Seeking Rents – The Podcast

In this episode: Two weeks ago, the administration of outgoing Gov. Ron DeSantis awarded a $4 million contract to a consulting firm touting new artificial intelligence tools. And earlier this week, incoming Gov. Byron Donalds revealed a key leader of his transition team. The contract and the appointment may seem, on the surface, to be unrelated. But they are the first tremors in a major looming policy fight — a fight that will directly impact the cost of food and groceries for more than 2 million Floridians. And similar battles are on the horizon over health insurance and housing.

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In this episode: Florida Republicans’ red sea wall held as a blue tsunami washed across the nation. But there was lots of localized flooding: Democrats made their biggest state House gains in at least a generation and virtually every Republican on the ballot was swept away in Orlando, which has become the most important blue stronghold in what is now the nation’s biggest red state. But the top story is the passage of Amendment 3, which promises big tax cuts for homeowners — without any plan to pay for them. A look at some of the battles ahead as everyone from l...

In this episode: Election Day is finally here and Florida voters have a rare chance to completely reshape their government in Tallahassee — with competitive races for governor, attorney general, chief financial officer, and a host of seats in the state Legislature. In today’s show, we run through some of the big issues hanging in the balance.

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Stories discussed in today’s show:

An election-eve look at some of the donors funding state campaigns across Florida

A developer wants...

In this episode: Though the job doesn’t get nearly as much attention as governor, the Attorney General is one of the most important figures in all of Florida politics. The state’s highest-ranking lawyer has the power to investigate, litigate and prosecute — powers that have been used in the past to challenge electric utilities and phone companies but also to defend cruise lines, car dealers and Donald Trump. In today’s show, we take a closer look at two important ways that current Attorney General James Uthmeier is using the office: Backing developers that want to build subdivisions on rural...

In this episode: Early voting has begun in Florida. So, too, have the eleventh-hour election schemes — particularly in the campaign for Attorney General, which just may be the most important race on the ballot in Florida this year. Allies of incumbent Attorney General James Uthmeier are trying to censor TV commercials that spotlight Uthmeier’s role in the $10 million Hope Florida scandal. At the same time, some of the same consultants behind the infamous “ghost candidate” plot are once again trying to take out challenger José Javier Rodriguez. Meanwhile, another statewide elected official on the ballot — Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingo...

In this episode: The data center-backing billionaires behind ChaptGPT and a prominent right-wing tech investor are trying to tilt swing elections for seats in the Florida Legislature. So, too, are developers and real-estate investors behind some of the most sprawl-inducing bills to come through Tallahassee in recent years. Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier claim vindication following an election-eve appellate court decision on the misappropriation of $10 million. But the Hope Florida ruling is not the absolution they say it is.

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To make a donation to Seeking Rents, click here.<...

In this episode: In June 2025, just a few hours before Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature finalized a new state budget, GOP leaders in Tallahassee slipped a sentence into the spending plan authorizing state officials to acquire a piece of property in the Panhandle through a popular land-preservation program. Three months later, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet used that little line in the budget to spend $83.3 million in taxpayer money on a tiny spit of vacant land owned by a prominent real-estate developer and Republican Party donor. Here’s the story of how Florida politicians pulled off a land deal...

In this episode: The Ron DeSantis administration has been spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money to hide the Ron DeSantis administration’s misspending of millions of dollars of taxpayer money. The governor and his allies have also been handing out promotions, appointments and contracts to people who played roles in what is now widely known as the Hope Florida scandal.

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To make a donation to Seeking Rents, click here.

Exclusive: Taxpayers paid nearly $200,000 in legal fees for a witness the Hope Florida grand jury found “not credible”

DeSa...

In this episode: A new investigation reveals that Florida was secretly confining immigrants in cages the size of phone booths inside its infamous prison camp in the middle of the Florida Everglades. Meanwhile, the state attorney general and politically ambitious judges are colluding to weaponize family-law courtrooms and use them as fronts in their crusades against women’s healthcare and LGBTQ+ rights. Plus: A new developer-backed law out of Tallahassee is roiling local communities by unleashing more suburban sprawl. At the same time, cities, counties and towns are bracing for a property tax ballot measure that would open up hu...

