Here are some of the people Ron DeSantis is considering for his running mate

DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times Gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis arrives to speak to supporters on Monday (8/27/18) at Tiffany’s family restaurant in Palm Harbor, the day before the primary election.

The news of Ron DeSantis and Andrew Gillum's primary victories Tuesday night is still reverberating around Florida, but already the countdown has begun for both men to pick their running mates for the general election ballot.

By 5 p.m. on Sept. 6, both nominees for governor must file paperwork with the Department of State indicating who their lieutenant governor picks will  be.

While the lieutenant governor position doesn't inherently hold much governing power, the selection represents one of the first major decisions by each nominee and gives clues about which demographics or geographic areas they feel they need to capture to win in November.

DeSantis is considering a host of Republican state lawmakers, public officials and a judge. An early list of the contenders was first reported by Politico.

Several lawmakers whose names have come up were in the walled-off VIP lounge at DeSantis' Tuesday night victory party.

One of them is Rep. Bob Cortes of Altamonte Springs, who said as far as he knows, he is still being backgrounded.

He added that Gillum's surprise victory over Democratic "frontrunner" Gwen Graham may have changed who the DeSantis team will choose to most effectively counter Gillum's base which includes many minority voters. Cortes is Hispanic.

"Gillum brings something different that’s harder — like in 2008 with Obama, you're going to get a voting bloc that’s doesn’t normally come out and in a midterm they're going to be energized to come out and vote," Cortes said. "They (the DeSantis campaign) are looking into a different strategy."

READ MORE: How the black vote carried Andrew Gillum to victory

Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen of Fort Myers was also in the VIP lounge that night and said to her knowledge, she is still also under consideration.

"I think we both care very much about clean water and that’s what brought us together," she said of DeSantis.

Another potential running mate, Sen. Debbie Mayfield of Vero Beach, was also at the victory party, according to Cortes. She did not return a request for comment.

Of the list reported by Politico, at least one has already removed himself from further consideration: Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams, who told News4Jax TV station that he is not interested in stepping down from his post.

"While it is very flattering to be considered for the post of Lieutenant Governor of the State of Florida, I have made it clear to Congressman DeSantis that my calling is in law enforcement," Williams wrote.

State Rep. Jeanette Nuñez of Miami is also rumored to have declined further consideration. She did not immediately respond for a request to confirm.

Then, according to Politico, there are State Rep. Scott Plakon (who declined to comment), Kissimmee Vice Mayor Wanda Rentas and Visit Florida CEO Ken Lawson.

Finally, there's Laurel Lee, a Rick Scott-appointed judge who is also married to Sen. Tom Lee, who would only say that he was "contacted by the campaign to inform me that the media was aware that her name was under consideration for lieutenant governor."

Stay tuned.

Did Ron DeSantis moderate a far right Facebook group?

Ron DeSantis

On social media on Thursday, liberal groups and activists said that Congressman Ron DeSantis, the Republican nominee for Florida governor, was moderating a massive Facebook group with racist posts and conspiracy theories.

DeSantis' membership in the group was first noted by American Ledger, which is run by the liberal group American Bridge.

"It appears @RonDeSantisFL was moderating hate group on FB that regularly attacked on race and attacked Parkland survivors," tweeted Fred Guttenburg, whose daughter, Jaime, was killed in the Parkland shooting, and has since become a prominent gun control advocate. "If true this is bad."

DeSantis denied through a spokesman on Thursday that he ever led the group or even knew he had been added to it. He "immediately" left it when notified of the controversy, the spokesman said.

With close to 95,000 members, the Tea Party Facebook group racks up new posts by the minute, many of them offensive and featuring articles from far right websites.

"Hang the b***h," one commenter wrote below an article about Australia's first female Muslim senator, Mehreen Faruqi.

Another recent post featured an image decrying "the leftist myth of white privilege" and "the forced mass migration of non-assimilating cultures to majority white countries" as "the genocide (or minimalization) of the white race by globalist socialists." It had been shared 31 times in eight hours.

Then there was an an article about Democratic Congressman Al Green of Texas, who is black.

"So long as he stays on the Plantation, he'll be taken care of because he's too stupid to survive on the outside," one commenter wrote below it.

Screen grabs circulating online showed DeSantis as an "adminstrator" for the page.

