Tag: Florida

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Congress Elections GOP WTF?!

Matt Gaetz Is ‘100% In’ On A 2026 Run For Florida Governor: Report 

The state of Florida could not possibly elect anyone more inept and utterly devoid of common sense than current Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), right?

Hold that thought, because it now appears that the next governor of the Sunshine State could be none other than Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who is expected to soon announce his plans to run in the 2026 gubernatorial race.

According to NBC News, Gaetz is “100% in” on the idea of seeking the Florida GOP gubernatorial nomination just as soon as he’s finished helping failed former president Donald Trump win the 2024 election.

Gaetz has long been considered on the shortlist of those who will try to seek the Republican nomination for governor, a field that is expected to be crowded because the incumbent, Ron DeSantis, will be facing term limits. DeSantis is currently running for president but would have two years remaining in the governor’s mansion if that run falls short.

[…]

Gaetz was a top adviser to DeSantis’ 2018 gubernatorial bid, but the two have since had a falling out. Gaetz has become among the most vocal backers of Trump, whose presidential campaign now leads in most primary polling by significant margins over the rest of the field.

Would Gaetz have a snowball’s chance in Miami of winning in 2026? Considering that there will likely be a large field, 30% of the vote could guarantee the Republican nomination, and since Florida already leans Republican, that could mean that the congressman would be getting one hell of a political promotion.

“He’s 100 percent in,” said a Florida Republican operative on Gaetz running for governor. “I think Gaetz is an instant front-runner and from what I hear he’s already won the Trump primary.”

However, if Gaetz does choose to run for governor, many of the allegations made against him in the past — rumors that he has a sexual preference for underage girls and was involved in a sexual trafficking ring that sent one his best friends to prison — would undoubtedly surface yet again, even though the congressman was never charged for whatever role he played in allegedly transporting girls younger than 18 across state lines for the purposes of engaging in sex and later paying them for their silence via Venmo.

According to Gaetz, his only goal is being a loyal toady for Trump:

“Many did encourage me to consider running for governor one day. But we have an outstanding governor who will be in that position through 2026.”

“My only political focus right now is Trump 2024,” he added.

Be afraid, Floridians. Be very afraid.

 

Categories
GOP U.S. Senate

Tommy Tuberville May Be Illegally Serving In The Senate – Has Residency In Florida, Not Alabama

When he decided to run the United States Senate from the state of Alabama in 2000, former football coach Tommy Tuberville asserted that he owned a home in the city of Auburn, Alabama, meaning he met the residency requirements for the office he was seeking.

However, it now appears that Tuberville lied and is actually a resident of Florida, which would technically make him the Sunshine State’s third senator. That would be historic (and illegal) because the U.S. Constitution only allows for two senators for each the 50 states, according to a fascinating investigative piece from Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post.

The Alabama house in question is actually owned by Tuberville’s wife and son, neither of whom were on the 2020 ballot.

Tuberville’s office says his primary residence is an Auburn house that records show is owned by his wife and son. But campaign finance reports and his signature on property documents indicate that his home is actually a $3 million, 4,000-square-foot beach house he has lived in for nearly two decades in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., located in the Florida Panhandle about 90 miles south of Dothan.

A Florida beach house? That’s right, and his address suggests Tuberville has been lying to voters in Alabama all along, because in his official paperwork for office, he claimed the Auburn home as where he lived.

In 2018, he voted in Florida in the midterm elections, according to the Birmingham News, but he registered to vote in Alabama on March 28, 2019, a week before announcing his Senate bid. For his voter registration address, he listed as his residence a property, appraised at about $300,000, located in Auburn.

The fact that Tuberville lives in Florida but is registered to vote in Alabama also suggests the senator may have committed voter fraud on at least one occasion since we can assume he voted for himself in the 2020 election.

Oh, and then there’s the tab Tuberville is running up as he travels to his Florida beach house when he leaves Washington to return “home,” whatever that particular word means to the senator.

Tuberville’s frequent visits as senator to his home in Santa Rosa Beach can be gleaned through expenditure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission by Tuberville’s various campaign organizations and PACs. They show that since Tuberville became a senator, there have been almost monthly expenditures for travel and food in either Santa Rosa Beach or another Florida town, Panama City Beach, which is 50 miles away.

Tuberville has attempted to dismiss any criticism of having been away from Alabama for many years by claiming to be a “carpetbagger of this country.” But while that may be a cute one-liner to feed the press and public, it doesn’t address the larger issue of the senator’s blatant disregard for both state and federal election law.

At a time when Republicans continue to try and make voting more difficult — especially for people of color — in the U.S., maybe Sen. Tuberville needs to sit down and explain his own blatant hypocrisy. That, or resign immediately and run against one of Florida’s actual senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott.

 

Categories
GOP Ron DeSantis

Florida’s GOP Senators Have Had Quite Enough Of Ron DeSantis’ War On Disney

It’s been another bad week for Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who saw the Walt Disney Company announce it would be canceling its plans to build a $1 billion office complex in Lake Nona, Florida that would have meant 2,000 new jobs in the Sunshine State.

Asked if Disney’s plans would cause him to rethink his ongoing war with the company, DeSantis remarked, “They can do whatever they want . . . the chance of us backing down from that is zero.”

