>>This week on NewsNight, a look ahead to the 2024 Florida legislative session as lawmakers prepare to tackle issues from energy independence to background checks for gun purchases.

Plus, Ron DeSantis makes his final push for support in Iowa.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello, I'm Steve Mort, and welcome to the first edition of NewsNight for 2024 with an in-depth look at the top stories and issues in central Florida and how they affect all of us.

First tonight, the legislative session begins next week in Tallahassee.

The governor will deliver his state of the state on Tuesday, but he's unlikely to spend much of the session in Florida as he campaigns in Iowa for the Republican presidential nomination.

More on that later.

Lawmakers will debate issues ranging from penalties for higher education students who back foreign terrorist organizations such as Hamas to the priorities of House and Senate leaders.

Those include placing limits on children's access to social media sites and incentivizing energy companies to resist federal government's efforts to sideline fossil fuels in favor of renewables.

Senate President Kathleen Passidomo is also pressing for a reduction in regulations on public schools, cutting red tape for administrators on things like testing.

She's also promoting legislation aimed at boosting the number of health care providers in the state.

>>About a thousand people a day move to the state of Florida.

Many of them are older.

Everybody needs health care.

In Florida today we do not have enough health care personnel to take care of the Floridians that are living here.

You know, many of you have probably tried to get in to see a doctor and you got to get your appointment a year in advance.

And so our whole goal is how do we grow our health care system in Florida, our workforce.

>>Kathleen Passidomo.

Well, we asked Michael Binder, Director of Public Opinion Research at the University of North Florida what he expects from this session.

>>There has been a lot of talk about what's happening around health care in the state of Florida, and there is going to be some movement there.

Ultimately, what that looks like, you know, I'm not sure anybody really knows just yet, but that's going to be big.

Obviously, the governor's discussion of what the budget will look like has dropped.

And without that influx of federal COVID money, it's actually smaller than it was last year, which is absent a great economic recession or decline that that's kind of rare in Florida because we are growing in population.

Generally speaking, the trend is the year after elections, that session right after elections.

That's when you do all of your policies that might be controversial because you have a year to forget about it, a year to adjust.

And then this legislative session tends to be more about the blocking and tackling of governance, you know, giving out some earmarks, spending some money on some issues that maybe localities like so that the state legislators can go back to their districts and campaign, hey, look, see this road being built?

That was our money or this was our money or this is what I did for you as opposed to having to stand up there and defend controversial policy that were passed.

>>Michael Binder there from UNF.

Well, let's bring in our panel now to break it all down.

Joining us in the studio this week, Christopher Heath from WFTV, Channel 9.

Thanks for coming in, Chris.

Appreciate your time.

Greg Angel, Spectrum News 13.

Good to see you again.

>>Always a pleasure.

>>And Skyler Swisher from the Orlando Sentinel.

Thanks for being here, Skyler.

>>Thanks for having me >>Good to see you guys today.

Let me start by asking all of you what you expect from the upcoming session.

Skyler let me start with you on that one.

>>Well, I mean, I think, you know, some of the hot button issues, definitely, you know, health care is a priority of the Senate president, and I think that's going to be one.

I also think one of the things I'm going to be watching for, it hasn't gotten quite as much attention is regulations on social media, additional regulations.

You know, the House speaker has mentioned perhaps having, you know, age verification for, you know, sexually explicit websites to try to, you know, safeguard those from children.

AI that's another issue that could come up in terms of requiring disclaimers on political ads.

So, I mean, these are things that could really affect a Florida, you know, for generations potentially.

So that'll be something I'll definitely be watching.

>>Some long term consequences.

Greg, what do-- >>Yeah, you talk about issues that impact Floridians.

I think property insurance, that's something that still needs to be addressed and something that a lot of Floridians are still wanting the lawmakers to actually address.

I think something as you kind of, you know, watch the tealeaves, if you will, something to watch is who actually drives this legislative session.

