A.G. Gancarski
Duval County in some ways is the home turf of U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis. His wife Casey is the host of First Coast Living, a subsidiary of First Coast News, a local news op which tweeted out an uncharacteristically brutal, if familiar feeling, hit piece on Carlos Lopez-Cantera last night.
The subject: “Lt. Gov. Carlos @LopezCantera increasing his profile on your dime.”
When I tweeted out that “I feel like I’ve read this before somewhere,” FCN tweeted back to me.
“That’s entirely possible.”
Some excerpts: “While the Lt. Governor said in his YouTube announcement throwing his hat in the ring, ‘I’m running because I want to work for you,” working for you might be a new experience, because as we took the pages of his schedule where nothing was scheduled and laid them end to end, it stretched down an entire long hall. In effect, it showed often he was doing nothing and it was costing $125,000 a year for his salary.”
And more: “the Lt. Governor, who is just waiting around for the Governor to kick off or be removed from office, often doesn’t have any scheduled events.”
And still more: “in addition to the six-figure salary, taxpayers are paying thousands for Lopez-Cantera to fly back and forth to his home in Miami and up his profile with voters he hopes will put him in the U.S. Senate.”
Now this is a repurposing of a different station’s content, housed under the Investigations tab, yet it delineates a problem the Lopez-Cantera campaign faces. Even as it attempted to build positive momentum off its launch Wednesday, this hit piece found traction on the airwaves of at least two major metros.
How much long-term traction will these attacks have? We’re about to find out. In the meantime, the lieutenant governor will be travelling throughout the state to shore up enthusiasm for his nascent campaign, and a stop early next week is in Jacksonville.
On Monday night, CLC will be at the Duval REC. The Republican Executive Committee meeting already promised to be a lively affair, and the lieutenant governor’s presence will be part of a stacked bill that includes elections for committeeman and secretary, as well as some active campaigning for the party chair election in August.
As well, Lopez-Cantera will make appearances in Jacksonville on Tuesday also.
Though CLC’s base is obviously South Florida, the lieutenant governor has an important hold card in this area, in Campaign Manager Brian Swensen. Swensen managed the Lenny Curry mayoral campaign, which (we can’t forget) saw Curry go from negligible name identification and double-digit poll deficits to the fourth floor of the Saint James Building.
The smart set knew that Swensen would move on to bigger and better challenges after that triumph, and a crowded Senate primary fills that bill. Stay tuned as more details emerge about CLC’s sojourn to Jacksonville.
