INFLUENCE Magazine - Spring 2024

M E E T

R I S I N G O F

10 Big Bills Lawmakers Killed

F L O R I D A

T H E

S TA R S

P O L I T I C S

Fred Baggett: What I’ve Learned

Ranking the Top 25 Lobbying Firms

DISR

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PUBLISHER’S | NOTE

Rise and rise again I

@PeterSchorschFL

Michelle, Ella and Peter Schorsch, Spring 2024.

t’s hard to believe that it has been an entire decade since my first “30 under 30 Rising Stars of Florida Politics” list in my first blog, the cleverly named SaintPetersblog.com that many readers of this magazine and Florida politics, and perhaps even many of this year’s honorees, don’t remember or know a thing about.

Indeed, reviewing past lists is sort of like reading a college roster, with the names on the list all having found themselves on various NFL teams.

Take Samantha Sexton, for example, now Samantha Greer. She made the list a decade ago and has since gone on to be a strategist for one of the biggest names in Florida politics, Corcoran Partners.

Jared Rosenstein landed on the 2015 list, a young campaign staffer who found mentorship in superlobbyist Ron Book. He went on to be a partner in one of the state’s top lobby shops, Capital City Consulting.

Berny Jacques was on that same list. Now he’s a state Representative. Taylor Hatch, now the Director of the Florida Agency for Persons with Disabilities, yep, she was there too.

Ten years later we’re looking at a new class, and imagining the possibilities for them in another 10.

Some of the state’s newest rising stars are actually working for past honorees, meaning the nominees have become the nominators.

What’s perhaps most wonderful about this list now that it is well-established by the test of time, is that we see so many dedicated young professionals in The Process who are nominated by multiple people across various sectors. That’s when you know someone really has the chops to be worthy of this recognition.

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It serves not just as a head-pat and attaboy, but also a push toward further success. See, the names who land in these pages get a glance from, as the name suggests, some of the top influencers in Florida politics.

But of course no good deed goes unpunished. Jealousy creeps, and it leaves some of our more seasoned pros in The Process wondering why the young bucks get all the attention. Someone once suggested I create a “63 under 63” so they could soak up some of that sweet recognition.

I’m not sure that’s a workable idea, but rest assured that in the next two editions of INFLUENCE we will spotlight accomplishments among others in The Process. Our Summer edition will honor the state’s Great Communicators. Our year-end edition will feature our fifth installation of the 150 Most Influential.

But for now, Spring has sprung, and with that fresh renewal of a new season rife with possibility and growth, we look to the generation who will carry the torch as they march toward the annals of greatness and pave the way for those who come behind them, as the up and comers of yesteryear did for them.

Here are this year’s rising stars, you don’t want to miss them.

Peter Schorsch Publisher

Peter@FloridaPolitics.com

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Peter Schorsch

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INFLUENCE Magazine is published quarterly by Florida Politics, LLC, a subsidiary of Extensive Enterprises Media, LLC. 204 37th Avenue North, St. Petersburg, Florida 33704. INFLUENCE Magazine and Extensive Enterprises Media are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photography or artwork. Editorial contributions are welcomed and encouraged, but will not be returned.

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INFLUENCE’S 2024 RISING STARS While we call them “stars,” many young people streak through The Process like meteors, while others methodically build expertise as they climb the success ladder to positions of influence. But behind these fresh faces is always a mentor — or two, or a few — setting an example or sharing advice.

100 A Little Bit of Florida in D.C.

Florida House, an embassy of sorts for the Sunshine State in the nation’s capital, celebrates 50 years of welcoming visitors.

92 Ten Bills That Didn’t Make the Cut

PHOTO: The Workmans

While there were plenty of winners in Florida’s supermajority Session, when the 60 days ended, these high-profile — and oftentimes controversial — bills took the L.

154 What I’ve Learned

As he retires, Fred Baggett reminisces about his (very) long-term clients and a firm merger that worked and looks forward to unlimited time for family, fishing and working on that golf handicap.

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18 Bespoke Blue Jeans Using vintage specialty sewing machines, Daniel Skinner turns fabric, thread and hardware into made-to-order denim wear at his workshop, Skinner American Goods, in Tallahassee’s Railroad Square.

34 Say Cheese!

Oodles of pictures and familiar faces were captured by roving photographers The Workmans at a fond sendoff for a retiring friend, a seminar on the future of tech, a tax update, a new restaurant in an iconic location and one of the favorite fundraisers of the year.

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On the Move

21 Maria Maria’s Tastes of Home When local restaurants couldn’t recreate the Mexican flavors of his mother and grandmother’s cooking, Edgar Gamez started his own restaurant, staffed it with two generations of family and made Maria Maria a Tallahassee favorite.

80 Lobbying’s Top 25 And the winner is … Ballard Partners! But you’ve got to admit, the next 24 firms are no slouches either when it comes to compensation.

12 The Auteur Among Us PHOTO: The Workmans

Tallahassee consultant Kevin Cate hopes his selfwritten, self-produced and self-directed minimovies will lead to big-screen success.

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Political Aficionado’s Guide

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Briefings from the Rotunda

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Fourth Floor Files

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Insider Takes

84

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THE POLITICAL AFICIONADO’S GUIDE TO ...

FILM

From ads to auteur

:

Communications savant Kevin Cate discovers his inner Hollywood

By Rosanne Dunkelberger

F

During filming, Kevin Cate (center) gets dramatic with the stars of “Open Door,” Sean Anthony Baker and Mia Matthews.

Photo: The Workmans

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or the past 14 years, political consultant Kevin Cate has produced hundreds of TV and digital ads for candidates and nonprofits.

But even though his work is highly regarded and has won national awards, the founder and president of CATECOMM had a creative itch that just wasn’t being scratched by his political projects. Instead of telling someone else’s story using proscribed keywords and images, Cate envisioned telling his own fictional narratives, in his own way.

Enter Clinging Vine Films, Cate’s film production company, which has already created two five-minute films to showcase his talents as an auteur — writing, producing and directing both.

His first film, “Open Door,” was filmed on a set constructed at an Atlanta studio over the course of just one day.

With very little dialogue, it tells the horrifying story of a man and woman stuck in a plummeting elevator — with a surprise twist at the climax.

He uploaded it to YouTube and blasted it out on X, where it has garnered more than a million views.

“What I wanted to do was show that we could make a box in a room entertaining. And if I can do that with one box in one room and one day — with the help of a lot of people — what could we do with a legit budget over the course of 30 or 40 days with a feature film?,” he pondered.

The feature film is much more than a pipe dream. Cate has already written the script for a “tragic comedy” feature Christmas film he hopes to direct. It was picked up by a studio, but the project was put on hold because of strikes by the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA, which lasted for several months in 2023.

The movie business is still gearing back up after the work stoppage, but he was able to create his films during the strike because they were categorized as “microbudget” — costing less than $20,000 each (funded by Cate) and were not being used to earn money.

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“One of my favorite things in the world about film is that it really is like a collaboration.”

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Scenes from the single-day shoot of the five-minute short, “Open Door.”

Kevin Cate checks the monitor and collaborates with some of the two dozen people who had behind-thescenes roles in the movie. Photos: The Workmans

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But the gigs did provide work for sound, lighting, electrical and other professionals who were out of work due to the strike, many of whom worked with Cate before, as well as on big-budget movie hits.

“I feel an obligation to elevate the people around me who have helped me,” Cate said.

“One of my favorite things in the world about film is that it really is like a collaboration,” he said. “I’m standing on top of these people’s shoulders when you’re looking at the credits, but on set, everybody’s equal, everybody has a job to do and they’re all there to do it. It’s really electric. There’s something really democratic about everybody pitching in and going in the same direction.”

And even though he does work with Democratic candidates, the political process just

isn’t the same, he says.

“I mostly deal with state level politics and national politics and there’s always a Primary and unfortunately it happens really, really late,” Cate said. “So everybody’s kind of pulling in different directions and then you’re like, ‘alright, real quick, let’s pull the other direction.’ It’s just not the same.”

Cate said he hopes to work on his feature film with the same folks who pitched in on his mini-movies. Many of them are based in Atlanta and the Christmas movie will undoubtedly be filmed in Georgia. Los Angeles, he says, is too far for the father of three to commute and the Peach State offers generous incentives to attract film production — as opposed to Florida.

THE POLITICAL AFICIONADO’S GUIDE TO ...

“Despite lots and lots of attempts, the Legislature does not fund any kind of meaningful film incentives,” Cate reminded.

His second short film, “Put Your Cart Away,” is also in the horror genre — but with a healthy dose of humor. While he has been noodling about the story for years, the theme of the film taps into the 2023 zeitgeist, when the “to-leave-or-not-to-leave” the shopping cart in the parking lot became a topic of interest. Many stories have been written about Shopping Cart Theory, which suggests the ultimate way to test moral goodness is to see whether someone will do the “right” thing if there is no accountability, consequence or reward.

His short tells the tale of an obnoxious man who abandons his cart in the parking lot. In this case, there are consequences.

Look closely and you’ll see a cameo performance by Sebastian Davis, aka the Cart Narc, who plays a bemused cop taking down the description of the offending shopping cart. Davis has 500,000 YouTube subscribers and travels the U.S. and the

world catching cart offenders on his body cam and shaming them into rolling them into the cart corral.

“I’d never heard of him before I pitched this idea. But the crew was like, ‘Oh my God, do you know the Cart Narc?’” On a whim, Cate called Davis to ask if he wanted to be in the film and he “flew across the country on his own dime to be in that short.”

Not to diss his day job, but Cate said he gets a lot of satisfaction from the freedom afforded by his film work.

“My goal in making any content is what people take away from it, which is normally an emotion that they have inside them already,” he said. “We’re just trying to evoke that feeling. But it’s hard to explain that to politicians who read a poll and think that if we just say ‘affordable health care’ enough times it’s going to persuade somebody.”

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THE POLITICAL AFICIONADO’S GUIDE TO ...

G E A R

s l o w

f a s H i o n

DENIM It takes a while, but Skinner American Goods creates quality jeans offering a lifetime of wear

By Rosanne Dunkelberger

I

n a world dominated by fast, cheap, imported, mass-produced fashion, 33-year-old Daniel Skinner is an anomaly. His Tallahassee-based company, Skinner American Goods, specializes in quality, classic denim clothing — mostly jeans — that are made to order. And chances are very good they will be made by him.

His workshop is situated in the funky enclave known as Railroad Square, just a hop, skip and jump — 1 mile — from the Capitol, and denizens of The Process are making their way downhill to discover the joy of made-to-order jeans.

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jeans

Customer Tom Griffin has an initial consultation about his custom-made jeans by shop owner Daniel Skinner. The jeans pinned to the wall are Skinner’s, showing the wear patterns that are created over time. Photo: The Workmans

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Creating a custom pair of pants includes plenty of decisions.

(Clockwise from top right) First, the measurements. Then, the allimportant task of chosing a denim fabric, as well as thread color and buttons. At Skinner’s workshop (facing page), Griffin makes his final choices, as noted by Skinner.

Photos: The Workmans.

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THE POLITICAL AFICIONADO’S GUIDE TO ...

“...I quickly fell in love with denim and the process of making jeans, improving the design with each iteration.

It became an obsession.”

One can order standard styles that are offered online (skinneramericangoods.com) or drop in for a totally custom — albeit more expensive — experience. Skinner takes measurements to create an individualized pattern that is saved and can be reused for future pant purchases.

With custom service, “you can pick your denim” as well as the thread color and hardware, he says. If you want a special pocket or reinforcement or detailing, those are possible, too.

“A lot of people come in for the first time and say, ‘I want a basic, great-fitting pair of jeans,’ he says. And then for the second time they’re like, ‘all right, let’s get weird. Let’s do something different.’”

Lobbyist Tom Griffin got his first custom-fitted pair of Skinner blue jeans and wore them for a month before giving this review: “He was very helpful and kept the process pretty simple and managed to get it properly sized in one fitting. He did a really nice job.”

Skinner’s old-school production process is the polar opposite of fast fashion.

Each pair takes about four hours to finish and he has only one employee. That means customers should expect to wait six weeks or so for the jeans to arrive. On the upside, his pants come with a lifetime repair guarantee.

Skinner started his career arc while in college around 2013, after picking up a used Singer sewing machine at a thrift store. While experimenting with sewing, he decided to make himself a pair of jeans.

It was a bust, as he explains in the “Our Story” section of his website: “They were truly awful. They didn’t fit. They didn’t look good. The leg seam blew out the first time I wore them. So I made a few adjustments and made another pair. Then another. I quickly fell in love with denim and the process of making jeans, improving the design with each iteration. It became an obsession.”

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“Jeans are kind of universal in the sense that you probably couldn’t go to any single country and not find people wearing jeans.”

What a difference a decade makes.

The old Singer has been put out to pasture and his workshop now features about a dozen vintage industrial machines Skinner has sourced from eBay, closing factory auctions, Craigslist and Facebook marketplace.

Each is dedicated to very specific portions of the jeans making process. A fairly fancy electronic one is for sewing straight seams.

Others are tasked with making buttonholes, belt loops and waistbands, hemming jeans, serging and attaching buttons.

Over the years, Skinner has refined his process to create innovations such as reinforced pockets and belt loops that tuck under the waistband to avoid coming loose. Many such details may go unnoticed by the uninitiated, but make denimheads (it’s a thing) rejoice.

“If you look on like, Instagram, there are accounts that have hundreds of thousands of followers just showing the progression of the fades on their denim and their shirts and stuff,” he said. Websites promote different philosophies for when and how to wash their jeans (not often, by hand, inside out, use vinegar and NEVER put them in the dryer).

True denimheads wouldn’t think of wearing jeans that weren’t made of raw denim with a selvedge edge. That is, denim that hasn’t been pre-washed or distressed, has been manufactured on oldstyle shuttle looms that leave a finished, colored edge, which those in the know immediately recognize. The fabric can be

rigid and must be “broken in” before becoming comfortable. But that’s part of its appeal, he insists.

“They’re sort of all one color when you start out and then, as you wear them … they’ll stretch out in the places you need, (and) also you get your own personal imprint left on them,” Skinner explains. “You can tell in my jeans I keep my phone in my front right pocket.”

A good portion of Skinner’s clientele is happy to enjoy the forgiving nature of non-raw stretch denim.

While jeans are the foundation of his business — at a cost of $225 to $310 — the company also offers denim shirts and shirts made of other fabrics. Jackets, work aprons and leather goods are also on offer.

Skinner said he has delivered pants to every continent except South America and Antarctica.

“Jeans are kind of universal in the sense that you probably couldn’t go to any single country and not find people wearing jeans,” he says. “It’s kind of a ubiquitous fabric, which is really cool.”

He’s proud of his work, but isn’t a snob about why people buy his custom creations.

“I want people to appreciate them,” Skinner says. “So, if that means taking them to work with you and just beating the crap out of them, then that’s great.

If it means wearing them to the office on casual Fridays because you want to have a really nice pair of jeans, that’s cool with me too.”

The jeans-making process (top to bottom) begins with pattern-making and fabric cutting, sewing on one of the on one of the vintage specialized machines in the Skinner workshop, and leaving the company’s mark on Griffin’s completed pair (facing page) of raw denim pants.” Photos: The Workmans.

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FOOD

maria maria

a family tradition

By Rochelle Koff Photography by The Workmans

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I

f there’s one dish that exemplifies the mission of the Mexican restaurant Maria Maria, it’s the humble tostada.

It’s named Maria’s Tostada after the grandmother who inspired the authentic cuisine served at this homey Tallahassee restaurant.

“It’s the only item with her name on it,” said Edgar Gamez, co-owner of Maria Maria. “It is the item that started our story. It’s the item that inspired who we are and what we’re doing. To us, this tostada means the world.”

It’s an inspiring story.

Gamez’s grandmother, Maria, would make tostadas to support her five children in the small Mexican town of La Yerbabuena, located in the state of Michoacán.

“My grandmother would make her tortillas by hand and lay them in the sun,” Gamez said. “By the time the sun went down, the tortillas were nice and crispy.”

As schoolchildren, his mother and her sisters would skip recess to lend a hand.

“They went to a school next door run by nuns,” Gamez said. “They would run home and help my grandmother prep for the tostadas.”

By 5 or 6 p.m., Gamez’s mother, grandmother, aunts and uncles carried tables and chairs to the plaza to sell the tostadas at night.

“The story of my grandmother always touches my heart,” Gamez said. “How strong she was, how much effort she put into making sure her family was OK.” Her dedication is reflected in the hard-working staff at Maria Maria, named after both Gamez’s mother and grandmother.

While there is an abundance of chain Mexican restaurants, Maria Maria has built a reputation for serving family recipes. In reviews, some diners call it “the real deal.”

The restaurant is run by Gamez, his sisters Miriam and Veronica, his nephew, Jaime Raya, and Tod Sullivan, the only non-family member of the team.

Customers order at the counter and food is brought to the table. The restaurant is casual but welcoming with brick walls and wood tables spruced up with some colorful decorations. Meals are synchronized so plates are not left to languish under a heat lamp. If one dish needs more time, a server will bring out the others.

Maria Maria impresses at the start, when baskets of warm chips arrive, served with a piquant, housemade salsa and cheese dip, an unexpected delight. Gamez said he experimented with this dip until it had the right consistency and taste. It’s addictive.

Maria Maria pays attention to details. Flavors and aromas are distinctive. The mole sauce, for instance, involves a long, complex process with about 20 ingredients. The tamale is made the traditional way, with a corn dough filling steamed inside a corn husk. Most items offer a choice of protein (generally, carnitas or shredded pork, chorizo, beef, chicken or beans, sometimes brisket) or vegetables.

The restaurant has an extensive menu with small bites as well as entrees. While there’s not a designated breakfast time, customers can order items such as huevos rancheros and chilaquiles (eggs and salsa with tortillas, beans and rice).

Maria Maria, named for Edgar Gamez’s mother and grandmother, is a family affair, including (above) Gamez, his nephew Jaime Raya and sister Miriam.

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FOOD

“The tortillas absorb the sauce.”

As for Maria’s tostada, it’s a crunchy tortilla, served open-face with beans and a choice of protein or vegetables piled high with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, avocado, crema, pickled jalapeños and cheese.

Among the many highlights at Maria Maria, there’s a heavenly chile relleno— a lightly fried poblano pepper filled with cheese and vegetables served with potatoes in an aromatic tomato broth that’s almost like a bisque.

Along with tacos, burritos, enchiladas, fajitas and quesadillas, entrees include pollo en crema, carne en chile and shrimp a la diabla. While most of the dishes are made from family recipes, the ones marked “caseras” signify a homemade plate. Enchiladas Caseras, for instance, includes three pan-cooked enchiladas. (“The tortillas absorb the sauce,” Gamez said.)

Maria Mara doesn’t serve liquor, but you can get a wine-based margarita, wine or beer, including local choices such as Proof and Ology, and tropical juices. Try to save room for sumptuous desserts such as their ice cream and churro bites with chocolate syrup.

Maria Maria’s food still sparks memories for the young restaurateur. Gamez is one of six children – four sisters and one brother. When he was six, his family moved from Mexico to the small town of Moore Haven, Florida.

“I come from a family with very limited resources, financially speaking, but we always had an abundance of food,” Gamez said.

“Our mobile home had two tiny rooms and there were seven of us,” he said. “I grew up sleeping in the living room. That was my bedroom.”

After high school, Gamez attended Tallahassee Community College for two years, then transferred to Florida State University, where he majored in criminology and the humanities. His scholarships paid for about 90-95% of his college tuition.

“Once I left home, I was on my own,” he said. “I knew that I would have to figure out how to pay my bills.”

To earn money, Gamez took jobs in the restaurant industry as a server and bartender while going to class. Then he met a coworker looking to expand a cleaning business he ran with his wife.

There were times when Gamez was cleaning at 8 a.m., working in restaurants for morning and night shifts, then cleaning offices in the middle of the night. He had to fit in his classes, one reason he decided to switch his major from a demanding chemistry regimen to criminology.

Order at the counter (top right) and prepare to enjoy fresh Mexican dishes based on Edgar Gamez’s family recipes.

The restaurant’s menu includes (above, left to right) Maria’s Tostada (original style), Maria’s Tostada (street style) and steak fajitas served with sautéed peppers, onions and mushrooms with sides of tortillas, rice and beans and a salad.

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FOOD

Delicious churros and ice cream drizzled with chocolate (left) are a fitting end to a Maria Maria Mexican dinner. The restaurant (below) is located on Tallahassee’s busy main drag, North Monroe Street.

When he visited home, his mother would send him back to Tallahassee with 30 or 40 enchiladas. “I loved them,” he said. “I’d eat them for four or five days.”

“I couldn’t find food like my mom makes,” Gamez said. “I couldn’t find that in any Mexican restaurant. I wondered, ‘how’s it possible that they don’t sell what we eat at home?’ Their food was nothing that I knew.”

He thought that maybe it was too hard for restaurants to prepare authentic Mexican cuisine, but then he went to Joe T. Garcia’s in Fort Worth and “the food was amazing.”

“I said to myself that there are processes that allow you to serve quality food like I’m used to. My mind started working,” he recalled.

He went to his older brother, Enrique, and asked him to invest in a restaurant.

“He said ‘go for it.’ I matched his investment with my labor. For 4½ years, I didn’t get a paycheck.”

Gamez, the youngest child in his fami-

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ly, was 27 years old when he and his siblings opened Maria Maria on July 5, 2019. Gamez had never cooked himself but he had watched his mom in the kitchen.

He learned the recipes and he now does a lot of the cooking.

They were working hard, working out kinks and building their business when the pandemic hit and nearly wiped out their young venture.

“It was a really tough start,” he said.

“It was the cleaning company that helped us survive. I pumped resources from that to Maria Maria for a year and a half.

“Most of us worked for free because we’re family members,” Gamez said.

“We didn’t pay ourselves but we paid the restaurant’s bills and we paid the family’s bills.” The only employee to receive a paycheck was Sullivan.

Still, Maria Maria’s small staff kept the place going.

“My faith was, I believe in what we serve,” said Gamez’s sister Miriam. “We knew that times were tough, not just for us, but for everyone else as well. It kept us going. We knew that at one point it was going to get better. We had hope, and a dream that it would get better.”

Gamez is now giving equity in the business to his sisters, nephew and Sullivan.

“I’m so thankful for the support they provided,” he said.

Business has gotten better but there are still challenges, especially the rising cost of ingredients.

“Prices fluctuate like stocks,” said Gamez, now 32. “To this day, an ingredient can be one price one week and twice that

the next.”

While prices have gone up, Gamez said they limit raising their prices to once a year.

“We’re afraid of changing our prices, but if we don’t, we’ll close our doors and I don’t want to close our doors,” he said. “I make changes on prices and hope for the best and hope we don’t lose business.”

Despite the challenges, Maria Maria is gaining recognition for its homemade goodness.

“It’s a great place,” said Liam Horne, a frequent customer having lunch recently at Maria Maria with his friend, Kate Alos. “The food is authentic. I tell everyone about it.”

“I’m here for the first time,” said Alos.

“I’m a vegetarian and there are so many vegetable options.”

Comments like these help the staff feel gratified.

“Maria Maria has a lot of family recipes,” Miriam said. “That’s what I just love about it. The way we care about the food. How we cook is how we would eat at home.

“The quality of the meat – if it’s pricier, we still go for it,” she said. “We want to provide good flavor. We care a lot about our health, therefore we try to provide what we would eat for ourselves and nothing else.”

She believes word is getting out.

“I love the way we are taking care of people and they say, ‘OMG, this is so amazing.’ Or ‘this tastes just like home,’” she said. “I hear the comments and I think, it’s worth all the effort that we have put into this place.”

KEEPING FLORIDA’S HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY ON TOP

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RONALD A. CHRISTALDI President/CEO Shumaker Advisors Florida, LLC

MEET OUR

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DIFFERENCE MAKERS

JIM C. TAYLOR

AMY C. BISCEGLIA

MAYOR ASHTON J. HAYWARD

MAYOR BOB BUCKHORN

SENATOR LESLEY “LES” MILLER, JR.

SPEAKER PRO-TEM AND STATE REPRESENTATIVE SANDY MURMAN

MICHELLE A. TURMAN

MIKE HAMBY

MAYOR RICK KRISEMAN

CONGRESSMAN DAVID JOLLY

JENNIE GRANAHAN TARR

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Columbus - Dade City - Sarasota - Tallahassee - Tampa - Toledo - Washington, D.C.

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bout 500 well-wishers traveled from far and wide to celebrate attorney/lobbyist Fred Baggett in January and wish him well on his retirement. The event was sponsored by his law firm, Greenberg Traurig, and the festivities progressed between the firm’s Adams Street offices and the Governors Club across the street.

Visitors came from throughout Florida as well as Denver, Austin, New York and Washington, D.C.

PHOTO: The Workmans

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1, 2: Fred Baggett speaks with colleagues and family at Greenberg Traurig’s Tallahassee office before his retirement celebration. 3: The honoree shakes hands with Greenberg Traurig CEO, Brian Duffy. Pictured in center is David Ashburn, Managing Partner of the law firm’s Tallahassee office. 4. Baggett speaks with Greenberg Traurig colleagues, CFO Larry Harris (left) and COO Gregg Jones (right) 5. Fred Baggett (center) with his team (left to right): Tim Stansfield, Gus Corbella, Liz Dudek, Beau Beaubien, Hayden Dempsey and Fred Karlinsky. Behind them is a portrait of Baggett’s longtime lobbying and law partner, the late Ron LaFace. 6. Cheers to the Man of the Hour. 7. Baggett with firm HR Director Caroline Boeckel. 8. David Ashburn and 9. Brian Duffy make comments during the celebration. 10. Baggett chats with several Clerks of Court. He was instrumental in creating the Florida Clerks of Court Association and represented them for 51 years.

