Many of us were concerned that Southwest Florida would have trouble voting after Ian, but as it turns out Lee County, despite being the eight most populated county in the state, is currently sixth in returned ballots, ahead of Orange County which has twice as many people.

Orange County was badly impacted by Ian, and is the second most Democratic urban county in the state. But Orange was not included in the emergency order the Governor signed. Volusia County which also had serious Ian impacts and has less than half the population of Orange has almost as many returned ballots.

So the question begs itself, what is going on in Orange County in terms of enthusiasm, or is Hurricane damage so bad there that without emergency provisions, turnout will be down?

Watch this space.

As for Duval’s low turnout thus far that has more to do with the culture of Early Voting in Jacksonville. Once EV starts, it will pick up rapidly.

15th Congressional District Democratic nominee Alan Cohn, (who is endorsed by this site) turned in a very strong debate performance against GOPer Laurel Lee on Thursday. But Lee, who managed Florida’s Elections in 2020 strongly indicated she believes Joe Biden was “duly elected,” which will almost certainly cause her problems if she is elected within the House GOP Caucus.

Governor Ron DeSantis sudden interest in dealing with property insurance, including his stated desire to call a second Special Session on the issue, appears a direct reaction to Charlie Crist hammering on about the issue.

The reality remains this – Crist as Governor took on the insurance industry and his advocacy is the reason so many have been able to afford to live in Florida. Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis, Crist’s successors have done nothing to control the situation, and Florida currently has the worst property insurance market in the country.

For those who naively parrot the talking point that Crist’s party switch was about political expediency (because politicians love to switch from a party that constantly wins, to one that constantly loses in this state, correct?) should probe this issue further- Crist’s willingness to take on a multi-billion dollar industry traditionally aligned with the GOP hastened his drift from being a moderate GOPer to being a center-left Democrat.

The insurance industry hasn’t played fair with Florida and the two most recent governor’s have enabled this, while Crist when he held the office, took them on.