Philip Stoddard, a former five-time Mayor of South Miami, just became the 10th political figure from South Florida to get behind Democrat Robin Peguero’s campaign for Florida’s 27th Congressional District.

He cited Peguero’s experience as a prosecutor and congressional standout features among the candidates running to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar.

Stoddard said in a statement that Peguero “will hit the ground running at a moment when we have no time to lose in rebuilding our democracy.”

Stoddard, a biology professor, served as Mayor from 2010 to 2020. His elected tenure in South Miami was marked by renewable energy advancements and affordable housing initiatives.

In 2015, President Barack Obama’s administration appointed him to the Governance Coordinating Committee of the National Ocean Council, where he developed national policy to address sea level rise. The year after, POLITICO Magazine named him among its top 50 “thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics.”

Peguero is a former homicide prosecutor born to immigrant parents from the Dominican Republic and Ecuador. His other government bona fides include a stint as an investigator for the congressional Jan. 6 Committee and work as a Chief of Staff to Democratic U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey of Maryland.

Today, he works as a novelist and professor at St. Thomas University College of Law.

The nod from Stoddard adds to others from Miami-Dade School Board member and former state Rep. Joe Geller, Key Biscayne Council member Franklin Caplan, Coral Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro, Cutler Bay Council member B.J. Duncan, former Congresswoman and Cabinet Secretary Donna Shalala, former state Reps. Annie Betancourt and J.C. Planas, former Miami-Dade Commissioner Katy Sorenson and ex-Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey.

The political arms of the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus have also endorsed Peguero, who faces two other Democrats — accountant Alexander Fornino and entrepreneur Richard Lamondin — in the August 2026 Primary.

CD 27, one of three Florida districts that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has highlighted as “in play,” covers Miami, Coral Gables, Cutler Bay, Key Biscayne, Pinecrest, North Bay Village, South Miami, West Miami and several unincorporated areas.

Salazar, who unseated Shalala, has represented the district since January 2021.

Last Call – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.

First Shot

There’s always a Florida angle. In 2025, it was a close-up with the klieg lights shining brightly.

As 2025 comes to a close, Florida Politics is rolling out our Top 10 lists that bottle the year’s biggest storylines, from federal shocks that ricocheted through the Sunshine State to the local sagas that kept county commissions, city halls and courthouse steps busy.

Whether the phrase “Make America Florida” makes you smile or cringe, the best place to start is our rundown of the Top 10 federal stories impacting Florida, a D.C. feed that reads like Florida politics got a national syndication deal.

Expect everything from high-octane foreign policy drama with a Caribbean undertow, to the slow-burn (then sudden) explosion of the Epstein files, to the reshuffling that put Ashley Moody in the U.S. Senate mix — yes, that happened this year!

Then go regional, where the plotlines get weirder, sharper, and more personal.

South Florida’s list runs the gamut from a censorship blowback in Miami Beach to the Trump library land fight, with a surprise federal indictment and a historic mayoral election for good measure.

In Tampa Bay, there’s civic soap opera energy — leadership turnovers, culture-war collateral damage, a downtown naming fight that went sideways. So, the usual fare, but no less entertaining.

Southwest Florida’s set tracks the tug-of-war between local control and Tallahassee gravity — airports, higher ed, School Boards, immigration flashpoints, and even a rare recall.

Meanwhile, Jacksonville’s list offers a snapshot of strong-Mayor friction, long shadows from old power centers, and the early chess moves toward 2027. 

We won’t spoil the endings, but we strongly advise you to complete your recap before the next season of “only in Florida” premieres, when lawmakers kick off the 2026 Session on Jan. 13.

Evening Reads

—”11 voters on Donald Trump’s first year” via The New York Times

—”Trump’s year of media capture” via John Avlon of Rolling Stone

—”The most volatile group of voters is turning on Trump” via Christian Paz of Vox

—”The Santa Presidency” via Toluse Olorunnipa of The Atlantic

—”Duty? Insanity? These former members of Congress want to come back.” via Anna Liss-Roy of The Washington Post

—“GOP redistricting could backfire as urban, immigrant areas turn back to Democrats” via Tim Henderson of Stateline

—“The biggest mistake I made in 2025” via Chris Cillizza of So What?

—”The new surveillance state is you” via Andrew Couts of WIRED

—”Michael Owen proposal draws lines between treatment providers and recovery housing” via Jesse Mendoza of Florida Politics

—”Florida’s bear hunt ended Sunday. State won’t say how many were killed” via Stephen Hudak of the Orlando Sentinel

Quote of the Day

“This is a massive effort to change the unfortunate reality that has occurred to rural health care in America, which is that your ZIP Code has started to predict your life expectancy.”

— CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, presumably having finally flipped through Kitagawa & Hauser’s 1970s differential mortality research.

Put it on the Tab

Look to your left, then look to your right. If you see one of these people at your happy hour haunt, flag down the bartender and put one of these on your tab. Recipes included, just in case the Cocktail Codex fell into the well.

