By JIM TURNER
News Service of Florida

TALLAHASSEE – PFloridians got a first glimpse early week at what the Republican-controlled Legislature will be like for the next two years.
But by week’s end, it was a swap of Floridians on the national stage that drew headlines.

Former Panhandle U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz on Thursday withdrew his nomination to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s U.S. attorney general — just over a week after being offered the job and resigning from Congress — amid growing scrutiny over an unreleased House ethics report.
Within hours of Gaetz’s exit from consideration, Trump tapped former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to head fill the post. Bondi was part of Trump’s defense team during his first impeachment trial.
Trump said Thursday that Bondi, a former Hillsborough County prosecutor who was elected state attorney general in 2010 and reelected in 2014, will “refocus” the U.S. Department of Justice, a role he expected Gaetz to tackle.
“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans — Not anymore,” Trump said in a statement posted on Truth Social. “Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting crime, and Making America Safe Again.”
Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried blasted the move, saying Trump considers loyalty “the only qualification that matters.” Fried also raised concerns that Bondi will assist the president-elect in dismantling the federal Affordable Care Act. As Florida’s top lawyer, Bondi participated in efforts to do away with the federal health-care law, known as Obamacare.

SENATE LEADER

The Legislature’s organizational session got underway Tuesday after the Nov. 5 elections were certified by the state Elections Canvassing Commission, comprised of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson and state Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis.
As he took the gavel to officiate over the Florida Senate for the next two years, Wauchula Republican Ben Albritton laid out his priorities for the 2024 and 2025 legislative sessions.
Albritton said he would hold the insurance industry accountable as homeowners faced a trio of hurricanes this year, and try to lead a “rural renaissance.”
“Technological advances have led to tremendous economic growth and innovation in other parts of Florida. It’s rural Florida’s turn,” Albritton said.
Albritton also enlisted senators to “join me in the fight to support our Florida farm families, our Florida food supply chain, and to save from extinction our iconic Florida citrus industry.”
The Senate president later drew pushback from Second Amendment advocates after telling reporters he is aligned with the position of law-enforcement officials on people being allowed to openly carry firearms in Florida.
“They oppose it. I trust my law-enforcement officials, and that’s where I stand,” Albritton said.
Floridians can carry concealed weapons, but lawmakers have stopped short of allowing people to openly carry firearms.
Albritton also told reporters that the Senate isn’t going to revisit ballot measures that would have allowed recreational marijuana and enshrined abortion rights in the state Constitution. Both of the proposals drew support from a majority of Sunshine State voters but fell shy of the 60 percent approval required to make it into the Florida Constitution.
“They both failed,” Albritton said. “And as for me, bringing up either of those issues in this body is a no.”

HOUSE LEADER

House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, kept his plans for the next two years a little closer to the vest.
Perez used his opening remarks Tuesday to briefly question past state spending, also saying that Floridians “aren’t looking for handouts” and don’t want lawmakers to “tell them what to think or how to live.”
But he also pointed to concerns about issues such as affordability of living in Florida.
“They want to own their own homes, not be tenants to private-equity firms. They want to open up a business without jumping through endless bureaucratic hoops,” Perez said. “They want to pick their own doctors and send their kids to good schools.”
Speaking to reporters later Tuesday, Perez said lawmakers will start addressing condominium issues when they hold committee meetings in the weeks before the 2025 regular session, which will start in March. Also, Albritton said he expects lawmakers to address condominiums during the regular session, rather than a special session as DeSantis has suggested.
“I have heard the call for a special session on condos, just like the rest of us have,” Perez told reporters. “The question shouldn’t be when. The question should be, what? What is the solution that people are offering to the issue before condos? It’s an issue we’ll be discussing during session.”

STORY OF THE WEEK: House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, and Senate President Ben Albritton, took over as leaders for the 2025 and 2025 legislative sessions and state lawmakers were sworn into office during an organizational session this week.