Sunburn — The morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics — 4.5.22

By Peter Schorsch    

Good Tuesday morning.

Global public strategy firm Mercury is adding veteran public policy expert Kristin Crawford-Whitaker as a senior vice president in its Florida office. She brings nearly two decades of experience in government relations, public affairs, and advocacy at the state and federal levels.

Most recently, Crawford-Whitaker served as assistant vice chancellor of public policy and advocacy for Florida’s State University System. There, she served as the Board of Governor’s principal liaison with the legislative and executive branches, university leadership and critical figures throughout Florida.

In addition to Crawford-Whitaker, Mercury brought on Giovanna Salucci as a vice president in the firm’s Fort Lauderdale office. Salucci brings a decade’s worth of experience in branding and content, digital organizing, email fundraising and web development. She has led the web design and development for multiple brands, campaigns and organizations, raised millions of dollars for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot, managed SMS programs that reached millions of voters in Florida, and overseen branding and digital content for political campaigns and advocacy organizations.

Salucci also served as email director for Andrew Yang for President, digital director of For Our Future FL, Chief Technology Officer for a tech startup in the digital political space and has worked with down-ballot and statewide campaigns nationwide.

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The next edition of INFLUENCE Magazine will be published around Memorial Day, focusing on the 2022 Election Cycle. (We’ve also begun to work on our biannual list of the INFLUENCE 100!)

The deadline to reserve space in this important edition is April 15. If you are interested in advertising, please email me at Peter@FloridaPolitics.com.

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Save the date — The Tiger Bay Club of Central Florida holds its annual post-Session panel review featuring Matt Dixon of POLITICO and me, 11:30 a.m., Citrus Club, 255 S. Orange Ave., Suite 1800, Orlando. Advanced purchase of tickets is required. No on-the-day sales. Sales end April 18 at noon.

— SITUATIONAL AWARENESS —

—@SamStein: A shocking data point that explains much of (Joe) Biden’s political troubles. More people think jobs have been lost over the last year (37%) than those who think they’ve been gained (28%). Unemployment is at 3.6%.

—@ChristinaPushaw: Maybe if crops could identify as transgender, Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner would pay attention to her actual job.

—@VoteRandyFine: I can say I’m a porcupine, but that doesn’t make it so. It is time to dispense with this fantasy making women’s sports a joke and our schools into a cesspool. I’ve taken on Common Core, university corruption, and school board lawbreaking. And won every time. This is next.

—@PatrickSvitek: Here we go: In new email to supporters, @DanPatrick rails against Disney over its opposition to the Florida law that critics called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. “I will make this law a top priority in the next Session,” Patrick says. #txlege

—@SpencerRoachFL: CEO Bob Chapek needs to be removed. A man obsessed with sexualizing 4-year-olds should not run a company that built its brand on preserving the innocence & magic of childhood.

—@JoelMMathis: I’m astonished by how rapidly some segments of the right have gone all-in on slurring their opponents as potential child rapists.

—@JHWeissmann: I know it will be waved away as ancient history, but it is amazing to me that the party of Dennis Hastert and Mark Foley has settled on “grooming” as their new moral panic.

—@MelanieSGriffin: Awesome afternoon at @BeachDistillery attending the @FloridaSpirits Annual Meeting. What a great group putting #Florida on the map with this industry’s high-quality, handcrafted products. Looking forward to experiencing additional tastings soon.

—@JonMCostello: I think that in this day and age, we should all realize that the best “influencing” we can do is to our children, family and close friends. When we depart this world, those are the only people who will care. Social media influence is dopamine to the brain, but empty.