As Ron DeSantis & other Tallahassee Republicans spend taxpayer money fighting citizen-led referendums to overturn a state abortion ban (Amendment 4) and legalize marijuana (Amendment 3), they keep blurring the line between public governing and partisan campaigning.
For example:
When three state agencies in Tallahassee booked airtime for a joint TV commercial attacking Amendment 4, disclosure records show they used a buyer named Whitney Eversole.
On the ad buy for the state agencies, Eversole is listed representing a firm called FiDi Media.
But other concurrent records show Eversole also works with a firm called FlexPoint Media.
FlexPoint Media is the same firm being used by both the Republican Party of Florida, which is running ads against Amendment 3 and Amendment 4, and Keep Florida Clean, which is running ads against Amendment 3.
At the same time, DeSantis has his chief of staff –James Uthmeier – who draws a $202,000-a-year salary from Florida taxpayers – chairing two political committees raising money against the amendments: Keep Florida Clean and Florida Freedom Fund
Last month, DeSantis used a state office to hold a strategy call with anti-abortion activists working against Amendment 4.
One of the people DeSantis had speak on that call is the leader of a firm called The Liberty Counsel.
tallahassee.com/story/news/pol…
The Liberty Counsel is simultaneously working as a consultant to one of the political groups campaigning against Amendment 4 ("Florida Voters Against Extremism"):
And earlier this summer, Florida House Speaker Paul Renner (R-Palm Coast) gave a $75-an-hour part-time job to an anti-abortion analyst from the conservative Heritage Foundation. That's the far-right think tank in Washington behind Project 2025.
Putting this Heritage Foundation analyst on the public payroll allowed Renner to install her on a state panel that wrote an economic statement for Amendment 4 that will be printed on the ballot alongside the amendment.
washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/07…
She then helped write an economic statement that was so speculative and misleading that Florida’s chief economist refused to sign off on it.
The Heritage Foundation was also one of the right-wing groups that lobbied DeSantis, Renner and other Florida Republicans to pass the state’s near-total abortion ban in the first place.
In other words, the Heritage Foundation lobbied for Florida’s abortion ban.
And then the Heritage Foundation got to help write a misleading ballot summary for an amendment that would overturn that ban.
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