President Donald Trump may have risked his chances at re-election by choosing sides in the simmering feud between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott.
The Trump campaign fired Susie Wiles, who steered his successful 2016 campaign in the state, this week after DeSantis blamed her for leaking evidence of the governor selling access to special interests on golfing trips, reported Politico.
“Losing Susie Wiles is unfortunate and it’s also dangerous,” said Michael Caputo, a former 2016 Trump campaign adviser. “If Trump loses Florida, he loses his presidency, and tinkering with the leadership that helped him win in the first place is just a bad idea."
DeSantis had begun to view Wiles with suspicion after she helped straighten out his 2018 campaign against Democrat Andrew Gillum, and the GOP congressman won a narrow victory after a recount.
The governor's wife Casey DeSantis and his chief of staff Shane Strum felt Wiles was growing too powerful in the state GOP, and they asked the Trump campaign to choose a new top staffer for the party.
The Tampa Bay Times published internal DeSantis fundraising documents and emails bearing Wiles' name that detailed a scheme where lobbyists paid to meet with the governor, and DeSanits blamed Wiles for the leak.
DeSantis complained about Wiles to Trump's 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale, and the governor's donors also pushed the re-election campaign to push her out.
That happened Tuesday, and Wiles allies are angry about the move -- and the accusations made against her.
“If anyone thinks it’s a leak by Susie Wiles, they’re dumb,” said Curt Anderson, a longtime adviser to Scott, the former Florida governor. “She’s level-headed, doesn’t get excited, is detailed and organized and she doesn’t get off track. She’s not some flashy, loud-mouth ad-maker or consultant. She does her job and does it well.”
It's not clear who Trump's campaign will pick to replace Wiles, although some of his advisers think she could eventually make a comeback.
“The moment something goes wrong in Florida, Trump won’t give a f*ck about what Ron DeSantis thinks,” said one Trump advisor. “Trump made DeSantis, and if he objects to Susie coming back, he’ll be told to shut the f*ck up and mind his own business.”
Hurricane Dorian strengthened into an "extremely dangerous" storm on Friday as it bore down on the Bahamas and the east coast of the US state of Florida.
Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis urged residents of the Atlantic Ocean archipelago in the path of the "very powerful and potentially life-threatening hurricane" to seek safety.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Dorian, which is expected to make landfall in the Bahamas on Sunday and in Florida late Monday or Tuesday, "has strengthened to an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane" on a five-level scale.
The storm has winds near 140 miles per hour (220 kilometers per hour), according to the NHC.
"A prolonged period of life-threatening storm surge and devastating hurricane-force winds are likely in portions of the northwestern Bahamas, where a hurricane warning is in effect," the NHC said.
'Very great danger'
Minnis, the Bahamas prime minister, told a press conference that the storm was life-threatening.
"Those who refuse to evacuate place themselves in very great danger... Do not put your life and those of your loved ones at unnecessary risk.
"Do not be foolish and try to brave out this hurricane," Minnis said. "The price you may pay for not evacuating is your life."
With the path of the storm still uncertain, coastal Florida residents were not under evacuation orders yet but stocked up on food, water and other supplies and made preparations to flee their homes.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a statewide declaration of emergency and urged its millions of residents to prepare for what he said could be a "major event."
"We're anticipating a massive amount of flooding," DeSantis said. "We urge all Floridians to have seven days' worth of food, medicine, and water."
"If you're in an evacuation zone and you're ordered to evacuate, please do so," DeSantis said.
The Florida National Guard said about 2,000 service members had been mobilized so far and another 2,000 would be on Saturday.
'Absolute monster'
President Donald Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago golf club is located in Palm Beach in Florida, said Dorian was "looking like it could be an absolute monster" and canceled a trip to Poland to stay behind and focus on preparations for the storm.
"All indications are it's going to hit very hard," Trump said in a video.
"Some people said bigger or at least as big as Andrew," a Category 5 storm that left 65 people dead in 1992, he said.
