Q&A – Should Florida Eliminate the Position of Lieutenant Governor?
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Today’s Entry: @brianmuddradio What do you think of the proposal to end the Lt. Gov. in FL?
Bottom Line: Florida remains in the center of everything politically, at least conservatively, starting with the president of the United States, which has led to huge changes politically within our state – which has now led to two vacancies within Governor DeSantis’s cabinet. So much has changed so quickly since President Trump’s win last November, that it can be easy to forget how many pieces have been moved around politically. Here’s a quick rundown:
- President: Donald Trump
- Senator to Secretary of State: Marco Rubio
- Attorney General to Senator: Ashley Moody
- DeSantis Chief of Staff to Attorney General: James Uthmeier
- Congressman to National Security Adviser: Mike Waltz
- State Senator to Congressman: Randy Fine
- Congressman to failed Attorney General bid Matt Gaetz
- Florida CFO to Congressman Jimmy Patronis
- Florida CFO?
And that’s independent of two other changes that took place with prominent Floridians, as Florida’s former AG Pam Bondi became the U.S. Attorney General and Florida’s Lt. Governor Jeanette Nunez opted out of politics to assume the position of Florida International University president instead. And that development is especially important to today’s Q&A because almost certainly had Nunez not vacated her post to lead FIU, – we'd not be having this conversation.
It was one of Florida’s two newest congressman, former State Senator Randy Fine, who led the charge to eliminate the position of Florida’s lieutenant governor after Jeanette Nunez left. One of Fine’s last acts in the Florida legislature was to propose the Succession to Office of Governor, Auditing, and Government Efficiency bill. As the bill summary states:
- Proposing amendments to the State Constitution to repeal the creation of the office of Lieutenant Governor, the office of Legislative Auditor, and the Government Efficiency Task Force, to create the office of the Commissioner of Government Efficiency as a Cabinet officer
Should this legislation pass in this session, which is a possibility as it’s already advanced in both chambers, it would appear on our midterm election ballots next year for voters to decide the fate of lieutenant governor and the newly proposed positions. Since the question today was about the potential elimination of the position of lieutenant governor specifically, I’ll focus on that piece of the puzzle.
When Fine proposed this amendment in March he said: The job of the lieutenant governor today … is literally to not die, that is the extent of the job. That was his snarky way of saying that there are no specifically assigned constitutional responsibilities for the state’s lieutenant governor. Also, clearly based on Governor DeSantis’s current stance, there hasn’t been a sense urgency – as DeSantis stated that he’s not going to appoint a new lieutenant governor until the end of this year’s state legislative session in May. Also, and related, Florida’s former Governor, Rick Scott, at one point went nearly a year – a total of 300 days – without a lieutenant governor in place at one point prior to naming Carlos Lopez-Cantera to that post. These prolonged vacancies seem to add validity to the notion that perhaps it would not be an issue to eliminate the post. But should we?
It’s true that as currently laid out there’s nothing the lieutenant governor must do. What that doesn’t necessarily mean is that the lieutenant governor does nothing. I have seen lieutenant governors who’ve effectively done nothing, however Florida’s two most recent lieutenant governors, Jeanette Nunez and Carlos Lopez-Cantera, were outstanding in my opinion. Florida’s a big state and the governor can’t be everywhere all of the time and having two lieutenant governors from South Florida helped our region’s representation within the state. One of the biggest complaints historically has been that South Florida has had the largest population but often with the least amount of proper representation in Tallahassee. Our two most recent lieutenant governors helped bridge that gap. They also helped to advocate and explain the Scott and DeSantis agendas – often communicating in a more effective way than their bosses. But does that mean we necessarily need the position? No. But here’s what I think is important to consider.
Florida’s current line of succession from the governor is lieutenant governor followed by the attorney general. Consider this for a moment. Let’s say that heaven forbid something happened to Governor DeSantis today. Florida’s governor would suddenly be someone who’s never run for an election for anything. That’s not to say that James Uthmeier wouldn’t be a potentially credible choice, but the principle involved is concerning. Similarly, and differently, when a voter votes for a ticket, they’re aware that the running mate is the next in line if there’s an inability for the governor to continue. No one votes for the state’s attorney general with the thought in mind that they would be next in line to the governor. That’s an odd blending of the lines to me. My thought would be this.
If the concern is that the lieutenant governor doesn’t have enough to do, rather than eliminating that post – while at the same time creating a new cabinet officer in another role – how about just assigning the lieutenant governor the tasks that go along with that role? That to me is the most sensible and voter transparent thing to do.