Every election cycle is about something, and often it\u2019s not about the matchup on the ballot.<\/p>\n
The 2023 contest between Democrat Donna Deegan and Republican Daniel Davis was nominally a matchup between the former newscaster and the Chamber CEO. But for many voters, it was actually a referendum on outgoing Mayor Lenny Curry and perceived excesses in his second term, including the attempted sale of JEA.<\/p>\n
It worked out well for Deegan, who promised a new era of transparency and love in City Hall. Good vibes only.<\/p>\n
Soon enough, though, the aspirational vision became more bleary. Battles cropped up between the Democratic chief executive and many on the supermajority Republican City Council, as Deegan opted to deviate from the non-partisan posture of the last D mayor, Alvin Brown, and actually act like the standard bearer of her party.<\/p>\n
And, you may ask, what\u2019s wrong with that, given that all of Brown\u2019s face time with Republicans like Rick Scott didn\u2019t help him against Curry \u2026 especially given Scott and many other Republicans fell in behind the former chair of the Florida GOP.<\/p>\n
Deegan, like most people who have occupied the office, has embraced the concept of the strong mayor and the prerogatives that come with it. Sometimes it\u2019s worked out. But there are questions about whether the strategy that lacked consequences for the last 2 \u00bd years is completely sustainable now that the 2027 Jacksonville mayor\u2019s race is nearly upon us.<\/p>\n
For starters, there is the entirely avoidable mess created for the mayor\u2019s office by Yanira Cardona, who decided to Instagram from her office in City Hall and warn locals where immigration stakeouts were \u201ctargeting\u201d them.<\/p>\n
\u201cICE is out and about,\u201d Cardona said on the video. \u201cThey are doing speed traps. They are, they\u2019ve been seen on Emerson, on Beach Boulevard, on Atlantic and on the highway. They are targeting, literally, they\u2019re targeting any lawn care companies, any AC company construction vans. They\u2019re literally stopping them just to make sure that they have their paperwork.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sure, she said to \u201ccomply.\u201d But she also said the midterm elections would offer an opportunity to weigh in on policy issues, arguably electioneering in the building. And beyond the specifics of her comments, the spirit was clearly intended to distance her publicly-funded post from federal and state immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s enough for people who aren\u2019t enamored with Deegan\u2019s brand of government, including the state\u2019s leading legal mind.<\/p>\n
Attorney General James Uthmeier<\/a>\u2019s Office of Statewide Prosecution has sent a subpoena seeking to probe whether there was, in his words, a \u201ccoordinated effort amongst officials \u2026 to thwart investigative efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n The subpoena seeks all records produced by or sent to Cardona between Jan. 2 and Jan. 16, including those on city-provided devices and personal devices used to conduct city business. Cardona, the city\u2019s director of hispanic outreach, has conflated the two at times, featuring her business card on her personal Instagram.<\/p>\n \u201cLocal officials, they do not have discretion. There is an obligation to use best efforts to facilitate, help the federal government carry out their law enforcement efforts,\u201d Uthmeier said. He went on to argue that efforts to \u201cflag personal information, locations, details about law enforcement officers\u201d is to try to harass them, scare them, threaten them or impede law enforcement operations<\/p>\n The city\u2019s custodian of records is set to be deposed at Uthmeier\u2019s Jacksonville office, raising the stakes.<\/p>\n Questions could be raised, of course, about why Cardona is sticking around, given that she has become a distraction. About why the mayor\u2019s office doesn\u2019t just put her on leave and on the campaign, which is standard operating procedure in Tallahassee. Of course they weren\u2019t going to fire her, but maybe they should have, given we\u2019re almost a month after the video and we\u2019re still talking about a mid-level staffer\u2019s misadventure.\u00a0<\/p>\n Deegan has sounded like Richard Nixon in Woodward and Bernstein\u2019s The Final Days<\/a> here, bristling at these probes as pure politics. She complained that Cardona\u2019s video was \u201cgrist for the political mill\u201d because her comments were used as a \u201cpolitical whipping post.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of addressing the pocketbook concerns of Floridians \u2014 including property insurance, housing costs, and healthcare \u2014 the Attorney General is once again on a hyper-partisan fishing expedition as we enter election season,\u201d Deegan\u2019s office commented last week.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s General Counsel Michael Fackler says everything the mayor\u2019s office has done is legal, of course, which comes as no surprise to those who believe Fackler is essentially Deegan\u2019s lawyer.<\/p>\n For those watching legal fights between the mayor\u2019s office and the attorney general, this is just history repeating. Recall that Uthmeier says his office is still probing the city\u2019s gun registry \u2013 a list of people who wanted to carry guns into City Hall and the Yates Building, a practice began after permitless carry was made legal in 2023. Fackler says the city is in the clear there too.<\/p>\n These issues won\u2019t necessarily win or lose an election. But they do look like sharks in the water circling Deegan\u2019s ship of state.\u00a0<\/p>\n Add to that preemption bills moving in Tallahassee, like the Sen. Clay Yarborough (SB 1134<\/a>) and Rep. Dean Black (HB 1001<\/a>) bill that looks to gut local DEI \u2013 which could, ironically enough, include initiatives like the Office of Hispanic Outreach.<\/p>\n Gov. Ron DeSantis loves this legislation even if you or the mayor don\u2019t.<\/p>\n It\u2019s got to be said: Deegan hasn\u2019t even filed yet, and neither has anyone with a chance to defeat her. <\/p>\n We hear Republican Jerry Holland, a longtime public servant, will be running, and it remains to be seen if he\u2019s willing to go in on these issues. <\/p>\n But Holland is not the establishment candidate. Assuming one emerges, he or she is being handed a wagon full of weapons to use against this administration. Whether they\u2019ll be enough to overcome a mayor with strong name identification and a high approval rating is an open question, with a year to go before the first election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every election cycle is about something, and often it\u2019s not about the matchup on the ballot. 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