11. Fred and Lyn Baggett and their daughters Katherine and Rebecca. 12. Baggett with Ed Wallace, co-managing partner of the firm’s New York City office. 13. Baggett gets a parting gift from Barry Shields, general manager of the Governors Club. He was one of the club's founders in 1982.

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FTW's Taxpayer Dinner T

he taxpayer advocacy group hosted its State of the Taxpayer Dinner at Hotel Duval. One of Florida TaxWatch’s flagship programs, “it allows us to hear directly from elected officials about their work and the impact on Floridians — right as the Legislative Session gets underway — helping us fulfill our 40-plus-year responsibility to serve as both the ‘eyes and ears’ of taxpayers and a trusted government watchdog,” said Dominic Calabro, President and CEO of the organization.

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1. Dominic Calabro addresses the gathering. 2. Jon Shiner (right), Director of State Strategy & Engagement, America First Policy Institute and Bradley Cusnier (center), FL TaxWatch Director of Strategic Relations. 3. Bob Nave (left), FL TaxWatch Senior VP of Research, speaks with Mark Kaplan. 4. Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis (center) was a speaker at the event. 5. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (center), another speaker at the event, talks with Lady Dhyana Ziegler, President & CEO of Z Creators, and Christopher Iansiti, Board Chair of the Florida State University Foundation. 6. Dominic Calabro and Jimmy Patronis pose for a photo op. 7. Former Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, now Executive Vice President and General Counsel at Florida TaxWatch. 8. Former state Sen. Kelli Stargel, now Senior Advisor for Strategic Relationships, Florida Polytechnic University. Speakers at the event included 9. state Sen. Jason Pizzo. 10. Marva Brown Johnson, Group Vice President at Charter Communications and Treasurer for Florida TaxWatch. 11. Former Sen. Pat Neal, CEO of Neal Communities. 12. House Speaker Paul Renner. 13. CFO Jimmy Patronis.

14. A.G. Ashley Moody, 15. Jeff Kottkamp. 16. Dominic Calabro and 17. Rep. Jennifer Canady. 18. (left to right) Members of the FL TaxWatch research team Jessica Cimijotti, Meg Canaan and Jui Shah, Sen. Jason Pizzo; Kumar Allady, Founder & CEO, RADISE International; and Florida TaxWatch Senior VP of Research Kurt Wenner. 19. Craig Hewitt, Senior Marketing Director at Kyra Solutions.

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Hayward House F

riends and Family were invited to try out the new restaurant tenant in the historic building at the corner of South Adams and West Jefferson Street in early December. Hayward House opened its doors at the former home of several restaurants operated by Andrew Reiss, offering, as described in Florida Politics “an elevated culinary journey, melding flavors from world travel with the warmth of Southern hospitality.” The name of the bistro is actually a nod to one of the building’s occupants 100 years ago, Dr. Thomas Hayward. A favorite gathering place for those in The Process, Hayward House opened just in time for the start of the 2024 Session. “We had a phenomenal Session,” said owner Ashley Chaney.

“It was very well received.”

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1. A sign welcomes diners to the Hayward House restaurant, a short walk from Florida’s Capitol building. 2. Ray Berry and Andrew Reiss, who’s eponymous restaurants occupied the corner for half a century. 3. New proprietor Ashley Chaney welcomes Katie Ballard. 4. Aubrey and Aaron Brown peruse the menu. 5. Tony Cortese, Ashley Cortese and Torri Miller. 6. Al and Monica Tylor converse with Chris Chaney.

7. Molly and Alex Corder. 8. Courtney Whelan. 9, 10. Friends and family enjoy the ambiance, company and food at the bistro. 11. Billie Ann Gay. 12. Nicole Hagerty is all smiles. 13. Kaila Hardee. 14. Carlecia Collins converses. 15. Brewster Bevis. 16. Sophie Smith. 17. Allison and Mike Anway make their dinner choice. 18. Adam Reiss, Andrew Reiss and Ray Berry. 19. Ashley Chaney gets a hug from Carter Scott.

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JMI Tech Summit T

he James Madison Institute gathered some of the top thinkers and doers in technology policy in September to talk about Florida and the future at the 2023 Technology and Innovation Summit in Coral Gables. During the two-day summit, participants considered the implications of technology policy and how we cultivate innovation at the state level, keep children safe online, the future of broadband development, the role of state and federal policymakers in cybersecurity, what can be done to fuel the next generation of innovators, how to innovate in times of crisis and other important topics.

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1. A packed room for the 2023 Tech Summit in Coral Gables, FL. 2. Ashesh Agarwal, Former Assistant Director of the Office of Policy Planning, Federal Trade Commission, demoing Optima Ed’s interactive curriculum. 3. JMI Board Members Harout Samra and Joe York with JMI President and CEO Dr. Bob McClure. 4. JMI’s Director of the Center for Tech and Innovation, Dr. Edward Longe moderating a panel with Antonio Delgado and Caden Rosenbaum. 5.

Pat Hedger from Taxpayer Protection’s Alliance moderating a panel with Bartlett Cleland, Luke Hogg, and Adam Thierer on the “Politics and Policies of Innovation.” 6.

2023 Technology and Innovation Summit attendees network during the reception prior to the kickoff of the sum-

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mit. 7. JMI Board Member Harout Samra welcoming attendees to the 2023 Technology and Innovation Summit. 8. Keiser University Vice Chancellor, Dr. Robert Keiser answering an audience question during the “Fueling the Next Generation of Innovators” panel. 9. Speakers John Cunningham, Juan Londoño and Brooke Medina speaking during the “Sci-Fi Now” panel to discuss how artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality are being used. 10. Taylor Barkley from the Center for Growth and Opportunity moderating a panel on online child safety with former Missouri Rep. Justin Hill and Stacy Rumenap. 11. Speakers Nathan Leamer, Digital First, and Evan Swarztrauber, Foundation for American Innovation, during a discussion about the future of broadband deployment and the role of government. 12. JMI Board Member Joe York welcoming Sheriff Mike Prendergast from Citrus County for a panel discussion on “Innovating in Times of Crisis.”

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Red Dog Blue Dog R DBD pits the R’s versus the D’s in a competition to see which legislator bartenders in this popular “nonpawtisan” event can earn the most tips. In 2024, the volunteers raised $48,351, 100% of it shared by three Tallahasseebased rescue groups—the Leon County Humane Society, the Animal Shelter Foundation and Last Hope Rescue.

In this year’s contest, the Red Team triumphed in the tipstakes, winning by $4,000 over the Blue. Since its inception

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in 2025, RDBD has raised more than $190,000. Presenting Sponsor for the event was Lisa Miller & Associates and the Bar Sponsor was Rubin Turnbull.

Gold Sponsors included McGuireWoods Consulting, On3PR, Anheuser-Busch, TECO and Moffitt Cancer Center. "Every year this event gets bigger and better, and I'm thrilled with what we have been able to accomplish for such a great cause. I can't wait for next year!,” said event organizer Sara Clements.

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1. Township Bar in CollegeTown was thronged with supporters. 2. Time to belly up to the bar with event organizer Jared Rosenstein and Rep. Demi Busatta Cabrera 3. Reps. John Snyder and Daryl Campbell are “representing” for teams Red and Blue. 4. Leon County Humane Society foster dogs Sophie (foreground) and Tatum are mixing and mingling. 5. Rep. Allison Tant gives a thumbs-up from behind the bar. 6. Rep. Busatta Cabrera heckles Marc Reichelderfer for a bigger tip while Sara Clements (of Gold Sponsor McGuireWoods Consulting and event organizer) and Christina Johnson (of Gold sponsor On3PR) enjoy the exchange. 7. Rep. Jason Shoaf takes an action shot of the bartenders. 8. Reps. Lindsay Cross and Busatta Cabrera share a bipartisan moment. 9. Sen. Tracie Davis is taking orders from Julie Fess and Aly Coleman Raschid. 10. Rep. Snyder 11. Justin Thames and Stephanie Smith, representing RDBD Gold sponsor, TECO. 12. Sen. Jason Pizzo.

13. Sen. Davis. 14. Billie Ann Gay, representing RDBD Gold sponsor, Anheuser-Busch, with fiance, Paige Tekel. 15. Sen. Jonathan Martin.

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Red Dog Blue Dog (cont.)

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16. The Blue Team (left to right): Rep. Tant, Rep. Dan Daley, Rep. Campbell, Sen. Davis and Sen. Lauren Book. 17. Rep. Snyder and Rep. Michelle Salzman. 18. Sen. Book. 19. Rep. James Buchanan. 20. Rep. Mike Redondo waits for his drink. 21. Rep. Tant.

22. Rep. Mike Giallombardo. 23. Rep. Tant chats up Rep. Adam Botana. 24. Sen. Alexis Calatayud. 25. Event organizer Carlecia Collins and David Allen mid-convo. 26. Rep. Daley gets his photo taken by his aide Bruce Suarez and others. 27. Reps. Daley and Tant cheer on a foursome doing a shotski. 28. Rep. Lindsay Cross shakes things up. 29. Rep. Busatta Cabrera put her megaphone to good use soliciting tips. 30. Rep. Daley. 31. Rep. Campbell.

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Briefings from the Rotunda

BFR

Top fundraiser joins Cap City H

eather Barker is joining the team at Capital City Consulting.

Barker, former senior adviser to Gov. Ron DeSantis, will direct the firm’s political fundraising, charitable and nonprofit fundraising. She will also assist in business development and the facilitation of business-to-business strategic partnerships.

“We are very excited to have Heather join the Capital City Consulting team. Not only will Heather’s long and impressive resume help boost our service offerings for our existing and future clients, but her unique insight and skillset will help us reach and exceed our business development and strategic partnership goals,” said Capital City Consulting co-founder Nick Iarossi.

Barker comes to Capital City Consulting with 14 years of experience, including the past six years working as DeSantis’ chief fundraiser. Barker moved up the ranks from political staffer during the 2022 Midterms to senior advisor during both the 2022 and 2024 campaign cycles within the DeSantis political organizations.

Over the course of her career she has helped the candidates, committees and organizations she worked with raise more than $500 million.

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BFR

WE ILLUMINATE

BRIGHT IDEAS EDIE OUSLEY President

• Public Relations • Strategic Communications • Crisis Management

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Monesia Brown heads ‘North’ N

orth Highland is bringing on Monesia “Mone” Taylor Brown as its new Vice President of Government Relations.

Based out of the firm’s Tallahassee office, Brown will lead the firm’s government relations strategy while driving growth for its public sector industry.

She brings more than 20 years of experience in state and local government public affairs strategy, emergency disaster response and recovery, corporate community investment, and corporate initiative management in Florida by working with state government on policy issues as well as local governments on permitting and real estate citing projects.

Brown most recently worked as the Director of Public Affairs and Government Relations for Walmart. She previously worked as an attorney and policy/government consultant focusing on legislative and executive branch matters including economic development, state procurement, and education.

Briefings from the Rotunda

BFR

David Allen joins GrayRobinson in Miami L

aw firm powerhouse GrayRobinson has added David Allen to its Miami team where he will focus on business law and government and lobbying sections.

Allen will address firm matters in health law, regulatory compliance, data privacy and security, transactional law, and government affairs.

Allen was one of six attorneys the firm added in November, including Brendan Hobbs in Tampa, Scott Palmer in Fort Lauderdale, Hunter Patrick in Gainesville, Kevin Ready in Lakeland and Eleanor Samuels in Gainesville.

Prior to joining GrayRobinson, Allen worked as a summer associate for the firm in 2021. He also previously served as a legislative assistant to Rep. Clay Yarborough and as campaign manager for Rep. Chuck Clemons.

JOHNSON

Allen earned his law degree from the University of Florida Levin College of Law after graduating with an undergraduate degree in arts and political science and government from UF. He is a member of Florida Blue Key, a leadership organization that sponsors and organizes UF’s annual homecoming celebration.

INFLUENCE Magazine has named him a Rising Star in 2024.

Allen joins one of the most influential firms in Florida with nearly 300 professionals on the payroll who partner with successful businesses and enterprising individuals to resolve disputes, anticipate industry shifts and harness forward momentum. GrayRobinson serves clients nationally from 15 offices in Florida and Washington D.C.

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TEAMJB.COM Spring 2024

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L I B E RT Y PA RT N E R S Tallahassee, LLC

Jennifer J. Green, CAE, DPL President

Timothy “Tim” Parson, DPL Vice President

Adam W. Potts, DPL

Director of Governmental Affairs

@LibertyPartners Ethan Merchant, DPL

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@LibertyPartnersTLH

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Briefings from the Rotunda

BFR

TSG Advisors adds workforce development trailblazer A

s the talent gap and workforce development become some of the most significant challenges facing private industry and state economic development efforts, TSG Advisors - Education has made the perfect hire to help companies navigate these difficulties.

Dan McGrew has devoted his entire career to the issue of talent, workforce development and leadership. Now, he’ll be assisting clients trying to figure out how to create the workforce of tomorrow, today.

McGrew comes to TSG Advisors – Education from CareerSource Florida, where as Senior Vice President for Workforce Program Development, he oversaw strategic policy development to direct workforce investments for the state of Florida. While at CareerSource Florida, he established a partnership with the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta to develop a dashboard to identify benefit cliffs along specified career paths.

While at CareerSource Florida, McGrew spearheaded the launch of Florida’s Credentials Review Committee, responsible for developing the state’s Master Credentials list, along with many other key components of Florida’s transformational Reimagining Education and Career Help Act of 2021.

“Dan’s ability to bring business and industry leaders to the table has been invaluable,” said James Taylor, CEO of the Florida Technology Council, who also serves on the Credentials Review Committee. “Through Dan’s leadership, we have set a strong foundation for the future of education and workforce development in Florida.”

McGrew’s enriched expertise in workforce development and ability to foster connections with industry power players will be a pivotal asset to the TSG Advisors - Education team as it continues to grow as a turnkey solution for education entities nationwide.

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BFR

Briefings from the Rotunda

Aide to First Lady joins CareerSource J

acklyn Washington, former Deputy Chief of Staff for First Lady Casey DeSantis, has joined the team at CareerSource Florida to serve as the Director of Communications.

Prior to a brief stint in the Governor’s Legislative Affairs Office for the 2024 Legislative Session, Washington served with DeSantis’ political operation. Beginning in 2022, she joined the Governor’s re-election campaign as Deputy Digital Director and continued as the First Lady’s Deputy Chief of Staff during last year’s Presidential campaign.

“I feel blessed to bring my experience and skillset to CareerSource Florida,” Washington said. “CareerSource reaches out a helping hand to Floridians in need, reduces welfare dependency, increases economic self-sufficiency, and ultimately builds stronger families, businesses, and communities across the great state of Florida. I look forward to joining this team and this worthy mission to make a difference in the lives of Floridians.”

Washington brings years of strategic communication experience to the role. She served as Press Secretary at Concerned Women for America, the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization, and spent four years on the team at CPAC.

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BFR

Jay Galbraith named President at BRIDG J

ay Galbraith has been named the new President at BRIDG, a nonprofit public-private partnership specializing in advanced system integration and packaging based in Osceola County’s 500-acre NeoCity technology campus.

“The BRIDG board of directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Jay Galbraith as President of BRIDG,” said Clarence Thacker, Chair of the BRIDG board. “Jay brings a wealth of experience and connections in Central Florida and beyond. His strength in business administration and partnership relations strengthen the sustainability of the organization well into the future.”

Before joining BRIDG, Galbraith served as Vice President for Public Affairs at Valencia College. His background also includes corporate leadership roles at SeaWorld Entertainment, Lees-McRae College, and the Pinellas Education Foundation, in addition to serving in key

staff roles for past U.S. elected officials.

“I am honored to serve in this capacity to help Osceola County realize the dream to be the semiconductor manufacturing, advanced packaging, and workforce hub for America,” Galbraith said. “The recent successes in key partnership grants will serve as the catalyst to see the vision re-

alized in the near future.”

Galbraith succeeds Interim President, Dr. John Allgair, who has been with BRIDG since 2016. Allgair will transition back into his role as BRIDG Chief Technology Officer to strengthen leading-edge technology and credibility in the semiconductor industry.

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Advocacy.

Strategic Counsel.

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We are a team of high-energy, results-driven lobbyists and advisors determined to help our clients succeed in today’s fast-changing governmental and political landscape.

What’s different about us? As a boutique consulting firm, we take a true team approach to serving clients at the local, state and federal levels of government. When you engage our firm, you get all of us—from our principals to our consultants, all of our diverse experience, our deep relationships built for decades, and our complete dedication to your success.

We’re proud of our long-time client relationships and our reputation for achieving results while maintaining the highest ethical and professional standards.

Get to know us at RubinTurnbull.com.

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Miami

Washington, DC

FOURTH FLOOR>FILES

PHOTO: The Workmans

Session 2024 is over. Some are taking a victory lap. Others are licking their wounds, while still others are regrouping while muttering the losers lament: “Wait ‘till next year.”

Reward yourself for surviving the annual Session. Grab some pig-out food and an adult beverage, raise those Gucci loafers atop the coffee table and dive into how 10 of your compatriots navigate Florida’s wild and woolly 60-day legislative extravaganza.

Then decide whether you agree with their best hotel picks.

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PROTON THERAPY

LIVE IN DEVELOPMENT

INNOVATING HEALTH CARE,

FUELING ECONOMIC GROWTH

TAMPA GENERAL HOSPITAL AND USF HEALTH MORSANI COLLEGE OF MEDICINE CONTINUE TO DEVELOP AND GROW TAMPA’S MEDICAL & RESEARCH DISTRICT.

In partnership with Tampa Bay Economic Development Council, we are leading the charge on a hub of world-class clinical care, academics, research and biotechnology — creating a more prosperous economy and healthier population.

We would like to welcome the Moffitt Community Engagement Center and Verséa to the district and the city.

NEW AND EMERGING NEW NEW AND AND EMERGING EMERGING

OPENING TGH KENNEDY EMERGENCY CENTER OPENING TGH KENNEDY OPENING TGHCENTER KENNEDY EMERGENCY EMERGENCY CENTER

TGH BREAKING GROUND ON FIRST & ONLY TGH BREAKING GROUND FREESTANDING ACADEMICON TGH BREAKING GROUND ON FIRST & ONLY BEHAVIORAL HEALTH FIRST & ONLYHOSPITAL IN FL FREESTANDING ACADEMIC FREESTANDING ACADEMIC BEHAVIORAL HEALTH HOSPITAL IN FL BEHAVIORAL HEALTH HOSPITAL IN FL

LAUNCHED TGH DISTRICT CONNECT LAUNCHED TGH DEDICATED, DIRECTTGH CONNECTION LAUNCHED DISTRICT CONNECT TO DISTRICT LOCATIONS DISTRICT CONNECT DEDICATED, DIRECT CONNECTION DEDICATED, CONNECTION TO DISTRICT DIRECT LOCATIONS TO DISTRICT LOCATIONS

LONG-TERM ECONOMIC IMPACT LONG-TERM LONG-TERM ECONOMIC ECONOMIC IMPACT IMPACT $6.4 BILLION ANNUALLY $6.4 BILLION TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT $6.4 BILLION ANNUALLY ANNUALLY TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT

$4 BILLION GDP $4 BILLION $4 BILLION GDP GDP

$2.8 BILLION HOUSEHOLD INCOME $2.8 BILLION $2.8CREATED BILLION HOUSEHOLD INCOME HOUSEHOLD CREATEDINCOME CREATED

41,500 JOBS CREATED & SUPPORTED 41,500 JOBS ANNUALLY 41,500 JOBS CREATED & SUPPORTED CREATED & SUPPORTED ANNUALLY ANNUALLY

$798 MILLION IN FEDERAL, STATE MILLION & $798 LOCAL FISCAL REVENUE $798 MILLION IN FEDERAL, STATE IN FEDERAL, STATE & LOCAL FISCAL REVENUE & LOCAL FISCAL REVENUE

Florida’s Leading Academic Health System For Over 50 Years

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TGH.org

FOURTH FLOOR>FILES

What the world needs now is ... empathy Significant other? Children? Grandkids?

Husband, James Ballas, and two children, Dayton and Jett.

What swear word do you use most often? Can you print that? I wish I didn’t use any!

In 25 words or less, explain what you do.

To our clients: I am a guiding presence in and out of the Capitol to achieve their goals. To the Legislators: I am the SparkNotes version of issues important to our clients and how they can effectively improve or maintain laws for the best outcome for them and their constituents.

What is your most treasured possession?

My Peloton and my membership to Primal Fitness

Without using the words Democrat, independent or Republican, conservative or liberal, describe your political persuasion. I believe if everyone walked through life with a little more empathy and recognized we are all fighting invisible battles, we would be all the better for it.

During your career, have you had a favorite pro bono client? I don’t play favorites, but I am very proud of the work we have done for Keep Florida Beautiful.

Erin Ballas

The best hotel in Florida is … Ritz Carlton Sarasota.

You’ve just learned that you will be hosting a morning talk show about Florida politics. Who are the first four guests you’d invite to appear? Jon Yapo, Melanie Brown, the Honorable Ron Saunders and Sen. Jim King. The laughs that would ensue.

Favorite movie? “You’ve Got Mail.”

When you pig out, what do you eat? A margarita and the original tacos from Iron Daisy.

Three favorite charities? Most of our time, talent and treasure goes to our children’s schools and their passions.

Additionally, the Leon County Friends of the Library also holds a special place in my heart.

Any last-day-of-Session traditions? We always bring Donut Kingdom Donuts to the valets and to the Fourth Floor to share.

Now we also supply them to Dayton and Jett’s classrooms in celebration.

Professional accomplishment of which you are most proud? Balancing the business checkbook.

PHOTO: The Workmans

Who is your favorite Florida Capitol Press Corps reporter and why? I have always loved Dara Kam, but now I think she is a podcast star.

Other than FloridaPolitics.com, your reading list includes … Amendments, bill reports and “Pizza and Taco,” a graphic novel.

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FOURTH FLOOR>FILES

Significant other? Children? Grandkids?

I have a rockstar wife, Paige, and we have two boys, Cooper (5) and Blake (2).

In 25 words or less, explain what you do. Making sure the corner of Happy & Healthy stays Happy & Healthy … but my 5-year-old would tell you my job is “talking a lot.”

Without using the words Democrat, independent or Republican, conservative or liberal, describe your political persuasion. I’m a Floridian with one vote and will cast it for whoever I believe will represent my values and beliefs on when government should be involved and not be involved in a person’s life or business daily operations. I believe that we are all fearfully and wonderfully made and if your political beliefs are different than mine, good news … you have one vote as well.

During your career, have you had a favorite pro bono client? Does free marketing for State Farm count? “Uh, khakis?”

Three favorite charities? Young Life, Muscular Dystrophy Association, Boys & Girls Clubs.

Any last-day-of-Session traditions?

Emptying my car of all my ties, jackets and talk sheets.

Professional accomplishment of which you are most proud? Before joining Walgreens during my time at the Florida Retail Federation, the small part I played in making sure Florida businesses could safely and successfully navigate through the pandemic without fear of closure or lawsuits.

Who is your favorite Florida Capitol Press Corps reporter and why? I enjoy Christine Sexton’s articles and Gary Fineout is a must follow on Twitter …

X… you know what I mean.

Other than FloridaPolitics.com, your reading list includes … Axios, POLITICO and The Wall Street Journal.

Giving ordinary folks a seat at the table

What is your most treasured possession? Handwritten copies of letters my G-Daddy wrote to his Congressman (Newt Gingrich) in 1981 on policy changes he wanted to see for small businesses and farmers. He was a veteran and at the time a cattle farmer in West Georgia. He always wanted someone in our family to work in politics and his letters are a reminder to me of all the hardworking people that don’t have a “seat at the table” but rely on those of us that do to be their voice and do the right thing.

The best hotel in Florida is … The Breakers is undefeated.

You’ve just learned that you will be hosting a morning talk show about Florida politics. Who are the first four guests you’d invite to appear?

Former Justice Major Harding, Tim Perrier, and give me Jay Fant and Mike Miller together.

Favorite movie? I’m going to answer with serious and comedy: “Saving Private Ryan” and “Wedding Crashers.”

When you pig out, what do you eat? I love cereal … especially at night.

Jake Farmer PHOTO: The Workmans

What swear word do you use most often?

My wife is going to read this … pass.

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Thank you!

Thanks to our incredible clients, we have reached a milestone in the firm’s history.

We now represent 500 clients collectively among our offices in Florida, DC, Boston, and Tel Aviv!

We are grateful to our clients for their confidence and trust in the Ballard Partners team.

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Washington DC | Tel Aviv | Boston | Tallahassee | Fort Lauderdale Miami | Jacksonville | Orlando | Tampa | West Palm Beach

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With a 40-year track record of lobbying success and longstanding relationships at all levels of Florida government statewide, Colodny Fass is ranked annually among Florida’s top lobbying law firms.

ColodnyFass.com 850.577.0398 | 954.492.4010 62

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FOURTH FLOOR>FILES

Significant other? Children? Grandkids?

I have a significant other, Henry, an outgoing 10-year-old daughter, Cayden, and our 3-year-old golden retriever, Lincoln, who is the best boy in the world.

In 25 words or less, explain what you do.

I advocate for my clients to help them advance their policy priorities using my experience in Florida government and the legislative process.

Without using the words Democrat, independent or Republican, conservative or liberal, describe your political persuasion. From Winston Churchill: “Those who never change their minds, never change anything.”

During your career, have you had a favorite pro bono client? During my time working for the Ron DeSantis administration, I helped shape policy to better the lives of Floridians, from assisting the response to COVID-19 and natural disasters, to tackling issues like water quality and national security.

I look forward to finding new ways to serve my community from the outside.

Three favorite charities? The Humane Society, the Ronald McDonald House and the Safe Project.

