DeSantis turns to companies that deal with the state to help boost campaign funds

As Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign dealt with widely publicized financial strains and some prominent mega donors signaled they were closing their checkbooks, the Florida governor turned to people with an incentive to stay on his good side: businesspeople, lawyers, lobbyists and others whose employers or clients have financial interests before state government.

Many obliged.

Campaign finance reports filed this month show dozens of contributions from executives with Florida Power & Light Co. and Juno Beach-based parent company; leaders of gambling operations owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida; officials with the GEO Group, a private prison company headquartered in Boca Raton; and officers of AshBritt, the disaster recovery company based in Deerfield Beach.

The latest contributions from people who own or work at businesses whose fortunes rise and fall based on state actions were first reported by Seeking Rents, an investigative newsletter that focuses on the way business influences public policy in Florida.

The issue: DeSantis “wields enormous leverage over people and businesses in Florida who want favors from his administration,” Seeking Rents said.

Spokespersons for the DeSantis campaign did not respond to questions about money raised from the businesses with interests before state government from the fundraising, including whether people would be justified in thinking the contributions were made to curry favor with the governor.

FPL

FPL and its parent NextEra Energy Inc. stood out. It’s the best known of the Florida business contributors, and parent company of FPL, the country’s largest electric utility. FPL’s rates and profits are set by the state.

Campaign finance reports show 41 NextEra energy employees contributed to DeSantis presidential campaign in August and September, including John Ketchum, chairman, president and CEO of NextEra Energy and chairman of the FPL unit. Another nine contributions came from people who listed FPL as their employer.

The most common contribution was $1,500, the campaign filing shows.

Senior executives — Ketchum, Armando Pimentel, president and CEO of FPL; Rebecca J. Kujawa, president and CEO of NextEra Energy Resources; and Terrell Kirk Crews, executive vice president of finance and chief financial officer of NextEra Energy — each gave $3,300.

All together, Seeking Rents found nearly 60 NextEra and FPL executives gave more than $100,000 over the summer.

NextEra Energy’s media relations department didn’t respond to questions about the contributions.

The maximum amount individuals can give to a federal primary campaign is $3,300, after which they are “maxed out” and can’t give more. People can give another $3,300 for a theoretical general election campaign, but that money can’t be used for the primary.

Super political action committees, like the Never Back Down Super PAC supporting DeSantis, can raise unlimited sums — if they can find the right donors.

Seminole Tribe

Campaign finance reports show 36 contributions from people associated with the Seminole Gaming, Seminole Hard Rock and Hard Rock International during August and September, including several who gave the maximum $3,300 for the primary.

Most prominent is James Allen, who maxed out for the primary and a potential general election campaign shortly before the end of the quarterly reporting period on Sept. 30. Allen is chairman of Hard Rock International and CEO of Seminole Gaming.

Executives of the companies gave at least $87,000 during the quarter, Seeking Rents reported.

In 2021, DeSantis signed an agreement with Seminole Tribe of Florida allowing it to offer online sports betting in the state.

Legal challenges from other gambling interests have blocked its implementation. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to stop implementation, but another challenge is before the state Supreme Court.

A spokesperson for the Seminole Tribe did not respond to emailed questions.

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‘Everybody is afraid of DeSantis’

Democrats lambasted the Republican governor’s turning to people with economic interests before state government to help finance his presidential campaign.

“It’s the way they do business and I think it’s horrible. I think it’s absolutely horrible,” said state Sen. Jason Pizzo, who represents eastern Broward and northeastern Miami-Dade counties and is slated to become the Senate Democratic leader after the 2024 elections.

“Who else would he be going to? Those are the people that he can do something for, legislatively or appropriation wise, and so he goes to them,” said Broward County Commissioner Nan Rich, a former Senate Democratic leader. “He’s going to people that need things.”

Alfredo Olvera, Broward’s state Democratic committeeman, said the donors contribute because they fear DeSantis’ wrath.

“Everybody is afraid of DeSantis, and it’s a last attempt to make sure that when he loses his campaign, he’s not going to come back to them and attack them because he never got the support from these companies,” Olvera said. “It shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody that any big companies are giving money because the reality is that he is running a government that scares companies, private companies and public companies, so they want to be on his good side.”

State Rep. Chip LaMarca of Lighthouse Point, a former chair of the Broward Republican Party who has endorsed DeSantis for his party’s presidential nomination, said there isn’t anything surprising, unusual or untoward about people making campaign contributions — whether the candidate is running for a city commission seat or a presidential nomination.

“I don’t think it’s a surprise. Those are good Florida companies and organizations like the Tribe that have helped him along the way. And I think it’s a mutually beneficial relationship,” LaMarca said. “The state of Florida is very supportive of our (business community). Whether it’s a publicly owned utility or an Indian tribe, they have businesses here and they do a lot of good work.”

Go where the money is

More than 38% of the $31.2 million DeSantis raised for his official campaign from the time he got in the race in May through Sept. 30 was from Florida donors, federal finance reports show. Turning to people with interests before the government isn’t unusual — whether it’s for a candidacy for city commission or president, LaMarca said.

Gregory Koger, a political scientist at the University of Miami, said it reflects a system in which candidates need to raise private donations to run for office.

