Politics
Last Call for 11.13.25 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida
Last Call – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.
Ed. Note — While Peter is on the road for his speaking tour, Sunburn will be taking tomorrow off. Don’t worry, your morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics will return to inboxes Monday morning. Thanks again for your support. Have a great weekend, and please stay safe.
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Happy early birthday to Debbie Milner. And enjoy the Disney Cruise!
First Shot
House legislation that matches a Senate bill has been filed and, if passed, would remove law enforcement officers’ ability to anonymize themselves in the field.
SB 316/HB 419, carried by Orlando Sen. Carlos G. Smith and Jacksonville Rep. Angie Nixon, proposes requiring “covered immigration officers to wear specified visible identification during public immigration enforcement functions” and “prohibits covered immigration officers from wearing face coverings that impair visibility of identifying information or obscure covered immigration officer’s face.”
The measure would also “prohibit law enforcement officers from wearing face coverings in performance of their official duties.”
Smith’s version is called the “VISIBLE Act.”
Immigration officers would be required to show their faces during “any activity that involves the direct exercise of federal immigration authority through public-facing actions, including a patrol, a stop, an arrest, a search, an interview to determine immigration status, a raid, a checkpoint inspection, or the service of a judicial or administrative warrant.”
Agency names would have to be “displayed in a size and format that is clearly legible from a distance of not less than 25 feet, using materials or markings suitable for visibility in both daylight and low-light conditions under normal operational conditions.”
The names and identification numbers of officials must be “clearly visible and readable during direct engagement with the public.” The sponsors said the bill was necessary given what’s happening nationally and locally.
Read more on Florida Politics.
Evening Reads
—“In Matt Gaetz scandal, circumstances left teen vulnerable to exploitation” via Michael S. Schmidt of The New York Times
—”The GOP’s fight over Nazis is about who controls the party’s future” via Miles Bryan and Noel King of Vox
—”Donald Trump is kneecapping some of the boldest plans to fight climate change” via Thor Benson of Rolling Stone
—”Wait, are the Jeffrey Epstein files real now?” via Jonathan Chait of The Atlantic
—”What did Trump know about Epstein?” via Judd Legum of Popular Information
—”Billionaire Lake Nona developer Joe Lewis pardoned by Trump” via Steven Lemongello of the Orlando Sentinel
—“FIFA will use Kennedy Center free of charge for World Cup event, contract says” via Janay Kingsberry and Rick Maese of The Washington Post
—”France is awash in museum heists” via Noemie Bisserbe, Stacy Meichtry and Bertrand Benoit of The Wall Street Journal
—”Another poll shows Byron Donalds dominating GOP field in Governor’s race” via A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics
—”Experts debate potential property tax measure at USF: ‘This is policy malpractice’” via Mitch Perry of the Florida Phoenix
Quote of the Day
“These are some of the worst child molesters, rapists, murderers, convicted criminals that have been in and out of your community for a long time. And we’re not going to stand for it anymore.”
— FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass on “Operation Dirtbag.”
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.
Send 230 Dirt Bags to Miramar to celebrate the successful 10-day statewide operation.
U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody is serving up Star Powers in Senate District 14, where she’s backing ‘conservative champion’ Josie Tomkow.
With UF/IFAS and FloridaCommerce mixing agricultural technology and artificial intelligence, there might be some new Farm2Cocktail options on the horizon.
Breakthrough Insights
Tune In
Hurricanes’ path to playoffs is clear
When the College Football Playoff Committee released the latest Top 25 this week, Miami found itself ranked 15th. That, in and of itself, would not be enough to make the field of 12. However, because the playoff field is not just the top 12 teams, Miami finds itself in a good position if it takes care of business the rest of the season.
The Hurricanes’ next test comes on Saturday as they host North Carolina State (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
According to ESPN’s projected bracket, Miami would be in the College Football Playoff as the 11-seed if the playoffs kicked off this week. ESPN has the Canes facing the projected Big 12 champions, Texas Tech, in the first round.
For that scenario to play out, Miami (7-2, 3-2 in ACC) must not lose again, and the Wolfpack should not be overlooked. NC State knocked off previously unbeaten Georgia Tech last time out, taking a 48-36 decision at home behind 340 passing yards from quarterback CJ Bailey (a Miami native) and 196 rushing yards from Jayden Scott.
After Saturday, two more regular-season games remain on the schedule for the Hurricanes, at struggling Virginia Tech and at 22nd-ranked Pitt. Then, perhaps, the ACC championship game.
