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Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

- [Announcer] Coming up next, Marco Rubio and Val Demings hold their first and only debate and it was spirited.

New video shows the moment that the ex-felons were arrested for illegally voting.

Early voting has begun and Republicans are doing better than they have in the recent past, and the state has approved new rules about what teachers can say about GLBTQ issues and history in Florida schools.

Stay tuned for another edition of Florida This Week.

(adventurous, theatrical music) - Welcome back.

On our panel this week, Alex Sink is the former Chief Financial Officer of Florida, a former candidate for governor and a Democrat.

Sharon Calvert writes the blog on Eye on Tampa Bay and is a Republican.

Stanley Gray is the CEO and president of the Hillsborough County Urban League and is not currently affiliated with a political party.

And Barry Edwards is a radio commentator and a political consultant.

Nice to see you all in person.

Great to have you here.

Well, Democratic US Congress member Val Demings went on the attack Tuesday in the first and only televised debate against Republican Senator Marco Rubio, accusing him of being a serial liar while Rubio criticized her for supporting President Joe Biden's economic agenda.

Rubio, two-term senator and Demings, a three-term congresswoman and former Orlando police chief face questions at the debate on topics including inflation, voting rights, gun violence, immigration, abortion, and their accomplishments while in office.

- The congresswoman likes to talk about helping people.

She's never passed a bill.

- That's not true.

- [Rubio] No, no.

This is an important topic.

So number one, and we'll fact check it, I'm gonna put it on my website now and I'll have you- love, the media loves to fact check.

There is not a single federal law on the books that she sponsored and got passed.

Not one.

I think she named two post offices.

I've done that too.

- My question to you specifically is if re-elected, if your vote can make a federal abortion ban with no exceptions, the law of the land, will you vote yes?

- [Rubio] Number one, I'm a hundred percent pro-life because I- not because I wanna deny anyone the rights, but because I believe that innocent human life is worthy of the protection of our laws.

That said, every bill I've ever sponsored on abortion, every bill I've ever voted for has exceptions.

Every one of them does, because that's what can pass and that's what the majority of people support.

The extremist on abortion in this campaign is Congresswoman Demings.

She supports no restrictions, no limitations of any kind.

She voted against a form- she's against a four-month ban.

She voted against a five-month ban.

She supports taxpayer-funded abortion on demand for any reason at any time up until the moment of birth.

- Senator, how gullible do you really think Florida voters are?

Number one, you have been clear that you support no exceptions, even including rape and incest.

Now, as a police detective who investigated cases of rape and incest, no Senator, I don't think it's okay for a 10 year old girl to be raped and have to carry the seed of her rapists.

No, I don't think it's okay for you to make decisions for women and girls as a senator.

I think those decisions are made between the woman, her family, her doctor, and her faith.

And to sit over or to stand over there and say that I support, don't support abortions up to the time of birth is just a lie.

I've said time and time again and he knows it, that I support a woman's right to choose up to the time of viability.

- Barry, that was, that was at the beginning of the debate, - Right?

- And there were other fiery moments.

How do you think Demings did?

How do you think Rubio did?

- So I think that that was a good example with the abortion.

They exaggerated each of their own positions.

Rubio has, like you said, factually, when there's been a vote, he's voted for the exceptions.

Now they ask him on questions and you get on all these bills and you don't know the details.

And some that he said he would support that didn't have exceptions.

Val Demings the same way, she has said that it's up to a woman, which means it's up to the day of the birth.

And now she was clarified that it's on viability now, and he clarified that he's for, so they're both on the record.

But I think if you take, and Michael Deaver taught me this, the old communications director for Ronald Reagan.

I'm dating myself back in the eighties.

I got to spend a couple weeks with him and he said, "Turn the volume off, turn the volume off.

If you do that, how do you think people did?"

His body language was better.

She's behind.

If you take the real clear politics average, when they use the error rate, which they have a chart now, she's behind by about eight points and looks like on a nine-point trajectory to lose.

So she's behind.

So she had to do more attacking.

So she had to be more visceral and more volatile.

That doesn't do well for a US Senate debate two weeks before an election.

So I think her body language, his body language was more controlled, hers was more aggressive, and I think so because of that, she lost.

- Okay.