Trump declared a state of emergency in Florida authorizing federal assistance to supplement state and local efforts.
Georgia -- another southeastern state that could be in the storm's path -- has declared a state of emergency for 12 counties.
Governor Brian Kemp said the hurricane "has the potential to produce catastrophic impacts to citizens" throughout the southeast coastal region of the United States.
Trump warned that Georgia "is very much in (the hurricane's) path also. Georgia could be very much affected."
The US Coast Guard said ocean-going commercial vessels should make plans to leave south Florida ports.
A number of schools announced that classes would be canceled until at least Tuesday.
Orlando International Airport said it would halt commercial flights at 2:00 am (0600 GMT) on Monday "out of an abundance of caution." Orlando is the main airport for nearby Disney World.
NASA is also close by and the US space agency said it was moving an enormous mobile rocket launcher from a launch pad into a vehicle assembly building to protect it from the storm.
A Rolling Stones concert in Miami originally scheduled for Saturday night was moved up by a day due to the weather forecast, the band said on its Twitter account.
Hurricane Dorian strengthened into a major hurricane on Friday as it churned across the Atlantic Ocean on a collision course with the east coast of the US state of Florida.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Dorian, which is expected to make landfall in Florida on Monday or Tuesday, had gone from a Category 2 to a Category 3 storm on the five-level scale.
As of 2:00 pm (1800 GMT), Dorian has become an "extremely dangerous hurricane" packing maximum winds of 115 miles (185 kilometers) per hour, the NHC said, and it is projected to intensify even further.
Dorian was moving in a northwest direction at 10 mph (17 kph), the NHC said.
GETTY IMAGES/AFP / JOE RAEDLE Workers place shutters over a window as they prepare for the possible arrival of Hurricane Dorian in Miami Beach, Florida
It said hurricane conditions were expected in the northwestern Bahamas by Sunday and the islands should prepare for life-threatening storm surge that could raise water levels by as much as 10 to 15 feet (three to 4.5 meters) above normal tide levels.
Heavy rainfall could cause flash floods, the NHC warned.
Florida residents were stocking up on food, water and other supplies on Friday and battening down their homes to ride out the storm while others were preparing to evacuate.
Weather forecasters said Dorian could strengthen into a powerful Category 4 storm before it makes landfall but there was a great amount of uncertainty about where it would hit.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a declaration of emergency for all of the state's 67 counties and urged its millions of residents to make preparations for what he said could be a "major event."
GETTY IMAGES/AFP / GERARDO MORA Jordan Haywood fills a gas can in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Dorian in Winter Springs, Florida
"We're anticipating a massive amount of flooding," DeSantis said. "We urge all Floridians to have seven days' worth of food, medicine, and water."
But the governor said local authorities were holding off on ordering evacuations until weather forecasters had a better picture of the eventual path of the hurricane.
"If you're in an evacuation zone and you're ordered to evacuate, please do so," DeSantis said.
The Florida National Guard said about 2,000 service members had been mobilized so far and another 2,000 would be on Saturday.
- 'Absolute monster' -
AFP / Michele Eve Sandberg Florida residents buy plywood and other supplies in preparation for Hurricane Dorian
President Donald Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago golf club is located in Palm Beach, said that Dorian was "looking like it could be an absolute monster" and cancelled a trip to Poland to stay behind and focus on preparations for the storm.
"All indications are it's going to hit very hard," Trump said in a video.
"Some people said bigger or at least as big as Andrew," a Category 5 storm which left 65 people dead in 1992, he said.
Trump declared a state of emergency in Florida authorizing federal assistance to supplement state and local efforts.
Georgia -- another southeastern state that could be in the storm's path -- has declared a state of emergency for 12 counties.
Governor Brian Kemp said the hurricane "has the potential to produce catastrophic impacts to citizens" throughout the southeast coastal region of the United States.
The US Coast Guard said ocean-going commercial vessels should make plans to leave south Florida ports.