Miami holds its playoff fate in its hands. Simply, they must win.
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Last Call is published by Peter Schorsch, assembled and edited by Phil Ammann and Drew Wilson, with contributions from the staff of Florida Politics.
Mills was a day-one Byron Donalds backer in the gubernatorial race.
A former House Speaker and current candidate for Governor is leading the charge for Republicans as scandal swirls around a Congressman.
Saying the “evidence is mounting” against Rep. Cory Mills, Paul Renner says other candidates for Governor should “stand up and be counted” and join him in the call for Mills to leave Congress.
Renner made the call earlier this week.
But on Friday, the Palm Coast Republican doubled down.
He spotlighted fresh reporting from Roger Sollenberger alleging that Mills’ company “appears to have illegally exported weapons while he serves in Congress, including to Ukraine,” that Mills failed to disclose conflicts of interest, “tried to fistfight other Republican members of Congress, and lied about his party stature to bully other GOP candidates out of primaries that an alleged romantic interest was running in,” and lied about his conversion to Islam.
The House Ethics Committee is already probing Mills, a New Smyrna Beach Republican, over allegations of profiting from federal defense contracts while in Congress. More recently, the Committee expanded its work to review allegations that he assaulted one ex-girlfriend and threatened to share intimate photos of another.
Other candidates have been more reticent in addressing the issue, including Rep. Byron Donalds.
“When any other members have been involved and stuff like this, my advice is the same,” said Donalds, a Naples Republican. “They need to actually spend a lot more time in the district and take stock of what’s going on at home, and make that decision with their voters.”
The response came less than a year after Mills, a New Smyrna Beach Republican, spoke at the launch of Donalds’ gubernatorial campaign.
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Staff writer Jacob Ogles contributed reporting.
The cold war between Florida’s Governor and his predecessor is nearly seven years old and tensions show no signs of thawing.
On Friday, Sen. Rick Scott weighed in on Florida Politics’ reporting on the Agency for Health Care Administration’s apparent repayment of $10 million of Medicaid money from a settlement last year, which allegedly had been diverted to the Hope Florida Foundation, summarily filtered through non-profits through political committees, and spent on political purposes.
“I appreciate the efforts by the Florida legislature to hold Hope Florida accountable. Millions in tax dollars for poor kids have no business funding political ads. If any money was misspent, then it should be paid back by the entities responsible, not the taxpayers,” Scott posted to X.
While AHCA Deputy Chief of Staff Mallory McManus says that is an “incorrect” interpretation, she did not respond to a follow-up question asking for further detail this week.
The $10 million under scrutiny was part of a $67 million settlement from state Medicaid contractor Centene, which DeSantis said was “a cherry on top” in the settlement, arguing it wasn’t truly from Medicaid money.
But in terms of the Scott-DeSantis contretemps, it’s the latest example of tensions that seemed to start even before DeSantis was sworn in when Scott left the inauguration of his successor, and which continue in the race to succeed DeSantis, with Scott enthusiastic about current front runner Byron Donalds.
Earlier this year, Scott criticized DeSantis’ call to repeal so-called vaccine mandates for school kids, saying parents could already opt out according to state law.
While running for re-election to the Senate in 2024, Scott critiqued the Heartbeat Protection Act, a law signed by DeSantis that banned abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy with some exceptions, saying the 15 week ban was “where the state’s at.”
In 2023 after Scott endorsed Donald Trump for President while DeSantis was still a candidate, DeSantis said it was an attempt to “short circuit” the voters.
That same year amid DeSantis’ conflict over parental rights legislation with The Walt Disney Co., Scott said it was important for Governors to “work with” major companies in their states.
The critiques went both ways.
When running for office, DeSantis distanced himself from Scott amid controversy about the Senator’s blind trust for his assets as Governor.
“I basically made decisions to serve in uniform, as a prosecutor, and in Congress to my financial detriment,” DeSantis said in October 2018. “I’m not entering (office) with a big trust fund or anything like that, so I’m not going to be entering office with those issues.”
In 2020, when the state’s creaky unemployment website couldn’t handle the surge of applicants for reemployment assistance as the pandemic shut down businesses, DeSantis likened it to a “jalopy in the Daytona 500” and Scott urged him to “quit blaming others” for the website his administration inherited.
The chill between the former and current Governors didn’t abate in time for 2022’s hurricane season, when Scott said DeSantis didn’t talk to him after the fearsome Hurricane Ian ravaged the state.
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