So Sharon, do you think the abortion's gonna be play a big role in this debate among Florida voters?

- I don't think it's a top issue.

The economy, inflation, rising gas prices, those are the top concerns of voters today.

Unfortunately, it seems like, you know, the Democrat party, every ad you see, that's the ad that they're running on.

And that is not the top issue.

And I do think that hurling the insults, and pointing the finger, you know, diminished Val Demings from her policy actually.

And you know, Rubio, even to the detriment, you know, that he took from his own party, he has worked across party lines, but Representative Demings have voted- has voted a hundred percent with Nancy Pelosi, which is the Biden agenda as well.

So I, again, I don't think the hurling of the insults played well.

And I believe it was, from an optics perspective, not a good thing.

- Alex, in that exchange, did you think that that Demings was hurling insults?

And what role do you think abortion's gonna play among Florida?

- I think abortion is going to play a huge role.

Granted, we're all- we are concerned about the economy for sure, but the women of this state are angry.

And when I talk to candidates who are knocking on doors and talking to voters, we're gonna be able to see the day after the election whether the women of the state come out and vote.

Because when you have headlines that say that 10-year-old children who are victims of rape or incest cannot- are gonna be required to give birth to babies or find the money to leave the state.

That's a visceral issue for not only the women, but men also in this state.

And I think choice is definitely on the ballot.

- Let me play another moment from the debate.

Rubio reversed a promise that he had made after the Parkland shooting massacre.

He had promised to raise the age, or at least vote to age the race to purchase a rifle from 18 to 21.

But during the debate this week, he said he was now against that idea.

- Denying the right to buy it is not gonna keep them from doing- Here's the fundamental issue.

The fundamental issue is why are these kids, why are these people going out there and massacring people?

'Cause a lot of people own AR-15s and they don't kill everyone.

The majority of people don't.

- I want to go to Congresswoman Demings for 60 seconds.

- [Demings] You know, people who are the families of victims of gun violence just heard that.

And they're asking themselves, "What in the hell did he just say?"

Senator, you used the Pulse nightclub shooting as your inspiration to run again for the Senate in 2016.

Parkland- Pulse in my district.

And yet you've done nothing, nothing to help address gun violence and get dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people.

- Stanley, how big do you think the gun issue is gonna be to Florida voters?

Sharon said the economy's gonna be the number one issue.

- I think the gun issues is in the top three or four, by far, and if you look at all the polling on it.

This issue to me though, it kind of like exhibits another problem that we have, and that is, is that our politicians become very opportunistic.

Okay?

If they say the right thing at the right time to get people's attention.

I think that it's a very sad indication because maybe I, I've just come from white and black on issues, but integrity is white and black.

Okay?

There are no shades of gray.

If you say that you're gonna do something, you need to have a history of working on it.

I'm not saying that you're gonna accomplish it because when you're in the Senate, I mean, I get the compromise because that's what's called governing.

But he doesn't have a history of doing something and it shows very much to me that he's a very opportunistic, opportunistic politician.

It really does.

- Okay.

Well, videos of ex-felons arrested for illegally voting by Governor Ron DeSantis' new elections police force published by the Tampa Bay Times this week revealed those being arrested appeared confused and surprised by the arrests.

The videos were viewed millions of times on Twitter.

- It's two felony charges for voter fraud, but they've reduced it to $500 bonds.

So it's a thousand dollars total.

- Oh my God, man.

What?

- Yes sir.

So unfortunately right now we're gonna have to take you to jail.

- I'm like, voter fraud?

I voted, but I ain't fraud- Commit no fraud.

- [Police] Well, so that's the thing.

I don't know exactly what happened with it, but you do have a warrant.

- [Announcer] A Florida voting rights group called on state officials to fix what it says is a broken Florida voting system after those videos were released.

- So Alex, did these people intentionally violate the law from the appearance of that video?

- Of course they didn't.

And there's a reason, Rob, that this has been seen millions of times because it's outrageous.

It proves that Ron DeSantis is a grandstanding bully.

He has no heart, he has no compassion.

I watch- I'm watching his ads that his wife is doing explaining who is the real Ron DeSantis?

Well, that's somebody who lives within the walls of his four house because I, as a Floridian, all I see is a grandstanding bully.

