Winner and Loser of the Week in Florida politics — Week of 2.8.26

For several of the last few weeks, we’ve used this intro to talk sports and keep it lighthearted coming off the new year, to distract from the stress of Session.

But with the Super Bowl over and the sports calendar lightening, we had decided to move on to something different this week.

Then Charlie Woods signed with Florida State University’s golf program, giving the capital city even more non-Session fodder.

Woods is, of course, the son of golf legend Tiger Woods. Charlie Woods hasn’t quite reached his father’s hype just yet (who has?), but he’s now 21st in the Rolex American Junior Golf Association rankings and has shown flashes of promise as a future golf pro.

And he doesn’t need to be his dad for this to be a boon for FSU. Tiger arguably belongs on the Mount Rushmore of athletes. Having him as a program booster — either financially or even just promotionally — is likely to pay dividends for the university. That potential grows even larger if Charlie Woods does become the next big thing in golf.

But it’s also a win for Charlie, who joins one of the country’s top golf programs. FSU has already recruited No. 1 high school junior Miles Russell, who will join Woods in the 2027 class. And FSU golf has already been competitive in years past, finishing as runner-up in 2024.

Until FSU gets their football program straightened out, maybe it’s time to embrace their position as a golf school.

Now, it’s onto our weekly game of winners and losers.

Winners

Honorable mention: Wilton Simpson. Simpson has gone to bat for Florida farmers dealing with the fallout of a historic freeze across the state.

The Agriculture Commissioner earlier this month pushed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to issue a disaster declaration to free up federal relief for farmers. That led to Florida’s congressional delegation joining the push this past week with a letter to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins.

In addition, Simpson is promoting ads urging Floridians to buy Fresh From Florida to provide relief to farmers affected by the cold. And he has been hands-on surveying the damage while continuing to spotlight the work of farms throughout Florida.

As we said last week, farmers are already dealing with other struggles, including fallout from major storms in recent years and citrus greening that has significantly impacted the industry.

This freeze was yet another burden the community must overcome, and Simpson is doing his best to advocate for them to succeed.

Almost (but not quite) the biggest winner: Rays stadium momentum. Previous updates in the Rays’ stadium push at Hillsborough Community College’s Dale Mabry campus in Tampa have mostly been preliminary, but we are getting to a point where this momentum feels inevitable.

Just this week, both Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and Hillsborough College President Ken Atwater publicly endorsed the plan as the Rays have begun seeking input from fans.

Sure, there are a lot of votes still ahead. But let’s be real, the city’s Mayor and President of the college hosting the stadium site aren’t going to make a push this early unless it’s clear the major stakeholders are set on pushing a deal through. And that’s not to mention Gov. Ron DeSantis and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred already putting their support out there.

The team is pushing for an aggressive timeline, aiming to open a new park in 2029. That requires this process to move quickly, and it seems like the stars are aligning to put forward a strong case to the public as to why this deal makes sense.

Otherwise, the “Orlando Rays” just doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

The biggest winner: Florida House. It remains to be seen the end result of whatever is going on behind the scenes between House and Senate budget negotiators. But what is clear is that this week, the House got the upper hand.

Flashback to 11 days ago when the Senate said release of their own budget would be delayed until Feb. 12. At the time, Senate Appropriations Chair Ed Hooper seemed to imply that the House budget wasn’t ready yet, and that the Senate planned to respect the process by delaying their spending plan.

“Traditionally, the chambers introduce budgets the same week. It is important for us to keep that tradition and roll out the same week as our partners in the House,” Hooper said. “As such, we have updated our schedule to roll out our budget in the committees on Thursday, the 12th, instead of this week.”

House Budget Chair Lawrence McClure rebuked that directly.

“With respect to Senator Hooper, during this term the Florida Senate has demonstrated little interest in respecting legislative traditions,” McClure said. “Any timing issues they are having in pulling together their Senate budget have absolutely nothing to do with the Florida House.”

OK that’s pretty harsh, but it’s still very much a he-said, he-said situation.

Then came this week. Word was bubbling that Thursday, Feb. 12, was indeed the day. Our staff was told to keep an eye out for budget docs. Then, again, the Senate put the kibosh on it.

“We will not be presenting our budget today. Our goal remains to roll out our budget in concert with our House partners. Taking into account public notice requirements in the Senate Rules, the next opportunity to roll out our budget is next week,” Hooper wrote to Senators in a Thursday memo.

“We will certainly keep you updated as we move forward. We look forward to working with our House partners and to getting the budget process underway as soon as possible. We have great partners in the House, and I have every expectation we will work well together moving forward.”

Was that expectation justified? Well, just hours later, the House released its full budget proposal.

And all of a sudden, the Senate moved off its delay until next week, pushing its own plan out Friday.

Again, we don’t know where this ends, or whether it will even be remembered a week or two from now. But in addition to being a sign that inter-chamber tensions remain, this week also made the Senate look like they were behind the curve. And for whatever the reason, we’re guessing that was the House’s goal.

Mission accomplished. But folks, let’s all remember the real mission is to finish Session on time.

Losers

Dishonorable mention: Department of Emergency Management. The Division of Emergency Management — the state agency meant to protect Floridians from hurricanes and disasters — instead racked up a staggering $405 million-plus bill in just six months on immigration-related efforts.