Any last-day-of-Session traditions? After Session ends, I always take my daughter to the beach. We both look forward to the vacation and time together.

Kaley Flynn

and raising my daughter. Upon leaving government service, I had earned my degree, and was serving as a Policy Chief for Gov. DeSantis.

Who is your favorite Florida Capitol Press Corps reporter and why? Gary Fineout because he’s always in the action.

Other than FloridaPolitics.com, your reading list includes … Emails from clients and 5th grade homework.

What swear word do you use most often? I will keep my favorite a mystery. Those who know me well may have an idea.

What is your most possession? My integrity.

treasured

The best hotel in Florida is … The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables.

You’ve just learned that you will be hosting a morning talk show about Florida politics. Who are the first four guests you’d invite to appear? Nick Iarossi, Scott Ross, Chris Spencer and James Uthmeier.

Favorite movie? “The Matrix.”

When you pig out, what do you eat?

Cookies. I make the best chocolate chip cookies.

Professional accomplishment of which you are most proud? I began my career in the Florida House as an Administrative Assistant for the Education Committee. I worked my way up in the process, serving in many different roles in the House, Senate, and Governor’s Office while pursuing my education at Florida State University

PHOTO: The Workmans

Beach bound after Sine Die

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FOURTH FLOOR>FILES

Navigating motherhood in The Process Significant other? Children? Grandkids?

Proud “mama” to baby Wells and wife to Taylor. Our dog, Riley, is working on a one-way ticket to my parents’ house.

In 25 words or less, explain what you do. I protect, advance and fuel the missions and visions of timeless brands and incredible nonprofit organizations.

Without using the words Democrat, independent or Republican, conservative or liberal, describe your political persuasion. I believe deeply in supporting free and open markets, environments for debate and intellectual growth, religious freedom, investing in communities through which people may experience and realize their greatest potential, and investing in the future of Florida.

During your career, have you had a favorite pro bono client? Oh, absolutely — Who We Play For. Together, we passed laws, changed the hearts and minds of stakeholders and raised awareness for a life-saving cause.

Samantha Greer

Three favorite charities? Pace Center for Girls, The Junior League and Children’s Miracle Network.

Any last-day-of-Session traditions?

Tough question, but only because my last three Sessions have ended so differently (IYKYK). Generally, I want to spend the evening trading stories with close friends and enjoying good food.

PHOTO: The Workmans

Professional accomplishment of which you are most proud? I have a handful that involve being a trusted advocate for Florida’s most vulnerable constituents, but my most cherished accomplishment centers around crafting and implementing an environment that continues to catch and hold the attention of the biggest names in an industry.

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Who is your favorite Florida Capitol Press Corps reporter and why? See below.

Other than FloridaPolitics.com, your reading list includes … Axios, AEI newsletters and a rotation of (baby) board books. Since having Wellsley, my daily (and personal) reading list has dramatically reduced.

What swear word do you use most often? “Oh, shoot!”

What is your most treasured possession?

Probably my Grandma Peggy’s cross.

I can’t imagine it’s worth much of anything, but I wear it almost daily.

The best hotel in Florida is … The Belleview Inn during the offseason. No, it does not have a bar or restaurant, but I love spending time on the wraparound porch, asking the onsite historian countless questions, floating in the pool, and sneaking over to the Sandpearl Resort for drinks and the sunset. If you think about the experience you want for yourself and family, and pack accordingly, the Belleview is easily one of Florida’s best properties for a quiet getaway.

You’ve just learned that you will be hosting a morning talk show about Florida politics. Who are the first four guests you’d invite to appear?

Carlton Ward Jr. to speak deeply about our beautiful state; Jon Meacham to highlight Florida’s importance on the national stage; Mark Kaplan to offer a spin on the stories we all know, but sometimes forget; and Casey DeSantis to share her perspective on being a working mom and advocate for Florida’s youth.

Favorite movie? I don’t like watching movies more than once (it drives my husband nuts), but probably “Top Gun” or “Aladdin.”

When you pig out, what do you eat?

Easy. Wood-fired pizza and wine.

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wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result wledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Results • Knowledge • Vision • Relationships • Strategy • Result

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BIG ENOUGH TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, SMALL ENOUGH TO CARE.

FOURTH FLOOR>FILES Significant other?

Children?

Grandkids? My wife, Christie, and I do not have kids, but we have adopted a cat named Kimchi that we treat like a child.

In 25 words or less, explain what you do. I do my best to help people navigate the Rube Goldberg machine that is our state government.

Without using the words Democrat, independent or Republican, conservative or liberal, describe your political persuasion. Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower both did things that I like …

During your career, have you had a favorite pro bono client?

Miracles Outreach is a group that we partner with that does truly amazing work. They provide foster care and focus on children who are homeless, have been abused, and/or were victims of human trafficking.

Three favorite charities?

United Way, Friends of Strays in St. Petersburg (where we got Kimchi), and Birds in Helping Hands (also in St. Pete).

Any last-day-of-Session traditions?

When I was younger the answer might have been more exciting, but now it’s hopefully getting a good night’s sleep.

PHOTO: The Workmans

Matt Herndon

Professional accomplishment of which you are most proud? While I was a legislative aide, we worked on a bill that requires alarm devices to be installed in day care vans to alert drivers if a child is left inside. It was prompted by multiple incidents of children being left in hot vehicles. Hearing their stories was devastating, and I am hopeful that the law we helped pass will go toward preventing other families from having to experience such a tragedy.

Other than FloridaPolitics.com, your reading list includes … I assume we aren’t counting bills. I honestly don’t get a chance to read as much for pleasure as I would like. However, I am trying to do more of that this year. I am currently reading the first of Cormac McCarthy’s two final novels — “The Passenger” — as well as a book on meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh.

What swear word do you use most often? This is a boring answer, but it’s definitely the “F” word. All different varieties of it, depending on the situation.

What is your most treasured possession? I don’t have many possessions that I feel particularly tied to. I do have what I consider to be a lucky hat that I have owned for many years and has been on my head during a handful of significant life events, including when I met my wife.

The best hotel in Florida is … Postcard Inn. You’ve just learned that you will be hosting a morning talk show about Florida politics. Who are the first four guests you’d invite to appear? I think it would be interesting to have a group of Florida’s living former Governors — Bob Graham, Bob Martinez, Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist — to discuss how the state and its politics have evolved over the last 50 years.

Favorite movie? This one is hard.

I want to sound cool and say something obscure, but the movie I have seen the most times is definitely “The Dark Knight.”

When you pig out, what do you eat?

Pizza. And although I love the Di Faras and Lucalis of the world, I am just as likely to stuff my face with Domino’s.

Who is your favorite Florida Capitol Press Corps reporter and why?

Lawrence Mower. He writes for my local paper and he does an excellent job of breaking down The Process and complex issues for readers.

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FOURTH FLOOR>FILES

Hoping for a successful ‘60-day Super Bowl’ Significant other? Children? Grandkids?

Married to my wonderful wife, Leigh.

We have two sons, Max (18) and Brody (15), a daughter, Anne Harris (8), and a schoodle, Tilly.

In 25 words or less, explain what you do.

I provide information to legislators and government officials to make educated policy decisions and information to my clients to make important business and operational decisions.

Without using the words Democrat, independent or Republican, conservative or liberal, describe your political persuasion. Socially practical, businessminded pragmatist.

During your career, have you had a favorite pro bono client? Yes, Delegal | Aubuchon had the honor of representing Robert DuBoise, a man who served 37 years for being wrongfully convicted of a rape and murder, for a $1.85 million claims bill to try to make him “whole.” It was a very humbling experience to see this man, who had his most valuable years taken away from him, carry himself with such grace and forgiveness. It also opened my eyes to the win-at-allcosts seedy side that can exist in the judicial system.

Three favorite charities? Trinity United Methodist Church, the United Way and Tree House of Tallahassee.

PHOTO: The Workmans

Scott Jenkins

Any last-day-of-Session traditions?

I try to get around to thank as many legislators that I worked with that Session as I can, even the ones that I may have been on the other side of an issue with. It’s sort of like shaking hands after a baseball game. Then, I go home to see my wife as soon as I can.

Professional accomplishment of which you are most proud? I’m not sure what I am most proud of but there sure have been some memorable battles that my clients ended up on the winning side: Affiliated Services and Products for the Trust Division of the Florida Bankers Association, defeating all the bad foreclosure bills during the recession of ’08-10’, and working with a great team to get necessary funding in 2022 for the Florida Coalition for Children are just a few.

Who is your favorite Florida Capitol Press Corps reporter and why? I really appreciate and have respect for the Florida Capitol Press Corps reporters, especially when they provide balanced reporting on an issue our firm is working on. John Kennedy, Jim Rosica, Lawrence Mower, Brendan Farrington and Romy Ellenbogen are a few of the good ones, but there are many others.

Other than FloridaPolitics.com, your reading list includes … I read three books from three specific genres at a time. Right now: — Fiction: “King Solomon’s Mines”

by H. Rider Haggard.

— History or biographical: “Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.”

— Self-help: “Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity” by Peter Attia.

What swear word do you use most often? Four letter word that starts with an “F.” Nothing greater than when you find out that your 2-year-old daughter told her mom that a car horn means “f*ing go!” Proud dad moment.

What is your most treasured possession? My family and faith are the greatest things in my life. Besides that, I have over 30 years of unopened Topps baseball card full-sets.

The best hotel in Florida is … The Breakers in Palm Beach, it’s a classic.

You’ve just learned that you will be hosting a morning talk show about Florida politics. Who are the first four guests you’d invite to appear? As a diehard Clemson Tiger, I’d invite Jacksonville Jaguars Trevor Lawrence, Travis Etienne, Tyler Shatley and Miami Dolphin Christian Wilkins. Sure, we will talk about politics.

Favorite movie? “Three Amigos.” It provides a plethora of laughs.

When you pig out, what do you eat?

Shrimp cocktail. I’m pretty sure the ocean is going to call me soon.

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FOURTH FLOOR>FILES

In 25 words or less, explain what you do.

I take my members’ business problems and needs and transform them into legislation that eventually makes it into law through a lot of hard work.

Without using the words Democrat, independent or Republican, conservative or liberal, describe your political persuasion. I’m a firm believer in getting government out of people’s lives wherever possible. As Ronald Reagan once said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

During your career, have you had a favorite pro bono client? As a smallbusiness lobbyist, I have the pleasure of working with a great organization of small-business owners and I frequently get calls to help them with specific issues. It’s a great feeling when you are able to resolve an issue for a smallbusiness owner who has spent way too much time and energy worrying about losing their business over an issue they shouldn’t have had to deal with in the first place.

Three favorite charities? UF Shands Children’s Hospital, Ducks Unlimited (mostly because they have the best auctions), and any charity my wife serves on the board of.

Any last-day-of-Session traditions? You can usually find me on Adams Street for at least one cocktail.

Professional accomplishment of which you are most proud? Getting the direct primary care bill passed a few years ago that is slowly starting to change the way Floridians get their primary care services.

That bill allows patients to see their doctors on a regular basis without needing a middleman to process paperwork.

Who is your favorite Florida Capitol Press Corps reporter and why? Ana Ceballos (and Matt Dixon) are my favorite reporters; not just because they are good friends but because they can always be counted on for a fun road trip.

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In the corner for small businesses Other than FloridaPolitics.com, your reading list includes …

“Swamp Monsters” is my most recent read, but nowadays I spend all my free time reading bills and amendments — and the entire cross section of toddler-appropriate books with Evie.

What swear word do you use most often? Which one don’t I use often? I am trying to clean that up a bit now that I’m a father.

What is your most treasured possession?

I’m a gadget guy so my most treasured possession is usually the last gadget I bought that solved some problem I never knew I had before the gadget.

The best hotel in Florida is … The Ritz Carlton in Orlando is at the top of the list, but if I’m being honest, I’d much rather be at a hunting lodge in Montana.

You’ve just learned that you will be hosting a morning talk show about Florida politics. Who are the first four guests you’d invite to appear? My former bosses, Sens. Rick Scott and Mel Martinez, the person that got me my first internship in politics, UCF’s Aubrey Jewett, and CFO Jimmy Patronis.

Favorite movie? Tough call between the original “Top Gun” and the sequel.

Timothy Nungesser

When you pig out, what do you eat? I look for every opportunity in the world to eat green bean casserole and the green beans have to be out of a can.

PHOTO: The Workmans

Significant other? Children? Grandkids?

I am married to the beautiful and tenacious Natalie Kato and we have a daughter named Evie, who, at the age of 19 months, is more persuasive with lawmakers than I’ll ever be.

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FOURTH FLOOR>FILES

Raises boys, advocates for girls Significant other? Monte Stevens of nearly 10 years, gets better every day.

Children? We had 3 wild boys in 3 years.

They are 6, 5 and 3.

In 25 words or less, explain what you do.

Advocate for young women and girls who have overcome challenging circumstances and deserve a better future.

Without using the words Democrat, independent or Republican, conservative or liberal, describe your political persuasion. Above everything else I’m a boy mom. My focus is on what’s going to make this world better for them.

During your career, have you had a favorite pro bono client? I work for a nonprofit so although it’s not pro bono, they get all of my time and I’m passionate about the work I do.

Three favorite charities? Pace Center for Girls, of course! The TCC Foundation.

The Florida Youth Foundation.

Any last-day-of-Session traditions?

Leaving the Capitol as quickly as possible.

Professional accomplishment of which you are most proud? I love my job.

I’m proud of the work I do every day and truly believe in it. When I feel like life has dealt me a tough hand or I’m having a rough day, I think about our Pace girls and the many obstacles they must overcome and how they just keep showing up. I’m proud that we’ve grown in Florida but also into Georgia and South Carolina, and that I’ve been a part of that growth.

Who is your favorite Florida Capitol Press Corps reporter and why? I mostly read first grade books and filed bills these days, but I appreciate all the reporters who keep me informed of what’s going on at the Capitol.

What swear word do you use most often? A**hole. It’s usually under my breath and in reference to my children after a long day when they aren’t cooperating.

What is your most treasured possession? A necklace my grandmother gave me when I was moving away for college. I was very close with my grandmother and it was one of the nicest pieces of jewelry I owned for a long time.

The best hotel in Florida is … The Ritz Carlton on Ameila Island. I also love The Gasparilla Inn. I spent my summers as a kid near that part of Florida so visiting there feels like going back home.

You’ve just learned that you will be hosting a morning talk show about Florida politics. Who are the first four guests you’d invite to appear? Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, First Lady Casey DeSantis, CFO Jimmy Patronis and Rep. Fiona McFarland because she’s also a mom of three young boys.

Favorite movie? The last movie I watched was “Paw Patrol Mighty Movie” and I’ve seen it about 50 times now so I’m going to go with that.

When you pig out, what do you eat? Tacos with all the toppings.

Always tacos.

Jodi Stevens PHOTO: The Workmans

Other than FloridaPolitics.com, your reading list includes … I’ve read a lot of personal growth books lately — “Make Your Bed,” “1% Better.” I also enjoy reading James Patterson books and I recently read a thrilling rendition of “Goodnight Goodnight, Construction Site.”

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FOURTH FLOOR>FILES

Spilling the tea? Talk to me

In 25 words or less, explain what you do.

External and Legislative Affairs for AT&T. I get to work the legislators and local boards in my region (Escambia to Dixie).

Without using the words Democrat, independent or Republican, conservative or liberal, describe your political persuasion. I was raised listening to Rush Limbaugh, though the older I have become and after reading my Bible, I have changed quite a few opinions. I lean toward Rep. Anna Eskamani in my compassion for others and lean toward Speakerdesignate Danny Perez in my fiscal policy.

A better way to describe it: Less taxes, less government, more freedoms.

During your career, have you had a favorite pro bono client? I’ve not really had a pro bono client, but one of the things that Joe York stresses is that we (at AT&T) go the extra mile for our team members or our customers and that mindset of selfless action is the embodiment of a pro bono client.

Three favorite charities? Boys and Girls Clubs, AMI Kids, Salvation Army.

Any last-day-of-Session traditions?

Lately, it’s been predicting if Session is going to end on time and laughing when it doesn’t.

Professional accomplishment of which you are most proud? My proudest accomplishment had to be the act of compassion that Angie Gallo, Dr. Danielle Thomas and I did to assist a sexual assault victim get her high school diploma after 45 years. We kept being faced with barriers but we found a way around, and the Department of Education/Orange County school system gave her a diploma in 2021.

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Who is your favorite Florida Capitol Press Corps reporter and why? This is hard because I have liked so many of the reporters over the years and have worked with so many for background information. But right now, I think Ana Cellabos is my favorite. She is very determined to make sure her story is accurate.

Other than FloridaPolitics.com, your reading list includes …

I wake up every morning to read Sunburn. It’s literally the first thing I do and basically all I will read. I make sure all of my interns read it too. I love the personal news on the top, the lobbying registrations so you know who is representing whom and the birthdays at the bottom. I also read Proverbs daily (or at least I try).

What swear word do you use most often? Oh … it’s probably easier to say what I don’t ever say (the “C” word). I do find that I use the most versatile word, f*ck … even if I need to clean it up as “AF” or “effin A.” What is your most treasured possession? Oh, my children for sure.

The best hotel in Florida is … The Breakers.

You’ve just learned that you will be hosting a morning talk show about Florida politics. Who are the first four guests you’d invite to appear? Matt Dixon, Peter Schorsch, David Ramba (I mean, he knows all the rumors), Casey Reed (his team meetings going over bills can be legendary).

Favorite movie? Not “Star Wars” for sure. Sorry Ryan Smith.

When you pig out, what do you eat?

Wings … wings … wings.

Eddie Thompson PHOTO: The Workmans

Significant other? Children? Grandkids?

My significant other (strong emphasis on “significant”) Judith and I have been married since 2011. I have children by the tons! If you have called me in the past decade, I’m 80% certain I was in the van with at least one of my four children and 100% certain that you heard them.

In fact, Dan Pollock has stopped midsentence to inquire about my children because he hadn’t heard their chaos.

They are Noah (10), Miles (8), Amelia (baby girl, 6) and Elliot (4).

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FOURTH FLOOR>FILES

Lessons learned from Daisy Significant other? Children? Grandkids?

I have two amazing kids: Hudson, 14, and Katie-Grace, 12.

In 25 words or less, explain what you do. I advocate, educate, build relationships, and help develop fullservice legislative and public relations campaigns on behalf of our incredible clients at Mercury Public Affairs.

Without using the words Democrat, independent or Republican, conservative or liberal, describe your political persuasion. I support pragmatic, balanced policies that protect individual freedoms while protecting the most vulnerable and the safety of our country. In a rapidly changing society it is important to focus on real-world, evidence-based solutions rather than adhering strictly to ideological purity.

During your career, have you had a favorite pro bono client? Warrior321. com led by Corporal Alan Wilket advocating for the vulnerable and marginalized in our communities affected by sex and labor trafficking through training and policy reform. Alan has seen the worst but his heart and perseverance to end human trafficking and help survivors is a true inspiration. I feel honored to work alongside him.

Three favorite charities? One More Child, Lee’s Place, Hands and Hearts for Horses.

PHOTO: The Workmans

Kristin Whitaker

Any last-day-of-Session traditions?

Celebratory dinner with my kids unless I have a bill that goes late … but I always wake them up when I get home to tell them it’s over and mom is back!

Professional accomplishment of which you are most proud? While working at the State University System of Florida, I advocated for legislation to prevent college students from alcohol overdoses.

In honor of Andrew Coffey and other students who have passed away from alcohol overdoses, Rep. David Silvers and Sen. Jeff Brandes sponsored bills to amend Florida’s Good Samaritan Act. We wanted to ensure that students would not be afraid to seek medical

assistance if an individual is experiencing an alcohol-related overdose. Florida law now provides immunity for anyone acting in good faith to save a life. Prior to this bill passing into law, students said they were afraid to call for help because it could result in arrests and losing their scholarships. Now students do not need to be afraid to call for help when it could potentially save a life.

Who is your favorite Florida Capitol Press Corps reporter and why? Matt Dixon — mostly for his entertaining Twitter (X) feed!

Other than FloridaPolitics.com, your reading list includes … Sayfie Review, Inside Higher Ed, POLITICO, News Service of Florida.

What swear word do you use most often? I usually only swear during Session and they get creative.

What is your most treasured possession? My horse, Daisy. I emptied my savings account to buy her when she was 3 years old and she just turned 21. She has taught me perseverance, patience, and that trust goes both ways.

These lessons have improved my life beyond the saddle.

The best hotel in Florida is … The Standard, Miami Beach.

You’ve just learned that you will be hosting a morning talk show about Florida politics. Who are the first four guests you’d invite to appear? It would of course be geared around the political climate in higher education and my favorite mentors would all be invited: Richard Corcoran, Mori Hosseini, Tim Cerio and Alan Levine, with Taryn Fenske as my co-host. Would only work in a cigar bar that serves nice red wine.

Favorite movie? Any James Bond movie, especially ones with Sean Connery.

When you pig out, what do you eat?

Clusters and Hops or Jeri’s Café are my go-to for comfort food during Session. Every appetizer on the menu at Clusters!

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Power Pla of Public SEASONED EXPERTISE + TARGETED RESULTS: YOUR WINNING FORMULA 78

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ayers Affairs Experience the difference with Moore — not just a team, but your strategic partner in success. Moore’s skilled experts in social, digital, paid advertising, public relations, crisis communications, data-informed research and strategic marketing — overlaid to the expertise of public affairs is an unbeatable formula.

themooreagency.com PRNEWS Agency Elite Top 100 #1 in Education in Florida #1 in Healthcare in Florida Spring 2024

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TOP 25 Firms Legislative Compensation by

$1,000,000 and up range: 1. Ballard Partners 2. The Southern Group 3. Capital City Consulting 4. GrayRobinson 5. Ronald L. Book 6. Corcoran Partners 7. Rubin, Turnbull & Associates 8. Greenberg Traurig 9. Metz Husband & Daughton 10. Floridian Partners 11. Johnson & Blanton 12. Becker & Poliakoff PA

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$500,000 - $999,999 range: 13.

Rutledge Ecenia

14.

Anfield Consulting

15.

Continental Strategy

16.

The Mayernick Group

17.

Johnston & Stewart

18.

McGuireWoods Consulting

19.

The Vogel Group

20.

Ramba Consulting Group LLC

21.

PinPoint Results

22.

The Fiorentino Group

23.

Heffley & Associates

24.

Gunster Yoakley & Stewart PA

25.

RSA Consultion Group

Amount Earned Based on Median Principal-Level Figures

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What’s in a Name? Everything.

The AIF lobbying team is well recognized as the most powerful and influential voice advocating for the state’s business community.

Ethical, experienced and well connected—Florida’s decision makers know they can trust our word, our actions, and our people.

Character I Respect I Influence

ASSOCIATED INDUSTRIES OF FLORIDA The Voice of Florida Business Since 1920 www.Aif.com

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{insider TAKES}

Artificial intelligence and government — magic or tragic?

By Erin Rock, Partner at The Southern Group

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

A

rthur C. Clarke wrote those prophetic words more than 60 years ago, and generative artificial intelligence might be the most powerful example mankind has ever encountered.

The first experience with generative AI can be jaw-dropping. It feels exactly like magic when someone asks a complex question and a chatbot responds in seconds with a detailed and eerily insightful answer.

Is this our first brush with the technology that will transform every aspect of society? Will AI one day trigger the man vs. machine smackdown in which we aren’t the predicted winner? Or is this simply another technological parlor trick that initially delights but never quite lives up to the hype?

Whatever the outcome, there will be no better place to watch it play out than in the halls of government, including our own architecturally assertive capitol in Tallahassee.

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{insider TAKES} The Florida Legislature got its first taste of generative AI policy in the 2024 Session. Several members floated proposals aimed at limiting how and where generative AI could have an impact — at least initially. The final policies were centered around two critical issues — our children’s safety and securing our electoral system. But importantly, proposals also advanced with an eye toward better understanding generative AI. AI adoption across the public sector will cause massive disruption, and it’s important that we understand the differences wrought by this powerful new technology.

Computers are designed to perform functions for us. I press a button and my device takes a picture. I pinch my fingers and I zoom in. That functionality isn’t magic — it’s programming. For every action a computer performs, someone has to write a code to tell it what to do. Every possible scenario had to be thought out by the programmer, defined in specific terms, and then coded.

That is, until now.

Generative AI breaks free from the rigidity of direct inputs and outputs by ingesting massive amounts of data, detecting trends, interpreting a request, and responding in as life-like a way as possible. In that sense, it’s like a child learning to speak. The child spends months and years listening and observing, detecting patterns. Eventually the child utters its first words, and over time can string together words in a unique sequence of its own making. Both the child and generative AI have the capacity to create something new.

Generative AI models can devour virtually every bit of data on the open internet and, as a result, provide incredibly detailed responses to requests for it to write a song, or a cover letter for a resume, or to paint a picture of a dog in the style of Pablo Picasso.

That ability to create something from a handful of words is what makes generative AI feel like magic.

With that understanding, it is important to consider both the potential gains and pitfalls this technology could unlock for government.

UNLOCKING POTENTIAL GAINS One of the most significant gains government can expect from AI lies in enhanced operational efficiency. Powered by AI, the automation of routine tasks, data collection and analysis, and decision-making processes can streamline the day-to-day work of traditional government employees, allowing them to redirect their time and focus to more

value-driven responsibilities.

AI also has the unique potential to stretch the government dollar further.

By reducing manual labor, minimizing errors, eliminating duplication of effort, and improving how resources are spent, government agencies will be able to deliver higher quality services without busting their budgets.

AI is also a game-changer when it comes to strengthening cybersecurity measures. In an age where cyber threats loom across government, AI can help agencies proactively detect and respond to anomalies, fortifying cybersecurity efforts and safeguarding sensitive government data.