In this episode: Earlier this year, Ron DeSantis and state legislators enacted a new law forcing Florida’s public nonprofit insurance company to set up a program pushing condo owners into higher-priced private insurance. The law was written in part by lobbyists for an insurance brokerage led by a billionaire megadonor that wanted to make money managing the new program on the state’s behalf. But that company just missed out on the contract for the job. Plus: Lobbyists for real estate agents are bankrolling a ballot measure that could drive up home prices (and agent commissions). And the Hope...

In this episode: Newspapers across Florida have been pulling back the curtain on schemes orchestrated by political consultants working on behalf of a small number of big corporate clients, including utility giant Florida Power & Light. Many of their plans focused on one target in particular: José Javier Rodriguez, a Cuban-American Democrat from Miami who was once seen as a future candidate for governor — but is now out of office thanks to a ghost. (This is an update of a podcast that initially aired in July 2022. The story has become newly relevant now that the guy many people know simply as...

In this episode: The release of a bombshell grand jury report into the $10 million “Hope Florida” affair has rocked the state’s political landscape two months before the election. James Uthmeier, the former Ron DeSantis chief of staff at the center of the scandal who the governor then promoted to attorney general, threatened a television reporter simply for asking him a question about it. Byron Donalds, the Republican candidate to become DeSantis’ successor, initially dismissed the issue but is now trying to reassure voters that he will demand reform. And pollsters are scurrying to figure out who Floridians ultimately blame fo...

In this episode: A scathing grand jury report — one that some of the most powerful politicians in Florida tried to keep hidden from voters — says that the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis “misappropriated” $10 million in taxpayer money “as part of a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities.” The grand jury broadly laid blame for the Hope Florida scandal with James Uthmeier, the former DeSantis chief of staff who since been appointed attorney general of Florida. It also exposed the hidden role in the affair played by U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody. The grand jury ultimately declined to issue any criminal ind...

In this episode: A number of lavishly funded candidates fell to grassroots challengers running on shoestring budgets during this week’s primary elections, showing that Big Money can become a big liability. Then again, Facebook’s favorite legislators survived their races and the candidate with the biggest bank account of them all — Byron Donalds, the new Republican nominee for governor — won his contest with (relative) ease. Plus: A book-banning backlash continues, Donald Trump’s grip on the GOP loosens, and the development lobby scores a split decision in the two communities that are driving so much of the statewide fights ove...

In this episode: In Tampa, Big Tech giant Meta Platforms is funding last-minute mailers on behalf of a Democratic legislator who is locked in a tough primary for an open seat in the state Senate. And in Miami, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram is paying for digital ads promoting a Republican legislator who is in line to become speaker of the state House. It’s all part of a nationwide campaign by Meta to fill state Legislatures with candidates supportive of the artificial intelligence industry — and Florida is the latest front. Plus: New records reveal that lobbyists for...

In this episode: A month-old law enacted by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature — with help from lobbyists representing major developers — already has more than 15 square miles of farmland around the state at risk of being consumed for new housing subdivisions. Many of the proposed projects have been previously rejected by county commissioners because of concerns about traffic congestion, habitat destruction, and encroachment on rural communities. But Tallahassee has now tied the hands of locally elected leaders. Plus: Amendment 3, the Florida Legislature’s controversial property tax ballot measure, is suddenly in limbo. And the growing problem of “dark lobbying...

In this episode: A billionaire hedge fund executive gave $10 million last week to Byron Donalds, the Republican Congressman from Naples who is the favorite to win the GOP nomination for Florida governor in next month’s primary elections. His gift came after a billionaire TikTok investor gave Donalds at least $7.5 million. Other billionaires are pouring money into the Donalds campaign, too. Their cash comes with strings. Plus: Attorney General James Uthmeier helps the billionaire-owned Fontainebleau Hotel steamroll residents of Miami Beach who are fighting a proposed expansion project; the companies that sell electricity to AI data centers love Florida’s ne...