As you guys have talked about some the hot topic, social issues that have gotten passes, the governor has really steered and driven the legislative sessions the last few years.

Now that he's on the campaign trail, is it Passidomo and Renner that really drive it, especially with new legislative leaders coming in next term?

So I think it's going to be interesting kind of watching the themes of the kind of legislation that comes to see who's driving.

>>Who's driving that agenda.

What do you think?

>>Greg makes a great point there about, you know, the last legislative session we saw both Renner and Passidomo basically go to the governor's office and say, just tell us what you want and we'll get it done.

Now that he is on the campaign trail and we will know in short order whether or not his campaign's going anywhere.

You know, the question becomes who does drive the agenda?

Renner and Passidomo they're in their last year.

They're done.

So do they have any juice left to get something done to kind of leave a legacy behind?

Or is their legacy going to be they spent two years trying to help, you know, Ron DeSantis become President of the United States?

And I think that's one bucket.

And the other bucket you look at and you say there are issues out there the state needs to deal with, but do those get kicked down the road because you do have new leadership coming in the next session.

Let that be their problem.

We'll let them deal with it.

And then I guess you ask the question of what?

How much what is it?

Where does DeSantis fall if he finishes second or third in Iowa, second or third in New Hampshire, South Carolina, and the campaign is basically over, he's still governor for three more legislative terms.

>>That's right.

>>How much power does he really have?

Where does he go and how much authority is he really going to exert on them?

It definitely not will not be like what we saw last session.

So we're going to get a better idea coming up pretty soon.

>>Yeah, And Michael Binder saying this is likely to be a much different session than the one we saw in 2023.

Let me stay with you, Chris, and let's talk about a couple of the issues that we mentioned.

Skyler mentioned health care.

One of the issues that's likely to be big this upcoming session.

I mean, why does the Senate president say that health care is such a big issue?

I mean, what does she want to do about it?

>>Well, the idea is, is to try and keep people out of the emergency room.

And Florida does have a health care problem.

We have the highest number of uninsured.

We've had that for a long time.

We have an aging population, which is definitely, you know, uses a lot of health care, but they fall into mostly coverage at that point.

But we have a lot of working poor that can't afford health care, and it is extremely expensive.

You add that to the fact that we cannot keep nurses, we cannot find enough doctors.

That's another problem.

Florida's one of about nine states that has not expanded under the Affordable Care Act, which was designed to keep people out of the emergency room.

And you hear Kathleen Passidomo the Senate president say we need to keep people out of the emergency room.

That was exactly what the ACA was designed to do.

Florida has said, no, we will not do that.

We want to find another way to do this.

It looks as if Florida is going to try and do its own thing to do this.

I don't know exactly how you move that needle and how you keep doctors and nurses in the state and lower costs all at the same time without a huge influx of cash from the state.

And that's unlikely.

>>And she's sort of talking about the influx of new residents that we get to the state as well, putting pressure on that industry.

Greg, education has been a theme of the last several sessions.

Looks like it could be a theme again this time in terms of deregulation of public schools.

>>Yes, kind of going from deregulating business to now deregulating education.

And they've got a number of ideas kind of building on what they've done in the past as far as expanding opportunity for parents to put kids in charter schools and in private schools in a move some of those tax dollars and a number of ideas have been kind of kicked around in the legislature right now.

One would allow 16 year olds to essentially opt out of high school if they were to successfully pass a GDE equivalency exam with parental permission, of course, because it is the state of parents in charge.

And the idea with that is if a 16 year old is smart enough to pass high school and earn their high school certificate, let them get out into the workforce, let them at least start job training or to get into the workforce.

There's also a number of other ideas and some of, again, deregulation school busses about the inspection period for school busses.

Instead of requiring school busses be inspected every 30 days while school is in session.

This particular proposal would expand it to every 90 days.

Again, the focus is just trying to do make it easier for school districts.

There's also others on there that would adjust some of the licensing and certification requirements and things like that.

>>So certainly a piece of legislation that could have some wide ranging real world impacts on people.

