South Florida political digest

Long live the election: Now that the 2016 presidential election is done, politicians are gearing up for the 2018 midterm elections. Republican Gov. Rick Scott is angling for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Bill Nelson, potentially setting up a battle between two of the state’s underestimated politicians. There’s no shortage of would-be candidates possibly lining up to fight for Scott’s current job — Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, House Speaker Richard Corcoran, outgoing Democratic Congresswoman Gwen Graham and Democratic trial lawyer and mega-donor John Morgan are some of the names who could jump into the contest. Three Cabinet posts will be up for grabs in 2018. Putnam, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and Attorney General Pam Bondi are barred by term limits from running for re-election, and Bondi might be headed to Washington, D.C., early in 2017.

President Donald Trump: Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have already floated some ideas that could affect the Sunshine State. Bondi is seen as a likely candidate for a position in the Trump administration. On the policy front, some in the GOP hope Trump seizes the opportunity to reshape the relationship between Washington and the states. Turning the joint state-federal Medicaid program into a block grant, for example, would allow Florida lawmakers a much freer hand in deciding how the program works.

Dissed incentives: One of the key battles already shaping up for the 2017 legislative session focuses on whether the state should continue to spend tens of millions of dollars to attract tourism and business investment to Florida. Corcoran is an outspoken opponent of the spending. Scott is just as determined to provide incentives to attract businesses. And Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, also supports some level of spending. “I don’t know the magic number, and ... obviously we have to look at the budget and see what we’ve got, but I support the concept of funding some incentives to go find jobs,” he said. A recent blow-up over a state tourism-promotion contract with Miami rapper Pitbull hasn’t helped matters.

Corcoran and Negron take command: Every other year, when a new House speaker and a new Senate president take office, Capitol denizens debate whether and how the leaders will get along. The attention is particularly keen after Corcoran and Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, formally moved into their new roles following the November elections. Corcoran is almost universally viewed as a smart, hard-driving conservative who is willing to grind things to a halt if necessary to avoid compromising on certain issues. At least in public, Negron is more laid back and tends to be on the wonkish side on policy fights. They also have different priorities. The Senate president has floated $1 billion in highereducation spending and new investment in the Everglades. Corcoran appears to be more interested in changing how Tallahassee works, implementing new lobbyist disclosure and budgeting rules. How those goals might come together, or collide, will determine how smoothly the 2017 session will go.

Another spin: The annual food fight that is a gambling bill is likely to return to the Legislature, this time as Scott and lawmakers make another attempt at hammering out a revised gaming agreement with the Seminole Tribe. A federal judge’s ruling last month that the state had violated the tribe’s exclusive rights to offer some games added impetus to the negotiations. But any package of gambling bills is likely to attract issues that make it incredibly difficult to get a deal done.

You fix it: Lawmakers will also have to deal with a to-do list from the state Supreme Court and voters. The court, for example, struck down a new deathpenalty law because it did not require unanimous jury recommendations to impose death sentences. The court also found unconstitutional parts of the workers’ compensation insurance system. Meanwhile, voters approved allowing full-strength medical marijuana to be used in the treatment of numerous conditions. But the regulatory structure, and who could make a lot of money off the amendment, has to be approved by the Legislature. Lawmakers during the past few years have passed measures to allow limited uses of medical cannabis, but even that has resulted in a legal and regulatory morass still being sorted out.

Editing the Constitution: After the 2017 session, a 37-member Constitution Revision Commission is expected to start working on recommended changes to the Florida Constitution. The once-every-20-years process will be steered by people appointed by Scott, Corcoran, Negron and Supreme Court Chief Justice Jorge Labarga, along with Bondi (or whoever is attorney general by then). Court rulings on vouchers to pay for private school tuition could be targeted. So could judges themselves; Corcoran has floated the idea of a term limit for new judicial appointments. And lawmakers are likely to be interested in finding some way to avoid another long legal battle under the anti-gerrymandering Fair Districts amendments that voters approved in 2010. Possible solutions include an independent redistricting commission or finding some ways to weaken the amendments. The one catch is that any changes to the Constitution would still have to win the approval of 60 percent of Florida voters, and that has proven to be a difficult hurdle in recent years.