Miami's Ocean Drive, a normally vibrant strip along the beach, was quiet, with some empty tables and fewer tourists than usual.
GETTY IMAGES/AFP / GERARDO MORA Residents of Orlando, Florida, wait to buy propane ahead of Hurricane Dorian's arrival
Grocery stores were packed with shoppers making last-minute purchases of water, food, propane canisters and other supplies.
There were lines at some gasoline stations as drivers filled up their tanks and gas cans.
A number of schools announced that classes would be cancelled until at least Tuesday.
One shopper, Magdalena Gomez, 57, from Argentina, was preparing for her first hurricane.
"If they tell me to go buy water, I go buy water. I do everything they say," Gomez said.
A Rolling Stones concert in Miami originally scheduled for Saturday night was moved up by a day due to the weather forecast, the band said on its Twitter account.
US President Donald Trump canceled a trip to Poland as Hurricane Dorian headed towards Florida, strengthening on Thursday to a Category 2 storm.
Trump, who had been scheduled to attend World War II anniversary commemorations this weekend, said he would focus instead on preparations for the approaching storm.
"Our highest priority is the safety and security of the people in the path of the hurricane," he told reporters in the White House Rose Garden.
Vice President Mike Pence would go to Poland in his place, Trump said.
He called his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda to apologize for the cancelation, saying the storm could be "catastrophic," the president's chief of staff Krzysztof Szczerski said, according to the PAP agency.
Dorian's maximum sustained winds reached 105 miles per hour (165 kilometers per hour), making it a Category 2 storm on a five-level scale, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in an advisory.
Weather forecasters said Dorian could make landfall as a powerful Category 4 hurricane with the potential to cause life-threatening storm surges.
"All Floridians really need to monitor Hurricane Dorian and make the necessary preparations," Governor Ron DeSantis said. "Have your plan and make those preparations right now."
'Catastrophic impacts'
Georgia -- another southeastern state potentially in the storm's path -- followed suit for 12 counties.
Governor Brian Kemp said the hurricane "has the potential to produce catastrophic impacts to citizens" throughout the southeast coastal region of the United States.
Trump, who has properties including the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, a politically important state for his 2020 re-election bid, also warned Floridians to get ready.
"Be prepared... it will be a very big Hurricane, perhaps one of the biggest!" he said on Twitter.
The US Coast Guard said ocean-going commercial vessels should make plans to leave South Florida ports.
"The risk of devastating hurricane-force winds along the Florida east coast and peninsula late this weekend and early next week continues to increase," the NHC warned.
Miami's Ocean Drive, a normally-vibrant strip along the beach, was quiet, with some empty tables and fewer tourists than usual.
Grocery stores were full of shoppers making last-minute purchases of water, food, propane canisters and other supplies. There were lines at some gasoline stations as drivers filled up their tanks.
One shopper, Magdalena Gomez from Argentina, was preparing for her first hurricane: "If they tell me to go buy water, I go buy water. I do everything they say."
A Rolling Stones concert originally scheduled for Saturday night was moved up by a day "due to the weather forecast," the band's Twitter account said.
Puerto Rico spared
"Strengthening is forecast during the next few days, and Dorian is expected to become a major hurricane on Friday, and remain an extremely dangerous hurricane through the weekend," the NHC said.
The US territory of Puerto Rico, still recovering from a powerful storm two years ago, was largely spared, but the NHC said Dorian could dump up to seven inches (18 centimeters) of rain on some parts of the Bahamas.
In Puerto Rico, the new governor, Wanda Vazquez, gave the all-clear, but there was no let-up in the political storm involving Trump and Carmen Yulin Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, the island's capital.
"Now that Dorian is going to the east coast let us hope that @realDonaldTrump sets aside his prejudice and racism & moves the federal response to efficiency," the mayor tweeted.
Trump declared a state of emergency in Puerto Rico ahead of Hurricane Dorian's anticipated arrival, authorizing federal assistance, but said that the island is "one of the most corrupt places on earth" and its political system is "broken."