Not everyone in Florida agrees with DeSantis’ selfish attacks on Disney, which first drew his ire when they opposed his “Don’t Say Gay” legislation which forbids any discussion of gender or sexual identity, even if such conversations are begun by high school students or involve the possible formation of support groups for LGBTQ students at public schools.

Among the voices publicly disagreeing with DeSantis are its two GOP senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, according to Newsweek.

Scott had this to say:

“This is the biggest or second-biggest employer in the state. Half the tourism that comes to our state comes to visit Disney. It’s a reason people come to our state. After they come there, people move there. So I think cooler heads need to prevail. My view is we have to do everything to help our businesses grow.”

And a month ago, Rubio weighed in during an interview on Fox:

“I think where it gets problematic in the eyes of some people is when you start creating the idea—and I’m not saying we’re there yet as a state—but the idea that somehow if you run crossways with us politically, whoever’s in charge, then you may wind up in the crosshairs of the legislature for political purposes to make a statement at you.”

Of course, the real reason for DeSantis being so eager to attack Disney is purely political. He wants to position himself to the right of failed former president Donald Trump on social issues in the hope of appealing to Republican primary voters who will choose the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, even if his selfish attacks on Disney wind up costing his state economically. That alone proves that he’s unfit for any public office, and suggests his message to voters will be one of anger and division, which may sell in the primaries but will make him unelectable come November of 2024.

 

Categories
Business Elections GOP Ron DeSantis

Florida Loses 2,000 Jobs After Disney Pulls $1 Billion Development Project From The State

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) loves to say that if he becomes president, he’ll run the country much the way he runs the Sunshine State.

If that’s true, news today from the Walt Disney Company suggests the United States would be in a deep recession within six months of DeSantis taking the oath of office.

According to CNBC and The New York Times, Disney has scrapped plans to open a new employee campus in Lake Nona, Florida, a decision that will cost the state 2,000 jobs and over $1 billion in potential profits.

Citing “changing business conditions” and the return of CEO Bob Iger, Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney’s parks, experiences and products division, penned a memo to employees Thursday, announcing that the company will not move forward with construction of the campus and will no longer be asking more than 2,000 California-based employees to relocate to Florida.

“This was not an easy decision to make, but I believe it is the right one,” D’Amaro told employees.

The decision by Disney is the latest sparring between the company and DeSantis, who has targeted the multinational corporation simply because it dared to publicly disagree with his anti-LGBTQ law — “Don’t Say Gay” — that limits the discussion of gender identity or sexual orientation in Florida classrooms, even if the topic is raised by students.

Disney has also filed suit against the state for targeting its special Reedy Creek Improvement District, which allowed the company to operate virtually independent of any government intrusion.

DeSantis is expected to announce his bid for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination sometime next week.

 

Categories
Donald Trump Russia

FBI Raids Condo Owned By Two Russians At Trump Towers In Florida

Though the Trump Tower in New York is probably much more well-known than any other property that carries the name of the indicted and twice-impeached former president/sex offender, all of the attention this week has been on Trump Towers located at Sunny Isles Beach in Florida.

On Thursday, according to The Miami Herald, FBI agents raided Trump Tower III in Florida, which just so happens to be owned by two Russians.

A squad of FBI special agents, assisted by local police, descended on Trump Tower III at 15811 Collins Ave. to carry out a search of unit 4102. It’s owned by a shell company, MIC-USA LLC, that is controlled by two Russian businessmen, Oleg Sergeyevich Patsulya and Agunda Konstantinovna Makeeva, according to state corporation records.

On Friday, a spokesman for the FBI’s Miami field office said it “was conducting court-ordered law enforcement activity in the vicinity of that location,” but provided no other information.

Sunny Isles Beach has been called “Little Moscow” because it serves as a home to a large number of Russian expatriates, some of whom expressed worries when Russia invaded Ukraine last year. In response, the U.S. government began cracking down with sanctions against oligarchs who are believed to hide their wealth by purchasing real estate in South Florida and other U.S. locations.

Trump agreed to have his name placed on the three Sunny Isles Beach condos before he became president in 2016. It was believed doing so would help promote sales of the units.

The Herald also reports that “MIC-USA … acquired the three-bedroom, three-bath condo residence at Trump Tower III for $1.65 million a decade ago, according to Miami-Dade property records.

In 2020, BAC Florida Bank, which provided financing for the purchase, sued Patsulya and Makeeva, claiming they defaulted on their $975,000 mortgage. The dispute was resolved later that year, though it’s not clear how from the court records. MIC-USA, controlled by the two Russians, continued to own the 41st-floor unit at Trump Tower III.

Though he has denied any connections to Russia, the former president’s son, Eric, said in 2014 that the Trump Organization got significant funding from Russian sources, according to The Hill:

”I said, ‘Eric, who’s funding? I know no banks — because of the recession, the Great Recession — have touched a golf course. You know, no one’s funding any kind of golf construction. It’s dead in the water the last four or five years,’”  the writers told WBUR.

“And this is what he said. He said, ‘Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.’ I said, ‘Really?’ And he said, ‘Oh, yeah. We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time.’”