Latest news with #Naples-area
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Leaning against it': Doubts mount about Casey DeSantis running for Florida governor
The Casey DeSantis for governor trial balloon is briskly losing its altitude. Republicans from Tallahassee to Washington — some of whom were convinced just over a month ago that Florida's first lady was set on launching a campaign to succeed her husband — now believe she is unlikely to challenge Congressman Byron Donalds in next year's GOP primary. 'She's leaning against running now,' said a Florida Republican consultant involved in conversations around her candidacy, granted anonymity due to concerns about offending the governor's office. President Donald Trump's early endorsement of Donalds always stood as a daunting obstacle for the project to extend the DeSantis reign in 2026. But the weeks-long controversy around her Hope Florida Foundation damaged her image just as a timetable for a decision on the governor's race comes to a head. Stephen Lawson, a Republican operative and former campaign aide to Ron DeSantis, said 'the chatter has certainly died way down,' around Casey DeSantis in recent weeks. 'I think Byron will be the next governor,' he added. Another Florida lobbyist familiar with the parties involved compared the first lady's prospects of becoming governor to the uneven volatility jolting the stock market this year. A DeSantis candidacy at this point, said the lobbyist, who also requested anonymity to speak about the issue, would be somewhat defined by 'a struggle to be relevant.' Staffers for the governor's office and Casey DeSantis declined to respond to questions, issuing only a statement. 'More anonymous political quarterbacking from unnamed sources? There's nothing changed or new to report at this time. These sound like bad 'sources' who just want to see their names in print,' said DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin. Casey DeSantis first publicly acknowledged the possibility of running for governor in late February, even after the president took to social media to bestow Donalds with his prized endorsement. In March, the first lady described speculation about her candidacy as 'humbling' and attributed it to her husband's success over the past six years. She golfed with the president in Palm Beach in a soft attempt to neutralize his support for the Naples-area congressman, the two sources said. April proved to be the month where her political standing began to unravel. The Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times' reporting on how the DeSantis administration steered a $10 million Medicaid settlement to a charity supporting Hope Florida, Casey DeSantis' signature initiative, uncorked a torrent of scrutiny around the use of public funds. The $10 million was split between two non-profits, which then gave most the money to a political action committee run by James Uthmeier, DeSantis' former chief of staff and the current attorney general. An increasingly hostile, GOP-led Legislature investigated the movement of the money. The Republican lawmaker leading the investigation said he'd uncovered money laundering and wire fraud, though he never pointed the finger at Casey DeSantis. That investigation — which the governor and Uthmeier dismissed as a smear campaign — is now closed. But the House Speaker dangled the possibility of reopening the oversight probe, saying 'all options are still on the table with Hope Florida.' Through the turbulence, Casey DeSantis hasn't uttered another word about a candidacy that some operatives once believed was all but guaranteed. At the same time, Donalds has amassed an enormous war chest, raising $15 million in 45 days, according to a person familiar with his operation. Last week, a poll of the hypothetical primary contest measured Donalds' lead over Casey DeSantis at 19 percentage points when respondents were made aware of Trump's endorsement preference. Also aligned against Casey DeSantis is a White House political operation that has a long and checkered history with the governor and his wife and personal motivation to sink another DeSantis candidacy. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair, a Tampa native, were each discarded by DeSantis during his first term, leading to what the lobbyist categorized as a 'blood feud.' Barney Keller, a Republican operative who worked on a Florida campaign with Blair, said, 'If anybody is going to be good at closing the door on a challenge to Byron Donalds, it's going to be James Blair.' Republican operatives conveyed that a would-be DeSantis campaign could struggle to hire high-profile talent for the endeavor, given the governor's long-running problems with staff turnover and the career risk of going to battle against a Trump-backed candidate with Trump-aligned staffers. Ron DeSantis is little more than a year removed from challenging Trump for the GOP presidential nomination only to get blown out in the Iowa caucuses and see his candidacy vanquished. During their presidential primary battle, Trump aides collected names and took screenshots of DeSantis staffers who bad-mouthed Trump, according to Alex Istenstadt's book, 'Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump's Return to Power.' As Trump returned to the White House, these names were blacklisted from getting a job in the administration. Casey DeSantis could decide to delay a decision until the fall, betting that the questions surrounding Hope Florida will pass and that Donalds' candidacy will falter in the long march to next August's primary. GOP operatives also note the fickle nature of Trump and his eagerness to distance himself from poor performers. But Roger Stone, the longtime south Florida-based Trump ally and DeSantis detractor, said there's only one outcome for Casey DeSantis if she decides to run. 'Casey DeSantis will be ignominiously defeated,' he said.
