Deep Something

Who Really Wants Government Making More of Your Decisions?

October 29, 2026 B. John 87 Views 0 Comments Josie Tomkow, Brian Nathan, Socialism, local control, abortion rights, individual rights, Religious Freedom, Florida Politics

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Josie Tomkow’s political allies would apparently like voters to know that Brian Nathan once registered with something called the National Atheist Party. They also want you frightened by the word “socialist.” Before anyone begins checking the neighborhood for Marxists hiding behind the recycling bins, perhaps we should look at what the two candidates have actually done.

Nathan supports a woman’s right to make decisions about her own pregnancy. Tomkow voted for Florida’s 15-week abortion restriction and later for the six-week restriction. She also supported laws that moved authority from local communities to Tallahassee and backed state restrictions on medical care, classrooms, books, pronouns, and public facilities. If government control is the issue, there is a lot in the voting record to consider.

Campaign labels are wonderfully convenient. “Socialist.” “Radical.” “Atheist.” They fit easily on mailers and take much less effort than reading voting records. This time, we read the records.

Featured Politics Congress Legislature

Mike Beltran’s Voting Record Deserves a Closer Look

October 18, 2026 B. John 187 Views 0 Comments Legislative Preemption, Kathy Castor, Nursing Home Care, Public Education, local control, Mike Beltran, Florida School Vouchers, Hillsborough County

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Mike Beltran wants to represent Hillsborough County in Congress. Before voters send him to Washington, they may want to look more closely at what he did during his six years in Tallahassee. From local zoning and tenant protections to public schools and nursing homes, Beltran often voted for laws that changed what local communities could decide for themselves.

He supported laws that lowered minimum nursing-home staffing requirements, expanded taxpayer-funded private-school vouchers, and required school districts to share more of their local construction funds with charter schools. He also backed limits on what teachers could teach about race and discrimination, as well as Florida’s abortion restrictions. It seems Tallahassee believed it knew what was best for almost everyone.

Meanwhile, Congresswoman Kathy Castor helped secure nearly $1.47 billion in federal grants for the Tampa Bay region, along with more funding for local infrastructure, housing, and community projects. Beltran’s record shows a different set of priorities. If he believed Tallahassee should have so much control over Hillsborough County, it raises questions about what he might do in Washington.

Legislature Technology Featured Places Tampa Politics Election

Following the Money Behind Josie Tomkow

October 14, 2026October 14, 2026 B. John 143 Views 0 Comments South Tampa, Florida Politics, insurance industry, Josie Tomkow, Campaign Finance, campaign contributions, political committees, data centers

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Campaign finance is so complicated that most voters give up before they get to the interesting part. That may be part of the point. Josie Tomkow has a regular campaign account and two political committees, with millions of dollars coming from business groups, health care interests, developers, insurers, political committees, and party organizations—often with names that don’t reveal who is really behind them.

Insurance stands out. About $92,500 came from companies, organizations, and people involved in property, auto, and casualty insurance. That’s notable on its own, but it’s even more interesting since Tomkow is now running as a candidate who wants to reform insurance, even though her voting record shows support for laws that reduced legal protections for policyholders. Her version of insurance reform has, at times, looked suspiciously like an aid package for the insurance industry.

There’s also at least $94,500 from donors directly connected to data centers, cloud computing, energy, or the infrastructure behind them. Add in big business and development money, plus $50,000 from Publix, and the donor list gets even more interesting. Maybe Publix just expects Tomkow to buy a lot of groceries. The rest of us might want to keep an eye on where the money goes.

Society Education Right Wingnuts Crack Pots Deep Thoughts Hate Groups Featured Politics Election Legislature Religion

The Books They Don’t Want Our Children to Read

October 9, 2026October 9, 2026 B. John 299 Views 0 Comments Hillsborough County Schools, Banned Books Week, Florida Book Bans, Parental Rights, Freedom to Read, Moms For Liberty, Bridget Ziegler, Brittany Lyssy

This entry is in the series Hate Groups

This entry is in the series Deep Questions

This entry is in the series Florida Legislature

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Growing up, I didn’t have books that helped me understand who I was. People rarely talked openly about being gay,

Featured Politics Legislature Society Education County Commission

Jackie Toledo’s Romance With “School Choice” – Right Temperament for County Commission?