In this episode: Data center interests have spent more than $5 million supporting Byron Donalds, the Trump-endorsed Congressman from Naples who is the heavy favorite to win the Republican nomination for Florida governor in next month’s primary election. But all that industry money is morphing from a strength to a liability amid a rising bipartisan backlash to data center development around the state. Meanwhile, James Uthmeier, Florida’s never-elected attorney general, is using his office to help Elon Musk’s Tesla try to get out of paying $243 million to victims of a fatal car crash involving Tesla’s Autopilot technolo...

In this episode: Led by a Donald Trump-appointed judge, a federal appeals court struck down Florida’s infamous “Stop WOKE Act,” a Ron DeSantis-championed law meant to censor university professors on subjects like racism and sexism. But Florida and other GOP-controlled Southern states are working on another way to control what can be said, taught or studied on college campuses. Meanwhile, rural and suburban towns across the state face an existential threat from a property tax cut that will appear on the November ballot. And new records reveal how a billionaire-led insurance broker wrote a law that could drive up pro...

In this episode: Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has been using his office to help donors, intervening in at least three civil disputes on behalf of special interests who gave $25,000 gifts to his fundraising committee. Meanwhile, Florida state House Speaker Danny Perez has been using his powers to help secret clients of his private legal practice, including Airbnb and Newsmax. For a pair of politicians who have spent much of the last two years fighting with each other, the two of them seem to have quite a bit in common.

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Stories discussed on...

In this episode: Following a last-minute blitz of vetoes by the governor — including half a dozen bills and more than $800 million in spending — the 2026 legislative season has finally come to an end in Florida. Which means election season is here. But before campaign coverage crowds everything else out, we take a closer look at some of the bills Gov. Ron DeSantis decided to stop from becoming law. The doctors’ lobby is pleased with his choices. MAHA activists are not. Correction: During the podcast, I incorrectly referred to a bill dealing with e-bike regulations by the wrong bill number. The correc...

In this episode: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis confirmed this week that the state is closing “Alligator Alcatraz” after one year — but not before paying out millions in “demobilization fees” to vendors who have already banked hundreds of millions building and operating the infamous immigrant detention facility in the Florida Everglades. Plus: A closer look at some recent favors Florida’s governor and Legislature have done for a few billionaire megadonors — including a car dealer, an insurance magnate, and a luxury hotel owner.

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The stories discussed in today’s show:

Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz”...

In this episode: A new nonpartisan analysis of a proposed constitutional amendment to cut and cap property taxes across Florida finds that it could wipe out nearly a quarter of all local government property tax collections. It could also fuel further privatization around the state — of everything from electric utilities to animal shelters. Plus: How lobbyists for a national pet retailer weakened a new state law meant to end abusive sales practices in pet stores. And Florida says no to Donald Trump-backed tax cuts for corporations.

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The stories discussed in today’s show:

In this episode: Twenty years ago, Republican leaders in Florida raced to get a radical property tax plan onto the statewide ballot — a plan that was negotiated largely in secret, sprung on the public at the last minute, and approved during a lighting-quick special session in June. If that sounds familiar, it’s because that is, beat for beat, what just happened again in Tallahassee, where Ron DeSantis and GOP lawmakers just rushed a giant property tax cut onto the November ballot that they don’t even fully understand. The irresponsible legislating blew up in their faces two decades ago. W...

In this episode: Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature has finally agreed on a new state budget, following a flurry of last-minute spending deals — most of them negotiated behind closed doors and sealed late on the Sunday night of a holiday weekend. The eleventh-hour additions to Florida’s $115 billion spending plan include provisions that could let the state buy more property from a big developer and donor; steer a $2 million education contract to a Koch-backed company; and pave the way for the use of artificial intelligence in an anti-hunger program that feeds nearly 3 million Floridians. Plus: Ron DeSantis signs a bill writte...