That eye-popping tab came out of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund, a taxpayer-supported pot created to respond to bona-fide emergencies — you know, hurricanes, floods, wildfires — not border enforcement and migrant detention logistics. Since August, the agency has funneled hundreds of millions not just toward standard enforcement costs, but to hotels, flights, custom badges and car rentals.

For context, as the Florida Phoenix details, the amount spent in the past six months makes up about 70% of Florida’s immigration spending in the past four years.

We doubt many people would have expected taxpayer funds to be diverted to immigration enforcement, which, on top of everything else, is a federal responsibility. And while state officials are hoping to be reimbursed by the feds … what if they aren’t?

Is now really the time to be playing fast and loose with emergency response funds after the series of storms that have hit this state the past several years? Florida was thankfully spared in 2025. There’s no promise the same will be the case this year.

The impact of storms is a nonpartisan problem. Hurricanes don’t care if you’re a Republican or a Democrat. But like many other issues — namely affordability — Floridians have been grappling with in recent years, the DeSantis administration is again prioritizing partisan signaling over utilizing resources to help all Floridians.

We hope the check from Washington comes soon.

Almost (but not quite) the biggest loser: Randy Fine. If ever there were a case study in how badly Republicans have mismanaged their recent victory in the culture war, U.S. Rep. Fine delivered it this week.

Fine decided that Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show — one of the most-watched live performances in history — was so offensive that he would sic the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on the NFL, NBC and the artist himself, demanding a review over alleged “explicit” content.

Here’s the problem: Much of what Fine cited as indecent — including explicit lyrics — weren’t actually present on the broadcast. The performance aired with self-censored audio and Bad Bunny avoided much of the profanity used in the uncensored versions of his songs, yet Fine still thought it would look tough to start roping in the FCC.

Fine’s complaint is about as coherent as the ravings of that one uncle you have to hide the alcohol from during holiday gatherings. Rather than just ignore Bad Bunny’s performance or try to gaslight people into thinking Kid Rock “mogged” him, Fine opted for a culture-war blunderbuss that makes him look more outraged internet commenter than legislator.

Look, Republicans had real culture war momentum after Donald Trump won again. Advertisers seemed less likely to embrace so-called “woke” marketing. Titans in the tech arena were kissing the ring. Media outlets were embracing more right-leaning philosophies. It really seemed like the 2024 election was as much of a social shift as it was a political referendum.

And what have Republicans done since? Mostly bitch and moan. Part of the case conservatives have made for years against the Left was that liberals were delicate little snowflakes getting triggered over every little thing they could find without understanding that society has moved in their direction in very significant ways.

That mindset now perfectly encapsulates many Republican leaders and influencers, who seem to believe that constant rage-posting will help grow their political or social clout.

Or, like Fine, they can stick with the schtick of whining about every event that doesn’t fit their delicate worldview and continue looking to the rest of us normal people like a triggered little snowflake.

The biggest loser: Pam Bondi. This week, Bondi was pressed by lawmakers over the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) bungled release of millions of documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation — a release that drew bipartisan ire.

That ire was due in large part to the DOJ seemingly inexplicably over-redacting the names and information of adult men while poorly redacting personal information about several victims.

Bondi had the chance Wednesday to answer questions about those failures and more. Instead, she engaged in performative mudslinging. Is that because lawmakers were out of line? Or because they were twisting the facts?

No, it was because Bondi didn’t have any answers. And as the old lawyer saying goes, “When the facts are on your side, pound the facts. When the law is on your side, pound the law. When you have neither, pound the table.”

Survivors of Epstein’s abuse were seated just behind Bondi during the hearing. Yet when asked to turn and apologize directly for the redaction failures and the harm caused, Bondi flatly refused to even acknowledge they were there, dismissing the plea as little more than “theatrics” while engaging in one of the most theatrical hissy fits ever seen in Washington.

And was there some spectacle in asking that question? Of course. But a better, more composed Attorney General — one who wasn’t performing for an audience of one — could have demonstrated some compassion in that moment while also undercutting the premise. Instead, we got one of the most damning photos taken of a Cabinet official in U.S. history.

With the Epstein survivors in plain view, Bondi goes out of her way to look the other way.

A fitting metaphor for this administration’s effort.

The hearing also featured Bondi repeatedly spitting back at members, trading insults instead of giving answers — at one point calling a Republican colleague a “failed politician” with “Trump derangement syndrome,” and firing back at Democrats with personal taunts that had observers double-taking.

Critics from both sides of the aisle seized on her unwillingness to take responsibility. Some lawmakers even accused her of running a “vendetta factory” out of the Justice Department and of prioritizing political defense over transparency and justice for victims whose lives had already been shattered.

Meanwhile, Bondi’s reluctance to confront the core controversies — why survivors felt ignored, why confidential information was released in the first place, and how the Department plans to follow up on leads in the files — left even friendly observers shaking their heads.

Trump is historically unpopular and has further to fall as we eventually break out of whatever spell we’re under that says his leadership is acceptable in this country.

Is it really worth contorting yourself into a cartoon character and going against the wishes of abused women for a few months of attaboys until Trump throws you under the bus?

It appears as though she thinks so. We disagree.