Florida's Latest News

Moving ‘further to the right’? Five takeaways from the Florida primary election

Tuesday’s primaries were just canapés before November’s main course. Florida’s general election will be headlined by perhaps the most watched gubernatorial race in the country, and one that could have implications beyond who is Florida’s chief executive.

Both parties saw candidates supported by their leadership largely cruise toward getting elected or at least securing nominations in competitive contests. Democratic Party infighting is likely to ease now that U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist has secured the nomination for governor and state Sen. Lauren Book came out ahead in one of the most toxic Florida legislative primaries. 

GOP figures such as agriculture commissioner candidate Wilton Simpson, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds and many others defeated primary opponents handily. Moreover, Republicans made inroads in local elections across the state, thanks in part to Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump, either one of whom could be their party’s Presidential nominee in 2024.

Florida Chamber-backed candidates cleaned up in Primaries

The Florida Chamber of Commerce endorsed 40 candidates in competitive Primary races this cycle and 37 of them came out on top after the polls closed.

Most of the Florida Chamber’s Primary endorsements were for state legislative seats, however, the pro-business group also endorsed Senate President Wilton Simpson for Agriculture Commissioner. Simpson soundly defeated his challenger in the statewide Republican Primary for the Cabinet post.

“Congratulations to the 92% of Florida Chamber pro-jobs candidates who won their primary races,” said Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber. “Keeping Florida competitive is essential to growing Florida to a top 10 global economy by 2030. As we unite business for good, we trust those elected will champion free enterprise, job creation and keep us moving in the right direction.”

Workers’ compensation rates could be reduced by 8.4% in 2023

Here’s a bit of good news for Florida business owners.

The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) this week submitted a filing to the state insurance department that recommends an 8.4% reduction on new and renewed policies effective Jan. 1, 2023.

The filing is based on experience data for policy years 2019 and 2020 that was available as of December 2021.

“Favorable experience has been observed in each of these time periods,” Jeff Eddinger, Senior Division Executive of NCCI, told Florida Politics Wednesday.

NCCI State Relations Executive Dawn Ingham said in the filing the Council did not take COVID‐19‐related claims into consideration when recommending the 2023 workers’ compensation rates in order to “better reflect the conditions likely to prevail during the proposed effective period.”

Judge invalidates bogus claims in Florida building collapse

Hundreds of bogus claims that sought a share of the $1.1 billion settlement in the deadly collapse of a Florida condominium building were ruled as fraudulent and invalid by a judge Wednesday.

More than 450 presumably false claims, most seeking about $50,000, were filed in the court settlement arising from the June 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South building in which 98 people died.

These claims “have no connection whatsoever” to the tragedy and appear to be “claims seeking to wrongfully capitalize on this tragedy at the expense of the true victims,” court-appointed receiver Michael Goldberg said in court documents.

During a brief hearing Wednesday, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman said none of the bogus claimants showed up to provide evidence under oath so their claims will be struck from the list of settlement beneficiaries.