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Kimberly Leonard's must-read briefing on what's hot, crazy or shady about politics in the Sunshine State | | | | |  | | By Kimberly Leonard | |  A billboard announcing the third Republican presidential debate in Miami is shown, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, in downtown Miami. | Wilfredo Lee/AP | Good morning and welcome to Debate Day. Republicans are descending on Miami-Dade County, with five GOP presidential candidates facing off downtown while frontrunner Donald Trump trolls them about 12 miles northwest with his own rally at a Hialeah stadium. And Miami is bracing for a chaotic mess. People who work and live in the city can expect huge delays and it’ll be almost impossible to find parking, especially near the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts where the debate will be held. Many roads will be closed, including the exit off a major causeway from South Beach, a popular tourist destination. Federal, state and county law enforcement will also be on hand, including the FBI and Secret Service, said Michael Vega, Miami Police’s spokesperson. On top of that, a swat team is on standby at an undisclosed location and officers will monitor hundreds of street cameras in real time. “We are prepared for whatever comes to us,” Vega said. “We train yearly for special events.” Police also set up a “Free Speech” zone for protestors, but authorities said no groups have yet sought a permit to demonstrate. Law enforcement also said they aren’t concerned about protests tied to the ongoing war in the Mideast because similar demonstrations in Miami have been peaceful. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who briefly ran for the GOP nomination this year but dropped out after less than three months, had pitched the city to the Republican National Committee for its 2024 convention in July — which eventually went to Milwaukee — but is still excited to help host the debate. “It's a high-profile event. We want to make sure that it goes off without a hitch, that security is a premium and that everyone feels safe,” he said in an interview. Suarez, who will attend the debate as a guest of RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, said he was “excited and a little bit heartbroken” about the debate since he is no longer in the running. But he said he’s happy for his city and wants Republicans to cite Miami as an example of how GOP policies could help urban areas thrive. The debate, he said, would be “a big event to showcase for us nationally and internationally, and we want to put our best foot forward.” The RNC gave many of its debate tickets to the candidates’ campaigns, and among the guests for Gov. Ron DeSantis are Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, House Speaker Paul Renner and Attorney General Ashley Moody, the campaign told Playbook. — WHERE'S RON? Gov. DeSantis will participate in the Republican presidential debate in Miami, hosted by NBC News. Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for Playbook? Get in touch at: kleonard@politico.com | | | | GO INSIDE THE CAPITOL DOME: From the outset, POLITICO has been your eyes and ears on Capitol Hill, providing the most thorough Congress coverage — from political characters and emerging leaders to leadership squabbles and policy nuggets during committee markups and hearings. We're stepping up our game to ensure you’re fully informed on every key detail inside the Capitol Dome, all day, every day. Start your day with Playbook AM, refuel at midday with our Playbook PM halftime report and enrich your evening discussions with Huddle. Plus, stay updated with real-time buzz all day through our brand new Inside Congress Live feature. Learn more and subscribe here. | | | | |
|  | ... DATELINE TALLAHASSEE ... | |
|  Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, pictured in front of the Old Capitol, Tuesday, April 19, 2022, in Tallahassee, Fla. | Phil Sears/AP | DEM DIVIDE — Vote over Israel support exposes rift within Florida Democrats, reports POLITICO’s Gary Fineout. The peak moment of tension occurred when Jacksonville Democrat and state Rep. Angie Nixon tried to convince fellow House members to support a non-binding resolution that called for the “de-escalation and cease-fire in the state of Israel and occupied Palestine.” Nixon’s resolution — which received just two yes votes — was called antisemitic by both Republicans and Jewish Democrats. UNANIMOUS — The Florida House passed a bill Tuesday expanding access to vouchers for students with special needs, a move that could benefit thousands of students this school year, reports POLITICO’s Andrew Atterbury. IDALIA RECOVERY — Georgia-Pacific says it never planned to seek tax breaks as House passes disaster relief bill, by POLITICO’s Bruce Ritchie. "Georgia-Pacific has no intention of applying for any government financial assistance for the Foley Cellulose mill