Florida News in Brief

Policies to exit Citizens in late 2025TALLAHASSEE (NSF) — Regulators last week approved proposals by eight property-insurance companies to assume up to 253,947 policies from the state's Citizens Property Insurance Corp. late this year.

Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky signed a series of orders that are part of what is known as a "depopulation" program, which is designed to shift policies from Citizens into the private market. Most of the approvals would lead to carriers assuming Citizens policies in October, though some assumptions would occur in November and December.

Under the approvals, Manatee Insurance Exchange could assume up to 76,000 policies; Florida Peninsula Insurance Co. could assume up to 40,000; Mangrove Property Insurance Co. could assume up to 31,947; Patriot Select Property and Casualty Insurance Co. could assume up to 30,000; Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance Co., Tailrow Insurance Exchange and TypTap Insurance Co. could each assume up to 25,000; and American Integrity Insurance Co. could assume up to 1,000.

Patriot Select was approved to assume policies in October and November, while Mangrove Property Insurance was approved for assumptions in October, November and December. The other approvals were for October.

The actual numbers of policies leaving Citizens likely will be below the totals approved, based on past depopulation rounds. Citizens had 779,995 policies last week, up slightly from 779,008 policies the previous week, according to data on its website. It had 820,882 policies last month before a depopulation round moved policies to private carriers.

Citizens officials have said they expect a lull in policies being assumed until fall because of the hurricane season. State leaders have long sought to hold down the number of policies in Citizens, at least in part because of risks if Florida gets hit by a major hurricane or multiple hurricanes

Republican files for Orlando House seatORLANDO (NSF) — Orlando Republican Michael Lincoln-McCreight last week opened a campaign account to run in 2026 in a House district held by Rep. Bruce Antone, D-Orlando, according to the state Division of Elections website. Lincoln-McCreight opened the account in Orange County's House District 41. Antone has not opened an account for a 2026 re-election bid, though Democrat Jane't Buford-Johnson is a candidate, according to the Division of Elections.

Also last week, former Rep. Ralph Massullo, R-Lecanto, opened an account to run in Senate District 11 after Republican Blaise Ingoglia was appointed Wednesday by Gov. Ron DeSantis to serve as state chief financial officer. Massullo announced he would try to succeed Ingoglia and quickly received support from DeSantis and the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Senate District 11 is made up of Citrus, Hernando, Sumter and part of Pasco counties.

Judge faces suspension, reprimand, fineTALLAHASSEE (NSF) — Calling her conduct "unacceptable," the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a 10-day suspension, a public reprimand and a $2,115 fine for a Broward County circuit judge accused of inappropriate campaign activity, prohibited political contributions and other wrongdoing. Justices in April rejected a less-severe punishment for Judge Stefanie Moon, leading the judge and the state Judicial Qualifications Commission to agree on the sanctions approved Thursday.

The commission, which investigates judicial conduct, alleged that Moon violated judicial canons by making political contributions, including to committees backing former Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, former President Joe Biden and ActBlue, a Democratic Party fundraising arm. In addition, Moon was accused of reminding an attorney in court that he had not returned a phone call related to her re-election campaign and improperly contacting the therapist of a man who was a party in a case and whose mental health was an issue.

"Our (Supreme) Court does not often come upon a judicial discipline case in which a single judge has violated the Code of Judicial Conduct in such distinct ways in wholly unrelated incidents. Judge Moon's conduct is unacceptable, especially given that the commission had already cautioned her in 2019 for improper campaign activities," Thursday's ruling said. The ruling noted that the recommended discipline credited the judge for "cooperation, remorse, and acceptance of responsibility."

Justices also appeared to put the judge on notice.

"While we defer to the commission's assessment of the judge's contrition, we stress that the court cannot tolerate any further misconduct by Judge Moon," the unanimous ruling said. The $2,115 fine reflects the amount of the political contributions Moon made to Democrats.

Moon was first elected as a judge in 2018.