How DeSantis may have tipped the scales on abortion rights and recreational marijuana--an investigative report

News and views for Florida's Left Coast

A majority of Florida voters went to the polls last year and cast their ballots in favor of initiatives that would have protected abortion rights and legalized recreational use of marijuana.

But a simple majority wasn’t enough. Because Florida law requires such measures to secure 60 percent of the vote to pass, both narrowly failed.

But was it a fair fight?

At the time, advocates for these measures were crying foul, complaining that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used state resources, including social media campaigns and television ads, to undercut support for the initiatives.

“This is no longer the ‘Free State of Florida’,” Florida Women’s Freedom Coalition executive director Anna Hochkammer said. “This is a state that strips humans of their freedoms and dignity. A state whose government pushed a taxpayer-funded campaign using government resources to intimidate voters, silence women, and undermine democracy.”

In subsequent months, we’ve heard allegations that some of those resources DeSantis used were funneled to the campaigns through a foundation run by his wife, Casey, deploying millions of dollars that rightfully should have been spent on Medicaid patients.

A grand jury in Tallahassee is now taking testimony in its investigation of that scandal.

But those weren’t the only state funds being questionably used by the governor.

Investigative reporter Jason Garcia has spent months gathering public records to stitch together the story of how DeSantis waged political war on his own constituents, using their own tax dollars against them.

He writes:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis paid campaign strategists working on hidden subcontracts, approved rushed payments under misleading pretenses, and took millions of dollars from reserves, as he waged a taxpayer-funded advertising war last fall against two citizen-led constitutional amendments that would have protected abortion rights and legalized marijuana in Florida.

The details of DeSantis’ unprecedented public advertising campaign — in which the Republican governor filled the state’s airwaves with so-called “public service announcements” attacking a pair of petition drives supported by millions of Floridians — are contained in hundreds of pages of emails, invoices, transaction logs, and other documents obtained … through a series of public records requests.

Jason Garcia’s extensively documented report on his Substack site, Seeking Rents, is now cross- posted on the Tropic Press website. You can also connect to it directly here:

What motivated DeSantis to do this?

It’s plausible to suggest some of it may have to do with the humiliating defeat he suffered at the hands of Donald Trump, who thwarted his quest to win the Republican nomination for president. That he needed a win. At something.

I can just see him pounding his fists and stamping his Nancy Sinatra boots in a fit of frustration.

Maybe that’s unfair.

Maybe not.

Perhaps the grand jury will provide clarity on at least part of this. I highly recommend Jason Garcia’s work to understand the rest.

But keep this in mind:

Legal or not, DeSantis’s spending millions of dollars to defeat these initiatives could have meant the difference between victory and defeat.

The recreational marijuana initiatives failed to reach the 60 percent threshold by only about 4 percentage points — 55.9 percent of voters said yes; 44.1 percent, no.

On the abortion rights question, it was even closer: 57.2 percent of Floridians voted in favor to 42.8 percent opposed.

The money DeSantis directed to defeat these measures may have been just enough to tank them. And DeSantis clearly was at odds with a majority of his fellow Floridians in doing so. No wonder he may have wanted to keep the details under wraps.

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Tropic watch

The National Hurricane Center has now elevated the odds that the disturbance moving into the Caribbean will become at least a tropical depression. It would be named Melissa if it becomes a tropical storm or a hurricane. Meteorologists are also watching the possibility of another low pressure system in the Gulf of Mexico. We’ll be watching this all week.

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Today is …

Rodent Awareness Week is celebrated each year at this time. Florida is home to a very large mouse named Mickey who can be found in the Orlando area. Other rodents to be aware of include the palm rats that love hanging out in trees and attics.

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Thought for the day

“It’s not the voting that’s democracy; it’s the counting.”
- Tom Stoppard

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More online

Thank you for reading the Tropic Press newsletter. You also have access to the Tropic Press website for additional and previous posts, copies of the Monthly Memo, an archive of posts from our advice columnist, Miss Mingo, occasional guest commentaries, and information about The Strange Files series of mysterious adventures and other books.

J.C. Bruce, journalist and author, is the founder of Tropic Press. He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and his native Florida. When he’s not blogging, he’s in training for the Florida Man Underwater Ping Pong Championships. Forward this email to your friends. They will love you for it.

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Thanks to our sponsor

Today’s report is brought to you by Tropic Press Books, home of The Strange Files. Interested in sponsoring these reports? Contact: Advertising@Tropic.Press

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