Deep Something

Tallahassee Keeps Telling Local Communities to Sit Down

June 23, 2026 B. John 268 Views 1 Comment local democracy, Hillsborough County, worker protections, Florida Legislature, heat safety, Tallahassee, zoning, Home Rule, Preemption

This entry is in the series Florida Legislature

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

There is a word in Florida politics that sounds dry enough to cure insomnia but is quietly reshaping life in our communities: preemption.

Preemption is what happens when Tallahassee tells local governments they are not allowed to solve local problems. In recent years, the Legislature has used it to block local worker protections, weaken local control over zoning and development, and shift more decisions away from the people who actually live with the consequences.

My latest article examines this growing pattern, including Florida’s ban on local heat protections for outdoor workers, recent development bills that override local planning, and the legislators who keep voting to shift power away from communities and into the state’s hands. This is not just a procedural fight. It is about whether local democracy still means anything when powerful interests want it out of the way.

Politics Legislature Featured Places Tampa

Josie Tomkow’s Record Shows Tallahassee Comes First

June 26, 2026June 26, 2026 B. John 258 Views 1 Comment Public Schools, South Tampa, Senate District 14, Hillsborough County, Josie Tomkow, Brian Nathan, Home Rule, local control, Tallahassee preemption

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

This entry is in the series Florida Legislature

Florida Republicans love to talk about freedom, but their voting records often tell a very different story. Over and over again, Tallahassee politicians have voted to take decision-making power away from local communities, local governments, and local school boards. Josie Tomkow’s record in the Florida House is a clear example.

Tomkow is now running again against Brian Nathan in Senate District 14, asking Tampa-area voters to send her back to Tallahassee. But when she served in the House representing Polk County, she repeatedly voted for state preemption over local control, including on housing, zoning, infill redevelopment, civilian oversight, and public schools.

That matters here. Tampa and Hillsborough County deserve representation rooted in this community, not another vote for Tallahassee control. The question for voters is simple: if Tomkow voted this way in the House, why should anyone expect her to vote differently in the Senate?

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Is Karen Gonzalez-Pittman Representing South Tampa or Tallahassee?

June 29, 2026 B. John 205 Views 0 Comments local control, Tallahassee preemption, housing policy, infill redevelopment, school boards, wage recovery, South Tampa, Karen Gonzalez Pittman, Home Rule

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Karen Gonzalez-Pittman represents South Tampa, but her voting record raises a fair question: is she representing this community, or carrying Tallahassee’s agenda back home? Again and again, she has voted for bills that take decision-making power away from local governments, local school boards, and local voters.

From housing and tenant protections to infill redevelopment, school policy, civilian oversight, and local employment standards, Gonzalez-Pittman has sided with state preemption over home rule. For South Tampa, where traffic, flooding, housing pressure, schools, and neighborhood character are intensely local concerns, that record deserves much closer scrutiny.

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The Price of Political Playacting: Michael Owen’s Assault on Hillsborough Schools

July 9, 2026 B. John 114 Views 0 Comments Michael Owen, political overreach, Public Education, Hillsborough County, Culture Wars, Local Governance, school referendum, state preemption

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Hillsborough County Public Schools, the seventh-largest district in the nation, is facing a top-down assault disguised as “local accountability.” State Representative Michael Owen’s House Bill 4027 calls for a referendum to eliminate our professionally appointed superintendent in favor of a partisan elected office. The schools are already governed by an elected board of education. This change is not about transparency; it is a calculated effort to force a toxic culture-war agenda into our local classrooms and strip our school system of seasoned, professional leadership.

The structural fallout of this power grab is devastatingly clear. Instead of an experienced educational administrator focused on student performance, our district risks being handed over to a political partisan. Under an elected model, policy decisions on curriculum, budgeting, and student safety will inevitably bow to the need for campaign survival, turning every fourth year into a multi-million-dollar reelection spectacle. This essay shows how Owen’s legislative overreach, paired with his habit of distorting local facts for political points, threatens the shared institutions our children rely on.

Cartoon of Elected School Superintendent

General

The Ballot-Box Bureaucrat: Why Electing School Superintendents Is a Governance Nightmare

July 10, 2026July 10, 2026 B. John 140 Views 0 Comments Florida Politics, Home Rule, Michael Owen, elected superintendents, local preemption, public education rankings, institutional accountability

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

The push to force a partisan elected superintendent referendum onto Hillsborough County isn’t a grassroots movement for voter empowerment; it’s a deliberate structural hijacking. In our latest piece, we look at the reality behind this cynical effort to turn a highly specialized, professional administrative role into a hyper-partisan popularity contest. The data is clear: electing the top executive of a massive metropolitan school system has zero statistically significant impact on student achievement. What it actually delivers is a microscopic local talent pool and a system-wide governance nightmare of locked-up school boards and parallel legal counsels.

The hypocrisy of this legislative push is laid bare by its chief sponsor, State Representative Michael Owen. Owen has built a career voting to strip cities and counties of their home-rule authority through state-level preemption bills, yet he suddenly claims a deep devotion to local voter control when it comes to controlling a metropolitan school system. If Owen and his allies want to argue that a partisan knife fight is the secret sauce for academic excellence, they are arguing against the entire map of American education. The states that consistently deliver top-tier results treat school administration as a profession, while the only two states that stick to elected superintendents—Alabama and Florida—rank 43rd and 24th in public school quality. True accountability isn’t a row of campaign signs along a highway shoulder; it’s a system run by qualified professionals who can be held to high standards and removed when they fall short.

Featured Places Tampa Politics Legislature

The Empty Chairs of Tallahassee’s Brave Warriors

July 18, 2026 B. John 67 Views 0 Comments homeowner’s insurance reform, Florida State Senate, Republican no-show, Tiger Bay Club, legislative accountability, Hillsboroug, Tampa Politics, preemption laws

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

The historic Tiger Bay Club of Tampa is known for hosting fierce, politically mixed audiences, the exact kind of room where business-friendly traditional Republicans used to enjoy a home-court advantage. Yet, at a recent Florida State Senate candidate forum following the club’s monthly luncheon, the Republican side of the dais looked like an abandoned movie set. Not a single Republican running for a State Senate seat representing Hillsborough County bothered to show up. Incumbents Nick DiCeglie and Jim Boyd, along with former House Representative Josie Tomkow, staged a coordinated vanishing act, leaving empty chairs where accountability was supposed to sit.

This missing-in-action routine isn’t just a scheduling oversight; it’s a strategic flight from a room full of constituents demanding answers. Over the last several years, this trio has marched in lockstep to strip local self-governance through state preemption while simultaneously passing disastrous property insurance “reforms” that sent premiums into the stratosphere. By refusing to face the music, and a polite crowd over a plate of chicken piccata, Hillsborough’s ghost candidates proved they would rather hide behind multimillion-dollar PAC mailers than explain why their legislative records read like a pocketbook nightmare for local taxpayers.