>>This week on NewsNight, a look at the political maneuvering sparked by president elect Donald Trump's decision to name several lawmakers from Florida to his incoming administration.

Plus, next steps followin the election of Monique Worrell to the state attorney job that she was suspended from last year.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello, I'm Steve Mort welcome to NewsNight where we take an in-depth look at the top storie and issues in Central Florida and how they shap our community.

The Florida Legislature met for an organization session this week, passing control of the state House and Senate to new leadership that will set the agenda in Tallahassee for the next two years.

We'll be talking a lo about that in the coming weeks.

Of course, as lawmakers gathered and swore in new members, including 26 new senators.

Governor DeSantis was among them.

In addition to helping set that legislative agenda for his final two years in office, the eyes of the political universe are trained on Florida's chief executive and how he might tackle special elections to replace Congressman Mike Waltz, and filling Florida's US Senate seat vacated by Marco Rubio.

We'll talk about it in a moment with our panel.

But first, I sat down this week with Rollins political scientist Patrick Rickert.

>>Elections take time, especially when we have safe seats like we do throughout most of Florida.

And so the primary elections are going to be of particular importance.

They're likely going to determine who the representative is.

And any candidate wants to have a fair sho at getting their campaign going.

>>And of course, the other task that faces the governor is replacing US Senator Marco Rubio in that Senate seat.

For that person to sit there till 2026, when there can be another election.

I wonder what you see as the political challenges that face the governor now, when it comes to naming someone to that seat for the next two years?

>>Certainly, I think one of the biggest challenges might be DeSantis own personal ambition.

We've seen before with his presidential run that he has aspirations to continue on in both Florida and national politics after his term as governor.

And likely, he will make a run for that seat in 2026.

So there might be a personal calculus where he wants someone who is more of a placeholder than a potentially strong future opponent.

Of course, probably the main consideration in his mind is who's going to be a loyal partisan, who's going to b a good Republican for the Senate in the same way that Senator Rubio was.

>>You can find my full interview with Patrick Rickert on our website wucf.org/newsnight.

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

Joining me in the studio this week, Nick Papantonis, general assignment reporter WFTV channel 9.

It's been a while since we saw you, Nick, but-- >>Happy to be back.

>>Thank you so much for coming in.

Really appreciate it.

Talia Blake, Morning Edition host at Central Florida Public Media.

Good to see you, Talia.

>>Always good to see you >>And the Orlando Sentinel Skyler Swisher, thanks for coming back to the program, Skyler.

>>Thanks for having me on.

>>A quick note, we are recording this program on Thursday morning so things can change by air time, especially with a fast moving story.

Talia let me start on this one.

The governor fleshed out his plans a little bit this week on filling Senator Rubio seat.

What do we know?

>>Right.

So he posted on X or what formerly known as Twitter that we're not going to know who is going to take this seat until at least January.

He's going to star the interview process, kind of star vetting candidates.

But in that same post on X, you know he said he's looking for someone who's going to hel President Trump, someone who is strong o immigration and border policy, you know, kind of someone aligning with those conservative values.

So that kind of gives us a sense of who he is looking at.

Rumor has it that, you know, some of the names that are being tossed in are Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nunez, Ashley Moody.

Some of those names are kind of being thrown in as potential people who could replace Rubio.

>>And we talked just now with Patrick Rickert about some of those political challenges that that might face the governor and replace Senator Rubio.

He's under a lot of pressure, right?

>>Yeah.

I mean, he's got to contend with is the Trump world, if you want to call it that, is very heavil pushing him to name his daughter Lara Trump to the seat.

She is a well-known figure now in Republican politics.

One of the leaders of the Republican Party would obviously carry that brand and that family name in there that people are the moments are certainly very supportive of.

But as we've discussed at this point, right, he has his own ambitions.

There's a little speculation that he doesn't actually want the Senate seat for himself, that he likes being in the executive and might want to just focu on that presidential campaign.

But it's certainly if he wants to keep that option open for himself.

The question is, does he name a loyal, person under him, or does he name himself for that seat or, you know, resign and let his lieutenant governor take over, which would preserve his legacy here in Florida?

Have her continue that on with the deal that she names him to that seat instead.

>>An certainly a lot of speculation about what governor DeSantis' future looks like after 2026.

I mean, you've been gatherin local reaction, Skyler, to Matt Gatez's, nomination to be attorney general in the Trump administration.

What are your sources telling you there?

And does it sort of mirro what we've heard from senators in Washington?

