As he hits the presidential campaign trail, Gov. Ron DeSantis isn’t quitting his day job leading the third-largest state in the country.
If history is any guide, Floridians can expect an absentee governor as DeSantis zigzags the country in pursuit of the White House. After announcing his candidacy on Twitter on May 24, DeSantis spent Tuesday through Friday in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Even before officially entering the race, DeSantis faced criticism in April for politicking in Ohio while historic flooding inundated Fort Lauderdale.
“If you want to go to a higher office, then don’t hold us all hostage,” said state Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens. “Put your all into that. You can’t do two things well. Something is going to be lacking.”
DeSantis’ spokesman, Jeremy Redfern, brushed aside questions about DeSantis’ plan for running Florida and a national campaign.
“Do you remember 2022? He did both successfully while running for governor,” Redfern wrote in an email, referring to DeSantis’ reelection race that he easily won over Democrat Charlie Crist.
In a radio interview with Good Morning Orlando, DeSantis said he would take himself off the campaign trail if a hurricane threatened Florida.
DeSantis can successfully govern Florida while taking his ideas to the national stage, said Evan Power, vice chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.
“He is an extremely talented individual and has the ability to focus on multiple things at the same time. … When you look at the disaster that is Washington, D.C., people want that to be fixed,” he said.
On Wednesday, DeSantis signed three bills, presumably while in Iowa. Redfern did not respond to an inquiry about where DeSantis signed the bills.
DeSantis never pledged to serve all four years of his second term as governor. Confronted by Crist during their only debate, DeSantis sidestepped the question.
Bill Clinton and George W. Bush stayed on as governors during their presidential runs, fending off attacks that they were putting their political ambition ahead of state business. Clinton wiggled out of a 1990 campaign pledge to serve all four years of his term as Arkansas governor.
At the time, Asa Hutchinson, a former governor of Arkansas himself and now a GOP candidate for president, blasted Clinton for his absenteeism.
“It’s 11 a.m., do you know where your governor is this morning?” he quipped in an article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “He is not in Arkansas. He is in Chicago campaigning.”
Bush spent 103 days campaigning out-of-state and only 20 days in his state office in Texas during a 25-week period from October 1999 to March 2000 when he ran for president, according to a review by the San Antonio Express-News. Bush’s aides said the Texas governor worked on state business via phone when out of the state.
Where’s DeSantis as Broward begins cleanup from massive flooding? Politicking in Ohio.
Bush opted to forgo his salary as governor — $316 a day — when he was campaigning outside Texas. Under Texas law, the lieutenant governor became acting governor when Bush was out of the state and drew a higher salary, increasing the cost for taxpayers.
DeSantis earns an annual salary of $141,400, about $387 a day, calculating the governorship as a seven-day-a-week job.
Bush also faced scrutiny for a six-fold increase in expenses for his taxpayer-funded security detail, which traveled with him during much of the campaign.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement provides “around-the-clock protection” to DeSantis and his family as spelled out in state law, FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger wrote in an email when asked about the agency’s role in protecting the governor at campaign events.
During the 2021-22 fiscal year, the state spent nearly $6 million protecting DeSantis, his family and the governor’s mansion, up from $4.8 million the previous budget year, according to agency reports. In May, state lawmakers included $4 million in the budget for supplemental funding for security, along with $1 million in discretionary funds the governor can use to give raises to staffers.
The U.S. Secret Service also provides protection to “major presidential and vice presidential candidates,” which involves consideration of multiple factors from opinion poll numbers to the volume of threats made against the candidate.
DeSantis’ status as governor and presidential candidate introduces a host of potential conflicts and ethical questions, said Ben Wilcox, research director for Integrity Florida, a government watchdog group.
State lawmakers voted to seal DeSantis’ state travel records, a change supporters said was needed to keep the governor safe from potential attackers. But the measure also allows DeSantis to keep his travel using the state plane a secret, even shielding his past trips.
“It is a troubling lack of accountability for the public to be able to see if he is using taxpayer money to fund some of this travel,” Wilcox said. “We are not able to see the records and hold the governor accountable if he is blurring the lines between his public duties and his private campaigning.”
DeSantis has not signed the budget, and lobbyists and lawmakers could risk losing funding for their favored projects through the governor’s line-item veto if they don’t support his presidential bid, Wilcox said.
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Officials in the DeSantis administration have been soliciting political donations from lobbyists, raising ethical and legal questions and breaking with traditional practices separating official and campaign business, NBC News reported, quoting anonymous sources.
Political strategists, though, say DeSantis’ official job could help him boost his political profile by pushing through a conservative agenda popular with Republican voters and showcasing his leadership skills if a disaster strikes.
Right now, the Legislature isn’t in session, which will lessen DeSantis’ workload. That’ll change in January when lawmakers return to Tallahassee.
“I don’t see it being a problem the rest of 2023,” said Justin Sayfie, a political strategist and former communications director for Gov. Jeb Bush. “But it could be a little challenging when the Legislature convenes again” right before the Iowa caucuses.
“It can be done,” he added.
If DeSantis wins the White House next year, Lt. Gov. Jeanette M. Nuñez would become governor, making her the first female governor in Florida history.
South Florida Sun Sentinel staff writer Anthony Man contributed to this report.