October 3, 2026October 5, 2026 B. John 320 Views 0 Comments School Vouchers, Jackie Toledo, Charter Schools, Public Education, Hillsborough County Commission, School Choice, Education Funding

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Jackie Toledo spent six years in the Florida House, where she repeatedly supported legislation expanding charter schools and private-school scholarship programs. Her voting record shows how Florida’s school-choice system grew during her time in Tallahassee.

The changes came almost every year. In 2017, Toledo supported legislation to expand charter schools and share certain local school construction funds with them. By 2021, she had also voted to create and expand the Family Empowerment Scholarship, broaden eligibility, and increase scholarship awards. Meanwhile, traditional public schools remained responsible for educating every enrolled child.

Now Toledo wants to serve on the Hillsborough County Commission. Her legislative record raises questions about her approach to public funding and local responsibility. The full article follows five years of education legislation and examines the choices she made along the way.

Legislature Featured Places Tampa Politics Election

Trading Four Votes for One: The Cynical Math Behind Hillsborough’s Commission Power Grab

September 23, 2026 B. John 335 Views 0 Comments Hillsborough County Commission, local control, Charter Referendum 2, single-member districts, county governance, at-large seats, voter representation

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

This entry is in the series Florida Amendments and Referenda-2026

If someone came to your door and offered to trade four hundred-dollar bills for a ten-dollar bill, you would quickly close the door and check your security cameras. That is exactly the kind of deal behind Hillsborough County Charter Referendum 2, a Tallahassee plan that would undo forty years of balanced local government.

For forty years, Hillsborough has used a mix of four district commissioners and three countywide at-large commissioners. This lets every voter choose four out of seven seats, giving people a say in the majority. Referendum 2 would end this system by expanding the board to nine and removing all at-large seats.

Think about what this means for your representation. You would go from voting for four commissioners to just one. You would not be able to vote for or against the other eight, even though they decide on taxes, infrastructure, and big development projects. Single-member districts encourage commissioners to trade favors for their own areas and ignore countywide needs like Port Tampa Bay and regional transit.

Tallahassee politicians love to lecture local communities about neighborhood control while quietly shrinking our democratic leverage from afar. Read the full commentary to see why trading away four seats for one is a bad trade for Hillsborough taxpayers, and why we must vote No on Charter Referendum 2.

Featured Places Tampa Politics Legislature Society Education

The Ballot-Box Bureaucrat: Why Electing Hillsborough’s Superintendent Is Bad for Business and Worse for Classrooms

September 23, 2026September 23, 2026 B. John 384 Views 0 Comments Tallahassee preemption, school referendum, Michael Owen, elected superintendent, Public Education, Hillsborough School Board, Local Governance

This entry is in the series Education

This entry is in the series Florida Amendments and Referenda-2026

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Imagine Tampa General Hospital announcing that it will now select its President and CEO through a countywide partisan primary. Picture candidates debating surgical protocols on debate stages, taking a full year off to solicit campaign checks from medical supply reps, and catering to partisan party bosses instead of patient care. No board of trustees would tolerate it, and no major health system would survive it. Yet that is the exact circus Tallahassee politicians want to bring to Hillsborough County Public Schools, the single largest employer in our community.

Proponents dress up the proposal in the language of parental rights and democratic empowerment. But under the current model, the superintendent answers to an elected, seven-member School Board every single day. If the superintendent mishandles district finances, botches bus routes, or mismanages schools, the board can act immediately. Under an elected system, that daily accountability vanishes. The School Board loses its supervisory power, leaving a single partisan politician in charge of a $4 billion budget and 220,000 students, answerable to voters only once every four years.

An even bigger problem is the smaller pool of candidates. Instead of searching the country for experienced school leaders, we would be limited to local registered voters. The best-performing states treat school administration as a professional job, while the only two states that still elect superintendents are not among the top performers.

Injecting culture-war primaries and campaign fundraising into our school system’s executive suite is a disaster waiting to happen. Read the full analysis on why turning school administration into a political prize hurts our students, undermines teachers, and destabilizes our local schools.

Politics Legislature Economy Featured

The Free Lunch Mirage: How Florida Amendment 3 Squeezes Renters and Municipalities

September 22, 2026 B. John 343 Views 0 Comments tax shift, Florida Amendment 3, homestead exemption, local government funding, Property Taxes, first responders, renter costs

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

This entry is in the series Florida Amendments and Referenda-2026

Every politician knows that promising a giant tax cut is an easy way to win an applause line. Florida Amendment 3 dangles that exact bait, promising homeowners an expanded homestead exemption and tighter assessment caps. It sounds like an effortless win until you calculate what actually pays for the fire rescue station down the street.