>>Yeah.

So, you know, I've talke to some Florida Republicans and they're really kind o closing ranks behind Matt Gaet They're saying, look, you know, President Trump has a mandate.

He should be abl to kind of implement his vision.

But I will say that the, you know, the support is not uniform among Republicans.

I interviewed Matt Staver.

He is a Christian conservative lawyer with the Liberty Counsel, and he was very critical of Matt Gaetz.

He say he doesn't have the experience.

And he also mentioned some of the allegations of, you know, sexual misconduct that Matt Gates is following.

He said he doesn't think that, Matt Gaetz could hardly find his way around a courtroom.

That' how limited his experience is.

>>So it does sound a lot like what we're hearing from Washington.

I mean, we referenced the the House House ethics panel prob last week on the on the program.

The panel met, this week on Wednesday.

I mean, do you get a sense from your reporting whether there is a growing amount of pressure?

For that panel's report to be made public?

>>Yes.

I mean, there's absolutely growing pressure, even among some, you know, Republicans in the Senate have said that they want to see the report.

I talked to an Orlando attorney, Joel Leopard, who represents, two women who testified to the House Ethics Committee, and he was saying his clients very much would like to see this report made public.

And they also don't want to have to go through, you know, a public testimony in the Senate.

>>Governor DeSantis has vowed to move quickly to call a special election to replace Gaetz.

And, of course, Mike Waltz in Volusia County as well.

But he does face some constraints right on on how fast he can act.

I mean, not least because of the state's recent law on mail in ballots.

>>Yeah, I mean, there' he can't just do this overnight.

There's a process that has to be followed.

And that' what's going to limit him here.

The timeline between the qualifying period, letting voters know, all the steps that need to happen in an election, you're not looking you're going to be looking at anything beyond or before, early to mid February, at minimum, probably stretching into March just depending on the timing.

So there's it's not like they're going to start, the session on January 3rd with all of these Republicans from Florida suddenly able to step in.

>>And of course, now Floridians have to register for mai in ballots each election cycle.

So that can also spin out the time.

Talia let me wrap up with you on this one.

I mean, you know, could Gates and Waltz both leaving Congress have a knock on effect on Florida politics?

I mean, it seems like you could have a sort of a cascading effect if state reps want to jump in on those seats.

>>Yeah.

I mean, it's kind of anybody's game at this point.

And if someone who's already sitting in a seat decides to put themselves up for this new seat, then that could make another special election.

You kind of just have that domino effect to keep going and going.

So it's anybody's game right now.

>>There's certainly a lot of knock on effects possible.

Okay.

Next I wanted to talk about a story that Nick and the team at WFT Channel 9 broke about the Orange County Supervisor of Election office, headed by Glen Gilzean.

The reporting focuses on millions of dollars of spending by the office, including 2.1 million for scholarship named for Gilzean himself and 1.9 million for job training.

The county commission has been having a look at all that spending and whether it was appropriate and on Tuesday, during a commission meeting Mayor Demings accused the election supervisor of bad governance.

>>It became clear to me that, It was an inappropriate us and designation of county funds.

Now, there remains to be proven.

I believe, that we have a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers and make certain that when we set and make decisions about ho to spend the taxpayer dollars, that we hold true to that if we get into a situation where we allow the constitutional officers, after they have come in good faith and said to us they will want funds to be spent in a certain way, we have to hold them accountable to that.

We cannot and should not allow them to request funds for one thing and use them for something else.

>>Mayor Demings there.

Okay, Nick, let's get into this one, or let's back up a little bit and talk about these individual parts of spending.

Let's start with that 2.1 million scholarship fund, to Valencia College.

Firstly, what was that supposed to achieve?

>>So that was supposed to allow students from disadvantaged communities.

We're talking to Evans and Jones High Schools on the west side of Orlando.

They they would be abl to study at Valencia cost free.

For as long as that money lasted.

That was 2.1 million.

That is a significant chunk compared to other scholarships that are offered.

It was limited to students, though not just from those geographic areas, also going into cybersecurity and other types of fields similar to that.

To try, you know, in a word, advance the election offices goals and making elections more secure.

>>There was also 1.9 million, on job trainings for career source.

>>Yep.

So this was, money that, according to these two sides here, was going to allow the 100 plu temporary elections workers that work for the offic this year to get retrained to find more permanent opportunities.

The elections Office spokesman, told me in a conversation over the phone that I had with him that the are good workers, quality staff.

