Race Analysis: Governor of Florida

The Florida gubernatorial race features former Governor Charlie Crist challenging popular incumbent Ron DeSantis.

This is an analysis that’s undertaken knowing full well that most voters have made up their minds regardinghow they feel about our current governor, Ron DeSantis. That’s because DeSantis is the kind of politician that leaves little room for indecision. If you are among the small minority who are still waffling, it’s likely that you haven’t been following state politics too closely in recent years. That said, if you fit that description and plan on casting a ballot this time around, I’ll give it a shot.

Regular readers know that I’m no fan of DeSantis. They can tell themselves that it is ideological but that would suggest that they too haven’t been following along very closely. My chief complaint with DeSantis is his proclivity for constant campaigning, which has come at the expense of his failure to govern.

Many of his supporters like to mythologize his first term, claiming he resisted shutdowns during COVID, keeping Florida open and saving the economy. In reality, he did enact a stay-at-home order, and although it was riddled with holes and contradictions, it still wound up favoring some businesses over others (ie. bars were forced to close while restaurants simply became defacto bars).

Yes, he reopened earlier than most states, but there is an objective case to be made by the ensuing death count that he was far ahead of the rational curve. No, he didn’t keep the state locked down in perpetuity like California and some other defiant blue states (or get caught flaunting his own rules), but that insanity is a pretty low bar to clear.

DeSantis was far more interested in sparring with Democrats on Fox News and trying to raise his signal in the right-wing echo chamber by attacking Fauci–an easy and worthy target, to be sure–than in providing real leadership. That has been my consistent beef. He’s always in campaign mode–whether for governor or president–and never in leadership mode. I’ve gone on at length about his failure to take a leadership role in our property insurance crisis and adding insult to injury by attempting to goad legislatures into taking up "constitutional carry" during the already anemic special session dedicated to the issue.

Add in the nonsensical drama with Disney over the "Don’t Say Gay" bill, the additional punitive action against the Tampa Bay Rays, and other interests who likewise opposed the legislation, as well as the expensive (and illegal) stunt to send migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard, and you paint a picture of a small and petty man perfectly willing to cut off our noses to save his face. Say what you want, but in my estimation, that is not what true leaders are made of.

I’ve never been a huge fan of Charlie Crist. He’s always struck me as one of those politicians that are hampered by a deep need to be liked and are largely content to stick his finger in the wind and then legislate in whatever manner seems most likely to benefit his future prospects. But in 2022 Florida, where those who are not all-in for the far-right Republican agenda are regularly told to kick sand, that’s a whole lot more appealing than it’s ever been before.

To that end, I never thought I’d be sitting here looking back to 2006–the year the milquetoast Crist became Republican Governor of Florida by beating the milquetoast Democrat Jim Davis–as the last time two reasonable candidates ran respectable campaigns that centered on real issues. Oh for the good old days of the early aughts.

Let’s face it, if elected, Crist wouldn’t have much ability to get anything done as he would be all but certain to be surrounded by an exclusively-GOP cabinet and legislature. But simply having a Democratic veto pen to combat the most extreme Republican legislation might at least serve to abate the very worst ideas that are sure to bubble to the surface if we are to be governed by pure one-party rule.

As a side note, this election cycle denotes the abject failure that has become the Florida Democratic Party in terms of producing meaningful opposition alternatives in the face of such heavy-handed one-party rule. Aside from a 2018 aberration in which a grassroots candidate was able to foil the Party’s pick for its gubernatorial slate and make a decent run at the office while another was able to pull off an upset as Ag Commissioner, the best the party has been able to do is recycle a former Republican–again. And, given that they’ve put all of their eggs in the Crist basket for 2022 (failing to support a single cabinet-level candidate), the state’s future looks like it is destined to remain decidedly one-sided.