September 1, 2024

Sunday, September 1, 2024. Annette’s News Roundup.

Our candidates.

The campaign released targeted social media (Google, Meta, Snapchat, Tik Tok, etc) ads, 5-10 sec. long, aimed at specific states or groups, such as young voters.

4 samples below. Touch.👇

Criticizing Trump, Harris Says Arlington Is ‘Not a Place for Politics’

Donald J. Trump’s campaign filmed him at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, which led to a confrontation between one of his political aides and a cemetery official.

Vice President Kamala Harris excoriated former President Donald J. Trump on Saturday for his visit on Monday to Arlington National Cemetery, where his campaign’s filming of him in a heavily restricted area caused a confrontation between one of his political aides and a cemetery official.

In her first public comments on the situation, Ms. Harris said that Mr. Trump had desecrated a solemn place that should be free of politics when he appeared there for a wreath-laying ceremony for 13 service members who were killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan during the withdrawal of U.S. troops three years ago.

“Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt,” Ms. Harris wrote on X.

Ms. Harris wrote that she had visited Arlington National Cemetery several times as vice president and that she would never attempt to use that setting for activities related to the campaign.

“It’s not a place for politics,” she wrote. (New York Times)

Cooking for Kamala chef-backed livestream raises $200k

More than 60 of the world's best chefs and restaurateurs on Thursday joined Cooking for Kamala, a virtual Zoom fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris' 2024 presidential campaign.

The event, co-hosted by Joel McHale and Padma Lakshmi, was inspired by the vice president's own love of cooking and raised $222,955 for the Harris-Walz campaign.

Notable guests including "Top Chef" host Tom Colicchio -- who serenaded the kitchen with his guitar and a rendition of "Eyes on the Prize" -- Gail Simmons, Kristen Kish, Nancy Silverton, Chris Bianco and more zoomed in throughout the course of the evening, as California Rep. Eric Swalwell and chef Susan Feniger, who helped organize the event, led in-kitchen demonstrations of three dishes: a fig crisp with cheese appetizer, Harris' own roasted chicken recipe, and, for dessert, "out of a coconut tree" cookies.

Globally acclaimed two-Michelin-starred chef, humanitarian and World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés lauded Harris' knife skills and prowess in the kitchen, while also spotlighting her interest in food-related policies.

"For me, when we have a leader that cares about food issues -- and I know Vice President Kamala Harris cares about them -- when you have a leader that knows and understands the power of feeding one another, that's the power to build longer tables," he said.

Andrés recalled an interaction with Harris before she became vice president, saying she had joined a WCK event in Washington, D.C., on Thanksgiving with her husband Doug Emhoff to cook for "homeless [individuals] and ex-convicts, to make sure that she sent a message that everybody matters, and you need to show up to solve the problems America is facing."

He also said of her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, "I don't know what I love more about him, that he championed universal school meals in his state or his award-winning tater tot hot dish, which I think is an amazing recipe." (ABC News).

One more thing.

A message from Coach Walz on Trump Project 2025. 👇

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Joe is always busy. Fighting for us though he is not running.

Kamala’s campaign moves us forward as Joe Biden also continues to fight for America.

Joe will be in Pittsburgh with Kamala on Labor Day!

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Bobby Kennedy Jr hasn’t been my focus. But I found this interesting. 👇

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Wondering what Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is up to?

The Good News.

Ron DeSantis is struggling to maintain power in Florida following his presidential campaign flop.

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Gov. Ron DeSantis — whose pugnacious brand of politics made him a national Republican star — is now finding himself against the ropes at home.

DeSantis pulled back a contentious plan this week to add golf courses and hotels at some Florida state parks. The governor acted after his administration’s “Great Outdoors Initiative” faced a withering blast of criticism from across the political spectrum, including from one-time GOP allies who may run for governor when he’s out of office.

Local school board candidates he backed underperformed in the Aug. 20 primary. He is feuding with the lone Jewish Republican in the Legislature after that lawmaker called out DeSantis for recently traveling to Ireland — which has recognized Palestine as a country.

And two initiatives on the November ballot on abortion access and recreational marijuana appear poised to pass despite the governor’s opposition.

