Shaping the COVID-19 election narrative, Rivera’s return, and political fights at the Broward sheriff’s office

There are six months to go until the November election and after more than two months into the coronavirus crisis, it is impossible to imagine that the pandemic, especially how it is managed, won’t be the central theme.

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

I got this: Gov. Ron DeSantis has already started to try to shape that narrative and to do it, he has turned to the skill set he has had the most experience in: campaigning.

With campaign-like frequency and a staff of taxpayer-financed assets, the governor has crisscrossed the state with slide shows and talking points to do near-daily news conferences and spread the message that the coronavirus crisis in Florida is not as bad as people thought it would be. His pitch: Look at how I’ve outsmarted the virus.

Calculated distancing: It seems DeSantis is trying to thread the needle between public opinion and politics. The governor is trying to remain a crucial ally of the president, who needs Florida to win re-election, while occasionally also drawing the distinction between his actions and those of President Donald Trump — whose approach in Florida has not been received as well as DeSantis’.

On Thursday, the governor held a news conference at the mostly shuttered Downtown Doral shopping area where he embraced the end to the stay-home orders in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. He also reminded audiences that his “Phase One” reopening of the state was not as liberal as the president’s approach because he recommended opening restaurants at 25% of indoor capacity, not 50% as the White House indicated, and he has held off the reopening of gyms.

50% eateries: The limitation on restaurants lasted two weeks. The Florida Chamber of Commerce beat the governor to his own news and on Friday, DeSantis announced what everyone in the industry already knew: starting Monday, restaurants will be able to seat willing patrons in half their space.

Rejecting universal testing: While President Trump has become ambivalent about the value of testing, Desantis continues to tout its value but has been careful not to call for universal testing. This week, he required all long-term care homes to let the state test staff and residents if Florida Department of Health officials arrive with tests. DeSantis, however, was not willing to embrace the president’s task force recommendation that all residents and staff at long-term care facilities be tested,

And with testing kits still not available to many long-term care homes, DeSantis, like the president, has refrained from using government action to ramp up the production of testing kits to make them more available.

Inspectors, not tests: The state may not have enough tests to test everyone in nursing homes, but state health inspectors are starting to crack down on homes where infection rates, and deaths, are exploding.

In the last week, two nursing homes were cited for violating infection protocols amid the coronavirus pandemic. The first was Blountstown Health and Rehabilitation Center, where employees reported for work with coughs, fever, shortness of breath, headaches, muscle aches and loss of the ability to taste and administrators ordered them to work, anyway. It didn’t turn out well. By the most recent count, 26 residents and staff were infected with the coronavirus.

The second enforcement action occurred at the Fair Havens Center Nursing Home in Miami Springs, where the state halted new admissions after it reported 14 COVID-19 deaths in the past week, bringing the total number of resident fatalities at the home to 22.

Hot spots, not community infection? A new addition to the governor’s messaging last week was this refrain: “When you see [cases spike] out of the ordinary, it’s usually one of two things: a prison outbreak, which we’re seeing, and a long term care facility.” He said that Thursday in Miami but had repeated it before. It appears that he wants to send a message that these facilities are hot spots of their own and the spread of the virus is, in his words, “discrete from the community.”

Epidemiologists may quarrel with that conclusion, but we learned last week one of the latest hotpots appears to be Homestead Correctional Institution, a women’s prison. Reported positive tests there rose from two on Sunday to 73 Monday afternoon.

Another lawsuit: Lest we remind you, transparency is still not the watchword for this administration as it relates to the coronavirus. The Southern Poverty Law Center last week sued the Florida Department of Corrections demanding more information about how it is handling the spread of the disease in its prisons. COVID-19 has infected 1,033 inmates and 231 staff. Ten inmates have died.

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

100k crew, forgotten: Two months after the cruise industry shut down amid repeated COVID-19 outbreaks on ships, more than 100,000 crew members remain trapped at sea with little reliable information about what will happen to them.

While most passengers were able to get off cruise ships by early April, crew members have largely remained stuck. During the prolonged isolation, the virus continued to spread through the ships. At least 578 crew contracted COVID-19 at sea and seven have died, according to a Herald analysis.

Turning away federal cash: Florida is one of four states that has yet to accept federal funds to help run elections during the coronavirus pandemic, and election supervisors are urging DeSantis to take the money now.

David Rivera, Venezuelan shill? We learned this week that former U.S. congressman David Rivera, the Miami Republican whose political career was built on anti-communist attacks on the Cuban government, signed a $50 million contract to provide consulting services for Venezuela’s state-run oil company — then failed to do much of anything to earn it. The news emerged in after a federal lawsuit was filed in New York federal court on Wednesday.

Miami Democrats immediately started buzzing like a hive. They called for an investigation into Rivera’s consulting work with the Venezuelan oil company and vowed to campaign on it in the 2020 election.

Unemployment issues, c’mon? On Friday, DeSantis said Floridians waiting on unemployment checks have themselves to blame for not filling out their applications properly. During an exchange with a reporter during a news conference in Jacksonville, DeSantis expressed frustration with news stories that quote Floridians who have been unable to receive either state or federal benefits.

Bracing for budget hit: When they passed a $93.2 billion state budget in March, Florida lawmakers knew a growing global pandemic was going to blow a hole through the state’s finances. Two months into the crisis, the extent of the economic damage caused by the COVID-19 related shutdowns is still unclear. This year’s budget, which runs through June, appears secure. But already lawmakers are bracing for a dramatic reduction to next year’s state budget, which begins July 1, and are debating whether they need to reconvene in Tallahassee for an emergency session.

Sheriff warfare: Details emerged last week about the “homicide report” from a 1993 shooting death involving Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony and they appear to contradict his story that the shooting was in his home and that he was never charged with a crime.

Overshadowing these developments is news that the relationship between the sheriff and the union representing his deputies soured quickly last year, shortly after his appointment by DeSantis, who hand-picked him to replace ousted former Sheriff Scott Israel.

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