A.G. Gancarski
Gov. Ron DeSantis is making his feelings clear about Florida business during his latest out-of-state campaign trip.
The 2024 presidential candidate told Iowans about how allies of former President Donald Trump filed an ultimately rejected complaint in March 2023 to the state Ethics Commission, accusing the Governor of operating a “shadow” presidential campaign.
DeSantis said that was an example of the Trump camp attempting to weaponize the government against him, in comments responding to a question about moves to push the former President off of ballots due to allegedly spurring an insurrection three years ago Saturday.
“His allies actually weaponized against me last Spring. They filed an ethics complaint with the Florida Election Commission, or Florida Ethics Commission. It got dismissed, but they actually asked to have me removed from office as Governor,” DeSantis said in Cumming, Iowa, at an event hosted by the Never Back Down super PAC.
“Here I am, one of the most successful Governors. We’re doing this legendary stuff down there. All these things conservatives have wanted and he actually tried to get me removed for bogus purposes.”
The 15-page complaint letter from Taylor Budowich of MAGA Inc., purported to provide “ample evidence that Gov. DeSantis and various political committees have engaged in conduct that violated Florida ethics law.” The filing contended DeSantis has flouted Florida’s “resign to run” law while “skirting federal campaign finance laws,” adding that could present an “impermissible conflict between his public duty and his private interests.”
The complaint noted that DeSantis had raised money for his state level Friends of Ron DeSantis, unusual given the Governor is term-limited and can’t run for state office again. Of course, that money was converted into the Never Back Down super PAC to support the current campaign operations.
Bulk buys of DeSantis’ book and promotions were framed in the letter as mechanisms to “personally enrich” the Governor while also making it “clear” that “he has decided to run for President.”
The Ethics Commission, helmed by a DeSantis ally, rejected the argument.
“There is no inherent reason why respondent, as governor, cannot travel outside the state, and the complaint does not provide additional information to establish that such travel creates a continuing or frequently occurring conflict between his private interests and the performance of his public duties or that it impedes the full and faithful discharge of his public duties,” read the order from ethics commission chairman Glen Gilzean.
Gilzean has left the Ethics Commission for greener pastures. He now makes roughly $400,000 a year running the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.
15 comments
Biscuit
January 5, 2024 at 1:03 pm
NewsFlash out of Florida: Pot calls kettle black.
Arf.
Earl Pitts American
January 5, 2024 at 2:03 pm
Good afternoon America,
None of the other candidates in the POTUS race have the high moral standards of our next POTUS Ron “THE RONALD” DeSantis
Wont it bw great to put all this silly bickering between all those “LESSER CANDIDATES” and get our sphincters all comfortably relaxed for the next 8 years of “CAMALOT” with Ron and The Beautiful Casey in The White House?
Thank you America,
Earl Pitts America
JD
January 5, 2024 at 2:26 pm
Moral standards?
Forbes: “Sitting at around $300,000 in 2021, a lucrative book deal made the Florida governor a millionaire by the end of last year. Today, he’s worth an estimated $1.5 million. DeSantis has the simplest finances of anyone making a serious run at the presidency.”
Book deals = SuperPAC money laundering to the candidate.
MH/Duuuval
January 6, 2024 at 8:38 pm
Dee is playing a long game and expects to really cash in AFTER leaving office — whenever that happens.
GOParty
January 5, 2024 at 5:42 pm
Ronald is an expert on weaponizing government after all. He’s got torture on his resume too. How messed up is that? Not many can claim that bullet point.
Elmo
January 5, 2024 at 1:07 pm
“Legendary stuff” such as implementing voter discrimination laws and wielding his power of the office to attack and punish anyone who disagrees with him.
He is a legend in his own mind.
GOParty
January 5, 2024 at 5:44 pm
Takes one to know one, YATAH.
Larry Gillis, Libertarian (Cape Coral)
January 5, 2024 at 1:13 pm
“WEAPONIZED”.
Good phrase, well-applied.
Dont Say FLA
January 8, 2024 at 10:02 am
But “weaponized” means “rendered harmless.”
According to G0P types, weapons are absolutely harmless and functionally indistinguishable from paper weights.
ScienceBLVR
January 5, 2024 at 1:18 pm
Gilzean, what a bum. Appointed by Rick Scott( that should tell you something) to our local school board, his lack of experience or even the slightest knowledge of St. Petersburg, was evident quickly. Fortunately, when his short term was up, Pinellas voters threw him out in favor of Renee Flowers, who served our district with distinction.
Dont Say FLA
January 5, 2024 at 1:26 pm
Rhonda laments about Trump, ‘He actually tried to get me removed for bogus purposes,” apparently forgetting how Trump got Rhonda into their position as Governor of Florida for bogus purposes, and Rhonda’s “work” as Governor of Florida has itself been totally bogus. Radly bigly totally bogusly bad.
MH/Duuuval
January 5, 2024 at 4:36 pm
“We’re doing this legendary stuff down there.”
Not so you’d notice.
My Take
January 6, 2024 at 10:07 am
He needs a cape.
MH/Duuuval
January 6, 2024 at 8:39 pm
He needs both a cape and a top hat so his pitiful tap dancing won’t be so obvious.
Yarvard and Hale
January 7, 2024 at 6:36 pm
The purpose in trying to remove you, Ron, would be your being gone. That is not bogus. That is an entirely valid purpose.
The only other potential purpose in removing you would be installing someone else and you just happen to require removing for that purpose to be achieved. For that purpose, you are but a hapless bystander.
You might have meant Trump tried to remove you for “bogus reasons,” perhaps?
Regardless of whether that was a mis-speak, you keep embarrassing TF out of us, Ron. You make us look like Moes.
Ron please return your Ivy League law degrees to us ASAP. We will each send you a baseball trophy, new from the trophy store since you never even managed to win even just one trophy for us with your baseballering.
Sincerely,
Your Elitist Ivy League Malma Otters,
Yarvard and Hale
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