Hollywood–“Attainable” housing for workers and steps to prevent a push by “woke” billionaires on issues such as energy and fossil fuels will be priorities during the next couple of legislative sessions, incoming House and Senate leaders said Saturday.
Meanwhile, as the Republican Party of Florida opened its Sunshine Summit at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Broward County, Gov. Ron DeSantis revved up the crowd by saying the GOP this year has a chance to gain four congressional seats in Florida, create “super majorities” in the Legislature and place more Republicans on school boards.
“I think this year, we have an opportunity to have an historic red wave. And part of that is to hopefully keep me around as governor,” DeSantis, who is running for re-election in November, said after taking the stage to music and applause.
DeSantis during the morning appearance also hit several GOP applause lines, such as calling President Joe Biden “Brandon” and saying other states have plunged into a “Faucian dystopia,” referring to Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser who has been a Republican target because of his views on COVID-19 issues.
The daylong summit also was slated to include debates for Republican candidates in congressional districts 4, 7, 13 and 15 and panel discussions on “surviving Biden-Flation,” election integrity and “woke” sports, before wrapping up with dinner speeches by DeSantis, First Lady Casey DeSantis, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, and Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez.
Conservative talk-radio and Fox News host Mark Levin, before moderating the first in the series of congressional debates, said “we need to be laser focused. We need to take our culture back, our classrooms back, our border back, our economy back, our Constitution back.”
In a morning panel before DeSantis appeared, incoming Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, pointed to a need for lawmakers during the 2023 session to address “attainable” housing for workers.
“We’ve attracted so many great businesses into the state, we have so many good educational opportunities we’re working on,” Passidomo said. “The real key, that is the people that are coming here from all over the country have to have a place to live.”
Passidomo and incoming House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, alluded to a program similar to a $100 million “Hometown Heroes” program DeSantis signed into law this year. The program offers down-payment and closing-cost assistance for teachers, health-care workers and police officers.
Passidomo added that the state can’t dictate rent or home prices on privately held property.
Renner, who highlighted continued work to expand school choice, also said more attention is needed to address corporate pushes toward what are known as environmental, social and governance principles, which often include favoring investment in green energy over fossil fuels.
“It’s the biggest threat that I think we don’t really know much about,” Renner said. “And that is really an effort by billionaires, woke billionaires to leverage American capitalism against us and turn our American companies into advocates for the woke agenda. This includes cutting off our energy sector and inducing what I believe is going to be a politically induced energy crisis in America, going against our agriculture sector, going against a lot of things that make America work.”
Florida is in court defending a new law DeSantis dubbed the “Stop WOKE Act,” which some businesses and educators contend violates First Amendment rights. The law, passed during this year’s legislative session, restricts the way certain race-related concepts can be taught in public schools and in workplace training.
Passidomo and Renner will formally become Senate and House leaders after the November elections and will hold the positions for two years.
–Jim Turner, News Service of Florida
Ed Danko says
We have a great Governor and Paul Renner will be an outstanding Speaker of the House! America First!
David S. says
You need to quit the council and move in with you boy trump….
Ed-The says
🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
Insurrectionist support seditious traitor in bed with the Nazi’s. Authoritarian loving wannabe dictator. NOT A USA PATRIOT. You should really just raise your hand and say Heil DeSatan and then lick his boots. Pathetic incel.
TheAwakenedNotWoke says
Sedition is the favorite charge tin pot dictators bring against reason.
The dude says
Hey Eddie,
How’s that boycott going?
Steve says
Let’s go Trump Humper. Too busy running your mouth to realize The Town is being run into the ground on your watch. You’re pathetic. Go away already.
Michael Cocchiola says
So disappointed in Renner. You talk to him and he seems resonable. Then this.
Dennis C Rathsam says
Thats cause your not a republican… He might be the next governor, when Ronny,s done!
Steve says
You certainly do have an active Imagination
jeffery c. seib says
Can this state go any further towards the hard, hard right? Environmental issues are not a corporate priority, they are a people priority. The Florida House, Senate, and Governor, along with all the other state and local races have been so jimmied by DeSantis and Renner, and the other far-side extremists that it’s probably as close to cheating as one could possibly get. They have done nothing for us but pack us in more and more, so the uniqueness of Florida is on the verge of being lost. In addition, the brainwashing agenda of DeSantis and Renner will only serve to produce a generation of brain-dead zombies that will only make things ten times worse.
