What to watch for in Florida’s state session
Bottom Line: What has 60 days, thousands of bills and more committees than you can name? Indeed the 2021 Florida state session is officially underway. This year’s session features 2,950 bills which have already been filed and if history holds only around 177 of them will pass. That’s because Florida’s averaging only around 6% of proposed bills being signed into law under Governor DeSantis and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Especially if you believe in the concept in which many of the best laws are the ones which never pass. But what will? For the third year in a row, you should start with Governor DeSantis’s agenda. First, there are more elected Republicans in the state of Florida than at any other time in our history. Second, consider... In the mist of the pandemic, when national news media made DeSantis a target, which state Democrats feasted on, many thought the governor was ripe for the picking. But in the end, Florida persevered through the pandemic performing better than the country in every measurable way and Governor DeSantis has his grove and approval ratings back – in a big way. How big?
Remember how he won by 0.4% in 2018? The first accredited polling of the 2022 cycle from Mason-Dixon paints a slightly different picture. Governor DeSantis’s approval rating is stands at a positive 11% with 53% approval and in a hypothetical matchup with the state’s two most prominent Democrats...the bigger question may be if they might think twice about a run against Ron. Against former Republican governor turned Democrat Congressman Charlie Crist – Ron’s lead is 11. And how about Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner who issued a rebuttal to Governor DeSantis’s State of the State address yesterday (not that anyone noticed)? Fried trails DeSantis by 9%. You don’t need me to tell you those margins in modern Florida politics are all but unheard of and have a way of making Commissioner Fried’s near daily diatribes seem that much smaller...and Governor DeSantis’s agenda that much more likely to pass.
Photo Credit: Getty Images