Another universal challenge across government is the inability to attract and retain a qualified workforce. AI can analyze huge datasets to identify patterns in employee turnover. Those same systems can provide predictive analytics to anticipate when employees are burning out and implement strategies to retain valuable talent.

By analyzing massive datasets, AI could transform the foundational functions of government, allowing government services to be tailored to meet individual needs. AI has the capacity to see across every transaction a person has with their government and anticipate what services they might need next.

Similarly, AI can help policymakers clearly understand patterns and trends that are invisible to us now. At all layers of government, representatives could be empowered to make more informed decisions and establish better policies that are directly responsive to consumer needs.

Every company with an AI solution should be looking at how it could impact the public sector and be prepared to talk about those impacts using the language of government.

ANTICIPATING POTENTIAL PITFALLS As a lobbyist navigating the policymaking process, I advocate for a strategic and informed approach to AI use within government agencies. No two agencies have the same mission or resources, so leaping into AI to solve agency challenges will initially happen on a case-by-case basis.

There are overarching considerations, though, that every agency will be mindful of before they take the leap.

The integration of AI raises ethical considerations, particularly concerning bias, transparency, and accountability.

Government agencies must navigate this ethical landscape carefully, ensuring AI-driven decision-making is reliable, fair, and transparent.

While AI promises untold efficiency, concerns about employee displacement will loom large over agency leaders. A focus on re-skilling and upskilling employees will be imperative to ensure agencies continue to have a stable workforce capable of tackling the unique issues and processes neither AI nor Generative AI is designed to handle.

The collection of datasets will inevitably raise concerns about privacy. Agencies and the citizens they serve will demand robust data protection measures from AI companies to safeguard private citizens’ information and to maintain trust between the agency and its constituents.

Finally, agencies will be tuned in to the evolving regulations surrounding the use of AI and how other governmental entities are collaborating to grow or restrict its use in the public sector. AI technology will heavily influence the pace of adoption and willingness to experiment, so it is vital any regulatory framework strikes an ideal balance.

GUIDING THE CONVERSATION Government is a massive and complex machine often with indifference as its default setting, oblivious to the advancement taking place in the private sector. Any technology adoption requires funding and legislative support as well as a healthy understanding of why governments choose to innovate, including when they should and why they shouldn’t. Technologists and the companies employing or developing AI should prepare now for consistent and continuous advocacy if they wish to see AI integration across the public sector.

Reasonable regulation of AI will also require expert insight. It’s hard to police any technology that’s still developing, let alone one that feels like it’s evolving at lightning speed. That speed is compelling state, federal, and international bodies to move quickly to establish some semblance of a regulatory framework to protect us from the known and unknown consequences of this technology.

The jury is still out on the effectiveness of what’s been proposed so far, but more than any technology before it, AI doesn’t stand still. So, the guidelines established to contain it will be fluid for decades to come.

We find ourselves at an inflection point with AI, full of unprecedented possibilities and potential pitfalls. As Clarke’s quote reminds us, the magic of generative AI may well shape our future, but it is incumbent upon all of us to embrace collaboration, advocate for thoughtful solutions, and develop safeguards for this immensely powerful tool.

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AI and advocacy: is your lobbyist using AI?

By Jared Willis

L

ately, it seems like artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere. Ever since ChatGPT became widely available, AI has exploded onto the scene, in a sector that has quickly become an arms race with titans like Google and Microsoft fighting for domination and integrating AI into a greater range of offerings. For those of us who spend our time navigating the public sector for our clients or employers, AI has emerged as a novel policy area, as lawmakers begin to focus on its applications and concerns arise about its rapid development.

However, so much of the rhetoric around artificial intelligence gives AI a little too much credit. At the end of the day, the AI currently available for wide use is the equivalent of an extremely well-trained parrot that occasionally makes things up. But, I believe for lobbyists, lawyers and advocates, we dismiss AI at our own peril.

We have never had more data available to us to aid in our decision-making. Here in Florida, our comprehensive public records law means that the state collects and retains an immense amount of data. Unfortunately, this data often sits on a server somewhere in what effectively amounts to a giant warehouse with boxes of unread manuscripts because there is no sensible way to make use of them. This is where AI comes in.

Despite its shortcomings, one thing the current iteration of AI does well is ingesting large amounts of data and spitting out usable insights. For example, at Catalyst we have used AI to ingest hundreds of appropriations request PDFs and output usable, accurate spreadsheets that provide detailed outlines of appropriations requests at a glance. We’ve used AI to transcribe committee meetings and summarize sentiments and key

comments. These use cases go beyond simply chatting with ChatGPT or Bard, or utilizing commercial products that are widely available. It requires adoption of artificial intelligence at an enterprise level with custom solutions and with specific purpose.

This is only scratching the surface though. AI is a tool that is good at narrow tasks with specific training.

An AI platform trained on 10+ years of bill analyses, committee and floor votes, and committee transcripts can replicate years of institutional knowledge, providing useful context to policymakers examining an issue for the first time. An AI platform connected directly to a Department of Corrections database can identify criminal justice trends in minutes.

Like the advent of the abacus, and early computing equipment that filled entire rooms, artificial intelligence is an invention, a tool, to outsource complex tasks. Like other tools before it, it can be used for health care, scientific research, advanced math, or it can be used for military applications, cyberwarfare and political smear campaigns. What is clear is that this tool has a higher and better use than writing high school essays, putting celebrity faces on smutty videos, or creating digital art. The real risk for AI is that it will prematurely become a bogeyman, as fears around plagiarism, deepfakes, and other nefarious uses and doomsday scenarios dominate the narrative. Policy influencers, policy makers, and regulated industries would do well to consider its applications and embrace and create uses of this technology as a tool to advance their mission more effectively.

Jared Willis, President of recently founded Catalyst Strategies, is an attorney and public affairs consultant in Tallahassee.

He specializes in innovative, outside-the-box advocacy with a focus on building momentum and creating results.

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{insider TAKES}

Shape the future with Moore’s Relevance Report P

ublic affairs clients are contending with more complex issues than ever and looking to agencies to guide them through new challenges. Over the past 30 years, the public affairs team at Moore has navigated countless tricky and delicate issues, including economic and political implications, expanding markets, regulatory change, navigating political risk and developing strategies to build ties with essential stakeholders.

Working with business, governments and not-for-profits, their clients transcend nearly every industry segment from education and health care to the environment and technology.

This year’s Moore Relevance Report lays out the top 10 trends the seasoned agency believes will impact business, society and government in the coming year. The report is designed to serve as a guide to the challenges, experiences and opportunities your organization, employees, customers and stakeholders will face in 2024 and beyond.

Of its top 10 trends, Moore identified five poised to impact the public affairs landscape, then asked members of its top-ranked public affairs team to offer insights.

Planting roots: issue advocacy and grassroots mobilization Companies are recognizing the potency of engaging local communities and grassroots movements to amplify their voices on social and political issues. This approach involves fostering genuine connections with individuals at the grassroots level, harnessing collective power to influence policy decisions and societal changes. This shift toward grassroots advocacy reflects a recognition of the interconnectedness between corporate success and societal well-being, as businesses actively seek to become integral participants in the broader conversations that shape their operating environment.

“Real voices and stories are powerful. Businesses are increasingly recognizing the power of building champions among their employees, customers and communities. From supporting access to care and homeowners’ rights to protecting our state’s natural resources and strengthening our workforce, we have led success for our clients and their priorities by building and mobilizing an arsenal of voices and stories.”

— Liz Underwood, Partner and Executive Managing Director of Public Affairs Decoding success: precision in data-informed decisions Increasingly, businesses are using data and analytics to identify patterns, understand consumer preferences, optimize processes and anticipate market shifts. This trend will continue with more advanced tools for data collection, analysis and interpretation, helping organizations make more strategic decisions. Data-informed insights will help leaders better sift through the complexities of various functions and operations and ensure greater reach among audiences through customer behavior analysis.

“Collection of data is vitally important to any strategy. Moore goes beyond collection by applying a comprehensive analysis process to first-party data. By using first-party targeting, Moore eliminates guesswork and helps organizations reach key decision makers and their real-life connections and influencer circles. This ensures the strategy we’ve applied delivers campaigns that reach the right targets with the right messages at the right frequency to turn the tide for your issue.”

—Justin Spencer, Senior Director of Data & Intelligence Tailored to you: AI-powered customizations In 2024, artificial intelligence (AI) takes center stage in marketing, revolutionizing how businesses connect with their audiences. AI-powered personalization goes beyond basic targeting, offering hyper-personalized experiences based on individual preferences, behaviors and past interactions. From tailored content recommendations to personalized journeys, businesses are harnessing the power of AI to create seamless and highly relevant customer experiences.

Want to know the other five top trends? Scan to read the

Moore Relevance Report.

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“Moore is continuously exploring and investing in new tools to quickly generate and deploy messages that resonate, ensure our issues are heard and better reach key decision makers and gauge what is most important to them. One example is our longtime use of AI social listening tools to gather real-time insights to inform our messaging, strategy and opportunities to raise clients’ issues to the top and help them better connect with key targets.”

—D’Arcy Toffolo, Partner and Associate Vice President of Innovation & Technology

{insider TAKES} In authenticity we trust: reflect your audiences As the nation’s makeup expands, moving from a “we see you all the same” mentality to a more multifaceted representation is pivotal. Messages and marketing strategies must resonate with individuals with different backgrounds to build brand trust.

Culturally relevant messages, language nuances and representation are imperative to create authentic connections and ensure your message resonates across a rich tapestry of communities.

“The latest Census data ranked Florida No. 1 in domestic migration and No. 2 in international migration. Notably for South Florida, Miami’s nearly 60% foreign-born residents make it the most diverse city globally. These various cultures bring with them experiences, beliefs and values that should impact how you communicate with them and understand the motivations driving their actions.”

— Fern Senra-James, Partner and Executive Managing Director of Multicultural & Diversity “Notably, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin recently said that he envisions Miami eventually unseating New York as the world’s financial center. South Florida is also witnessing a surge in its technology and innovation ecosystem, drawing attention from global tech players and startups alike. With eMerge Americas 2024, Jeff Bezos’ decision to relocate to Miami, major players like Amazon eyeing additional office space in the Magic City and FIFA selecting Miami as a host destination for World Cup 2026™ matches, South Florida is asserting itself on the global stage. Nurturing and leveraging this global connectivity will be key for stakeholders in the public affairs landscape navigating the complexities of an interconnected world.”

— Nic Breeding, Managing Director and South Florida Market Leader Live your purpose: sustainable and purpose-driven marketing As societal values continue to evolve, consumers are placing increased importance on sustainability and social responsibility. Successful marketing goes beyond promoting products or services—it aligns with a purpose. Brands are adopting sustainable practices and incorporating social causes into their marketing strategies. Authenticity is key, and consumers are drawn to brands that demonstrate a genuine commitment to making a positive impact. From eco-friendly packaging to charitable initiatives, sustainable and purpose-driven marketing is a business essential.

“This purpose-driven mission will be ever present in the legislature this year, with legislative leadership working to expand access to health care with a proposed $900 million package to address workforce needs and ensure every Floridian has a primary care physician. As consumers take an increased interest in cause marketing in 2024, purpose-driven public affairs initiatives are not new to Moore. Moore had the privilege to spearhead a public affairs campaign on behalf of Shatterproof to expand access to the overdose-reversal medication Naloxone in Florida. After a comprehensive effort, the legislation to expand access to this life-saving medication was unanimously passed by the Florida Legislature with 13 co-sponsors and nearly 30 partner organizations, including former Attorney General Pam Bondi. The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office was the first group to utilize Naloxone after the bill became law, and within a day, it saved two lives.”

— Courtney Cox, Associate Managing Director of Public Affairs

“As we continue to work closely with our lobbying partners to support client missions of legislative and policy change, we have evolved with the ever-changing landscape of public affairs and the communications and advocacy strategies needed to reach the most sophisticated audiences to change perceptions, behaviors and action. While relevance and influence remains king in reaching audiences to advance a public affairs mission, what is continually changing are the communications strategies, tools and technology.”

— Terrie Ard, President and COO

“Trends may change the methods and channels for promoting our clients, but relationships will always remain key. Our team knows how to build trusted relationships, and we have built long-lasting trusted relationships with industry and opinion leaders, members of the Capitol press corps and reporters in every media market. We are bridging the opportunities now presented by data and digital innovations with the tried-and-true strategies and relationships our agency has built over the past 30 years.”

— Karen Moore, Founder and CEO

As we embrace the public affairs landscape of 2024, the key to success lies in adaptability and innovation. Data influence to drive strategy and decisions, AI-powered personalization and multicultural and diverse audience approaches are not just trends, They represent the future of communications and marketing. By embracing these shifts, businesses can not only stay relevant, but also forge deeper connections with their audience in this dynamic and ever-changing digital era.

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Thank You Christina Johnson Founder & President

FOR 15+ YEARS OF GRASSROOTS ADVOCACY

Aly Coleman Raschid

Sr. Vice President of Accounts

CORPORATE AND POLITICAL COMMUNICATIONS

STORYTELLING EXPERTS Alissa Johnson

Accounts Manager

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ON3_PR

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ON3PR

Driving the future of pediatric treatment and research to ensure no child has to leave Florida for world-class, specialized care.

One in four Florida children will be treated in Florida’s four non-profit specialty-licensed children’s hospitals. As the only Florida hospitals that solely provide care for children, Florida’s Specialty Hospitals for Children provide unmatched investment in pediatric research, innovation, and workforce talent to keep Florida at the leading edge of children’s care and ensure that every child can access the care they need.

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Florida’s Specialty Hospitals for Children recognize and value the continued collaboration of our state’s leaders in bolstering the future of our state by supporting our mission of improving the health and well-being of children throughout Florida and beyond.

JOHNS HOPKINS ALL CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL | NEMOURS CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL NICKLAUS CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL | WOLFSON CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL Spring 2024

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T H E AG O N Y O F D E F E AT:

10 KEY

BY JACOB OGLES, GRAY ROHRER AND JESSE SCHECKNER PHOTOS BY: COLIN HACKLEY

BILLS THAT DIED THIS SESSION

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10 KEY BILLS THAT DIED

A

side from athletics and business, there may be no more appropriate field than government to which the old saying, “you win some, you lose some,” better applies.

And while there were many winners during the 2024 Legislative Session — from Senate President Kathleen Passidomo’s “Live Healthy” package to several condo reforms Miami Republican Rep. Vicki Lopez ushered to passage — it pays to also examine efforts that fell short.

Let’s take a look at 10 key bills that died this year.

DEFAMATION

For the second straight Session, legislation (HB 757) by Pensacola Republican Rep. Alex Andrade designed to weaken decades-old legal protections that journalists enjoy against defamation lawsuits failed to cross the proverbial finish line.

Gov. Ron DeSantis boosted the concept last year. But the measure, which Lake Mary Republican Jason Brodeur carried in the Senate (SB 1780), again drew criticism from civil rights groups and media outlets, the right-leaning of which complained they’d be disproportionately affected.

The coup de gras may have been when Stephen Miller, an adviser to Donald Trump, blasted the bill, saying it would “wreck” conservative influencers, podcasters and alternative media companies.

ABORTION/PERSONHOOD

As it was first filed, a bill (SB 476)

by Fort Pierce Republican Sen. Erin Grall sought to make it easier for expectant parents who lose an unborn child through negligence to seek legal damages.

Then the bill’s House sponsor, Fort Myers Republican Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, expanded its language (HB 651) to define “unborn child” as a person at the point of conception in civil liability cases.

Grall accepted the change.

Democrats and reproductive rights groups saw it as an end-run attempt to insert “personhood” into state law, which could put courts on a path to fully outlaw abortion.

Fallout over Alabama’s Supreme Court ruling on a similar matter ultimately terminated the proposal.

Rep. Alex Andrade listens to House debate.

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Erin Grall speaks to the Senate

SHOOTING ACROSS PROPERTY LINES

Nicole Adams took a bullet to the back on her Lake Worth Beach farm last year, and the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office couldn’t charge the neighbor who fired it.

He technically hadn’t violated the law.

It wasn’t an isolated incident. Florida residents have complained for years about a loophole in state statutes that essentially sanctions neighbors to fire into each other’s property in rural areas.

So, Boynton Beach Democratic Sen. Lori Berman aimed to close it through legislation (SB 270) she billed as a property rights issue — namely, keep your bullets on your property or face charges.

Like nearly all restrictive gun-concerning bills in Florida, however, the measure and its House analog (HB 259)

by Wellington Democratic Rep. Katherine Waldron was quickly killed.

OPEN CARRY

Another firearm-focused bill (HB 1619), this one exceedingly permissive, also failed to gain traction.

Proposed by Riverview Republican Rep. Mike Beltran, the measure would have allowed lawful gun owners to openly tote their weapons — including on college campuses and in Capitol halls.

Proponents celebrated it as fulfilling the wishes of many who complained last year’s law nixing a license requirement for concealed carry didn’t go far enough.

But House Speaker Paul Renner shot down the idea, which he said he supported in spirit, due to a lack of “appetite in both chambers to get that done.”

House Speaker Paul Renner gavels out the House

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10 KEY BILLS THAT DIED

Sen. Shevrin Jones during Session

IXNAY ON THE BENEFITS TO SLAVERY

When Florida released its new public school curriculum guidelines for African American history last year, one section attracted ample attention and ire.

The curriculum stated that middle school students must be taught “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

Condemnation was far-reaching and bipartisan. Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican U.S. Sen. Byron Donalds, among many others, decried the change.

Sen. Shevrin Jones called it “a slap in the face” to Black Floridians.

Jones and Rep. Christopher Benjamin, a fellow Miami Gardens Democrat, filed twin bills (SB 344, HB 521) with Beltran to excise the requirement. Neither got a hearing.

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CONVERSION CHARTER SCHOOLS

The Sunshine State has long been among the most hospitable in the nation for charter schools, but another measure (SB 246, HB 109) by Andrade and Stuart Republican Sen. Gayle Harrell could have supercharged that distinction.

Florida has some 730 charter schools and 23 “conversion charter schools,” generally low-performing public schools remade as charters at the behest of parents, teachers and, sometimes, school districts.

Andrade proposed allowing every city in the state to use that conversion option. His bill would also have required school districts whose enrollment dropped 1 percentage point for two consecutive years to offer their vacant properties for conversion charter school use free of charge.

RAISING THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT THRESHOLD

While having no Senate companion this year made it a longer shot than earlier attempts, legislation (HJR 335) to make it harder to amend the state constitution still got a committee hearing and advanced despite bipartisan opposition.

Florida is one of just four U.S. states in which citizen-led measures must be approved by more than a majority of voters. The threshold now is 60%. West Palm Beach Republican Rep. Rick Roth proposed raising it to 66.67%.

Ironically, Roth was unable to find just 2.5% of the Legislature’s upper chamber — one Senator — to support the measure.

PRIMARY RUNOFFS Florida once had Primary runoffs, but lawmakers junked them two years after the 2002 Presidential Election debacle.

The issue remained settled until five weeks into Session, when the House State Affairs Committee led by Dover Republican Rep. Lawrence McClure unveiled a bill (PCB SAC 24-06) to bring them back.

Backlash came swiftly from prominent GOP members, including U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz and Spring Hill Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a former state party Chair.

Renner said he understood their concerns about reducing the odds for hardright candidates and the greater expense of holding more elections. He also acknowledged the benefits, like ensuring each party’s nominee has majority support from voters.

The bill still died unheard.

Sen. Blaise Ingoglia talks in Senate.

HISTORIC MONUMENT PROTECTIONS

Fort Myers Republican Sen. Jonathan Martin presented his bill (SB 1122) as a safeguard for all kinds of historic memorials, particularly military ones like Unconditional Surrender in Sarasota and a tribute to Union soldiers in his district.

But critics and supporters alike saw it chiefly as an effort to protect Confederate monuments.

It didn’t help that Jacksonville Republican Rep. Dean Black included mention of the old Edmund Kirby Smith statue in his companion bill (HB 395) or that he tied it to the removal of a Tribute to the Women of the Southern Confederacy.

But it was public enthusiasts who doomed the proposal by openly supporting White supremacy, prompting a Democratic walkout and Passidomo to describe perception of the legislation as “abhorrent.”

Sen. Jonathan Martin during Session.

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10 KEY BILLS THAT DIED DOING RIGHT BY MAURY HERNANDEZ

Lawmakers again ignored ex-Sheriff Deputy Maury Hernandez, who was shot in the head 16 year ago by a career felon who was on the street due to a parole officer’s gross negligence.

This year it was Port Orange Republican Sen. Tom Wright, Davie Democratic Rep. Mike Gottlieb and Hialeah Republican Rep. Alex Rizo who championed Hernandez’s cause through bills (SB 14, HB 6005) seeking to pay him $10 million for his suffering and considerable financial losses.

Florida law doesn’t classify what happened to Hernandez as something for which the state is liable, but lawmakers can still make him whole. They just haven’t.

On its surface, the snub denies a man crippled while trying to protect his community proper recompense. But it also sends a troubling message to police that while Florida is ostensibly a “back the blue” state, it might not pay to stick your neck out too far.

Rep. Mike Gottlieb speaks

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S T AT E R E A CH WITH A L O C AL T O U CH We take a cross-functional team approach to every partnership and having the unique ability to serve clients in a legal and legislative policy capacity has been the backbone of our success.

RAMBA CONSULTING GROUP, LLC 1 2 0 S. MONROE STREET , T ALL AHASSEE, F L 3 2 301 ( 85 0) 7 2 7- 7 087 | RAMBACONSUL T I NG. COM Spring 2024

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F E AT U R E

By Janelle Irwin Taylor lorida’s embassy in Washington, D.C., the Florida House on Capitol Hill, celebrated its 50th anniversary in late November, honoring former First Ladies of the state who have supported its mission.

The Florida House is the brainchild of Rhea Chiles, wife of former Gov. Lawton Chiles. The idea came to her while on vacation in Washington, D.C., with the couple’s young children, when they were lost and one of the children suggested they find the Florida embassy to get help.

Mrs. Chiles explained that only foreign countries had embassies, not American states, but the idea took hold. Using $5,000 of her own money and $120,000 raised from friends in Florida, Chiles purchased the home and began renovations to the historic structure originally built in 1891 by Edwin C. Manning, an

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PHOTO: The Workmans

F

PHOTO: The Workmans

architect who was working on the Library of Congress at the time.

Now, approximately 10,000 people visit the house each year. The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization overseeing Florida House aims to connect Floridians to Washington, D.C. — and vice versa — through educational, cultural, economic and social engagement with students, visitors, Floridians and others. The house provides “a taste of home” to Floridians visiting the nation’s capital, and offers Florida orange juice to boot.

The Florida House’s 50th anniversary celebration included more than 150 attendees, among them Florida leaders and dignitaries.

Hosted at the Governor’s Club in Tallahassee — not at the Florida House — the celebration included a slate of speakers recapping causes championed by former First Ladies, such as Donna Lou Askew, Columba Bush, Adele Graham, Anne MacKay, Mary Jane Martinez, Margie Mixson, Ann Scott and, now, Casey DeSantis.

Ann Scott, wife of former Gov. Rick Scott, was on hand to share memories of her time as honorary Chair of the Florida House.

Several individuals also accepted awards on behalf of first ladies, including Jim Eaton for First Lady Graham; Rep. Jason Shoaf for his aunt, First Lady Mixson; Dr. John MacKay on behalf of his mom, First Lady MacKay; Sally Bradshaw for First Lady Bush; and DeSantis Deputy Chief of Staff Katie Strickland on behalf of First Lady DeSantis.

“We had a wonderful time celebrating the many contributions made by the First Ladies of Florida following the establishment of Florida House,” said Mary Bebout, who serves as President of the Tallahassee Trustee Chapter of Florida House. “The enthusiasm for Mrs. Chiles’ vision remains strong today, 50 years later. Thanks to the support of our sponsors and attendees, we are striving to ensure that Florida House will remain a home away from home for all Floridians in the nation’s capital, and a beacon that showcases our dynamic, beautiful state.”

The Florida House, as it has always been, does not accept state funding. Instead, the house uses private donations for its upkeep and operations, private donations, and it is managed by a board of directors and trustees.

The 50th anniversary celebration was presented

Left: Florida House exterior photo by The Workmans. Top: Florida House placard photo by The Workmans; Dee Ann Smith and Wansley Walters, Florida House Tallahassee Chapter Trustees; First Lady Ann Scott, and Cindy O’Connell, Director of the Florida Prepaid College Foundation and Florida House Tallahassee Chapter Trustee. Center: Table setting Above: Mary Bebout, Florida House Tallahassee Chapter President; Melanie Griffin, Secretary of DBPR; Matt Pearce, Chairman of the Conservation Florida Board; Traci Deen, CEO of Conservation Florida; and Pat Durden, President of the Florida Cattlemen’s Association

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“We had a wonderful time celebrating the many contributions made by the First Ladies of Florida following the establishment of Florida House.” –mary bebout including Tallahassee trustees Allison Aubuchon, Kelley Ausley, Bebout, Christy Brodeur, Dominic Calabro, John Clark, Justin Domer, Cody Farrill, John David Hooker, Susan Fell Hoy, Kurt Kelly, Bill Moor, Cindy, O’Connell, Meredith Pelton, Stephanie Pichard, Cissy Proctor, Pamela Ricco, Nicole Sarrine, Bri Smith, Dee Ann Smith, Britt Wadsworth, Wansley Walters and Michael Williams.

Clockwise from top left: Karen Mica, David Mica and Paula Smith; Traci Deen, CEO of Conservation Florida, and Allison Aubuchon, Florida House Tallahassee Chapter Trustee. Right: Governors Club Ballroom; Florida House plaque, photo by The Workmans. Below: Former Sen. Loranne Ausley, Bud Chiles, Jon Moyle and Ed Chiles; Rep. Demi Busatta Cabrera, Former Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, and Rep. Jason Shoaf.

