Florida in 2014 wasn't all about the election, but certainly Nov. 4 cast a long shadow across state news much of the year.
Nevertheless, to most people, the biggest story of the year is the one that has the greatest effect on them personally, perhaps one that didn't make this list at all. So, forgive us if we've missed something you believe is more important.
What we offer here is Sunshine State News' perspective. It's how we saw and assessed the top stories of 2014. We present our list now, most significant story first.
No. 1: The re-election of Gov. Rick Scott
Scott entered the year an 8-point underdog to his main Democratic opponent, former Gov. Charlie Crist, who had barely begun fundraising, let alone campaigning. At one point Scott was called "the most unpopular governor in America." And almost no one predicted he could overcome the odds. Yet, his was a constant message of accomplishment in office -- job creation, an improved economy and lower taxes. In a savage bombardment of negative, seemingly never-ending, not-the-whole-truth TV ads on both sides -- and with a war chest of $96 million, $47 million more than Crist -- Scott won a second term by some 71,000 votes.
No. 2: Selling Charlie Crist
The Florida Democratic Party, desperately wanting the governor's office back, embraced Charlie Crist based on the popularity of his first term, when he was a Republican governor of Florida. What the party never could do was sell Crist's flip-flopped positions on everything from abortion to taxes. And Crist got off to a slow start, compounded by continually angering and disappointing the party base by refusing to debate former Sen. Nan Rich, his opponent in the primary. It didn't help that hefailed to answer allegations of making a quid pro quo arrangement for campaign contributions during previous years in office. Inthe end, the voters he hoped to bring out in large number -- minorities and women -- stayed home on Election Day, coming to the conclusion they wouldn't be able to rely on Charlie Crist.
No. 3: Medical Marijuana
Perhaps the hottest topic during this year's legislative session was the landmark Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act of 2014, Senate Bill 1030 passed overwhelmingly in both chambers and was signed by Gov. Rick Scott. But in the bill, legal access to cannabis-derived therapies rich in cannabidiol (CBD) was limited to the estimated 125,000 children and 380,000 adults in Florida suffering from severe epilepsy, cancer, ALS and Parkinsons Disease. Many Floridians had higher hopes for the farther-reaching Admendment 2, brainchild of personal injury attorney John Morgan, who paid nearly $4 million of his own money to get a medical marijuana amendment on the November ballot and promoted. In April, the amendment looked indestructible. Poll after poll gave it upward of 80 percent in voter approval. But by midsummer a mightily financed opposing campaign produced a series of slick TV "hit" ads and the amendment lost steam. It needed 60 percent of the vote to pass, but received nearly 58 percent.
No. 4: Redistricting
The redistricting process in Florida has been litigated for two years. As hot news goes, in 2014 redistricting wasn't supposed to be. But the Democratic coalition of plaintiffs claimed the state congressional maps were drawn to favor Republicans during the 2012 redistricting process, which is at odds with anti-gerrymandering provisions in the state Constitution. Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis agreed, and after a 12-day trial during the summer, he scrapped the maps. Lawmakers then redrew them during a special legislative session. And Lewis approved the do-over in a careful and thoughtful ruling. But wait! Plaintiffs grew outraged when emails were discovered showing a number of Republican political consultants, "operatives," lawyers and other interested parties were found to have drawn maps to participate in the process. The political consultants were outraged as private citizens, claiming their emails should not have been made public. The consultants may have hoped to influence legislators on the committee, but, despite the noise and the hype, there is no evidence they ever did.
No. 5: Jameis Winston and the FSU Football Team
With FSU star quaterback Jameis Winston's series of newsmaking bad decisions in 2014 -- from shoplifting crab legs in a Publix supermarket to shouting profanity in public on the FSU campus, it would be easy to overlook the accomplishment of the Seminole football team. On Jan. 6 the unbeaten Florida State Seminoles defeated the Auburn Tigers, 34-31, in the BCS National Championship at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. As the reigning Heisman trophy winner, Winston went undefeated for a second year in a row, but this time, perhaps surprisingly, he wasn't nominated for a Heisman, either because of his off-field antics or because of on-field, skin-of-his-teeth play, throwing 17 interceptions and eking out five come-from-behind wins. He and Seminoles play the Ducks of Oregon in the Rose Bowl Jan. 1, and if they win, play for another National Championship against Alabama or Ohio State Jan. 5. When the season ends, Winston faces school conduct-code violations and a renewed review of 2012 rape allegations, leading many to believe he will choose to leave school and enter the NFL draft in 2015.
