[ad_1]
President Joe Biden stepped foot in Florida this week to lift some money for his re-election bid, and donors didn’t disappoint.
Biden collected $6.2 million at a fundraiser in Miami. He additionally raised cash in Jupiter, although it’s not clear how a lot he raked in at that cease.
That Miami quantity alone is critical although, and pulling in that amount of money isn’t only a boon to the President. Down-ballot Florida Democrats need to be happy as nicely, as a result of if the President can generate vital enthusiasm right here, perhaps his staff actually will deal with Florida prefer it’s in play in November.
In fact, spending from nationwide Democrats will inevitably trickle right down to different races. If Democrats are motivated to point out up for Biden, they’re possible checking off different names with a “D” subsequent to it on their ballots.
And Democrats have a superb story to inform, most lately with the win in Home District 35 and going again to the Jacksonville mayoral win.
It may well generally be a problem to persuade the nationwide occasion that success in native contests results in bigger wins. However you already know what does discuss? Cash. And Biden introduced in loads of it this week.
Now, it’s on to our weekly sport of winners and losers.
Winners
Honorable point out: Constitutional conventions. Florida lawmakers signed on to a push for 2 constitutional conventions that would approve some vital restrictions for the federal authorities.
One measure (HCR 703) asks for a conference to require Congress to go a balanced price range. One other (HCR 693) would push for congressional time period limits.
The Senate accepted each gadgets this week, whereas the Home had already moved on the measures on the primary day of the 2024 Legislative Session.
Each restrictions already apply in Florida. However the state’s lawmakers at the moment are trying to take the push nationwide.
There’s nonetheless a protracted highway forward for these modifications to ever happen. The Structure permits states to name for such a conference, however requires a two-thirds majority of states to take action. That will imply 34 states have to ask for these conventions.
Florida is the twenty sixth to ask for a conference on a balanced price range. But it surely’s simply the sixteenth pushing for congressional time period limits. And even when these conventions come collectively, and if language may be agreed to at these conventions, the Structure requires three-fourths of states to approve an modification, which means 38 states should log out.
These searching for these modifications, nonetheless, can level to Florida as having executed its half.
Nearly (however not fairly) the largest winner: Rick Scott. Florida’s junior U.S. Senator had a powerful week, each within the political and coverage arenas.
Maybe most urgent, as he seeks a second time period within the Senate this 12 months, Scott secured endorsements from 80 of the state’s lawmakers, together with Republican management.
That’s usually a foregone conclusion for an incumbent operating. It’s notable this 12 months, although, on condition that Scott has already courted a Main problem and there have been (admittedly unsubstantiated) rumors that Gov. Ron DeSantis may throw his hat into the GOP Main ring following his failed presidential bid.
DeSantis and Scott have had a long-reported icy relationship, and such a transfer could be a means for DeSantis to try to strike at Scott.
However with Scott coming into Tallahassee and snatching up these endorsements, it makes it exhausting to see how the Governor may acquire any severe momentum to make such a transfer, particularly with a possible endorsement from former President Donald Trump virtually definitely going towards Scott.
So it was a savvy transfer by the Senator to shore up help amongst Republicans. However Scott additionally confirmed this week he can play to constituencies aside from the bottom, when he got here out towards a proposal within the Florida Legislature that might roll again some gun restrictions accepted in 2018 following the Parkland taking pictures.
Scott signed the 2018 regulation, which raised the minimal age to buy lengthy rifles from 18 to 21. Florida Republicans now need to return to the minimal of 18 years, however Scott stated he stands by the 2018 invoice.
“I nonetheless discuss to loads of the Parkland households,” Scott stated. “We had that taking pictures, we had Pulse and we had the (Fort Lauderdale) airport taking pictures. Your coronary heart goes out to those households. We handed historic laws that I’m proud that we handed. … I help what we handed.”
It’s all the time commendable when politicians get up towards a vocal fringe within the occasion. Credit score to Scott for doing so right here.
The most important winner: Paul Renner. The Home Speaker has been making the case for a sweeping new measure (HB 1) that might outright ban minors below age 16 from having social media accounts, with the Home signing off on that legislation late final month.
However this week, he noticed the case for that laws being made on a nationwide scale, and by none aside from Mark Zuckerberg himself.
No, Zuckerberg didn’t truly come out in favor of the invoice. However in congressional testimony that includes a number of social media heads, Zuckerberg made a dramatic scene when he was pushed by U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley to apologize to oldsters whose youngsters have been harmed or killed on account of social media use.
Many such dad and mom had been within the viewers for that testimony, prompting Zuckerberg to show and handle them straight.
“I’m sorry for every little thing you may have all been by way of,” Zuckerberg stated. “Nobody ought to undergo the issues that your households have suffered.”
And that, proper there, is strictly Renner’s level.