Puerto Rico was devastated in 2017 by Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm.
A study accepted as valid by the government, which initially put the death toll at 64, estimated that nearly 3,000 people died as a result of the hurricane and the months of disruption that followed.
A strengthening Hurricane Dorian appeared to have largely spared Puerto Rico Wednesday, barreling past the US territory that is still recovering from a powerful storm two years ago.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said the hurricane watch and tropical storm warning for the island had been lifted, and that "Dorian continues to move away from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands."
"The threat has already passed," Puerto Rico's new governor, Wanda Vazquez, told a news conference.
Vazquez announced that schools would reopen and people should return to work from Thursday. She said the storm had given the island a chance to evaluate its hurricane response.
"These days have been a real exercise where we have been able to re-evaluate and make adjustments in all our responses to protect the people of Puerto Rico," she said.
But the danger for other areas is far from over: "Dorian is forecast to strengthen into a powerful hurricane during the next couple of days," the NHC said.
Rainfall from the storm in the Bahamas and the southeastern United States "may cause life-threatening flash floods," it added.
The storm's latest path puts Dorian on a trajectory to strike the Atlantic coast of Florida -- which declared a state of emergency on Wednesday -- or neighboring Georgia by the end of the weekend.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis urged all residents on the east coast of his state to prepare for impact.
"It's important for Floridians on the east coast to monitor this storm closely. Every Florida resident should have seven days of supplies, including food, water and medicine, and should have a plan in case of disaster," he said in a statement.
Dorian had earlier developed into a political as well as meteorological storm.
President Donald Trump had declared a state of emergency in Puerto Rico authorizing federal assistance even while alleging the island is "one of the most corrupt places on earth.
"Their political system is broken and their politicians are either Incompetent or Corrupt," he said on Twitter.
Trump also declared an emergency in the US Virgin Islands.
- 'Keep his mouth shut' -
Puerto Rico's former governor Ricardo Rossello was forced to resign last month in part because of criticism over his handling of the emergency created by Maria.
San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin lashed into Trump, telling CNN that the president "continues to try to belittle the people of Puerto Rico."
She told Trump "to keep his mouth shut" and let people do the work needed to save lives.
Puerto Rico was devastated in 2017 by Hurricane Maria, a major Category 4 hurricane on a scale where five is the maximum.
It shattered the island's already shaky power grid, overwhelmed public services and left many residents homeless.
A study accepted as valid by the government, which initially put the death toll at 64, estimated that nearly 3,000 people died as a result of the hurricane and the months of disruption that followed.
Dorian, though far less powerful, was the first major test of the island's halting recovery.
As of 0300 GMT Thursday, the storm's maximum sustained winds had risen further to 85 miles per hour (140 kilometers per hour) with higher gusts, according to the NHC.
Moving northwest, it is forecast to dump up to four inches (10 centimeters) of rain on the Bahamas, and up to eight inches on the southeastern United States.
Florida's first-ever Latina lieutenant governor has joined the Latinos for Trump effort in the president's super PAC, but the effort involves strange bedfellows.
According to The Tampa Bay Times, Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez once attacked Trump for being a "con man" during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Despite going on a full attack against Latinos, both legal and undocumented immigrants, it's hard to see how the president thinks he will be able to capture such voters of color.
Exit polls show that Trump won 28 percent of the Latino vote in 2016, which was similar to 2012, when Mitt Romney got 27 percent. John McCain, by contrast, won 31 percent in 2008.
Meanwhile, a newly released poll by UnidosUS reveals that the president has lost ground with Latino voters. Only 13 percent say they "definitely" will vote for Trump in the 2020 election. Other numbers are just as dire, showing that including people who said that would "probably" vote for Trump in 2020, he's still hovering around 21 percent.
“As the first Latina to serve as lieutenant governor in the state of Florida, Jeanette Nuñez is a proven leader and a strong voice for the Latino community,” said Hannah Castillo, the coalition director for Trump Victory.