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PHOTO: The Workmans

by Florida TaxWatch, with additional sponsors including Delegal | Aubuchon, Ajax Construction, Remedy Intelligent Staffing, Team Horner, Mr. and Mrs. Terrell Bebout, Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Hoy, Mr. and Mrs. Crit Smith, Rowland Publishing, Capital City Trust Company, the Governor’s Inn, and Mr. and Mrs. Jon Moyle.

More than 140 trustees from Florida work to support the Florida House,

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M E E T

R I S I N G O F

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F L O R I D A

T H E

S TA R S

P O L I T I C S

M

aking it in The Process in Tallahassee — or anywhere else in the state that is related — is perhaps one of the most difficult professional feats one can imagine.

The often eat-or-be-eaten competition, the grueling hours and the relentless pace are features that can quickly weed out those not cut out for the grind.

In this issue, we pay homage to the Rising Stars who have made it — and look likely to continue crushing goal after goal — despite relative youth and inexperience.

This year’s cohort represents people who have beat the odds, some who have found themselves in politics after never planning to be there, and others who took interest from a very young age. They come from various corners of The Process, from lobbying to policy work for government agencies to staffers for lawmakers and the executive branch.

Our staff spoke with those who work closest with this year’s class of Rising Stars, and they all gushed about work ethic, political acumen, quick learning, communication skills and more. And what’s perhaps most inspiring, almost everyone honored was described as a good person who held public service and duty to constituencies in the highest regard.

Like cohorts of the past, this year’s class exudes focus, drive and savvy in their fields. All are expected to continue to rise.

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DAVID ALLEN

F

rom his days as a staffer in the Florida Legislature, David Allen made himself an indispensable resource for the lawmakers he served. He continues his work today, now as a Health Law and Government Affairs Associate Attorney at GrayRobinson.

Allen went from interning for state Rep. Chuck Clemens, a Newberry Republican, during the political tumult that followed the Parkland shooting in 2018. From there, Allen helped his boss defend his votes on the campaign trail by managing his re-election campaign. There, Allen proved himself by heading a winning GOP campaign in a D+6 district, and Republicans have held the seat for years since.

His work in both the Capitol and on the campaign trail fed Allen’s passion for the political process.

“Each experience teaches you something unique,” Allen said. “Being on the trail teaches you how to connect with the individual voter, to learn what a person thinks and feels about an issue. You get to know the community you are working in that way.”

In the case of Clemens’ district, Allen says as a prime example, the campaign had to balance the desires of voters in rural Alachua with the needs of those living in the urban Gainesville city limits in and around the University of Florida. And while the differences between the voters may be self-evident, going door-to-door stressed how alike the desires of each constituency can be.

“You really see how similar both sides of the aisle are,” he says. “They just have different ways of solving the issues.”

But work in the Legislature, Allen said, gave him the most important professional development he’s experienced to date.

He worked with now-Sen. Clay Yarborough when the Jacksonville Republican served in the House and headed the Justice Appropriations Subcommittee. That

offered him insight into the intricacies of the budget process in Tallahassee. He also went with the lawmaker on a tour of state prisons from the Panhandle to the Everglades to see up close the facilities under Florida’s purview.

Today, Allen operates primarily out of GrayRobinson’s Miami office, splitting his time between lobbying and law. He works for attorney Joseph Salzverg on local matters from Miami to Key West, but will also travel to Tallahassee during Session to ad-

vocate on a number of health care issues and to represent business client interests.

“A former legislative aide for an appropriations subcommittee chairman and member of the UF Law Review, David brings a plethora of experience and knowledge to GrayRobinson,” Salzverg said. “David is a rising star; he is extremely hardworking, a consummate professional and incredibly substantive on policy and law.”

“Being on the trail teaches you how to connect with the individual voter, to learn what a person thinks and feels about an issue. You get to know the community you are working in that way.”

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SHELBY CECIL

K

nowing the ins and outs of the state budget is invaluable. Sifting through billions of dollars in appropriations, thousands of project requests and hundreds of lines of proviso can make anyone’s head spin.

But not Shelby Cecil. Few people can match the Florida State University alumna when it comes to budget knowledge, especially in the education silo.

“Shelby has been an integral part of the Office of Policy and Budget since the start of the Administration. I rank Shelby among the top thought leaders in education policy in the state, and her mastery of the budget has contributed to the Governor’s continued success in advanc-

ing education priorities,” said Chris Spencer, the Governor’s former top budget aide who now works as Executive Director at the State Board of Administration.

Cecil has been working in the Exectuive Office of the Governor since shortly after Gov. Ron DeSantis took office. She started as Budget Chief in 2019, moving up to Deputy Policy Coordinator two years later and becoming a Policy Coordinator in late 2021.

She previously worked as a Budget Manager in the Florida Department of Revenue and held numerous roles in the EOG under former Gov. Rick Scott, spending the last three years of his administration working as a Governmental Analyst.

Her first foray into politics was on the campaign side. Prior to her graduation from FSU in 2015, Cecil worked as a campaign intern at the Republican Party of Florida, where she put in the legwork going door-to-door for Scott and former U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland.

Cecil keeps busy outside of politics, too. She coordinates the youth ministry at St. Peter’s Anglican Cathedral and, for the past six years, she has served as Co-Chair of the Junior League of Tallahassee’s “Done in a Day” committee, which mobilizes volunteers to complete service projects.

“Shelby has been an integral part of the Office of Policy and Budget since the start of the Administration.

I rank Shelby among the top thought leaders in education policy in the state, and her mastery of the budget has contributed to the Governor’s continued success in advancing education priorities.”

—chris spencer

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CHAD CORCORAN

W

hen Corcoran started his college education, he dreamed first of a job in the medical field. But during his time at the University of North Florida, he quickly realized he had a stronger affinity for policy than science. He enrolled for grad school at Florida State University for math, but by then had his eye on the Capitol building.

“I like the process of ideas becoming law,” Corcoran said. “If you really want to get a start in politics, Tallahassee is the natural place to be.”

Corcoran today serves as Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs at the Department of Children and Families (DCF), but that’s just the latest stop for the 28-year-old after years in The Process. He started with an unpaid internship at Liberty Partners, learning the lobbying craft from firm owner Jennifer Green. After watching the process from an advocacy perspective, he soon found a job working within the Legislature. Corcoran worked for then-Sen. Aaron Bean while the Fernandina Republican served a Senate President Pro Tempore and as chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee. That experience gave him a glimpse both into the many priorities lawmakers must balance and how decisions ultimately get made.

In that capacity, Corcoran impressed peers on staff. “Having been a staffer for President Pro Tempore Bean, Chad brings a keen awareness of the inside legislative dynamics that so often make or break a legislative priority,” said Sam Kerce, now the Director of Legislative Affairs for DCF. Bean wrapped his final Session in Tallahassee in 2022 before winning a seat in Congress. Corcoran, meanwhile, sought out another job in state government and landed at DCF, working again with Kerce.

“In addition to his clear passion for strategy, he keeps our office organized as we work to tackle important issues,” Kerce said.

For Corcoran, the move means yet another glimpse at how different players take part in state government. He knew the agency somewhat thanks to bills that ran through Bean’s committee, but despite years in The Process was still surprised to learn the agency handles such a breadth of state services.

He was “amazed at the scope,” from substance abuse programs to Medicaid eligibility to foster care. The work has continued Corcoran’s quest to grow his knowledge of all aspects of policy.

“You don’t really read a book and get the insights and life lessons you need to understand something,” he said. “You have to learn it yourself or see other people and learn vicariously through them.”

He will continue seeking life experiences, whether that’s in government or lobbying, which he still considers the “coolest profession in the political sphere.”

But he’s in no rush.

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“I like the process of ideas becoming law. If you really want to get a start in politics, Tallahassee is the natural place to be.”

“I don’t necessarily like shoehorning the future,” he said. “I’ll be at DCF for as long as I’m able to be useful. In terms of the next chapter, if something incredible comes, as long as it’s expanding my comfort zone and providing new experiences, that’s great.”

A

s Director of Public Policy at United Way Miami, Isabela Corzo works daily to improve the financial stability, education and health of the city’s underserved residents.

Her path to the job, which she took in November, exemplifies why she is so suited for it.

“My career isn’t very linear,” she said.

“It’s been a lot of trial and taking random opportunities that worked out for me.”

A first-generation American who immigrated to Miami-Dade County with her parents and two siblings when she was 7, Corzo developed an early passion for science.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from FIU in 2015, where she worked for a decade through 2022.

The idea after, she said, was to study immunology or something similar that she could use to help people. But when she began her undergraduate studies, something felt off. She knew the work was important, that it might advance research and change lives, but the truth was, she found much of it dull.

So, she took an inventory of her strengths and inclinations. She was a strong analyst, deft at relationship-building and problem-solving. Someone suggested she

ISABELA CORZO

consider going the policy route, and she took the advice.

“The sky’s the limit with Isabella,” said Isidoro Lopez, an Assistant Director of the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department who met Corzo when he worked as an FIU adjunct professor.

“She’s very smart, and I don’t see her staying in any position very long because her opportunities for growth will come fast and furious.”

Corzo interned with her alma mater for five months in Washington, D.C., where she picked up tricks of the trade. She then returned home for a more permanent position helping students who, like her, came from low-income homes, to get into PhD STEM programs.

As part of the program, she took students back to Washington so they could gain experience explaining their research to Congress while she championed and sought federal funding for FIU. “I love the public world. I love government. And I wanted to pursue a career in this space,” she said. “So, I signed up for a master’s degree in public administration, and that’s how I got here.”

That underplays some of the most dif-

ficult, surprising and inspiring parts of Corzo’s journey. In 2019, as part of her master’s program, she and a cohort of students participated in a policy management certificate program in Seoul, South Korea.

The same year, she lost her fiancé and partner of nine years to suicide. “It was hard for me to get through that loss,” she later told FIU News.

Then the pandemic struck.

Rather than buckle under the confluence of tragedy and calamity, Corzo opened her heart to her community and volunteered at vaccination and food distribution sites. And what free time she had remaining went to an entirely new endeavor.

In 2021, she agreed to be Miss Hialeah in the Miss Florida USA pageant and used the platform to further help her COVID-ravaged community, volunteer with various nonprofits helping homeless and disabled people, and spend time with seniors during holidays.

“I was more interested in the social impact part of it,” Corzo said. She still does outreach for the organization.

“Isabela is very innovative and creative,” said Damaris Aguiar, Executive Director of the Miss Miami Scholarship Program. “One of the things I love about her is that if she loves someone or something, she goes for it, gives 100%.”

By mid-2022, Corzo wanted to try something new by working in the private sector. She took a job as Director of Executive Affairs and Chief of Staff to Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy. She stayed for 10 months.

“It was interesting, a different industry, a lot of traveling and I just wanted to see what else was out there,” she said. “But ultimately my heart is in public service. I wanted to get back to helping people, especially those with backgrounds similar to mine.”

As luck would have it, then-United Way Miami Director of Public Policy P.J. Campbell was departing for a job with the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and recommended Corzo as his successor. Others soon joined him in suggesting her for the position.

“Before I knew it, I was getting calls,” she said. “I had a formal interview, a reference check, and here I am.”

Beyond work, Corzo serves as Secretary of the Miami Lakes Neighborhood Improvement Committee, a member of the Miami-Dade Domestic Violence Oversight Board and volunteers with a faith-based organization in downtown Miami that feeds the needy.

“My friends say I need to get better hobbies,” she said, laughing. “Because that’s what I do for fun.”

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myself when things are going a million miles an hour,” she said.

She’s grateful to be able share space with older sister Aubrey Fay, an aide to Rep. Bobby Payne, or work alongside her in someone else’s campaign when needed. It all adds up to a lot of experience that belies her age.

“Because I was always the youngest person in the room,” she said, “I think it was hard sometimes to be taken seriously. And I still sometimes face that. I try to handle it with grace because I completely understand. Especially in this process, you’re working with people who have been around 30 years. They look at me and I look like a 12-year-old.”

The truth is, her focus and ability to make the big decision — traits we associate with leadership — brought Fay to Tallahassee earlier than most. Her years working in the Legislature have given her a hard-won appreciation for the sacrifices as well as the joys, the reality of political wins and losses, and the stakes for constituents.

“Not only did I not have such a cohesive understanding of government before actually working as an aide,” she said. “I think I still had some rose-colored glasses on, because as an intern you get to do the fun parts of it. But regardless, this job is rewarding because we get to do so much work in the community and help so many people. And the victories outweigh anything difficult or stressful in the moment.”

In the meantime, Fay and her fiance, Andrew, enjoy weekend getaways with Cooper, a pug-beagle mix, “because he is the most spoiled dog in the world,” she said.

“So we always take him out for adventures.”

ALANA FAY

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lana Fay has already been embedded in the ups and downs of what denizens call “The Process” for a sizable chunk of her life.

As a legislative aide to Republican Rep. Will Robinson, representing Manatee County, she has seen legislative battles up close. She first worked with Robinson as a political science undergraduate at the University of South Florida, which has an internship program in Tallahassee.

She graduated from USF in 2020, two years ahead of schedule, and joined the team of then-Republican Rep. Amber Mariano of Pasco County.

When an aide for Robinson left the legislator asked Fay to rejoin his office.

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cessful 2022 runs for Florida Republican representatives Jennifer Canady of Lakeland, Adam Anderson of Palm Harbor, Josie Tomkow of Polk City, and New Port Richey’s Brad Yeager.

In the 2023 Session, Fay worked jointly with Robinson on a bill to more closely regulate Florida’s hemp industry, including prohibiting its packaging as gum or candy, or being sold to anyone under age 21.

“That was probably the biggest piece of legislation I’ve ever had the opportunity to work on,” she said.

Fay has learned much about analyzing legislation from Robinson, an attorney, and jokes that she is matriculating through the “Robinson Law School University.” On her way up, she also credits Kathy Galea, the chief legislative assistant to Sen. Jim Boyd — Robinson’s predecessor in the House — for her steady hand in mentorship.

“More than anything, she has taught me patience with The Process and with

“More than anything, she has taught me patience with The Process and with myself when things are going a million miles an hour.”

AUBREY FAY

H

er family moved to Hillsborough County when Aubrey Fay was a toddler. But in every meaningful way she is a Florida native, and has felt drawn to delve deeper into the Sunshine State as long as she can remember.

Fay grew up in Brandon and participated in a high school program about government that piqued her interest. She majored in political science at the University of South Florida, which convinced her she was on the right track. “I did a few internships,” she said, “and that kind of sold me that I wanted to continue in politics for the rest of my career.”

She graduated in 2020, and went on from Sen. Rick Scott’s office to become a legislative aide for St. Pete Beach Republican Rep. Linda Chaney. She has weathered intense Legislative Sessions and slower ones, combed through research and been on the winning side of several political races.

In 2022 she worked for campaign specialists Kevin Sweeney and Tom Piccolo, who were pushing Republican state representative candidates Jennifer Canady of Lakeland and Josie Tomkow of Polk City, Adam Anderson of Palm Harbor and Brad Yeager of New Port Richey across the finish line, and into office.

So did younger sister Alana Fay, now a legislative aide to another Republican, Rep. Will Robinson, representing a portion of Manatee County.

“We’re very close,” said Aubrey Fay, now an aide to Rep. Bobby Payne, a Republican representing Putnam and Clay counties. She means that quite literally: her desk is 50 feet from her sister’s. “There are times where you can be a little too close, but it’s been good overall.”

Years in political life have strengthened her appreciation for this state, its breadth and waterways and diverse needs. She prefers to spend any time off exploring further, hitting some seasonal festivals, all the while seeking experiences over destinations.

The 2024 Legislative Session will be the last for Payne, who sits on a half-dozen committees (and is vice chair of two), due to term limits.

“I’m at kind of a weird point,” Fay said about her own likely transition to another job, crediting the representative for his unique perspective. “It’s been awesome.

I’ve had a great group of peers who have helped me along the way, and my sister has been an awesome resource as well.”

Whatever comes next, Fay will value the causes and candidates she helped ad-

“At the end of the day, we rely on everyone around us to get through our days, and I think that’s probably one of my favorite parts.” vance. “As difficult as the times are, as crazy as things can get,” she said, “it’s always a fun experience to feel like I’m learning something new.”

Though she worked exclusively for Republicans, the friendships made run deeper than party.

“At the end of the day, we rely on everyone around us to get through our days,

and I think that’s probably one of my favorite parts,” she said.

One of those peers, Brittany Rembert, forecasts a bright future for Fay. “Aubrey is intelligent, driven and a true hidden gem,” said Rembert, a legislative aide for Sen. Colleen Burton of Lakeland. “She is a force in the Capitol and the world is her oyster.”

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Where proven science and cutting-edge technology meet over three decades of real-World experience.

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JORDYN FERGUSON

J

ordyn Ferguson entered the advocacy world at one of the strangest times in contemporary history. As the pandemic in 2020 shut down the Florida Capitol and much of the world, Ferguson, a junior at Florida State University, learned how to lobby lawmakers without being able to step foot in the Capitol building.

“That was the year everyone was virtual and it was interesting to learn The Process that way,” she said. But she quickly made herself a valuable part of the team, tracking legislation impacting clients at a time when they desperately needed a connection to the halls of power.

At Shumaker Advisors Florida, she’s learned from tracking bills that representing the interests of clients isn’t always just advocating for or against bills. She pays attention to every piece of legislation filed and moving in The Process, trying to stay keenly aware of any impacts, positive or negative, clients may care about — whether they have called out a bill specifically or not.

“It’s not always trying to influence The Process, it’s thinking about how bills can affect clients,” she said.

All the more important at a time when Shumaker worked with a smaller staff involved in The Process every day.

Since then, Ferguson remained a consistent member of the Shumaker ranks. The 23-year-old now works as a policy analyst.

She’s heading up a new effort. “It’s trying to get a specialty license plate for the Clearwater Aquarium,” Ferguson said. “It’s my first thing here working all by myself. It’s not a huge piece of legislation, but it’s big to me.”

The bill will be its own test, but Ferguson has already proven herself to colleagues after coming up in The Process.

She learned the ropes from prominent lobbyists like J.D. White and Alan Suskey.

Meanwhile, she’s also continued her education, graduating from FSU first with a bachelor’s in Political Science and now with a master’s in Applied Politics and Policy. Along the way, she served in student government there as a Senator and Vice Chair of the Student Life and Academic Affairs Committee.

The real-world experience, though, has been invaluable, teaching her the ropes over four Legislative Sessions. “I’m lucky to work for people who trust me and I trust them,” she said.

Ferguson felt an interest in The Process dating back to seventh grade and fell in love with subjects like History and Government.

“Having the opportunity to be around it, to have an internship and everything after that, it has been wonderful,” she said.

“It’s not always trying to influence The Process, it’s thinking about how bills can affect clients.”

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SARAH FOSTER

W

hile the workings of government had always intrigued her, Sarah Foster didn’t grow up imagining a career in and around elected office. But in retrospect, the trail from her beginnings to her current position fit together smoothly. And some of the most fulfilling developments have come in the last few years.

Since 2020, Foster, 26, has served as the District Aide to Rep. Susan Valdes (D-Tampa). The role entails setting up meetings with residents, organizations and lobbyists, but goes much further, to handling the lion’s share of responding to constituents facing challenges. The latter group includes the elderly and prison inmates, people with disabilities and others who are turning to politicians as a last resort.

In case after case, Foster has thrown her considerable energies and the office she represents to affect solutions when no one else could. At the same time, she has been earning a masters in business administration from the University of South Florida. She said on-the-job training complements classroom learning.

“I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone a little,” Foster said of her recent state of mind. “I spoke at a gala. I’m taking on more responsibility. I’m learning a lot of strategic thinking and enjoying it a lot.”

She grew up mostly in the Sarasota area, graduating from Lakewood Ranch High and enrolling in USF with a major in international studies. The school ultimately responded by naming Foster to its Global Citizen Award program, which guides undergraduates to “connect with diverse people, places and issues.”

Along the way, she took an internship with the Tampa City Council alongside Luis Viera, who remains a Tampa councilman. “That was a great experience for me,” she said.

She wrote commendations issued at the council meetings she attended, all of which gave her a front-row seat to local government.

She followed that up in 2019 with another internship, this one in Tallahassee with Valdes, who was in her freshman year in the Florida House of Representatives.

She watched committee meetings from the House gallery, where she met other interns. She tackled some of Valdes’ email, a glimpse of the increased role she would soon take on.

Around the same time she graduated in 2020, a District Aide’s position in Valdes’ Tampa office.

Foster had learned much from Valdes the first time around, and liked the representative’s commitment to her constituents.

Asked what she has since learned from Valdes that stays with her, Foster cited “the importance of being involved in your community. Like

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“I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone a little. I spoke at a gala. I’m taking on more responsibility.

I’m learning a lot of strategic thinking and enjoying it a lot.”

physically going to events, showing up, having a presence in the community.”

The Democratic Ranking Member on both the Justice Appropriations Choice and Innovation subcommittees, Valdes lined up eight bills heading into the 2024 Session and co-sponsored a ninth. The past three and a half years, Foster has seen her host town halls, back-to-school events and job fairs, and seek out areas of agreement with Republicans. Being part of that reinforces the fiery activism Foster believes she got from her late mother, who encouraged her to jump at the position she still holds.

“One would think that Foster is already an elected official through her calm, professional and energized approach,” Fred Hicks, CEO of the Early Learning Coalition of Hillsborough County, told Florida Politics in email. “She listens, reacts and ensures that the proper follow-up occurs.”

One of her grad school professors also offered Foster a rave review. “I have seen tremendous growth in her presentation skills since the beginning of the semester,” said

Russell Clayton, who teaches communications at USF’s Muma College of Business.

In August, Clayton recalled, she gave an “incredibly persuasive” TED-style talk, telling her classmates that their state representatives want to hear from them, then sharing how to find out who they are.

“Her speech was very informative and well received by the other 49 students in her class,” Clayton wrote in an email. Foster is on track to graduate with an MBA in May. But the most telling stories of her effectiveness lately come from those residents who reached her at Valdes’ office. One of those was Don Maidlow, 84, who was feeling frustrated with the state’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

The problem arose in 2023, when he tried to renew his driver’s license, as Floridians ages 80 and older must do every six years. But with macular degeneration, Maidlow could no longer pass the vision test.

Ordinarily, a simple solution awaited: Get the FDHSMV to issue a state identification card. Sure, he’d still have to give up driving, but he could at least continue to access his bank account or pick up prescriptions at the pharmacy.

But the department said no to a state ID, too. And that is where the story gets tricky.

“The driver’s license people didn’t want to do anything,” Maidlow said. “They said, ‘We can’t do this because you have a different name on your birth certificate than what your name is now.’”

Indeed, Maidlow’s birth certificate identified him as “Harry Ball,” a name resulting from his birth father, a man he does not remember. Since age 3, the family assigned him the same name as a new man, the man who raised him: also named Donald Maidlow. Maidlow does not know if he was ever formally adopted.

Maidlow was able to get a driver’s license, enlist in the Navy and live his life — until last year, by which time he was also diagnosed with cancer. A registered Republican, he reached out to Valdes’ office and told Foster his story.

“She listened to my tale of woe,” Maidlow said. “And she says, ‘Boy, that’s a disgrace, that a Navy veteran who’s got health issues can’t go anywhere and can’t get a government ID card because of a name on a birth certificate.’”

A couple of weeks later, Foster visited Maidlow at home and photographed the birth certificate, his discharge form from the Navy and whatever else was available.

It took several weeks and some 18 emails between Foster and the FDHSMV headquarters in Tallahassee, then a face-to-face meeting at the local office, but Maidlow has a state ID card now, thanks to sustained effort spearheaded by Foster.

“She struck me as sincere,” Maidlow said. “And not a passive person, but a driven person. She could have said, ‘Look, I can’t help you. I don’t have time to get involved in this’ but that’s not the path she chose.”

It took similar care with the Department of Corrections to secure a walker for one disabled inmate and hearing aids for another. But eventually the holdups eased, one prisoner could walk and another could again hear.

“I can be quite persistent,” she said.

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MARY CLARE FUTCH

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eems like everything in Mary Clare Futch’s life has led her to serving Florida in the political arena.

For the past year and a half, she’s been Director of Legislative and Cabinet Affairs at FloridaCommerce, the recently launched agency that consolidates statewide economic development and job resources into one place.

A seventh-generation Floridian, Futch credits much of her zeal for her job to the example set by her late grandfather, Alvin Cone Futch.

“He was a true cowboy and a businessman. He was very patriotic, taught us to be very proud of our heritage and where we come from,” she said. “He was very involved in the community. He never ran for office, but he always instilled in us the importance … of participating.”

She did, however, have an ancestor, Frederick Cone, who was in politics, serving as Florida’s Governor from 1937 to 1941.

Futch attended the University of Florida.

“I just kept finding myself involved in policy and politics during undergrad and I couldn’t keep away and I really enjoyed it,” she said. While working in Tallahassee, she also earned a Juris Master’s degree at Florida State University.

Like many of her fellow Rising Stars, Futch was not afraid to job hop, gaining a variety of experience along the way. She interned for the U.S. House of Representatives and the Florida Farm Bureau Federation, and worked at TECO Energy as a Legislative Aide and a State Affairs Analyst.

While working for TECO in the private sector, she witnessed what she described as Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “remarkable leadership during the pandemic.”

“That’s when I knew I wanted to be a part of the team,” she said, and sought a job at a state agency.

FloridaCommerce, she said, is a great fit. Her early days on the job were mostly dedicated to assuring the transition and smooth functioning of the new agency’s responsibilities.

