By J.C. Bruce
Gov. Ron DeSantis wants us to believe the Hope Florida scandal is dead and buried, and nobody will be talking about it anymore during campaign season.
Hahahahaha.
Well, not everyone is laughing. Certainly James Uthmeier and Ashley Moody hope DeSantis is right. A grand jury report singled them out for how $10 million that should have gone to help sick children was misspent on political ads.
Uthmeier was DeSantis’ chief of staff at the time. He got promoted by DeSantis to attorney general afterward. Moody was the previous attorney general and could have blocked the deal, but didn’t. She got promoted to the U.S. Senate.
Now both are running to keep those jobs DeSantis gave them, and they really, really want the conversation about Hope Florida to go away.
But it won’t, even though an appeals court has ruled the report should be expunged. Politically, that’s immaterial. The cat has long since been let out of the bag.
DeSantis called the appeals court decision the “judicial equivalent of a death-by-firing squad to the Hope Florida Hoax.” Don’t you love the way DeSantis parrots Donald Trump’s favorite word—hoax!
But, as the old saw goes: “If wishes were fishes, we’d all swim in riches.” And this is one scandal the Republicans can’t wish away.
Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez, who opposes Uthmeier on the Nov. 3 ballot, has called Uthmeier “a criminal" and said that Uthmeier’s involvement in the scandal “may well be the most brazen act of political corruption we have seen here in Florida.”
“First of all, as attorney general, I would focus on tackling costs and tackling corruption. This attorney general is focused on being part of the corruption and part of the cover-up. And the most he can say is that he is not currently under indictment. I mean, that's not the kind of thing you want to hear from the chief legal officer.”
Moody’s opponent for the Senate seat, Democratic State Rep. Angie Nixon, had this to say:
“This scandal has never been about a piece of paper; it’s about Ashley Moody’s documented conduct, using taxpayer money for partisan political gain, and her continued refusal to answer for it.”
You’d expect that criticism from Democrats, but even Florida's senior U.S. senator, Republican Rick Scott, has weighed in. When asked by the Tampa Bay Times if DeSantis is right and this should all just go away, he said:
“No, it’s still an issue, and it still needs to be.”
If the state wasn’t going to look further into what happened to the $10 million, Scott said the federal government should: “Let’s just get the facts. Where and why was the money taken? Why hasn’t the money been given back?”
As a reminder, the money was rerouted to television ads opposing two ballot initiatives. One would have restored women’s reproductive rights in Florida, ending the onerous six-week abortion ban. The other would have legalized recreational marijuana.
Both ballot initiatives won more than 50% of the vote, but Florida requires 60%, and both fell just shy of that mark.
The results could well have been different if DeSantis and his cronies hadn't flooded the airwaves with those opposing ads. So, misusing these funds isn’t a trivial issue.
And, no, it’s not going away. Hopefully not even after Nov. 3.
For more on this:
Court erases Hope Florida grand jury report after shutting out anyone who would defend it
What the polls are showing
There are a lot of important races on the Nov. 3 ballot, and voters are already weighing in through mail-in voting.
The two statewide races getting the most attention are the gubernatorial contests between Democrat David Jolly and Republican Byron Donalds and the U.S. Senate special election between incumbent Republican Ashley Moody and Democrat State Rep. Angie Nixon.
A series of Florida polls shows Republicans ahead in both races, but only by single digits, which is remarkable given Republicans' enormous advantage in voter registration: 5.6 million to 4.1 million.
A four-poll average in the governor’s race is 48.0% for Donalds and 43.3% for Jolly.
The Senate race average is 49.5% for Moody and 42.8% for Nixon.
None of the candidates has a 50% majority at this point.
“The trendline tends to suggest that this is going to be a tighter election than it has been in the last couple of cycles,” Kevin Wagner, a political scientist at Florida Atlantic University, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
That Was the Week That Was
A very late hurricane hits Florida
The biggest story of the week in Florida was a hurricane named Isaias that slammed into the Panhandle near Destin Friday night, carving a path of destruction and leaving nearly 900,000 without electrical power in three states.
Isaias was the latest hurricane to form in the Atlantic or Gulf since the 1960s, when satellites began recording their presence.
