His state travel expenses went up from $2 million for 2021 to $2.4 million for the 2022 fiscal year that ended June 30. Nor does it include thousands of dollars in direct payments for hotels, commercial airplane tickets and other travel expenses.ĭeSantis clearly loves to travel, as seen by the $145,000 he racked up in travel expenses while in Congress, and his annual travel expenses paid for by Florida taxpayers. That doesn’t include the nearly $200,000 in transportation costs covered by the Republican Party of Florida. Not only did the extremely rich donate tens of millions of dollars in cash to the governor, they made more than $500,000 worth of in-kind contributions to cover his transportation costs, an Orlando Sentinel review of state records shows. Those include the state’s gas tax holiday, raising the commission for retailers on lottery ticket sales, earmarking millions of advertising dollars for Visit Florida, and lifting the state’s lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. They include hoteliers, developers, restaurateurs, investment brokers, trucking magnates, health executives, gas station and convenience store owners, and oil distributors, some of whom benefited from appointments to state boards and from laws enacted by DeSantis. Ron DeSantis barnstormed Florida and the rest of the country campaigning for his reelection and stumping for political allies running up to the midterm elections this month. In any case, what’s clear is that Ron DeSantis has taken his eye off Jacksonville - like the rest of the state - and put it on the White House.TALLAHASSEE - A group of super-wealthy people helped foot the bill as Gov.
Mori hosseini desantis series#
Historical moments are fleeting, and sacrifices of short-term goods are made for long-term opportunities, even if those opportunities have been squandered with a series of strategic blunders ranging from publishing strategy memos ahead of Wednesday’s GOP debate to calling Trump supporters “listless vessels” who take their marching orders from Truth Social. Running for president obviously takes priority for this governor, and that’s his prerogative. But in that case, why make them at all? Would a Monday rally in Jacksonville ahead of Election Day in May have mattered? Donna Deegan and Joyce Morgan didn’t win by much, so it’s conceivable DeSantis could have made the difference. Maybe he didn’t care about the endorsements, sure. DeSantis didn’t even do a robocall for his candidates, which didn’t help. Much better than this year, which saw his endorsed candidates Daniel Davis and Jason Fischer lose to Democrats who had a fraction of the GOP money. Last year saw DeSantis help elect April Carney to the Duval County School Board and Kiyan Michael, through two primary challengers, to the state House. That was a better performance than he had against Democrat Andrew Gillum in 2018, of course, when the former chair of the Duval County Republicans blamed DeSantis for “poor messaging…lack of organization…little coordination with county party…activities to bypass county party” and so on. The laugher re-election win over Charlie Crist, the compromise candidate who couldn’t get Democrats to the polls, saw him carry Duval. That move, orchestrated by DeSantis campaign manager James Uthmeier while he served as chief of staff, was yet another Duval diss from the governor.ĭeSantis probably peaked in 2022. Jessica Baker to be House speaker in favor of Jennifer Canady in 2028.
And there were quite a few press conferences DeSantis held in Jax where the former mayor was nowhere to be found.Īnd the coup de grace, arguably, was DeSantis’ administration working against the bid of Jacksonville Republican Rep. James Building toward the plaza level of the state Capitol. Sure, Jacksonville derived some benefit ($75 million for the UF campus coming somewhere Downtown, a priority of mega-donor and powerbroker Mori Hosseini). Curry, recall, endorsed DeSantis in 2018 as a “brother from another mother,” a phrase that suggested a close cooperation and a political symbiosis. If I had to guess who he’s siding with, though, I would guess Curry prefers Trump to DeSantis. And he’s officially neutral in the presidential race. What about Lenny Curry? He’s with Ballard Partners, which of course is no longer lobbying for the city of Jacksonville. But that’s par for the course for a governor who historically has shed consultants with all the sentimentality of a pop star doing costume changes between songs. Neither earned a mention in his best-selling The Courage to Be Free. Not that DeSantis gives any thanks to Wiles and Hughes.
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