Recap and analysis of the week in state government and politics
By Ryan Dailey, The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — Florida lawmakers earlier this year fulfilled Gov. Ron DeSantis’ wish for an “Office of Election Crimes and Security,” and the governor this week picked a veteran lawyer with a deep resume and a reputation for even-handedness to lead it.
Pete Antonacci, appointed by DeSantis to head the newly created “elections police” office, is a known quantity as a Florida fix-it man. State leaders have called on him numerous times for a variety of high-profile roles.
A former prosecutor, Antonacci was appointed as chief judge of the state Division of Administrative Hearings by DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet last year.
The 73-year-old’s career includes stints as executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, president of the state business-recruitment agency Enterprise Florida and state attorney in Palm Beach County.
Former Gov. Rick Scott tapped Antonacci, a longtime ally, to take over as Broward County supervisor of elections after suspending Brenda Snipes from the post in 2018 shortly before Scott left office.
DeSantis touted his choice in a news release announcing Antonacci’s appointment Wednesday.
“I am confident he will lead the Office of Election Crimes and Security with integrity and ensure that Florida’s elections are the most secure in the nation,” DeSantis said.
The office was created as part of a broader elections bill (SB 524) during the 2022 legislative session, and will have authority to independently launch investigations into purported misconduct.
The measure stirred a partisan debate about whether such an office was necessary after the 2020 elections went off without a hitch, with Republicans arguing the added oversight would ensure that future elections are fraud-free and Democrats slamming the idea as an authoritarian move on DeSantis’ part.
But widespread praise for Antonacci rolled in after his appointment, with some critics of the new election crimes office describing the pick as a best-case scenario.
“This elections police thing is terrible. However, Antonacci is a pretty no-nonsense administrator. Even us Dems praised his work in Broward. He is by far the best that could be hoped for. So much so I could see DeSantis growing to hate him if he doesn’t go on witch hunts,” Matt Isbell, a Tallahassee-based consultant for Democrats, tweeted Wednesday.
Antonacci will helm the office under a newly minted secretary of state who also was hand-selected by DeSantis: former state lawmaker Cord Byrd, a conservative Republican from Neptune Beach. The Office of Election Crimes and Security is housed in Byrd’s department.
“Judge Antonacci’s formidable knowledge of Florida election law and his experience as a supervisor of elections will ensure that our laws are enforced and that voters have confidence in our elections,” Byrd said in a statement Wednesday.
FIGHTING FENTANYL
Nine overdose deaths in Gadsden County over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, suspected to have been caused by the highly potent synthetic opioid fentanyl, have intensified focus on combating the drug.
Gadsden County Sheriff Morris Young said emergency responders were called to 19 overdoses over a four-day span. The deaths likely involved people using other drugs that were laced with fentanyl, prompting the state to ramp up messaging as part of efforts to prevent future mass overdoses.
First Lady Casey DeSantis joined Young and other state and local officials at a meeting Thursday, where she announced that Florida will launch a statewide public advisory campaign about the dangers of fentanyl.
“Education is so important to get, especially to our youth. A call to action, if they themselves are using drugs or if they know of somebody in their family that’s using,” DeSantis said Thursday.
Fentanyl overdoses have become the leading cause of death for people ages 18 to 45 in the U.S., according to a news release from the governor’s office.
A significant part of the fight against fentanyl involves combatting the counterfeiting of drugs, said Mark Glass, acting commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Thirty percent of the drugs that have come through the department’s lab for testing have been counterfeit narcotics, Glass said. The counterfeit drugs can mimic prescription pills and contribute to accidental overdoses.
A rural county that lacks resources for helping drug users kick their habit, Gadsden also is counting on the increased use of the overdose-reversal drug naloxone to help prevent situations like the one that played out over the weekend. Commonly known by its brand name, Narcan, the state Department of Children and Families is distributing 200 kits to treat overdoses in the county.
ON THE FAST TRACK
A Leon County circuit judge’s ruling that Florida’s new 15-week restriction on abortions is unconstitutional didn’t stop the law from remaining in effect, as attorneys for the state swiftly appealed the decision Tuesday.
In a 68-page ruling, Judge John Cooper sided with a doctor and a group of abortion clinics that argued the law (HB 5) violates a privacy clause in the state Constitution.
The state’s lawyers filed a notice that they were appealing to the Tallahassee-based 1st District Court of Appeal shortly after Cooper issued the ruling Tuesday morning, which triggered an automatic stay. The state’s move effectively put Cooper’s ruling on hold.
State Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office late Tuesday requested that the legal battle go quickly to the Florida Supreme Court. Moody indicated that the state will use a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down Roe v. Wade to help defend the law.
Fast-tracking the case to the state Supreme Court would allow the state to effectively bypass the appeals court.
Lawyers in Moody’s office wrote in the filing that in the past, “the Florida Supreme Court has relied on the U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion decisions in reasoning that Florida’s privacy clause ‘implicate(s)’ the right to abortion.”
The filing went on to say that the U.S. Supreme Court decision in a Mississippi case “plainly warrants reconsideration” by the state Supreme Court of Florida’s constitutional right to privacy.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday tapped Pete Antonacci, a former prosecutor and onetime supervisor of elections, to head a controversial new state office charged with probing voting irregularities.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “He understood freedom. He understood the threat posed by China. … And he understood the importance of having a strong U.S.-Japan relationship.” — Gov. Ron DeSantis, expressing condolences to the people of Japan following the assassination Friday of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.