Forrest Saunders
Forrest Saunders is the Capitol reporter at WPTV, covering Florida politics, lawmakers and state government with a focus on how policy decisions translate into concrete consequences for taxpayers, students and public services. He brings more than a decade of political reporting experience and a four-time Emmy-winning background to explain complex debates in clear, accessible terms. His work is distinguished by a consistent emphasis on data, fiscal analysis and watchdog findings, tying high-level policy fights to the everyday trade-offs facing communities.
Property taxes, budgets and the cost of relief
Saunders devotes significant attention to Florida’s ongoing property-tax battles, using numbers and expert analysis to frame who benefits and who pays. In his coverage of Amendment 3, he tracks how proposals to expand homestead exemptions and lower assessment caps promise relief for homeowners while raising alarms about cuts to local services, including law enforcement. He regularly incorporates legislative fiscal estimates and independent reports into his stories, surfacing multi-billion-dollar projected revenue losses and explaining how those figures might ripple through local budgets.
His reporting on a property-tax calculator that sharpens debate over savings and local budget cuts illustrates his approach: he uses tools and models to show how individual tax bills change and then sets that against warnings from sheriffs and local officials about potential service reductions. In a separate piece, he highlights analysis that Amendment 3 could shift property-tax costs onto renters, connecting abstract policy language to housing affordability concerns.
Across these stories, he frames tax relief not as a simple win, but as a trade-off between private savings and public capacity, making the fiscal stakes explicit for readers.
Campaigns, elections and redistricting fights
Beyond tax policy, Saunders closely follows the mechanics of Florida’s elections, from congressional maps to statewide races and special elections. His piece on Florida’s GOP redraw examines how new ratings in multiple congressional races and targeted spending to defend Rep. Kathy Castor have renewed scrutiny of the mid-decade map, detailing how seat targets and rating shifts affect partisan expectations. He reports on national rating changes and advertising buys, showing how decisions in Washington and party committees translate into pressure points in individual districts.
In the governor’s race, he covers moments when process becomes the story, such as David Jolly ruling out debates with Byron Donalds and igniting a clash over whether the campaign will feature a televised debate at all.
Saunders situates that standoff in historical context, noting how unusual it would be for a modern governor’s race to proceed without a broadcast face-off and tying that into broader questions about transparency and voter access to candidates. He also documents Democratic claims of momentum by reporting on Florida Democrats pointing to special-election wins as proof of a comeback, connecting isolated contests to larger narrative arcs about party fortunes.
Across campaigns and redistricting, he focuses on structure, rules and map design as much as personalities, spotlighting how those elements shape outcomes.
Technology, data privacy and government oversight
Saunders frequently covers the intersection of technology, infrastructure and public policy, making emerging issues legible for a broad audience. In his reporting on data centers, he follows Florida candidates clashing over large facilities as polls show local opposition, explaining how energy use, land impacts and economic promises are driving community resistance.
A related investigation tracks how AI-powered data centers become campaign terrain, showing candidates re-framing complex technical sites into symbols of innovation or threat.
He extends that scrutiny to classroom technology, detailing new rules that require parents to opt in before public and charter school students interact directly with AI instructional tools, and explaining what those consent requirements mean for districts and families. Saunders also covers data security directly, reporting on a breach of Florida’s driver database through a police employee’s login and a separate hack of the Department of Highway Safety attributed to an international criminal group. In these stories, he links technical intrusions to renewed pushes for stronger safeguards, limits on data sales and broader privacy protections, often foregrounding lawmakers’ responses and oversight gaps.
His work on a DHS watchdog report into serious failures at “Alligator Alcatraz” adds another strand, using investigative findings to explore accountability at detention facilities and the systems meant to regulate them. Taken together, his technology and oversight coverage keeps complex systems grounded in policy choices and citizen risk.