In this episode: Florida lawmakers might take more powers away from cities and towns, cut funding for a cross-state wildlife corridor, and start testing toilet water for drugs. They could give politicians more control over courses offered at public universities, let the attorney general dish out rich legal contracts with less scrutiny, and make taxpayers foot the bill for Ron DeSantis’ security even after he leaves office. And they may keep squeezing public employee unions, outsource more of the state’s prison system, and further expand the Florida Lottery. A look at some of the many projects and issues in p...

In this episode: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis just got the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature to pass new Congressional district maps that were intentionally drawn to violate an anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment that was approved by nearly two-thirds of Florida voters. It’s a scheme meant not only to give Donald Trump and national Republicans an edge in the 2026 midterms — but also to give DeSantis-appointed courts an opening to eliminate those anti-gerrymandering amendments completely. But the governor failed to get lawmakers to go along with plans to regulate artificial intelligence and weaken school vaccine rules, as Florida’s GOP leadership quickly settled...

In this episode: After more than a year of hostilities, Republican leaders in the Florida House and Senate reached a budget deal just days before Gov. Ron DeSantis hauls them all to Tallahassee for a special session that some people seem to want no part of. What happens next — on gerrymandering, vaccines, artificial intelligence and more — remains a mystery. Plus: Corporate donors who need favors from the DeSantis administration are flooding money into a federal super PAC supporting the governor. And a look at what the charter school industry has been lobbying for in the state Capitol.

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In this episode: As he looks ahead to another presidential run — and a potential showdown with a Donald Trump heir apparent like J.D. Vance or Marco Rubio — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is starting to pick some subtle-but-strategic fights with the Trump White House. Plus: Three years after promising to expand children’s health insurance, Florida leaders are utterly failing needy kids. And new records show that state lawmakers banked $14 million from special interests just before they started their 2026 legislative session.

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Stories discussed in today’s show:

Coming soon: Seeking Rents on stage...

In this episode: Ron DeSantis has begun signing bills sent to him by state lawmakers during Florida’s recently concluded session — including new laws that will make it more cumbersome for some Floridians to vote, give state politicians the power to label civil rights groups domestic terrorists, and let a billionaire hotel owner build an unpopular water park in Miami Beach. At the same time, the Republican governor and GOP-controlled Legislature are preparing for special sessions to resolve a budget impasse and re-gerrymander the state’s Congressional districts. But Florida voters, it turns out, aren’t happy with them. Plus: A...

In this episode: Florida lawmakers arrived in Tallahassee two months ago promising to focus on affordability and fix a growth-management mess they made last year. They did neither. They did, however, undermine the collective bargaining rights of public school teachers, shield a mining company from lawsuits over radioactive contamination, and pass a billionaire-backed bill that could force condo owners to pay higher prices for property insurance. They did some good things, too. A recap of Florida’s 2026 legislative session. Correction: This podcast used the incorrect bill number for Senate Bill 1028, the bill that could force some Florida condo owners to...

In this episode: Florida’s 2026 legislative session ends with one more development showdown on the floor of the Florida Senate, a weaker-than-expected deal on data centers, and a bunch of big decisions punted to a special session on the state budget that will be held later this spring. A recap of 60th and final day of the Florida Legislature’s 2026 session.

Show notes:

The bills discussed in today’s show:

Senate Bill 628 — Traffic Facility Designations

Passed the Senate by a 31-4 vote and now goes to the governor (vote sheet)

House...

In this episode: On the eve of the final day of Florida’s 2026 regular session, the Republican-controlled Legislature passed bills that will throw up more bureaucratic roadblocks to voting and allow state politicians to target “domestic terrorist” groups. But they also agreed not to give billions of dollars to the biggest corporations in the country and to help thousands of Floridians at risk of losing AIDS and HIV medication. Plus: Last-day floor fights are looming between urban and rural lawmakers over growth and development. An update from Day 59 of Florida’s 60-day session.