They didn't want to let them go.

But you can't run the elections office with that many people for, an entire cycle.

So, this was through the election savings, that they had last year.

According to them, this was just to help those workers get another step up.

>>Okay, so people might say these all sound like, admirable spending goals or admirable goals.

The the the Orange County supervisor of elections says, it doesn't need permission to spend the money that was sort of left over in the budget.

The county, says that that money, though, should go back into the the general fund.

Right.

What are the county's attorneys saying about it?

>>I mean, nobody's arguing tha these aren't admirable, right?

Helping students, especiall from disadvantaged communities, helping temporary workers find a permanent job.

No one is arguing that point in is presented for some people, a little bit of a moral like it's a little icky, right?

At the end of the day, though, the county and just about everybody involved outside of the election office is talking about the fact that this there is a process that needs to be followed, that, the county commissioner are the ones that hold the purse strings and are able to say, this is what we want the mone to go towards in a vague sense.

And the constitutional officers, including an elections officer, should follow that.

So they are looking at different options right no to try and get that money back.

And the primary concern really, if you want to take a step back from it, this might be admirable, but I was talking to somebody other day and we were discussing the hypothetical of, well, the sheriff, if this was allowed, a sheriff could take money that was meant for, getting new equipment or victim services and use that to buy a helicopter or, in the name of recruitment.

Put an ad on the Las Vegas sphere.

I mean, that's a bit of a ridiculous comparison, but that is what essentially could be allowed if precedent is set.

>>I mean what are some of those remedies, that the Commission is looking at?

And what has Glen Gilzean himself said?

Is is his office pushing back?

>>So I mean, his office certainly is.

They their mind right now is that he had the authority.

The law does not say tha he can't reallocate his funds.

According to him, and, he should be able to take the money the commission gives him.

And as a constitutional officer, use that how he sees fit, especially if there's money left over at the end of the year.

And as long as he returns any unspent funds by October 1st.

So the county, though, disagrees.

They say the law doesn't allow him to do what he did.

And so he's looking at, they're looking at right now, potentially a lawsui against him, restraining order just to cover the six weeks that he has left in office.

They're really going to rely on the incoming supervisor, Karen Castor Daniel, to help them get that money back.

Asking Valencia for it.

Back asking career source to return it.

And then there's the the longer term future where I was talking to a state senator last night, Jason Broder.

This is Wednesday night.

And we're talking about the fact that he's having conversations up in Tallahassee right now about the fact that this is not something that anybody foresaw and thought about.

It's never happened before.

And he's also worried about a precedent, and, and wants to make sure that the law is very clear that the commissioners are the ones that have this authority, not an election supervisor.

>>Well your reporting on this has been excellent.

I hope you, keep at it.

Of course.

Glen Gilzean had a fairly controversial run up to his time in the supervisor of elections office.

Y>>eah.

I mean, Glen Gilzean has kind of bee a bit of a jack of all trades.

He's a close ally to governor DeSantis, and he was serving on the Ethics Commission.

He was the chairman of the Ethics Commission.

That's an unpaid position.

That's a very politically influential post to hold.

And he was named to lead the Disney District, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District-- >>That replaced Reedy Creek.

>>Exactly.

And the issue that came up there was that you cannot serve on the Ethics Commission and hold, public employment.

>>Yeah.

>>And he didn't resign his post on the Ethics Commission.

It took several months and pressure, quite frankly, from the media before he resigned that post.

>>It's certainly been, an interesting path for sure.

Nick, what happens next?

What do we know?

We had a meeting on Tuesda of the Orange County Commission.

Did we get a sense of the path forward now?

>>I think that at this point, it's the county and the attorney that have to make the next move.

We don't have a sense of timing.

We know things are being drafted right now.

I don't think they've fully committed to any particular path forward, though.

They say they do have a path.

So we'll be watching to see what's filed in the courts.

If anybody from outside of the situation also decides to step in and file.

We've heard a little of speculatio that that might happen as well.

But at this point, the clock the clock is ticking.

They know that they have to get something done, and put their the bite into the bark that if you want to call it that.

But I have not heard yet that it's going to be coming tomorrow or next week.

Anything like that.

We the only time frame that we are certain of right now is the fact that Glen Gilzean has six weeks left, Karen Casto Dentel is preparing to take over and potentiall preparing to take some actions in her first week, including asking comptroller to audit that office to make sure there's nothing that hasn't been uncovered already.

>>An of course, Karen Castor Dental was at that meeting on Tuesday.