Nuñez is one leader who has attacked anyone blaming political rhetoric as a reason for the uptick in white supremacy that has led to several violent incidents over the course of the past year.
“I’m so tired of all the nonsense about who’s to blame for this shooting or that shooting,” Nuñez said in her first interview about the Trump campaign. “The thought of blaming a politician — albeit President Trump or [Democratic presidential candidates] Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren or anyone else for that matter — for the act of a deranged madman is a disservice. It’s a disservice not only to the victims but also the first responders who put their lives on the line.”
Nuñez was a huge help to Republicans in 2018, specifically when it came to Spanish-language media. Gov. Ron DeSantis won 44 percent from Latino voters.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has ordered a criminal investigation of the Palm Beach sheriff and the state prosecutors who worked on the bizarre and perplexing case against Jeffrey Epstein, a financier and accused sex trafficker, according to Miami Herald reporter Julie Brown.
Despite an apparently strong case, the prosecutors only brought a relatively minor charge of prostitution against Epstein that resulted in a 13-month jail sentence during which he was allowed to leave for 12 hours a day, six days a week.
The stories of corruption related to various Trump world enterprises continue to proliferate three years into Donald Trump's presidency.
In the Daily Beast Thursday, investigative journalist Lachlan Markay reported that executives who worked for a corporate donor to President Donald Trump’s official super PAC boasted about their connections to key figures in Trump's orbit.
According a lawsuit by investor Felix Vulis, in September of 2018, three executives with the company Global Energy Producers (GEP), an exporter of natural gas, met with him to solicit a loan. They were in the process of growing their business, with the goal of becoming the largest exporter in the U.S.
The lawsuit claims they bragged that a company contribution to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had earned them substantial goodwill with the Florida lawmaker. They also boasted about their relationships with various people linked to Trump, including Rudy Giuliani and former White House aide Nick Ayers.
Vulis is suing the three exectives for failing to return a $100,000 loan they promised to repay in two months.
According to a report from the Miami Herald, Florida State Sen. Lauren Book (D) is asking capitol police to investigate an anonymous warning she received following her demand that the state look into Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s treatment of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein during the period when he was on a work-release program.
The Herald -- whose investigative reporter Julia K. Brown broke new ground on Epstein's plea deal with then U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta that led to his recent arrest in New York -- reports that Book has long been an advocate for child sexual assault survivors.
The report states that Book claimed she has received not only the warning but that she has also fielded "more than a dozen calls by Bradshaw’s political supporters asking her to back off."
Book, "wrote a letter to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis asking him to authorize a probe into how Epstein, accused of molesting dozens of underage girls and a registered sex offender, was permitted to leave the Palm Beach County Jail and spend much of his 2008-2009 incarceration in an office in West Palm Beach," the Herald reports.
At the same time she claims she has been the recipient of calls, with one supporter of the embattled sheriff telling her, "‘Little girl you don’t know what you’re getting into,’ and telling me that I should just stop,’" she explained.
Responding to her complaint, the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office responded in a statement denying involvement, adding, "Nor has PBSO made any effort to access her phone or emails as alleged on a salacious website run by a disgruntled former employee.’’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a measure approved by state lawmakers that makes the restoration of voting rights for people convicted of felonies contingent on having paid off all criminal debt associated with their conviction.
A coalition of civil rights groups immediately filed a lawsuit in federal court to block the new law by having it declared unconstitutional.
I’m a political scientist who researches the effects of restricting and restoring the voting rights of people convicted of crimes. I believe it’s not yet clear whether the new law will withstand this legal challenge. But if the law stays on the books, it would greatly reduce the number of people whose voting rights are restored in Florida.
In most states, voting rights are automatically restored after a person is released from prison, or after they finish parole or probation. In comparison, under Florida’s old system, a citizen with a felony conviction would never be allowed to vote again, unless they were granted clemency by a four-member board that typically had a long waitlist of applicants.
