Blaise Ingoglia takes office as state CFO, but Trump-fueled fight looms

Yahoo

7 days ago

The latest appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis, state Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, was sworn into office amid questions about his prospects of winning next year's election because his selection was opposed by President Trump.
Ingoglia, an ally of DeSantis, dismissed the idea that he would prove short-term in the $140,000-a-year Florida Cabinet post. The former state senator said he was confident that Republican primary voters would choose him next year over Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, who Trump has endorsed for CFO.
'There's going to be plenty of time to campaign,' Ingoglia, a Spring Hill Republican, said after taking the oath of office July 21 in a ceremony in the Capitol's Cabinet meeting room.
'I know two things in politics: The voters will not reward you unless you do a good job, and the second thing is, usually, like 99% of the time, in the Republican primary, the more conservative candidate wins,' he added.
Although Gruters is hardly a moderate, he did, like Trump, support the recreational marijuana measure on last year's ballot, which failed to win the backing of at least 60% of voters. DeSantis and Ingoglia were opposed and the governor spent millions of dollars of taxpayer money against it.
GOP battle brewing for CFO
Gruters has been a longtime Trump ally and campaign leader in Florida and recently brought on the president's co-campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, and Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio, for his CFO campaign. LaCivita labeled Ingoglia a 'never Trumper.'
Gruters and Ingoglia are both former Florida Republican Party chairs. But while Gruters was deeply in the Trump camp, Ingoglia backed DeSantis in his failed 2024 presidential bid, setting the stage for a divisive GOP primary next year.
But for now, Ingoglia said he is setting his sights on filling the CFO post, vacated since the April election to Congress of Panama City's Jimmy Patronis, who had served since 2017.
Ingoglia said that among his first tasks would be to get rolling audits of local governments, which were approved by the GOP-dominated Legislature in a state-level version of the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
He said it was important to 'make sure we're spending responsibly at the local level.'
Ingoglia, who critics once dismissed as a 'lackey' of the insurance industry, pledged he would 'make sure that we're holding insurance companies accountable.'
He said rate increases have been more modest lately in Florida but that when it comes to paying claims, 'if they're slow-rolling stuff, we're going to have conversations with them.'
Ingoglia's critics don't expect a watchdog
House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa doubts that Ingoglia will be much of a watchdog as CFO, a job that oversees the state's finances and regulates the insurance industry.
'Ron DeSantis is appointing a Tallahassee politician more loyal to him than to the people,' Driskell said. 'I believe Blaise Ingoglia will talk tough but continue the tradition of giving the insurance companies everything they ask for.'
Ingoglia, 54, owns homebuilding company Hartland Homes, and lists his net worth at $28.3 million on his most recent financial disclosure. Ingoglia, a New York native, had been in the Legislature since 2014 and is a ranked poker player with more than $400,000 in winnings.
Serving in both the House and Senate, he's been a DeSantis loyalist.
How to get ahead in Florida government? Be a DeSantis loyalist
Ingoglia sided with the governor on immigration and redistricting, breaking ranks with legislative Republican leadership. Ingoglia also spearheaded legislation that made it more difficult for public sector unions to operate and guided the governor's election law changes, imposing tighter restrictions on ballot drop boxes and absentee voting.
'He's been a fighter, every time there's been a fight he's run towards the fire and he's done what he told the voters he'd do,' DeSantis said of Ingoglia at the swearing-in.
Is bond back? Once rivals, Trump and DeSantis deepen bond with shared targeting of undocumented migrants
Trump-DeSantis' long strange trip DeSantis-Trump relationship? It's complicated
DeSantis has now appointed two of the state's three Cabinet officers. Attorney General James Uthmeier, who had been the governor's chief of staff and presidential campaign manager, was picked to succeed fellow Republican Ashley Moody, who DeSantis named to the U.S. Senate.
She replaced Marco Rubio, now Trump's secretary of state and national security adviser.
Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson is the only member of the elected Florida Cabinet who was actually put there by voters.
Another vacancy at the top of state government, the post of lieutenant governor, also played into the Ingoglia ceremony. Former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, who DeSantis named president of Florida International University, was in attendance.
And working the crowd of well-wishers and lobbyists for the insurance and banking industry at the event was Sen. Jay Collins, R-Tampa, widely expected to soon be named lieutenant governor by DeSantis.
Collins could be positioned as a DeSantis-backed candidate for governor next year – possibly setting up another GOP primary fight with U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Naples, who Trump has endorsed as Florida's next governor.
'Let's not put the cart before the horse,' Collins said when asked if he'd run for governor. 'There's a lot of things that have to happen, none of those I have a say in right now.'
John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network's Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at [e-mail], or on X at @JKennedyReport.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Blaise Ingoglia sworn-in as CFO, with Trump-fueled fight looming