Seeking Rents – The Podcast

In this episode: Longtime Florida journalist and Bloomberg Opinion columnist Mary Ellen Klas dug through a trove of legislative and electoral data from around the country to understand what happens when one party commands total control of a state’s government. She joined the show to talk about what she found.

Show notes:

This Is Why You Don’t Recognize Your State Government (Bloomberg Opinion)

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

Listen to the show: Apple | Spotify

Watch the show: YouTube

In this episode: The new leaders of Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature take the stage for the first time in Tallahassee. The good: The speaker of the Florida House of Representatives suggests he may try to stop private equity firms from squeezing individual homebuyers out of the housing market. The bad: The president of the Florida Senate signals he’ll turn a blind eye to Ron DeSantis’ decision to spend millions of dollars of taxpayer money on political ads.

Show notes:

Check out “Buying Up the Bay,” the Tampa Bay Times series mentioned on the show.

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

Listen to the show: Apple | Spotify

Watch the show: YouTube

In this episode: The first twins of Florida politics — Anna Eskamani, a state representative from Orlando, and Ida Eskamani, a long-time advocate in the Florida Legislature who now organizes in state legislatures across the country — join the podcast to talk about corporate influence in the Sunshine State and how to defeat it. Hint: It takes a lot of hard work. (Note: Ida Eskamani appeared on the show in her personal capacity.)

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

Listen to the show: Apple | Spotify

Watch the show: YouTube

In this episode: Thomas Kennedy, a progressive organizer in Miami and former Bernie Sanders campaign staffer, rejoins the pod to talk about how Democrats lost touch with the working class — and what needs to happen next.

Show notes:

A couple of items referenced on the show:

What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party

Trump’s closing campaign ad in 2016

Thomas’ podcast

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

Listen to the show: Apple | Spotify

Watch the show: YouTube

In this episode: Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell joins the podcast to talk about Florida’s 2024 elections — including some stunning local results in which voters in Orlando chose a pair of grassroots activists over tourism- and developer-backed alternatives who had outspent them by as much as 8-to-1. It’s the dawning of a new day in what has historically been one of the nation’s biggest company towns. And it further established Orlando as a blue island in a statewide sea of red.

Show notes:

For more about Florida’s elections — both in Orlando and across the state — make sure to read Scott’s most recent column in the Sentinel. And check out more of his work here.

To understand what made these Orlando races so important, and why they will have statewide repercussions, see these pieces from Seeking Rents:

Voters in Orlando have a chance to loosen the tourism industry's grip on taxpayer money

Candidates in Orlando split over new rules to save rural land from suburban sprawl

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

Listen to the show: Apple | Spotify

Watch the show: YouTube

In this episode: Thoughts on the 2024 election results in Florida.

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

Listen to the show: Apple | Spotify

Watch the show: YouTube

Subscribe: SeekingRentsFL.com

In this episode: Amid a growing consensus that overly restrictive housing rules are a major driver of high housing prices, the city of Gainesville just passed far-reaching reforms meant to make it much easier to build more homes. At the same time, Orange County is on the brink of passing changes meant to slow suburban sprawl and encourage denser urban development instead. A pair of leaders from both communities — Eric Grimmer of Orlando YIMBY and Gainesville City Commissioner Bryan Eastman — join the show to talk about their housing efforts, as well as a couple of fascinating local referendums on the ballot this fall.

Show notes

As promised in the show, here’s a link to Orlando YIMBY.

And for more details about Gainesville’s zoning reforms, check out this presentation.

Lastly, here are a few stories that we touched on during the discussions:

The Missing Middle: Supply vs. Aesthetics in the Drive for New Housing (Governing)

Florida Republicans Are Fighting Gainesville’s Zoning Reform, and Themselves (Bloomberg)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' Administration Tells Gainesville To Abandon Zoning Reform (Reason Foundation)

Gainesville community rallies for amendment returning GRU leadership to city (The Independent Florida Alligator)

In five races, Orange County voters can choose sides in the fight over growth (Orlando Sentinel)

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

Listen to the show: Apple | Spotify

Watch the show: YouTube

Subscribe: SeekingRentsFL.com

In this episode: Roxey Nelson is an executive vice president with 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the largest healthcare union in Florida and a board member for Floridians Protection Freedom. That’s the group sponsoring a constitutional amendment to overturn Florida’s near-total abortion ban. She joined the show to talk about Amendment 4, and the ties that bind policies like abortion bans, union busting, and tax breaks for billionaires.

