Andrew Warren, suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis, holds a news conference in Tallahassee on Aug. 17, 2022. Flanking him is his attorney, J Cabou. Credit: Michael Moline
In one of the most closely observed elections in Florida this year, Hillsborough County Republican State Attorney Suzy Lopez has defeated Democrat Andrew Warren, 53%-47%.
The election results are a bitter blow for Warren, who was elected on a criminal justice reform platform in Hillsborough in 2016 and 2020 but was stunningly suspended by DeSantis in August 2022 for comments he made about not prosecuting certain abortion and transgender rights cases, as well as policies discouraging prosecution of certain low-level crimes.
DeSantis followed up in August 2023 by suspending another progressive state attorney, Orange/Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell, allegedly for being too soft on crime.
However, Worrell on Tuesday defeated the man appointed to replace her, former Orange County Judge Andrew Bain, who ran without a party affiliation. The final results in Florida’s 9th Judicial Circuit race were Worrell with 57%, and Bain with 43%.
Dead-set DeSantis
DeSantis made it clear early this year that he would do all he could to ensure that both state attorneys would not be returned to office. In June, he said in Tampa that a recently created political committee would use its resources to campaign against the re-election campaigns of both Democrats.
“Here in Hillsborough, I mean obviously, you need to elect a prosecutor that is going to put criminals away and hold them accountable, and you have someone in office right now who’s doing that,” DeSantis said, referring to Lopez. “So, I think that’s an important race.”
In September, the Phoenix asked DeSantis at a press availability in Pinellas County if he would suspend either of the two Democrats if they were successful at the ballot box?
“When those folks were in office, they took the position that they didn’t have to enforce laws that they disagreed with,” he said. “That caused people to be put back on the street who then victimized folks who should not have been victimized.”
He said that Hillsborough, Orange, and Osceola counties were all much safer now than before.
“Talk to [Hillsborough County] Sheriff [Chad] Chronister, talk to the folks who are on the beat in Osceola and Orange counties, people who work for the deputy sheriffs and police officers. They want a prosecutor who is willing to stand up for them against the criminals,” he added.
The governor’s committee ultimately paid for television ads attacking Warren’s record as a prosecutor that seemed to air on a loop in Hillsborough County, with nary an ad from Warren to rebut the claims. Loads of direct mail pieces blasting Warren hit mailboxes throughout the county.
Lopez and Warren both raised more than half a million in their campaign accounts, but Lopez had lots more cash-on-hand in her political committee, Friends of Suzy Lopez, at the beginning of last week – nearly $300,000 more.
Court challenge
After Warren was suspended in August 2022, he challenged it in federal court. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled that DeSantis had violated the First Amendment in removing Warren because of political differences and the anticipated “political benefit” to the governor — but said that he lacked power to reinstate him. A federal appeals court ruled in January that Hinkle should reconsider that decision – but that ruling has been appealed by the DeSantis administration. The matter remains pending.
Warren initially said that he wouldn’t run again, but changed his mind and announced his candidacy shortly before the deadline to qualify emerged in April.
No cases cited
In Orlando, Monique Worrell was celebrating her victory.
On Aug. 9, 2023, DeSantis suspended her, claiming in an executive order that she had neglected her duty to faithfully prosecute crime in her jurisdiction.
She challenged her suspension, but lost that argument in June, when the Florida Supreme Court upheld DeSantis’ move on a 6-1 vote, concluding that his decision was reasonable based on allegations he spelled out when relieving her of her duties.
The order did not list specific cases but alleged she had “authorized or allowed practices or policies that have systemically permitted violent offenders, drug traffickers, serious-juvenile offenders and pedophiles to evade incarceration when otherwise warranted under Florida law.”
It went on to say that “these practices or policies include non-filing or dropping meritorious charges or declining to allege otherwise provable facts to avoid triggering applicable lengthy sentences, minimum mandatory sentences, or other sentencing enhancements, especially for offenders under the age of 25, except in the most extreme cases.”
Worrell disputed those allegations, asking in a radio interview why the governor never listed any specific cases?
“The thing about the Florida criminal system is that when you make an allegation regarding how cases are resolved, it’s very simple to cite to a specific case. That’s the way the law works. Cite to a specific case where there is a systemic pattern of individuals who commit any type of offense who are permitted to evade incarceration. He can’t, because there aren’t any,” she said on WMNF 88.5 FM in Tampa.
What now?
Now the question is: Will DeSantis suspend her again? He steadfastly avoided responding when asked that question while on the stump earlier this year. However, an Orlando attorney who ran in the Republican primary in the Ninth Judicial district in August, Thomas Feiter, said he was told by a DeSantis associate that he would indeed.
“If Monique wins, I think — well, they told me that the plan is to remove her again, and just put [Andrew] Bain back in,” Feiter said in September on WMNF. He initially made that charge in a complaint with the Florida Bar, which declined to pursue the claim.