Florida voters had indicated their readiness to change all that in November 2018, when they voted by a 2-1 margin to amend their state’s constitution. Known as Amendment 4, this measure backed by conservative and progressive groups alike automatically restored the voting rights of Floridians with felony convictions “after they complete all terms of their sentence including parole or probation.”
Florida enfranchisement leader Desmond Meade registered to vote in January 2019.
The new law restricts the impact of Amendment 4, making the inability to pay off criminal debts the only thing standing between many people and their right to vote.
That’s why many politicians and civil rights advocates have derided the measure as a “poll tax” akin to the fees southern states levied on African Americans to strip them of their right to vote for nearly a century. The 24th Amendment declared poll taxes illegal in federal elections in 1964, and the Supreme Court barred them from state elections two years later.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People argues that Florida’s law violates the Constitution’s 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and Due Process Clause, the 24th Amendment’s ban on poll taxes, the 15th Amendment’s prohibition of denying voting rights based on race, and the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.
Without the new law, Amendment 4 could potentially have restored voting rights to about 1.4 million citizens. But now, 80% or more of Floridians with felony convictions who owe criminal debts might never get the opportunity to cast ballots, according to the lawsuit filed right after DeSantis signed the new law.
More than 2,000 people who gained voting rights through Amendment 4 had registered within the first three months of 2019. The state anticipates canceling any registrations it deems ineligible once it sets up costly systems to implement the law.
Florida authorities have said they won’t prosecute anyone who registered or voted during the first half of 2019 for voter fraud, even if they are later deemed ineligible to vote. But there are no protections in place for anyone who registers in the future.
Unpaid criminal debts
Why do so many Floridians have unpaid criminal debt?
Strangely, the authorities do not expect most of these fees to ever be paid. Florida’s leaders acknowledge this. The state anticipates the receipt of only 9% of that money, versus 90% receipt rates for traffic fines.
Through these fines, Florida courts are trying to generate revenue from a poor population that is largely unable to pay. While the Florida Supreme Court affirmed that the state must evaluate a person’s ability to pay before collection begins, and also before punishing for nonpayment, this rarely happens. One woman owes $59 million in restitution related to her insurance fraud conviction after serving a 30-month sentence.
Is this legal?
Voters could be surprised to see people with felony convictions having to pay off criminal debt as a condition for getting back the right to vote. The ballot initiative didn’t mention criminal debt.
Should legal challenges to this law make it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the outcome isn’t clear. The Supreme Court previously upheld a similar Arizona law that required citizens to pay back all court charges before having their voting rights restored. The court ruled that these charges are not a tax, and also that policies that restore voting rights must meet different standards than policies that restrict voting rights.
I’d argue that restoring the vote to citizens who have been through the criminal justice system would benefit society.
My research suggests that being encouraged to vote causes people to become more informed and more trusting.
I also researched what happened when more than 150,000 Virginians convicted of felonies had their voting rights restored through actions by their governor. I found that restoring voting rights in Virginia caused newly enfranchised citizens to feel more included in society and to develop stronger trust in government and stronger confidence in themselves.
Based on this research, it appears likely that restoring voting rights to more people in Florida would benefit the state in many ways – among them, having fewer people living behind bars. And any law that restricts this enfranchisement would have the opposite effect.
This article includes some information in a related article published May 1, 2019.
Human rights groups on Friday sued Florida over a law that in effect denies more than a million ex-convicts the right to vote in the 2020 presidential election in the key swing state.
Governor Rick DeSantis, a Republican, had earlier Friday signed into law the bill, which was approved by the state legislature on May 3.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the largest human rights group in the US, along with the NAACP, the largest advocacy group for African-Americans, and New York University Law School filed suit against the new law.
"Over a million Floridians were supposed to reclaim their place in the democratic process, but some politicians clearly feel threatened by greater voter participation," said Julie Ebenstein, a lawyer working with an ACLU voter rights project.
In November last year, Florida voters taking part in a referendum known as Amendment 4 agreed to restore the voting rights of more than one million former convicts, except those who had served time for murder or sex crimes.