Somebody who would stand up and, and make a big deal out of this election fraud thing and these- and not consider what the results are and the impact on the real people.

These are people who legitimately thought that they had, they were sent a card from the supervisor of election, so they thought they had an ability to vote and every single one of them should be let off.

We don't need a bully who goes after Disney and has his own agenda and tells us what books we can read or not read and has- goes against academic freedom.

It's just a part of a pattern that he has to pass laws and implement them and make himself out to be a bully.

That's not who we are.

- I wanna hear from everybody on this, but on Friday in Miami, a judge dismissed the case against one of the defendants arrested for the alleged voting fraud, saying the statewide prosecutor did not have jurisdiction in the case.

And Sharon, let's go back to you for a second.

Ron DeSantis, this is grandstanding and he's a bully.

What would you say about the election law?

- Well, I have a different perspective on this because there's been many voters in Florida, including many in Hillsborough County that have been very concerned for many years about how clean our voter rolls are.

And I know people that have been working on this for many, many years.

And obviously this is an issue and it's still an issue.

In addition, it appears that some groups were actually even led into the prisons and were soliciting.

I'm not saying they were registering, but they were soliciting the felons.

And as of the Washington Post said in their, or excuse me, the Daily Beast article, you referenced before all of the instances where sex offenders voted, each appeared to have been encouraged to vote by various mailings and misinformation.

So I'd like to know where's the Twitter outrage about that?

- Hmm.

Stanley, when you sign up to vote, it doesn't say, if you are a convicted felon and you've committed murder or sex offense, you can't sign up.

It doesn't say that in the vote of registration.

- It has the box though.

It says, are you cleared?

Are you a convicted felon who's had your rights restored?

- Right?

- So you have to check off that box.

- It doesn't enumerate murder or it doesn't enumerate sex offense.

- See, I think there's a bigger issue.

Okay?

And the bigger issue is the narrative that's trying to be portrayed.

Because when you watch these films as we have seen, what are you telling people?

You're telling people that it's African Americans, and I'm not being overly sensitive, but you're telling this African Americans, where were the people in this county or the next county, the Villages.

Where were those like, shows where were they?

They were treated differently.

They were.

They may have been arrested, but they were summoned and then they were arrested.

- You're talking about the people that voted twice in the Villages?

- Yes, sir.

- Down here and up north.

- Yes, sir.

I'm saying it's being done differently.

- I should say that we didn't include, there was a white person in the video released by the time.

We didn't include that.

- But what I'm trying to say is, that's not what you're saying.

And if we're looking for, you know, government that represents everybody, let's show everybody.

All the time.

- [Sink] Even the law enforcement officers were clearly- Didn't wanna be there doing that.

They ought to be out arresting people who are, who are doing real crimes.

- We have issues with our voter roll.

And if that issue with the voter rolls is causing the process to break down, you gotta fix that.

- The governor, has the governor's election police force gone after the voting rules?

I mean- - Well, the voting rules are the responsibility of the local supervisor elections offices.

- Barry, what do you think about this?

- Okay, so I think this all started with Amendment Four and whether either side, the press and the people that supported Amendment Four afterwards said that it didn't include all.

Well I know, and I used to live with John Mills when he ran for congress and John Mills wrote the bill for them.

And it said all and sentencing and- on your sentencing documents, which is a judicial form all means fines, fees, restitution, and incarceration.

So all meant all, so the the papers and the press created that you didn't have to do all.

That it just meant you served your time.

So that was a misconception that started.

Now since then, the- on these, I think the governor went too far because he's ultimately responsible because Secretary State works for him for clearing these people.

When you register to vote with Craig Latimer here in Pinellas or Julie Marcus, and she gets the forms and she ships it up to Tallahassee and then they're supposed to check, now we have 30 days lockout in this state prior to an election.

That should be enough time for them to see if you've committed a felony and knock you off before you vote.

And if we say we don't have the money, well we just put whatever millions of dollars in for this elections police.

If election integrity and democracy is important to us, and a $102 billion budget, the Democrats and Republicans can spend five or ten million dollars, whatever it costs to get the ability to clear this out.

- Who controls the purse strings in Tallahassee though?

Who could have given Laurel Lee the staff to- - I think this was wrong.

