ON THE MAP — "In Miami, a new map entry: 'Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Street' after hometown justice," by Miami Herald's Douglas Hanks — "Orlando Free Fall to be torn down after Tyre Sampson's death," by Orlando Sentinel's Katie Rice — " Gov. DeSantis upbeat about gas prices despite OPEC woes, Joe Biden's Venezuela pivot," by Florida Politics' A.G. Gancarski
| | ODDS, ENDS AND FLORIDA MEN | | — "Doctor who reaped $127 million off sober-home drug tests pleads guilty to health care fraud," by Palm Beach Post's Jane Musgrave: "A Delray Beach doctor who pocketed more than $127 million by forcing people struggling with addiction to undergo bogus tests pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Dr. Michael Ligotti faces a maximum 20-year prison sentence for taking advantage of scores of vulnerable patients and billing their insurance companies for tests medical experts said were clearly unnecessary. Those who spent years trying to get authorities to take action against the 48-year-old owner of Whole Health Medical Center said they were heartened that Ligotti had finally been held accountable. But, they said, foot-dragging by the Florida Board of Medicine and other regulators caused many to suffer needlessly." BIRTHDAYS: The New York Times' Charlie Savage … Jim Rosica, editor-in-chief of City & State Florida ... Allen Douglas, executive director Florida Engineering Society (Saturday) Former state Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen … Vivian Myrtetus, head of partnerships and policy at Helbiz ... Curtis Richardson, Tallahassee city commissioner and former state representative. (Sunday) State Rep. Ben Diamond … Tia Mitchell, Washington correspondent for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution … Mike Grissom with Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney … Keyna Cory, president of Public Affairs Consultants … Diane Rado, editor-in-chief of Florida Phoenix … Former State Senate President Joe Negron … Liza McFadden … Ron Watson , president Watson Strategies.
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