As Sen. Joe Gruters Once in the upper chamber, he attempted to set records for the number of bills submitted. The Sarasota Republican’s 24 bills this year seem modest in comparison.
This comes even after Gruters travels to Tallahassee for the first time without a formal political role in the Florida Republican Party (RPOF). He refused to walk again for the RPOF State President.
But he hopes to complete some years of effort before the conclusion of the 2023 legislative session. This includes finally getting the maintenance reform over the finish line. A bill he sponsored last year passed in the House of Representatives and Senate before he was appeal filed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“We’re bringing it back, and this time without repercussion,” Gruters said, citing concerns from the governor’s office. “We got both sides to agree on the language, so I think that will pass.”
One area where Gruters is more sympathetic to DeSantis is the desire to turn school board races back into partisan campaigns.
In particular, he co-operates with an auditing company Eric Robinsona prominent Republican Treasurer who was booted off the Sarasota County School Board in a very partisan election in 2020, as candidates were specifically forbidden from running as members of any party and none of the candidates with party affiliations appeared on the ballot.
In a reverse scenario, Sarasota voters elected three Republicans to the board in 2022, a year that DeSantis was elected recognized favorites for school board jobs across the state. And DeSantis has again announced to school board members that he wants Republicans to be targeted in 2024, including Sarasota Tom Edwardsthe contestant who beat Robinson.
All of this goes to show that election campaigns, regardless of their bipartisan status, are already party affairs, Gruters said.
The Sarasota senator who led the party to victory on a law-and-order platform in 2022 also files an update to Florida law enforcement officials’ Bill of Rights (SB1086). The bill limits when officers can be disciplined and ensures a procedure for appealing such decisions.
But Gruters said his home community, like many in Florida, needs an affordable housing solution. Approval of this package will be an equivalent goal.
“People can’t afford to live here,” Gruters said. “Everyone with employees knows about it. Every landlord knows it. These rates are being pushed to numbers no one has ever seen, and that’s driving people further north and south.”
He said workers needed to move farther from their jobs, arguing that the problem will get worse, in part because Florida, and Sarasota in particular, has a national reputation as the best place to live, work and play in the country.
That must be preserved with a certain attention to the environment. He has pushed for red tide research for the past several years, but algal blooms continue to disrupt the community. He would like to invest in the restoration.
He also wants to reignite a long-standing local fight and resume plans to reopen Midnight Pass in the Siesta Key area. “I’m working with some of the Sarasota County Commissioners to bring that back,” he said.
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