A coalition of national left-leaning groups -- including the Advancement Project, Color of Change and Dream Defenders -- are painting Central Florida State Attorney Aramis Ayala as an embattled civil-rights and criminal-justice reformer.
Lawyers for the organizations, which also include the Florida Immigrant Coalition and Florida branches of the NAACP and the Service Employees International Union, filed a friend-of-the-court brief Thursday in Ayala's Florida Supreme Court lawsuit against Gov. Rick Scott.
Scott stripped the newly elected prosecutor of 23 death-penalty cases after Ayala announced she would not seek capital punishment during her time in office, including in the high-profile case of accused Orlando cop-killer Markeith Loyd.
Ayala --- Florida's first black elected state attorney --- is challenging Scott's legal authority to remove her from the cases, arguing that prosecutors have broad discretion over charging decisions.
But the state and national groups contend that Scott's treatment of Ayala is a reflection of Florida's ugly history of discrimination against blacks in elections as well as in the criminal justice system.
"This has become an all-out attack from the Florida GOP on black voters, black communities and black leadership," Color of Change Executive Director Rashad Robinson, whose group backed Ayala's campaign last year, told reporters during a conference call Thursday prior to the filing of the friend-of-the-court brief.
In the 27-page court document, the group's lawyers argued that Scott's treatment of Ayala, who ousted incumbent State Attorney Jeff Ashton in an August primary, thwarted the will of the voters in her 9th Judicial Circuit region --- "particularly black voters" --- who supported changes to the criminal justice system by electing the "upstart reformer."
"While political analysts did not expect her to prevail, her reformist message was unsurprising given the political climate and Florida's recent embroilments with criminal justice issues," the lawyers wrote. "This includes the prosecution of several high profile legal cases that highlighted racial disparities in the state's criminal justice system; clear data on the ongoing and disparate targeting of black Floridians for arrest and incarceration; and even the invalidation of the state's death penalty law last year."
The lawyers noted that voters also ousted Northeast Florida State Attorney Angela Corey, who was in charge of prosecuting high-profile cases involving the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis.
The brief highlights the 2012 death of Martin -- an unarmed black teenager who was shot and killed in Sanford by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman -- as the impetus for “communities of color” in Florida to pursue criminal justice reforms.
During the telephone call, representatives of the groups blasted Scott for his actions and also pointed the finger at the Republican-led Legislature, which last week proposed cutting $1.3 million from Ayala's budget.
The Service Employees International Union has about 3,000 members in the Orange and Osceola County areas, the union's state president Monica Russo said, including many "black and brown women."
Many of the women "sleep with one eye open at night listening for footsteps of their sons and daughters to come home in one piece," she said, adding that the union members in the 9th Judicial Circuit "love and revere" Ayala.
"We've got her back, and we're ready to stand in support of our sister and whatever needs to be done," she said.
GETTING READY TO RUMBLE
The 2018 campaign for the U.S. Senate has not officially begun, but it is clearly underway.
On Wednesday, Scott, a Republican who is likely to run for the Senate next year, was touting a decision by President Donald Trump's administration that will provide $1.5 billion in Low Income Pool, or LIP, funding to help Florida hospitals provide care to poor and uninsured patients.
"It is refreshing to now have a federal government that treats us fairly and does not attempt to coerce us into expanding Medicaid," Scott said, jabbing former President Barack Obama's administration.
But Thursday, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, the incumbent Democrat who will have to fend off Scott's challenge, was making the rounds in Tallahassee, calling Scott's embrace of $1.5 billion in LIP funding while rejecting $5 billion in Medicaid funding "the greatest inconsistency, irony (and) hypocrisy."
Nelson said Florida will have to come up with 40 percent in matching funds from local governments, hospital taxing districts and the state to qualify for the $1.5 billion in LIP funding. If the state expanded Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act, Nelson said Florida would receive $5 billion next year, with only a 6 percent match.
"The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land. Why don't we do what the law is intended to do, which is take care of poor people's health care?" Nelson said. "It makes no financial sense."
Nelson even chided Scott for rejecting more than $2 billion in federal funding during the governor's first term to build a high-speed rail system between Tampa and Orlando.
"We would be the showcase of the entire country," Nelson said if Scott had not rejected the funding.
As the 2018 election approaches, Floridians can only expect more exchanges between Nelson and Scott, who likely will be Nelson's most formidable challenger since the Democrat's first election to the Senate in 2000.
Much of Scott's electoral strength lies in his ability to raise money and then bolster it with his own personal wealth.
Asked about Scott's challenge, Nelson was coy with reporters.
"Has he announced?" he asked.
Then he asked reporters how much money Scott has been raising. A Scott political committee raised more than $600,000 in March and had more than $3 million on hand through the end of February.
"Well why don't you check what I just raised," Nelson said, having reported raising more than $2 million in the first three months of 2017, with about $3.6 million on hand for his campaign.
TWEET OF THE WEEK: "Floridians Against Seersucker as Businesswear will have a press conference on the 4th floor at 1pm"---Florida Times-Union bureau chief Tia Mitchell (@TIAreports), on Seersucker Day at the Capitol.
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