The hits follow DeSantis ending his presidential campaign after coming in a distant second in the Iowa caucuses. Both political supporters and detractors are watching closely to gauge how this will impact an anticipated run for president in 2028. Continued losses in his home state over the two years of his term-limited tenure would dampen his prospects.

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who helped the governor’s first campaign but stuck with former President Donald Trump against DeSantis in the presidential primary, brushed aside any suggestion that the backlash against the parks proposal could be seen as a part of a broader rebuke to DeSantis.

“I don’t think it’s a diminution of support for the governor. I think it was a very bad idea,” said the Northwest Florida Republican who was among those calling for DeSantis to scrap the parks plan.

Still, there is growing anticipation in Tallahassee that incoming legislative leaders who take over this November will be less accommodating to DeSantis, and that other politicians eyeing the governorship or cabinet jobs will also grow bolder in expressing their positions. POLITICO interviewed a dozen legislators, consultants and lobbyists about DeSantis’ path forward — many expect a noticeable shift in the relationship and power dynamic between the sometimes prickly governor and his erstwhile Republicans allies.

“I don’t think the backlash about parks was about him being a lame duck,” said Jamie Miller, a veteran political consultant who once worked for the Republican Party of Florida. “But I also do think that when the governor was tone-deaf in the past, people would go along with it. And now they’re positioning themselves for their political futures and you won’t see them do that.”

DeSantis did try to distance himself from the parks plan this week and called it “half-baked” even though it was his administration that first announced the initiative and even had scheduled public hearings related to it.

Another Republican consultant in Tallahassee added, “I wouldn’t call him a lame duck, but there’s a shelf life.” The consultant was granted anonymity to speak freely.

The potential passage of the two amendments on abortion and marijuana could also affect the governor’s legacy. DeSantis has been very vocal about the two measures and his chief of staff is running two political committees aimed at defeating them. DeSantis and his wife Casey DeSantis will hold a donor retreat next week at a golf resort in north Georgia to raise money for their opposition to the initiatives.

DeSantis for his part dismissed as “chatter” any talk about losing his grip on power. He said Republicans have supported his agenda because they agreed with him taking a stand on issues such as immigration and gender identity.

“I’ve never categorized it as me having a grip on anything, I’m the governor, I discharge the duties of my office,” DeSantis said during a press conference held Thursday in Crystal River. “I have the ability to set the agenda and deliver that agenda. And I can tell you there is not another governor in the country that has delivered more than we have since I’ve been in. That’s just the reality.”

He added: “I don’t read the chatter, I don’t listen to the chatter. … If you listen to the chatter you’re not going to be able to get the job done.”

The recent events stand in stark contrast to most of DeSantis’ first five years as governor, including when he achieved a nearly 20-point reelection victory in 2022. DeSantis became a conservative star due to his handling of Covid-19 where he reopened schools faster than other states and fought against mask and vaccine mandates. He also waded into policy including a much-publicized battle with Disney after the company objected to a state law over classroom instruction of gender and sexual identity.

In the lead-up to his presidential run, DeSantis had continuous cooperation with the Florida Legislature on a series of laws about guns and abortion and other conservative touchpoints that he touted on the campaign trail. Many Republicans who disagreed with the governor rarely challenged him, and those who did said they were punished for doing so.

But the presidential race tested the limits of his brand. Trump and his allies torched DeSantis until he got out of the race and endorsed the former president, which has had some lingering after effects. State Rep. Randy Fine, an outspoken Brevard County Republican who is running for state Senate, had endorsed the governor’s run but then switched to Trump last fall. At the time, Fine criticized DeSantis for not taking a stronger stance against antisemitic activity in the state.

POLITICO previously reported that DeSantis’ allies tried to recruit a challenger to run against Fine in this month’s primary, but the effort ultimately fell apart. This past week, Fine castigated DeSantis for traveling to Ireland on an economic development trip that coincided with Florida State University opening its football season in Dublin.

When asked about Fine’s comments earlier this week, DeSantis blasted back. “I think about just every lobbyist in Tallahassee made that trip. Is Rep. Fine going to stop taking the money from all the lobbyists like he’s been doing?” he asked.

