Saturday, December 09, 2023

ANNALS OF DeSANTISTAN: Iowa GOP says only residents can caucus after Casey DeSantis urges others to ‘participate’ (Hannah Knowles, WaPo)

Former Ponte Vedra resident CASEY DeSANTIS is a key advisor to Governor RONALD DION DeSANTIS, a Harvard Law graduate and our former Congressman from St. Johns County, 2013-2018. In Iowa, CA$EY De$ANTIS appeared on Fox News and invited "moms and grandmoms"from other states to flock to Iowa and vote for her husband.  The feculent former GANNETT newswoman is true to the tradition of unethically challenged St. Johns County Republicans.  Their developer-driven party has for decades encouraged Democrats to register Republican, having gerrymandered County Commission seats in a 1998 15th Amendment violation, resulting in an all-Republican County Commission that rubberstamps deforestation, cleaercutting and overdevelopment.  The former St. Johns County Commission Chair went to federal prison for taking $60,000 bribe from developers in an FBI sting. Will FBI and the Iowa Attorney General kindly conduct a civil, criminal and administrative investigation of the De$ANTI's misleading out-of-state residents?  Will the DeSANTI apologize to the good people of Iowa? Or does being RONALD DION DeSANTIS mean never having to say you're sorry?



Iowa GOP says only residents can caucus after Casey DeSantis urges others to ‘participate’

Casey DeSantis claps as candidates are announced at the third Republican debate at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami on Nov. 8. (Thomas Simonetti for The Washington Post)
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SIOUX CITY, Iowa — The Republican Party of Iowa on Friday clarified that out-of-state residents cannot take part in its presidential nominating contest after Florida first lady Casey DeSantis — the wife of candidate Ron DeSantis — urged mothers and grandmothers from around the country to “descend upon the state of Iowa to be a part of the caucus,” and added, “you do not have to be a resident of Iowa to be able to participate in the caucus.”

Casey DeSantis, who often joins her husband on the campaign trail, has been promoting a “Mamas for DeSantis” 2024 coalition. She said on Fox News that “we’re asking all of these moms and grandmoms to come, from wherever it might be — North Carolina, South Carolina — and to descend upon the state of Iowa to be a part of the caucus.”

With Ron DeSantis sitting silently beside her, Casey DeSantis added, “Because you do not have to be a resident of Iowa to be able to participate in the caucus.” She said that people should come “let their voice be heard in support of Ron DeSantis,” the Republican governor of Florida.

The Florida first lady later clarified in a post on X, the social media site, that “voting in the Iowa caucuses is limited to registered voters in Iowa.” And her husband addressed the confusion with reporters, saying of non-Iowa voters: “Obviously, you can’t vote in the caucus, but you can help with it. They even let people go and speak on behalf of candidates.”

Still, Casey DeSantis’s comments spawned enough confusion that the Iowa GOP posted its own guidance on X late Friday afternoon. “Remember: you must be a legal resident of Iowa and the precinct you live in and bring photo ID with you to participate in the #iacaucus!” the organization wrote.

The incident even caught the attention of Nebraska voters who showed up to a Sioux City, Iowa, event for rival GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Friday evening. Attendee Deb Pieper brought it up unprompted.

I am from Nebraska, but I understand that I am able to caucus in Iowa,” Pieper said as she waited for Haley to arrive. “I just heard that. Ron DeSantis’s wife just said that. On the news. On Fox News tonight.”

But she said she had just asked some other people about the matter, and they cleared things up: She can’t vote, though she can “have an influence.”

“I can’t actually stand and be counted,” said Pieper, who said Haley is her top pick because she believes the former U.N. ambassador is most likely to beat President Biden.

DeSantis is focusing intensively on Iowa, the first state in the GOP nominating process, and counting on a strong showing there to jolt his struggling effort to challenge the far-and-away polling leader, former president Donald Trump. DeSantis once polled more competitively with Trump but has lost ground over the past year and is now fighting with Haley for a distant second place in surveys of the Hawkeye State.

On Friday, Ron and Casey DeSantis joined Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), who has endorsed DeSantis, for a “Mamas for DeSantis” event in the Des Moines area. The campaign announced that it had “officially welcomed mamas and grandmamas in all 99 counties” of Iowa.


Hannah Knowles is a national politics reporter covering campaigns at The Washington Post. She previously reported for The Post's general assignment desk. Twitter


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Read the other day about how we've got a "tyranny of the minority" going on and need reforms to our political system. Founding fathers did certain things to ensure that "tyranny of the majority" wouldn't happen only the result is now tyranny by the minority, gridlock, and stagnation of much needed progress in many areas. When 9 people agree that something should be done but a decision is made based on the will of one in dissent then that's not a rational or functional system...nor is it when a few individuals make a decision that a majority of people don't agree with.

Anonymous said...

more proof a college education doesn't make you smart! Just as Commissioner Keating-Joseph didn't understand the meaning of being censured and responded with "you can't accuse me of lying!" (no one said you were lying, lady!) First Lady DeSantis doesn't know how a caucus is run.

Anonymous said...

The South is still behind the rest of the country thanks to people like DeFascist and the other empty suits who merely occupy seats in government so that others can't get in there and actually do something.

Anonymous said...

Will DeSantis phoney election police (taxpayer funded voter and election harassers) go after his wife for encouragement of election crimes? Need DOJ to arrest many more Republicans for election crimes and encouraging crimes. Put DeSantis behind bars with Orange Hitler.