Recommendation: Florida Democratic primary for governor | Miami Herald

Florida is the free state, the state where no one’s going to tell you what to do, the state of low unemployment, of a sunny economy. We’re the state that welcomes business.

That’s the image that Gov. Ron DeSantis has meticulously — some might say deceptively — cultivated every bit as much as he has cultivated his base of voters. It’s an image that has fueled his popularity here, and across the nation, as he campaigns for reelection while simultaneously plotting a potential path to the White House.

But the governor’s definition of freedom comes with handcuffs, a blindfold, a gag and, if necessary, a billy club for those who disagree with his world view.

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This Editorial Board has been appalled, saddened and, increasingly, horrified at the governor’s attacks on true freedoms in this once progressive state of Florida. And also at the governor’s popularity, especially across the country.

We believe we speak for millions of Floridians who are similarly alarmed by how far we’ve fallen — into scapegoating, into the politics of threat and revenge, into divisions pried ever wider with surgical dexterity. And into meanness.

We also believe there is an alternative.

We do not deny that DeSantis’ heavy-handed governance is increasingly popular. He has made Florida the model of pushing back against conventional wisdom, of a brawny my-way-or-the-highway approach that is appealing to a spectrum of Floridians beyond his base.

A June Washington Post story on DeSantis, for example, featured a couple from Jacksonville — one a moderate Republican, one Democrat — who lauded him for reopening Florida more quickly than other states during the pandemic. Despite lingering concerns about curbs on abortion and increasing intolerance of LGBTQ Floridians — sanctioned by the governor — they both plan to vote for him. They see him as the state’s savior.

This is what Democrats who believe they can defeat DeSantis are up against. The incumbent, who has amassed well over $100 million in campaign money, appears to be making some inroads in their territory while also maintaining his base of Trump 2.0 supporters.

U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist and state Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried each say they are the one who can beat DeSantis. They recently faced off in their only televised primary debate. Crist came off calm and composed — ready for prime time. Fried looked and acted like the underdog. She focused on Crist’s flimsy stances on abortion rights, but couldn’t land her attacks. It’s also true that Crist should have agreed to more debates like Fried requested.

We believe that Crist, who served first in the Florida Senate, then as the state’s education commissioner, attorney general and Republican governor for one term — before winning the St. Petersburg congressional seat he has held since 2017 — offers Democrats, independents and even disaffected Republicans the opportunity to maintain our economic quality of life while also making life better for the people the DeSantis administration has left on the margins, scapegoated, frightened or simply ignored.

And, it must be said, we believe he can do it with less bluster and more compassion. DeSantis’ real and perceived successes have come at huge cost for how we live with each other in the Sunshine State. We believe Crist has both the resume and the life experience to steer Florida out of the storm of resentments drummed up by DeSantis and into calmer waters.

Crist is by no means a perfect candidate. He lost his last two statewide races — in 2010, to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and, in 2014, when he came within one point of ousting then-Gov. Rick Scott, who was far less popular than DeSantis. Some might see him as a “career politician” looking for his next gig, and it’s hard sometimes to know what he truly stands for.

Fried, it’s true, is the only Democrat to have won a statewide office in 2018, though it was so close there was a recount. And she has been a strong voice — often the only one in the administration — willing to criticize DeSantis publicly. Those are big points in her favor, but they’re not enough in this case.

As commissioner of agriculture, Fried successfully lobbied the Legislature to allow farmers to grow hemp, a cannabis plant stripped of most of its psychoactive components. She sees it as an economic driver that could become the future of agriculture and sustainability in Florida, perhaps even replacing citrus groves. Her office had issued almost 800 hemp licenses to businesses as of April, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

She says she’s neutered the influence of the National Rifle Association in gun licensing at the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. She’s suing the Biden administration to stop federal regulations that restrict medical marijuana patients from buying a gun.

A lawyer and former marijuana lobbyist who graduated from Miami Palmetto Senior High, Fried rode a wave of pot popularity into office but, this time, she seems to be missing a defining issue like that one.

Her continuing marijuana ties raise some issues. Her financial-disclosure forms filed last year showed she had a $130,000 stake in a medical marijuana company. She told the Editorial Board she’s selling those assets. Her former fiancé is a cannabis entrepreneur who invested in a hemp company that got permits from her office, the Orlando Sentinel reported. Fried has said she delegated decisions about hemp companies to a deputy chief of staff.

Legalizing recreational marijuana is Fried’s signature issue, but Crist also supports it, saying tax revenues could fund raises for veteran teachers.

Abortion

Abortion could have been a game changer for Fried, but, in the end, it really isn’t. Though she attacked Crist’s stance on abortion, he pointed out that, as a Republican governor, he vetoed a bill that would have required women to undergo an ultrasound before having an abortion.