Joan Whittemore says
You are 100% correct. Disheartening at the least. Terrifying is more like it.
coyote says
“In addition, the brainwashing agenda of DeSantis and Renner will only serve to produce a generation of brain-dead zombies that will only make things ten times worse.”
Too late, I’m afraid. Already here.
Deborah Coffey says
I am just sickened by every one of these fascists. They are taking us to hell in a handbasket.
Dried Up says
In TWO years Lake Meade and the Colorado River will be “BONE DRY”. The exodus from the western states to the east coast will rival the exodus from the Dust Bowl many decades ago. Nevada has NOW turned OFF the water to ALL citizens .They are only allowed water for drinking, showers, washing cloths…THAT’S IT . Soon California, New Mexico, Arizona will follow suit.
How will Florida handle the influx of 75 million more people ? We barely have enough water in are aquifers now to sustain us.
The future looks very bleak unless we come up with solutions to the planets climate problems.
Paula says
Both Renner and Hutson are huge disappointments.
Wow says
Such a sad, ignorant group of phonies.
tulip says
We are headed straight for Trump world dictatorship AGAIN. Authoritarian behavior, bullying and more taking away of rights. Those who can’t “see” it happening, especially in light of what we now know about Trump antics over the last 4 years, the Jan. 6 committee hearings, and the Supreme court turning hard right, are either deaf, mentally blind. or just don’t have the brains to realize it. DeSantis has been Trump’s mentor for years and will exert every possible power to get his way. What a sad sad condition this country and it’s people are in. Those who are now indoctrinated into the Party Of Trump/Desantis will eventually realize that they have been duped will suffer the consequences of their right wing vote and will join the people who just wanted a regular good life of peace, freedom, choices, safety and a decent living who are forced to suffer through no fault of their own. This will be nationwide, as Trump has already removed people from office that weren’t loyal, and replaced them with loyalists.
Mark says
“also said more attention is needed to address corporate pushes toward what are known as environmental, social and governance principles, which often include favoring investment in green energy over fossil fuels.”
I’ll go with Green Renewable Energy over Fossil Fuels as much as I can. I would think someone that’s going to lead the State of Florida in the Legislature should be more educated on renewable resources instead of bending over for a posing clown and the clowns messiah. As the oceans rise, the storms get stronger, the heat waves go longer Renner will keep his head down and ignore it for all mighty fossil fuels. Keep your head in the sand long enough and your rear gets burned.
JimmyB says
Desantis and alike republicans are running government like Germany of the 1940’s. Taking rights away from people, taking things backwards, creating hate. Desantis is going nowhere. He did nothing when he represented the Palm Coast area and has only done vindictive things to people and companies in this state. The “do as I say or else” attitude has to go far away.
He didn’t help during the pandemic. Holding money back that was rightfully for ALL people of Florida and then using it only for his own political gain.
He and Renner need to pay attention to the real issues. What happened to the special session on home insurance? Hardly anything. Companies still leaving. We need people in government representing all of Florida. Not just their groupies.
I am a 45 year Republican member, 23 yr resident of PC, and have never seen anything like this before in my life. They have become so angry and hateful and “it’s my way or no way” mentality. I don’t care if a republican, democrat or independent gets elected as long as they are honest and are looking out for every Floridian and the country for that matter.
Laurel says
Jimmy B: Thank you for making sense! I find that these far right “Republicans” are the real RINOs. The Grand Old Party is being persecuted and suppressed. Currently, up is down, and down is up. Truth is unimportant. Whatever they claim the *other side* is doing is what they are doing themselves. That’s how you know what they are up to.
My husband was a life long Republican and had to change to Independent because he could not stand the horrid, crazy, ignorant behavior that is going on now. It was not the way he was raised in his Republican family. The offensiveness, the vindictiveness, the name calling, the government overreach, the government in your bedroom, the direction of blatant fascism, but they want us to think they are more religious, righteous and patriotic than the rest of us. This is a deliberate attempt to divide and conquer our own country from within.
Republicans need to take back their own party from these self important radicals. And the far right followers need to wake up, which reminds me, most of these followers don’t even know what “woke” means.