Welcome to The Dean’s List — an Ed Dean-style look at which Florida’s political achievers and issues were major winners in 2015. What you see here is strictly my opinion, not necessarily the editor’s or the rest of the staff at Sunshine State News.
THOSE THAT MADE THE LIST
School Choice Supporters. Education reform is becoming one of the biggest issues in Florida. Common Core is becoming less popular while the “opt-out” movement is getting more attention. The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, a program that provides private school vouchers to more than 70,000 low-income students, is more popular than ever. In the past year, the Florida Education Association (FEA) lost its challenge to the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program as a Florida Circuit Court judge threw out the lawsuit. A challenge from the teachers union to the Student Success Act also came up short in federal court.
Americans For Prosperity’s Florida Chapter. This free market advocacy group was active in 2015 and scored some big wins. Spending heavily on direct mailers and radio ads going after members of both parties on the issues of Medicaid expansion and taxpayer subsidies for sports stadiums and the movie industry, AFP came out a winner, showing it remains a major force in the Sunshine State.
State Rep. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill. The chairman of the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) had a good 2015. After a close victory over Leslie Dougher who had Gov. Rick Scott’s support, Ingoglia looked as if he had a bullseye on his back. There were certainly big challenges as Scott and his allies were (and are) more concerned with helping Let’s Get to Work than the RPOF and the Senate leadership pulled their cash out of the RPOF’s hands. There were also grumbles from local GOP officials that Ingoglia wasn’t up to the job. But Ingoglia responded well, meeting groups that opposed him, building bridges with the Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) and scoring a big win as the presidential candidates came down to the Sunshine Summit in November. There are still major challenges for RPOF, especially as November draws near, but Ingoglia had a solid 2015.
Citizens Insurance Reform. In 2012, Citizens Insurance had 1.5 million policy holders. But those numbers have dropped. Over the year, 280,000 policy holders have left the government run insurance agency and have been moved to the private sector. In June, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation reported there were only 598,000 still left on Citizens policies. Having more homeowners covered by the private market and keeping Citizens as the insurer as last resort is the right way for Florida to go and 2015 saw major strides made.
(See who DIDN'T make the list in the next edition.)
Ed Dean, a senior editor with Sunshine State News whose talk show can be heard on radio stations in Jacksonville, Tampa Bay, Daytona Beach, Orlando, the Space Coast, the Treasure Coast and South Florida from West Palm Beach to Miami. It can also be heard in parts of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. You can reach him at ed@sunshinestatenews.com. Follow him on Twitter: @eddeanradio.
