Ingoglia gets ‘politically incorrect' on CFO and more
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FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Rep. VERN BUCHANAN, co-chair of the Florida congressional delegation, is following President DONALD TRUMP's lead by endorsing his colleague, Rep. BYRON DONALDS, for governor of Florida. Buchanan's endorsement is the first to come out of the House.
'My friend, Byron Donalds, is a fearless Conservative and MAGA patriot,' Buchanan said in a statement. 'I have worked closely with him in Congress and know from personal experience his fight, tenacity, and effectiveness. He will be a great executive for our Sunshine State.' Read more.
Good morning and welcome to Tuesday.
State Sen. BLAISE INGOGLIA is letting everyone know he'd still like to be Florida's next chief financial officer.
Speaking to a crowd at the Tiger Bay Club in Tallahassee on Monday, Ingoglia (R-Spring Hill) decided to dive right into CFO speculation, a huge topic of conversation among Tallahassee insiders. The current CFO, Republican JIMMY PATRONIS, is likely headed to Congress next month after getting Trump's endorsement for the April 1 special election. That means Gov. RON DESANTIS will pick Patronis' successor.
'I know my name is on the list to be considered for CFO, there is still a long way to go, especially months and months of butt kissing to Gov. DeSantis,' Ingoglia said. (Yes, that's verbatim.) 'We don't know if it's going to happen. Hopeful. I do know this: Whoever the governor chooses to be the next CFO, I trust the governor's judgment to make sure that he's going to put people in places that are going to work hard, do a good job.'
The selection is complicated for the governor. Trump has endorsed state Sen. JOE GRUTERS (R-Sarasota) for the job. While DeSantis has been mending his relationship with Trump, he won't give Gruters a leg up by appointing him to the seat; the two don't get along.
That still leaves the question as to whether DeSantis appoints an ally like Ingoglia, who would likely run against Gruters in 2026, or whether he appoints more of a caretaker who merely stays in the role until the election.
Ingoglia, a former chair of the Republican Party of Florida, talked up his business background during Monday's speech and separately to reporters. He also got candid, calling himself 'politically incorrect' and saying his 'four languages' were 'English, profanity, sarcasm and real shit.'
'Growing up, my mom said I could be anything I wanted,' he said. 'So I decided I wanted to be a problem for Democrats, and a lot of Republicans, too. I'm not afraid to take on the establishment, nor the status quo.'
Here's what else he had to say:
On conversations with the governor …
Ingoglia revealed he has been talking to DeSantis about property tax relief. 'I started bending his ear six months ago about this stuff, and now we're finally talking about this stuff,' he said of the ongoing hearings on the matter.
Ingoglia predicted that if the Legislature didn't pass property tax relief this session — whether by getting rid of it altogether or raising the homestead exemption — then it would happen next session.
On a key way to reduce home insurance premiums …
Ingoglia, who owns a home-building company, said an 'aspirational goal' would be for new Florida homes to be built with more resilience and elevated against storms, given that home losses are contributing to high costs. The government could play a role by creating incentives, he added.
'Twenty, 30, 40 years from now, we want to have the coastlines and the riverbeds so resilient that, when a storm comes through, we have minimal effect,' he said, defining that to be 'a couple hundred million dollars' or up to $1 billion worth of damage.
On his immigration legislation …
Ingoglia filed an immigration bill that would force all employers to run workers through E-Verify to check immigration status, restrict homeownership for undocumented immigrants and make it difficult for undocumented immigrants to send money abroad. But the bill has yet to be heard in committee.
'I don't have much hope that that bill is going to be heard,' Ingoglia said. 'I wish it was. My fear is that we are done with illegal immigration reform this session, ending with what we did in special session. I wish we were able to do more.'
— Isa Domínguez and Kimberly Leonard
Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget that Playbook should look at? Get in touch at: kleonard@politico.com.
... DATELINE TALLAHASSEE ...
FOR YOUR RADAR — Two bills now moving through the Florida Senate would put in place a way for the eligibility of candidates to be challenged in court, after recent rulings placed limits on the ability to question whether someone belongs on the ballot.
The Senate Ethics & Elections Committee on Monday unanimously advanced a bill — SB 982 — sponsored by state Sen. MACK BARNARD (D-West Palm Beach) that would give rival candidates up to 10 days to file a lawsuit questioning whether a candidate is qualified to run for office.
Another bill — SB 280, sponsored by state Sen. KRISTEN ARRINGTON (D-Kissimmee) — would also make it clear that a political party or candidate could ask a court to remove someone from the ballot if the candidate was not a member of that party at least one year prior to qualifying. The First District Court of Appeals in 2022 ruled in a case involving congressional candidate REBEKAH JONES that the party qualification rule could not be enforced.
MARK HERRON, a longtime elections lawyer, praised Barnard's bill and said it did several 'good things' needed to clean up election laws. Herron said Florida courts for decades had allowed candidate qualifications to be questioned until the recent rulings.
— Gary Fineout
TERM LIMITS — A Senate panel on Monday advanced two proposed constitutional amendments dealing with term limits, but there are already signs they may run into trouble gaining enough support to pass the full Florida Legislature. The Senate Ethics & Elections Committee advanced SJR 536, a measure that if approved by voters would say that legislators could serve no more than a total of 16 years — eight years in the state House, eight years in the state Senate. The idea is to stop legislators from 'ping-ponging' from one chamber to another.
