Editorial: Money talks with Florida's new attorney general

Yahoo

2 days ago

Tallahassee's dealership-driven car sales legislation made Tesla a winner in 2023 by allowing it to bypass dealerships and sell cars directly to Floridians, even while banning the practice for others.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier intends to make another automotive startup, Scout Motors, a loser for just thinking about it.
That's no surprise. Since Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed his ex-chief of staff to the state's top legal post, Uthmeier has repeatedly flexed state power to choose winners and losers while winking at fairness and accountability.
When it comes to cars, Uthmeier is with wealthy dealers — not cost-conscious car buyers.
In this case, Scout Motors plans to revive the discontinued but popular Scout truck brand, with electric vehicles. The U.S. subsidiary of Volkswagen bought billboard space in Miami and Fort Lauderdale and invited people to pay a reservation fee of $100. The money secures the right to buy a truck or SUV directly from Scout.
Buying cars directly from manufacturers instead of through dealers is a boon for buyers. No dealer haggling. No murky pricing. Dealers hate it, of course. They argue consumers are best served by the middleman system of dealerships started in 1889.
Years of research poke holes in that idea, and buyers navigating a thicket of add-on dealer costs would disagree.
Scout trucks won't roll off an assembly line before 2027. Dealers aren't waiting. Several sued Scout Motors in Miami-Dade, citing Florida's ban on almost all direct sales. Dealers also asked the judge to let them rifle through Scout's business records. They want to find out how many Floridians paid $100 reservation fees.
Independent Florida journalist Jason Garcia revealed that Uthmeier's office wrote to Scout, asking how many Florida consumers paid $100 reservation fees and how much money Scout raised.
Uthmeier then hopped onto the Attorney General's X account to warn that Scout is hiding the fact that it will not sell cars in Florida.
Directly below it was a link to an opinion piece, announcing dealerships are best suited to sell Scout vehicles. The post is inexplicably misleading. Scout hasn't finalized its distribution plan, but it absolutely intends to sell and transport cars directly to Floridians. That's what the dealerships hope to stop.
This is not happening in a political vacuum.
The unelected, unknown Uthmeier must face voters next year as he'll be up for election. As Garcia details, Uthmeier's office started quizzing Scout Motors after Miami dealership mogul Norman Braman and his wife donated $25,000 to Uthmeier's political committee.
Braman Automotive is at the top of the Miami lawsuit. In total, dealerships and their lobbyists have chipped in almost $90,000 to keep Uthmeier in office, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
In this case, Scout Motors is the hand-picked loser: It will have to defend itself in the Miami dealership case and answer to the A.G.'s office.
But Uthmeier's picks aren't confined to dealerships.
Target's Pride Month started a decade ago. Company stock fluctuated both before and after its 2023 promotion turned political.
That didn't stop Uthmeier from filing a class action lawsuit, alleging that Target should have signaled that consumer backlash would undercut its stock, devaluing shares held by the state's retirement fund.
That fund also owns more than two million shares of Tesla. Its stock price fell sharply this year in large part because Elon Musk's politics hurt the brand. No one is talking about suing Tesla over how the entirely predictable political backlash hurt shareholders. Tesla wins, but Target loses.
Then there's the Snapchat lawsuit. The harmful impact of social media on mental health is real. But Uthmeier zeroed in on a business with $5.3 billion in revenue while disregarding social media businesses whose collective revenue is measured in the hundreds of billions, and whose platforms share several problems outlined in the Snapchat suit.
Instagram and Twitter have been used to sell drugs. WhatsApp uses disappearing messages. Facebook addiction research is mounting. All platforms manipulate users to keep them scrolling.
Uthmeier has spent just over 70 days picking winners and losers. If elected in 2026, he could have eight years to do the same.
That's eight banner years for the attorney general's deep-pocketed donors — less so for people who just wanted to buy a new Scout.
The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Executive Editor Roger Simmons, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant, Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney and editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman. Send letters to [e-mail].