As this newsletter went to press, damage was still being assessed, but at least four people were killed, two in Florida and two in Alabama.
Trump snubbed again
The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to South African human rights pioneer and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay for her work promoting international law and prosecuting war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In a fit of pique for being denied the prize for all the wars he imagines he prevented, Trump issued sanctions on the ICC.
Distraction execution
Democrats are attacking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announcement of a publicly televised execution by firing squad.
Nidal Hasan’s death will be televised, Hegseth declared last week. Hasan is responsible for the murders of 13 people in 2013.
Sen. Chris Murphy said Hegseth “is determined to hide the cost and the consequences of this war from the American public.” Public executions are a violation of international law.
Meme of the Week
Quote of the Week
"Let's be clear: The President is advocating for an attack on 10+ million U.S. residents in two of America's largest cities. This is not normal. None of this is. And we will continue to remind folks of that every day."
—California Gov. Gavin Newsom following Donald Trump’s comment about Iran in which he said: "Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego."
Quarterly Comments Contest
Just a reminder: If you have published a comment in one of these newsletters that you feel deserves recognition, or if you especially enjoyed a letter from another writer, we’re accepting nominations for the third quarter’s Comment Contest. The winner gets a Miss Mingo T-shirt, a coffee mug, and an amazing certificate. I am told that Donald Trump refuses to enter unless the certificate is framed in gold, which it will not be. However, comments about Trump are being accepted. Send your nominations to:
Letters@Tropic.Press
Looking Ahead
When I’m not writing this newsletter, I also scribble a current events column for Florida Weekly. You should check it out. Here are some snippets, from there and elsewhere, to help guide your week ahead. (Paid subscribers to this newsletter have full access to the complete Onward Thru the Fog archive.)
Oct. 11. Kraken Day. This holiday recognizes legendary sea monsters. The Kraken was inspired by actual giant squids growing up to 43 feet long. And no, this isn't the day we celebrate the Loch Ness Monster, which, unlike the Kraken, is real but lives in fresh water.
Oct. 12. Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Also Columbus Day.
Oct. 13. International Skeptics Day. If you don’t believe in the Loch Ness Monster or, heaven forbid, the Skunk Ape, this day is for you.
Oct. 14. Be Bald and Free Day celebrates the hairless scalp, whether by nature or illness. One unsettling consequence of chemotherapy is hair loss, so one of the goals of this day—befitting Breast Cancer Awareness Month—is to highlight that baldness can still be beautiful.
Oct. 15. National Grouch Day. For some reason, we’re supposed to celebrate whiners and complainers on this day, lovable ones like Oscar the Grouch, not DeSantis or Trump.
Oct. 16. Dictionary Day. BTW, a man named Les Earnest created the first computerized spell checker at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961. Also, of note, since I can never spell Massachusetts correctly, Word’s spellchecker fixed that for me.
Oct. 17. Wear Something Gaudy Day. Since it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, pair whatever pink you’re wearing today with something that truly doesn’t go with it, like green.
Last Week’s Tropic Press headlines
In case you missed it, here are some of the stories that headlined Tropic Press this past week. Click on the headlines to read the stories.
Jolly and Donalds duel over solar power. Donalds says it’s a fad; Jolly says it’s the future
Is this what the October Surprise is--an act of outright bribery?
Court erases Hope Florida grand jury report after shutting out anyone who would defend it
The first hurricane of the season is forming in the Gulf and taking a bead on Florida
There’s nothing “weird” about this hurricane’s name no matter what DeSantis thinks
Did Trump really suggest Iran bomb us? Uh, yeah, he did. When will this madness stop?
Being a conservative no longer means conserving; it’s all about destroying
News2Use
Check out the latest section on the Tropic Press website, News2Use, a handy reference library with links to useful information such as election deadlines, how to contact your elected representatives, and more. It’s a construction project, and we’re adding to it on a regular basis.
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Thanks.
J.C. Bruce
Those in the 1st DCA, please do not forget the names of the Hope Fla judges, and vote NO on retention when they are on the ballot. They obviously are too partisan political to be judges.
Good news for Angie Nixon!💪🏽💙 Bernie is coming to campaign for her with his tour.
https://bsanders-astro.pages.dev/oligarchy/