Skyler I'm just kind of interested in something that Chris was saying before about whether or not this is going to be an encore performance from 2023 or not, given the governor's kind of priorities at this moment.

I mean, do we think that Florida we talked about a couple of pieces of legislation there, but do we think that Florida will continue to sort of be a test bed for sort of conservative thought, or do you think those days are behind us at this point?

>>Yes, I think it will be.

I don't think it'll be quite as active as last year.

Last year, you know, you had a governor coming off a historic win.

I'm sure it's an election year.

So I don't think the agenda is going to be quite as expansive.

But I mean, regardless of what DeSantis is doing in Iowa or on the presidential campaign trail, it's not like the legislature woke up and they're suddenly liberals.

You know what I mean?

Like I mean, the Republicans have a supermajority.

The momentum in that party is to move further to the right.

So, yeah, I think you're going to continue to see the legislature, you know, pushing a lot of conservative orientated.

>>That is the momentum-- >>To Skyler's point.

I mean, DeSantis is still the governor for three more sessions.

He still holds the veto pen.

He's still if you're a lobbyist up in Tallahassee and you're saying, well, his presidential campaign is going nowhere, he still can get rid of that project you wanted at home.

Yeah, that's gone.

>>And something to add there, too, as well.

One thing we also have to look across the street from the legislature is the Florida Supreme Court.

A lot of these especially hot button issues that the legislature has passed and the governor has approved, a lot of them are being challenged in court.

You've got the abortion bans, 15 week abortion ban, which is still being considered by the Florida Supreme Court, even as in the queue is a six week.

>>And whether it goes on the ballot as well.

>>Whether it goes on the ballot as well.

So how does the legislature then react to some of these judicial rulings on a lot of these issues?

It's something to watch as well.

>>You mentioned the veto pen, Chris, and of course, the budget is going to be one of the things that the legislature has to do right?

$114.4 billion budget.

That's slightly smaller than the current budget that we're under at the moment passed in the last session.

Why that cut for 24-25?

Why is that?

>>We don't have the COVID money.

I mean, you got to remember, the federal government flushed Florida with cash and, you know, the legislature didn't want to talk about how much money they got from the feds.

They got a lot.

And it's easy to pass a big budget and reward everyone when you get all this federal dollars.

Federal dollars are gone.

So the budget's going to have to come back a little bit.

And when you look at the things that DeSantis is putting in his budget proposal, which again, it's a proposal the House and Senate will eventually come to terms and it'll get passed, you know, getting rid of state jobs, some of them in corrections, which is already understaffed, it seems, you know, kind of counterintuitive.>>And underpaid.

>>Yes.

And so that's part of it.

And then, you know, some of the other ideas that are in there for reducing some of the other things raises the question of where are the priorities for the state?

And you can see when you read this, the priorities are Everglades restoration.

Okay, yeah, putting more money into teachers which are have been underpaid for a long time, but throwing more money into education and then also throwing more money into trying to figure out what to do about homeowner's insurance, which I think we are on at least three special sessions, plus two more regular sessions.

And we're still trying to solve this problem, which continues to, you know, befuddle the state.

>>And something we've been watching at The Orlando Sentinel.

We're leaving a lot of federal money on the table.

You know, there's federal dollars to feed hungry children.

Energy efficiency upgrades that Florida is just not electing to accept.

So that's something to watch, too, like how much federal money gets left on the table.

>>And we trust you guys will keep watching it all as the session progresses.

So be sure to join the conversation on social media.

We're at WUCFTV, on Facebook, X, and also on Instagram as well.

All right.

The issue of guns is likely to play a significant role in the upcoming session as well.

Several gun related bills have been filed by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Among them, an effort by Democrats to repeal Florida's Stand Your Ground law.

And Republican-backed bills will give law enforcement a deadline of three business days, the waiting period on gun purchases in Florida, to complete background checks.

Another would eliminate the three day waiting period for those buying firearms, but keep it in place for handguns.

