From the Wikipedia: “A five-member Board of Supervisors governs the District, elected by the landowners of the District.”
The landowner is the Walt Disney company - a single “person” - so it’s probably better described as an appointment rather than an election. And it would be difficult to say that axing your personally appointed manager of your personal, private property is somehow not going to affect you.
Everything is Federally reviewable if it’s 1) the work of a non-Native American government, and 2) plausibly conflicts with the Bill of Rights.
Ultimately, this is all theater. I expect that neither Disney nor Florida Republicans expect the law to ever actually be enacted. That’s why they set the law to take effect over a year from now. Lawsuits will tie it up for even longer. And in the meantime Disney and DeSantis will quietly work out some sort of arrangement where he can claim to have won a victory over “wokeness” while preserving the Mouse’s privileges.
Should the law go into effect, they will no longer be able to issue municipal bonds, which carry a lower cost to the issuer compared to similarly situated corporate bonds, due to the tax treatment of munis.
It’s all political theater. The RCID can’t be dissolved without the approval of the district’s residents or landowners, and they’re all loyal Disney employees.
But why didn’t they just do that now. Nothing would have stopped them. Stupidity? Or are they not actually serious about following through? I hear it also doesn’t take effect for a year. Conveniently after the elections.
Possibly, or ignorance. I was not aware of that piece of legislation prior to now, it’s quite likely they are not either.
I think that they are giving Disney room to back down and endorse the GOP again. Extortion works in many parts of their lives and careers, so they think that it’s just how it works, make threats to get people to get in line.
Disney actually has the resources to fight back, and like all bullies, they don’t know what to do when their desired victim gives them a bloody nose.
The bully gets what he wants when the RCID revocation goes front page, above the fold. DeSantis wants to be known nationally as the guy who took on woke liberal corporations and made them back down.
When Disney gets what it wants - resumption of the RCID sometime before June of next year - it will be a small item on page A24, and DeSantis will have already formed his 2024 presidential campaign committee.
He’s also tied with Nicki Fried. So there are two democrats that look very dangerous to him right now. I think he’s going really hard to get all the extreme Trump base, which he has been seemingly pretty successful at, but what he doesn’t have is charisma, crossover appeal, TV celebrity appeal. In other words, he doesn’t have the things Trump had that let him win despite the extreme noxiousness. That’s my hopeful view anyway.
Given that Disney probably has one of the largest legal forces on copyright and entertainment rights in the land, and isn’t foreign to the Supreme Court, I could see them taking it there just to flex.
In whose latest poll? RealClearPolitics has him ahead in every poll they list. There aren’t many but the University of North Florida has him ahead of Crist by 21 and ahead of Fried by 23.
I did find one poll on crowdwisdom that has Crist ahead by 12, but that’s the outlier and every other poll has him losing.
A new article on CNN says DeSantis’ approval rating has gone up over 50%.
Democrats need a miracle to win.
And obligatory disclaimer: never trust a single poll. Never. After the election you can go back and cherrypick the ones that came closest, but before the election you never can tell.