Stephen Lawson, spokesman for DeSantis' campaign for governor, confirmed that DeSantis had in fact been a member of the online group but was added to that role without his knowledge.  A Facebook user does not have to approve themselves being added as an administrator to groups.

"The Congressman was completely unaware that he was part of the Facebook group, which he was added to without his knowledge or consent. As soon as he found out about it, he immediately deleted it," Lawson wrote in a statement.

"The real story here is that the Democrats are desperate to talk about anything other than real issues that matter to Floridians. They’re doing anything and everything to try to distract from the failed, corrupt, socialist record of their candidate, Andrew Gillum, but Floridians won’t buy it come November."

Casey DeSantis, the Congressman's wife, was still listed as a member as of Thursday morning. 

Also listed as an administrator on the page was Mike McCalister, another Florida Republican, who lost the party's nomination for commissioner of agriculture on Tuesday. Kelli Ward, who lost a primary on Tuesday for Arizona's U.S. Senate position being vacated by Jeff Flake, is also listed as an administrator.

McCalister said he wasn't aware he was an administrator and hadn't "looked at the page recently."

"I don’t have any active role — never have had one," McCalister told the Times/Herald.

Scott calls DeSantis’ ‘monkey’ comment ‘inartful’

 

Via @LearyReports

Gov. Rick Scott said Thursday that GOP gubernatorial nominee Ron DeSantis was "inartful" in comments that comments about rival Andrew Gillum that critics say were racial.

"He could have said it more artfully," Scott told reporters in a clip circulated by the liberal American Bridge. "Ron cares about the state and I know he didn't mean any ill will."

DeSantis said Florida voters shouldn't "monkey this up" by electing Gillum, who is black, who has called for tax increases and other liberal policies.

Should DeSantis apologize? "It's a decision he can make," Scott demurred. "I know he didn't mean any ill will."

David Hogg announces 'Mayors for Our Lives' effort to register young voters

@martindvassolo

Parkland activist David Hogg appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Thursday to announce a partnership with dozens of mayors across the country to register young voters in high school and college ahead of the general elections in November.

Hogg, a crusader for stricter gun laws following the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was joined Thursday by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The alumnus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and educators died during the Valentine's Day shooting, said dozens of U.S. mayors — including a handful in South Florida — would pledge to make resources available for a community-wide voter registration to take place Sept. 25, which will coincide with the Sept. 25 National Voter Registration Day.

As part of the so-called Mayors for Our Lives effort, named after the March for Our Lives movement against gun violence, city leaders from Parkland to Los Angeles have agreed to dedicate resources to a community-wide voter registration day on high school and college campuses within their respective cities.

“It’s a push toward the general,” said Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky, who was recruited to join the effort. “The more people who are involved in the process, the better it is for democracy.”

In Florida, the final day to register to vote in the general election is Oct. 9.

During his TV spot, Hogg said young voters were critical to the victory of Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum in the Democratic primary for governor of Florida — and that poll numbers don’t take recently registered voters into account.

“We had a Florida team going...to every Congressional district, all 27, in Florida throughout the summer registering thousands of new voters,” Hogg said, referring to the March for Our Lives: Road to Change voter registration tour that launched over the summer. “Our team from March for Our Lives Orlando helped promote voter registration so much that it went up 90 percent. In Florida, youth registration is up 41 percent. Those people are not taken into account in polls.”

NextGen America, a political action committee formed by billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer, said voter turnout in college-area precincts jumped during Tuesday's primary. In Alachua County, home to the University of Florida, turnout was up 10 percent, according to the PAC, which backed Gillum financially. Precincts in Tallahassee that skew younger saw five times more votes cast Tuesday compared to 2014's primary election.

Youth voter registration in Florida rose by 41 percent following the shooting in Parkland, according to an analysis by TargetSmart, a data firm that works on behalf of Democrats.

In Florida, the mayors of Parkland, North Miami, Pembroke Pines and Miami Gardens have pledged to help register young voters through the Mayors for Our Lives effort.

“What we’re doing with Mayors for Our Lives is we’re announcing a campaign that’s bipartisan, with Republicans and Democrats, to register a new generation of voters,” Hogg said.

Hunschofsky, who said her city saw a two-to-threefold increase in overall voter turnout compared to the last midterm primaries, said the city commission would present some of the members of March for Our Lives with a city proclamation designating Sept. 25 as National Voter Registration Day in Parkland.