Show notes

For more information about Amendment 4, or to find ways to get involved in the final two weeks of the campaign, check out Floridians Protecting Freedom.

Here are some of the stories we talked about on the show:

The think tank behind Project 2025 is also behind some of Florida's most extreme laws

A billionaire-backed think tank keeps sabotaging Florida workers. More attacks are coming.

The billionaires financing union-busting in Florida

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

Listen to the show: Apple | Spotify

Watch the show: YouTube

Subscribe: SeekingRentsFL.com

In this episode: Ron DeSantis is now threatening television stations with criminal prosecutions unless they take down ads supporting a ballot measure that would overturn Florida’s near-total ban on abortion. It’s the latest escalation in DeSantis’ increasingly extreme efforts to use the powers of state government — and the pocketbooks of Florida taxpayers — for political campaigns against citizen-led petition drives to end the statewide abortion ban and legalize marijuana.

Show notes

For further reading and listening:

Ron DeSantis’ Administration Is Threatening to Prosecute the Media for Airing Pro-Choice Ads (Slate)

Ron DeSantis blurs lines, burns cash in tax-funded campaign to block abortion and marijuana ballot measures (Seeking Rents)

Delayed and Denied: How Florida’s Six-Week Abortion Ban Criminalizes Medical Care (Physicians for Human Rights)

Hemp execs pledge millions to Republican Party of Florida, texts reveal (CBS News)

DeSantis, Florida House pay outsiders to influence financial statement on abortion measure (Tallahassee Democrat)

Florida politicians will go further to interfere with abortion – unless Florida voters stop them (Seeking Rents – The Podcast)

The think tank behind Project 2025 is also behind some of Florida's most extreme laws (Seeking Rents)

Because of Florida abortion laws, she carried her baby to term knowing he would die (CNN)

Florida DOT’s driving high ads are ‘propaganda,’ marijuana campaign tells TV stations (Miami Herald)

DeSantis turns to TV lobbyists to stop Florida voters from overturning a statewide abortion ban (Seeking Rents)

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

Listen to the show: Apple | Spotify

Watch the show: YouTube

Subscribe: SeekingRentsFL.com

In this episode: Progressive activist and Ron DeSantis antagonist Thomas Kennedy joins the show to talk about why the DeSantis bubble burst so spectacularly on the national stage and to call out some of the Florida politicians from both parties who take money — and marching orders — from Big Sugar. We also talk about DeSantis’ refusal to extend Florida’s voter registration as a monstrous hurricane looms off the coast and new campaigns targeting Republican lawmakers who have attacked and exploited immigrants.  

Show notes:

As promised on the show, here are links to watch the CBS Sunday Morning segment on the ways Florida’s anti-immigrant laws are hurting Florida farmers and to see the infamous Tallahassee billboard mocking a cosplaying governor pretending to be a fighter pilot.

You can also find lots more detail about the ways some top Florida Democrats teamed up with DeSantis and Florida Republicans to do Big Sugar’s bidding in these stories and podcasts:

After sugar’s $11 million investment, a bipartisan push to protect industry (Miami Herald)

Glades residents left behind: Nikki Fried’s ‘changes’ to cane burning served only Big Sugar (Palm Beach Post)

How Ron DeSantis and Nikki Fried Teamed Up to Defend Big Sugar (Seeking Rents – The Podcast)

Finally, make sure to check out Kennedy’s Podcast, Why Are We Like This, and to follow him on social media (@tomaskenn on Instagram and @tomaskenn on Twitter).

Questions or comments? Send ‘em to [email protected]

Listen to the show: Apple | Spotify

Watch the show: YouTube

Subscribe: SeekingRentsFL.com