POLITICS

DeSantis is Raising Funds Unethically

He is using his personal staff to solicit donations and endorsements

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

So, it seems that Ron DeSantis, the former Dark Lord of Florida who is now just your friendly neighborhood autocrat, is raising funds for his presidential campaign the same way that he has ruled … oops, governed … the state of Florida — using intimidation.

Lobbyists are reporting that they are being contacted by Ronnie’s staff and asked to donate to his presidential campaign using a special link. The link tells the campaign (and Ronnie) who gave and how much, as well as which staff member made the ask.

Normally … remember, this is Florida, and nothing is normal there … members of campaign staff solicit donations for political campaigns, not state employees.

Now, before you get all shocked and appalled, this is perfectly legal in Florida as long as the employees solicit donations on their own time using their own devices, not their state-issued ones.

How much do you wanna bet that that rule is being broken?

Florida — where woke and election laws go to die.

Now here’s the fun part.

Ronnie has not yet signed the state budget over which he has line-item veto power. If you don’t donate, you could lose funding for your pet project that you have lobbied so long and hard for.

And good luck lobbying for anything in the future if you don’t donate now.

So, lobbyists kinda feel like they have no choice and must donate to Ronnie’s campaign.

So that $8.2 million Ronnie loves to brag about raising in the 24 hours after he announced his run for the presidency? It’s no mystery how he managed to raise that much money. Lotta arm twisting and implied threats.

Ronnie’s staff has also been hitting up state legislators for endorsements. Remember, Trump locked up the endorsements of a majority of the Congressional Republicans from Florida. So, Ronnie is busy gathering endorsements from Republicans in the Florida legislature.

And he is using the same tactic of implied veto. If you don’t endorse him, he could veto funding for the…