For Immediate Release: Chapter Twenty-Three

Essays and Lessons From 30 Years in Politics and Government

Hi, and welcome to the Sun Shine Republic. I’m really glad you’re here.

This is “For Immediate Release,” my essays and stories of politics, government, and a little bit of life in between. They span 30 years, from Little Rock, Arkansas to Washington, D.C. to St. Petersburg, Florida. I’ll be sending it out to paid subscribers here on Substack over the coming days and weeks. I hope you’ll consider a paid subscription and check it out. If you are a paid subscriber, thank you very much. I couldn’t do this without you.

As always, thanks for reading.

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2017
St. Petersburg, Florida

The wind is picking up and the rain is steady now. I’ve packed up the car with a full cooler, a few bags full of snacks and groceries, and some plastic bins of important documents and family heirlooms. 

Finn and Emmy are already headed towards Georgia with their mother. When the hurricane cuts north, they’ll have to take off again, to North Carolina, to outrun it. 

Kendra and I have decided to ride the storm out in the State Theatre, on St. Pete’s 600 Block of Central Avenue. The building is what some would call a brick shithouse. It is a concrete structure, and we — and a couple of friends — have set up in the office on the second floor. 

The rain is hard, steady, and gray. I walk down Central with my phone camera out. St. Pete is empty, a ghost town. It is Sunday, September 10, and Hurricane Irma has re-intensified after hitting Cuba as a Category 2, making landfall on Cudjoe Key, in between Pine Key and Key West. She will make a second landfall on Marco Island, south of Ft. Myers and Naples, later in the day.