The Cabinet system is unique, for all its quirks

When I arrived in Tallahassee as a young reporter in September 1969, I noticed the Old Capitol was all lit up on a Sunday night and decided to go check out my new workplace.

Security was lax in those days and I wandered the empty halls for a while. I was puzzled by the gold-lettered titles on office doors — “Education advisor to the agriculture commissioner”… “Environment counsel to the secretary of state”… “Comptroller’s land use office.”

Huh? 

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I’d worked in Alabama and both Carolinas, but had no idea why so many different officers had so many divergent duties. I learned how the system works, but it’s never made a whole lot of sense to have executive authority split among several statewide-elected officers.

And now, for the second straight legislative session, Gov. Ron DeSantis is trying to strip the Cabinet of some of its remaining oversight responsibilities. As the Orlando Sentinel reported last week, DeSantis seems to be aiming his reform plan at Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried — a Democrat and potential candidate against him next year.

For instance, the pending legislation (HB 1537, SB 1674) would remove Fried’s authority to review water management district rules. And the Sentinel said a hemp plan developed by Fried’s office would require the governor’s approval, instead of the whole Cabinet’s.

The Departments of Environmental Protection and Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles would report to the governor, rather than him and Cabinet, under the proposal. 

Governors reflexively resent sharing power. Cabinet members often use their positions to run for governor or the U.S. Senate, though few make it. 

From Park Trammell in 1912 until Charlie Crist in 2006, no Cabinet officer became governor. Trammell and Crist, coincidentally, were both attorney general when they won.

The late Dick Stone was secretary of state when he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1974. But that race was influenced more by the post-Watergate Democratic sweep than by any advantages of his Cabinet post.

The system was born of the 1868 Constitution, when its members were appointed by the governor. The 1885 post-Reconstruction Constitution provided for election of six “administrative officers” who were informally referred to as the Cabinet.

The modern 1968 Constitution strengthened the powers of the then-six members — attorney general, secretary of state, comptroller, education commissioner, agriculture commissioner and treasurer. But just 10 years later, the Constitution Revision Commission proposed abolishing the Cabinet, but all of its proposed amendments on the 1978 ballot were defeated.

Some observers believed the whole slate failed because of an unrelated casino-gambling proposal that got on the ballot by petition initiative. But it’s more likely that organized opposition by different interest groups — banking, education, farming — coalesced to keep the Cabinet.

The 1998 Constitution Revision Commission took another run at it, with more success. Instead of abolishing the Cabinet, the education commissioner and secretary of state were dropped and the comptroller’s office was merged with the treasurer’s to form the chief financial officer’s post. So now it’s a four-seat board, the governor meeting with the attorney general, agriculture commissioner and CFO.

Well, he meets with them when he feels like it. Neither DeSantis nor his predecessor, Rick Scott, has shown much interest in Cabinet meetings. 

Governors have treated the Cabinet with varying levels of disdain. Gov. Claude Kirk derided it as “the six dwarves.”

There are a couple common misconceptions about the Cabinet. 

First, it’s not “the governor and his Cabinet.” They’re elected separately, statewide. Second, the governor presides but is not a member. The Constitution provides the executive branch shall consist of a governor and a Cabinet, separate elected entities.

Another quirky little political oddity of the Cabinet is that members normally get more votes than governors do. In 2018, CFO Jimmy Patronis and Attorney General Ashley Moody each polled more votes DeSantis, and he won by only about 43,000 more votes than Fried received in winning her race.

It’s probably human nature for governors to hate having to share power with lesser leaders. But there’s a valuable aspect of openness in the Cabinet system. Ordinary Floridians can attend meetings, boring and infrequent though they may be, and speak out on state business.

Partisan competition at this elevated level is healthy, too. Fried, the only Democrat holding statewide office, is a credible critic of the governor — even if she wasn’t angling for his job next year.

Bill Cotterell is a retired Tallahassee Democrat Capitol reporter who writes a twice-weekly column. He can be reached at bcotterell@tallahassee.com

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