facility," Robert Scott Mixon, public affairs manager for the Georgia-Pacific plant in Perry, told POLITICO on Tuesday. "There was never an intention to do so.” The House ultimately voted 110-0 to send the bill, FL HB1 (232) to the Senate, which is expected to vote Wednesday to send the measure to DeSantis. MISSING FROM SPECIAL SESSION — State Rep. Carolina Amesty was at a tax hearing in Orlando, reports the Orlando Sentinel’s Annie Martin and Leslie Postal, where she argued that the “$1.6 million house owned by her family’s private university should be exempt from Orange County property taxes because it serves as space for school gatherings, and not only as a residence for her father, the school’s president.” TRANS ATHLETES — “Federal judge upholds Florida ban on transgender athletes playing on female teams,” reports the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s David Lyons. “In a 39-page order dated Monday, U.S. District Judge Roy Altman said the law, dubbed as the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act and also known as SB 1028, does not violate the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution because its ‘sex-based classifications are substantially related to the state’s important interest in promoting women’s athletics.’” NEW IG REPORT — A new published investigation details complaints about Mike DiNapoli, DeSantis’ former housing director, reports the Tampa Bay Times’ Lawrence Mower. DiNapoli formerly oversaw a $700 million pandemic housing fund at the state’s Department of Economic Opportunity where he was “so hostile and condescending to the contractors managing the program that he was banned from contacting some of them,” the report revealed. GUESS WHO’S BACK — The Seminole Tribe has re-launched limited parts of its mobile sports betting in Florida, despite two pending lawsuits, reports the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s Shira Moolten. “Floridians who already had sports betting accounts from the brief 2021 launch, or who had already joined the company’s loyalty program, Unity by Hard Rock, before Nov. 6, get full ‘early access’ and can place bets before the ‘official launch,’ the website says: ‘All you have to do is download or open the all-new Hard Rock Bet app and log back into your account with the same credentials.’” | | PENINSULA AND BEYOND | |
TO REVISIT IN MARCH — “After industry pressure, Miami-Dade puts heat protections for outdoor workers on ice,” reports the Miami Herald’s Alex Harris and Ashley Miznazi. “A tense back and forth on the dais made clear that a majority of commissioners didn’t support the bill for a range of reasons. Some didn’t support the creation of additional county jobs (and the unknown associated price tag) to enforce new rules. Some said they didn’t think the regulations would cover enough people. But the key objection was that mandating regular water breaks and other measures amounted to unnecessary regulation of the politically influential agriculture and construction industries.”
‘PARADISE LOST’ — A new series from 7News lasers in on South Florida’s housing affordability crisis. The first report, from Karen Hensel and Daniel Cohen, shares the story of a woman who is among more than 100 unhoused people living at Fort Lauderdale International Airport. “The South Florida housing crisis has residents living on the edge. The prices of homes, apartments, insurance, and condo assessments keep going up and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight.” TWO MONTHS LATER — Sea turtle nests were destroyed by Hurricane Idalia, reports the Tampa Bay Times’ Max Chesnes. “Of the 75 known sea turtle nests on county beaches before Idalia, only 14 survived, according to researchers at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.” | | | CAMPAIGN MODE | | |
ELECTION RESULTS ROUNDUP
HOUSE DISTRICT 35 — “Republican Erika Booth, a teacher and member of the Osceola School Board, won her party’s primary in Tuesday’s special election for state House District 35 in eastern Orange and Osceola counties,” reports the Orlando Sentinel’s Steven Lemongello. “Tom Keen, who works in the aerospace training and simulation industry, won a close Democratic primary with 36% of the vote.” MIAMI DISTRICT 1 COMMISSION — Suspended commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla and former Miami Zoning Board member Miguel Gabela are headed to a runoff, reports Jesse Scheckner of Florida Politics. ORLANDO MAYOR — “Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer trounced three challengers Tuesday to win a seventh full term as mayor in what he said will be his final four years as the city’s chief executive,” report the Orlando Sentinel’s Ryan Gillespie and Martin E. Comas. MIAMI BEACH MAYOR — Michael Gongora and Steven Meiner are headed to a runoff, reported the Miami Herald’s Aaron Leibowitz
