Congressional primaries set
In a surprise move, Posey retires; Webster will face Sabatini
Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Posey announced his retirement in a last-minute surprise following the Friday deadline to file to run for Congress, while another Central
Florida veteran lawmaker drew a far-right primary challenger.
Despite qualifying, Posey, R-Rockledge, endorsed former GOP Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos for the District 8 seat, setting him up with an easy path to win the solid red coastal district that spans from Titusville to Vero Beach.
Haridopolos filed his paperwork just before Friday’s noon filing deadline.
“Without going into a lot of personal details, stars aligned during the past week and Mike decided he was ready for Congress,” said Posey, who has served in Congress since 2009 in a district that includes eastern Orange County and Brevard County.
Haridopolos praised Posey’s service and said he will “stand with President Trump and his America First Agenda.”
Two other Republicans, Joe Babits and John Hearton, have also filed to run in District 8.
In another closely watched race, U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Clermont, will clash with Anthony Sabatini, chairman of the Lake County Republican Party and a former state representative, in what could be one of the most intriguing Central Florida primary matchups in August.
Two years ago, Webster survived a challenge from far-right candidate Laura Loomer in a closer-than-expected contest.
Webster isn’t the only Republican incumbent facing a primary challenger with the field of candidates now set. Congresswoman Laurel Lee will need to fend off opponents who answered a call from former President Donald Trump to oppose her.
Lee, R-Tampa, who represents parts of Polk and Hillsborough counties, was the only member of Florida’s congressional dele
It already has a specialty plate on deck passed by the 2020 Legislature, but it wasn’t getting anywhere near the 3,000 required preorders needed before the state would put it into production. It still technically had until Oct. 1 this year to get to that level, but as of April 17 had only 119.
The new law though strikes the “Give Kids The World” plate in favor of a “Universal Orlando Resort” plate that would have a new design and the words “Universal Orlando Resort” on it. It would still raise money for Give Kids the World, but fans of the theme park might push the plate past that 3,000 threshold quickly.
“We did not get a lot of great response, and of course, the COVID years hit,” said Give Kids the World President and CEO Pamela Landwirth. “Universal, who we’ve had a wonderful partnership with since they opened, they’re very strong partners of ours, … reached out and said, ‘Would you like to partner with us?’ So it was it was absolutely wonderful.”
Universal’s creative team has yet to reveal what the new plate design will be, and it would have to be approved by the state.
Give Kids the World Village opened in 1986 and by the end of the year will have served more than 200,000 families, Landwirth said. It partners with MakeA-Wish and about 200 chapters of other wish-granting organizations to bring in families from all 50 states and 77 countries around the world. The organization celebrated 5 million volunteer hours on April 20.
Landwirth said the organization needs to raise about $25 million a year in cash and additional $38 million roughly of in-kind funds “to be able to provide all of these wonderful services and to create this experience for our families.”
“So every year it gets more and more difficult to raise those funds, and so something like this would be a game changer for us,” she said.
Disney was one of more than 30 new potential plates passed in 2020. Preorders took off once they revealed the initial design in March 2021 taking less than a month to hit the 3,000 threshold. It has since become one of the most popular plates in the state ranked 12th out of nearly 150 plates available as of April 1 with nearly 45,000 registered tags.
That raises about $1.125 million each year for MakeA-Wish Foundation of Central and Northern Florida.
Similarly, funds from the new Universal plate would go to Give Kids the World “to support their mission of providing week-long, costfree vacations to children with critical illnesses and their families.”
“Roughly half of all wishes that are expressed by children with critical illnesses are to come and experience all the magic that Central Florida has to offer. That’s the No. 1 wish,” Landwirth said. “We actually fulfill the wish. We are the destination for those wishes.”
Landwirth said it already gets major support from the theme parks, but a stream of income from the plate sales would be welcome, especially since it doesn’t require the heavy lifting needed for things such as hosting fundraising events.
“We’re very good stewards of all the resources that we have,” she said. “So we get a windfall like this, which doesn’t require a lot of effort on our part … this particular thing is very little manpower on our part, but such a great return.”
The updated law also opens up presales for a “Margaritaville” plate with funds going to SFC Charitable Foundation, Inc., also known as Singing for Change; a “Clearwater Marine Aquarium” plate; a plate to “Support General Aviation” with funds going to Lakeland’s Aerospace Center for Excellence; a plate for “The Villages: May All Your Dreams Come True,” with funds going to The Villages Charter School, Inc.; a “Cure Diabetes” plate with funds going to multiple nonprofits; a “Recycle Florida” plate supporting Recycle Florida Today Foundation, Inc.; “Boating Capital of the World” supporting Captain Sandy Yawn, Inc.; the “Project Addiction: Reversing the Stigma” plate supporting Project Addiction: Reversing the Stigma, Inc.; and a “United Service Organizations” (USO) plate.
It also adjusts the “American Eagle” plate already in presale mode so it says “Protect the Eagle” instead of “In God We Trust.” It also adjusts where funds from the “Live the Dream” plate are distributed to no longer go to the Dream Foundation, but to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., also known as the King Center, as well as Historical Resources Operating Trust Fund to support the Historic Cemeteries Program to research, identify, and record abandoned African American cemeteries.
Another facet of the bill is to allow back recent colleges and universities that were forced to cease selling their specialty plates because of the 2020 law that would eliminate the lowest-selling tag each year, as long as they reapplied. The law now exempts college plates from the law moving forward.
Of the four plates deauthorized from 2021-2024, three have been for colleges and universities. Edward Waters College was the first in 2021 with 714 registrations as of Jan. 1, 2021, although the college was able to return to roads as part of the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida (ICUF) standardized design offered by the state by the end of the year. That was not available to 2022’s deauthorization of New College (765 registrations) and 2024’s deauthorization of the University of North Florida plates (1,558 registrations), as both are state institutions. 2023’s deauthorized plate was for Kids Deserve Justice, which had only 1,336 registrations.
The 2020 law put an upper limit of 150 specialty plates at any one time for the state, and the removal of one plate per year. It also required the 3,000 presale threshold, and put an initial two-year limit for plates to reach that threshold, although that law was updated to give extensions to some of the plates still vying to achieve that.
The state’s specialty plate brochure has 144 tags available as of April, although 40 of those are college plates and the Divine 9 plates are nine designs for nine traditional Black fraternities and sororities. Divine 9 counts as one as do the 27 ICUF plates, so the state’s plate total stands at just 114 as of April toward the 150 limit, meaning there’s plenty of room still for more specialty tags to join Florida’s roads.
There are 30 more plates still in presale levels below 3,000 including the current “Give Kids the World” plate that would go off the books when the law passes. The new law puts the Universal and another nine plates in the mix as well.
Plate sales have been on the rise the last decade with nearly 2.15 million sold in the state.
The top seller is the “Endless Summer” plate with more than 135,000 tags registered, followed by “Helping Sea Turtles Survive” with more than 108,000, the University of Florida plate with more than 92,000, Miami Heat with more than 78,000 and Florida State University with nearly 70,000 rounding out the top 5.