That same committee also advanced SJR 802, which would impose term limits on county commissioners and enshrine already existing term limits for school board members in the state constitution. Both measures are sponsored by Ingoglia, who has already spent some time this year feuding with Senate GOP leaders.
During the committee meeting, some Republican legislators expressed discomfort at the idea of a 'lifetime' cap for lawmakers and said it could prevent someone from serving in their late 20s and then deciding to do it decades later. State Sen. ERIN GRALL, a Vero Beach Republican, said she was troubled at having eight-year term limits. An amendment that would have changed the number to 12 was defeated.
It takes a three-fifths vote of both houses of the Legislature to place an amendment on the ballot, so a combination of Republicans and Democrats voting against it could doom the measure for this session.
— Gary Fineout
MOVING TO TIGHTEN HEMP RESTRICTIONS — 'A renewed effort by the state Senate to tighten regulations for Florida's rapidly growing hemp industry was unanimously approved by its first committee Monday, amid concerns the measure would still hurt small businesses,' reports POLITICO's Arek Sarkissian.
'The bill, FL SB438 (25R), by state Sen. Colleen Burton (R-Lakeland), would limit hemp products to 5 milligrams of THC per serving, and 50 milligrams per package. The measure would also apply new restrictions to ensure product packaging does not appear attractive to children, and a block on street advertising that can be seen by the public.'
FANNIE MAE HAS A CONDO BLACKLIST, MOST ARE IN FLORIDA — 'According to lenders and real-estate agents, Fannie Mae greatly expanded the list after the Surfside condo collapse in Florida in 2021 killed 98 people. Compounding the problem, a nationwide insurance crisis is making it more expensive for condo associations to afford adequate [property insurance] coverage,' reports Jean Eaglesham and Nicole Friedman of The Wall Street Journal.
— 'What to know about Florida's gun buying age law and the push to undo it,' by Romy Ellenbogen of the Tampa Bay Times.
MAKING THE GRADE — A bill making its way through the Legislature would undo requirements that students must pass certain language arts and math exams to graduate, reports Steven Walker of the Orlando Sentinel. The legislation was introduced by state Sen. COREY SIMON (R-Tallahassee) and 'comes as national test scores last year showed Florida students' academic achievement was declining.'
LEGISLATION ROUNDUP — State Rep. OMAR BLANCO (R-Miami) and state Sen. ANA MARIA RODRIGUEZ (R-Miami) filed a bill to 'restore a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, to the Florida Retirement System, the pension system for more than 600,000 people who work for Florida cities, counties, school districts, and state government,' reports James Call of USA TODAY NETWORK — Florida. … A bipartisan team of lawmakers wants new state funding to increase security for Jewish students at the University of Florida, Florida State University, and the University of South Florida, reports Florida Politics' Peter Schorsch. …
— '5 ways the COVID-19 pandemic changed Florida,' by Kathryn Varn, Yacob Reyes, Sommer Brugal and Martin Vassolo of Axios.
PENINSULA AND BEYOND
FLUORIDE QUESTION — 'County commissioners could pass legislation [today] instructing the Water and Sewer Department to discontinue adding fluoride to tap water within 30 days, a directive championed at a Miami hearing this week by Dr. Joseph Ladapo, Florida's surgeon general under DeSantis,' reports Douglas Hanks of the Miami Herald.
CAMPAIGN MODE
SCOTT GOV PREDICTIONS — Sen. RICK SCOTT (R-Fla.) didn't directly answer a question Monday about whether he would endorse Florida gubernatorial candidate BYRON DONALDS, but he did say he thought Donalds, who is his congressman, would win the race — even if Florida first lady CASEY DESANTIS were to get in. He talked up Donalds' record and said that he 'works his butt off.'
'I'm going to do everything I can to be helpful to him,' Scott said on Brian Kilmeade's Fox Radio program. 'I think he'll be a phenomenal governor. I think he's going to win. I'm glad that Trump endorsed him.'
— 'Florida Democratic consultant takes down online ad after objection raised by AOC,' by Mitch Perry of the Florida Phoenix.
DATELINE D.C.
THE GAETZ QUESTION — 'Scandal-ridden former Rep. Matt Gaetz is gone from Congress, but the wounds he inflicted on the House Ethics Committee that investigated him remain fresh,' reports POLITICO's Hailey Fuchs.
'After the longest delay in recent history, the panel finally recruited enough members to perform its grim mandate of governing fellow lawmakers' conduct in the 119th Congress. And they'll have their work cut out for them: The committee is still regrouping from its crisis late last year over whether to break with recent precedent and release the results of an investigation into their former Florida GOP colleague, who was being considered for attorney general.'
ODDS, ENDS AND FLORIDA MEN
— 'Boeing Starliner astronauts to return home with SpaceX Crew-9 on Tuesday,' by Richard Tribou of the Orlando Sentinel.
BIRTHDAYS: Mizell Stewart III, president and CEO of Emerging Leaders LLC … Step Up for Students' Ron Matus ... former Florida Education Association President Andy Ford.
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