The Ron DeSantis for President campaign is scheduled to convene Tuesday in Tallahassee when the Florida State Legislature begins its 2023 session.
DeSantis has already been campaigning incognito — traveling to fundraisers in Texas and California. He published a book that is subtitled “Florida’s blueprint for America’s revival.” That’s not a hint?
So the GOP-controlled legislature will be focused on the governor’s agenda to help him gain steam for 2024. After all, his success on the November ballot certainly helped some of the legislators elected in 2022. Republicans won a 28-12 majority in the Senate and a 85-35 majority in the House. The Miami-Dade legislative delegation, representing the largest and most populated county in Florida, is made up of six state senators and 16 state reps.
Most political observers expect the guv to officially announce his presidential bid after the session ends on May 5 — after he’s passed a few more red meat bills that will make that announcement much more special. Red meat bills are laws that are unnecessary but feed his core rightwing base like red meat for rabid dogs.
He wants to make it easier to carry guns. He wants to control what educators teach and what college and high school students learn. He wants to silence bloggers and other untraditional media. He wants to suppress voting even more and kick Dreamers out of college. He may restrict abortions further.
What kind of dystopian hell are we sinking into?
Read related: Gov. Ron DeSantis appoints Danny Espino to Miami-Dade School Board
In January, DeSantis fueled his culture war in higher education, mandating courses in western civilization while banning African American studies courses in high school, eliminating diversity programs and mandating the pronouns that students can and cannot use.
Rep. Kevin Chambliss says the flurry of red meat bills was to be expected.
“It’s gonna get worse because they are going to be willing to add details where normally they wouldn’t have wanted to go that far,” Chambliss told Ladra Monday. “They’re just trying to go as far as possible with legislation.
“Even people from their own party say they are going too far. But they don’t have a fear of the backlash at this point. They know they have a super majority. They know they have the votes,” Chambliss said. “And they know this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, because we are going to gain these seats back in the presidential election.”
Florida International University Professor Emeritus Marvin Dunn has been asking DeSantis on Twitter about how he can teach the truth — which is also the name of his history tour in Florida — to students.
“Gov DeSantis, through the 1842 Armed Occupation Act 160 acres of Florida land was given to white men only. Was this institutional racism? Does it help to explain why whites in Florida today have more wealth than Blacks? Is it ‘indoctrination’ if I tell my students this fact,” he asks in one tweet.
“Gov DeSantis, twelve American presidents owned enslaved people eight of them while in office. If I tell my students this, would I be guilty of ‘indoctrination?’ Could I lose my job?”
Also, remember how the “Don’t Say Gay” bill was defended by our mothers and grandmothers because it was only for children in kindergarten through 2nd grade? “It’s only for the youngest minds!” Gov DeSantis twelve American presidents owned enslaved people eight of them while in office. If I tell my students this, would I be guilty of “indoctrination”? In addition to further abortion restrictions, this legislative session may see the Don’t Say Gay provisions extended into 8th grade. But why stop there?
A new proposed bill would require bloggers to register with the state if they are going to write about the governor or any state elected official or cabinet member. Really. Like if we were in Cuba or 1983 Russia.
Read related: Ron DeSantis stomps for election denier GOP Senate candidate in Nevada race
Ladra understands the rationale behind this effort. There are campaigns that often put out content disguised as blogs. And they should be identified same as a campaign ad. But this bill would throw the baby out with the bathwater and I already mentioned the slippery slope. It is dangerous to allow this kind of government meddling in any watchdog journalism.
Okay, there may be other bills that could be worthy of the legislature’s time.
At the local level, Rep. Juan Carlos Porras, whose district includes the Hammocks, has sponsored a bill that would force the board members of homeowner associations to share financial records with members. Refusal to do so would be punishable by fines.
This effort was born from last year’s arrest of five board members who were charged with running a massive fraud that allegedly looted more than $1 million from the coffers of South Florida’s biggest homeowners group.
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Chambliss also said that there are still negotiations going on. “Far outside the culture wars, on the grounds in the halls of Tallahassee, you are seeing good bipartisan conversations being had,” he told Political Cortadito. “Compared to my first term, with some of the highest priority legislation produced on the majority side, they have been much more fluid about how these bills have had a soft landing.
For example, he said, the permitless carry bill discussed at the last judicial committee meeting. “I would say it is a school hardening bill for school safety that just happens to have the permitless piece in it.”
Florida legislative session starts as a Ron DeSantis presidential campaign event added by Ladra on
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