I think that these people in the law, I'm not a lawyer, but mens rea, intent shows a lot that you, the videos captured that they didn't intend to violate and almost all of them were not college educated graduate students with huge student debts.

These were people that had less than high school diplomas typically.

And they're- and that's why they've had the problems they've had in their life.

I'm not saying that they should to justify their problems, but they're not high performers as far as knowing the law and be able to get around them.

And they were taken advantage of because the supervisor- - Thank you to (indistinct) for doing a freedom of Information Act to get their body cam of the law officers.

- We need to have, the Secretary of State, needs to be funded, whatever it takes.

So this doesn't happen.

- [Rob] Well again, my question is why didn't the legislature do that this year?

Well, early at mail in voting has already begun in Florida for the November election and early indications are that Republicans are doing better getting out the vote this time.

According to Red State, a conservative website, Florida republicans are returning vote-by-mail ballots at a 6% higher rate compared to what they did in 2020.

Democrats are returning them at a 3.5% lower rate than two years ago.

As of now, more than 900,000 mail-in ballots have been cast already in Florida.

Democrats have returned about 42% of the total.

Republicans just over 38%.

Sharon, what does that say?

- Well, first of all, just the number of vote by mail ballots is drastically less requested- less, much less than 2020.

But in 2022, Republicans have a voter registration advantage over Democrats by 292,000- over 292,500.

That could be 300,000 by election day.

And yes, Republicans are motivated, they've been motivated since January of 2021.

- Barry, what does this indicate if, if the mail-in ballots, the Democrats are not doing as well as they typically do by this point in an election?

- And we're 19 days out or so?

It pretends a cataclysmic result for the Democrat statewide.

And one of the things we looked at is, I looked at this morning, is the number of people that Republicans had wrote four out of four elections in a row on election day.

They're not being cannibalized and moving to mail voting.

They're still waiting.

So I would expect on election day the Republicans statewide out-vote the Democrats two to one.

So you're looking at 10, 12 point margins for Ron DeSantis, Marco Rubio, 20 point margins on the cabinet.

- Stanley.

- I think there's two reasons, one of which is they don't have a president telling them not to vote by mail.

I think that does have a bearing on it.

And the second reason is, is that I think that, excuse me, that is enough right there.

I think that that really settles the whole thing.

But, and the second reason is, is that I think that we've done a real good job of confusing people and the confusion that has led to apathy.

- [Rob] Hmm.

Alex, what do you think about these numbers?

- I disagree.

I think that the Republicans are catching up with the Democrats on the value of vote by mail.

So that could be some, some of the, some of the increase in the Republican vote.

But the people that I've talked to, there are a lot of people that I've talked to who are gonna vote by mail, but they're sitting with their ballots on their kitchen table because they're paying a lot more attention to things like judicial races.

And I'm getting a lot more calls about, "Who do I vote for?"

and "What about these amendments?"

And I think there's just a- I think at the end of the day there will be plenty of democratic vote-by mail-votes.

- All right, it is a long ballot.

- They're don't worried about it.

- But the Republicans turn out on election day and they always have.

- Okay.

Well the state adopted new education rules this week that threatened public school teachers with the loss of their teaching license if they violate requirements of the state's so-called "Don't Say Gay" and anti-woke legislation.

The rules were adopted this week at a tense meeting at the Board of Education in Orlando where many people criticized the new state laws.

- [Announcer] Laws were approved earlier this year by the Republican dominated legislature and then signed by Governor DeSantis who pushed for their passage.

The state's new parental rights in education law, the one opponents call "Don't Say Gay" prevents instruction in sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

The new individual Freedom law, the one DeSantis dubbed his "Stop Woke" Act prohibits teaching students that they must feel guilt, anguish or other forms of psychological distress because of actions in which the person played no part and committed in the past by members of their own race or sex.

- Stanley, do these new laws and new rules address any significant issue that we face here in Florida?

- I think that they are not addressing the truth.

And I'm gonna give you an example and I'll always remember this.

In 1974, I was aboard a ship and there was the offices, or excuse me, there was like two doors.

One of the doors, they had a black liberation, red, green and black.

The other one had the rebel stars and- all right.

They made the black guy take his off.