Miami Herald
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
‘Leaning against it': Doubts mount about Casey DeSantis running for Florida governor
The Casey DeSantis for governor trial balloon is briskly losing its altitude. Republicans from Tallahassee to Washington — some of whom were convinced just over a month ago that Florida's first lady was set on launching a campaign to succeed her husband — now believe she is unlikely to challenge Congressman Byron Donalds in next year's GOP primary. 'She's leaning against running now,' said a Florida Republican consultant involved in conversations around her candidacy, granted anonymity due to concerns about offending the governor's office. President Donald Trump's early endorsement of Donalds always stood as a daunting obstacle for the project to extend the DeSantis reign in 2026. But the weeks-long controversy around her Hope Florida Foundation damaged her image just as a timetable for a decision on the governor's race comes to a head. Stephen Lawson, a Republican operative and former campaign aide to Ron DeSantis, said 'the chatter has certainly died way down,' around Casey DeSantis in recent weeks. 'I think Byron will be the next governor,' he added. Another Florida lobbyist familiar with the parties involved compared the first lady's prospects of becoming governor to the uneven volatility jolting the stock market this year. A DeSantis candidacy at this point, said the lobbyist, who also requested anonymity to speak about the issue, would be somewhat defined by 'a struggle to be relevant.' Staffers for the governor's office and Casey DeSantis declined to respond to questions, issuing only a statement. 'More anonymous political quarterbacking from unnamed sources? There's nothing changed or new to report at this time. These sound like bad 'sources' who just want to see their names in print,' said DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin. Hope Florida Casey DeSantis first publicly acknowledged the possibility of running for governor in late February, even after the president took to social media to bestow Donalds with his prized endorsement. In March, the first lady described speculation about her candidacy as 'humbling' and attributed it to her husband's success over the past six years. She golfed with the president in Palm Beach in a soft attempt to neutralize his support for the Naples-area congressman, the two sources said. April proved to be the month where her political standing began to unravel. The Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times' reporting on how the DeSantis administration steered a $10 million Medicaid settlement to a charity supporting Hope Florida, Casey DeSantis' signature initiative, uncorked a torrent of scrutiny around the use of public funds. The $10 million was split between two non-profits, which then gave most the money to a political action committee run by James Uthmeier, DeSantis' former chief of staff and the current attorney general. An increasingly hostile, GOP-led Legislature investigated the movement of the money. The Republican lawmaker leading the investigation said he'd uncovered money laundering and wire fraud, though he never pointed the finger at Casey DeSantis. That investigation — which the governor and Uthmeier dismissed as a smear campaign — is now closed. But the House Speaker dangled the possibility of reopening the oversight probe, saying 'all options are still on the table with Hope Florida.' Through the turbulence, Casey DeSantis hasn't uttered another word about a candidacy that some operatives once believed was all but guaranteed. At the same time, Donalds has amassed an enormous war chest, raising $15 million in 45 days, according to a person familiar with his operation. Last week, a poll of the hypothetical primary contest measured Donalds' lead over Casey DeSantis at 19 percentage points when respondents were made aware of Trump's endorsement preference. 'Blood feud' Also aligned against Casey DeSantis is a White House political operation that has a long and checkered history with the governor and his wife and personal motivation to sink another DeSantis candidacy. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair, a Tampa native, were each discarded by DeSantis during his first term, leading to what the lobbyist categorized as a 'blood feud.' Barney Keller, a Republican operative who worked on a Florida campaign with Blair, said, 'If anybody is going to be good at closing the door on a challenge to Byron Donalds, it's going to be James Blair.' Republican operatives conveyed that a would-be DeSantis campaign could struggle to hire high-profile talent for the endeavor, given the governor's long-running problems with staff turnover and the career risk of going to battle against a Trump-backed candidate with Trump-aligned staffers. Ron DeSantis is little more than a year removed from challenging Trump for the GOP presidential nomination only to get blown out in the Iowa caucuses and see his candidacy vanquished. During their presidential primary battle, Trump aides collected names and took screenshots of DeSantis staffers who bad-mouthed Trump, according to Alex Istenstadt's book, 'Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump's Return to Power.' As Trump returned to the White House, these names were blacklisted from getting a job in the administration. Casey DeSantis could decide to delay a decision until the fall, betting that the questions surrounding Hope Florida will pass and that Donalds' candidacy will falter in the long march to next August's primary. GOP operatives also note the fickle nature of Trump and his eagerness to distance himself from poor performers. But Roger Stone, the longtime south Florida-based Trump ally and DeSantis detractor, said there's only one outcome for Casey DeSantis if she decides to run. 'Casey DeSantis will be ignominiously defeated,' he said.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
DeSantis warns Byron Donalds about missing votes. He missed plenty in 2018.
