ANNALS OF DeSANTISTAN: Ron DeSantis defends ‘dark money’ during town hall sponsored by his Super PAC. (Florida Politics)

the Bible teaches that "the love of money is the root of all evil."

It's all about the money.  As Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis called it, it's the "race to the bottom." 

Big money owns Governor DeSANTIS and our Dull Republican maladministration in Flori-DUH, from Tallahassee to St. Johns County.  

Big money owns DONALD JOHN TRUMP, a career criminal under indictment.

Here, we read about how our Boy Governor defends dark money.  Bless his heart.

As the late California State Treasurer, Jesse Unruh said, "money is the mother's milk of politics."

No one would listen to DeSANTIS if he didn't have the support of KOCH INDUSTRIES and their pals.

From Florida Politics, by A.G. Gancarski (July 28, 2023):

Ron DeSantis defends ‘dark money’ during town hall sponsored by his Super PAC

You've got to inform people about who you are and what you believe in and that's never anything that's free.'

During a Never Back Down sponsored town hall in Osceola, Iowa, Gov. Ron DeSantis wasn’t willing to bite the hand that feeds.

When asked directly, the Republican presidential candidate refused to condemn “dark money” in politics.

DeSantis, whose campaign is amid a budget crunch, went through a “reboot” in recent days that cut loose 38 employees, spending Thursday on a bus tour as a “special guest” of his own Super PAC.

A crowd member asked DeSantis what he would do about “dark money” and “PAC money” in politics, and the Governor’s response stopped far short of reform.

“In terms of like the money that people spend,” DeSantis said, “I think the issue is just, you know, ultimately, you’ve got to inform people about who you are and what you believe in, and that’s never anything that’s free.”

Indeed, DeSantis’ political operation illustrates how pricy a campaign can be. His team recently rolled out an astonishing $150 million Q2, with $130 million to the PAC. But there’s a caveat: of that $130 million, more than $82 million was transferred from DeSantis’ former state-level political committee.

“You know, it’s harder for a candidate to get their message out than these groups,” DeSantis continued. “And I think that candidates should be able, you know, to have maybe a little bit more permissive rules so that they can do this more effectively.”

The Governor did not explain what the “permissive rules” would be.

“And when you really crimp what they’re able to do, then you end up having, you know, a lot of these groups that go in,” DeSantis added. “I’ve had a lot of them attacking me throughout my career in politics. And that’s unfortunate, but that’s just kind of, kind of the way the cookie crumbles, but they really make it more difficult for candidates just to be able to get their message out. And I think that they should be able to do it.”

“You want to hear from the horse’s mouth. You don’t want these shadowy groups to have all the money and not allow the candidates to be able to do what they need to do,” DeSantis said.

However, at least for the near future, one of those “shadowy groups” is directly coordinating with the candidate in a way that has been atypical — until this election cycle — facilitating hearing from the “horse’s mouth” in a way the formal campaign isn’t doing now.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at AG@FloridaPolitics.com or on Twitter: @AGGancarski