.@GovRonDeSantis office loudly and very publicly blamed local elections officials last week for 20 felons allegedly voting illegally

Turns out one of his own administration's top elections officials quietly told local officials they had "no fault"

politico.com/news/2022/08/2… This is from the letter Pete Antonacci, the DeSantis-appointed head of Florida's new statewide elections investigation office, sent to all 67 local elections officials on Aug. 18 the same day 20 people were arrested for alleged voter fraud

"no fault of your own"

Those arrested DeSantis' voter fraud crackdown were registered and were sent voter cards. The government told them they could vote, so they voted

One man was arrested by armed SWAT team at 6 a.m. He was in his underwear and was taken to jail that way

politico.com/news/2022/08/2… Elections offices in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties said it's the state's responsibility to review registration applications and let the counties know when someone is ineligible.

“We were not notified by the state prior to 2022 that these individuals were ineligible,”

Incumbent Florida House Republican held serve in VBM/early vote in what's expected to be a really tough race held Well, that was quick..

https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1562215504751755264

The no-bid testing and vaccine work came over the first half of 2021 after the group lobbied up in Florida.

In July, it gave @GovRonDeSantis a $100k political contribution, it's first to a Florida politician.

politico.com/states/florida… The work went to Utah-based Nomi Health to run vaccination and testing sites across the state. Funding was approved under the state's pandemic executive order, which did not require it go through normal a normal procurement process

Best I can tell from this: @propublica, one of the nation’s most respected investigative journalism entities, used money from the @knightfdn to help w/their mission of boosting local investigative reporting

Biggest takeaway: the reporting must have struck a pretty sweet nerve

https://twitter.com/peterschorschfl/status/1422938356636393472

The story places much of its evidence on the fact that Knight Foundation provided funding to the "progressive" Everglades Foundation.

The same Everglades Foundation that supports @GovRonDeSantis, whose members have given him money, and who praised him as recently as this month

“Previous expectations were immediately upended upon my arrival at the quaint O'Hare outpost. There was color everywhere. Colors reminiscent of those you’d find in my beloved New York. Contrary to the popular documentary ‘Wizard of Oz,’ the region does, in fact, have color.”

https://twitter.com/jessieopie/status/1407823788448886791

What do you expect?

It takes time to gobble down all-you-can-eat hot dish at the local Midwest diner while also answering questions from parachuted-in national reporters about how Real Americans™ feel about the filibuster, or whatever.

This thread from the Artiles saga is so Florida. Like, at it's core

Artiles allegedly recruited a broke friend to run as an NPA candidate in exchange for $50k. But, when the broke friend running as a sham candidate asked for money Artiles promised, Artiles wanted a 30% cut This pissed off Rodriguez, the sham candidate.

I mean, I get it. Who wants to give a 30% cut on money you've agreed to take as part of an allegedly illegal campaign scheme?

Like, duh.

.@KathyFndzRundle opens the Frank Artiles presser talking about hanging chads and the 2000 election State Attorney: “We are alleging that November's Florida Senate District 37 election involved crimes”

The dark money group that has @Artiles40 facing charges for Alex Rodriguez's campaign also boosted two other sham Senate candidates in toss up seats

In a Seminole County race, they used stock photo of a black woman even though the candidate was white

politi.co/2H8CRex The other two races -- on in Miami one in Seminole County -- have not gotten any real attention b/c they were not close is the one Alex Rodriguez ran in.

If $50k was allegedly paid in this case, wonder about the other two?

.@GovRonDeSantis opens press conference with “It was one year ago today the campaign started, ‘15 days to slow the spread’” DeSantis is preparing to send letter to legislative leaders outlining his priorities for spending Covid stimulus funds

.@BobbyPowellJr and @TinaPolsky grilling @SenatorAMR on her "Victims of communisms bill," which establishes November 7 as the Victims of Communism legal holiday

They want a bill title change to add more types of victims of totalitarian regimes. Powell brings up idea of adding Jim Crow, @SenatorAMR says bill is intended to focus on "victims of communism."

From the "always listen around you in the state Capitol beat":

A GOP appointee to a local college board tells a story about how @GovRonDeSantis chief of staff called him on Christmas Day to tell him he had been appointed

The problem? It's not true

politi.co/30NycVy Strangest part, as Graham Fountain tells it, he never applied for the college board appointment, and never thought about it.

Turns out he applied for it in November, and very much thought about it

.@FlaDems' employee insurance plan lapsed in Nov. and staff was not told

A staffer got surgery thinking they were covered and got stuck with $50k in medical bills they could not pay

Another was stuck w/thousands in bills

“Not one person has called"

politico.com/states/florida… New party chair @Manny_A_Diaz told us today that this week he is retroactively reinstating the party's insurance plan and paying claims that were denied in December and January

“The claims will be paid,” he said in an interview Monday afternoon. “Everyone will be paid.”

Co-owner of condo that @RonDeSantisFL lived in for awhile leading his public safety transition efforts.

He was campaign donor and top executive at a defense contractor that lobbies the federal government. Background: A dark money group spent millions putting this the facts in this story on TV and radio. Was a big early campaign hit against DeSantis.

politico.com/states/florida…

Gov. Rick Scott, in his role as Senate candidate, last night asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate local election offices. FDLE said it would. On Friday, though, it found no allegations of voter fraud. There is no investigation
politi.co/2qCedqD FDLE said they are standing by, but are aware of no voter fraud. That conclusion was reached after they talked to state election officials today.

Last night during his political event, Scott warned of potential "rampant [voter] fraud"

There appears to be none at the moment