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Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Who is Blaise Ingoglia? DeSantis picks new Florida CFO
After months without anyone in the position, Gov. Ron DeSantis has finally named his new Chief Financial Officer: close ally, businessman and professional poker player Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill. "Yes, he's got a great financial record, which is important," DeSantis said at a press conference announcing the appointment. "But I looked even broader than that because I wanted to say who's running toward these fights and who's running and hiding. And on every single time we've had a flash point in Florida, Blaise is running into battle to stand up for people like you." Ingoglia, 54, owns homebuilding company Hartland Homes and listed his net worth at $28.3 million on his most recent financial disclosure. He served as chair of the Republican Party of Florida in 2015–19 and later helped run a DeSantis political committee when the governor ran for the GOP nomination for president in 2024. DeSantis also mentioned Ingoglia's GovernmentGoneWild social media, in which he attacked governmental waste. While the choice wasn't unexpected, it may reignite the fading feud between DeSantis and President Donald Trump. Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, last year announced his intent to run for the open seat in 2026 and Trump has already enthusiastically endorsed him. The post has been vacant since April 1 when former CFO Jimmy Patronis left to replace former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz as Northwest Florida's member of Congress. Susan Miller, who was chief of staff under Patronis, has been in charge of the Department of Financial Services since then but was never named CFO, even on an interim basis. The last press release from the department was in May, according to its website. Such a lengthy vacancy in a cabinet spot is unusual — the CFO is third in the line of succession for governor, after the lieutenant governor and attorney general — but DeSantis said he would fill the spot after the 2025 Florida Legislative Session was over and then it went into overtime due to state budget squabbles. DeSantis has yet to replace former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, who left the role in February to become president of Florida International University, one of several DeSantis allies in leadership positions in Florida's higher education. Who is Sen. Blaise Ingoglia? State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, is a Queens, New York, native who moved to Florida in 1996 to start a mortgage company and homebuilding company. He became politically active, his bio says, when property taxes skyrocketed, founding "Government Gone Wild" and producing seminars and videos over governmental wastefulness. The 54-year-old was elected chair of the Hernando County Republican Executive Committee in 2009, and then was elected vice-chair of the Republican Party of Florida in 2011. In 2014, he was elected to the Florida House of Representatives and was later chosen chair of the Republican Party of Florida. He was reelected as state chair in 2017. Ingoglia ran for the Florida Senate in 2022 with DeSantis' endorsement and won. As a close ally of DeSantis, described as the governor's "conservative pitbull in the Florida Senate,' Ingoglia has criticized legislative leaders during a rift with the governor over immigration laws. He's sponsored bills in line with DeSantis' agenda, including lowering property taxes and imposing term limits on local officials. Ingoglia headed Friends of Ron DeSantis, a state-level political committee that was criticized for transferring more than $80 million in funds raised to support DeSantis's previous two gubernatorial election campaigns to Never Back Down Inc., a political action committee that supported his unsuccessful presidential campaign. The senator was named the PAC's chief on May 8, 2023, three days after DeSantis took steps to distance himself from it. On May 24, DeSantis announced his presidential bid. On May 30, Ingoglia shut the PAC down completely, and the next day the Empower Parents PAC transferred $82.5 million the Never Back Down, Inc. PAC. Ingoglia has been a campaign spokesperson for both Trump and DeSantis. He's also been a minor YouTube celebrity with his Government Gone Wild wealth seminar videos, where until 2019 he posted videos such as "The Illegal Immigration Video Democrats DON'T Want You to See" and "Welcome to the United 'Waste' of America." Blaise Ingoglia is an internationally ranked poker player Since starting to play poker professionally, Ingoglia has posted earnings of $469,668, according to That includes winnings of $261,901 at an event in Atlantic City in 2006. His last game on record was more than a year ago, but Ingoglia has played off and on since February 2005. That's when he won more than $8,000 in the 2005 Borgata Poker Open. How do you pronounce Blaise Ingoglia? "Blaze In-GO-lee-ah." Ingoglia is an Italian surname that means "in the family of Goglia." In Italian names, "gl" is pronounced something like the sound in the middle of "million." What does Florida's Chief Financial Officer do? The Department of Financial Services is a powerful one, in charge of paying state vendors and overseeing insurance, financial regulators and fire investigations. It was created