Another storm still rages in Florida

Florida’s gubernatorial candidates have faced a slew of political storms along with a literal hurricane in their closely watched contest to lead the nation’s third largest state.

The governor’s race pits Republican Ron DeSantis, a two-term congressman and Iraq War veteran endorsed by President Donald Trump, against Democrat Andrew Gillum, the progressive mayor of Tallahassee who’s a darling of billionaire philanthropist George Soros. The outcome of next month’s election could tell us much about the 2020 race for president since Florida’s governor will no doubt be expected to deliver votes for his party’s nominee in such a crucial electoral state.

Charges of corruption and racism have marred the race even as the state’s Panhandle works to recover from this month’s devastating Hurricane Michael, and sparks flew in Wednesday’s final debate between the two candidates.

Gillum had a slim lead in the polls with two weeks until Election Day, but he faced renewed questions about his dealings with lobbyists amid an ongoing ethics probe. The New York Times reported this week that he received tickets to the musical Hamilton in New York from an undercover FBI agent investigating corruption in Tallahassee’s city government. Gillum maintains he is not a target of the long-running investigation.

“In the state of Florida we’ve got a lot of issues. In fact, we have 99 issues and Hamilton ain’t one of them,” he said during the debate, while admitting he should have asked more questions about the origins of the tickets, which he said came from his brother.

DeSantis, meanwhile, is fighting charges of racism after one of his donors used a racial slur to refer to former President Barack Obama. Critics called on DeSantis to return the donor’s money, but his campaign said it was too late to do so and promised not to accept any donations from that contributor in the future. DeSantis also warned voters not to “monkey this up”—a phrase many interpreted as racist—by voting for his opponent, who would be the state’s first African-American governor.

Earlier in the month, the candidates briefly suspended campaigning and canceled a debate as Hurricane Michael slammed the state, with Gillum turning his attention to his role as mayor of a Panhandle city. Gillum pointed to his work after the storm alongside Gov. Rick Scott, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate running against incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, as evidence of his ability to reach across the aisle.

But bipartisanship seemed in short supply as attention swirled around the candidates’ takes on the president. Trump’s style and policies will likely play a significant role in the race, with Gillum claiming DeSantis “has run this race very, very close to the Trump playbook where we called each other names and [ran] false advertisements.”

The president will campaign next week with DeSantis, whom he endorsed in the Republican primary over an establishment candidate, and has blasted Gillum over the corruption allegations, tweeting this week that the mayor would “make Florida the next Venezuela.”

Leaving a void

A legal pimp and controversial Nevada state Assembly candidate was found dead last week in one of his brothels. Dennis Hof, the Republican nominee in a strong GOP legislative district, had fashioned himself a Donald Trump–style candidate. He was favored to win against Democrat Lesia Romanov, but he had diabetes and was known to be in poor health.

State election officials said Hof’s name will remain on ballots, which have already been printed and mailed to voters, but signs will be posted at polling places informing voters that the candidate has died. —Kiley Crossland