As Hurricane Michael bears down on Tallahassee, eyes are on Andrew Gillum

TALLAHASSEE -- As Hurricane Michael bears down on Tallahassee, how the city recovers from the storm could be used against its mayor, Andrew Gillum, during the final month of Gillum's campaign for governor.

But the storm is a reminder that Tallahassee's mayor is mostly a figurehead, with no real management powers, like his colleagues on the City Council.

Over the past 48 hours, Gillum has been giving briefings to the press, bagging sand and appearing on the Weather Channel to reassure residents and encourage them to stay safe.

He has not spent the time managing the city and directing staff.

When asked Tuesday what his responsibilities were this week, Gillum said he's been giving updates to Gov. Rick Scott and meeting regularly with the city manager and giving advice.

"He and I are hand in glove in this, as we have been in previous storms," Gillum said of his relationship with the city manager.

But he's also "being the best messenger that we can, as an elected official that has the trust of people in our community to communicate directly to citizens what we need them to do," Gillum said.

Gillum's Republican opponent, former U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, has spent the last week blasting Gillum for how the city recovered from 2016's Hurricane Hermine. The city turned down help from Florida Power & Light following the storm, a criticism that Gillum said Tuesday was "unwarranted."

NextGen America says it registered 50,000

Tom Steyer's group put in some serious voter registration work in 2018.

NextGen America, which is backed by the progressive billionaire environmentalist, announced in a press release Tuesday that its Florida offshoot, NextGen Florida, registered over 50,000 Floridians to vote ahead of the Nov. 6 general election. The group also said in the release that it knocked on over 88,500 doors and sent over 23,000 texts to voters.

Those gaudy numbers come at a time when many in the political world are keeping an eye on Florida's voter registration rolls. Increasing voter turnout -- particularly among young voters -- became a rallying cry of many in the state after the Parkland school shooting in February.

But months before that seismic event, NextGen America was in Florida registering voters.

Although NextGen's voter registration efforts were conducted in a bipartisan way, the organization has also waded directly into this year's elections. It was an early endorser of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Gillum, and it's currently working to help elect Democrats like Sen. Bill Nelson in key congressional races across the state.

The group says its voter registration efforts are paying dividends in disproportionately young voting precincts. Whether youth voter turnout spikes on Election Day remains to be seen.

Carly Cass, NextGen Florida's youth director, said although the group is "tremendously proud" of its voter registration efforts, it still has more work to do.

"From now until November 6th, we're going to remind voters that they have the power to move the needle on issues like affordable health care, racial justice and climate change," Cass said in a statement.

Know your candidates

Florida's general election is Nov. 6. But many people have already cast mail ballots and will be voting early by the end of October.

To help Floridians make the most informed decisions at the polls, the Tampa Bay Times surveyed 100 candidates for the biggest federal, state and local races on all sorts of issues.

Use the Times' "Know Your Candidate" voter guide at

bit.ly/tbtvote18 to search online for your candidates by address. Or read Friday's Tampa Bay Times regional editions.

Times staff writers Kirby Wilson and Langston Taylor contributed to this report.