Rolling back one of the laws passed after the Parkland school shooting.

Well, let's hear from both sides in this debate.

First, here's Luis Valdes, Florida state director for Gun Owners of America.

>>Right now, we're fighting to get rid of waiting periods to have adults be under the age of 21, being able to legally purchase and carry firearms again, things of that sort.

So we're not going to go to the legislature and say, well, we'll do universal background checks if you give us this.

No, our policy is very simple.

We want a full restoration of civil rights because that's what gun rights are.

And we will not stand by and allow any modification or violation of those rights for all law abiding Americans.

Doesn't matter for white, black, Hispanic, gay, straight.

They'll have the same rights.

>>Luis Valdez there.

Now let's hear from Patricia Brigham, president of Prevent Gun Violence, Florida.

>>What we believe is happening here is that the background check process is under attack.

That process is one of the only things that keeps us safe from criminals getting guns unless they just get them on the under the black market and they don't pay through the gun show loophole.

But if somebody is trying to buy that gun at a gun dealership, which is a federally licensed dealership, that waiting period and that background check are critical, they should be happening together.

Somebody should not be giving a given a gun before the background check information is in.

It's too risky.

Patricia Brigham there, okay Skyler let me start with you on this one.

You've written about Republican efforts to to scrap waiting periods for firearms.

What exactly is proposed?

>>There was a three day waiting period that counties could opt a 3 to 5 day waiting period for long guns.

After Parkland that was extended statewide.

So what the gun rights advocates want to do is essentially eliminate that waiting period for hand or for long guns.

It would remain in place for handguns.

>>I mean, why do proponents believe these sort of so-called cooling off periods are a good idea?

Why do they think they're needed?

>>Yeah, I mean, they they say they save lives.

And the reason is, is that somebody who's, let's say, going through emotional distress, somebody who's angry and wants to purchase a gun, they say that there's value in terms of, you know, making them wait, you know, at least three days to get the firearm.

And they say that this has translated into fewer gun deaths and fewer suicides by guns.

>>And, of course, we saw the permitless carry efforts in the previous legislative session.

Chris, Democrats have been really critical of these moves of late.

They've introduced a raft of legislation of their own.

But I mean, with the supermajority, is there really any chance that the Republicans are going to allow those to see the light of day?

>>No.

>>No, that's the end?

>>Good talk.

No, no, absolutely not.

I mean, you Democrats, they filed it as a messaging bill.

They're letting their base know.

They're letting their base know what their priorities are.

And they're trying to signal to, you know, maybe independent Floridians or even, you know, Republicans who maybe want to see some level of gun control that, listen, this is what we care about.

This is where our priorities are.

But there no there is no way that any of the Democratic bills are going to get a hearing in a committee and much less a chance to.

They they get to the floor, much less a chance they get voted on and much less they end up on the governor's desk and get his signature.

It's just not going to happen.

>>The Gun Owners of America has been really critical of the Florida of the Republican led Florida legislature for not doing enough and not going far enough towards what they would like to see done.

I mean, what kind of role is that group playing now as this sort of NRA takes more of a of a backseat with its problems?

>>Well, NRA.

Well, NRA's had a lot of problems, spending problems, leadership problems, things like that.

And they've been around for over 100 years.

The thing about the Gun Owners of America, the organization itself has been around for the better part of 75 years.

So they're not a new organization and they're much smaller than than the NRA.

But money does buy influence.

And the thing that the Gun Owners of America have talked about in recent years, especially here in Florida, their membership is growing, their donations are growing, which means their lobbying money is growing.

But I think on the flip side, too, as America sees more mass shootings and more tragedies, I think both sides are kind of elevating the conversation.

And both sides are are growing.

So here in Florida and in a kind of our own echo chamber where it's a smaller legislature than than than, say, Congress, I think their influence is growing.

But to Chris's point, where does it go?

Certainly Gun Owners of America, they promote themselves as no compromise.

Free rights.

That's it.

End of conversation.

