A.G. Gancarski's columns were a staple in Folio Weekly for nearly two decades, and he has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. He writes about the intersection of state and local politics and policy.
To the best of my knowledge, French philosopher Michel Foucault never made it to Duval County. And he likely never opined on whether the Westside truly is the best side or other historic questions of bygone times. But despite never having done Duval, Foucault seemed to understand what made the place tick. His book Discipline and Punish: The Birth of
In the final analysis, Gov. Ron DeSantis may be the big winner of the Jacksonville sheriff’s race in 2023. Consider how he handled the opening last week for the position. His friend Mike Williams was forced into resignation after it became clear he would not be able to ignore the charter provision compelling sheriffs of Duval County to live in
Democrats are in a bad position vis-a-vis Ron DeSantis, and it seems to have them hamstrung as time starts to run out on the 2022 cycle.
One of my least favorite fictions about our region is that Jacksonville and the rest of Northeast Florida are the same. Anyone who has logged real time here knows that there are real differences. I never expected to see the homegrown Jacksonville sheriff, who should be acutely aware of the differences between the city and the suburbs, try to pretend
Months back, I pleaded to the federal government in this column space to stop prosecuting Corrine Brown. Last week, they heeded that and similar advice. Brown’s guilty plea ended the overheated drama of last decade’s One Door for Education saga, characterized by fat checks from the donor class for opaque purposes, promised donations from Brown to charitable entities that didn’t
The great unanswered question of the 2022 election cycle for Northeast Florida Republicans was what Cord Byrd would end up doing. Would he run for state Senate, opposing Clay Yarborough? Would he run for Congress, joining a field that includes political outsider Erick Aguilar and veteran politician Jason Fischer in the Congressional District 4 race (assuming the governor’s map ultimately
Not too many years ago, it was possible to eke out a living on the fringes of society and maintain a residence in Riverside, San Marco, or even Jax Beach if you weren’t picky. A no-frills, no-gentrification, no-renovation sort of thing, to be sure. But you could sell a few articles or paintings or chapbooks or zines or whatever your
Al Ferraro knows how to read a room. People should finally realize that much and give him the credit he’s due. Throughout his entire political career, he’s been underestimated. In 2015, the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce endorsed Democrat Lisa King over him in the District 2 race. King was running as a Gwen Graham-style Democrat, and there was an era
In the week since my column last ran in Jacksonville Today, Gov. Ron DeSantis got everything he wanted from the Florida Legislature. The Republican-leaning congressional map? Delivered without amendment from the Republican-dominated Legislature, then signed quietly Friday in Tallahassee before the governor left for a much less quiet bill-signing ceremony in Hialeah. The Disney smackdown? The Mouse smelled what DeSantis
There was no surprise, none at all, for readers of this column regarding what the Florida Legislature would do with the problem of the new congressional reapportionment map. We wrote it over two months ago: “Ron DeSantis isn’t bluffing about his map.” Lots of poetic justifications of the current Congressional District 5 followed, all sound and fury signifying nothing when
