It looks like Bootsie operates his regime in Florida like a version of the old protection racket shakedown:
Officials who work for Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration — not his campaign — have been sending text messages to Florida lobbyists soliciting political contributions for DeSantis' presidential bid, a breach of traditional norms that has raised ethical and legal questions and left many here in the state capital shocked.
NBC News reviewed text messages from four DeSantis administration officials, including those directly in the governor's office and with leadership positions in state agencies. They requested the recipient of the message contribute to the governor’s campaign through a specific link that appeared to track who is giving as part of a “bundle” program.
“The bottom line is that the administration appears to be keeping tabs on who is giving, and are doing it using state staff,” a longtime Florida lobbyist said. “You are in a prisoner’s dilemma. They are going to remain in power. We all understand that.”
NBC News is not naming the specific staffers who sent the text messages because it could out the lobbyists who received the messages and shared them. [snip]
NBC News spoke with 10 Republican lobbyists in Florida, all of whom said they couldn't remember being solicited for donations so overtly by administration officials — especially at a time when the governor still has to act on the state budget.
That process that involves DeSantis using his line-item veto pen to slash funding for projects that the same lobbyists whom they are asking for political cash have a professional stake in. Most of the lobbyists said they felt pressure to give to the governor's campaign.
“What the f--- am I supposed to do?” one lobbyist said. “I have a lot of business in front of the DeSantis administration.”
“The ethics behind this is questionable at best, especially when the budget has yet to be acted on,” another Republican lobbyist said.
“It is walking a very close line to what is ethical and possibly legal. It is state employees leveraging their official position to ask people whose livelihood depend on access to state government for money,” a Florida lobbyist said... (our emphasis)
A person and a party that makes it their agenda to vilify and attack the most vulnerable while busily shaking down lobbyists for campaign contributions actually follows suit for these nihilists, who believe government only exists as a means to enrich and empower them and their cronies. But this is the "Florida freedom" Bootsie and his fellow two- legged rats want to bring to the rest of America.
It looks, however, like Bootsie's ugliness and incompetence may cede the field to even greater ugliness and incompetence in the form of the Malignant Loser. The devolution continues.
BONUS: Musk getting into the quid pro quo hustle?
This should be making a lot more noise…https://t.co/oq72NgJEYn
— nicolemarie (@nmrhelm) May 26, 2023
(Photo: A meatball sandwich -- pedo protector "Gym" Jordan, Bootsie, and alleged pedo Matt Gaetz/ Michael Snyder/Northwest Florida Daily News via AP)