Mayor Demings seem pretty exercised by all of this.

And he said, essentially that he thanked yourself for bringing this to their attention, right?

This does go sort of to the point of why local accountability reporting is so important.

>>You know, it' it was somebody came forward and let us know that this was going on.

And it was a chance because when I called everybody in the county that they had never heard of this.

So this was a chance for them to get ahead of it, to get the pep rallies, you know get ahead of those pep rallies.

Because had that announcement happened and you had the video of the students cheering and all of that, it potentially would have been a lot harder for the county to make the moves that it' now making because of the optics of it.

>>Important reporting there.

And I hope you keep across that story, will certainly b watching it here on NewsNight.

Be sure to join the conversation, meanwhile, on social media we're at WUC TV, on Facebook and Instagram.

We're also on X, @NewsNightWUCF.

Okay, next tonight the failure of amendment four, which sought to enshrine abortion rights in Florida's constitution despite receiving 57% of the vote, the measure fell shor of the required 60% threshold.

The political committee that led the drive to pass amendment four, Floridians Protecting Freedom is now fighting with the state over fines related to its petition gathering process.

NewsNight has been getting reaction from both sides on the abortion issue in Florida.

First, you'll hear from Andrew Shirvell, executive director of Florida Voice for the unborn, followed by Barbara Zdravecky interim CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida.

>>The governor's office levele the playing field to an extent by promoting the trut about what Florida's laws on abortio actually did, and that was to protect the life and health of the mother and so no women have died as a result of Florida's Heartbeat Protection Act.

And the insinuations and the, really kind of, outrageous claims made by the Florida abortio industry in the last six weeks, in their advertising campaign, needed to be exposed for what they, were.

And that was complete and total lies.

>>At this point, with a six week near abortion ban, we will continue to assist wome who must be navigated out of the stat to get the care that they need.

We have a lot of, work to do and reconvening about what will happen when we look at, the legislature coming back into session.

You know, with 57% of Floridians, which is a majority of Floridians and almost every county in the state of Florida, we know tha the majority of Floridians want a change in the, availabilit for women to be able to access abortion care and that this total, this near-total six week abortion ban just simply is not what Floridians want.

Barbara Zdravecky there.

Okay, well, Talia, let me start with you on this one.

And a decision by abortion opponents to drop those lawsuits, right, alleging fraud in the petition gathering process by amendment four advocates.

Remind us, what those lawsuits were alleging in the first place.

>>Right.

So, like just like you've talked about, kind of that petition gathering process of fraud.

And then also they were sayin that the group who supported the amendment Floridians Protecting Freedom, that they were illegally paying workers based on th amount of signatures they got.

So there was a lot of a lot happening there.

But really, after the election, you know, saw those lawsuits get dropped.

>>I mean, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago when you were on the program, Skyler.

But you've written about it since I think.

do you do you think that the defeat of amendment four and Trump's win for, for that matter, could affect the political landscape in our state on this issue, particularly with the positioning of future candidates on on abortion rights?

>>Right now I'm not seeing much of a shift.

And, we can kind of take a loo at Senate President Albritton, the incoming Senate president.

I mean, he said it's a definitive no in terms of revisiting abortion.

I think what we're more likel to see with this legislative sessio might be, bills to further regulat the petition gathering process to to try to thwart a future ballot initiative, abortion rights ballot initiative from, from from being approved.

>>Yeah.

And do we see pro-choice advocates looking to to new strategies to try to sort of advance their cause?

And how are they kind of addressing the realities now in our state that that six week ban is in place?

>>I think they're still, for the most part, picking up the pieces right no and trying to figure out what the path forward is because 60%, you know, as is being seen here, is jus such a big hurdle to overcome.

And to Skyler's point, the Florida legislature really doesn't have to listen to the voters right now in terms of especially in terms of this issue.

They're not calling this a loss, even though they didn' get the milestone they wanted.

The fact that they did get 57% show that Florida is on their side, at least in terms of the people that came out to vote.

But you know, how you advance this issue is probably going to be more of a long term groun game of shifting opinion enough to get either the legislature to act or to try a frankly, anothe very expensive petition measure that could involve additional restrictions the next time around.

>>And do we get a sense Talia about next steps for abortion opponents in Florida?

>>Well I mean, kind of just to Skyler's point, too, that the incoming Senate president, he' not looking to change anything.

So I think we're just going to see that six week ban hold for a while.

I don't see any changes.

