DeSantis has Florida hurricane relief efforts ready to roll

NEWS AND OPINION:

Just a brief word about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as his office and the citizens of the Sunshine State prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Milton, a Category 5 storm.

Mr. DeSantis has announced that he has directed the suspension of tolls across central and western Florida, as well as along Alligator Alley between Naples and Fort Lauderdale, in preparation for Hurricane Milton.

“By suspending tolls in the impacted area, Floridians and visitors will be better able to quickly and safely evacuate if and when directed by local officials,” the governor said.

Tolls were suspended Monday morning — and will remain so for a week.

“With evacuation orders imminent, this will help keep traffic moving — and be one less thing for people to worry about ahead of Milton,” Mr. DeSantis said in a statement released Monday.

Emergency plans issued by his office are extensive and specific. A 10,000-person base camp has been established for emergency responders; fuel and electric vehicles chargers have been placed along evacuation routes; generators, airboats, ATVs, high water vehicles and other vital equipment are ready to go.

In addition, the Florida State Fairgrounds has opened the Bob Thomas Equestrian Center on a first-come, first-served basis for horse owners that are in the direct path of Hurricane Milton. The governor’s office also says that 139,718 cubic yards of debris has already been removed from state and local roads — along with 8,100 cubic yards from the Pinellas barrier islands.

AND ONE MORE THING

“Should Milton result in total damage and economic losses of $200B or more, the sum of two hurricanes in just three weeks elapsed time can have a total damage and economic loss of 2% of the country’s [gross domestic product]. This can put the Federal Reserve in a quandary,” Accuweather.com said in a brief statement released Monday.

“On the one hand, the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to reduce inflation. However, the storms cause inflation by increasing the costs of goods. On the other hand, the hurricanes are harmful to the economy causing some businesses to fail and others to struggle as a result of the disasters, so jobs are being lost, and people and businesses are facing a long tail of economic impacts from the disasters,” the statement noted.

VOTER EXHAUSTION

“The popularity of ranked choice voting (RCV) has spread like wildfire in recent years. More than two dozen states currently use RCV in federal, statewide, and/or local elections. Further, seven states and the District of Columbia have put RCV directly on November’s ballot for citizens to either accept or reject these fundamental changes to their electoral processes,” warned the Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank based in Chicago.

“Although most Americans are not familiar with RCV, they certainly should be. Unlike traditional voting in which voters cast a vote for a single candidate, RCV carries many perils because of its complexity. It can sow confusion among voters, who have to rank every candidate for their vote to be counted,” said Chris Talgo, the institute’s editorial director, in a statement shared with Inside the Beltway.

The complexity can potentially cause “voter exhaustion,” he said.

“It results in delayed outcomes due to the complicated system to tally votes. Even worse, as we’ve seen, RCV can mistakenly award an election to a candidate who did not actually win. Overall, RCV is a so-called solution to a problem that does not exist,” Mr. Talgo said in a statement shared with Inside the Beltway.

Heartland research editor Jack McPherrin called ranked choice voting “a dangerous scam. Our election system already has enough problems that need solving. We do not need to add to them by implementing RCV, in any jurisdiction.”

The organization is also monitoring mail-in ballots. Find it at Heartland.org.

IVY-COVERED HALLS

Brown University employees appear to favor one presidential candidate over another, according to the Brown Daily Herald, a student publication on campus.

“According to a Herald analysis of campaign finance filings, Brown employees have donated 226 times more to [Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s] campaigns than former President Donald Trump’s during the current election cycle,” wrote Owen Dahlkamp, a news editor with the publication.

“Staff have donated approximately $41,000 to Harris, $20,130 to Biden during his campaign and a mere $272 to Trump since January 2023. This skew is unsurprising. Previous Herald reporting showed that Brown staff and students contributed 27 times more to Democratic campaigns than Republican ones in the past two decades,” Mr. Dahlkamp said.

“With election day a little over a month away, Harris has received 189 donations from Brown employees. Trump has only seen three,” he said.

“While the University as a non-profit institution is prohibited from donating to political causes, individual employees have no institutional restrictions on their donations,” Mr. Dahlkamp said.

The College Fix — a student-written publication — is also following the trend, and in a broader way.

“About 93% of top-ranked U.S. universities’ presidents who donated to political campaigns gave to Democrats, according to a College Fix analysis of federal and state political campaign donation data,” the organization said in a report published in July.

“Of the 15 presidents that The Fix found data on, 14 gave to Democrats, including 12 who gave exclusively and two who gave primarily to Democrats but also donated smaller amounts to Republicans; only one donated only to Republicans. That amounts to about 93% donating to Democratic campaigns,” the organization said.

POLL DU JOUR

• 42% of U.S. adults say Donald Trump has “clearer plans” to solve America’s problems.

• 90% of Republicans, 41% of independents and 3% of Democrats agree; 46% of men and 38% of women also agree.

• 42% say Vice President Kamala Harris has “clearer plans” to solve America’s problems.

• 4% of Republicans, 36% of independents and 88% of Democrats agree; 40% of men and 43% of women also agree.

• 16% are not sure about the issue.

• 6% of Republicans, 23% of independents and 9% of Democrats agree; 14% of men and 18% of women also agree.

SOURCE: A Yahoo News survey of 1,714 U.S. adults conducted Oct. 2-4.

• Follow Jennifer Harper on X @HarperBulletin, on Facebook @HarperUniverse.