“I really love economic development and working with Florida businesses and connecting them to the resources that Commerce has available,” Futch said. “I love the opportunity to work with job seekers and job creators and getting them through whatever hurdle they may be experiencing and connecting them with the resources that we have available.”

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“I love the opportunity to work with job seekers and job creators and getting them through whatever hurdle they may be experiencing ...”

She particularly enjoys sharing what’s accessible among legislators “so their communities can apply for whatever program it may be. Our broadband program is a good example of that.”

On the personal side, Futch is No. 4 of six children — three boys, three girls — which explains a lot about her personality.

“I think a lot of my drive and grit is being one of six kids because when you grow up with that many siblings, you gotta learn to be scrappy and how to stand your ground,” she said.

In her younger days she played “a lot” of sports. She said she loves to compete and is now committed to running, most recently in half-marathons.

“It’s a sport that I think teaches you to be mentally tough, to keep going, finish the race. No matter how you’re feeling, you’ve just got to get it done.” Futch said.

But it’s not all about the intensity.

“It’s my escape to get away from all the craziness of the world and just put my headphones on and go on a run. Whether it be three miles or 13 miles, it always makes me feel better,” she said.

For the last two years she’s been dating in The Process. Her boyfriend is Rubin Turnbull & Associates lobbyist Zach Hubbard.

“I’ve been so fortunate to have a lot of

really great mentors,” Futch said, reflecting on her current career. “Transitioning to the state government was really when I was exposed to, like, how many bright-minded individuals there are who truly just want to serve the state.”

While Futch is full of praise for her colleagues, her nominator, Ali Jones, is happy to return the favor.

“She is passionate about making Florida a better place to live, work and visit; conducts herself in the most professional and poised manner; and is wise beyond her years when it comes to strategically navigating The Process,” said Jones, Deputy Chief of Staff at the agency. “Since joining FloridaCommerce, I have been incredibly impressed by Mary Clare’s political acumen and strong work ethic. … I know she has a bright future here in Florida.”

Is there a prize Futch has her eyes on?

“What is most important to me is really being the best that I can in that moment,” she explained. “I always want to leave a place better than when I started in it. When the right next opportunity comes along, it will. But for now, I’m just really proud to be a part of the team and continue in my role.”

(Futch asked to be quoted as saying “Go Gators!” Who are we to deny such a special request?)

BRAYDEN HARRELL

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he 20-year-old legislative aide in Rep. Michelle Salzman’s office has always been aiming for exactly this position. Not like a target set in childhood, or some longrange missile — it’s more self-correcting than that, and more spontaneous.

The point is, the goal has always factored into Brayden Harrell’s decisions, and he has used the information acquired at each stop along his journey to refine the next choice.

Such was the case when the young graduate student in Florida State University’s MAAPP program took a part-time position in January 2023 at a data analysis firm, where he learned how to track bills.

He liked it so much, he wanted more.

“I said, ‘I’ve got to get closure on this process. I feel like I’m just a fly on the wall,’” Harrell said.

So after a couple of months, he left that job to intern full-time at Greenberg Traurig, a wide-ranging law and consulting firm. That put him directly in the Capitol watching committee meetings, which he describes the way tennis fans talk about seeing the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows.

“I absolutely loved taking notes on (committees), working with our clients and saying, ‘These are the bills that should be a priority for you,’” he said.

A few months later, a legislative aide position opened for Rep. Salzman, whose District 1 covers part of Escambia County. That’s two hours west along the top of the Panhandle to Harrell’s native Jackson County — the rural people he had been itching to serve.

“When the opportunity came I couldn’t turn it down,” he said, “because I was getting to do what I love with government affairs and the Legislature, but also getting to serve her constituents, to make sure the Panhandle was prioritized.”

He grew up in Grand Ridge, which in 2020 had a population of 822. Harrell was always a quick study, the kind the Pathways program benefits most, offering simultaneous high school and college credits. He entered Chipola College in Marianna, then FSU, where he took graduate-level political science courses along with his undergrad.

In the meantime, Harrell didn’t just join a fraternity, he led a resurgent chapter of Delta Sigma Phi, which was coming back after an inactive period. The organization’s leaders visited the campus and talked to pledges, he recalled.

“My brothers, sort of the founding fathers of the fraternity, came together and said, ‘We need a leader and think we’re going to go with you,’” he said, about serving as the fraternity’s president.

He got his start in campaigns interning for U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio in 2022, and led canvassing efforts in the Big Bend region.

Harrell would go on to lead field operations over a four-county swath of the Panhandle, recruiting volunteers and manning the Senator’s events.

He also served as at-large member of FSU’s Office of Governmental Affairs, a board position within the university’s Student Government Association. In that capacity, he helped lead a successful student initiative to make the opioid antagonist product NARCAN available in all residence halls.

Those combined experiences, coupled with finishing his bachelor’s degree early, prepared Harrell for a political career.

“Brayden knows more about The Pro-

cess and Florida politics than some seasoned staff,” Salzman told INFLUENCE in an email. “He has a bright future ahead.”

To hear him tell it, that future has already arrived. Harrell has dived into Salzman’s busy conservative agenda, which includes a proactive approach to mental health, Second Amendment activism and cracking down on human trafficking.

His challenging course loads and 4.0 GPA helped get him admitted into FSU’s Masters of Applied American Politics and Policy program more than a year ahead of schedule. He is on track to complete his master’s studies in May. He enjoys working with and learning from Salzman, whom he describes as a straight shooter, as well as district aide Trevor Huff and all the staff. Most of all, Harrell relishes the chance to engage with Panhandle residents in communities like his own, listening to their concerns and doing whatever he can to help.

‘I’ve got to get closure on this process, I feel like I’m just a fly on the wall.”

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AMELIA JOHNSON

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or some, The Process is just in their blood. Amelia Johnson can’t remember a time when she didn’t have state government in her life. Her mother, Brenda Johnson, has worked in government or advocacy for more than four decades.

“Seeing the impact she had on Tallahassee and the whole state of Florida kind of inspired me to be involved myself,” the younger Johnson said.

Her grandfather also had a life of service, fighting during World War II and even seeing then-Gen. Dwight Eisenhower at Normandy. When Johnson went to school

to study public policy, she was attracted to Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, home to the Eisenhower Institute. She graduated from the institution in 2017.

Today, the 28-year-old works as Legislative Affairs Director for the Department of Emergency Management (DEM), an agency dedicated to protecting and assisting people during a traumatic part of their lives.

She took on that role in November after spending more than two years in Communications and External Affairs for the agency.

The job put her alongside DEM Director Kevin Guthrie through such efforts as recovery from Hurricane Ian in 2022. She traveled with the agency head to Emergency Operations Centers in some of the areas hardest hit by the storm, including Lee and Charlotte counties.

She recalls setting up events with Guthrie and then-Department of Econom-

ic Opportunity Secretary Dane Eagle. In that capacity, she worked with fishermen and other business owners navigating the recovery process, whether that was directing them through applying for Small Business Administration loans or the state’s bridge loan program, or connecting them with individual wealth specialists.

Johnson’s first job in The Process came working for state Sen. Debbie Mayfield, a Rockledge Republican. She worked in the Capitol office primarily but learned the focus lawmakers need to have on their districts.

During a time when she had to care for ailing grandparents in Tallahassee, she sought a state agency job and landed at the Department of Education consulting on education policy through the 2019 Legislative Session.

“I was at Education during the school choice scholarship rewrite programs, so I was learning a lot about importance of families having educational choices,” she said. That put her in contact with a number of experts and advocates seeking to empower parents regarding their children’s particular needs.

Her experience to date has been on the government side, not campaigning or lobbying, but she holds an interest in all aspects. “I have a strong faith, and I put my trust in that to steer me where I need to go,” she said.

She doesn’t know where the future will lead, just that it most likely will involve helping people navigate government. “It’s mostly about not looking at government as this big, scary thing,” she said. “We at state government, we’re just people, too.”

“It’s mostly about not looking at government as this big, scary thing. We at state government, we’re just people, too.”

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tuch nominated her earlier this year. By March, her star was already shining in a different position, before she could even read her latest accolade.

Now, Johnson serves as the program manager for Zip Code Level Leadership, a role in which she spearheads initiatives across Florida’s 67 counties to help further prosperity among the state’s children, zip code by zip code.

She’s been with the Chamber for two years. They snatched her up, Baltuch explains, after hearing a speech she delivered while serving as a Gubernatorial Fellow for the Florida Lottery, while she was attending Florida State University, where she earned her Masters degree in Applied Politics & Policy.

Johnson’s resume is enviable. Prior to joining the Florida Chamber, she served as a Business Leads Fellow for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Before that she earned The Congressional Award, which earned her a communications consultant contract through the Congressional Award Foundation.

At the University of West Florida, where she earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology with double minors in sociology and public administration, she served as the school’s first Black female student body president. During her leadership at the school, Johnson spearheaded work to enhance access to affordable housing for students. She also was a leader within the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, and was selected by her peers to serve on the State University Board of Governors.

Wherever Johnson ends up next, her track record of work supporting the creation of youth programming and volunteering for various non-profits will no doubt remain an inspiration.

And like all of our rising stars, she’s got plenty left to give.

ZENANI JOHNSON

W

hen you hear the term “jack of all trades,” the immediate thought that comes to mind might be, “master of none.”

Zenani Johnson dispels the euphemism. She is a jack of all trades, but she’s the master of all of them, at least when it comes to the government and policy space.

“Zenani is truly one of the brightest stars the state of Florida has to offer, and has a resume and skillset to back that statement,” said Kyle Baltuch, Senior Vice President of Equality of Opportunity for the Florida Chamber Foundation.

Johnson served under Baltuch in her role as Equality of Opportunity Coordinator for the Florida Chamber of Commerce. It’s a role she had when Bal-

“Zenani is truly one of the brightest stars the state of Florida has to offer, and has a resume and skillset to back that statement.”

—kyle baltuch

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COURTNEY LARKIN

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or the 2024 Legislative Session, Courtney Larkin has divided her time among a diverse range of K-12 education projects and financial regulation and transportation. And that’s just a fragment of the expertise she has acquired since college. Since last June, Larkin has directed financial regulation and the Agriculture Practice Group for Continental Strategies, a firm serving Florida, the United States and Latin America.

“This process has a way of sucking you in and never letting you out — in the best way,” she said.

Her evolution in it has been one of doors opening at the right time.

“No day is the same,” the 31-year-old said about the field she has chosen. “It’s very hard to become complacent in a job like this. There are always new goals. You are always having to pivot to come up with a new strategy.”

Larkin grew up in Marianna, and originally aspired to become a sports broadcaster. Valrico native Erin Andrews had blazed a trail, winning Emmys as a mainstay on ESPN. She initially planned to train for that at Florida State University, but before that earned a cosmetology license at Chipola College, expanding on work she had been doing as a “side hustle” since age 16.

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Her earliest major experience at FSU was a crushing disappointment, coming from broadcasting instructors.

“They told me I would have to work on my accent,” she said, “that they would never put somebody with an accent like mine on TV.” Larkin’s accent is rural Southern, with the hard “r.” It’s Holly Hunter of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” who hails from Kennesaw, Georgia. It’s two eggs sizzling with bacon in a cast iron skillet.

(What’s not to love?)

“That was a huge letdown for me,” she said. “It’s a big part of who I am.”

She course-corrected to communications, and learned about writing for media. She was also active in her Kappa Delta sorority and recruited for the Seminoles football program.

One thing led to another. “I ended up getting a communications internship with (Agriculture) Commissioner Adam Putnam’s office,” she said. “I shared an office with his legislative intern, and I found myself being far more interested in the work he was doing than the work I was doing.”

The following semester, she found a legislative internship with the Florida Associa-

tion of District School Superintendents.

“I never looked back,” she said. “I absolutely loved it. I can’t imagine myself doing anything else.”

Jobs and connections followed after graduation in 2015. A stint at a Tallahassee law firm led to a deputy spokeswoman position with the state’s Office of Financial Regulation. She then covered new ground over three years as assistant vice president for the Florida Bankers Association, where she handled state and federal affairs.

A sense of things falling into place began to take hold. Chief among her winning attributes was a desire to continually tackle new terrain.

“I can’t take credit for 99% of it,” she said. “I’ve been lucky to have good people in place in my life and good opportunities stumbled upon.”

Larkin moved to the Florida Farm Bureau Federation in July 2021, as an assistant director of legislative affairs. She rose to director nine months later, and remained in that position until she joined Continental Strategies in June.

As Director of Financial Regulation and the Agriculture Practice Group, Larkin has more autonomy than ever. The firm’s Tallahassee office is also replete with former legislators, senior agency leadership, appropriations chairs, judges and Governor’s staff.

And while that early insult to her ambitions as a sports broadcaster still stings, it taught her something about moving forward as a woman and being true to herself.

“For every five steps a man takes, oftentimes we have to take 15,” she said.

“I think too that when people hear this accent sometimes they don’t take it seriously. There definitely have been times where I’ve tried to mask it or hide it, which is a shame.”

Now, she said, “I just embrace who I am.”

Part of that means learning how to nurture a life outside of work. Through her late 20s, that didn’t always seem like an option.

“My job was everything,” she said. “The pandemic was kind of a turning point for me. It taught me that life goes on even when work doesn’t. The pandemic really taught me to slow down and enjoy things outside of my job. Ever since then I’ve made it a point to completely disconnect from work whenever I’m not there, and just enjoy the time with my friends and family.”

In those times, Larkin likes reading and running, and the beach. When interviewed in January, she had already run three half-marathons (13.1 miles each) within 24 days. For her, there is no season too warm or too cool to enjoy the outdoors, or to get the most out of every day.

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ALEXIS LAROE

T

he 2023 Legislative Session was a big one for Alexis Laroe, who is involved in a vital way with what options are open to public school students and how to get help to families in implementing those choices.

Laroe, 26, serves as Legislative Affairs Director for Step Up for Students, a nonprofit that administers tuition scholarships to private schools, helps others change the public school they attend, facilitates transportation, underwrites tutors and looks out for special needs students and others facing challenges. HB 1, which Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed for last year and signed into law, makes school choice vouchers available to all K-12 students regardless of family income.

The new law also extends funding to families choosing home schooling. Previously, financial help went primarily to private schools or special needs programs.

Step Up for Students raises funds from corporations, private individuals and the Department of Education.

That range of choices Laroe helps administer contrasts with her own school days in St. Albans, Vermont, a small town of around 7,000 residents. “You could choose which high school to go to” because the city didn’t have one, she said.

The daughter of a current school board chair, Laroe majored in political science and government at the University of Tampa.

Along the way, she spent several months as Summer Field Director for her native Franklin County (Vermont) Republican Party.

After graduating in 2019, she moved to the Master’s of Applied American Politics and Policy (MAAPP) program at Florida State University. Her first semester brought good fortune, as a policy and public affairs legislative intern for Step Up for Students. She graduated from the MAAPP program in 2020, and subsequently returned to the school choice group in June 2021, this time fully on board as a legislative affairs manager.

She spent a year in that position and another year as legislative affairs assistant director before assuming the director’s position in October 2023. Away from work, she enjoys cycling and walking Tallahassee’s streets and trails, as well as lending an eye for interior design to her husband’s home-flipping business.

While Laroe, by definition, participates fully in the political world, she cherishes the time spent with students and their families.

“For me to be able to be in consistent communication with those families definitely makes the politics of Tallahassee a lot easier. Being able to picture the students and the lives we’ve impacted,” she said.

That kind of attention and care reflects the best counsel she got from mentors.

“Early on I was advised to just focus on work that you’re doing and not get sidetracked by the environment of Tallahassee,” she said. “So I try to keep that in mind, to always remind myself of why I’m here and who I’m fighting for.”

“For me to be able to be in consistent communication with those families definitely makes the politics of Tallahassee a lot easier.

Being able to picture the students and the lives we’ve impacted.”

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B

randon Ludwig learned as a child what an impact an upstart group could have on politics.

His grandfather, Joe Ponder, in 2004, had been part of the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth, a group of Vietnam veterans who challenged Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry’s accounts of war atrocities. The group infamously upended the race by turning the strongest plank of the then-Massachusetts Senator’s biography into an attack on his credibility, and Kerry went on to lose.

“They took the country by storm,” Ludwig recalls. “That’s why I care about politics.”

While still in high school, Ludwig pursued that interest further, working in thenU.S. Rep. Ted Yoho’s office, where he met the Congressman’s Deputy Chief of Staff Kat Cammack.

He stepped away from politics after graduating from the University of North Florida, working instead in broadcast journalism covering Jacksonville nightlife. But when Cammack ran for office in 2020, just as the pandemic shut down nightlife, Lud-

BRANDON LUDWIG

wig once again entered the fray.

“Kat reached out to me and said she needed someone who knew Clay County really well,” Ludwig said. “I believed in her and saw the way she operated. She didn’t tell someone something to their face and then operate differently behind the scenes.

I’ve seen how she dealt with veterans and advocated on issues.”

He joined the campaign, and Cammack said he brought a different mindset at a time when creativity was at a premium. She was running at the time in a GOP Primary with 10 candidates in a geographically large area amid an unprecedented health emergency.

“He developed an aggregated scoring system to prioritize precincts where voters would be favorable to our campaign in Clay, home to multiple opposing candidates,” Cammack said. “His efforts paid off: our team would win Clay County, which held most of the district’s Republican voters, and go on to win the Republican Primary. The rest is history.”

Ludwig reasoned that to break out in a wide field, Cammack needed to focus on activating voters often ignored in rural areas. While opponents focused on densely populated parts of the district such as Gainesville, he dispatched door knockers in Clay, Bradford and Union counties.

By the time other campaigns bothered reaching those areas, they had become Cammack country.

The success made Ludwig a political commodity at a young age, and he soon became involved in Northeast Florida GOP politics. And in June, he won election as the new chair of the Florida Young Republicans. There, he has continued to focus on ground game with a set often known for online outreach. “You can sit and post on social media but that’s sort of screaming into the void,” he said.

With a few Special Elections underway, including a critical January race in House District 35, Ludwig sent volunteers to doorsteps, and Young Republicans in 2023, an off year, knocked on 11,000 doors. He expects to step up efforts in 2024.

“You can sit and post on social media but that’s sort of screaming into the void.”

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Henry has rapidly ascended through the ranks of the political landscape, leaving a mark on each role he has undertaken.

After leaving my office, his journey in Florida politics led him to the position of Director of Legislative Affairs at the Florida Gaming Control Commission, where he currently serves.

“As Henry continues to thrive in his career, it is evident that he possesses the qualities necessary for continued success and growth. His strategic thinking, adaptability, and genuine passion for public service position him as a leader with significant potential to shape the future of Florida politics.”

Mahler’s experience in Florida politics demonstrates his passion and talent. He rapidly earned a reputation for his unshakable work ethic and desire to go above and beyond to help others. His dedication to greatness opened the door for promotions, finally propelling him to the distinguished post of Director of Legislative Affairs at the Florida Gaming Control Commission.

Mahler is a proud alumnus of Florida State University’s Master’s in Applied American Politics program. His academic achievements reflect his intellectual prowess and his commitment to gaining the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate the complexities of the political arena.

HENRY MAHLER

“As Henry continues to thrive in his

A

and growth. His strategic thinking,

sk anyone who knows Henry Mahler and you’ll hear about an ambitious and hardworking young professional who has swiftly risen through the political scene, making an unforgettable impression in every position he has had, thanks to his unmatched people skills and extraordinary work ethic.

As his former boss, U.S. Rep. Aaron Bean, puts it, “through a combination of exceptional work ethic and people skills,

career, it is evident that he possesses the qualities necessary for continued success adaptability, and genuine passion for public service position him as a leader with significant potential to shape the future of Florida politics.”

—aaron bean Spring 2024

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DAVID PODVIA

D

avid Podvia landed his first interview for a job in the Florida Legislature without even knowing it. After working for the Republican Party of Duval County, the Jacksonville politico got to know some local political leaders. After applying for a job opening in the House, he asked if thenstate Rep. Clay Yarborough could share some tips over lunch about how to handle his coming job interview.

“After we finished lunch, he told me ‘If you want to work in the House, I have a job opening in my office if you interested,’” Podvia recalled. “He interviewed me without me even knowing it.”

The rest is history. Podvia took the job working for the Jacksonville Republican and hasn’t looked back. When Yarborough won a state Senate seat in 2022, Podvia followed him to the other side of the rotunda and continues to work closely with the lawmaker.

“The thing that keeps me in the office is working for Clay,” he said. “He’s helped me to mature a lot as a person.”

Along the way, Podvia earned himself a strong reputation within The Process as an emissary of the lawmaker, maintaining cordial relationships with allies and opponents alike while the office ushered through controversial legislation including trans health care restrictions and an expansion of a controversial parental rights bill.

“If you take a look, legislation Yarborough passed was monumental, whether you agree with the politics or not,” said David Allen, a former Yarborough aide who worked a short time with Podvia before leaving the legislative process.

Allen considered Podvia’s work key to Yarborough’s relatively seamless jump from the House to the Senate. He also said the aide’s demeanor with lawmakers was key to effectively influencing state policy. Podvia takes some pride in the work launched from Yarborough’s office that landed on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk.

“I stand by the policy we have worked on,” Podvia said, “but what I like more is being able to work with stakeholders. I love working with lobbyists and with Senate staff. It’s a good environment.”

His work as Yarborough’s senior legislative assistant follows a long interest in politics. The political bug bit Podvia early.

Before graduating high school, he volunteered for Mitt Romney’s presidential cam-

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paign and starting paying close attention to local politics as well. Once he graduated from the University of North Florida with a political science degree in hand, he landed a job working for the Republican Party of Duval County for Dean Black, another state lawmaker.

Since making the jump to government, Podvia has come to enjoy the finer points of crafting policy. Some of his proudest work isn’t in the headline-grabbers Yarborough passed last year, but the children’s issues that could improve lives across the state. He points to a bill, SB 1064, that ad-

dressed trauma screenings for child caregivers. This coming Session, he hopes to shape policy on baby surrenders and to take a stab at reforming Florida’s so-called “free kill” law.

Expect him to stay friendly the whole way.

“Mutual respect is such an important part of politics,” he said. “In national politics, I don’t think there’s a lot there anymore. But in Florida, people may not see it but there is still a lot of mutual respect here.”

“I stand by the policy we have worked on, but what I like more is being able to work with stakeholders.

I love working with lobbyists and with Senate staff.

It’s a good environment.”

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C

alling herself a “newbie,” Emilie Oglesby started her career in Florida government six years ago at the Office of Economic Opportunity in the most Sunshine State way possible.

“DEO helped launch the (communications for) Hurricane Irma disaster recovery program,” she recalled. The program helped explain various state and federal programs to large swaths of individuals affected by the hurricane, which left a path of destruction nearly statewide.

In her nearly four-year stint at DEO, the office would also be activated for Hurricane Michael and the Surfside condo collapse.

“Surfside was tough. That was hard,” she remembered. While a condo collapse might not seem to be a large economic disaster on the surface, small businesses in the area took a hit. “That whole little town kind of just shut down. … All the hotels that are down there were full of first responders. So you don’t have people shopping, you don’t have people coming to get their hair cut because there’s just complete devastation around you. (Victims were) their friends, their clients. They were just as heartbroken.

But we walked around and visited and made sure they had resources that they needed.

We coordinated a lot of efforts with the federal Small Business Administration.”

But the rubber really hit the road in 2020, after the state went into lockdown attempting to stop the spread of COVID-19. Ultimately, 949,000 Floridians would lose their jobs — and it was up to the DEO to handle the tsunami of unemployment applications. The system crashed and “all levels” of the agency were called on to mitigate the crisis.

Oglesby held several different positions during her time at DEO — “It is really how you move up in government,” she said — and at the time was its Deputy Director of Communications.

“I learned more about unemployment than I ever thought I would in probably a matter of two weeks,” she said. There were, “multiple federal programs you have to learn all about and how they work with your state unemployment. And then you have to explain that to the public. And there’s a lot of people that had never collected unemployment before.”

At one point, staff was brainstorming how to give a “voice” to the call center to route callers. Department of Management Secretary Jonathan Satter, who had temporarily moved over to DEO during the pandemic, tapped Oglesby to be that voice.

“I was like, ‘What? I sound like the biggest country bumpkin ever,’” she said, adding that she stepped up anyway and

EMILIE OGLESBY

recorded the voice prompts. She comes by her accent honestly, having been born and raised in rural Monroeville, Alabama.

“I would read these tweets and people were just mad because they couldn’t get through and … they were like, ‘We’re sitting here listening to some redneck talk on the phone’ and I was like, ‘They’re talking about me.’ They were frustrated, so I understood,” Oglesby said.

As disastrous as the unemployment debacle seemed, Oglesby has nothing but praise for her coworkers throughout the crisis.

“It was kind of all hands-on-deck and the people that were working there day in and day out — 12-14 hour days — it was really amazing to see people come together like that for the purpose of helping people, really public servants,” she said.

The 39-year-old mother of two took a less demanding job at the State Board of Administration, but left a year later to return to DEO last July to serve in her current role as Assistant Deputy Secretary. The DEO has now morphed into FloridaCommerce.

“I just couldn’t stay away. It’s such a fun place,” she said.

Oglesby feels her pre-Florida background makes her a good fit for government

work in general, and FloridaCommerce in particular. Her father was an entrepreneur and she owned a retail shop in her hometown. For just over two years, she was Executive Director of the Monroeville/Monroe County Chamber of Commerce, and her husband was Monroeville’s Mayor.

“I had worked on the outside and I knew what it was like to live in a small rural town. I come from being a business owner to advocating for business owners,” she said. “So I brought that perspective to government when I started and I learned a tremendous amount. It was really neat how everybody had very different experiences professionally and we all came together and learned from each other what everybody brought to the table.”