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The bill...

In this episode: With the Big Business lobby leaning hard on lawmakers, Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature passes a controversial bill weakening the collective bargaining rights of teachers, utility workers, bus drivers and more. Republican leaders in the House and Senate also seem to have struck a deal on an elections bill intended to suppress turnout on college campuses. And legislation written by lobbyists for mining-and-fertilizer giant Mosaic Co. — which would shield the company from legal claims over radiation exposure on former phosphate mines — heads to Gov. Ron DeSantis. An update from Day 57 and Day 58 of Florida’s 2026 legislative session.

Sho...

In this episode: In a session that was supposed to focus on affordability, the Florida Legislature just sent Gov. Ron DeSantis a bill that would force some condo residents and business owners to pay higher prices for their property insurance. Plus: Lawmakers pass a bill that could block a new cruise port near the mouth of Tampa Bay. And the state House engages in some last-minute shenanigans on behalf of the car dealers lobby.

Senate Bill 1028 — Citizens Property Insurance Corporation

Passed the House of Representatives by an 88-19 vote and now goes to the governor si...

In this episode: Republican leaders in the Florida House of Representatives are trying to lawyer their way out of taking some tough votes — including on whether or not to fix Senate Bill 180, a hurricane-recovery law that real-estate developers have been using to crush local environmental regulations. Plus: Not one but two favors for the car dealer lobby. And why are some Florida lawmakers pushing to make condo owners pay higher prices for property insurance? (The answer rhymes with “millionaire.”) An update from Day 51 of Florida’s 2026 legislative session.

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The bills discussed in today’s show: <...

In this episode: “MAHA moms” keep winning fights in the Florida Legislature over everything from Big Sugar to private schools to vaccine rules. Meanwhile, a bunch of dangerous bills are suddenly on the brink of passing — bills that would unleash massive real estate developments in rural areas, allow the governor to designate domestic terrorists, and weaken union rights for public school teachers — after squeaking through committee hearings by a single vote. An update from Day 50 of Florida’s 2026 legislative session.

Show notes

The bills discussed in today’s show:

Senate Bill 290 — Department of Agriculture an...

In this episode: The Florida Senate, a chamber that once championed Medicaid expansion, now wants to take health insurance away from single moms and near-retirees. Plus: A bitter fight over an effort to bust public teacher unions but a bipartisan alliance on rejecting corporate tax breaks. An update from Day 49 of Florida’s 2026 legislative session.

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The bills discussed in today’s show:

Senate Bill 1758 — Public Assistance

Passed the Senate Appropriations Committee by 14-4 vote (vote sheet)

Senate Bill 1296 — Public Employees Relations Commission

Passed the Senate Fiscal P...

In this episode: A community represented by a powerful lawmaker may get a reprieve from a proposal that would unleash massive real-estate developments in rural areas of Florida. Plus: A brewing battle over corporate tax breaks. An update from Day 45 of Florida’s 2026 legislative session.

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The bills discussed in today’s show:

House Bill 299 — Blue Ribbon Projects

Passed the House State Affairs Committee by a 21-5 vote (vote sheet)

House Bill 7031 — Taxation

Passed the House Ways & Means Committee by a 19-0 vote (vote sheet)

House...

In this episode: The Florida Legislature unveils a plan to name a 124-mile, coast-to-coast corridor after Donald Trump. The “President Donald J. Trump Highway” would run right by “President Donald J. Trump International Airport” — and just a few miles to the north of “President Donald J. Trump Boulevard.” In between putting Trump’s name on things, Florida lawmakers are also working on plans to give bigger tax subsidies to privatized public schools, make it harder for college students to vote, and force sixth-graders to watch anti-abortion propaganda. An update from Day 44 of Florida’s 2026 legislative session.

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The bi...