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PHOTO BY GAGE SKIDMORE

DIGGING FOR DOLLARS IN THE GARDEN STATE

DeSantis left Florida for a New Jersey fundraising event, and his gubernatorial opponents wasted no time calling him out

BY JIM TURNER, NSF

Gov. Ron DeSantis spent time raising money last week in New Jersey, and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried didn’t waste time trying to capitalize on it.

“As COVID hospitalizations remain near all-time highs, Ron DeSantis went to New Jersey this weekend to raise money from a major Trump donor,” a fundraising email from Fried’s campaign said. It went out less than 24 hours after the event.

Fried, the state agriculture commissioner who regularly spars with DeSantis, also tweeted: “Ted Cruz bailed on his state to vacation in Cancun. DeSantis went to Jersey. So, yes, DeSantis is the worst.”

Congressman Charlie Crist, the other big-name Democrat in the gubernatorial field, joined the fray with a tweet: “Retweet if you think it’s despicable for Ron DeSantis to abandon a Florida-in-crisis to go to a fundraiser in New Jersey.” The tweet had more than 1,300 retweets as of last Friday. (Twitter and political campaigning being the snakepits they are, Fried and Crist then started taking shots at each other.)

The New Jersey Globe, a political website, reported DeSantis appeared in the oceanfront borough of Deal — a little north of Asbury Park — at a Sunday morning “high dollar” fundraiser for his 2022 re-election campaign. The event was hosted by real-estate developer Joe Cayre.

“Unlike 2014, when no GOP candidate would dare raise money in New Jersey without the permission of Gov. Christie, potential 2024 presidential candidates no longer hesitate to cultivate donors in the Garden State,” the Globe reported, referring to former New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

It added DeSantis “has already raised $626,254 from New Jersey-based donors, according to the Florida Department of State.”

The Globe also noted that DeSantis, widely seen as a potential 2024 presidential candidate, was in New Jersey four months ago raising money at the home of Vernon Hill, founder of Commerce Bank.

DeSantis ignored questions about the fundraising trip during an appearance the next day in Jacksonville, pivoting to other reporters each time the topic was broached. A reporter from the website Florida Politics inquired about the trip four times, but, A.C. Gancarski wrote, “DeSantis did not want to discuss the optics of out-of-state fundraising as Florida hospitals buckle from the pandemic burden.”

Just over two weeks earlier, DeSantis nixed a planned appearance in Nevada as Northwest Florida faced a direct hit from a tropical storm.

Rather than traveling to the 6th Annual Basque Fry in Gardnerville, Nevada, DeSantis cut a video in which he proclaimed, “The left is playing for keeps. They seek the permanent marginalization of those who reject their woke dogma.”

He also implored, “Get in the fight. Stand your ground. Hold the line. And don’t ever back down.”

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¶ Central Florida chiropractor offering kiddie mask exemptions for $50 a pop

As schools across Florida impose mask mandates to keep children safe from coronavirus, local assholes and their goober children are seeking any way around doing the bare minimum to keep their community safe.

WESH found that a chiropractor’s chain of clinics in Central Florida was offering medical exemptions to school district mandates for as little as $50.

Dr. Timothy Steflik, who runs Coastal Integrative Healthcare, admitted to the news outlet that he could find many possible reasons to exempt children from wearing masks. The clinic shared that its area locations were flooded with calls from parents seeking medical exemptions for their outwardly healthy children.

“If they wear a mask, they get a migraine headache. They get a migraine headache, they can’t focus in school. They can’t do a good job with their schoolwork and it’s going to be foolish to send them to school (wearing a mask) if they’re going to get a headache every day,” Steflik said, spinning hypotheticals. “There is nothing that we are doing that is unethical or out of line, any of that.”

While Steflik said that he considers medical history and interviews both parent and child before granting the exemption, a pre-emptive cure for conjectural migraines doesn’t seem to be a high bar to clear. Steflik’s actions are such that Volusia County schools are investigating the offices and Steflik’s notes to determine the next course of action. — Alex Galbraith

¶ Clermont rep calls for special legislative session to address “onerous mandates”

State Rep. Anthony Sabatini, a Howey-in-the-Hills Republican running for Congress, is trying to call out members of his own party over masks and vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sabatini sent a letter last week to the other 159 members of the Legislature about the possibility of holding a special session to ban mask and vaccine mandates. Sabatini sought the required 20 percent support — in writing — for the Department of State to poll lawmakers on calling a special session.

“The public has a right to know which elected officials will stand up for their rights,” tweeted Sabatini, an attorney who has filed lawsuits challenging local mask mandates.

“Lawless local governments, radical school boards and woke corporations throughout our state are violating the individual medical freedom and medical privacy of employees and members of the public with onerous mandates that have no place in the Free State of Florida,” Sabatini wrote in the letter, which quickly drew rebukes from several Democrats.

“This is pure political theater,” said Rep. Nicholas Duran, D-Miami. “As Florida struggles with the deadly Delta variant, Rep. Sabatini’s suggestion is dangerous and insulting.”

Rep. Yvonne Hinson, D-Gainesville, called the proposal “the definition of big government overreach, and would be devastating to Florida’s economy as it’s a threat to both our workforce and our reputation as a safe travel destination.”

But if Sabatini could get enough of his Republican colleagues to back the idea, he could trigger the Department of State to conduct the poll. Then, a special session could be called if 60 percent of House and Senate members support it.

Republicans exceed 60 percent in the House, with 78 members, and are right at 60 percent in the Senate with 24 members.

Representatives of House Speaker Chris Sprowls and Senate President Wilton Simpson didn’t respond to requests for comment as of last Thursday. — Jim Turner, NSF