“I vetoed the bill because I thought it was mean spirited, inappropriate and wrong,” he told the Editorial Board. Plus, he has a 100% rating in Congress from Planned Parenthood and has been endorsed by NARAL, the National Abortion Rights Action League.

Crist has often jumbled his stance on abortion. In his failed bid for the U.S. Senate in 2010, he said he would fight for “pro-life legislative efforts.” In our interview, he said he’s “pro-life” but insisted he has a different, broader meaning of the term and supports reproductive rights.

His sidestepping aside, Crist said he’d sign an executive order his first day in office to protect a woman’s right to choose. That puts the issue to rest for us, as it should for other Floridians upset over the DeSantis administration’s harsh limits on abortion.

Crime

At the heart of Fried’s criticisms — and jabs from other quarters as well — is Crist’s political evolution from a law-and-order Republican to, briefly, an independent then to Democrat. And yes, as a Republican legislator he was once known as “Chain Gang Charlie” for his embrace of putting prison inmates in chain gangs. In his defense, he says Florida was in the middle of a crime wave.

But he says the Republican Party left him, not the other way around, a sentiment shared by many a GOPer. His conservative credentials, if anything, make him more likely to win votes from those who can no longer go along with DeSantis’ brand of angry politics.

More convincing to us is that even progressive Democrats — such as the outspoken Orlando Rep. Anna Eskamani, a former Planned Parenthood senior director — are lining up behind Crist as the best hope to take the Governor’s Mansion. Predicting what voters will want in November isn’t always easy, as Donald Trump’s victory showed in 2016.

And for those who would dismiss Crist as a career politician just looking for his next job, there’s his record to consider. He restored voting rights to 155,000 convicted felons during his four years as governor, streamlining the clemency process and rejecting a policy rooted in the Jim Crow era. That remains a stand-out accomplishment on civil rights in Florida, untarnished by Scott’s subsequent decision to revoke the measure.

Crist says, if elected, he would push the Legislature to allow felons who have completed their sentences to vote while continuing to pay fines or restitution, the main thrust of Florida’s Amendment 4, though it has been circumvented by lawmakers. He also says he will seek legislation to expunge marijuana possession charges and sentences.

Affordable housing

It was during financially strained times that Crist made some unpopular decisions, such as cutting the state’s affordable housing trust fund, which he said he wants to fully fund now. That will be a challenge with Republicans in control of the Legislature. Two years ago, they approved a bill that codifies the practice of diverting those funds for other purposes.

Crist said he would appoint a new “housing czar” to address the state’s affordable-housing crisis. He would launch a “Wall Street crackdown” on large, out-of-state investment firms that he says are buying big chunks of land and driving up housing prices. Fried, on the other hand, would declare a housing state of emergency on her first day in office that she said would allow state attorneys to go after landlords who are price gouging.

It’s clear Fried’s appeal to progressives is stronger, but Crist has found way to appeal to them, too, as his support for legal recreational marijuana shows.

Climate change

As governor, he clashed with Florida Power & Light on rate increases and he hosted a climate change summit in Miami in 2007, early days for that topic.

He also appointed a Black justice, James E.C. Perry, to the Florida Supreme Court.

Crist came close to finalizing a historic $1.75 billion Everglades deal to buy land from U.S. Sugar Corp. and restore the flow of water — disrupted by farming activities — from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades. Most of the purchase fell through once the Great Recession hit.

Crist told the Editorial Board that protecting Florida’s environment is key to protecting the tourism on which the entire state relies. In addition, he says he will attract the technology and other clean industries to the state.

“Palo Alto doesn’t have a monopoly on being friendly to business,” he told the Board.

Assault rifles

Like Fried, Crist also supports a ban on military-style rifles and is currently sponsoring legislation in the Congress. “Most of these mass killings happen with assault weapons. And those are guns that are designed to kill quickly and they’re very effective. . . . They shouldn’t be on the streets of America,” he told the Board.

Florida is in serious danger, philosophically, of becoming an almost autocratic state, as the current governor not only leads to the hard right, but also seeks to stifle, through law, the right to protest peacefully, the right to representation — he wiped two majority-Black congressional districts off the map — and the right to vote. He clamped down on a woman’s say over her body, handcuffed local election officials in their fight against COVID-19 and sought to punish Disney for its contrary stance on “Don’t Say Gay.”

The days of Florida being a swing state grow hazier under DeSantis. Marginalizing, penalizing and alienating entire groups of people is no way to govern an entire state.

We need someone who can appeal to Democrats, Republicans and independents, and unite them against the worst authoritarian tendencies that DeSantis has displayed, to the detriment of the whole state.

Fried is a passionate candidate, but Crist has both the experience and political skill to lead Florida out of this difficult moment.

The Miami Herald recommends CHARLIE CRIST in the Democratic primary for governor.

This story was originally published July 31, 2022 4:00 AM.