It was a vestige of racist laws dating back 150 years to the end of the US civil war.
But the Republican-dominated state legislature created another bill, the one signed Friday, that curbed the process.
The new law states that people recovering their right to vote must first settle any outstanding debts they have with the courts. This can be in the thousands of dollars and beyond many people's means.
"They cannot legally affix a price tag to someone's right to vote," said Ebenstein.
Critics argue that Florida's Republican lawmakers want to prevent 1.4 million ex-cons who have recovered their right to vote -- most are black or Hispanic, and poor -- from registering to vote in the 2020 presidential election.
The issue is highly sensitive in a state where elections tend to be decided by a very narrow margin. And Florida also tends to play a key role in deciding the ultimate winner.
"Our research shows that the people who have registered to vote under Amendment 4 are disproportionately black and low-income," said Myrna Perez, director of the Brennan Center?s Voting Rights and Elections Program at NYU.
"There can be no mistaking the racial and class implications of this regressive new legislation," said Perez.
In 2018, voters in Florida passed Amendment 4, restoring voting rights to ex-felons. The measure passed 65 to 35 percent.
Now, Florida Governor and major Trump ally Ron DeSantis is expected to blunt the impact of the measure by approving a bill that would require ex-felons to have paid off all fees connected to their sentence before voting. That means Donald Trump might get a major boost in 2020, reports the Daily Beast.
SB 7066 requires ex-felons to pay off all financial obligations from their sentencing or get them excused by a judge.
As Vox notes, close to 1.4 million Floridians were eligible to vote thanks to the popular amendment, and it's not clear how many will be affected if DeSantis signs SB 7066 into law.
Increasingly, people who serve prison time are saddled with thousands of dollars in debt that hobbles their efforts to rebuild their lives on the outside. The debt, which accrues interest, can stem from bench-warrant fees, filing-clerks fees, court-appointed attorney fees, crime-lab analysis fees, incarceration costs, DNA-database fees and jury fees, reports the Atlantic.
As the Daily Beast observes, the restriction on voting rights might be enough to hand Florida to Trump in 2020.
Florida is a key state in Trump's 2020 campaign. Trump officially launched his re-election bid in Orlando, and many of his policies have catered to Florida voters, including a crackdown on Cuba and Venezuela.
On Friday, Politico reported that Alan Landman, a Republican attorney from Brevard County who chaired the state's 18th Judicial Circuit's Judicial Nominating Commission, has resigned in protest of Gov. Ron DeSantis' move to strongarm his commission into approving his preferred candidate.
"Over the past 10 years, through all of the judicial appointments [on] the 18th Circuit, there has never been one single occasion where either the Governor (or his staff) has contacted me as the Chair and required a specified number of applicants to be on the short list," wrote Landman in his resignation letter.
"I have always been a strong supporter of Governor DeSantis ... in fact, I hosted a fundraiser for him at my house," he added, but "as a result of my philosophical differences with how your new administration has handled this recent appointment, I concur with your position that it is best for me to resign from the committee."
In Florida, judicial vacancies are filled by a series of 20 nominating commissions who submit a list of three to six candidates to the governor, who may then choose one of the shortlisted people. Following the departure of Brevard County Circuit Judge Tonya Rainwater, DeSantis' office leaned on Landman to nominate Tesha Ballou, the General Magistrate for Seminole County, refusing to choose any of the four candidates they selected. After the commission complied, DeSantis appointed Ballou.
The appointment was an odd choice, as the commission had already deemed her unqualified, and it is unusual for an attorney from outside Brevard County to be appointed to a judgeship there.
Former Democratic congresswoman and gubernatorial candidate Gwen Graham blasted DeSantis for his strongarm judicial tactics. "We may find ourselves wishing for [former Gov. Rick] Scott after 4 years of @GovRonDeSantis and his puppeteers destroying our "independent" judiciary," she tweeted. "We have a puppet mini Trump as our Governor."
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