Fine called the governor’s comments a “childish response to legitimate criticism” and added that “his petulance isn’t worthy of a response.” The feud between the two accelerated online after aides working in the governor’s office — and for DeSantis’ political operation — started making fun of Fine in social media posts. Fine pushed back in his own posts, calling the comments unprofessional and inappropriate. He even suggested the Legislature should consider eliminating some positions in the governor’s office.

Fine, in an interview with POLITICO, said he recognizes that DeSantis still has the “power of the veto pen” but added “he’s not in the same situation” that he was two years ago.

Fine said DeSantis has not done enough to develop strong relationships to weather these turbulent times.

“You’ve got to be nice to people on the way up because there is going to come a time when you are on the way down,” said Fine, a sentiment he has previously expressed about DeSantis. (Politico).

Women in Florida reach across the aisle to support abortion access initiative.

The same initiative that Trump has been flip-flopping about since Friday.

BRADENTON, Florida — Deep in red southwest Florida, a group of mostly Republican women gathered Tuesday evening to talk about a ballot initiative that seeks to abolish Florida’s ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
But instead of falling in line with restrictions backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state’s Republican party, the group spent more than two hours inside a waterside clubhouse for a gated community along the Manatee River, listening intently to a discussion led by a local obstetrician who supports the measure.

“It will make me so happy to know that people will be entering those voting booths knowing that they can vote with their conscience,” attendee Sue Revell said at the end of the event. “And they will cast their ballot without any government interference.”

Revell was among more than 30 people who turned out for the event hosted by a coalition of conservative women in favor of the ballot initiative. Most attendees preferred not to be identified or quoted at the event because they feared professional repercussions from within their own party or tension with those closest to them.


Still, the GOP women showed up to Tuesday’s meeting — one of two so-called house parties that have been held in Manatee County— because they knew the ballot initiative wouldn’t be able to pass without people like them. It needs 60 percent voter support to be enshrined in the state Constitution.
By the end of Tuesday's meeting, some party guests were asking how they could host similar parties. And the underlying tension among guests — brought on by talking about a politically sensitive issue like abortion in one of the most conservative stretches of the state — instead turned into questions about how they could take action. The meeting was attended by members of the League of Women Voters, which left paper summaries of the amendment for guests to take.

Earlier this year, members of the Manatee County-based coalition and dozens of other organizations helped gather the more than 891,000 voter-signed petitions required for Amendment 4 to make the ballot. Carol Whitmore, a Republican and Manatee County commissioner, was among them. As she helped to hand out petitions, she noticed a number of Republican women voters had asked to sign them in support.
“There’s a lot of people who are just too afraid to speak up,” Whitmore said before Tuesday’s event, adding the meetings are designed to be a safe place for GOP women to talk openly about abortion. She first publicly announced her support for reproductive rights during a 2021 county commission meeting over a failed local abortion ban.

“Here you can speak freely and ask any questions that you want,” she said during the event. “We want you to know that this is about choice.”

Whitmore and fellow coalition members Ashley Brown and Jaymie Carter decided to hold events around Manatee and Sarasota counties, where conservative women could talk about abortion rights. Brown, who is also the president and CEO of the Bradenton-based nonprofit Women’s Resource Center, said while the issue has always been an emotional one for many women, politics has made just talking about abortion near impossible.

“They should be able to speak their mind without some sort of pulverizing response,” Brown said. “There were days when we could do that.”

The group isn’t the only one bucking the party. All over Florida, Republican women say they feel they need to get involved but want to do so quietly without having their names attached to the effort. Some are powerful within the GOP ranks but are still worried about the prospect of going public with their views, with one saying if it ever got out that she was involved in backing Amendment 4 then it would “ruin my life.” A big part of the concern is crossing DeSantis, who has aggressively retaliated against his foes during his time in office — from progressive prosecutors to Walt Disney World.

The infrastructure built by DeSantis to fight Amendment 4 includes a statewide campaign called No on 4 Florida. In response to Tuesday’s event, No on 4 spokesperson Taryn Fenske said she agreed the issue has earned interest among voters on both sides of the aisle, and they will be voting against the initiative.

“Once they get past the intentionally vague and deceptive language, Floridians regardless of party affiliation realize that Amendment 4 is radical, dangerous, and wrong for Florida,” Fenske wrote in a statement. “No matter where you stand on the issue, there’s nothing ‘small government’ or ‘conservative’ about Amendment 4.”

