What the hope of Florida Scandal about Governor Desantis says

Nothing catches Ron Desantis like the Hope Florida scandal. It says everything about how our governor thinks and acts. Well, what some saw as a tool for creating a family dynasty in Tallahassee could do the opposite.

Here is the background:

Last year, the Desantis administration redirected $ 10 million from an agreement with a seller into a state-created charity. The money was part of 67 million US dollars that the state recaptured from a billing dispute with the largest Medicaid contractor in Florida. But instead of returning all 67 million US dollars to taxpayers, the administration steered 10 million US dollars on Hope Florida's donation arm, a charity organized by First Lady Casey Desantis.

Weeks later, the charity organization gave 10 million US dollars to two non -profit organizations, which in turn sent almost all this amount to a political committee that was supervised by Desantis' chief of staff. This committee was founded to defeat changes 3 last year's voting initiative for the legalization of leisure marijuana, which rejected Desantis. A majority of voters in Florida supported the change, but it narrowly managed to achieve the necessary 60% neck.

The house initiated an investigation after the Times/Herald reported that the officials of the state and hope that the Florida officials would not answer any questions about the charity. MP Alex Andrade, a Republican and lawyer of Pensacola, who headed the investigation, accused the administration of committing an “illegal” maneuver by “secretly redirecting money” for the initiative of First Lady. The legislature of the house ended her vertebral studio last week and supported the threat to the issuing of lectures in the case. “I will leave the rest of the investigation,” said Andrade, “to the FBI and the Ministry of Justice.”

Pam Bondis Ministry of Justice? Good luck with it.

But you don't need a legal finding to realize that a lot stinks here. Hope Florida was launched by Casey Desantis in 2021 and is said to take Floridians of state help and services by distracting them into faith groups and other non -profit organizations. These groups should use their instructions and connections to highlight the recipients from poverty – the alternative of the desantis to well -being.

However, employees who work for the Republican House of Representatives found that Hope Florida's donation procurement did not maintain state laws for his supervision, ethics or donations. The foundation has never publicly announced its donors or the names of the churches and non -profit organizations that received their means. It ignored the records of journalists and rejected Reporters of the Time/Herald who visited the foundation's headquarters to check the group's tax registrations. State officials who are involved with the charity organization have also refused to answer questions.

None of this should surprise someone. Inattentiveness in detail is a characteristic of the administration of Desantis. And whether it is displaced in a properly elected public prosecutor, concludes migrants to other states, rejoiced a state militia or takes over the Honors College in Florida, this governor deals with every homemade crisis in the usual way: hiring, distracting, attacking. That is why the legislators are fed up in his own party.

When Ron Desantis was asked by The Times/Herald why the foundation had not submitted its tax returns, Ron Desantis beat. “We will not try to smear a good program with this stuff,” he said. Desantis attacked what he described as a “cabal” in the House leadership to “produce” the initiative of the First Lady. When the stabilized intensified, a committee associated with Desantis decided to the voters and accused the Republican legislators to “work with Democrats to stop our agenda and sabotage Florida's success”.

I can't understand how someone thought that Hope Florida would seriously increase Casey Desantis' political profile if she considered a run for the governor in 2026. After all, the state has only published a few details about the performance of the program. Hope Florida is also heavily dependent on the government machinery in order to wean people from public aid, which in the best case is cynical and, in the worst case, twice. And the desantitis are hardly the first conservatives in Tallahassee to give non -profit organizations as a Redeemer from the government bureaucracy. No wonder that the legislators have pushed back so seriously this year to codify this agreement under the governor's office.

It is a shame that the house did not carry out its investigation. But that does not prevent the prosecutor in Tallahassee or the Florida Bar from picking up the baton. There are too many dirty details on which officials, millions of taxpayers and the result of a nationwide referendum are ignored.

I doubt someone will be held accountable. But the scandal is a memory of one thing: Casey Desantis' greatest political political Liability is not hope Florida. It is her husband. In this sense, the charity could still have permanent effects.