Sunburn — The Morning Read Of What’s Hot In Florida Politics — 2.10.22

By Peter Schorsch

Good Thursday morning.

Two Florida governmental affairs firms, Anfield Consulting and Capitol Access, have announced their merger, along with the addition of a new team member, Brett Cyphers.

The two firms have worked together extensively, with a long history of collaboration on client projects, and moving forward, will operate together under the banner of Anfield Consulting.

Anfield, founded in 2011, is a boutique firm specializing in legislative, agency and local government representation. Anfield has established itself as a leading advocate in water resources, environmental policy, health care, transportation and local government issues representing a diverse group of public and private sector clients.

Capitol Access began as a consulting firm in 1997. Founder Jerry Paul, a former member of the House of Representatives, has guided and grown the firm through specialization in appropriations, local government law, and policy issues related to the environment, energy, transportation, and water.

For Paul, who was recently named president of a college in New England, the merger provides for continuity and growth following his departure later this year. “It’s a partnership that will be seamless because of the close working relationship we’ve had with Anfield founders Frank Bernardino and Albert Balido over many years in Tallahassee.”

“We’ve worked well together in the Capitol because our firm philosophies, client service, and issue areas are so similar,” says Balido.

Joining Anfield Consulting is Cyphers, who has a lengthy career in public service that spans over two decades, covering multiple military, legislative, executive, and water management district roles. Most recently, Cyphers served as executive director of the Northwest Florida Water Management District, preceded by positions in the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Florida House, Governor’s office, Florida Senate, Southwest Florida Water Management District, the U.S. Army, and the Florida National Guard.

“Brett’s deep and broad experience, his strong drive, and his unquestioned character are a great fit for who we are and what we do,” Bernardino said.

For his part, Cyphers says there’s nowhere else he would rather begin the next chapter of his professional life. “The team members at Anfield are individually wonderful human beings, and together they have built a culture and operation that’s second to none.”

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Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones is launching a voter engagement drive that hopes to encourage 40,000 people to head to the polls … or just walk to their mailbox.

Known as “Operation BlackOut,” the initiative has a unique niche: It will solely focus on using vote-by-mail to expand the electorate by increasing turnout among Black, Brown and young voters who are registered voters, but do not vote.

The initiative comes amid a surge in Republican voter registrations — the Florida GOP recently surpassed Democrats in overall registrations for the first time in modern history. But even when Democrats led in raw numbers, they rarely flexed the advantage.

“If we are going to turn the tide and grow power, we need to expand the electorate through voter registration as well as engage and turn out the millions of Black and Brown voters who do not vote,” Jones said. “Nearly all data experts agree that Florida Democrats can’t simply register our way to a win in a state too often lost on the margins — it is imperative that we boost engagement with sporadic voters, particularly young people and in communities of color, who feel disenchanted with politics these days.”

Jones’ project has the support of several other voter registration and engagement groups, including the Alliance, Florida Ground Game and Equal Ground. Leaders from each lauded Jones for taking on the challenge.

“Equal Ground is honored to support the efforts of Sen. Shevrin Jones with ‘Operation BlackOut,’” said Jasmine Burney-Clark, the executive director of Equal Ground. “It will take each and every one of our organizations, firing on all cylinders, to carry us to victory this November. Together we will put our heads down, get to work, and run a ground game Florida has never seen before.”

Operation BlackOut debuted with a website that helps voters statewide navigate to their county’s supervisor of elections website and request a vote-by-mail ballot.

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The Florida Chamber Foundation is researching how the state’s workforce can be set up for success in the coming decade, and it’s looking for input.

The foundation is looking for businesses of all kinds to sound off on what employers need — and what they are doing — to provide job skills training to the workforce. The data will help inform the forthcoming information “Workforce Needs Study 2.0.”

As the title suggests, the research project is a follow-up to the 2021 Florida Workforce Needs Study, which provided a deep dive into the impacts of COVID-19 on Florida’s industries and talent.

The study revealed that more than half of Florida employers said their new hires require additional skills training and that 58% believe they will need to reskill or upskill their current employees to be successful.

Despite that, 57.5% said they haven’t partnered up with any educational institutions — universities, colleges, technical centers, or local workforce training organizations — to help develop needed skills. Further, two-thirds of those polled said they didn’t know about state or federal employee training programs.

Version 2.0, the culmination of a two-year research program, will further examine the pandemic’s lasting impacts and provide insight into how Florida businesses and educational institutions can work together to ensure the future workforce has the hard and soft skills employers need.

Employers can participate in the study via a survey on the Florida Chamber Foundation website.

— SITUATIONAL AWARENESS —

—@RepSeanMaloney: Democrats’ plan to fight COVID is working — cases are down & vaccines are widely available. Now, it’s time to give people their lives back. With science as our guide, we’re ready to start getting back to normal.

—@J_G_Allen: CDC boxed themselves in bc they never addressed the two out-of-date metrics they use to guide masking: cases and test positivity. They set these pre-vaccine, pre-booster, pre-rapid test. They’re flawed — and biased — indicators of community spread and risk. Governors leading.

Tweet, tweet:

—@IanFelipeSays: The lack of respect for another person’s medical privacy is appalling to anyone who has actually worked in medicine. Journalists think they have the moral high ground for asking vaccine ‘gotcha’ questions. In reality, they just look like petty, immature and disrespectful.

Tweet, tweet:

—@ChrisSprowls: We have worked hard to anticipate risks & prepare today for tomorrow’s challenges. But we couldn’t plan for the reckless spending in DC, impacting every American & Floridian. Our House budget addresses the crisis w/ a new $2B fund & state worker raises tied to the inflation rate.

—@Daniel_Sweeny: You always hear in Tallahassee how the trial lawyers are one of the GOP’s biggest enemies, right up there with teachers’ unions, but man, the GOP sure seems to be giving trial lawyers a ton of new lawsuit venues this Session.

Tweet, tweet:

—@DanPriceSeattle: Tyson raised prices 20% due to “inflation costs.” At the same time, Tyson’s profit margin went up to 19% and hit $1.1 billion last quarter. Companies are getting richer than ever by referring to corporate greed as “inflation.”

—@Grace_Segers: The current makers of Star Wars seem to have concluded that the reason the twin suns scene is so resonant is because Tatooine is super cool and not because Luke *wants to leave there very badly