State analysts project this measure will strip over $8 billion from local budgets across Florida in a single year. That is not trimming bureaucratic fat; it is a fiscal sledgehammer aimed directly at 911 dispatchers, sheriff’s deputies, paramedics, and neighborhood road repairs. When both the Florida Sheriffs Association and statewide firefighter unions sound the alarm, voters need to look past the political marketing.

Because essential emergency services cannot simply be shut down, local communities will be forced to raise utility fees and regressive sales taxes to survive. That leaves working families, retirees on fixed incomes, and renters footing the bill for a tax break they will never see. Read the full analysis on why defunding your local first responders is too high a price to pay for a campaign slogan.

Politics Legislature Featured

Corporate Welfare in Overalls: The Rural Shell Game of Florida Amendment 2

September 22, 2026September 22, 2026 B. John 354 Views 0 Comments Home Rule, agricultural tax exemption, corporate agribusiness, Hillsborough County, tax shift, Property Taxes, Florida Amendment 2

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

This entry is in the series Florida Amendments and Referenda-2026

The television commercials for Florida Amendment 2 are almost entirely self-written. All you have to do is play the acoustic guitar, show the video of a dusty tractor, and then tell the heartwarming tale of a fourth-generation family farmer who is struggling. Although the story is touching, the sentimental presentation covers up a costly performance by the corporation.

Florida businesses currently have a standard exemption of $25,000 for tangible personal property, which covers a significant portion of the equipment needed by genuine small-scale growers. The main benefit of Amendment 2, however, goes to industrial agribusiness syndicates, huge commercial packing houses, and luxury agritourism event venues that operate fleets of machinery costing six figures.

When Tallahassee eliminates equipment taxes on commercial agricultural land, those multi-ton transport trucks do not stop chewing up county roads. The bill simply shifts. County commissions are left to either gut local services or force residential homeowners to make up the difference. Read the full breakdown of how Amendment 2 puts corporate welfare in overalls and leaves local taxpayers holding the tab.

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Rainy Days and Blue Tarps: Why Hoarding Billions in Tallahassee Won’t Protect Hillsborough

September 22, 2026September 22, 2026 B. John 243 Views 0 Comments Tallahassee preemption, Florida Amendment 1, Budget Stabilization Fund, rainy day fund, Hillsborough County, state budget

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

This entry is in the series Florida Amendments and Referenda-2026

Tallahassee politicians often present Florida Amendment 1 as basic common sense. After all, who would argue with saving for a rainy day? But there’s a big difference between keeping an umbrella handy and locking away billions while your ceiling is falling in.

If you drive through Hillsborough County, you’ll see blue tarps still on roofs from storms years ago. Homeowners are struggling with high insurance costs, classrooms have broken air conditioners, and stormwater ditches need repairs. Yet Amendment 1 would require up to $750 million a year to be set aside in Tallahassee until the fund reaches 25 percent of general revenue.

Florida already has a fully funded emergency reserve at 10 percent. Forcing billions more into storage isn’t smart budgeting; it’s a way to cut local spending now so politicians can brag about a big balance later. Read the full essay to see why we should fix our roofs before Tallahassee builds another vault.

Featured Places Tampa Politics Legislature Society Crack Pots

Josie Tomkow Discovers Homeowner Rights

September 21, 2026 B. John 264 Views 0 Comments campaign contributions, homeowners insurance, attorney fees, Florida insurance reform, Homeowner Claims Bill of Rights, Senate District 14, Josie Tomkow

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Josie Tomkow says she wants to create a Homeowner Claims Bill of Rights and make sure insurance claims are fully paid. This sounds reassuring, especially in a state where rising premiums and storm losses have made things tough for homeowners. There is just one awkward detail: Florida already has a Homeowner Claims Bill of Rights. Even more, Tomkow spent years voting for laws that made it harder and more expensive for policyholders to challenge insurers when claims were denied or underpaid.

Campaign records also show ongoing support for Tomkow from insurance companies, industry groups, civil-justice organizations, and a former Florida Insurance Commissioner who now works in insurance advisory.

So is this a real change of heart, or just a shift for campaign season? Her voting record, contribution history, and new promises make it worth taking a closer look.

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