DeSantis focuses on Iran, forgets Florida
There’s no crisis that cannot be turned into an opportunity for self-promotion in politics. Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s struggling in GOP presidential polls, has found his.
Two days before he’s set to take the stage at the third presidential debate in Miami on Nov. 8, he will summon Florida lawmakers for a special session, usually reserved for pressing state issues, to pass more state sanctions against Iran. The move is a response to the Hamas attacks in Israel. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Tehran “complicit” in the attacks because of the support and resources the country has provided to the terrorist organization, though there’s no evidence Iran helped plan the attacks.
Florida has little influence on whether Iran might play a role in escalating the conflict into a wider regional war, or whether it will grow its nuclear program. In other words, that’s a foreign policy matter, not something that state legislators should rush to address — unless, of course, their governor is running for president.
President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Israel and the moving of U.S. warships into the region signaled a warning to Iran and its proxy forces across the Middle East. DeSantis’ move is more about signaling a message to GOP primary voters.
Florida has already passed a slew of laws against Iran over the years and in a mere two months, lawmakers will start their regular January legislative session. It’s still unclear what new anti-Iran laws could result from the process. All we know is that they will be “the strongest sanctions against Iran by any state in the nation,” according to DeSantis’ spokesperson.
Florida already prohibits local governments from contracting with Iran and other countries of concern. State colleges and universities are barred from accepting gifts or grants or reaching agreements with schools in those countries without permission from the Board of Governors. In addition to state law, the U.S. has imposed sanctions against Iran since the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979. Last week, the Biden administration announced new sanctions against individuals and entities to target the country’s ballistic missile program.
The Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel personally impacted a state that has one of the largest Jewish populations in the country. It’s natural that DeSantis would pay attention to the conflict. Last week, we praised him for signing an executive order to charter flights to bring back U.S. citizens stranded in Israel.
But even that good deed might have been marred in the governor’s desire for the spotlight. His administration has remained mum on how much the flights have cost taxpayers. The Orlando Sentinel reported that almost two dozen Americans were stranded for days in Cyprus before they finally reached Florida.
The CEO of Project Dynamo, a nonprofit that partnered with Florida on the missions, blamed the contractors the state hired and a rush to help DeSantis score political points, the Sentinel reported. Dynamo later distanced itself from that comment, writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the organization was “quoted out of context.” It’s also unclear how the DeSantis administration vetted Project Dynamo.
While they spend their political capital helping DeSantis run for president, Florida lawmakers have neglected another crisis: the skyrocketing cost of property insurance. They passed a package of reforms intended to lower insurance companies’ litigation costs that they hoped would translate into savings for homeowners. Yet premiums are expected to keep rising.
Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, told lawmakers that, in addition to Iran, the November special session also will address a backlog of more than 19,000 people who signed up for a state home-hardening program that she said helps lower their insurance costs. Lawmakers are also expected to use the special session to provide relief for hurricane-hit areas and expand funding for a school voucher program for children with disabilities.
Unless the state spends considerable time and effort coming up with further insurance reforms, Floridians will continue to be vulnerable to a volatile market. Unfortunately, addressing Florida’s affordability crisis will not grab headlines for the governor in Iowa or New Hampshire.