Disaster preparedness and emergency management
Saunders contributes to coverage of disaster readiness and emergency management, often under the station’s investigative umbrella. He reports on a new disaster command center engineered to withstand 200 mph winds, parsing design features and capabilities as a test of the state’s ability to coordinate during major storms. In another story, he contrasts officials’ assurances that the state is ready for hurricane season with critics’ warnings, setting headline claims against detailed concerns about funding, logistics and prior performance.
His work on emergency financing, including coverage of a new chief at the Florida Division of Emergency Management inheriting overdue accounting for the state’s emergency fund, underscores his interest in the back-office side of preparedness.
Saunders explores how delayed audits and unclear balances in disaster funds can affect future response, tying administrative issues directly to on-the-ground resilience. Across these pieces, he treats preparedness as both infrastructure and governance, showing how buildings, budgets and oversight must align before a crisis hits.
Across his beat, Saunders’ reporting is marked by a steady focus on policy detail, quantifiable impacts and the institutions that translate political promises into practical outcomes. Whether covering property-tax relief, election rules, AI in classrooms or hurricane command centers, he consistently connects headline debates to the people and systems that will absorb their consequences.
4 more politics journalists.
A.D. Quig
A.D. Quig follows money and power through Chicago and Cook County government, showing how political decisions, taxes and public spending affect residents and businesses. At the Chicago Tribune, she covers city and county politics, municipal finance, tax policy, budgets and the structures shaping mayoral and council authority. She joined the Tribune in 2022 after covering politics for Crain’s Chicago Business and The Daily Line. Her work examines council power, ethics rules, police leadership, tax incentives, public agencies and pandemic aid. She has reported on data center tax breaks, property tax errors, federal relief spending and the fiscal effects of major development proposals. Quig combines insider government reporting with public accountability journalism. She uses public records, data and budget documents, follows committees and staff negotiations, and explains complex decisions in plain language with precise numbers and a direct link to everyday consequences.
Adam Daly
Adam Daly covers politics for amNewYork with a focus on the inner workings of city and state government and the low-profile forums where power is exercised and negotiated. He reports on commissions and panels that shape how New York is governed, treating charter reform and government efficiency as central political terrain. His coverage of moves to replace an Adams-era charter commission with a new government efficiency panel foregrounds mandate, authority, and what “efficiency” means in practice for agencies and services. He tracks who gains and loses influence when one commission supplants another and which constituencies are being answered to. Daly explains dense procedural questions in clear, reader-facing terms, using specific institutional details and occasional wordplay to connect jargon-heavy reforms to public spending, service delivery, and mayoral power.
Adam Pack
Adam Pack covers Capitol Hill through power struggles, investigations and ideological fights, focusing on how Congress intersects with Donald Trump’s agenda. He is a politics writer on Fox News Digital’s Capitol Hill team, covering Congress, federal elections, legislative battles, election rules, war powers, primaries and intraparty fights. He previously wrote for the Daily Caller News Foundation. His reporting examines deadlines, vote counts, bill language, campaign spending, court rulings, oversight reports, culture clashes and emerging issues such as AI-backed political groups. He has covered FISA reauthorization, defense spending, the SAVE America Act, housing policy, redistricting, candidate absences, primary spending and disputes over sex, gender, religion and race-based caucuses. He reports primarily through news features and investigative-style pieces built around documents, committee reports, court records, unearthed video and specific legislative details. He often co-writes complex Capitol Hill stories and publishes “FIRST ON FOX” exclusives.
Adam Sullivan
Adam Sullivan is a veteran politics reporter for WCAX who connects elections and party disputes to everyday life. He covers statewide races, party primaries, federal representation, political rhetoric, extremism, and accountability across the Upper Valley and neighboring states. His reporting includes Becca Balint’s victory over Molly Gray in the Democratic U.S. House primary to replace Congressman Peter Welch. He also reports when political controversies affect public safety, political culture, towns, and institutions, including a New Hampshire Libertarian Party post endorsing violence against elected Democrats. Sullivan follows cultural stories with civic consequences, such as Noah Kahan’s appeal to fans to stop stealing a Strafford road sign linked to his music. He writes straight news centered on concrete events, official reactions, political context, community impact, and what comes next.