Calling herself an “old soul” and “an artist at heart” (her degree is in art), Oglesby enjoys antiquing and surrounds herself with vintage things, including her grandmother’s silver and multiple sets of dishes. To decompress, she pieces French lace together to create heirloom clothing.

“There is something about sewing pieces of lace together that are a quarter of an inch thick that … is so relaxing. It is kind of my escape from reality.”

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ROTEM RAZ

R

otem Raz loves Formula 1, and caught part of the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona last year.

The finance consultant with Ross Consulting has governed her working life with the focus of an open wheel driver, making the most of every position. She cut her teeth in The Process interning for First Lady Casey DeSantis, then raised money for her husband’s gubernatorial re-election.

She landed at Ross last August, into a wide-open lane of her own.

“She has already brought several new clients into the firm,” Ashley Ross, the firm’s founder, wrote in an email. “I’m so proud of her and know that she will continue to do great things!”

Born in Tel Aviv, the 23-year-old has maintained those historical ties to her home country. Her family moved to south Florida around her first birthday, but they returned to Israel most summers.

A “youth ambassador” program in high school allowed her to intern for Hollywood City Attorney Douglas Gonzales. She stayed with the program for three years.

“I really got into the nitty-gritty of the City of Hollywood, and what all these commissioners and the Mayor do behind the scenes,” she said. “So once I got to school, I definitely knew that was the area I wanted to enter.”

An advocacy lane opened through NolePac, the FSU cadre of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPC). Raz started out as treasurer, then over the next two years served as vice president and president of the group. Its focus has been to promote pro-Israel causes and to support other colleges and universities doing the same.

As a college student, she coped with the death of her father in part by getting even more serious about her direction and what she would study.

“I kind of thought, ‘you know, now it’s time to go and really get involved in the real world of politics,’” she said.

She interned with Casey DeSantis in 2021, the year the First Lady was battling breast cancer. Raz remembers that fivemonth period as “one of the great experiences I have had.”

“I got to see not only how smart she was but how caring toward everyone that reached out to her,” she said of the mail that flooded in to support the First Lady.

“She wanted to read each letter and she wanted to respond to each one,” said Raz,

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who also worked on the First Lady’s Hope Florida initiative for at-risk youth.

Working so close to the Governor’s office left her wanting to go deeper into state politics. In January 2022 she joined the re-election push for Gov. Ron DeSantis, jumping from intern to full-time in May. She stayed through the Governor’s win and a couple of months more, learning fundraising under team leader Heather Barker.

“It was definitely my first exposure to fundraising and the finance world, watching Heather think things through and watching her strategize,” she said. “It was like chaos organized, because she had all

these moving parts that totally made sense once she explained it.”

Having gotten a taste of state politics and invaluable experience in campaigns, Raz still felt a tug to experience another dimension, namely lobbying. In January 2023 she turned to Jared Rosenstein, a partner at Capital City Consulting she had known through lobbying workshops and her work with NolePac. (Barker, her mentor with the DeSantis campaign, has recently joined Capital City.)

“I reached out to (Rosenstein) and said, ‘I really want to learn from you. I literally want to go wherever you go. I want the

“It was definitely my first exposure to fundraising and the finance world, watching Heather think things through and watching her strategize. It was like chaos organized, because she had all these moving parts that totally made sense once she explained it.” actual experience of what it is like to be a lobbyist,’” she said.

Working during the 2023 Legislative Session as an intern for Capital City Consulting, Raz said, was all she had hoped for and more. Rosenstein brought her into meetings with legislators and strategizing sessions, what she called “one of my most formative winters in Florida politics.”

She graduated in May and took a much-needed break, including catching that Formula 1 race in Barcelona. She followed that up with a new job in August.

The skill set she had developed matched Ross Consulting, especially in political fundraising and stakeholder relations.

By now, Raz has helped elect more than 50 candidates to public office through the Senate Republican caucus. She has relished the chance to deepen her skills working under Ross.

“I have been able to learn so much from her, about how to develop client relationships and figure out all the little details that go into helping someone win — helping someone good win,” she said.

For Raz, there also remains an avocation, especially after the brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. She served as one of the lead organizers of the first Israel Day at the Capitol, held Feb. 29.

Speakers included two survivors of the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel, where 260 were killed.

Heritage and remembrance have inspired so much of her journey thus far.

She will continue fighting for the fallen, and for survivors.

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GINA ROTUNNO

R

ight away in the 2023 Session, Gina Rotunno found herself pitched into the deep end of the pool. The state and federal lobbyist for the Florida Bankers

Association is involved with some of the most pressing issues facing banks and their millions of customers.

One of those, known as the “IOTA” bill — an acronym from “interest on trust accounts”– would have the chief financial officer set the quarterly interest rate banks pay, and cap those rates at 2.55%.

Filed by a pair of Vero Beach legislators, the IOTA (HB 1253) bill responded to a state Supreme Court rule change last year

that tied interest on trust accounts, which had been running at around .07%, to indexed rates starting at 3.40% — nearly 50 times the old rate.

“They’re basically regulating banks through their lawyers, and saying, ‘Lawyers, you have to achieve a certain interest rate to be able to hold your accounts (in banks).’” Rotunno said.

Before the rule change, such funds generated between $6 million and $8 million annually and were directed toward legal aid. “Since they made this ruling, in 2.5 months, they collected over $60 million,” Rotunno said. “And they’re projected to make a profit of $300 million this upcoming year.”

The proposal to lower interest rates in HB 1253 and SB 1336, a companion bill, pits the Florida Bar against bankers. The Bar favors higher rates to support legal aid organizations statewide; the Florida Bankers Association does not. (Neither does CFO Jimmy Patronis, who has argued, “Ultimately, these increased costs will be passed along to Florida consumers.”)

“It’s a really complicated issue,” said Rotunno, the FBA’s assistant vice president of government affairs. “But our bankers really need relief. This has created havoc in the state.”

A native of St. Petersburg, Rotunno graduated from Northside Christian School, then the University of South Florida, where she majored in political science.

“I’ve known since I was a little girl that I wanted to be in politics,” she said. “It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do.”

“I’ve known since I was a little girl that I wanted to be in politics. It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do.”

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She earned a master’s degree at the University of Central Florida in public administration. While in grad school the 27-year-old interned with Mark Jeffries, Orange County’s legislative administrator; and as a district aide for Rep. Felicia Robinson, a Democrat from Miami Gardens.

Rotunno can’t recommend internship programs enough: “It showed me that I was really made for lobbying.” She joined the Florida Bankers Association in October 2021, her last semester of grad school, and has only thrived since.

“She is smart, savvy and, most of all, kind,” Bethany Linderman, the senior government relations manager for TD Bank, said of Rotunno. “She is someone who takes the process seriously but not herself.”

Rotunno credits her colleagues — including Anthony DiMarco, the association’s executive vice president of government relations — and others with getting her where she is now, a burgeoning lobbyist who can navigate a financial and legal thicket.

Last year’s anti-ESG legislation, for example, could enter a new phase if Gov. Ron DeSantis gets his wish. The Governor

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signed HB3 into law in May, which forbids financial institutions and banks from using non-financial factors in investment decisions. The law aimed to stop a national move to codify “Environmental, Social and Governance” criteria in its tracks. Often called “social credit scores,” ESGs are set up to reward a variety of environmentally friendly actions around the world, and in the United States that also means diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

HB3 expanded a recent trend to limit investment criteria to bottom-line issues, excluding social issues. Other Republican-led states have acted similarly. Florida’s law went into effect July 1, but DeSantis is now expressing a desire to enter a new enforcement phase on what he recently called a “social agenda” enforced by banks, an “end run around the Constitution.”

Leading up to the 2024 Session, DeSantis had conversations with state legislators about how Florida might ensure banks are complying with the new law, which includes statements banks must file declaring that they are in compliance.

But diving into investment records to catch lax enforcement of HB3 risks running afoul of privacy standards, Rotunno said. “For us,” she said, “it’s a big thing to let last year’s bill settle in to see the effects of it.” She’s been managing the issues so well, her boss Linderman said peers consider Rotunno not only a rising star, but a “rock star.”

“It’s definitely been a baptism by fire,” Rotunno said. “I’m lucky to have such good mentors on the team. They’ve really shown me the ropes, and I can’t say enough good things about them.”

At home, she enjoys baking cookies, pastries, cakes, “anything you can think of,” and spreading the joy by gifting the sweet goods around the office and the Capitol.

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ALYSSA RUDD

A

lyssa Rudd found her niche quickly via a stroke of fate. In her final semester of graduate school at Florida State University, she interned at Bascom Communications and Consulting (BCC), then joined the firm full-time.

She has learned to handle media and messaging, campaigns and crisis management. It’s a welcome landing spot for Rudd, who spent much of her high school and college years as a serious athlete.

With several schools to choose from, the Tallahassee native decided on Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, in Daytona Beach, on a volleyball scholarship.

From her freshman year on, Rudd helped the Division II Eagles stay in the hunt in the Sunshine Conference every season except 2020, which was canceled due to COVID. Along the way, she worked as a head coach at DME Academy in Daytona Beach, 138

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which offers private training for student athletes, and volunteered in a Special Olympics program at Embry-Riddle.

She enjoyed seeing the same players return each year, and finding ways to help each person to participate in a volleyball game. “It was a very gratifying and rewarding experience,” she said.

After graduating in 2020, she headed to Florida State University’s Master of Business Administration program. She interned at BCC, where she made a strong impression on President Sarah Bascom, Executive Vice President Lyndsey Brzozowski and others.

“We immediately knew Alyssa was a dedicated, hard worker and knew she would fit right in with our team,” Bascom said. “She was eager to learn, a team player, and picked up on politics and policy right out of the gate.”

Rudd joined the firm in May 2022, the

same month she completed her MBA, as a communications assistant. She has seen the benefit communications can provide clients, especially those facing a crisis.

“They’re just seeing red and need our skills to give them a good strategy,” she said.

“That’s a very cool aspect of what we do.”

Of course, there is so much more.

“Alyssa tackles every task — whether it be managing supporting staff, traveling for a client project, a campaign, or a strategic messaging project — with the same approach every time,” Bascom said. “She gives it her all.”

While such work can be all-consuming, Rudd takes the opportunities to recharge when she can in St. Marks, about half-hour south of Tallahassee. Her parents and sister live there, and they like to take the boat to where the St. Marks and Wakulla rivers join, and from there to the Gulf of Mexico.

They know all the islands and sandbars, places to pick up shells or just enjoy the Forgotten Coast of Franklin County on yet another spectacular day.

In April 2023, Rudd was promoted to communications specialist. Approaching two years on the team, she is accumulating skills as she goes.

“Beyond the communications side of things is the consulting piece too,” said the 25-year-old. “The problem-solving and critical thinking. A lot of the topics we work on are pretty challenging. We have to put our heads together and brainstorm, whether it’s for issue advocacy or a crisis situation. And that part, I would definitely say, is one of my favorite aspects of working at BCC.” Her rapid growth is going smoothly, not just for Rudd but for her colleagues.

“It can be hard to come into a firm whose team has been working together for years,” Bascom said. “But it’s like she has always been here, and is made for this career.”

“They’re just seeing red and need our skills to give them a good strategy.

That’s a very cool aspect of what we do.”

TREVOR SCHAETTLE

F

“I had originally been exposed from

working

in

student

government, where I was able to go to Tallahassee for the first time and to see politics throughout the state.”

rom his days at the University of Florida, Trevor Schaettle has held an interest in state government.

“I had originally been exposed from working in student government, where I was able to go to Tallahassee for the first time and to see politics throughout the state,” he said.

Today, Schaettle serves as an aide to state Rep. Alex Andrade, a Pensacola Republican, where he has worked on budget issues.

Andrade chairs the House Infrastructure & Tourism Appropriations Subcommittee, and Schaettle notes the subcommittee for the first time in memory was able to close out its budget silo before conference. He offers credit to the lawmaker, but said it was a proud moment for the entire staff. “So many people were able to realize the hard work that was done.”

And he knows how many people in The Process had a stake. Before working as an aide, he interned with lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig, shortly after graduating from UF with a degree in history. He continues to work with advocates on a host of projects large and small in need of funding.

In communicating with lobbyists and other stakeholders, Schaettle has developed a reputation himself for careful consideration and balancing interests.

“Our relationship with our clients’ official staff is one of critical importance to ensure the Representative’s schedule, priorities and time are managed efficiently and appropriately,” said Rick Porter and Ivey Yarger of Political Capital Florida in a statement. “Trevor stands out from others we work with because of his diligence, effectiveness and tenacity. To call him a ‘rising star’ is an understatement. We only hope to continue to work with him in the future.”

Besides appropriations issues, Schaettle said he’s learned the importance, working with Andrade, of zeroing in on the finer points of any area of policy. He points to legislation establishing regulations around Kratom, a stimulant that stormed the market a few years ago.

“That was something a lot of people weren’t looking at, and then every single gas station was out there selling Kratom to underage kids, which was just terrible to think about,” Schaettle said.

Gov. Ron DeSantis in June signed legislation championed by Andrade that put the first regulations for Kratom into law, banning the sale to anyone under 21 and defining the substance for the first time under state law.

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SARAH SIMS

S

arah Sims has already done a lot. Some in the world of politics might even say she’s done it all.

Only six years post-college graduation, Sims has already notched experience as a legislative aide, as a campaign finance consultant, as a campaign manager and working with a private law firm.

Now, she’s the Government Affairs and Client Relations Director for Lila Jaber Consulting, a firm that provides strategic, regulatory and political advisory for national clients on a variety of business, regulatory and economic development issues.

Sims joined the firm in 2021, providing strategic messaging counsel to national and statewide clients on legislative, business and economic development matters. Her advisory includes issues before the Florida Public Service Commission, the Legislature and other state agencies, among others.

Her work has led to successful representation on program and appropriations support for Stetson University; representation for municipal electric and energy companies; business-to-business and stakeholder engagement to help companies grow and succeed; and participation in the Florida’s Women in Energy Leadership Forum, which seeks to motivate the next generation of the energy workforce.

Sims’ light is already shining bright, and there’s no reason to believe it will dim anytime soon.

In addition to government affairs work, Sims also serves as the Program Director for the Florida’s Women in Energy Leadership Forum, which includes C-level industry executives from across the nation. Sims continues to help the forum develop and execute funding and programming initiatives, including speaker coordination and event management.

She also serves as the Chief Operating Officer of the Leadership Foundation for Women in Energy and Water, a position that allows her to aid other industry heads in educating emerging leaders and creating job and leadership opportunities for women and minorities in the industry.

Prior to her work with Lila Jaber, Sims served as the government affairs coordinator for Gunster, a statewide multipractice law firm. There, she worked with the firm’s regional managing shareholder and government affairs team on targeted messaging on client priorities. She also provided

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legislative and state agency research and drafted, submitted and finalized procurement opportunities.

Sims previously served as a legislative aide to Rep. Bob Rommel, a Republican from Naples.

She also served as campaign manager or finance consultant for a number of candidates, particularly during the 2018 cycle.

If none of that were enough, Sims also serves as a member of the Tallahassee Network of Young Professionals and the Flor-

ida Association of Professional Lobbyists.

Previous volunteerism includes The United Methodist Children’s Home, a residential home that cares for abused, abandoned, neglected or dependent children. She mentored children and provided recreational projects and activities for them. She also participated in Love at Work and Mission Okaloosa mission trips to serve underserved communities and those without homes.

Sims is a 2018 graduate of Florida State University and still resides in Tallahassee.

MARY SUMMERS

T

he original plan was to major in engineering.

When Mary Summers arrived at the University of Florida, her parents’ alma mater, studying politics was among the furthest things from her mind despite her stepfather’s work as a Republican lobbyist.

But her freshman year was in 2016, a stretch many would agree was among the most bizarre for presidential politics in modern history. The day after the election, a switch got thrown. “I was sort of like, ‘Well, I guess I’ve got to stop doing this and work on something bigger than me,’” she said. “It also didn’t help that I wasn’t particularly good at math or science, so engineering sort of got kicked to the curb.”

Summers, 26, graduated in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and

“I was sort of like, ‘Well, I guess I’ve got to stop doing this and work on something bigger than me.’” a minor in Spanish, something she believed would give her an edge in regaining ground progressives lost with Hispanic communities across the state.

Unlike her generally conservative family in the Panhandle, Summers leans Democratic and so far has only taken jobs with the blue team.

“It makes for some interesting Thanksgivings,” she said.

Summers completed a pair of internships while in school with U.S. Reps. Kathy Castor and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

She then went to work as a junior associate at the political consulting firm ENH Industries. It was during her two years with ENH working on data tracking, research and statewide ballot initiatives that Summers met her future employer, Tracie Davis,

then a Jacksonville state Representative.

Davis was assembling a team for a run for state Senate and liked what she saw in Summers. Almost immediately, she recruited her as her deputy campaign manager.

“Mary is a young, energetic, intelligent and astute young woman who is extremely mature for a twentysomething,” Davis said. “I’ve never met such a young person who looks ahead so well. She doesn’t mind packing up and taking on the next challenge, and she gives everything her all.”

While working on Davis’ successful 2022 campaign, Summers reconnected with Jena Kingery, a former Vice President at ENH now serving as caucus director for Florida Senate Victory.

The two first worked together shortly after Summers graduated at the peak of the pandemic in what for some might have seemed a rather inauspicious professional start in The Process.

“I am sure she was hoping for a much more exciting first job in politics,” Kingery said. “Instead, she ended up with me in my South Tampa studio apartment, helping service Democratic campaigns and organizations across the state.”

Seeing Summers flourish while helping to helm a state Senate campaign only reinforced Kingery’s strong estimation of her former employee’s skills.

“Mary is a quick learner, fearless, and sincerely passionate about improving the lives of everyday people,” she said. “There is no job too big or small for her to volunteer to tackle, and I cannot wait to see where her rising star takes her next.”

Other than a three-month stint as a canvassing director for Janet Cruz, Summers has been with Davis ever since and now works as the Senator’s principal legislative aide in Tallahassee. That title hardly covers the breadth of her responsibilities, which also include speechwriting and policy research.

According to Davis, Summers’ potential is limited only by her aspirations.

Summers, meanwhile, hasn’t yet decided where she wants to end up. What she does know, she said, is that she’s relishing every step getting there.

“No matter what I do in politics, it’s sort of like a puzzle, and every job I’ve had has been different,” she said. “It’s been a lot of fun to pick the pieces that work for me.”

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SAMANTHA STORY

F

rom the soccer field to the halls of the legislature, Samantha Story has been a standout player. The communications specialist for the House of Representatives, Story has learned more in seven years than some people learn in 70, thanks to work for Rep. Paul Renner, starting long before he became Speaker of the House.

She has devoured issues, translated complicated bills into camera-ready print, worked with media, and so much more.

“I just love it,” Story said. “The issues are so big. Last year it was health care and the expansion of school choice. This year it’s the social media bill and ESG. I’ve got-

ten to work with the sponsors of those bills, help them draft op-eds and work with reporters, and it’s really opened my eyes to how The Process works.”

Renner said he has relied on Story to represent him in “countless” constituent meetings he is unable to attend, certain she will not only gather the substance of individuals’ needs, but relate to them as fellow Floiridians.

“Samantha has helped expand our communications capability,” the Speaker wrote in an email, “putting her knowledge of the legislative process and digital communications to get the word out on our policy successes at the Florida House.”

A Palatka native, Story excelled on the Palatka High soccer team, though she won’t volunteer that. Records are scant, but as a junior she scored one of the Panthers’ two goals in a double-overtime loss for the dis-

trict semifinals, a newspaper reported.

Story majored in political science at Florida State University, minoring in communications and graduating in 2016. In January 2017 she took a part-time clerical job for the House Appropriations Committee, staying through the Legislative Session. It was a short but invaluable experience, Renner noted, because the stint in appropriations “prepared her well to handle local funding requests and track our budget priorities.”

She joined Renner’s office soon after, as a legislative aide. At the time, she later learned, House leaders were already eyeing the Flagler County Republican for a possible speakership one day. But none of that mattered then.

“I had no idea what was going on,” she said. “I had no idea he would be a future Speaker.”

A year later, Story took on an additional role – as Palatka High’s assistant varsity soccer coach. Besides game support and leading agility drills, she used her communications skills to fundraise, set up media interviews, put videos together and post the team’s successes on social media.

“It’s a small town and soccer is not very big there,” she said. “It was important to me that they have the best experience.”

She remained an aide for five and a half years, until Renner assumed the speakership in November 2022. At that point her role grew to communications specialist for the Office of Public Information, which covers the Speaker’s office and other House matters under director Andres Malave.

She has worked both in Tallahassee and Palm Coast and couldn’t be happier, she says. The new expanded role meant she had to say goodbye to coaching – for now, at least.

“I just love it. The issues are so big ... I’ve gotten to work with the sponsors ...

help

them

draft

op-eds and work with reporters, and it’s really opened my eyes to how The Process works.”

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ADRIANNA TRAN

A

drianna Tran, Director of Government Relations for Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, prides herself on being a voice for the voiceless.

Her dedication to serving the community she calls home — she’s a central Florida native — draws attention from colleagues and clients alike.

Community Legal Services provides no-cost legal services to vulnerable individuals in Central Florida. The organization’s mission is to help its clients protect their families’ health and livelihoods.

It’s a fitting place for Tran, who has taken her role a step above the call. In her role as Director of Government Relations, Tran is charged with the strategic establishment and development of the government relations department, playing a pivotal role in shaping its overarching strategies, priorities, and messaging. The role requires a keen understanding of the intricacies of government affairs, which Tran exudes through her extensive work educating and advocating at the local, state and federal levels on emerging issues facing the state

and Community Legal Services clients.

In addition to her work with elected officials, Tran also takes on the responsibility of training and educating staff and partner organizations, including on the various nuances of effective strategies in the government affairs space.

Tran’s colleagues describe her as a forward-thinking leader and praise her ability to effectively move the organization’s strategic planning processes and align government affairs strategy with

broader organizational goals. She works to mitigate potential risks and challenges through meticulous planning.

Tran serves as a liaison between the organization’s client-facing staff and agencies they work with, facilitating communication channels to navigate government regulations and processes.

“With a vision for impactful change and a commitment to excellence, Adrianna Tran is driving Community Legal Services toward a future of successful advocacy and strengthened governmental relations,” Community Legal Services offered in its nomination for Tran as a Rising Star.

Prior to her work with Community Legal Services, Tran was an aide to former Rep. Kamia Brown, an Ocoee Democrat who left the Legislature after losing her 2022 bid for state Senate. In that role, Tran worked to further Brown’s legislative initiatives and appropriations projects in Tallahassee.

She also, true to her servant’s heart, served as a community advocate while representing Brown in the Central Florida community.

Tran also served as Director of Community Outreach for Barry Law School. In that role she spearheaded the school’s initiatives, including fostering stronger connections between the school and broader community.

Her work spanned several responsibilities, including establishing a comprehensive development plan; drafting speeches, talking points and written correspondence to the community; writing grants; and organizing outreach campaigns. Her work was all done within the context of the school’s mission of collaborative service and social justice.

Tran also worked in several internships, including to a state Representative, in the House Minority Office, and for the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

Tran earned her undergraduate degree in International Affairs and English from Florida State University in 2020. She is currently furthering her education in the political communications master’s degree program at the University of Florida.

“With a vision for impactful change and a commitment to excellence, Adrianna Tran is driving Community Legal Services toward a future of successful advocacy and strengthened governmental relations.”

—community legal services Spring 2024

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rom the beginning, Kayla vanWieringen had seen politics as a chance to make a difference. So, she hopscotched through college and campaigns, broadening her knowledge of what Floridians cared about most.

“Now, the senior vice president of Edge Communications in Miami is driving Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s re-election campaign.”

“The county in itself is like a small country,” vanWieringen said of the seventh-largest county in the U.S. Seasoned from eight years of political involvement, she has learned to reach out to persuadable voters while reassuring the base, which for her has leaned solidly Democratic.

“You have to talk to your base, inspire your base, make sure they know that you are delivering for them on the things they care about,” she said.

“But you also have to give folks who might be on the fence — and even folks who might be on the other side — (knowledge) that you are also delivering for them and you don’t care about those party lines.”

Levine Cava, she said, is the “second-most powerful elected official in the state,” behind Gov. Ron DeSantis. “She oversees the seventh-largest county budget in the nation.”

Miami-Dade’s government is structured with a nonpartisan strong Mayor at the top.

Still, vanWieringen said, “the fact that she’s a Democrat in this position is huge.”

A native of West Palm Beach, vanWieringen graduated from Dreyfoos School of the Arts, a magnet school, where she concentrated on theater. She earned an associate’s degree at Valencia College, then moved on to the Florida State University, majoring in philosophy and political science.

She immersed herself in the College Democrats and the League of Women Voters. vanWieringen got involved in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and after graduation in 2017 joined the state’s Governor’s race behind Andrew Gillum. She stayed through the election in 2018, playing a number of roles, including fundraising and scheduling director.

The 28-year-old spent 11 months in the state House as a legislative aide, where her work included assisting Rep. Dotie Joseph as the freshman legislator was shepherding a successful bill to extend unemployment benefits to displaced domestic violence victims.

From there, vanWieringen hooked up with Elizabeth Warren’s presidential run, coordinating statewide campus outreach until the Senator ended her campaign in March 2020. That same month, she joined Ruth’s List Florida, which prioritizes women’s issues and stands firmly behind abortion rights.

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KAYLA VANWIERINGEN

The U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision on June 24, 2022, hit hard.

“I remember that day so clearly,” vanWieringen said, “because we knew this was coming. I remember being surprised at how emotionally impacted I was.”

Her colleagues were also stunned. “I think we felt, ‘What’s next? How do we reorient to this world where this is the new standard?’”

