DeSantis looks to get back on Trump’s good side but clashes with legislative leaders
News Service of Florida — There are often enticing little subplots and sidebar stories when the Florida Legislature meets, and the special session Gov. Ron DeSantis has called beginning Monday has two intriguing side bets that you won’t find on the printed calendars of the House or Senate.
Officially, the special session is intended to give President Donald Trump whatever he needs for the mass deportation of people in the country illegally, make it harder to propose state constitutional amendments through the petition process, revise condominium-safety rules and provide help for Floridians still hurting from last year’s hurricanes. But all that could wait for the regular session, convening March 4.
The first reason for doing it now is the governor’s need to get back on Trump’s good side. After running for president against Trump last year, with lamentable results, DeSantis wants to maintain his political viability after he leaves the governor’s mansion in two years.
That requires good will from Trump, whose endorsement made DeSantis the GOP nominee for governor in 2018. All that “Ron DeSanctimonious” stuff last year was just typical Trumpish trash-talking that can be forgiven and forgotten now — provided the governor knows his place and shows a level of loyalty worthy of a Labrador retriever.
At the moment, that means helping Trump deliver everything on his planned list of Day One executive orders.
Trump has ended the careers of Republicans who’ve crossed him — just ask Mitt Romney or Liz Cheney — and it’s presumed that DeSantis would like to seek the White House again. That won’t be possible if Trump blackballs him in GOP primaries.
The second wild card of the special session, which DeSantis scheduled to start Monday, is finding out how much independence state legislators can assert in these final two years of DeSantis’ tenure in Tallahassee.
Capitol observers were startled when, a few hours after DeSantis announced his plans, Senate President Ben Albritton and House Speaker Daniel Perez said it’s “premature” to call a special meeting just 37 days before the regular 2025 session — and “irresponsible” to call one without a ready agenda.
Huh? Who are those guys? Don’t they know DeSantis has bossed the Legislature in ways that make North Korea’s national assembly look like Aristotelian free thinkers?
When he wanted to beat up on Disney, our legislators were all in. Restrict abortion some more? No problem, sir. Fly immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard? No objection from the Capitol’s fourth floor. Punish bars if a minor sees a drag show? You bet, governor. He assembled his own Supreme Court, suspended state attorneys and handpicked favorites for school board seats — all with nary a peep out of the House or Senate.
But he goes out to Iowa and loses one little presidential race, and what do they do? These legislators start acting like elected constitutional officers, that’s what.
Naturally, Democrats were outraged not only about what DeSantis wants to do but how he’s going about it. But they’re such a small minority in both chambers, howling is all they can do.
There is some precedent for Republican legislators bucking a governor. After the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blowout in 2010, Charlie Crist sought to strengthen his U.S. Senate race by calling a special session to constitutionally forbid offshore drilling.
But Crist had quit the Republican Party and was running as an independent. Most GOP lawmakers wouldn’t have spit on him if he’d caught fire. So they convened, did a few formalities and promptly adjourned to hold news conferences denouncing Crist for calling them to town.
There was one tempting little detail in the joint statement issued by Albritton and Perez about this new special session. They said they fully support Trump’s immigration crackdown and will help him all they can. Freely translated: “We don’t work for you, governor, but we’ll help you help Trump, since you kinda work for him now.”
Bill Cotterell is a retired Capitol reporter for United Press International and the Tallahassee Democrat. He can be reached at wrcott43@aol.com.
