Ron DeSantis names Gregory Tony as a favorite Florida Democrat

Ron DeSantis isn’t a fan of most Democratic officials in Florida. But if more want to win his favor, he said, they should take notes from Sheriff Gregory Tony.

Asked by Jake Tapper during a CNN town hall in Iowa who his favorite Democratic official is, the Florida Governor first waffled over the question, apparently anxious about the criticism he might receive.

“Oh man,” he said. “The minute I do that, they’re all of a sudden going to have a …”

Tapper then interjected to repeat his query with more leeway: “Maybe give me one who is in the top 10.”

Not missing a beat, DeSantis named Tony, a controversial figure whom the Governor appointed in January 2019 to replace suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel.

He also listed Rick Bradshaw, who is now running for a record sixth term as Sheriff of Palm Beach County, and referred to former St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara by position, but not name.

“I appointed a fellow down, the Sheriff of Broward, to replace Scott Israel, who was, he had a great life story,” he said. “We put him in there, Greg Tony. We also just had, we actually just had a Sheriff that was a Democrat from St. Lucie County who we worked very closely with, (and) Ric Bradshaw of Palm Beach County, great guy.”

Many would agree Bradshaw, a five-term Sheriff in a heavily left-leaning county last re-elected by a 30-point margin, was a solid pick. They’d likely say the same of Mascara, who abruptly resigned this month for health reasons after two-plus decades as St. Lucie’s top cop.

DeSantis’ selection of Tony, however, raised eyebrows.

Since his appointment, Tony has faced ethics complaints and calls to resign — or for DeSantis to suspend him, as he did Israel — for failing to disclose on his applications for Sheriff and the Coral Springs Police Department that he was arrested as a Philadelphia teen for killing a man.

It was also revealed that Tony, who won election as Sheriff in 2020 despite the fatal 1993 shooting, wrote a bad check and used LSD.

The state Commission on Ethics has since found Tony misused his office and lied by not disclosing the incidents. An administrative trial on the matter has been pushed to February.

DeSantis indicated Tuesday that he picked Bradshaw, Mascara and Tony — the latter of whom switched from Republican to Democrat shortly after his appointment — because they still worked with him after he launched his presidential campaign.

“You know, it shows you there really isn’t much difference in some of these issues when you’re dealing with it. So yeah, we do that,” he said. “I think what happened is the minute, like, I started to go a little national, it was tougher for some of the Dems to want to work because they get blowback from their base. And that’s just the situation that we find ourselves in. But we do have some good ones in Florida.”

At least one prominent jeer over DeSantis’ choice of Tony as his “favorite Florida Democrat” came quickly on social media.

“Wow, Ron DeSantis just told @JakeTapper that his favorite Florida Democrat is Broward County Sheriff, Gregory, Tony, a pro-BLM, pro-Islamic extremist who lied about being tried for both murder and drug dealing when he applied to be appointed to a vacancy in the sheriff’s office by Ron DeSantis,” said political operative Roger Stone, an ally of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, in a post on X.