Randy Fine trashes ‘big government’ Ron DeSantis, urges colleagues to ignore Governor’s ‘troll army’

State Sen. Randy Fine drove to Brevard County as Gov. Ron DeSantis held a press conference there trashing the Florida Legislature.

The Palm Bay Republican acknowledged he wasn’t invited and hasn’t been asked to attend the Governor’s press events in his own backyard for some time. But he wouldn’t attend them anyway, he said.

“I can’t just jet across Florida in a private plane,” Fine said, scoffing at the expense of DeSantis’ media event. “I wonder how much this little trip to Titusville costs, $20,000? I think it’s time for conservatives to teach this liberal what it’s like to be a conservative.”

Fine, one of DeSantis’ sharpest Republican critics in the Legislature, was a high-profile participant in a Governor-snubbing Special Session held this week in Tallahassee. Legislative leaders declined to hear bills filed at DeSantis’ call for a Session on Monday. They gaveled out, then in again for their own Session to advance a bill the Governor has called weak and unconstitutional for shifting immigration enforcement power to Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson.

The Governor has engaged party resources and deployed his communications staff to attack lawmakers from his own party online over the last several days. But Fine urged colleagues not to fear DeSantis’ social media supporters. The state Senator pointed at his own win in a Republican Congressional Primary on Tuesday amid intense criticism by the Governor.

“My results last night show you Ron DeSantis’ Twitter troll army is just smoke,” Fine said.

That’s not news to him, he said. The former state lawmaker said DeSantis’ team approached him in 2023 about applying to be President of Florida Atlantic University, suggesting a path would be made clear for the Republican while he and the Governor still appeared to be allies. Fine was then conspicuously left off a finalists list for that post.

“There is this claim of power that doesn’t exist,” he said. “They couldn’t control their own Board of Trustees, who they appointed.”

So why should Florida’s independently elected lawmakers defer to a term-limited Governor, Fine asked rhetorically, who failed to perform well in last year’s presidential election? Fine said he has only been rewarded since abandoning DeSantis last year to instead back President Donald Trump.

“I haven’t been invited to anything (by DeSantis) in quite some time,” Fine said. “Now, Ron doesn’t want anything from Jews this year so there was no Hanukkah party, because he is only interested in Jews when he wants something from them. But 18 months ago, he didn’t invite me to that and I’m the only Jewish Republican in the Legislature.”

Fine now calls DeSantis a “big government liberal” with little political influence. Even calling a Special Session outside regular committee weeks showed a lack of concern for taxpayer resources, he said.

 DeSantis Press Secretary Jeremy Redfern declined to address Fine’s remarks. But last night, he responded to similar sentiments by Speaker Daniel Perez.

“Daniel Perez calling Floridians that see through his weak immigration bill ‘a lot of paid bots’ is insulting,” Redfern posted. “Disgusting, childish comment from the Florida Speaker of the House just 24 hours after Wilton Simpson scapegoated law enforcement officers for his failed leadership.”