| | | | |  | | By Kimberly Leonard and Kierra Frazier | Presented by Duke Energy | | 
Protesters demonstrate against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro's reelection in Valencia, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024, the day after the vote. | Jacinto Oliveros/AP Photo | Good morning and welcome to Tuesday. Florida Republicans and Democrats are calling for the Biden administration to clamp down on Venezuela after determining that authoritarian socialist leader Nicolás Maduro cheated to win Sunday’s presidential election. Members of the House aren’t headed back to D.C. until September, so they want to see the Biden administration act right away. Miami GOP Reps. María Elvira Salazar, Carlos Giménez and Mario Díaz-Balart held a press conference yesterday urging President Joe Biden to issue a strong statement and to impose the strongest sanctions possible on Venezuela. They also want Biden to call regional allies — such as Mexico and Canada — to see how they can pressure Maduro together. They and many others have declared the election results a sham, given irregularities at polling places and that unofficial exit polls had opposition leader Edmundo González defeating Maduro by a wide margin. They want to bring a resolution to the floor when they get back to D.C. to condemn Maduro’s regime. “We will pressure distribution, we will try to do everything we can to tighten sanctions, and to pressure our allies and our friends to do the same,” Díaz-Balart said. But the Biden-Harris administration is taking a cautious approach, POLITICO’s Eric Bazail-Eimil writes. Senior administration officials told reporters in a call yesterday that they wanted to see detailed, official polling station data before making any determination, saying the election needed to be “further examined and explored.” One official did acknowledge “serious concerns” about possible “repression and electoral manipulation” but officials refused to get into hypotheticals about how the U.S. would respond if that were to be the case. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre similarly told reporters the administration would “withhold judgment.” Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, co-chair of the Congressional Venezuela Democracy Caucus, supported the Biden administration’s demand for more transparency. “This is only the beginning of what will be a complex process to negotiate a democratic transition of power,” she said in a video statement, floating a bipartisan bill to heap more sanctions onto Venezuela as a possible approach to take down the line. But many Florida Democrats were quicker than the White House to make a determination about the election. The state Democratic Party openly condemned Maduro and called his actions an “attempt to steal the election,” while demanding an internationally supervised recount. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, a Democrat who’s up for reelection this year, called on the Biden administration to impose “the most aggressive sanctions possible” on Venezuela. Salazar, the House Republican, warned that what had happened would worsen migration to the U.S., estimating that as many as 2 million more people may exit the poverty-stricken country. Around 200,000 Venezuelan-Americans live in Florida now, having escaped authoritarian rule. “Democrats, Republicans and independents — everyone agrees that what happened [Sunday] was egregious,” Salazar said. “It's outrageous.” Republicans blame the Biden-Harris administration for concessions it made last year. The U.S. lifted oil sanctions temporarily in exchange for Venezuela holding freer elections. Maduro violated the agreement early on, yet the administration took months to change course. “How could you be so dumb to think that Maduro is actually going to have a democratic election?” Giménez asked rhetorically. Gov. Ron DeSantis said yesterday during a press conference in Tampa that the agreement “should never have been tried,” per POLITICO’s Arek Sarkissian. “The way you deal with somebody like Maduro,” he said, “is you tighten the pressure, you make sure to choke off their resources.” Piling on was Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who helped draft U.S. policies toward Latin America during the Trump administration. Rubio in a statement called the election outcome the “latest example of how our enemies have suckered Biden and Harris repeatedly over the last four years.” — Mia McCarthy contributed reporting. Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget in the campaign reporting that Playbook should look at? Get in touch at: kleonard@politico.com. TODAY: Live Event — We are going to space! Join us today at 8:30 a.m. ET, for an exclusive conversation with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson about the space economy. What's that, you ask? Think of everything in your life that has anything to do with space — the global backbone for communications, media, data, science and defense. POLITICO also will sit with Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), from the space authorizations and appropriations subcommittees, as well as the FAA's commercial space lead Kelvin Coleman, NOAA's space commerce director Richard DalBello, Space Foundation's Meghan Allen and the Satellite Industry Association's President Tom Stroup. RSVP to attend here.