in 2002 after the Florida Cabinet was overhauled in 1998 by combining the former offices of comptroller, treasurer, insurance commissioner, and fire marshal. "My department serves consumers and taxpayers through its work in 13 different divisions and additional initiatives I set forth," Patronis once wrote for the DFS website. "A world of information and assistance is provided by the department on issues ranging from insurance education and assistance, fire prevention and safety, and even unclaimed cash and property."I have also established additional priorities to assist Floridians including fighting fraud, consumer protection and fiscal transparency." The DFS is made of the following divisions, each one with a direct impact on Floridians: Accounting and Auditing Consumer Services Criminal Investigations Funeral, Cemetery, and Consumer Services Insurance Agent and Agency Services Office of Financial Regulation Office of Insurance Regulation Rehabilitation and Liquidation Risk Management Treasury State Fire Marshal Unclaimed Property Workers' Compensation Previously published material was used in this report. (This story was updated to add new information.) This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Blaise Ingoglia tapped to be new Florida CFO after months of vacancy Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New Florida CFO is a seasoned poker player with nearly half a million in winnings
Florida's new Chief Financial Officer is used to handling money. Sometimes he's playing cards over it. Gov. Ron DeSantis tapped staunch ally Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, on July 16 to be his new CFO after the post was left vacant for months. Former CFO Jimmy Patronis left on April 1 for his new job as Northwest Florida's member of Congress. Ingoglia is a businessman who owns homebuilding company Hartland Homes and has a net worth at $28.3 million, according to his most recent financial disclosure. Some of that came from poker winnings: The new CFO is an internationally ranked poker player who has earned $469,668 in winnings since September 2005, according to although he hasn't played in over a year. "Everyone asks me what's the difference between poker and politics," he said on the Battleground Florida podcast in 2019, "and I tell them that there's a lot less lying going on in poker." Does Blaise Ingoglia play poker? Since 2005, Ingoglia has played in 27 poker events in the World Series of Poker, the Poker World Tour, and other games. His last recorded game was in June 2024. He favors Omaha, he said, but his best game is "probably no-limit Hold-Em." "Obviously I like to have my priorities straight," he told Battleground Florida host Christopher Heath. "My businesses, my family. And I take my job as state representative very seriously. So, I would only play poker when I have ability to." Ingoglia said he had gotten interested in the game after watching it on TV and happened to be vacationing in Las Vegas when the World Poker Tour was there. He bought in "not even knowing how to fully play the game." After that he was hooked, calling poker "one of the few things that actually relaxes me." "There are similarities between poker and politics and policy," Ingoglia said. "You always have to be thinking two, three, four steps ahead of your opponent, whether it's at the poker table or whether it's a political adversary or whether it's just trying to maneuver to get great legislation across the finish line." The new chief financial officer said that was one of the reasons he enjoyed poker and policy: "I'm pretty good at both.' What is the most Blaise Ingoglia has ever won at poker? In September 2006, Ingoglia stood up from the 2006 Borgata Open in the World Poker Tour with $261,901 on a $9,700 buy-in. Winner Mark Newhouse took the pot of $1,519,020. In March 2024, Ingoglia made it to the final table in a World Series of Poker Circuit event, finishing 8th out of 669 players and taking $22,565. The least amount Ingoglia has won, according to data, was $941 in the 2020 Pinktober Poker Open. Has Blaise Ingoglia introduced gambling bills? In 2024, Ingoglia sponsored a bill (SB 1054) that would have allowed existing gaming permit holders to move their operations to a different location within 30 miles, without dealing with local regulations that might have blocked it, as long as the new locations was not within 15 minutes of any Seminole Tribe-operated casinos. The bill died in committee. As a state representative in 2019, he sponsored a successful bill to exempt security information about the Florida Lottery and personal information about retailers and vendors from public records searches and requests. Mostly during his time in political office his bills have addressed criminal justice, firearms regulations, consumer protection, sewage conversions. His successes in the last Florida legislative session include: (co-introduced): Allows presidential libraires to be built in Florida without local government regulations or oversight. (co-introduced): Makes it a third-degree felony to abandon a dog restrained outside during a natural disaster. (co-introduced): Establishes a model process for local governments to divert mentally ill inmates from jail to treatment. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: New Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia is internationally-ranked poker player Solve the daily Crossword