They're kind of just happy that, you know, it's it's held past the election and it's going to keep holding up.

>>It'll be interesting to see how those two sides kind of move forward with their campaigns as we go forward.

A reminder to be sure to catch every episode of NewsNight alongside much more content from the program.

It's all on our website wucf.org/newsnight.

Finally, tonight on election night, Monique Worrell reclaimed her position as state attorney for Orange and Osceola counties, defeating Andrew Bain, governor Ron DeSantis previously suspended Worrell and appointed Bain in her place, citing neglect of duty and incompetence.

This summer, the Florida Supreme Court upheld that decision.

Talia the Worrell case has been the subject of legal challenges, right?

As I just mentioned, including a case decided right after the election itself happened.

>>Right.

So, a federal judge rejected that lawsuit that over a DeSantis decision to suspend her.

It was brought by two of Worrell's supporters.

The judge basically said that they didn't really have legal standing for what they were trying to argue.

So it kind of dropped those case.

Now, the fact that the case was dropped three days after the election is something to note.

The judge didn't sa it was because of the election, but it is interesting timing.

>>Nick you talked with Monique Worrell before the election, I think, what did she tell you she would do if return t office, which in fact, she was?

>>Her overall message centers around this idea that she calls smart justice.

So it's not putting every single person, behind bars that she possibly can, which is where some of that criticism came from.

The DeSantis and other campuses.

The fact that she's not willing to do that, it's the idea that you can divert some of those lower level crimes.

You can try to find solutions that doesn't involve just lock everybody up and throw away the key.

So that is her overall message.

She is going to be looking to reverse some of the policies that Bain put in place.

But after you get past the surface level, there is a lot of continue eat between the two camps, other than the staff that is now present inside that office.

And so I expect we're going to see some staff turnover.

She gets more people in that she wants, and there's just some natura attrition with the changeover.

It's going to be interesting to see what she decides to - where, which direction she decides to move the office in.

Because it's not like it's been a complete 180.

>>I mean, she's bee sort of one of the figureheads, if you like, of this sort o progressive prosecutor movement that the governo has been pushing back against.

>>She's not rejecting that label.

And, there is the possibility and the speculation that he will remove her again.

There is a hurdle in DeSantis' way that he has to have a reason to do it.

And so, you know, is it going to happen on the first day especially with this distraction of having Senate seat to fill and special elections?

I imagin she'll wind up taking her seat.

I could be very wrong on that front.

But, yeah, one of those things is malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty.

And it could potentially b there's there's a memo drafted, and all that he needs is one excuse to fil in that memo and sign his name and it could be somebody else running that office, but she's willing to accep that reality if that comes true.

>>It is interesting that we haven't heard anything yet from the governor on this.

The Sentinel I think Skyler talked to Worrell after her win, what' she been telling your outlets?

>>Yeah.

What she told us is that she feels vindicated, and she's hopeful that governor DeSantis will honor the will of the voters.

>>I mean, I do wonder whether the governor will simply remove Monique Worrell again, especially given that the courts thus far have gone in the governor's favor when it comes to challenges to both her suspension and the one in Hillsborough County.

>>It's I mean, and and just to be clear, it's not necessarily that they've gone in his favor it's that they have determined that it' not their responsibility.

Right.

And the system that we hav relies on checks and balances.

And as we've seen over the past couple of years in Florida, the legislature is not much of a check on the governor right now.

And so they've determined that Worrell's removal was not lawful.

But they've also determined that they didn't have the power to reinstate her.

And so that's what DeSantis has going for him in this regard.

It does become a little bit more complicated, that the voters have now returned to her.

They've made their voice very clear on this matter.

But at the end of the day, the bully pulpit that the governor has with this, the fact that he does not like to have any finge poked in his eye in this regard, he could very well do this again, potentially put in somebody that's a little bit more palatable to voters, maybe a moderate Democrat or somebody who's already in that office.

Just to say I got, you know, I got rid of, quote unquote, the problem.

>>Well, it'll be fascinating to see what happens as it, gets nearer to time for Monique Worrell to resume, her position.

And I'm sure you guys will be keeping an eye on it as we go forward.

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

My thanks to Nick Papantonis, WFTV Channel 9, Talia Blake Central Florida Public Media, Skyler Swisher from the Orlando Sentinel thank you guys so much for coming in.

Really appreciate your time today.

Good to see you.

We'll see you next Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

In the meantime, from all of us here at NewsNight, take care and have a great week.