| | | | A message from Duke Energy: Duke Energy is improving the grid to meet the growing need for reliable electricity in Florida. Strengthening the grid helps reduce outages for homes and businesses across the state. Strategic investments in equipment upgrades and grid technology are helping reroute power to avoid outages and keep the lights on for Florida’s growing communities. Learn more about how Duke Energy is improving the grid for Florida. | | | |  | ... DATELINE TALLAHASSEE ... | | | 
The Supreme Court of Florida is seen in Tallahassee, on Jan. 11, 2024. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | EXPEDITED — The Florida Supreme Court has fast tracked a contentious legal dispute surrounding the statement that will go on the ballot next to the abortion access amendment. There are two related challenges underway over the financial impact statement that is meant to explain the budgetary impact of proposed initiatives. The amendment will go before voters in November. Floridians Protecting Freedom, the committee behind the amendment, has challenged the authority of legislative leaders to authorize a revised statement that was approved earlier this month while a lawsuit was still pending on the initial statement drawn up late last year. The 1st District Court of Appeal ruled that lawsuit was moot because of the new statement. But amendment supporters contend both statements are misleading and have asked the top court to intervene. The court on Monday set a briefing schedule in both cases that requires all filings to be submitted between now and Aug. 7. — Gary Fineout EXECUTION SCHEDULED — DeSantis has signed a death warrant for Loran Kenstley Cole, who was sentenced to death for the 1994 murder of John Edwards. Edwards was an 18-year-old student at Florida State University. Cole and another man met Edwards and his 21-year-old sister as they were camping in the Ocala National Forest. Cole killed Edwards and sexually assaulted his sister. This is the first death warrant DeSantis has signed in 2024. He signed two warrants in 2019 and six in 2023. The execution is scheduled for Aug. 29. — Gary Fineout ‘A CONUNDRUM’ — “State moves quickly to settle Medicaid managed care legal challenges,” by Florida Politics’ Christine Jordan Sexton. “AHCA referred the cases to DOAH after Florida’s top economists questioned the startup date for the newly announced Medicaid contracts. Medicaid officials targeted a Sept. 1 startup date for a multiphase rollout and a Jan. 1, 2025, date for statewide implementation.The ongoing legal dispute is already causing a bit of a conundrum for economists trying to come up with forecasts that will be used to develop the state’s three-year financial outlook.” UNION LEGAL FIGHT — “Federal judge sides with Florida, rejects most of union law fight,” reports Jim Saunders of News Service of Florida. “A federal judge has rejected much of a lawsuit challenging restrictions that Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature placed on public-employee unions — but a fight will continue about a ban on deducting union dues from workers’ paychecks. Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker last week issued an 80-page decision that largely sided with the state Public Employees Relations Commission, which is in charge of carrying out the controversial restrictions. The Republican-controlled Legislature and DeSantis approved the restrictions in 2023 and made revisions this year.” — “What is Project 2025? 5 ways its ideas are similar to Florida laws,” by C.A. Bridges of USA Today Network — Florida.
| | | | Pro Briefing: Kamala Harris and the World. What we expect on foreign policy and trade. Join POLITICO Pro for a deep-dive conversation with our specialist reporters about the vice president’s approach to foreign policy. Register Now. | | | | | | | PENINSULA AND BEYOND | | COMING UP — “Sarasota childcare crisis: Local businesses learn about new Florida childcare tax credits,” reports Saundra Amrhein of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. “Amid a childcare crisis impacting thousands of Sarasota-Manatee families and businesses, advocates are busy getting the word out about new state tax credits available to employers who help their workers with childcare. The childcare tax credits bill was passed by the Legislature this session and signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The law, which takes effect Oct. 1, allows employers to receive tax credits by either creating a childcare facility for their employees on-site or by subsidizing their workers’ childcare costs at eligible centers.” TAXPAYER MONEY — “Public official Moran spent $36,000 in taxpayers’ money on lavish travel, steak dinners, and booze,” by Florida Trident’s Michael Barfield. “According to the records, [Sarasota County Commission chair Mike] Moran spent more than $36,000 of taxpayers’ money during a recent 18-month period on lavish trips to Las Vegas, New York City, and California, indulging in expensive steakhouses, wine, and tequila shots. Moran amassed those travel expenses – which include multiple thousand-dollar-plus dinners – at his second publicly-financed job as executive director of the Florida PACE Funding Agency, known as FPFA. … In a phone interview with the Trident, Moran argued that because FPFA’s money comes from private individuals paying special assessments on their property tax bills, the money spent on his travel should not be considered public funds.” TINY HOMES — “Scoop: Miami-Dade agency pitches tiny homes to comply with anti-camping law,” reports Axios’ Martin Vassolo. “The Miami-Dade Homeless Trust recently sent a draft report to the county that proposes purchasing 175 pre-built tiny homes to set up on surplus county land. The pilot tiny home program would cost an estimated $7.15 million, per the draft action plan obtained by Axios.”
