Is DeSantis Staff Blackmailing Lobbyists in Florida?

Here is another Disney-like saga brewing in Florida now that Benito DeSantis has officially entered the race for president in 2024. Some of his staff, not campaign workers, have sent text messages to the very same lobbyists they meet with every day to conduct business asking them for campaign contributions. This borders on illegality, and also begs the question: Is DeSantis staff blackmailing lobbyists that should they not step up with contributions, they might as well forget doing business with the DeSantis administration? Because, from where we sit, this is exactly what it looks like.

In light of how Ron DeSantis treated Disney because it objected to one of DeSantis racist laws, any Florida lobbyist is at risk of losing their livelihoods if they don’t answer to the DeSantis blackmail.

“What the f— am I supposed to do? I have a lot of business in front of the DeSantis administration.”

ADD CORRUPT TO THE DESANTIS RESUME

In an article for NBC News, the lobbyists have voiced their rage at this new unethical tactic. Here are some quotes NBC published from some complaining anonymous lobbyists.

• “The bottom line is that the administration appears to be keeping tabs on who is giving, and are doing it using state staff. You are in a prisoner’s dilemma. They are going to remain in power. We all understand that.”
• At a minimum, even if they [DeSantis state staff] are sitting in their home at 9 p.m. using their personal phone and contacting lobbyists that they somehow magically met in their personal capacity and not through their role in the governor’s office, it still smells yucky. There’s a misuse of public position issue here that is obvious to anyone paying attention.”
• “What the f— am I supposed to do? I have a lot of business in front of the DeSantis administration.”
• “The ethics behind this is questionable at best, especially when the budget has yet to be acted on.”
• “It is walking a very close line to what is ethical and possibly legal. It is state employees leveraging their official position to ask people whose livelihood depends on access to state government for money.”

Thanks to Ron DeSantis, whose campaign has barely started 24 hours ago, we are already witnessing an attempt at blackmail.

TESTING THE LAW

You get the gist. “No donations to the DeSantis campaign money, no business before this administration” seems to be the tone of these texts. It’s pure and open blackmail like Florida has never experienced before by any other administration.

And guess what will happen next across all the Republican red states where their governors are running for office? Yes, you guessed it. The corruption becomes standard procedure.

For corrupt and unethical politicians, testing the law is part and parcel of their tenure. They break the law and wait for a judge to rule against them, which, by then, might be too late because they have done what they set out to do. What the DeSantis official state staff are doing represent the little steps that usually end up breaking our democracy as the voters slide deeper and deeper into a total mistrust of their own government, and they simply don’t care.

Any wonder the American people have turned into angry mobs?

Thanks to Ron DeSantis, whose campaign has barely started 24 hours ago, we are already witnessing an attempt at blackmailing the Florida lobbyists. Just as DeSantis tried to blackmail Disney into submission to his racism and bigotry.

Is DeSantis Staff Blackmailing Lobbyists in Florida?