It’s premature to say whether Ron DeSantis will be remembered as Florida’s worst governor, although that does seem his intention.
It’s not too soon, however, to acknowledge that he has abused his power more than any of his predecessors. People are wise to him, too.
No other governor ever weaponized a state agency to fight a ballot initiative. That’s what DeSantis has done with the Agency for Health Care Administration, whose website features a blow-by-blow attack on Amendment 4, the abortion rights amendment.
Not only that, it isn’t true. It falsely claims that current Florida law protects women, and that the initiative “threatens women’s safety.” The use of a taxpayer-funded agency in a political campaign is illegal .
Harassing voters at home No other governor ever sent his election police to interrogate registered voters as to whether they signed petitions for a cause he opposes — an outrageous act of intimidation. Several voters in Lee County answered a knock on their door and it was an armed, uniformed police officer. The issue again was Amendment 4.
As reported by the Tampa Bay Times , the agents said they were looking into possible election fraud. There was no explanation for why those voters — who verified that they had signed the petitions — were singled out.
The Lee County elections office said it had received only one request from Tallahassee for only one voter’s signed petition.
No other governor ever launched an eleventh-hour campaign to disparage a ballot question, as DeSantis is doing in reviewing petitions collected by specified paid solicitors. Election supervisors in Palm Beach, Hillsborough and Orange counties confirmed the order from DeSantis’ Department of State.
Suspicious timing Regardless of whether some solicitors may have faked some names they signed, which is always possible and should be prosecuted, the timing is suspicious. Election supervisors are required to compare voters’ signatures with those on file. They verified more than enough signatures — 997,035 to be precise. The deadline to challenge the signatures passed months ago.
The Department of State said it has “uncovered evidence of illegal conduct with fraudulent petitions.” That doesn’t answer the question: Why now? Amendment 4 made the ballot a year ago.
No other governor has ever tried to dictate to other elected officials that they should help him defeat a ballot question. DeSantis did, with a jaw-dropping speech to a Republican fundraising dinner at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood on Saturday.
Bullying his fellow Republicans, he called out six by name who spoke out against Amendment 4 but haven’t contributed money to his campaign against it.
That old dog whistle Once again, DeSantis invoked a familiar Republican antisemitic dog whistle, the name of financier and liberal Jewish donor George Soros.
It’s “untenable,” he said, “to just sit here and let George Soros run amendments in our state and not be willing to stand up and say no, not on our watch. That’s the least you can do as Republicans.”
No Soros contributions are among the $51.4 million from thousands of donors reported by Floridians Protecting Freedom, the organization behind Amendment 4. If DeSantis has any evidence that Soros contributed indirectly, he hasn’t shown it, and if Soros did — so what?
DeSantis is entitled like any other citizen to voice his opinions on ballot propositions like Amendment 4. So are Republicans who support it, despite his attempts to intimidate them.
But it’s scandalously wrong to use state resources and taxpayers’ money for such purposes.
Slap him down Decades ago, Democratic Gov. Reubin Askew had plenty to say and do about amendments he supported for a corporate income tax and ethics reform and against an initiative to legalize casino gambling, but he never co-opted agencies or badmouthed other officials who disagreed with him.
In a practical sense, there are Republican voters whom DeSantis offends. Recent news coverage focused on a group of mostly Republican women who met at Bradenton to support Amendment 4. They recognize that the right of women to control their own bodies ought not to be a partisan issue.
These latest examples of DeSantis’ arrogance closely follow his attempt to fast-track the bulldozing of nine state parks for golf courses, hotels and pickleball courts, the dismissal of a state employee who blew the whistle on the scheme, and the deliberate leaking of the whistleblower’s personnel file — without any request for it.
DeSantis has two more years left to abuse his power. But on Nov. 5, voters can decisively slap down his heavy hand.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com .
Originally Published: September 9, 2024 at 5:15 p.m.
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