Shoot the bartender this link so they can keep the Top 10s flowing while you flip through Florida Politics’ year-end recaps.

Send a Coin Toss to former acting Attorney General John Guard, who says he’s willing to withdraw from consideration as a federal Judge to serve on the Florida Supreme Court

With their Space Florida Board appointments on lock, Matthew Bocchino, Belinda Keiser, Alex King and Tim Thomas are ready for a dose of Rocket Fuel.

Breakthrough Insights

Tune In

Gators close out 2025 

The Florida Gators play one final non-conference game to close out 2025 as they host Dartmouth tonight (6 p.m. ET, SEC Network).

Florida, ranked 22nd in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, has won three consecutive games after losses to Duke and Connecticut. 

The Gators (8-4) lead the nation in rebounding and offensive rebounding. Center Ruben Chinyelu leads the team with 10.8 rebounds per game, while forward Thomas Haugh leads the team in scoring, averaging 17.3 points per game. 

Haugh is considered one of the top prospects for the NBA draft. 

Dartmouth (5-6) has not played a team from one of the Power 4 conferences this season, so the Gators figure to be the toughest test of the season for the Big Green. Dartmouth’s best chance to pull the upset is to get hot from the three-point line. The average 11 made three-pointers per game this season, ranking 19th nationally. 

Guard Kareem Thomas leads Dartmouth in scoring at 19.2 points per game. He has scored in double figures in each game this season and has topped the 20-point mark six times. 

After tonight’s game, Florida will next be in action on Jan. 3 when it opens conference play at Missouri. 

___

Last Call is published by Peter Schorsch, assembled and edited by Phil Ammann and Drew Wilson, with contributions from the staff of Florida Politics.

School Board member Adam Cervera is calling for an immediate leadership shake-up at Broward County Public Schools, arguing a cascade of operational failures has eroded public trust and exposed the District to financial and legal risk.

In a statement released this week, Cervera — a lawyer and appointed, first-year Board member — called for the immediate resignation of Broward Schools Chief Operations Officer Wanda Paul.

Under her watch, he said, the District has suffered systemic breakdowns in oversight and transparency, including a since-terminated $2.6 million office lease that drew a lawsuit from the District’s former landlord and what he called a “deeply flawed” construction procurement process.

Those “are not isolated mistakes,” Cervera said. “They expose the district to serious financial, legal, and reputational risk.”

Cervera, a lawyer, said accountability must extend beyond process fixes and after-the-fact explanations.

“These were operational failures,” he said, adding that leadership must face consequences when safeguards are ignored and the School Board is kept in the dark. “The scale, repetition, and impact of these breakdowns leave no credible path forward under the current leadership structure.”

Cervera’s comments come during a turbulent period for Broward Public Schools, the nation’s sixth-largest School District, which has faced ample scrutiny in recent years over governance failures, financial instability and leadership turnover.

In recent weeks, audits and media reports have detailed breakdowns in how District staff mishandled a major construction oversight procurement tied to the District’s $125 million capital program. An internal audit found procedures were bypassed, required evaluations were skipped and the School Board was not properly informed, leading to a rushed and legally questionable process now facing collapse.

The controversy — described by Board members Jeff Holness and Allen Zeman as an “existential threat” and “five-alarm fire,” respectively — follows an earlier firestorm over the terminated office lease, prompting Board members to openly question whether senior administrators could be trusted.

Cervera’s call also comes as Broward schools face deep structural challenges. Enrollment has dropped by roughly 10,000 students in the past year, contributing to an $85 million budget shortfall. District leaders are weighing nearly three dozen school closures, staff reductions and program cuts while grappling with ongoing public skepticism.

Superintendent Howard Hepburn, who took office last year amid lingering fallout from past state interventions, has acknowledged the District’s struggles but has largely urged patience as reviews continue. But critics, including multiple Board members, say their patience has run out.

Cervera emphasized that accountability does not stop with staff but includes senior leadership’s responsibility to ensure transparency and compliance.

“This is not about politics or blame. It is about restoring trust,” he said. “The School Board governs. Staff executes. When that line is blurred, the system fails.”

The District’s ongoing turmoil follows years of volatility in Broward Schools, punctuated in August 2022, when Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended and replaced four Board members following the mismanagement of a voter-approved construction.

Just one of the suspended Board members, Donna Korn, sought election to her old seat later that year, but she lost to Zeman.

More recently, in April 2025, conservative Brenda Fam resigned from the Board, complaining of “personal attacks” over her disparaging remarks about the LGBTQ community, “unprofessional behavior” by her colleagues on the dais and what she described as a district that “always appears to be in financial crisis.”

DeSantis quickly appointed Cervera, a fellow Republican, to replace Fam in the District 6 seat. Cervera IS running to keep it in November and currently faces two Democratic challengers: Broward Soil and Water Conservation District member Jessie Bastos and Robert Fernandez III, a U.S. Army veteran-turned-history teacher who helped write Florida’s controversial guidelines for Black history studies and now is advocating for those rules to be rewritten.

Four other Board seats are also up for grabs this year.