Sunburn – The Morning Read Of What’s Hot In Florida Politics – 6.18.21

By Peter Schorsch    

Good Friday morning.

Unless there is so much breaking news that we’d feel guilty not putting out an edition of Sunburn, I am taking Sunday off for Father’s Day.

Sunburn will be back in your inbox Tuesday morning.

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The 2021 Legislative Session is in the rearview, and most major bills that made it through the Legislature have already hit the Governor’s desk.

Now, it’s report card season.

Many organizations grade lawmakers for their votes on key bills, but the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s annual Legislative Report Card is the most comprehensive. Most years, it tabulates about 4,000 votes made in committee hearings and on chamber floors. The 2021 edition approaches 5,000.

Among the many Chamber priorities this year were bills to protect businesses from COVID-19 liability lawsuits, require out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax for online purchases, expand and streamline school choice, cut the commercial rents sales tax, address cost drivers in the property insurance market, and boost voluntary pre-kindergarten accountability.

For the most part, the Chamber’s wishes came true.

“Florida’s economy won with the Florida Chamber-backed, pro-jobs policy passed during the 2021 Legislative Session,” said Florida Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Mark Wilson. “The actions taken by Gov. (Ron) DeSantis and Florida’s lawmakers will go a long way in continuing to build momentum toward creating the more than 2 million jobs necessary to take Florida from the 17th largest economy in the world to the 10th largest by 2030 and securing Florida’s future.”

Bills and policies on the test were outlined in the Florida Chamber’s pre-Legislative Session agenda, “Where We Stand.” A copy was sent to every lawmaker before their first votes were cast.

The average lawmaker scored 79% on the Chamber’s scale, a C+ on some scales but a flat C in the chamber rubric. The average Senator scored an 80% — good enough for a B.

Overall, 88 lawmakers earned an A, 13 landed a B, and eight skated by with a C, and a dozen are staring at a D. The other 39 lawmakers failed, and there are no summer school opportunities at the Capitol.

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“Potential Tropical Cyclone 3 prompts tropical storm warning along Gulf Coast, hurricane center says” via Joe Mario Pedersen and David Harris of the Orlando Sentinel — The National Hurricane Center issued tropical storm warnings for parts of the Gulf Coast as the system now designated as Potential Tropical Cyclone 3 makes its way north, according to Thursday’s 5 p.m. update. The warning is in effect from Intracoastal City, Louisiana, to the Alabama/Florida border. As of 5 p.m., the system was located 475 miles south of Morgan City, Louisiana, and moving north at 9 mph. It will approach the north-central Gulf Coast late Friday or early Saturday and turn northeast after landfall. Maximum winds are at 30 mph, but strengthening is in the forecast Thursday night and Friday. Rainfall totals could fall between 4 and 8 inches with as high as 12 inches in some areas.

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Personnel note: BaughmanMerrill taps David Gracin as new marketing director — BaughmanMerrill hired Florida-based former campaign manager and strategist Gracin to lead the firm’s marketing efforts for 2022. Gracin has managed local, legislative, and congressional campaigns, including for Oz Vazquez in CD 18 and Harry Cohen for Tampa Mayor in 2019. “We are thrilled David will be taking the lead on our marketing efforts to build on our portfolio of clients and expand BaughmanMerrill’s services to Democratic candidates, organizations, and independent efforts …,” BaughmanMerrill partner and creative director Duane Baughman said. Partner and national campaign director Katie Merrill added, “As a former manager, David brings a depth of campaign knowledge from his years in the trenches that we’re proud to offer to our clients, both present and future.”

 — SITUATIONAL AWARENESS —

—@POTUS: Juneteenth is officially a federal holiday.

—@paimadhu: As North America & Europe vaccinate their way out of the COVID crisis, Asia, South America and Africa will get ravaged by the Delta variant. We must advocate for #VaccinesForAll & end the pandemic everywhere!

—@jaredlholt: If Republicans actually believed that Jan. 6 was an “inside job,” they’d support a commission to investigate what happened that day and before. That they would rather outsource that role to misinfo swamps online says about everything one needs to know about the genuineness here.

—@ddiamond: June 28, 2012: ACA survives*, 5-4 … June 25, 2015: ACA survives, 6-3 … June 17, 2021: ACA survives, 7-2

—@loriberman: .@GovRonDeSantis and @AGAshleyMoody used taxpayer money in support of a legal challenge to overturn Obamacare, which would’ve stripped health care away from over 20 million Americans. The country is thankful that they failed.

—@fswisen: By stacking the Florida Supreme Court with conservatives gen x or older, we ended up with a court whose judicial activism on cannabis is far out-of-step with the views of younger conservatives. I wonder what that means for the next 25 years of Florida pot.

Tweet, tweet:

Three years old and already has a better swing than his old man… pic.twitter.com/TtVvhgWm2b

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) June 17, 2021

—@carigebin: No one wants to go to a restaurant and have to scan in a QR code to get a menu. No one. I hope this trend dies a million painful deaths.

—@TamaraLush: ME: Yeah, I live in St. Pete. It’s like a little oasis of sanity in Flor- *reads article about my congressional district* *closes computer*