The Buzz | DeSantis' 2024 campaign nears one-month mark

Plus: Following a Florida teacher who's leaving the profession

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View this on the Web Go to our home page Subscribe to the Times Thursday, June 22, 2023 Forward this to a friend Subscribe to more newsletters Good morning.   As Florida continues to be at the forefront of the national debate over education, history and the rights of LGBTQ+ people, Times reporter Lane DeGregory spent time with a teacher who is leaving the profession.   Her resulting story gives deep insight into what led the educator to make that difficult decision after almost a decade of public school classes. Especially in the context of Florida's continuing teacher shortage, it's a story worth reading. [CHUCK BURTON | AP] DeSantis campaign nears the one-month mark The Rundown: It's been almost a month since Gov. Ron DeSantis declared his candidacy for president in a glitch-ridden Twitter broadcast. Since then, the governor and his team have been busy.   He's ramped up his travel out of state, including to Iowa, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Nevada, California — and Iowa again. His campaign is putting special emphasis on the first-in-the-nation primary state, and the main pro-DeSantis super PAC is training paid door-knockers there.   Top staffers in the governor's office asked lobbyists to donate to DeSantis' presidential campaign, considered a major breach of norms and the traditional separation between governance and politics. Those actions drew ethics complaints filed by Florida Democratic Party chairperson Nikki Fried.   His political feud with former President Donald Trump has continued. One of many anti-DeSantis emails sent by the Trump team recently included a fake DeSantis campaign logo made to look like the one belonging to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who lost to Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary.    DeSantis also signed the state budget — something he was initially expected to do before he announced his presidential campaign. He vetoed fewer projects than in past years, but his cuts included programs designed to address gun violence and Black history, plus millions in the district of the one Republican state lawmaker who has endorsed Trump.    He also vetoed some projects in Tampa Bay, including a new senior center that was going to be named after Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, who has clashed with DeSantis in the past. Simpson also saw some of his other, agriculture-focused priorities vetoed, prompting him to tell Politico that DeSantis had harmed agriculture and the state of Florida.    (We've written previously about DeSantis' punitive streak: Read more on that here.)   Overall, the past month of campaigning hasn't really changed DeSantis' national poll numbers, according to averages compiled by FiveThirtyEight. They sit at similar levels to when he announced his candidacy, keeping him firmly, but somewhat distantly, in second place to Trump. Of course, the disclaimers are that national polling numbers only show so much in a primary system that is decided state-by-state, and there's a long way to go. If you read nothing else this week ... The College Board takes a stand. The national nonprofit that runs Advance Placement classes declined to alter its popular psychology course to meet Florida's restrictions on teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation. The move comes on the heels of a different controversy involving Florida's objections to the AP African American studies course. Get the latest coverage from the Times Subscribe to the Tampa Bay Times in print or online to get the full story on local, state and national politics from Emily L. Mahoney and the rest of the Buzz team. Subscribe now! What we're watching Hunter Biden case: Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, has been charged with failing to pay federal income tax and illegally possessing a weapon. He's reached an agreement with the Justice Department on the charges.   $10,000 fine? The Florida Ethics Commission recommended to DeSantis that former Temple Terrace Mayor Mel Jurado be fined $10,000 and publicly censured over embellished educational credentials that were listed on her official city bio. The action stems from a Tampa Bay Times investigation.   St. Pete Pride this weekend. One of the biggest pride parades in the country is this weekend in St. Petersburg. In the wake of the new law targeting drag shows, St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway gave this guidance for participants. What we're buzzing about   [Courtesy of Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation] An interview with Florida's new insurance commissioner: The state is still in the midst of a homeowners' insurance crisis. New commissioner Mike Yaworsky sat down with us to talk about it.   Protest on wheels: A statewide bus tour organized by the NAACP and other groups rolled into Tampa to protest some DeSantis-backed policies.   Union alleges teacher harassment: The teachers union in Pinellas is accusing two school board members affiliated with Moms for Liberty of harassing a high school teacher over his views, and has filed a grievance.    Death penalty changes: Florida's about-face on requiring unanimous juries to impose death sentences may allow two men to be put to death who were convicted of murder in 1997. The Florida Supreme Court will soon decide.   Censure vote: The U.S. House of Representatives voted to formally censure Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff in a resolution that accuses him of misleading the public about collusion between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia. The censure effort was led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida.   "Biological weapon": The Hillsborough County Republican Party became the seventh local party in the state to pass a resolution falsely calling COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccines “biological and technological weapons” and asking DeSantis to ban the vaccines. Your Thursday distraction Cleopatra, Goldfinger, Leo, Midnight, Napoleon, Snowball and Squeaky.   Those are the names of the seven Persian cats who inherited a Tampa woman's mansion after she died. But that's not where the cats are now. Today's newsletter was compiled by Emily L. Mahoney. Contact Emily at emahoney@tampabay.com. Follow @mahoneysthename. Did someone forward this to you? 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