Open Threads

Florida’s snarling shitbag governor, Ron DeSantis, has been embroiled in a simmering scandal for months. Last year, he and former chief of staff James Uthmeier funneled $10M from a vendor’s Medicaid settlement to a fake charity run by Ron’s wife, Casey, who in turn diverted the funds to media companies to pay for ads against two ballot initiatives DeSantis loudly opposed.

One of the ballot questions would have legalized recreational marijuana, and the other would have reversed the state’s 6-week abortion ban. A majority of Floridians voted for both initiatives, but they came up short of the 60% required to amend the state constitution.

Well, it turns out Ron and the missus stole a lot more than we originally thought. Orlando Sentinel: (gift link)

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration diverted more than $35 million in taxpayer funds as part of its brazen agenda last year to defeat two ballot amendments he staunchly opposed, a Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times investigation has found.

Much of the state money was intended to assist needy Floridians, including children. Instead, it paid for political consultants, lawyers and thousands of advertisements that helped DeSantis and his supporters win at the ballot box, in amounts far greater than the diverted Hope Florida Medicaid funding that has ensnarled top administration officials and the governor’s wife in scandal this year.

The ads purchased with the diverted money blanketed TV, social media and radio stations in the weeks before the election. They defended Florida’s six-week abortion ban and made exaggerated claims about the dangers of marijuana. Along the way, the governor’s administration bent state spending laws and obscured millions in government spending, records and interviews show.

Kudos to the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times for exposing these sleazy crooks and to the Sentinel for running the story. It took a lot of work since the DeSantis administration routinely ignores the so-called “Sunshine Laws” that used to make the state one of the more transparent governments in the country.

That was before Republicans solidified a durable statehouse majority and generational lock on the governor’s office. Then they decided secrecy and corruption were okay.

Florida Republicans have looked the other way ever since, at least until DeSantis turned out to be not only a gaping asshole whom even Republicans despise but, crucially, a paper tiger, as was revealed when he took on Trump in the 2024 primary and got his ass handed to him.

Ron’s fellow Republicans have been nipping at his fake heels ever since. I think it’s entirely because DeSantis is a peevish prick. Even a shared agenda of racism, misogyny, transphobia, xenophobia, rampant grift, etc., can’t paper over the man’s sheer dickishness.

I mean, FL Repubs were cool with Rick Scott’s corruption and Jeb(!) Bush’s before him. And neither were known for their winning personalities.

Anyhoo, will the DeSantis thieves face charges for ripping off foster children? Probably not!

DeSantis appointed his accomplice Uthmeier as the state’s attorney general to replace departing crook Pam Bondi. The other official who could address the theft, the state’s “CFO,” Blaise Ingoglia, is another recent DeSantis appointee and a mean, corrupt dickhead in his own right.

I’m not a lawyer, but it sure sounds like DeSantis & Co. might well skate, even if someone deems it appropriate to bring charges. The article implies that diverting tens of millions in funds from needy kids to political ads might not be a crime if the officials pretend the campaign ads are PSAs:

State officials have flexibility in how they spend state money. Former government officials and others the Herald/Times spoke to were mixed on whether the DeSantis administration’s spending broke state law.

But by spending public money on a political effort, several agencies bent the rules, observers said…

In public, DeSantis and his spokespeople said the state had a duty to educate Floridians about the amendments.

“It is not electioneering,” DeSantis said in September last year. “It’s things that can absolutely be done through these public service announcements. And I’m glad they’re doing it.”

Given that funneling taxpayer money to no-bid media contracts, consultants and lawyers in support of a partisan agenda is apparently at least okay-ish, I guess the best we can hope for as far “justice” is concerned would be that Republicans decide DeSantis and his awful wife are too brazen and tacky for higher office.

But given the party’s current standard-bearer, that seems like a stretch. I guess we’ll have to rely on Ron’s astounding lack of charisma and abysmal people skills to limit his political grasp. God, I hope so, anyway.

Open thread.

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