No compromise.

And they do take issue even with a constitutional carry.

You know, legislation last year saying it's not far enough and needs to be open carry this of people's rights.

But unfortunately I think situations you know as they unfold a lot of people are so surprised even after Parkland that the Republican legislature took the action that they did.

And then Republican Governor Rick Scott took the action that he did.

So, unfortunately, sometimes legislation is defined by by tragedy.

Would that move the needle?

We'll see.

But, to Chris' point as far as any change, I don't expect any.

>>And we also had the Supreme Court, the US Supreme Court right now taking up the Rahimi case.

And they've already heard argument on this is the case out of Texas where gentleman was under a, you know, an injunction to domestic violence injunction hand over his weapons.

And the argument is, is that's a violation of the Second Amendment.

Now, the court's heard that argument.

We'll see where they go with it.

But if the court comes back and says, yeah, these domestic violence restraining orders that remove your weapons are a violation of the Second Amendment, you could definitely see Florida moving in that direction, which a lot of, you know, domestic violence and, you know, advocates against domestic violence will sit back and say, you know, that'd be catastrophic.

But that's, you know, definitely on the horizon.

>>Now, part of the shortfall to, you know, some say, look, it's not the gun, it's the person.

Mental health is part of it, too.

And that's also where Florida has kind of failed.

You know, as far as the full investment into mental health is a lot of mental health advocates and say we need more resources, we need more people in the line of work, we need more funding.

And that that funding and support really hasn't been followed through.

So it's worth noting and part of this conversation is folks say, look, it's a simple question, but a complex answer that it's not really been full.

They haven't gotten to it from the other side either.

>>Well, certainly a lot to watch going forward on that issue as well.

We should mention we are taping this program on Thursday morning so things can change by air time.

In the meantime, you can find a link to the text of the bills on waiting periods for gun purchases at our website.

It's all at wucf.org/newsnight.

Finally tonight, Ron DeSantis and his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

As we talked about earlier, the Iowa caucuses are less than two weeks away and the Florida governor is making his final pitch to Hawkeye State voters.

But the polls show dissent is far behind Donald Trump in the scrap for second place with former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.

We asked Michael Binder again for the University of North Florida what he's seeing in the numbers.

>>The presidential race has not gone well for Ron DeSantis.

Prior to him getting in, there was a lot of excitement about him, a lot of hoopla.

He was polling, you know, before you're in the race, everybody thinks you're great.

And once you get in and Donald Trump starts attacking you, suddenly your numbers come down.

He's really struggled as of late, depending upon the poll, depending upon the state.

He's either maybe barely second or third behind Nikki Haley in North Car - New Hampshire recently, he polled Fifth.

So, yeah, if you're looking at the trajectory of his polling numbers, it's not good.

And with Iowa voting coming up, he's got to turn it around quickly.

And it doesn't look like anybody's really going to make a dent in Donald Trump's lead.

>>Michael Binder there.

Okay.

Let me start with you on this one, Chris.

What does the governor have to do to try to pull off a decent performance in Iowa?

>>Well, he should hope that Donald Trump decides to drop out of the race for some reason, you know, and that's probably about all the polling shows that, you know, DeSantis is far behind in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina.

I mean, those are your first three.

He's he's behind in all of them.

Some where he's in third or fourth place.

And it's just one of those things where you're sitting back and you're saying a year ago, I remember sitting at this very desk with you and talking about how Ron DeSantis is coming off this huge win.

You know, had all the wind in his sails and was going to push on forward.

And then meanwhile, Donald Trump is sitting down in Mar a Lago having dinner with neo-Nazi sympathizers.

We're all sitting there saying the path is ahead for DeSantis and it's just not turned out that way for him.

I mean, I'd be shocked if he does better than second place in Iowa.

He may not finish second or third in New Hampshire.

And I don't know where he goes from then.

The question I think that's out there for his campaign is when do they call it quits?

Does he stick around like Rubio did for the Florida primary and not win his home state?

