Good Tuesday morning. Former Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book is releasing “Fight Like a Mother," a 30-second ad in her campaign for Senate District 30. The spot opens with Book in the stands, shouting toward the ring (“Are you kidding me?” and “Let’s go. Come on.”) before she turns to the camera. “When you’re a mom, you don’t stay quiet when something is wrong,” she says. “I fought like a mother in Tallahassee. I protected children from predators and took on the gun lobby and won. But there’s more to do.” The “more to do” list has three items: home insurance costs, healthcare costs, and a promise to “protect access to reproductive rights.” The campaign’s announcement mentioned the first two but omitted the third. “To win in Tallahassee, you’ve gotta fight like a mother,” Book says at the close. “And that’s what I’ll do as your Senator.” The video went up on the campaign’s YouTube channel Saturday as an unlisted upload and had more than 70,000 views by Monday evening. Book faces Republican Hector Rivera, a Coral Springs Realtor, in November. To watch the ad, please click the image below: 
Lauren Book takes her 'Fight Like a Mother' message to voters in a new Senate District 30 campaign ad. ___ The AI rules for campaign work depend on which chatbot you use. OpenAI bans campaign use of ChatGPT. Anthropic lets campaigns use Claude but bans deception and voter targeting. Neither company shut its model up about politics through Election Day. Florida has a statute on top of both. I read the policies and the statute so you don't have to. If you work on campaigns, my column here for FloridAI is worth five minutes of your time. ___ I'm not influenced by polls; I just vote that way — Karen Cyphers of Sachs Media and Decyphered surveyed 1,000 Florida voters and found just 13% admit polls sway their own vote, but 58% think polls sway other people. So she ran an experiment to find out who's right, and the answer raises the stakes on last week's dead-heat headlines: voters shown a tied race were 15 points more likely to say they'd turn out than voters shown a blowout or no poll at all. Translation: those close numbers out of St. Pete Polls may be shaping November as much as measuring it. Read the full results here. ___ Erica Floyd Thomas, who spent most of her career inside the Agency for Health Care Administration and most recently served as its Chief of Staff, is joining The Southern Group as a Partner in the firm's Tallahassee office. The Southern Group is the state's top-earning lobbying firm. As Chief of Staff, Thomas oversaw the Rural Health Transformation Program, a $209.9 million, five-year federal award covering 31 rural counties and about 1.2 million residents. 
Erica Floyd Thomas joins The Southern Group after serving as Chief of Staff at the Agency for Health Care Administration. Her first run at AHCA lasted more than 20 years and ended with her leading the Bureau of Medicaid Policy, where she directed coverage policy and worked on multibillion-dollar managed care contracts. In between, she served as Assistant Secretary for Substance Abuse and Mental Health at the Department of Children and Families, managing a nearly $2 billion annual budget, more than 225 contracts and roughly 3,800 employees. That tenure included the statewide launch of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and an overhaul of Baker Act data reporting. "Her experience at AHCA and DCF gives her an exceptional understanding of how healthcare policy is developed, funded, and implemented," said Rachel Cone, Senior Managing Partner of The Southern Group. AHCA Secretary Shevaun Harris said Thomas "will certainly be missed, but I know she will do a phenomenal job in her new role." Thomas said the move "gives me the opportunity to bring that experience to a broader group of clients." ___ Retired Adm. Eric Olson, who ran U.S. Special Operations Command from MacDill Air Force Base for four years, has joined Holland & Knight as a senior adviser to its National Security & Defense Industry Group. Olson commanded SOCOM from 2007 to 2011. He was the first Navy SEAL to reach three-star and four-star rank and the first to lead the Tampa-based command. He retired in 2011 after more than 38 years in uniform. 
Eric Olson joins Holland & Knight as a senior adviser to its National Security & Defense Industry Group. "Admiral Olson is one of the most respected leaders in the national security community," said Holland & Knight Chair and CEO Bob Grammig, adding that his experience will "give our clients a competitive edge as priorities and policies continue to shift in Washington, D.C." Olson will advise the firm's clients on national security policy, flag emerging business opportunities, and track the defense marketplace. Since retiring, he has taught at Columbia University, advised the Department of Homeland Security, and served on the Boards of Iridium Communications, Palladyne AI, and Under Armour. He joins retired German Adm. Joachim Rühle, former Chief of Staff at NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, and retired German Col. Dieter Korten in advising the group, which Holland & Knight launched in January 2025 with more than 100 practitioners. |
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