Today I thought we’d take a look at a new poll that suggests that, while Floridians are undecided who they want as their next governor, they’re pretty united when it comes to vaccines.
But first, let’s take a closer look at some of the recent revelations about the downfall of former Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez.
You’ve probably seen the steady stream of scandalous stories, including the Orlando Sentinel’s most recent exposé: “Marcos Lopez’s double life as Osceola cop, gambling boss.”
But there’s some important timing to note here. Authorities say Lopez had been running his illegal gambling ring since at least 2021. Yet Gov. Ron DeSantis turned to Lopez for help in DeSantis’ crusade against Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell in late 2023.
So put those two dates together. That means that, in his quest to take out the local prosecutor, the governor relied on help from a guy who the state’s own investigators now say was an alleged crime boss.
It doesn’t seem all that surprising that an allegedly corrupt sheriff would want the local prosecutor out of the picture.
And keep in mind: Lopez wasn’t just an incidental player in the governor’s crusade against Worrell. The sheriff was one of DeSantis’ chief allies.
In the ousting order where DeSantis tried to make the case that Worrell deserved to be removed from office, the governor relied on several soft-on-crime accusations from Lopez’s office. The order didn’t cite any similar complaints from the Orange County sheriff’s office.
Not surprisingly, some of the accusations from Lopez later fell apart under scrutiny.
For example, while DeSantis noted that the Osceola sheriff claimed Worrell had refused to prosecute a bunch of his drug cases, a Sentinel investigation would later reveal that some of the cases were not only prosecuted, but resulted in convictions. Other cases were still working their way through the system. Still others were rejected by judges or the state’s own crime labs.
Voters returned Worrell to office after the full story was revealed.
Lopez has pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering. And it’s unclear when DeSantis knew Lopez was under investigation, partly because the attorney general’s office refused to say precisely when the state’s investigation began.
Regardless, the records make it clear that investigators now believe Lopez had been involved in criminal activity since at least 2021 and was still involved two years later when he was trying to help DeSantis get her out of office.
‘Protected by the sheriff’: Marcos Lopez’s double life as Osceola cop, gambling boss
Poll: Floridians support vaccines
In other news, Florida’s James Madison Institute just conducted a poll of Floridians that revealed some interesting trends.
While the survey of 1,200 registered voters found Floridians split on many political issues, most residents of the Sunshine State support vaccines and the mandates that have existed for generations.
Specifically, in response to the governor’s plans to repeal vaccine requirements, the right-leaning JMI group found that 62% of Floridians oppose the rollback.
That’s more than double the 29% who said they liked the proposal by DeSantis and his surgeon general to nix the vaccine requirements credited with all but eradicating polio, measles, rubella and more.
Maxwell: Take a look at the diseases Florida wants to bring back
While most Floridians don’t like the governor’s vaccine policies, they seem to like him. The poll found that 54% of respondents approve of the job DeSantis is doing compared with 35% who disapprove.
Floridians, however, aren’t as strongly convinced they want another Republican governor. When pollsters asked voters which of the leading, announced candidates they’d support from each party — Republican Byron Donalds or Democrat David Jolly — the results were more evenly split 36-32. Another 28% said they were undecided.
Frankly, I’m not sure I think the results will be that close. Florida keeps getting redder — with the state’s 5.5 million Republicans now holding a 1.35 million voter lead over Democrats. Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis both won their last two elections by hearty double-digit margins. Florida even voted for Trump in 2020 when most of America decided it wanted him gone.
However, the poll also revealed some unsettled sentiments among the electorate with this question: “Would you describe yourself as feeling ‘politically homeless’ today — that is, you don’t feel represented by either major party?”
Nearly a third of Floridians (30%) said they indeed felt politically homeless with another 15% saying they weren’t sure.
That left only 55% of Floridians saying they were definitively happy with the current two-major-party system — even though more than 70% of Floridians are, in fact, members of those two parties.
I buy that more in theory than execution. When push comes to shove and ballots need to be filled out, most people seem to retreat to their partisan corners. But the poll at least suggests an appetite for something new … except when it comes to vaccine policies anyway.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/09/30/marcos-lopez-helped-desantis-oust-worrell/