No. 6: Obama Softens on Cuba
The earth shook on the morning of Dec. 17 when President Barack Obama overturned 50 years of American policy, announcing "new rules" that "normalize relations" with Cuba. Obama's address split Florida's Cuban-American community down the middle, some grateful they can travel 90 miles to see the communist island, but many feeling angry and betrayed. As Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, said, "No state has been, or will be, as impacted by U.S./Cuba policy as Florida. ... We are very disappointed that President Obama took these actions without consulting key stakeholders in the one state impacted the most by this issue."
No. 7: Nan Rich
Nan Rich is more than a part of Charlie Crist's election failure story. Here is a bona fide Democratic candidate for governor, former minority leader of the state Senate, who began her campaign more than a year before Crist was a glint in the Democratic Party's eye -- in fact, before Crist himself had registered as a Democrat. Yet, as the year began, she was still little known outside of South Florida. But when Crist entered the race, the comparisons were startling. It was no wonder he did not want to debate her. She was everything Charlie Crist wasn't. A Democrat's Democrat, she never backtracked on a position and she had an honest-to-goodness platform. She gave the Democratic Party of Florida leadership fits by refusing to quit. She took their abuse, watched as they worked behind her back to kill support for her through Emily's List and later intimidated her supporters. All she wanted was to debate Crist and they either didn't allow it or wouldn't facilitate it. For more than half of 2014, though she was defeated in the primary, Nan Rich was a study in resolve and class and a story the FDP just couldn't end.
No. 8: John Thrasher
In 2014 Former Sen. John Thrasher, one of the most powerful men in Tallahassee, went after the job "that would be the highlight of my life" -- being president of his alma mater, Florida State University. And in September, by an 11-2 vote, the FSU board of trustees gave it to him. But in between, Thrasher's near-thwarted attempt to win acceptance spurred months of controversy and had enough drama to set it to music and take it on tour. The St. Augustine Republican, who chaired Gov. Rick Scott's re-election campaign, was selected over three finalists with academic backgrounds to replace Eric Barron as president of Florida State University in an 11-2 vote by the school's board of trustees. The board made no bones about their decision, saying he got the offer largely because of his fundraising skills. (Thrasher was chairman of the Republican Party of Florida after Jim Greer; his main job was rebuilding the RPOF's treasury.) Dozens of faculty members and students in Tallahassee protested, pleading with the trustees to appoint a president with Barron's academic credentials.
No. 9: The Florida Democratic Party's War on Women
The Florida Democratic Party and women had a bad year together. Worse, at a time when the national party was trying to convince America it was Republicans who didn't care about women, the FDP had its bad-women year very publicly. And the Florida Dems went gunning for their own most of all. It wasn't just Democratic gubernatorial candidate Nan Rich they tried to drive over a cliff. She was perhaps the most egregious example of their villainy. It was also women who supported Rich, like progressive South Florida blogger Leslie Wimes and Rep. Katie Edwards, D-Plantation -- loyal, hard-working Democrats whose only crime was to support Nan Rich over Charlie Crist in the primary. But then there was Jamie Fontaine-Gansell, organizer of Progressive Choice, a beltway organization of Democrats who didn't find Charlie Crist progressive enough. Fontaine-Gansell, who was hounded mercilessly for sending anti-Crist fliers to Florida Democrats, called "a front" for the Republicans, and "on the payroll of Rick Scott." Fontaine-Gansell's crime, apparently, was keeping her donors' names quiet. BTW, Jamie wasn't that hard to check out. She ran candidate and issue campaigns from South Carolina to Texas to California and in between, all for Democrats. She elected Wendy Davis to the Texas Senate in 2008, defeating a 20-year incumbent Republican in a Texas district that hadnt voted for a Democratic president in decades and ran the South Carolina congressional campaign of first-time candidate Linda Ketner, who became the first openly LGBT candidate to ever win nomination in the conservative state, and the first woman ever nominated in the 1st Congressional District. Fontaine-Gansell is typical of the women the party of Allison Tant took on so noisily in 2014.
No. 10: Common Core
The ripple of disenchantment with Common Core State Standards as the year began, grew into a tidal wave by the Nov. 4 election, as conservatives and tea party members who are staunchly opposed to the educational standards flexed their muscles as a voting power. Florida Gov. Rick Scott was forced into a delicate political balancing act, and he survived by staying away from the subject as much as he could. For most Democrats, not a problem. They are in favor. Common Core has been adopted in 43 states, including Florida and the District of Columbia. But opposition in Florida grew so strong that Scott had to order the state to pull out of a consortium of states developing Common Core tests. National support also waned during 2014. Finally, Scott ordered a review of the tests. "What Florida wants to do is we have our own standards," the governor said. "We've told the federal government they're not going to dictate how we run our education system, and that's what we're going to continue to do." Scott's eleventh hour waffle on the issue might have been enough to satisfy conservative voters.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