For some, the issue has never been core to their Republican beliefs. One GOP woman who’d worked as a staffer in the Legislature said she thought that the rights afforded under Roe would always be there and that she was “completely shocked” when the Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 ruling.

“I always grew up with that protection,” she said. “I always thought that was something that was more of a political talking point but we weren't going to see any policy on it.”
If Amendment 4 passes, it would strike Florida’s recently enacted ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy and permit abortion without restrictions until roughly 24 weeks. Abortions after that time frame would be allowed for cases in which medical providers determine abortions are needed for health reasons.

The six-week abortion ban was a top priority for DeSantis during his failed presidential campaign, and during the primary, he ripped into former President Donald Trump for calling the ban a “terrible mistake.” Now he’s working to defeat Amendment 4, saying the measure was vaguely written to drastically loosen state regulatory controls. And this week, cabinet officials pledged at least $100,000 each to help DeSantis in his fight.

The push by DeSantis and other Florida Republicans to tighten Florida’s abortion laws began as the Supreme Court signaled that it would support a 15-week ban in Mississippi. Florida subsequently approved its own 15-week ban, with no exemptions for rape, incest or human trafficking, after the high court struck Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

With Roe gone, Florida Republicans were able to approve the six-week ban last year. The tighter restrictions took effect in May after the state Supreme Court upheld the 15-week ban in a lawsuit brought by abortion-rights groups including Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.

The Florida Supreme Court also declined a request made by Republican state Attorney General Ashley Moody to block Amendment 4 from making the ballot. The decision led DeSantis to create a political committee called the Freedom Fund, which supports the No on 4 Campaign.

The six-week abortion ban was a top priority for DeSantis during his failed presidential campaign, and during the primary, he ripped into former President Donald Trump for calling the ban a “terrible mistake.” Now he’s working to defeat Amendment 4, saying the measure was vaguely written to drastically loosen state regulatory controls. And this week, cabinet officials pledged at least $100,000 each to help DeSantis in his fight.

The push by DeSantis and other Florida Republicans to tighten Florida’s abortion laws began as the Supreme Court signaled that it would support a 15-week ban in Mississippi. Florida subsequently approved its own 15-week ban, with no exemptions for rape, incest or human trafficking, after the high court struck Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

With Roe gone, Florida Republicans were able to approve the six-week ban last year. The tighter restrictions took effect in May after the state Supreme Court upheld the 15-week ban in a lawsuit brought by abortion-rights groups including Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.

The Florida Supreme Court also declined a request made by Republican state Attorney General Ashley Moody to block Amendment 4 from making the ballot. The decision led DeSantis to create a political committee called the Freedom Fund, which supports the No on 4 Campaign.

“This ban is bad medicine,” Johnson said. “We have people in Sarasota who are saying ‘No.’”

Manatee resident Tonya Kida said she agrees with many Republican principles, including support for less government intervention.

“Being Republican is about less government,” Kida said. “This is about government interference.(Politico).

The Bad News.

Looking for Information on L.G.B.T.Q. Travel to Florida? Don’t Ask Florida.

The state’s travel website recently removed pages dedicated to L.G.B.T.Q. travel. Some Floridians aren’t happy about it.

For years, L.G.B.T.Q. people planning a trip to Florida could turn to the official website for Visit Florida, the state’s tourism marketing organization, for resources on where to go, what to eat and where to stay. While there are other resources for queer travelers, the site offered information about L.G.B.T.Q.-owned businesses that visitors could patronize as well as activities “appealing to a gay community looking for a sense of belonging and acceptance,” a page on the site once read.

But sometime in the past few months, Visit Florida — a private-public, nonprofit partnership created by the Florida Legislature in 1996 — quietly took down pages with information for L.G.B.T.Q. travelers. Although no one has been able to pinpoint exactly when the pages were removed, NBC first reported on their removal on Aug. 19 and said it had happened sometime this summer. Some residents, activists and people in the local tourism industry said that erasing the pages sends the message that L.G.B.T.Q. travelers aren’t welcome in the state.

Visit Florida and the office of Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, did not respond to numerous requests for comment.

At a news conference on Wednesday, a day after this article was published online, Mr. DeSantis said he only learned about the removal of the L.G.B.T.Q. travel pages after they had been taken down. “Our view as a state is we are the best place to visit, we’re welcome to all, but we’re not going to be segregating people by these different characteristics,” he said. “That’s not how we’ve done business in any of the things that we’ve done.”

