How Florida’s DeSantis wields the veto pen may be a preview of his remaining term | Opinion

Does Ron DeSantis still have his mojo? That was one of the issues implicit in the questions asked last week by a foreign student conducting research on the status of academic freedom in the United States in general and, especially, in Florida.

Normally we journalists like to be the ones asking the questions, but I’d agreed to sit for what turned out to be a 90-minute interview by Janika Spannagel, a student at the Freie Universitat in Berlin.

Spannagel, who headed home this week, had begun her U.S. visit by spending 10 weeks in California, where she was based at Stanford University but was free to roam all over the state, visiting campuses in Berkeley, Irvine and Los Angeles.

The California visit was followed by a month in Florida, where she spent a week each in Miami, Sarasota and Gainesville before wrapping up her visit with 10 days in Tallahassee. Her travel and the interviews occurred in connection with a research topic whose purpose she described this way:

“The objective of the research project is to investigate different contemporary forms of contestations of academic freedom in the United States, primarily to identify and map arguments that are advanced in favor of modifying or curtailing different aspects of academic freedom, and to understand the consequences they have.”

That her Florida visit included a stop in Sarasota was a sign that reports have even spread abroad about the drastic overhaul of New College under the leadership of Richard Corcoran, the $700,000-per-year interim president whose total compensation, if he remains through August, will approach $1 million.

Then there was the stopover in Gainesville, where the University of Florida just fired 100 employees associated with its activities promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

Spannagel’s curiosity about DeSantis’ clout stemmed from her awareness of media reports that the 2024 Legislature didn’t rubber-stamp his priorities, as lawmakers in the 2023 session had done in the wake of the governor’s impressive re-election victory.

Like many of Florida’s own political observers, she wondered if the failure of DeSantis’ presidential campaign had weakened him politically while also emboldening some of the lawmakers among the GOP’s overwhelming legislative majorities to move on, a phenomenon especially evident in the state Senate.

That DeSantis still has a firm grip on the executive branch is evident within the university system, where his appointees dominate the boards of trustees and a longtime vice chancellor at the Board of Governors recently resigned in disgust over the political meddling and cronyism.

DeSantis’ appointees also dominate the Florida Supreme Court, which is perceived as unlikely to overturn his policies when they’re challenged in lawsuits. This explains why critics of his policies so often turn to the federal courts for relief.

As for the status of DeSantis’ overall political clout, the answer may well be revealed in the weeks following the 2024 Legislature’s adjournment. DeSantis, like most governors, has access to a secret sauce that U.S. presidents do not have: the line-item veto.

How DeSantis uses this power may offer a clue as to how he’ll deal with the Legislature during the remainder of his second term, which runs through the end of 2026. For instance, will he be vindictive by deleting the pet projects of lawmakers who endorsed Donald Trump or rejected this year’s anti-woke agenda after they noticed that it didn’t sell during DeSantis’ presidential campaign? We’ll know soon enough.

Granted, some items deserve vetoes. After each legislative session, the watchdog group Florida TaxWatch issues its annual list of “turkeys,” budget items that did not follow the proper protocols but, instead, seemed to spring from the brow of an influential lawmaker during the waning hours of the budget process.

How DeSantis wields his veto pen — not just on the budget but also on other legislation — may offer an interesting preview of Tallahassee’s political climate over the next 34 months.