|  Then-President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable discussion about the Republican $1.5 trillion tax cut package he signed into law on April 16, 2018 in Hialeah, Florida. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images | TRUMP COUNTRY — “Trump Dominates DeSantis in Florida’s Cuban-Heavy Hialeah,” reports The Messenger’s Marc Caputo. By holding a rally here today Trump is telling DeSantis he’s “the clear favorite of blue-collar Hispanic voters in Florida, just as he is of Anglo conservatives in Iowa or New Hampshire.” Tidbit: “In the most concrete sign of support, the Hialeah City Council is so pro-Trump that Mayor Steve Bovo wants them to consider Nov. 14 renaming a street for the former president and current presidential frontrunner. Bovo told The Messenger he expects the yet-to-be-determined Trump Street, Trump Way or Trump Avenue to pass unanimously.” POSSIBLE FLIP — "DeSantis’ biggest donor is considering backing Trump," reports the Financial Times’ Alex Rogers. “Robert Bigelow, a Nevada real estate investor who has funded space exploration and research into paranormal activities, gave over $20 million to the DeSantis campaign earlier this year ... [but he] criticized DeSantis for running a weak campaign — and said Hamas’s attack on Israel last month showed the US needed a ‘streetwise’ leader such as Trump.” After Bigelow previously publicly expressed his opposition to Florida’s 6-week abortion ban and threatened not to donate to the DeSantis campaign anymore, “Bigelow said he expected the governor to contact him. But it was DeSantis’s wife Casey who called, two weeks later. ‘Not having him bothering to call me for an explanation taught me that he’s more of a user of people, actually, and that I didn’t matter enough for him to pick up the phone,’ Bigelow said.” | | DATELINE D.C. | |
CENSURE VOTE — Five Florida Democrats voted to censure U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan last night over her criticism of Israel. They were Reps. Lois Frankel, Jared Moskowitz, Darren Soto, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Frederica Wilson.
These are the same five Florida Democrats who joined Republicans in voting for supplemental Israel aid bill last week. Once again, Florida accounted for most Democrats that broke with the party, reported POLITICO’s Mia McCarthy. ONLY FLORIDIAN TO OPPOSE — “U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost says he should have voted for a resolution condemning antisemitism on college campuses, even though it contained what he called Republican ‘falsehoods,’” reports the Orlando Sentinel’s Skyler Swisher. “Frost said he has a different view after discussions with constituents and local leaders and a ‘difficult, but important’ listening session at the University of Central Florida’s Hillel chapter, a student Jewish organization.” DEMS ON OFFENSE — “Biden camp rails against DeSantis, ‘extremist’ Republicans in Miami ahead of debate,” by the Miami Herald’s Max Greenwood. Biden’s campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez “took aim at DeSantis’ so-called ‘Florida Blueprint’ — the governing agenda that he has touted throughout his White House bid — claiming that it’s brought nothing to the state but high housing costs, runaway property insurance premiums and a spate of conservative social policies ranging from a six-week ban on abortions to the removal of certain books from school libraries.” | | TRANSITION TIME | | | | | | PLAYBOOK IS GOING GLOBAL! We’re excited to introduce Global Playbook, POLITICO’s premier newsletter that brings you inside the most important conversations at the most influential events in the world. From the buzzy echoes emanating from the snowy peaks at the WEF in Davos to the discussions and personalities at Milken Global in Beverly Hills, to the heart of diplomacy at UNGA in New York City – author Suzanne Lynch brings it all to your fingertips. Experience the elite. Witness the influential. And never miss a global beat. BE PART OF THE CONVERSATION. SUBSCRIBE NOW. | | | | | After 25 years, Brittany Wallman is wrapping up her last week at the South Florida Sun Sentinel. She’ll start her new job with the Miami Herald’s investigative team on Nov. 20. Melissa Wolfe is now digital media director for U.S. Rep. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.). She most recently was director of digital operations for Mike Johnson (R-La.) before he was speaker. Also from Franklin’s office, Brooke Aghakhan is the new communications advisor. She previously worked at Pinkston and National Security Institute. Mariza Smajlaj is now comms director for Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.). She previously was editor of the Daily Skimm at theSkimm. | | | ODDS, ENDS AND FLORIDA MEN | | |
ALMOST 200 LBS! — That’s the weight of the second-heaviest Burmese python reported to be caught in South Florida, per Bill Kearney of the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
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