And Dana Young, Visit Florida’s chief executive and president, told ABC that the pages were taken down to better reflect the state’s policies. “It’s fairly simple,” she said. “Visit Florida is a taxpayer funded organization,” and added that the organization’s “marketing strategy, our materials and our content must align with the state.”

Nadine Smith, the executive director of Equality Florida, an L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy group said, “There’s a reason these pages existed in the first place.” Their purpose is “to roll out the welcome mat and say, ‘Hey, you know what? Your family is going to be safe and comfortable here,’” “So if you take away that welcome mat, the only message that you can deliver is ‘We do not want you to feel safe and welcome you.’”

Ms. Smith is one of many who feel that the removal of the pages is a continuation of the hostile policies facing L.G.B.T.Q. people in the state in recent years. It comes two years after Mr. DeSantis signed what opponents called “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, limiting what teachers can say about gender and sexuality.

Like many destination marketing organizations across the country, Visit Florida receives state funding, which the governor signs off on. (Mr. DeSantis granted Visit Florida $80 million for its 2024-25 fiscal year, which the organization uses for marketing.)

“The thing that’s most interesting about this is that it was done quietly,” Ms. Smith said.

In April 2023, Ms. Smith’s organization, along with the L.G.B.T.Q.-focused Human Rights Campaign and the N.A.A.C.P., warned travelers to reconsider going to Florida because they felt that Mr. DeSantis’s policies were hostile toward L.G.B.T.Q. people, immigrants and people of color.

Colin Lienhard, a gay architect and designer who lives in Miami, said that he had felt a shift in people’s openness toward gay people, even in liberal Miami, and so he wasn’t surprised by the removal of the pages. The effort to hide information that could be helpful feels like a continuation of what he feels has become normal in Florida: asking L.G.B.T.Q. people to be silent. “It’s another example of them trying to erase that we are here,” he said.

For years, L.G.B.T.Q. travelers have flocked to cities and towns like St. Petersburg, Key West and Sarasota, which have been welcoming to them.

Local tourism marketing organizations have often encouraged diverse travelers. For instance, in 2022, Visit Lauderdale, which promotes the Greater Fort Lauderdale area to the world, released a campaign called “Everyone Under the Sun.” At the time, the agency’s chief executive and president, Stacy Ritter, said the goal was to ensure that all visitors knew they were welcome.

“Our diversity is our strength, and we are proudly telling this story to the world,” she said in a statement announcing the campaign.

But local marketing organizations like Visit Lauderdale rely on Visit Florida, the state site, as a valuable entry point. Last week, as news of the removal of Visit Florida’s L.G.B.T.Q. pages spread, Ms. Ritter reiterated that Fort Lauderdale continued to value diversity.

“While Visit Florida removes its L.G.B.T.Q.+ page from its website, Visit Lauderdale values, respects and sees those from marginalized communities and commits to providing them a welcoming and inclusive experience,” she wrote on LinkedIn on Aug. 20.

When Rob Dougherty, the executive director for the Key West Business Guild, a nonprofit that promotes Key West to L.G.B.T.Q. travelers, first heard about the removal of the pages last week, he reached out to the leaders of Visit Florida because he hoped the removal had been a mistake or a glitch. After his questions went unanswered for days, he expressed his frustration on social media.

“The silence is troubling,” he wrote on the Gay Key West Facebook page. He reminded the followers of that page that his organization’s goals of supporting L.G.B.T.Q. people living in and visiting Key West had not changed, even if the state’s stance seemingly had. In a phone call, he said it felt important to say something about the removal.

“I don’t want to sound reactionary,” he said, “but I feel like if we don’t respond, then are we allowing the next step? What will be erased next?” (New York Times)

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Another weird Vance conversation found. 👇

This man just thinks strangely.

Touch to hear.👇

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Your Daily Reminder

Trump is a convicted felon.

On May 30th, he was found guilty on 34 felony counts by the unanimous vote of 12 ordinary citizens.

The Convicted Felon Donald J. Trump was scheduled to be sentenced on July 11. He will now be sentenced sometime around September 18th.

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