Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis has submitted her formal resignation so she can run to replace the late Sen. Geraldine Thompson.

“It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as the State Representative for Florida’s House District 40,” Bracy Davis wrote in a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis. “Since my first day in office, I have worked tirelessly on behalf of the residents of our district — fighting for quality education, economic opportunity, criminal justice reform, affordable housing, and protecting the right to vote.”

DeSantis earlier this week called a Special Election to replace Thompson in Senate District 15 after she unexpectedly died in February. A Special Primary was scheduled for June 24, with the Special Election set for Sept. 2 to decide who succeeds Thompson.

Bracy Davis’ resignation is effective Sept. 1, a day before the final vote in SD 15. Florida law requires her to resign to run for the office. State law says the irrevocable resignation must be submitted 10 days before qualification begins. The Governor set a qualifying period from April 21 to April 23 at noon, meaning any contender who currently holds a public office must submit their resignation no later than today.

Bracy Davis’ exit means a vacancy will soon open up in House District 40, where she has served since her election to the House in 2022. She made clear last month that she would run for Thompson’s seat as soon as the election was called.

Asked if she wants to see a Special Election to fill her House seat held concurrent with the Senate Special Election, she noted that the decision lies elsewhere, with DeSantis.

“Not up to me,” she told Florida Politics. “But I think for efficiency and fiscal responsibility purposes overlapping SD 15 General with HD 40 Primary would be ideal.”

Other candidates have already filed for the SD 15 Special Election. Personal injury lawyer Coretta Anthony-Smith filed as a Democrat. Willie Montague, founder of faith-based rehab nonprofit House of Timothy, filed as a Republican.

Former Sen. Randolph Bracy, a Democrat who preceded Thompson in the Senate, has also filed for the seat. He is Bracy Davis’ brother, setting up a potential family feud in the June Democratic Primary.

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A second Senate panel has approved a bill amid sharp debate from critics that would allow wrongful death lawsuits to be filed when an unborn child dies.

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice approved SB 1284 with a vote of 5-3, a day after the House passed a similar bill.

Some criticism of the legislation even came from the Right, with one anti-abortion group arguing the measure doesn’t go far enough and should also apply to embryos created and stored outside a woman’s body.

Meanwhile, the medical community and the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argued that the bill is dangerously overreaching as it is.

The bill does clarify that the unborn child’s own mother would not be subject to those wrongful death lawsuits, nor would health care providers giving “lawful medical care.”

The state, which is already facing a shortage of OBGYNs, will see medical providers reconsider caring for high-risk moms because they are scared of lawsuits if the bill is passed, argued Mark Delegal, a lobbyist representing The Doctors Company, the nation’s largest medical malpractice insurer.

“This bill will have an unintended consequence of not protecting the life of the unborn,” he said.

The ACLU of Florida argued under the bill that friends and family who help a loved one get an abortion could also get hit with lawsuits. Abusive partners seeking to gain control and power could be the ones filing the civil complaints, the ACLU said.

“These are not hypothetical situations. We’ve seen harassing litigation like this in Texas and Arizona,” said legislative director Kara Gross, who spoke out at the hearing.

Under the bill, it would not matter at what stage of pregnancy the fetus died since the bill would apply at “any stage of development, who is carried in the womb.”

“This would treat zygotes the same as actual human beings like you and me,” Gross said. “Treating fertilized eggs like human beings will have cascading impacts on in vitro fertilization, miscarriage management and cancer treatment for pregnant patients.”

But John Labriola, a lobbyist for Christian Family Coalition Florida, argued the bill acknowledges “the pre-born child does have value.”

Andrew Shirvell, Executive Director of the Florida Voice for the Unborn, went further, saying embryos in storage should also be covered and that the medical care exemption should be removed too.

“We can’t fully support it,” Shirvell said. “It is a life-affirming bill, but it does need to be amended.”

The Republican-led committee did not advance any such amendments.

After taking in the public comment, Democrat Sen. Tina Scott Polsky called the bill “just a bridge too far” and voted against it.

Republican Sen. Blaise Ingoglia argued that the bill fits in with the Legislature’s criminal laws.

“We have places in Florida Statute where we value the unborn child given enhanced penalties in criminal cases,” he said. “And I think what this does is just makes it consistent, saying that if there is value in criminal cases, there should be value in civil cases as well.”

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In 1981, Florida’s bankers and attorneys worked together to solve a problem – how to provide legal assistance for people who could not afford it.

Law firms have a “trust” account to deposit client money. This account keeps client money separate from law firm operating accounts. When this money is aggregated with other clients’ money, it can earn more interest.

Together, working with The Florida Bar’s charitable foundation, The Florida Bar Foundation, now known as Funding Florida Legal Aid (FFLA), a first-in-the-nation program was created to use the interest on client money in law firm trust accounts to fund Legal Aid services.

For 42 years, the program worked well, and Florida bankers were happy to work with Florida attorneys to support this worthy cause. However, in 2023, the Florida Bar rewrote the rules and dramatically increased the interest rate they require banks to pay FFLA. This program, which had been collecting and spending around $10 – 20 million per year, depending on interest rate levels in the market, suddenly raked in $280 million in one year – so much money that the attorneys could not figure out how to spend it all and put more than $140 million in reserves.

In fact, with all of this extra money, FFLA has gone beyond their original noble cause and extended funds to hire lobbyists, support egregious lawsuits against Florida job creators and property owners, increase a student loan repayment program exclusively for attorneys and other questionable programs. These programs are not primarily supported by donors to FFLA, they are primarily supported by the significant interest paid on law firms’ client’s money. This significant interest is counter to the 1987 ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cone v. The State Bar of Florida, 819 F.2d 1002, which determined that the interest gained for the program was nominal. A jump to nearly $300 million (projected interest revenue for 2024-2025) is certainly not nominal.

The FFLA has yet to justify why they should be treated better than any other individual, family, non-profit or business, including you. They believe they should get more money through the Supreme Court’s edict because they cannot raise money elsewhere. Banks are willing to help the FFLA explore other sources of income, such as increased support from Bar members or a state appropriation. We all want to continue the good work for which this program was initially conceived and created. Still, the recently imposed rate increase of more than 3,000% is unsustainable, unconstitutional and affects all bank customers’ interest, not just IOTA accounts. The current arbitrary rate jeopardizes the entire program and must be reset to a more reasonable, nominal, and sustainable level comparable to what other non-IOTA bank customers receive.

Legislation HB 173/SB 498 is before the Florida House and Senate. It would do exactly that and guarantee that this vital program continues for years to come. The bill has been voted favorably in all three Senate committees of reference and deserves the same consideration in the House.

A fairly set interest rate that adequately funds this critical effort is in everyone’s best interest – attorneys, bankers, and, most importantly, the citizens of Florida. I urge the Florida Legislature to continue working on the good bills they have before them on this issue and pass them this Legislative Session so that Funding Florida Legal Aid can continue the good work it has done for decades and the decades yet to come.

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Scott Jenkins represents the Bankers for a Sustainable IOTA Program.

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