“Politicians are reliant on private donations. Anybody who’s in office is in a position to do favors for people who might make donations or have made donations,” Koger said. “And it creates the appearance of a conflict of interest, whether it’s fair or not.”

Given that the system requires candidates to raise money to fuel their campaigns, there aren’t that many places for them to raise money.

“If you don’t like the tight connection between Florida governmental action and people making donations to Governor DeSantis, then we should change the system,” Koger said.

“The alternatives are to have somebody who’s incredibly rich — and that has its downsides — and doesn’t need private donations,” Koger said.

Other candidates, such as former President Donald Trump and former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, have found enormous success raising money from small-dollar donors.

“But it requires a different style of politics, a different rhetorical style, issue priorities, and it doesn’t seem to be where Governor DeSantis is right now. It doesn’t seem like he can flip a switch and start receiving small donations instead. It’s not something you can do quite easily,” Koger said.

Developing a base of small-dollar donors is useful for another reason: They can keep giving over and over again before hitting the maximum. The donors who are maxed out, like some of the business executives who donated to DeSantis in the third quarter, can’t give again.

Politico reported that much of the primary cash has been used up, and most of what’s in the campaign coffers can’t be used in the primary because it’s general-election only, and most of his money — far more than for other Republican candidates — is from maxed-out primary donors who can’t give more.

“That’s a real concern for the campaign. They can’t give any more, and the money they have received has mostly been burned. They are facing a potential shortage of cash as the voting actually begins in the primaries,” Koger said.

The DeSantis campaign communications director, Andrew Romeo, said there’s no reason for concern.

“We are the only campaign in this race to have already reserved television [ad time] … during the closing stretch, we are fighting Donald Trump for delegates in Nevada while others have backed down, and our fundraising continues to accelerate in the 4th quarter. Unlike others, we’re playing to beat Donald Trump and have the resources and organization to do it,” Romeo said via email.

AshBritt

AshBritt is a national disaster management and response company based in Deerfield Beach.

Multiple executives — including the chairman, the CEO, senior vice president, vice president, controller and senior operations manager — gave the maximum $3,300 to a DeSantis fundraising entity, records show.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia, the Governor’s Office said in a Sept. 12 news release that the state “has utilized a contract already in place to task AshBritt Inc. with the removal of debris in waterways, including fallen trees, vegetation and construction material from damaged homes and properties.”

An AshBritt representative didn’t respond to a request for comment.

GEO Group

Nine people associated with the GEO Group, the big private prison operator based in Boca Raton, contributed to the DeSantis presidential campaign in the first half of August, the finance report shows.

George C. Zoley, executive chairman; Jose Gordo, CEO; Wayne H. Calabrese, chief operating officer; and Brian R. Evans, chief financial officer, all maxed out for the primary, at $3,300 each. Four other people with GEO, including former Florida Senate President Joe Negron, the company’s senior vice president and general counsel, gave $3,000 each.

GEO Group did not respond to a request for comment.

DeSantis’ finances

The quarterly finance reports cover July, August and September, a period in which DeSantis repeatedly rebooted his campaign to cut costs and refocus his message.

They’re the last public disclosure of campaign finances before the critical early contests in 2024.

DeSantis was the second-place Republican presidential fundraiser in the third quarter, NBC News reported, taking in $11.2 million, behind Trump’s $24.5 million, former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina’s $8.2 million and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina’s $4.6 million.

The campaign, in an early October release, touted the $15 million raised by his campaign committee, leadership PAC and joint fundraising committee, asserting it was “the most emphatic signal yet that the momentum behind his comeback candidacy is continuing to build.” (Trump’s campaign reported its total was $45.5 million.)

In the statement, campaign manager James Uthmeier — on leave as chief of staff in DeSantis’ gubernatorial office — said the “significant fundraising haul not only provides us with the resources we need in the fight for Iowa and beyond, but it also shuts down the doubters who counted out Ron DeSantis for far too long.”

DeSantis’ heavy spending in the second quarter, at a pace the campaign couldn’t sustain, prompted intense scrutiny — and rounds of staff cuts, redeployment of personnel, cost cutting, and shifting much of the responsibility for funding the campaign infrastructure on the Never Back Down super PAC.

The super PAC can accept contributions of any amount, unlike direct contributions to the campaign, which are limited to $3,300 for the primary and 3,300 for the general election.

Some donors give to both the campaign and the super PAC.

For example, Misha Ezratti, president of GL Homes, headquartered in Sunrise and one of the nation’s leading homebuilders, maxed out to DeSantis’ presidential campaign in August, giving a total of $6,600.

In June, Never Back Down reported Ezratti gave $50,000 to Never Back Down.

Maya Ezratti, GL Homes director of community affairs, gave $50,000; and Maxie Ezratti, listed on a finance report as a self-employed mental health counselor, each gave $50,000. All three used the same Sunrise mailing address.

Never Back Down didn’t have to report third-quarter numbers. The next campaign and PAC reports are due Jan. 31 after the first two presidential contests, the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

The New Hampshire primary date isn’t yet set, but it’s likely in late January.

Orlando Sentinel staff writer Steven Lemongello contributed to this report.

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Facebook, Threads.net and Post.news.