The 2026 Session had to get ‘embarrassing’ for the Legislature to reclaim its independence

If there can only be one takeaway from the 2026 Legislative Session, it’s that former Senate Presidents can be like certain house guests who don’t realize when they’ve overstayed their welcome.

Look no further than Senate President Don Gaetz, who served in the Senate from 2006 until 2016, including as Senate President from 2012 until 2014. He returned to the Senate in late 2024, shortly after being re-elected to the chamber after term limits reset due to his time out of office.

Except now his chin hairs are all over the bathroom sink and he drank all the good coffee.

Plus, he’s got some unsolicited critiques for the chamber he once led: We should all “be embarrassed” by it.

Reminding that Republicans control the Governor’s mansion and both chambers of the Legislature (by supermajorities, no less), Gaetz said it’s “a shame” that more didn’t get done this Session. He argued that since Republican lawmakers don’t have Democrats to argue with anymore, “we decided to argue with each other.”

“That’s inexcusable as Republicans,” he said. “I think that it’s bad stewardship as conservatives, and I certainly hope that we improve and improve very quickly.”

While anyone could argue there were unfortunate missteps and/or missed opportunities in this, or any, Legislative Session, it’s rich to hear Gaetz lament either chamber as an embarrassment. He is, after all, the father of a disgraced former member of Congress, Matt Gaetz.

Given the salacious and disturbing allegations against Baby Gaetz, do you suppose Papa Gaetz has ever once decried his own son as an embarrassment?

The House Ethics Committee released a report in late 2024 on the younger Gaetz after allegations of sexual misconduct. The report found “substantial evidence” that the former U.S. Representative violated House rules along with state and federal laws that prohibit “prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”

That all sounds … pretty embarrassing.

More embarrassing still, those findings also showed Gaetz engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl in 2017 and either used or possessed illegal drugs, including ecstasy and cocaine.

Perhaps there were private admonishments from father to son to which we are not privy. But I found no evidence of any public comments made by the elder Gaetz in condemnation of his son’s reprehensible actions.

Yet the former Senate President is now lamenting that the separation of powers established under the leadership of House Speaker Daniel Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton is somehow an embarrassment by Gaetz’s standards.

The embarrassment might be Gaetz’s, for a number of reasons. Let’s start first with what Gaetz is actually embarrassed about. What Gaetz describes as intraparty bickering and gridlock, Perez described much differently.

During his farewell speech last week, Perez played a video in which House members proudly declared they had taken back the House. And for the super uninitiated, no, that is not a reference to Republicans reclaiming the House — they’ve had a majority for years, and in recent years, a supermajority. Instead, it was a reference to reclaiming the chamber’s independence.

In fact, The New York Times last June took notice, with Miami-based reporter Patrica Mazzei noting that, shortly after the 2025 Session, Gov. Ron DeSantis would normally be traveling the state “trumpeting his legislative accomplishments” along with the “fellow Republican lawmakers who had fallen in line to achieve them.”

At the time, Perez made clear he was reasserting the Legislature’s position as “a coequal branch of government.”

With Perez — and, to some degree, his counterpart in the upper chamber, Albritton — the era of legislative rubber stamps came to a close. Is that embarrassing, or just pragmatic? Maybe a little embarrassment was necessary to ensure the rebirth of checks and balances in Florida.

What is actually embarrassing is Gaetz’s inability to do what Perez managed.

As Chair of the Senate Committee on Ethics and Elections, which oversees gubernatorial appointments, Gaetz didn’t push back on confirmations of DeSantis appointees roiled by the (actually embarrassing) Hope Florida scandal.

The Committee rubber-stamped confirmations for Department of Children and Families Secretary Taylor Hatch and Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Shevaun Harris, despite their confirmations having been previously denied the year before amid the scandal. The Committee also rubber-stamped a new appointment, Jeff Aaron, to the Public Employees Relations Commission board, despite Aaron also being involved in the scandal.

What makes that lack of courage particularly notable is, had the Committee denied the confirmation, both Harris and Hatch would have been forced from their positions under Florida law that requires any appointee who fails to be confirmed two consecutive times to be removed from office.

Members in the House recognize the importance of legislative autonomy.

In his own farewell address, Senate Budget Chief Lawrence McClure directly credited Perez’s leadership for “the restoration of the Florida House.”

“The legacy of most presiding officers is roads or buildings being named after you, budget priorities or policy initiatives — none of that will be your legacy,” McClure gushed. “It will be instead that you just stared this whole place, this whole process in the eye and challenged it to be better every single day. And I know you’re tired, but I sure hope you’re fulfilled.”

As for Perez, a few eyebrows were raised when, in his long list of acknowledgements to leaders past and present, Perez didn’t mention his own predecessor, Paul Renner.

It was largely Renner who allowed the House to become a tool of the executive office in the first place. Renner was seen as a top ally to DeSantis, but to what end? DeSantis snubbed Renner’s bid to succeed him, and to this day Renner hasn’t managed to coax an endorsement from the Governor he so cowed to.

Enter Perez: The House can now stand at its rightful place in Florida politics as a coequal branch of government. Anyone who has ever watched “Schoolhouse Rock” knows that’s the way it’s intended.

So to Gaetz, you’ve had a nice stay, and we’ve had some good times. But the time has now come for you to either pack your bags, or be a more gracious extended guest.