Dirty Money
Want to know why and how special interests almost always get their way in Florida, even when the public desperately wants to protect the natural environment? Look no further than the story reported by the Miami Herald this week. Reporter…
At VoteWater, we believe that Florida’s imperiled waterways are ultimately a political problem — requiring a political solution. That means better policies, which ultimately requires better politicians. Defending the status quo and the moneyed interests that benefit from it is…
The following is commentary by Ray Judah, a member of the VoteWater Board of Directors and a former Lee County Commissioner. Poor water quality in the Caloosahatche river and our coastal estuaries is a political problem and requires a political…
Dear Mike Rowe: First, we’re big fans of your show “How America Works,” and in particular your focus on the men and women in the trenches, rather than the bigwigs in the C-suites. Your recent program, “Behind the Scenes with…
The counterattack was inevitable – and utterly predictable. While the billionaire sugar barons haven’t deigned to comment on the “No Big Sugar Money” campaign which launched last week, they’ve sent their surrogates out to spin. Predictably, it’s been picked up…
Florida Sportsman publisher – and VoteWater Board President – Blair Wickstrom makes the case: In 2020 alone, Florida’s sugar industry — the home of Big Sugar — put at least $11 million into congressional campaign coffers. This happened on both…
Florida’s powerful sugar industry spends millions to buy influence in the halls of power. Today begins a new campaign to make that money toxic. In conjunction with a broad array of environmental groups, companies and political leaders on both the…
This commentary was first published in late April, by Ryan Smart of the Florida Springs Council – no relation to VoteWater Executive Director Gil Smart – as a depressing post-mortem on this year’s legislative session: Going into the 2022 legislative…
It looked like there was a real wedge between the two most powerful Republicans in Florida – Gov. Ron DeSantis and current Senate President Wilton Simpson, who’s running for state Agriculture Commissioner. But they’ve kissed and made up. And that…
Call this a master class in how politics really works in Florida. And yet another reason we should all Vote Water. On Substack, Jason Garcia’s “Seeking Rents” takes a look at “Associated Industries of Florida,” a lobbying group whose name…