Or does he get out before Florida?

>>A year is a long time in politics, isn't it?

But, I mean, does he even get to New Hampshire?

Greg?

>>Well, I think that's a big question there.

And it really depends on the caucuses and what the showing is like and how much of a margin there is.

I think there is a lot of expectation that the former president Donald Trump is going to have a significant lead.

So as it's been said, it's a little bit of a race for second place.

But the reality is, as shallow as it may sound, elections are personality contests.

And the thing with this is a lot of people have had the opportunity to kind of kick the tires.

Voters themselves want to pick a winner as well.

And I think there's been a lot of miscalculate on the governor's team as they've come in to the presidential trail and is, you know, potential voters are kicking the tires and not quite warming up to the governor's personality, which then has given folks like Nikki Haley a chance to actually boost up.

>>And by the way, the people that helped get DeSantis reelected are now all working for Donald Trump.

And DeSantis, his inner circle has gotten so small.

I think that's really hurt him.

The fact that he doesn't have a lot of outside voices telling him things.

He's got a lot of internal kind of almost Yes Men around him.

>>And well and two and I wonder if some of the issues talk with some Republican voters.

The thing that draws folks to folks like Governor DeSantis is they don't want the chaos that the former president brings and the baggage.

On the flip side, they also don't like the the polarizing and fierce run to the far right.

And I think you may find that whether people identify as Democrats and Republicans there's actually a lot of common ground on certain issues, especially social issues.

And so running too far over, I think there may have been some miscalculations.

Disney, for example, too hold out for a couple of folks of, hey, you know, I'm holding Disney to task, but there's a lot of Republicans who love Disney, too.

>>I mean, there is that personality issue.

But I do wonder where you think maybe things have kind of gone off the rails a little.

And I've heard a lot of talk about this being an authenticity issue for DeSantis.

What do you think, Skyler?

>>In terms of going off the rails?

I mean, certainly there's been some missteps.

You know, there's been a lot of dysfunction with the super PAC, never backed down.

But I think the bigger issue for DeSantis was that it appears that there was just a miscalculation.

And I think the thought was there's going to be, you know, former President Trump is going to be charged criminally.

The voters are going to look at that and say, geez, we want someone who can win.

We don't want someone with all this baggage.

And, you know, Governor DeSantis has many of the same views as is Trump.

So let's jump over to him.

Well it appears that's not happening, in fact, the more that former President Trump is indicted, the more the support gathers around him.

I mean, you know, so it seems like I just don't know how you overcome that as a candidate.

>>I mean, do you think there's still some hope on behalf of the DeSantis campaign that the former president's legal travails could eventually come back to bite him?

>>No, because in every single step, every time DeSan - to Skyler's point, every time that Trump is indicted for something, all the candidates on the Republican side have to come out and talk about how much they support him.

You don't win an election by supporting your opponent.

Yes.

You're both Republicans and yes.

So you go back to Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment, thou shall not attack a fellow Republican in the primary, but you've got to beat Donald Trump.

And if you're Ron DeSantis, you don't beat Donald Trump by talking about how he's been treated so unfairly and how things are so tough for him and how, you know, he was really a great president but.

Once you say he was really a great president, but once you say but it doesn't matter.

>>And also to his ability to control the narrative in the headlines, because every time the former president is in court, every time everybody's talking about Trump and they're not talking about whatever the other candidates are.

>>And we've seen the former New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, make the point that you can't run around the former president.

You've got to go through him in order to get the nomination.

Well you can see the full interview with Michael Binder from UNF plus all the other interviews you've seen on the program tonight on our website wucf.org/newsnight along the bottom of your screen.

But that is all the time we have for this week.

My thanks to Christopher Heath from WFTV, Channel 9, Greg Angel from Spectrum News 13, Skyler Swisher from the Orlando Sentinel.

Thank you so much for coming in today.

I really appreciate it.

The first show of the year, we'll see you next Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

From all of us here at NewsNight, take care and have a great week.