With a few strokes of a keyboard, President Donald Trump upended Florida politics. Early in the gubernatorial cycle, he endorsed a young and relatively obscure congressman, tilting the race in his favor. The candidate turned to campaigning almost immediately, raising money and missing a few votes in Congress while he tended to his political ambitions. The year was 2018. The candidate was Ron DeSantis. If any of that sounds familiar, that's because history seems to be repeating itself. Last week, the Trump-endorsed U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds announced he would run for governor. The 46-year-old Naples-area representative — that's young in politics — has already begun courting major Republican fundraisers. He'll start campaigning in earnest in the coming months. It's not hard to find parallels between DeSantis and Donalds at this stage in their careers. Pre-Trump endorsement, both men were relatively unknown third-term U.S. representatives. Like DeSantis in 2018, Donalds won Trump's endorsement by emerging as one of his most vocal surrogates in the media. But DeSantis doesn't seem to be reveling in the similarities. Instead of backing Trump's pick for governor, he appears to be looking to play kingmaker — or queenmaker — himself. His preferred 2026 candidate appears to be his wife, Casey. Donalds? DeSantis says he should stick to his day job. 'Donald Trump just got into office. I want these congressmen focused on enacting his agenda. They haven't done very much yet,' DeSantis said at a Tampa news conference last week. 'We have such a narrow majority that to be trying to campaign other places and missing these votes I think is not something that's advisable at all." DeSantis may be speaking from experience. During key months of his first gubernatorial run in 2018, he missed dozens of congressional votes. From July to September of that year, he was in the 98th percentile of all U.S. representatives in terms of missing votes, according to the nonprofit GovTrack. That means he was one of the most absent lawmakers in Washington during that stretch. (DeSantis resigned from Congress in September 2018.) Max Goodman, a longtime Florida Republican political consultant, said missing votes while running for higher office is natural. 'Find me one congressman running for statewide or national office who doesn't miss some votes!' he wrote in a text message. The situation in Washington during DeSantis' first gubernatorial campaign is different from the environment today. During DeSantis' last term, Republicans held 235 seats to Democrats' 193 — a healthy majority. Today, they have just a four-seat advantage. As DeSantis noted, Donalds' vote matters quite a bit. In February, Donalds made news for missing two votes he cast at the same time as an appearance on the political program Real Time with Bill Maher. According to Punchbowl News, Donalds potentially violated ethics rules by casting his votes from nearly 2,700 miles away. Still, the governor's criticism of Donalds is striking given the similarities between the two Trump proteges. DeSantis has said Donalds should not put his political ambitions ahead of his office, but DeSantis launched a run for president less than a year after Floridians elected him to a second term as governor. Politically, the most important thing the two men have in common is Trump's approval. Like DeSantis was in early 2018, Donalds is fairly unknown to the Florida electorate. A February poll by the University of North Florida's Public Opinion Research Lab found that two in three voters have never heard of Donalds. Trump's endorsement is likely to change that for Donalds — just as it did for DeSantis. But DeSantis appears to be hoping that Trump's early endorsement won't decide the 2026 governor's race. In an X post Tuesday, the governor noted that Casey DeSantis recently played a round of golf with Trump. 'Casey and @realDonaldTrump had no trouble winning the match…" DeSantis posted to X.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
A ‘Go Fund me' account to help make up the college tuition difference for Dreamers?
Naples Republican Kathleen Passidomo answers reporters' questions following her installment as Florida Senate president on Nov. 22, 2022. (Photo by Michael Moline/Florida Phoenix) Will philanthropic lawmakers try to help pay Dreamers' tuition? The Florida Legislature passed an anti-immigration crackdown Tuesday night that would repeal a waiver allowing undocumented students pay in-state tuition rates for state colleges and universities, but one lawmaker is seizing on a colleague's comment that philanthropy could help. During debate on the bill in the Senate, Naples-area Republican Kathleen Passidomo said that while she was supporting the bill, she had heard from other lawmakers that they would also support it if it didn't repeal the in-state tuition waiver. So, she said, she offered a challenge: Support the bill and then privately help Dreamers — brought to this country without documentation as children — with their tuition payments. 'I'm going to vote for this bill wholeheartedly, and then I'm going to go and I'm going to find a charity that I can write a check to,' Passidomo said. 'And then I'm going to find a kid who's going to lose their tuition, and I'm going to pay for it. And that's how we do it, through philanthropy. We don't need to have taxpayer dollars pay for these kids. They shouldn't, because they're here illegally, and they are taking places of other kids. So that's my challenge to you all, who said, if we didn't have this provision, you'd vote for the bill. Vote for the bill and then join me and other philanthropic people, and let's sponsor some kids to finish their education.' Orlando area House Democrat Anna Eskamani said she heard that comment loud and clear and would like to start a 'mutual aid fund' of some sort to encourage others to help pay for the difference. During the 2023-2024 academic year, more than 6,500 Florida students without documentation who received an out-of-state fee waiver paid $26.7 million for their postsecondary tuition. Without the fee waiver, they would have had to pay an additional $40 million, according to the Florida Policy Institute. 'If this is going to be the reality, we have thousands of students who are no longer going to be able to afford their tuition because of people in this chamber,' Eskamani said. 'Let's start a nonprofit. … If this bill ultimately passes in some shape or form, I'm really worried about these kids, and we need to help them.' Although Gov. Ron DeSantis has savaged the bill passed by GOP lawmakers as being 'weak' and says he will veto it, he has insisted that repealing in-state tuition for undocumented students is a priority. It was one of the proposals he suggested the Legislature approve leading into this week's special session. Passidomo was one of 21 Republicans in the state Senate to support the Legislature's bill, which passed 21-16 in that chamber. Six other Republicans rejected it. In the House, the measure passed 82-30. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