I'm telling you there was almost a riot on board the ship and it was so bad that they went in a port and got all the midshipmen off the ship and they went out and settled it.

My point of this right now is, is that you have to kind of look at like where this is going.

And sometimes when we try to like verbalize it, we say, "Well, basically from my community, we believe you can't say anything that makes a white person feel bad or white guilt."

Well what about me?

What about black people who look at that stars and bars?

I mean, what about that?

And is the example that I gave you was true.

And I'm saying right now, only half, you only care about half the people and I think that's wrong.

- Sharon, did this law- do these laws and these new rules address any significant problem that we as Floridians face?

- Well, the bathroom rule that I- is one of the rules, right, is parental notification.

It's not, as Mr. Gray was saying, telling the schools what they have to do.

It's just telling the schools they need to inform the parents.

And as we've seen, you know, Democrats can slogan near these laws as being controversial, but actual school board races are rebutting that narrative.

So parents and, I think, COVID opened up a lot of parents' eyes to what they saw was going on in the classroom that they did not like.

And so we're seeing it through law and we're seeing it in the election.

- [Rob] All right, Barry, in just 20 seconds, did this- is this just an extension of the culture wars or is there significant- some significant problem out there that this fixes?

- I think that you just said used one word: significant.

When we talk about, when the left talks about the abortion, they find one example or two examples of a 10 to 12 year old that might be pregnant and then talk about the rape, incest, deception.

But here when we find one or two examples of teachers saying things, or like the teacher that was the best friend of the lieutenant governor candidate for Charlie Crist who raped 14 people that he's- you know, down there, that got covered up.

So I think we have to use the same standard.

So I think it is significant.

- [Rob] Well, he was found guilty and he's serving time in prison right now.

- Well, be 14.

- Before we go, what other news stories should we be paying attention to?

And Alex let's start with you, your other big story.

- My other big story is that the air waves are full of this guy Jay Collins, who's the Republican nominee for a state senate race running against Janet Cruz, who's the incumbent in Hillsborough County.

And- I'm just waiting and it's full of lies because Janet Cruz is my friend and I know the truth and I'm just waiting to see whether, once again, his money is going to overcome a candidate who served us well, who has a great reputation and is just not going to be able to put the money behind being on television.

And are people really falling for television ads that are full of mistruths and misinformation?

- Sharon, you have a big story?

- Well, circuit court Judge Mo ruled last week that the 30-year, $23 billion all for transportation transit tax that was on the November ballot.

- [Rob] Again, Hillsborough County.

- We're here all over again, is misleading.

And you know, the poll tested ballot language was confusing and she basically threw it off the ballot.

I don't believe- I think the ballot is tainted.

I mean we've gone now- week, you know, over a week with voters out there knowing that it was thrown off the ballot.

It's tainted.

And so I do not believe Walla County, the same people who put another one on the ballot and the illegal tax voted to appeal it, but I don't believe the appeal is going to go anywhere.

And really from a state perspective that governs these taxes and how they can be put on the ballot, this abuse needs to be reigned in really soon.

- All right.

Stanley, your other big story.

- Again, I'm kind of hitting on the tone of hypocrisy.

Our governor took it upon himself to spend taxpayers money to go to Texas, pick up people and take 'em to a different state.

I want see what our governor does with the illegal immigrants that are going to be going to southwest Florida.

I wanna see whether he does anything or not.

I think that needs to be reported.

- [Rob] Are you're talking about the ones that are helping with the cleanup of hurricane?

- Yes sir, yes sir.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

- All right.

Barry, you have a big story?

- So if you wanna know how to predict an election, I wrote with one of my friends, Greg Truax column and the Tampa Bay Times, go to the opinion section of the Tampa Bay Times and it has all or most of the objective indicators that you can have to predict how an election will turn out.

And so it gives you a criteria and you can plug it into any election that you're looking at and have a good idea who's gonna win and who's gonna lose.

- [Rob] And you're predicting a blowout for DeSantis this time around, with that?

- Not a blowout.

- Your nine indicators.

- 12%.

- Okay, well that's a plan.

Thank you all for a great show and thank you for watching us.

Send us your comments at ftw@wedu.org.

and Florida This Week is now available as a podcast.

From all of us here at WEDU, have a great weekend.

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