How do DeSantis’ suspensions of two top Florida prosecutors compare?

Gov. Ron DeSantis has suspended two elected Florida state attorneys in the past year for what he called “incompetence” and “neglect of duty.”

Their removals — first, Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren last August, and on Wednesday, Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell — have this in common: Both Warren and Worrell are Democrats who say their ouster is about a governor running for the Republican presidential nomination and out to score political points.

“We all know that this is not about policy or anything that I’ve actually done,” Worrell said Wednesday.

But there’s also a big difference in the two suspensions: DeSantis’ justification shifted from hot-button issues to meat-and-potatoes law and order.

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DeSantis said his ouster of Warren was driven partly by joint statements signed by the progressive state attorney and prosecutors around the country. The statements indicated Warren wouldn’t prosecute certain cases related to abortion or transgender healthcare, wedge issues that regularly galvanize the conservative base. The governor also took issue with Warren’s non-prosecution of specific non-violent misdemeanors, but it was the transgender and abortion statements that took center stage when DeSantis announced the suspension.

Worrell’s removal was more about specific criminal policies and cases cited by the governor’s office.

In his executive order, DeSantis accused Worrell of polices allowing “violent offenders, drug traffickers, serious juvenile offenders and pedophiles to evade incarceration.” He said Worrell avoided minimum mandatory sentences, failed to seek enhanced penalties and inappropriately asked for findings of guilt to be withheld. His order was packed with numbers intended to back up his assertions.

But while Worrell had signed the same pledge against “the criminalization of transgender people and gender-affirming healthcare” as Warren, it was nowhere to be found in DeSantis’ latest order.

Asked why via email, the governor’s press secretary sent the Tampa Bay Times documents that included summaries of criminal cases but did not respond directly to the question.

While DeSantis has prevailed in the courts against Warren’s bid to get his job back — with a last appeal pending at the 11th Circuit — a federal judge still found that the governor violated Warren’s free speech rights as well as the Florida Constitution.

David B. Singer, a member of Warren’s legal team, said Wednesday the governor “awkwardly tried to retrofit today’s executive order after getting embarrassed by a federal judge’s opinion.”

Recent polls show Republican voters nationally and Republican caucus-goers in Iowa were more interested in messages about law and order and less on “woke” issues about left-wing ideology.

Also absent from the official explanation for Worrell’s removal: references to George Soros, the billionaire Democratic donor reviled by conservatives. Early drafts of the order to suspend Warren contained references to Soros. In presidential stump speeches, DeSantis refers to ousting Warren, telling the crowd at a kickoff in Iowa about Florida fighting back “against the plague of Soros-backed district attorneys.”

Though the New York Times reports that Worrell was among the prosecutors backed by groups supported by Soros, DeSantis made no mention of Soros this week in suspending her.

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In both cases, DeSantis picked former prosecutors he had appointed to be judges to replace the suspended state attorneys. The manner in which they were removed differed: While Warren was escorted from his offices by a sheriff’s deputy, Worrell told reporters she got a phone call telling her not to come to work.

Warren has declined to say whether he will run to win his job back in 2024 while his court appeal is pending. Suzy Lopez, the judge DeSantis appointed to the post, has already declared her intent to run.

Worrell told reporters Wednesday her suspension won’t stop her from seeking reelection.