She stayed at Ruth’s List for four years, the last two as vice president of politics and programs. She joined Edge Communications in March 2023, but smoothed out the transition for Ruth’s List by also working part-time another two months at her old job.

Her current position running Levine Cava’s campaign is everything she had hoped for and she’s getting rave reviews from leadership.

“Since 2016, when she entered the world of politics, Kayla has made her mark in Florida’s complex political landscape and shown deep passion for great work, always with a smile,” said Christian Ulvert, Edge Communication’s president.

Levine Cava, a lawyer, has made her own impression on the county since winning the office in 2020. In the past year she has emphasized public housing, transportation, digital literacy, relief for small businesses, and a bond sale for victims of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. She currently faces five opponents in the November election, including Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid, a Republican.

In her off time, vanWieringen enjoys baking pastries and other kinds of sweets, or making floral bouquets. She has learned that she needs to recharge her own passions during those hours in order to give her all every day.

Also boosting her spirits is a belief the Democrats can and do still contend in state politics.

“We are firmly in that swing state space,” she said. “It’s one of the reasons I feel very committed to working here and campaigning here and electing leaders who will move us. If I didn’t believe that, it would be harder to stay and feel like I’m making that difference.”

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FULL REP ORT & KEY FIND I NG S :

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TIED TO FLORIDA’S HOSPITALS AND AFFILIATED HEALTH CARE BUSINESSES

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JOHN WALLACE

J

ohn Wallace didn’t exactly dream of a career in politics growing up. When he did pay attention, it wasn’t the most powerful people that caught his eye. It was the intermediaries speaking for them.

The 22-year-old son of a Navy man, he moved around some growing up — from south Georgia to Maryland to Jacksonville in time for high school — but held on to certain compass points.

“I grew up with a dad who instilled hard work in me from a young age,” he said. “So I always knew that nothing was going to be handed to me, and that I had to work my tail off to get whatever I wanted.”

Since the peak of the last election season, Wallace has been serving as press secretary for the Senate Majority Office. As such, he operates under both pressure and scrutiny as a key point of contact in the 28-member Republican majority led by Sen. Ben Albritton.

The job was his final stop in a whirlwind 2022, during which time he was a legislative project manager at Supernova Digital Communications, an Enwright Rimes company; managed the successful campaign of Rep. Shane Abbott; and returned to Enwright Rimes, this time as a campaign consultant for candidates running for everything from school boards to the state Senate.

The same campaign season saw the departure of Kinley Morgan, spokeswoman for the Senate Majority Office (and a former INFLUENCE Rising Star), to Pinnacle Media; and Albritton as the new majority leader, replacing Debbie Mayfield.

Katherine Betta, a spokeswoman for Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, knew filling the spot left by Morgan would not be easy.

“We advertised for the position,” Betta said. “John’s resume really stood out for the incredible work ethic. And at 21 years old, he already had a tremendous amount of experience, having worked his way through school.

He had done the kinds of things we would be doing day in and day out, and he already had years of experience on the consulting side.”

From that diverse skill set, the written communications abilities he honed under Jim Rimes are among the most challenging, calling for clarity and synthesis.

“When you are in the communications space,” Wallace said, “you are trying to take very complex issues and policies that have nuances, and boil them down, often to a couple of sentences or maybe a page.”

A bill might run a hundred pages, but somebody has to distill its essence to a page or two. “It’s a skill that certainly takes time to learn,” Wallace said. “But once you’re able to do that, it makes the whole process much more seamless for any type of legislation you are writing about.”

He describes himself more as a specialist than an expert. He greatly values Sen. Albritton’s encouragement, whose position Wallace is often called upon to summarize.

“He’s just amazing to work with,” Wallace said of the Majority Leader. “He is supportive of what we’re doing and of his staff. He always tells me, ‘I trust you.’ Just a very easy guy to work with. And since a lot of what I do is writing, I try to capture his voice as best I can.”

He values recharging time on weekends, including hiking the many trails in the area, or spending time with his girlfriend, Margaret Gahan, who works in public affairs for a consulting firm. He teaches a catechism class on Sundays, and visits family still in Jacksonville when he can.

For the time being, Wallace seemed energized — inspired, even — by circumstances themselves, the work he was hired to do. “It’s just been a tremendous learning experience and it’s a lot of fun at the same time,” he said.

Asked if he envisions reaching a larger audience, perhaps a national audience one day, he replied: “One can dream about whatever life has in store for me. But I leave that all up to God. Whatever happens, happens. I just try to do good work where I’m at.”

“So I always knew that nothing was going to be handed to me, and that I had to work my tail off to get whatever I wanted.”

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RYAN WALKER

I

t wasn’t long ago that speaking to the media left Ryan Walker “terrified.” But as press secretary to Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, it’s become second nature.

That’s in part because of a shifting role within government. As a legislative aide, the 30-year-old never wanted to run afoul of his bosses’ official positions, while a comms shop helps shape public messaging.

But it’s also just the change in scope and reach to which he’s now exposed working in the Florida Cabinet.

“I’ve learned an extreme amount about government communications and about how the political process works in the executive branch,” Walker said. “It has allowed a bird’s-eye view of Florida politics, especially having the opportunity to travel as press secretary.”

That also allowed him to get to know Patronis and understand his outlook on government. “I get to see kind of the world through his eyes with him,” Walker said. “I see behind the curtain, and it’s given huge insight to politics and government and how the sausage was actually made. It’s been a game-changing and eye-opening experience.”

Patronis praised Walker as “very professional,” saying the press secretary always gave 110% — and has a “very promising side hustle future in karaoke.”

Well before working for Patronis, Walker had an interest in politics dating back to his days as at Glades Day School in Belle Glade.

He became involved in student government while attending the University of Florida and volunteered for the Palm Beach County Republican Party learning the basics of party politics from then-chair Michael Barnett.

He later interned at one of then-Gov. Rick Scott’s regional offices, gaining his first exposure to external affairs.

Then he jumped on a campaign team for Newberry Republican Chuck Clemons when he first ran for state House in 2016. Clemons won that seat in a Democratic-leaning district. Walker stepped away from The Process briefly to earn a law degree at Stetson University, but then found himself working in the Legislature for Republican state Rep. Lauren Melo, of Naples. “I just fell in love with The Process from there,” he said.

He later moved to Patronis’ staff, but his work in Southwest Florida turned out to be far from over. Walker still recalls the intense experiences while traveling through the region after Hurricane Ian struck in 2022. He still recalls looking at a home in Fort Myers Beach with walls torn 148

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“It has allowed a bird’s-eye view of Florida politics, especially having the opportunity to travel as press secretary.” down and seeing one room nearly pristine with a well-made bed, while in the next room over there as a swaying chandelier over a wrecked dining room. At that point, authorities were still trying to track down individuals missing after the storm.

“It just looked like a war zone,” he said.

After that, the office dealt with a flood of insurance issues. A year later, Walker found himself touring another battered region

after Hurricane Idalia struck the Big Bend.

Those experiences will follow Walker as he pursues a career in government, perhaps as a chief of staff or agency head. He’s happy to have so many elected officials as mentors, though he still credits his parents, Pete and Reagan Walker, for encouraging him to set lofty dreams. “My parents had to work for what they had and achieved the American Dream in its purest form.”

“Probably one of the first things I’ve learned in the first year of being able to lead a legislative affairs team is that it is a group effort. I’m working with a great group of folks, a team that’s firing on all cylinders.”

LANCE WATSON

S

ome of Lance Watson’s earliest memories involving riding in a big blue pickup truck through Gadsden County, planting yard signs.

His father, former County Commissioner Sterling Lance Watson Sr., instilled a love of politics and community in his child through Sunday church visits and regular stump speeches. That followed a family tradition, as Lance Watson’s grandfather, Walter Watson, had been the Mayor of Quincy years before.

“I cut my teeth on this,” the younger Watson said. “I was bit by the political bug early.”

He even ran for office himself, winning a seat on the Gadsden County Soil and Water Conservation Board in 2020.

Changes to such bodies by the Florida Legislature forced him in 2022 to face a

political ally on the ballot; both decided not to actively campaign and Watson lost the seat to Michael Brown by 329 votes.

“But the 2020 win, I learned a lot,” Watson said. “Hard work really does pay off. I raised almost $20,000 for that seat, knocked on doors, waved signs on the corner, really gave it my all and the result speaks for itself. Not only that, but I learned so much about the community too. Lived there my whole life and ventured into parts I had never visited before.

I really learned we are far more alike than we are different.”

Now Watson serves as the Legislative Affairs Director for the Florida Public Service Commission, working on energy issues and policy. “Probably one of the first things I’ve learned in the first year of being able to lead a legislative affairs team is that it is a group effort,” he said. “I’m working with a great group of folks, a team that’s firing on all cylinders.”

He previously worked at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission as a Deputy Director of that agency’s legislative team.

Before that, he worked in the Tallahassee

regional office for U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.

He also worked in the James Madison Institute as a student outreach coordinator for a year starting in 2016. He learned a good deal about policy, he said, from interning under Cynthia Henderson, a former Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary who now runs the Cynergy Consulting Firm.

The whole way, public service has remained his highest calling. That could have taken many forms — after serving in ROTC at Florida State University, Watson planned to join the military, but an injury prevented that.

He’s delighted to be working within government. Of course, he also has duties on the home front. The 30-year-old’s son, Sterling Lance Watson III, was born in mid-2023.

Watson has worked on a number of policy areas, and could still run for office again in Gadsden County, maybe for a seat in the Florida House.

“It’s in my DNA to do it,” he said.

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M

any Rising Stars start with a clear vision of what they want to do with their life and a job trajectory that shoots them straight to their goals. Kathryn Whitehurst is not one of those people.

But through a series of jobs with great mentors, she lucked out in public service and found a passion for helping those in need.

The 35-year-old’s career path has been circuitous. After graduating from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in political science, she returned to her Panama City hometown for some temporary jobs “until I figured out what I wanted to do with my life.” In the ensuing years, Whitehurst served as a congressional aide and worked at a think tank in Washington, D.C.; then returned to Florida — this time in Tallahassee — to work on a statewide campaign, at The Southern Group, and then served in a variety of positions in state government’s health and human services agencies.

Whitehurst said while her path was not pre-orchestrated, the journey has been rewarding and has allowed her the opportunity to gain experience, which led to her current position as the Director of Strategic Programming and Operational Alignment at the Florida Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD).

Her career began with an internship back home in the 2nd Congressional District office of U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland.

That would lead to an offer to join his staff and move to the nation’s capital.

“I was his scheduler, so I managed his day-to-day, in D.C.,” she said. “And then got a little bit more responsibility and did district scheduling, which is fun because we’re a split time zone. So that was always a challenge, but being able to help my community back home was rewarding.”

Southerland’s office focused a lot on the benefits of a strong economy. “One of his big initiatives was … about the dignity of work and how important it was to have a job,” she said. Some of the anti-poverty initiatives the Representative espoused were also a priority at the Washington-based nonprofit public policy research think tank, the American Enterprise Institute, where Whitehurst served as a member of the events team.

Ultimately, the lure of family and Florida led Whitehurst to return to her home state, although she doesn’t regret her time at the seat of national politics.

“It was a great way to spend my 20s,” she said. “I made some incredible friends there that I’m still friends with. “I tell everybody who’s interested in this at all, ‘Go up

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KATHRYN WHITEHURST there, experience it. There’s nothing like it, but if you want to make real change, come back to Florida.’ Because it just takes so long for anything to get done up there.”

While she wanted to be closer to her family when she came back to Florida, she took a friend’s advice and moved to Tallahassee.

Whitehurst would spend time at the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and then join one of Tallahassee’s top lobbying firms, The Southern Group, where she had the opportunity to support the firm’s strategic efforts. From there, Whitehurst went on to serve at the Department of Children and Families (DCF), working as a legislative and communications liaison where she would meet her mentor and the then-DCF Deputy Secretary Taylor Hatch. In this role,

Whitehurst supported the agency in designing, implementing, and strengthening initiatives to provide prevention services to build resilient families.

When Hatch moved to take a position at APD, she called Whitehurst to follow.

In her current position, she supports the “client-facing” services of her agency. In short, when people seek help, her team works to provide solutions. And in a system as convoluted as Florida’s social services, the learning curve is steep and long, but she is determined to make a meaningful difference.

At first, “I tried to be a sponge. I wanted to soak up as much information as I could,” she said. “What’s really special about the agencies, there are people that have been there for most of their careers because they are so connected to the work, they

“I tried to be a sponge. I wanted to soak up as much information as I could. What’s really special about the agencies, there are people that have been there for most of their careers because they are so connected to the work, they know how important it is or they have a personal connection. And they want to serve. It’s been incredible to have that institutional knowledge, to be able to learn from them.”

know how important it is or they have a personal connection. And they want to serve.

It’s been incredible to have that institutional knowledge, to be able to learn from them.”

Part of her mission, Whitehurst said, is to streamline the process between when a need is identified, and how clients are given the services they require.

It’s not an easy task, but one Whitehurst’s boss asks her coworkers to think of from a client perspective: “One of the things (Hatch) always challenges us to think about is what if this was your loved one. Think about if this was someone you were trying to navigate the system for … how would you even know where to start? How would you even know who to call and how many closed doors do you have to get to before you give up? And what are we doing as agencies to work in the background.”

“I love what I’m doing,” she continued. “I love being in a state agency and, and having the ability truly, as millennial as this might sound, but every day to feel like you’re helping people. To wake up in the morning and think (about) what you do to make a difference in somebody’s life. And I hope to be able to continue that in the future and be able to work for leaders that I really believe in.”

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BRIAN WRIGHT

B

rian Wright has worked his way through and up the political ladder in Florida at warp speed, from his early days as a staffer in the Tampa Bay area office of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio to his latest endeavor with U.S. Sen. Rick Scott’s re-election campaign.

Wright currently serves as Director of External Affairs for Scott’s team. Under his leadership, the campaign has secured dozens of statewide and national endorsements for Scott’s re-election and has overseen and executed dozens of press conferences across all Florida media markets.

But his current job and his success in it isn’t even what lands Wright on this list — it’s how quickly he rose through the ranks into key leadership roles.

Wright graduated from the University of Tampa in mid-2019 with a degree in political science. About three months after graduation, he landed a job in Rubio’s Tampa office, as a regional representative.

It’s an entry-level position, but one that is often a stepping stone to bigger, higher-profile roles. And step Wright did.

At Rubio’s office, Wright proved himself by supporting Rubio’s regional director in representing nine counties, while handling constituent services, facilitating meetings, speaking at local events on behalf of Rubio, gathering and disseminating to staff daily press clips, and facilitating the office’s internship program.

His stint with Team Rubio lasted until July 2021, which means he was a key regional staffer during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Brian handled it with the poise of a pro,” said Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce Senior Director of Government Relations Joshua Gabel, who worked with Wright in Rubio’s office. “Navigating the Paycheck Protection Program and helping constituents connect to banks that were providing the loans, reaching out to DEO for those constituents who needed unemployment money and frankly, just being a voice for someone to talk to during hard times — Brian did all of this during his time with the Senator’s office and I believe it helped shaped him into who he is today.”

Wright would go on to work in the Office of Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody in the Summer of 2021, beginning as a public affairs coordinator. He worked his way up to Deputy Director of Public Affairs the very next Summer and then, just

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a few months later, landed a promotion as Director of External Affairs. It’s a meteoric rise that happens, but not easily.

Gabel attributes Wright’s success to his “political acumen, thoughtful presence and dedication to his career,” which Gabel said is “unmatched.”

Wright left Moody’s Office last June to work on Scott’s campaign, but his success

story doesn’t stop there.

He’s managing parts of a major statewide campaign all while pursuing his Masters of Public Administration from the Florida State University Askew School of Public Administration.

With campaign work being naturally temporary, it’s clear that Wright’s star will continue to rise.

“Brian handled it with the poise of a pro.”

— joshua gabel

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What I’ve Learned

Fred Baggett 79, Tallahassee Of Counsel, Greenberg Traurig As told to Rosanne Dunkelberger

ON HIS RECENT RETIREMENT

I told the firm two years ago that I thought that this would be an appropriate time. This past year, I spent transitioning all my clients to other lawyers and lobbyists in the office — which worked out real well because all the clients stayed and they all seem very happy with the people who are working with them now.

Technically, I’m not part of the firm. The firm asked me (if) I’d stay of counsel and I said, ‘I really think I would just quit,’ (but) since I own the building with two other people, I kept a little office upstairs. I have a little contract with one of my clients who says ‘you cannot go.’ And I said ‘OK, you can call me once in a while, but if I’m fishing or playing golf, I’m not gonna answer the phone.’

ABOUT THAT SPECIAL CLIENT

It was back in 1973 and I had hung a shingle.

I had worked for the (previous) 2 ½ years for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (on) his efforts — along with the Legislature — to create a new state court system, which did away with all the local courts we had in Florida that were really cash-registers-to-justice type courts, and created what we have now — two trial courts and two appellate courts. I had been very much involved in that process and represented the Supreme Court before the Legislature.

It went into effect in January of ’73 … and the court clerks called and said, ‘under this new system you all created, we don’t know what our job is necessarily and we need some help, and we need help in the Legislature.’ So they hired me. And they have been my client all the way through.

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PHOTO: The Workmans

“I have a little contract with one of my clients who says ‘you cannot go.’

And I said ‘OK, you can call me once in a while, but if I’m fishing or playing golf, I’m not gonna answer the phone.’”

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WHAT I’VE LEARNED

“I’ve never had a client that I didn’t think of as developing a ‘we’ relationship.”

In the end of the ’90s … we assisted in creating a statewide case information system. My job was legislatively to gain support and financing for some of these programs — and they still exist today.

2010 was when we created the E-Filing portal that is today one of the most efficient filing systems in the country and has one of the largest volumes, if not the largest volume, of filings. All lawyers have to file all their pleadings and other documents with the court through that E-Filing portal. And we did that in conjunction with the Supreme Court.

This has been more than just a lobbying job and more than just a lawyer’s job.

It’s really been part of a family and something that I have enjoyed and found a great deal of satisfaction in helping with.

ON GUNSLINGERS AND INTENSITY

The Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers honored the long-term relationship by naming their headquarters the Fred W. Baggett Building. PHOTO: The Workmans In the early years of (The Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers Association), we worked real hard to try to develop best practices for them and how they would do their jobs and (work) with the Legislature to start creating some uniformity.

In the mid-’80s and starting into the ’90s, the clerks were concerned about maintaining their independence and their elected status. They had been elected officers since 1845 in the first Florida Constitution and (had) been developed to serve both the courts and the counties as the comptroller for the county — the custodian of county funds, the county auditor, those types of functions — as well as the clerk to the courts. They have been sort of the invisible county officer — rarely contested. It was the belief that they needed to come out and tell the public what their duties really were and how they served and the value of their elected independence. So in 1990, they got together in an infamous … meeting over at a fish camp at Saint John’s River and decided to expand their association

into one of public education.

We helped them create a subsidiary that could provide services — particularly technology services — not only to the clerks but to the state agencies. This was a joint effort, which our office was very much involved in creating with the state.

It was an automated traffic citation program, which we put into statute that the association would provide a system that transmitted to Highway Safety all the traffic tickets that were being submitted to the clerks. That was the first time there was any kind of automated system of that nature.

We also created by statute with the Department of Revenue a child support information system that put all the clerks together in providing information to child support payers, and in fact, created a way for the payers who paid the individual clerks to have those funds transmitted to the Department of Revenue. So through the ’90s, the clerks, through their association, became much more public and much more useful to not only the individual clerks but to state government.

I’ve never had a client that I didn’t think of as developing a “we” relationship. One of the moments of pride about my time with the firm has been the continuity of our representation, particularly in the lobby side of the practice — they stay with us. The Clerks, 51 years.

Ford Motor Company, something like 29 years. The Airline Association 20-something years. These are our clients and our goal is to give them the comfort and confidence that we’re there for them all the time and we need the firm, not just one person. We’re not what you would call “gunslingers” as some lobbyists … who are hired just for one issue.

I am focused and passionate (about) my clients and their issues. That doesn’t mean I’ve got to be loud and boisterous about it. I find it much more effective to deal with the process of legislators and staff in a calm, mature manner as opposed to an obvious intensity. Am I intense? Yes, internally. Externally, my goal is to be polite and substantive on my issues and deal with people as I would want them to deal with me.

ON AGE AND RETIREMENT AND JOINING THE CIA

I’m 79. There’s a whole lot of difference between 78 and 79. I don’t know why, 78 in my mind doesn’t seem to be that old. Seventy-nine is approaching 80.

And that’s a whole different mindset.

I like to cook and I always wanted to be a better cook. I’ll never be a chef, but I can be a lot better cook. And the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) is not one of the degree programs.

It’s a series of one-week-long courses, the first starting in March. Hyde Park, Spring 2024

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WHAT I’VE LEARNED New York, which is the main school. It’ll be on fundamentals of cooking, followed the next month by a week on Italian cooking. Then a week on French cooking, a week on Asian cooking. After that, I don’t know, I might be out of weeks or looking for more weeks, but I am looking forward to it.

The other thing that I will be doing a lot of is playing more golf. I’m probably the second-worst golfer in all of Tallahassee. I won’t mention who’s the first, but a lot of that comes from time constraints in the past. You can’t get better if you don’t play. So I’m looking to play two or three times a week. My wife is looking for me to play, hopefully, even more than that.

I figure between golf, fishing — which I love to do — and going to the CIA, I’ll be plenty busy.

HOW ROBERTS, MILLER, BAGGETT, LAFACE BECAME GREENBERG TRAURIG

Ron LaFace … was a great friend and a great partner for 40-something years before he passed away. John Miller left

us early in the ’70s to go to tech school in New York and Barry Richard joined us.

So the firm was Roberts, Baggett, Laface & Richard from the mid-’70s on and we grew to about 15 lawyers.

In the summer of 1991 … Greenberg Traurig came knocking at our door. At that time, they were purely a South Florida firm — Miami, Fort Lauderdale and had just opened West Palm Beach. But they realized that to serve their South Florida clients, they needed to be able to serve them in the capital city. … They were smart enough to realize that being in Miami didn’t sell as well as being in the capital and that they needed a true capital presence. So that was us.

It was a big jump for us, a big decision, to go from having your name on the door and being considered as part of the good old boys of Tallahassee, to being part of this Miami law firm.

From 1991 until the day I left … they have let this office operate itself. I cannot tell you how proud I am of … them letting us make our decisions and … as they said, “we provide you the resources to do your job and get out of your way.”

While his firm was acquired by the big-city law firm Greenberg Traurig, its capital city offices at the corner of College Avenue and Adams Street have retained their traditional Tallahassee charm. Photo: The Workmans

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The firm has grown to approximately 2,700 lawyers and 47 offices and, I don’t know, three continents, and yet we still are considered the family office here in Tallahassee. If you go to Miami or New York or Atlanta, you’ll see a lot of chrome and glass.

You don’t see it here and you’re not going to. That’s a silly little reflection, but it’s meaningful to us.

They gave me the opportunity to express a vision of a national Government Affairs practice. The vision was that lawyers can do an awful lot for clients — but there comes a point in many representations where public policy and legislation can be more effective than litigation. And our approach was not so much to be the general counsel of a client, but to go to the CEO to say, “you have an issue here, you can litigate for five years and spend a ton of money or let us help you in the Legislature and in one year, maybe two, at a fraction of what your litigation would cost.”

THE SEMINOLE TRIBE: A HIGH-PROFILE, HIGH-STAKES CLIENT

Soon after we joined, I began representing a client that had a contract with the tribe to develop and operate the casino in Hollywood if we could get the Governor to agree to a compact. That was during the mid-‘90s — and lasted for three or four years of effort and resulted in Gov. Lawton Chiles, on a Friday evening, agreeing to sit down and negotiate a compact. Unfortunately, he passed away the next day, and Gov. Jeb Bush made it clear he would not consider any kind of arrangement that allowed for the development of a casino in Florida during his administration. So, while that looked like a dead end, it really was the beginning of another chapter in which we continued … trying to put together the agreement with the Seminoles to build what was allowed, what was then called class III gaming. We did that for a couple years, during which time our partner, Barry Richard, was representing the Tribe in litigating this whole issue. The end result was, Barry was successful.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE PROCESS?

The gift ban, I think, has been self-defeating. It removed something from The Process that it never intended to remove, and that’s the ability of people to get to know each other and to trust each other.

If there’s one major flaw in The Process today, in my mind, it’s a lack of trust.

GETTING PERSONAL

I have a wonderful personal life. I have a wife of 49.5 years, celebrating our 50th this coming November. Lyn is a Tallahassee girl. Her father was an architect here in town and Lyn had taken a break from college and was working for a lawyer. A friend of mine called me one day and said “you need to go by Ben Phipps office and see his new assistant.

I did and I’ve been with her ever since.

She is the mother of two daughters — Katherine, who is a lawyer down in Wellington, and was a partner with a trust and estates firm in Manhattan where she practiced for 10 years before moving to Palm Beach County, (and) my other daughter is Rebecca, who lives with our two grandsons in Littleton, Colorado and works in Denver for McKinsey & Company, a global consulting firm.

A big part of our family life (was), when the girls were growing up with their horses. Both were hunter jumpers and one still has her horse and rides to-

Fred Baggett credits his wife and family for much of the success he has enjoyed throughout his career. Photo: The Workmans day. But our weekends were pretty much horse show weekends and it grew us very close together.

We have a little beach house down at Saint Teresa and I have been told by my entire family that if I have any intention of selling it, they will collectively divorce me. Our favorite getaway has always been the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas.

That’s a special place for our family.

During the 10 to 15 years of firm expansion that I was participating in I was on the road about three days a week, which makes it hard to take care of your clients, by the way.

I don’t think I could have done what I have had the opportunity to do without the support of my family. My wife and my love for her has kept this whole thing together.

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