Florida legislators mostly silent on Rep. Fine's threats to pull Special Olympics funding

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State lawmakers have been largely silent in the wake of text messages showing Florida Rep. Randy Fine (R-Palm Bay) had threatened state funding for the Special Olympics over a personal feud with a Brevard County School Board member.

Since news of the texts broke over the weekend, at least two of Fine's Democratic House colleagues have acknowledged the incident on social media. Few if any Republican state leaders mentioned the scandal publicly.

Most of those who were contacted by reporters did not respond to calls and messages, and none who were reached would agree to comment.

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Members of the State House and Senate who serve with Fine on the Brevard County legislative delegation did not return messages from FLORIDA TODAY, including Rep. Thad Altman (R-Indialantic), State Sen. Tom Wright (R-Port Orange) and Republican Senate Majority Leader Debbie Mayfield (R-Melbourne).

State Rep. Tyler Sirois (R-Merritt Island) declined to comment.

Former Rep. Rene Plasencia, who resigned his seat last month for a private sector job, also did not respond to a request for comment. Plasencia previously represented parts of Orange County and North Brevard.

Some Democratic House members — notably State Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando), who sparred with Fine last week on an episode of CNBC's "Squawk Box" over Fine's controversial legislation stripping Disney of its self-regulatory powers in Central Florida — posted news articles about the incident on social media, but offered little commentary.

State Rep. Angie Nixon (D-Jacksonville) called Fine out directly, referencing the threats on Twitter Monday amid a separate reference to last week's passage of a new congressional redistricting map. The map, originally proposed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, eliminated two Black voting districts.

"Good Morning to everyone except @VoteRandyFine. While @repmccurdy and I were fighting to protect democracy he was following the orders of FL’s racist, authoritarian governor to help slash Black congressional representation by 50%, as well as take $ from kids w/disabilities," Nixon wrote.

House Minority Leader Evan Jenne (D-Hollywood) did not respond to a request for comment Monday. Republican House Speaker Chris Sprowls (R-Palm Harbor) — the Republican leader perhaps best positioned to reprimand Fine over the incident — also did not return multiple messages.

Fine threatened to interfere with state funding for the Special Olympics and the city of West Melbourne last week after city police officials invited Brevard School Board Jennifer Jenkins to participate in a Special Olympics fundraiser held by the police department, according to a series of text messages obtained by FLORIDA TODAY.

Fine and Jenkins have been locked in a bitter public feud over the past year, stemming partly over Fine's anger over Jenkins's prior support for a mask mandate in Brevard County public schools.

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West Melbourne City Councilman John Dittmore said Fine later tried to block the release of the text messages through a public records request, and wanted a city attorney who was overseeing the request to be fired.

Fine has denied that he threatened to get the funding pulled or that he ever spoke about firing the city attorney.

News of the text messages — which included Fine twice calling Jenkins a "whore" — angered Dana McCool, a commissioner for the city of Deltona in Volusia County. She contacted reporters Monday, saying she took the day off to call state legislators and urge them to speak out about the incident.

"We must condemn him for his hypocrisy," McCool said. "He portrays himself as a fine, upstanding, God-fearing family man who's a Boy Scout leader. We're seeing the underbelly of how Randy Fine operates."

McCool said she had contacted the offices of about 30 House members by 5 p.m. Monday. Not one leader she spoke with would comment on the record, she said.

"It's a new level of low when you don't hear from leadership," she said.

Among the few to publicly condemn Fine was Rick Lacey, chair of the Brevard Republic Executive Committee in Brevard County, with whom Fine has also had a longstanding feud.

Lacey called the threats an "abuse of power" and a "major insult to women voters," and called on Fine to resign over the incident.

"The voters give people a position of power in our community to represent them," Lacey told FLORIDA TODAY. "And if a person misuses that power, which is obvious in this case, that is an abuse of power. It is a misuse of the office. And, to me, the proper thing to do would be to resign."

Fine hit back at Lacey in a statement to FLORIDA TODAY Wednesday morning, saying the attack from Lacey was "no surprise."

"Instead of electing Republicans under Lacey's watch, Democrats have taken over our school board and doubled their success in municipal elections," Fine wrote. "The Democrats couldn't have a better advocate."

FLORIDA TODAY's Dave Berman and Ralph Chapoco, the Tallahassee Democrat's John Kennedy and James Call, and the Daytona Beach News-Journal's Mark Harper contributed to this story.

Eric Rogers is a watchdog reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Rogers at 321-242-3717 or esrogers@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @EricRogersFT.

Please consider subscribing to FLORIDA TODAY for a limited time offer of $1 for 6 months of unlimited digital access to local news coverage.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard leaders silent on state Rep. Randy Fine's threat to pull funds