Look, Renner’s invoice nonetheless faces hurdles. The destiny of the Senate companion remains to be up within the air. And if that does transfer, there are constitutional questions on proscribing the exercise of minors this manner. There would inevitably be a authorized problem towards the invoice, and it’s unclear how it might shake out. There might or will not be higher methods of addressing the issue.
However Renner’s issues listed here are well-founded. Youngsters now have been raised on know-how, with tablets positioned of their fingers at a younger age and cellphone apps designed to seize their consideration and never let go. We adults see the hatred and vitriol on the web, pushed largely by the gap and the anonymity these platforms present. Are you able to think about how that very same cruelty lands with children?
Sure, there are many little one social media success tales. The identical may most likely be stated if we opened up a baby lottery, the place children may throw cash away for the prospect to win large.
However we don’t allow them to do this, as a result of far as a rule, it’s a dropping proposition. Can’t the identical be stated of social media?
Losers
Dishonorable point out: By no means Again Down. We lined the majority of DeSantis’ downfall in last week’s column, however we’re including one postscript right here as a result of By no means Again Down submitted its final main fundraising report this week.
And boy, was it one thing.
The group pulled in $145 million in whole final 12 months to help DeSantis’ bid, which ended after only one state of voting the place he didn’t win a single county.
The value tag for By no means Again Down? Greater than $130 million, because the group had simply $14.5 million as of the top of the brand new 12 months, the interval lined by the most recent report.
The group was seeded with vital holdover funds from DeSantis’ 2022 re-election bid for Governor. And that did the majority of the work, as By no means Again Down raised only $14 million within the second half of 2023, exhibiting simply how considerably DeSantis’ fundraising prowess dropped off as his polls did the identical.
All in all, between By no means Again Down, DeSantis’ marketing campaign account and Combat Proper, one other tremendous PAC supporting the Governor, his staff spent more than $154 million to win exactly nothing.
It will get requested lots in conditions like this, however truthfully, what would have been the substantive distinction if the group as an alternative simply lit that $150 million-plus on fireplace?
Nearly (however not fairly) the largest loser: María Elvira Salazar. Salazar stepped in it during an interview with CBS4 Miami’s Jim DeFede, when the interviewer challenged her for taking credit score for funding tasks that she truly voted towards.
This can be a time-honored custom amongst Republicans. They love speaking powerful in Washington towards extreme spending solely to, as soon as the invoice is handed, take credit score when these tasks within the district begin going reside.
Caring about spending is completely acceptable. Washington spending is critical, uncontrolled even, relying on who you ask. However praising these tasks later solely makes you seem like a hypocrite, and Salazar landed proper in that spot through the DeFede interview.
Confronted with one such instance, Salazar performed ignorant.
“You’ll have to offer me extra particulars. However I do know that each time I’ve a chance to convey cash to my constituents, I accomplish that.”
However that’s not true, as DeFede identified whereas urgent the Congresswoman.
“You voted towards the CHIPS and Science Act, proper?” DeFede requested.
“Pay attention, I, proper now, I have to, I have to ask my employees,” Salazar responded.
The back-and-forth continued like that.
Unsurprisingly, Salazar’s Democratic opponent went after her following the interview. “What we see right here in Miami-Dade County is that loads of the developments which might be occurring occurred regardless of her and never due to her,” Lucia Báez-Geller stated.
However even a Home GOP colleague of Salazar’s, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, slammed Salazar in much more searing phrases.
“So many lawmakers in each events are husks of people who merely hand their vote card to the management. Then, stuff like this occurs,” Gaetz responded whereas reposting a clip of the encounter.
“Husk of a human” will not be the phrase you need in your marketing campaign bumper stickers.
The most important loser: Disney. Disney lands right here after a major blow in courtroom.
U.S. District Courtroom Decide Allen Winsor, a Trump appointee, dismissed the leisure big’s case towards Gov. Ron DeSantis claiming that the Governor punished Disney’s governing district in violation of the First Modification.
Disney, after all, spoke out towards the Parental Rights in Training invoice after being criticized by some for its silence. The corporate didn’t do a lot else to undermine the invoice, however DeSantis responded anyway by abolishing the governing district and creating a brand new one to supervise Disney’s theme parks put in along with his personal political allies.
Regardless of DeSantis going on the record stating the transfer was retaliation for Disney’s so-called “woke” agenda, Decide Winsor stated these feedback aren’t sufficient to help a authorized problem.
“It’s settled regulation that ‘when a statute is facially constitutional, a plaintiff can’t convey a free-speech problem by claiming that the lawmakers who handed it acted with a constitutionally impermissible goal,’” Winsor stated.
Disney has appealed the ruling, and little question has the sources to proceed pushing the difficulty so far as it may in courtroom. However that is clearly a major setback to gaining any reduction for the Governor’s response.
Submit Views: 0
[ad_2]
Source link