| | | | A message from Duke Energy:   | | | | | CAMPAIGN MODE | | SPLITTING THE VOTE — The University of North Florida released a new poll on Tuesday that found Florida voters backing Republican candidates, but not their policies. Former President Donald Trump has a seven-point lead over Vice President Kamala Harris, 49 percent to 42 percent, according to UNF’s Public Opinion Research Lab. GOP Sen. Rick Scott is leading his likely Democratic rival, former Rep. Debbie Muscarsel-Powell, 47 percent to 43 percent, which is within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 percentage points. But the survey also showed that two initiatives opposed by DeSantis and the Republican Party of Florida are above the 60 percent threshold needed to pass. The amendment guaranteeing access to abortion was supported by 69 percent of those polled while the amendment allowing recreational marijuana was had 64 percent support. An amendment pushed by the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature to have partisan school board elections had only 37 percent support. The poll surveyed 774 likely Florida voters from July 24-27. — Gary Fineout AMENDMENTS — “With Kamala Harris on the ballot, could the outlook improve for Florida’s abortion and marijuana amendments?” by the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s Cindy Krischer Goodman and Shira Moolten. “Both amendments still will face a concerted opposition effort from the Republican Party. Whatever effect Harris may have on their passage, her presence on the ticket does not make either amendment a shoo-in.” SUCCEEDING TORRES — “Top tier Democratic names, undaunted Republicans face off in Senate District 25 primaries,” reports the Orlando Sentinel’s Steven Lemongello. “On the Democratic side is Kristen Arrington, a current state representative for western Osceola County and wife of Osceola commissioner Brandon Arrington; Alan Grayson, a former firebrand congressman making his first bid for a state office after multiple attempts to return to D.C.; and Carmen Torres, Sen. Torres’ wife and mother of Orange County Property Appraiser Amy Mercado. On the other are two Republicans, Osceola County School Board member Jon Arguello and businessman Jose Martinez, each of whom say they can win in a heavily Democratic district.” LIVING LARGE — “Fancy home. Luxury car. Wine label. Where does Florida pol Bracy get the money?” by Orlando Sentinel’s Jeffrey Schweers and Steven Lemongello. “[Randolph Bracy], 47, has changed from a soft-spoken, middle class businessman to an outspoken, flashy consultant who claims to pull down more than $1 million a year in salary and this year purchased a $2.8 million lakeside compound… He claims it comes from a consulting business whose clients and services he refuses to name publicly.” RURAL LANDS — “Candidates for Orange County District 5 vary in support for rural protections,” by Orlando Sentinel’s Stephen Hudak. “[The race] offers voters four candidates of varying ideologies and sharply different backgrounds on the Aug. 20 primary ballot to replace term-limited Emily Bonilla, the county board’s most combative advocates for controlling growth… All the candidates say they favor protecting Orange County’s rural lands, but only [Democrat Kelly] Semrad has made the issue a foundation of her campaign.”
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Then-Florida secretary of state Laurel Lee speaks at pre-legislative news conference on Tuesday Oct. 29, 2019, in Tallahassee, Florida. | Steve Cannon/AP Photo | TRUMP SHOOTING — Three Florida representatives were appointed to the bipartisan task force to investigate the attempted assassination of Donald Trump — but not all Floridians were satisfied with the final list. On the Republican side, Reps. Laurel Lee and Mike Waltz are set to serve on the task force. And Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a former director of emergency management in Florida, will serve on the Democratic side. Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries tapped 13 members of Congress — split seven Republicans, six Democrats — for the task force. Despite the strong Florida presence, some delegation members felt that others should have made the cut. GOP Rep. Cory Mills said in a post on X that it was “unfortunate” that he and Arizona Republican Rep. Eli Crane were excluded. Mills added he believes there should be a “parallel independent investigation with subject matter experts.” “I will be speaking with other members, and although I won’t have subpoena powers, I will personally fund whatever is required for additional staff to further investigation and expose the truth,” Mills said. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) also chimed in with support of Mills. “Today they were errantly left off the task force investigating the attempted assassination of President Trump because they aren’t lackeys to incompetence,” he said. Read more on the task force from POLITICO’s Jordain Carney.— Mia McCarthy — “Gov. DeSantis OK with US Supreme Court term limits – if Congress term limited too,” reports Gray Rohrer of USA Today Network — Florida.
| | | | A message from Duke Energy: There is a growing need for reliable energy in Florida. Duke Energy employees start each day with one thing on their minds – improving the grid to meet the needs of Florida’s communities. To all of us, it’s about more than keeping the lights on. It’s about doing things smarter, making improvements that make a real difference and always looking toward the future. Working at Duke Energy is more than a job. It’s a commitment to building a smarter, more reliable energy future for Florida.
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