Name: Alcee Hastings’ death could give DeSantis a chance to put Republicans on county commissions
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Alcee Hastings’ death could give DeSantis a chance to put Republicans on county commissions

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AdvertisementBy South Florida Sun SentinelApr 08, 2021 at 11:00 amThe longstanding goal of two Broward County commissioners to succeed the late U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings will give Gov. Ron DeSantis the opportunity to place two Republicans on the county commission.Currently, all nine commissioners in the overwhelmingly Democratic county are Democrats.AdvertisementBut commissioners Dale Holness and Barbara Sharief want to replace Hastings, who . Sharief formally announced her candidacy months ago. Holness hasn’t officially done so, but he’s been informally running for months as well.If Palm Beach County Commissioner Mack Bernard runs for Congress, the same thing would happen there. Six of the seven Palm Beach County commissioners are Democrats.AdvertisementUnder Florida’s , the county commissioners would have to submit resignations to run for Congress, said Mark Herron, a Tallahassee attorney who practices election law. The resignations are irrevocable.And once the county commission offices are vacant, gets to pick the replacements.The resign to run law complicates the calculation for several state senators and representatives who are considering whether to run. The lawmakers would have to resign to run for Congress, although the governor would not fill their positions. State legislative vacancies are filled in their own special elections. orders flags flown at half staff from sunrise to sunset Friday to honor the late .Directive applies to flags at state Capitol, Palm Beach County Courthouse, and Delray Beach City Hall. Hastings was living in Palm Beach County when he died.— Anthony Man (@browardpolitics)The timing is unknown. Florida law gives DeSantis the discretion to set the special primary election and special general election to replace Hastings whenever he wants.Under a Division of Elections schedule cited by Herron, it can take about five months from the time the governor calls a special election and the time it actually takes place. State and federal laws, such as the timeframe for mailing ballots to military voters, lengthen the timetable.When state Sen. Jeff Clemens, a Palm Beach County Democrat, resigned in October 2017, then-Gov. Rick Scott set the election schedule about two weeks later. But the special election wasn’t held until — a month after the legislature finished its annual session.And DeSantis doesn’t have an incentive to move quickly.The district Hastings represented until his April 6 death is overwhelmingly Democratic, and a Democrat is virtually guaranteed to replace him. So keeping the seat unfilled makes life somewhat more complicated for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose party has a .Advertisement“The expectation is that the governor is going to drag that out as long as he can,” said Sean Phillippi, a Broward-based Democratic campaign consultant and data scientist.Broward commissioner &amp; Congress candidate Barbara gets range of questions on Zoom video conference (pandemic era coffee klatsch) w/ supporters: Covid-19, health care, gun violence, climate change, minimum wage — and blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. — Anthony Man (@browardpolitics)Twice-weeklyA lunch-hour look at what's trending in Florida politics. &gt; Just as with setting the election date, DeSantis has broad discretion about who he wants to fill any vacancies.He could appoint Republicans, but they stand little chance of retaining the seats in the 2022 election. Or he could appoint Democrats he hopes could hold onto the seats in the 2022 elections.When Democratic Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion went to prison for public corruption, then-Gov. Charlie Crist, who was a Republican at the time, appointed Republican Albert C. Jones to replace him in 2009.Jones tried to win election to the job the next year, from Republican to Democratic, but lost badly in the Democratic primary.DeSantis took a different approach in 2019. He as sheriff when he removed Scott Israel from the job. Tony, who called himself a “lifelong Democrat,” had been registered as a Republican but sought election to the office as a Democrat. Tony went on to narrowly defeat Israel in the 2020 primary.AdvertisementTony overwhelmingly won a full term as sheriff in the November 2020 election.Anthony Man can be reached at or on Twitter @ Advertisement

AdvertisementBy South Florida Sun SentinelApr 08, 2021 at 11:00 amThe longstanding goal of two Broward County commissioners to succeed the late U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings will give Gov. Ron DeSantis the opportunity to place two Republicans on the county commission.Currently, all nine commissioners in the overwhelmingly Democratic county are Democrats.AdvertisementBut commissioners Dale Holness and Barbara Sharief want to replace Hastings, who . Sharief formally announced her candidacy months ago. Holness hasn’t officially done so, but he’s been informally running for months as well.If Palm...

Alcee Hastings’ death could give DeSantis a chance to put Republicans on county commissions

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