DeSantis fights for sheriff ’s removal
Benedict Kuehne, didn’t respond to a message seeking comment.
Karen P. Fortman, president of the Broward County Presidents’ Council of Democratic Clubs and Caucuses, said she wants senators to understand “there is support in the community for reinstating Sheriff Israel.”
“My concern is that they need to hear another voice as well. My voice isn’t terribly loud. I have to have a microphone,” she said. Fortman, who is also president of the Davie-Cooper City Democratic Club and served on the Broward School Board in the 1990s, said she and her husband may go to Tallahassee for Monday’s hearing.
Political question: Politics — not just the formal question about Israel’s removal — surround the issue.
Politically, it’s important for the governor to prevail. If the Republican-controlled Senate fails to uphold the suspension and returns Israel to office over DeSantis’ objections, it would be a major rebuke, making him appear weak and unable to command loyalty from senators in the party he leads.
A fundamental political question is why would Republican senators — none of whom represent Broward County — vote to reinstate Democrat Israel as sheriff, contrary to the wishes of the Republican governor.
Steve Geller, a Broward County commissioner and former Florida Senate Democratic leader, and Chris Smith, of Fort Lauderdale, a former Democratic leader in the Senate and House, said a governor who wants something badly enough can exert lots of influence, especially on members of the same party.
“When you have a governor of your party leaning on you really, really hard it is frequently hard to turn them down,” Geller said, adding that it looks to him as if DeSantis “really, really, really cares” about the outcome of the Israel case.
Smith said hiring Levesque “shows the governor is very serious about making his removal stick.”
Vote count: The Florida Senate is closely divided, with 23 Republicans and 17 Democrats, and senators haven’t so far publicly disclosed how they plan to vote.
Senate President Bill Galvano has instructed them not to publicly discuss the case, and the handful of senators seen by insiders as potentially wavering from their party — Republicans who might vote for Israel and Democrats who might vote against him — didn’t respond to messages.
Rader cited Galvano’s instructions against talking about the case in a text message declining to comment.
Others involved in the case declined to discuss it with their names attached, not willing to risk alienating political allies or powerful interests, appear biased or acknowledge that political considerations play a role in such a sensitive manner. Some, however, offered anodyne statements.
But the interviews with 13 people, including current and former senators, government staffers, lawyers, lobbyists, analysts and friends and foes of Israel, revealed a consensus that DeSantis is almost certain to prevail, even if a Republican or two breaks with him and votes to reinstate Israel. Democratic senators are seen as likely to vote for Israel.
Pollack described himself as “pretty confident” Israel won’t be reinstated. “But nothing is 100% until the vote count.”
Senate’s role: DeSantis suspended Israel in January, just three days after he took office, charging the sheriff with incompetence and neglect of duty in connection with the 2018 Parkland school massacre and the 2017 shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, in which five people were killed.
But it’s up to the Florida Senate to decide whether to uphold DeSantis’ suspension order or reinstate Israel.