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.
The intramural pissing match between Republicans in Tallahassee continues, and no clear resolution is at hand as they try to figure out if they can chop up Democratic districts, and if so, by how much. A third congressional redistricting map is moving forward in the process, with the House poised to offer a radically different map than the one the
Duval County legislators were at the center of drama in the Florida Legislature last week, and the confrontation spoke to an essential truth in regional politics: Jacksonville has not resolved its race issues. As the House approved a ban on abortions after 15 weeks (that’s a tad more than three months past conception), protests rose in the chamber, with chants
Many of those reading this rejoiced last week when the Florida Supreme Court rebuffed Gov. Ron DeSantis’ unprecedented ask for an advisory opinion regarding his proposed congressional redistricting map. DeSantis’ general counsel put forth a map, as we have discussed here, that would eliminate the Fifth Congressional District, which protects the interests of Black voters in North Florida by connecting
Will Florida’s 5th Congressional District, which connects Jacksonville’s Urban Core to Gadsden County while hugging the Georgia border, become a thing of the past soon? That’s what Gov. Ron DeSantis wants. And he’s asking the Supreme Court to issue an advisory opinion on whether CD 5 can be blended out, replaced with a new district connecting Jacksonville’s Urban Core with
It’s hard for me to understand, as a longtime observer of the Jacksonville Jaguars franchise, why it’s taken the team so long to sign former quarterback Byron Leftwich as head coach. I get that the Trent Baalke situation as general manager may be one that Shad and Tony Khan don’t want to let go of, though I can’t understand why.
Is Gov. DeSantis trying to do what Jacksonville Democrats could not, in removing Al Lawson from Congress? That is one interpretation of the Year Zero-style Congressional redistricting map from the governor’s general counsel, a document that was dropped the night before MLK Day. The map lays waste to the concept of protected minority access districts, creating a map that puts
A week ago, the world hadn’t heard of Ben Frazier. The president of the Northside Coalition was known locally, but it took a trip to the Florida Department of Health building in Jacksonville for Frazier to become celebrated from coast to coast. Frazier, a one-time broadcast journalist who still has the voice for the gig, was unrelenting when advised that
Where was the governor at the end of 2021? Ron DeSantis stopped doing press events for the most part. His Twitter account aroused suspicion at year’s end, by recycling an appreciation from a couple weeks before for a bagel shop in Ocala. He did a pre-taped segment for Christmas Day on Fox News, but it was the same old, same
What to make of last week’s 13-5 Jacksonville City Council repudiation of LeAnna Cumber’s attempt to turn back the gas tax hike going into effect next month? Ultimately, Tuesday night saw two Republican candidates come after the sitting mayor and his policy priority, and by proxy the man widely seen as the candidate of the Jacksonville business establishment, Daniel Davis.
The First Election of the Jacksonville City Council At Large Group 3 race is in the books, and nobody won. That’s the reality of the open primary that we saw last Tuesday, in which Democrat Tracye Polson was the leading vote getter, with Republican Nick Howland running behind by less than half a percentage point. There were some who thought