She said the Broward County Supervisor of Elections would work with schools across the county to make resources available during the registration drive.

“As a mayor, I’m extremely proud of our students and I’m extremely proud of our city,” she said. “Civic engagement is a crucial part of our democracy.”

CFO Patronis' driver information was accessed by Democratic researcher, but FDLE finds it wasn't illegal

Jimmy Patronis [MONICA HERNDON | Times]

State investigators found that a researcher hired by multiple Democrats did access confidential driver information on Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis, but the actions weren't illegal.

The Indiana-based researcher, Jake Wagman of Shield Political Research, used a third-party website, mydrivingreport.com, to access Patronis' driver information, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement report. (Wagman used to work for the Herald, according to Shield's website.)

But mydrivingreport.com had a flaw that made it easy to get information on other drivers.

To access the information, the website only required a driver's license number - information that can be easily found on traffic tickets and other publicly available police reports - and a pledge by the user that they were only requesting information about themselves.

In addition to Patronis, a Republican who is running for election this year, Wagman got information on Democratic Florida House candidate Michael Gottlieb and Tampa mayoral candidate Jane Castor.

Castor and Democratic Agriculture Commissioner candidate Nikki Fried told FDLE agents that they had hired Wagman to do political research.

For Wagman's act to be criminal, he would have had to have shown "criminal intent," and investigators found none.

FDLE agents "found no evidence that Mr. Wagman used the information he possessed and/or received for anything other than political research."

After the breach was discovered, the state canceled its agreement with Unisoft.

Wagman was never interviewed, but his lawyer told investigators that "Jake’s only intent was to find traffic violation and driving records which are public record in the State of Florida."

Patronis' campaign issued a press release Thursday morning that included a link to the FDLE report.

The campaign said his Democratic opponent in the CFO race this year, Jeremy Ring, was responsible for the breach because the Florida Democratic Party had paid Wagman. The FDLE report does not mention Ring.

"The fact that he paid the Florida Democratic Party which paid Jake Wagman, the man FDLE concludes posed as me in order to access my personal information, is a sad new low in this race," Patronis said in a statement.

Ring responded with his own statement:

"It sounds like the Patronis campaign is admitting that the only fraud comitted here was when CFO Patronis used taxpayer resources for political activities and then tried to cover it up until the press caught him red handed," Ring said.

Ring is referring to a June story in Politico, which revealed that Patronis crashed his state-issued vehicle on his way to his political consultant's office last year.

The use of state-issued vehicles for personal or political use is prohibited. And Patronis didn't reimburse the state for the $4,015.62 in damage to the vehicle until Politico started asking about it, seven months after the crash.

Patronis' campaign said he stopped using the state-issued vehicle for personal use after the wreck.

Times/Herald staff writer Kirby Wilson contributed to this report.

How race became the dominating theme of the campaign for Florida governor on Day One

@newsbysmiley @alextdaugherty

When Democrats made Andrew Gillum the first black candidate ever to win a major party nomination to seek the office of Florida governor, they all but guaranteed that race would be a factor in the coming campaign.

But who knew it would become a national storyline in less than 24 hours?

Before the final vote could be certified from Tuesday’s primary elections, Republican gubernatorial nominee Ron DeSantis thrust issues of race to the fore Wednesday morning when he said on Fox News that voters would “monkey this up” if they embraced Gillum’s “far-left” platform. The comment, coming in a state where confederate monuments still litter the landscape, was widely slammed — and opened up a rift that isn’t likely to close until after November.

“He is an articulate spokesman for those far-left views. And he’s a charismatic candidate,” DeSantis said of Gillum. “I watched those Democratic debates. None of that is my cup of tea but he performed better than the other people there so we’ve got to work hard to make sure that we continue Florida going in a good direction. Let’s build off the success we’ve had with Gov. [Rick] Scott. The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state.”

Descriptions of black people as “articulate” have long been interpreted as a condescending reference to education in the black community, and the NAACP characterized the candidate’s “monkey this up” phrase as part of a history of “racist references to African Americans in our national folklore” as monkeys and apes.

“Its only equal in racial semantics [is] the “n-word,” the organization said, while calling on the Palm Coast congressman to apologize.

But DeSantis’ communications director, Stephen Lawson, says there was nothing racial about DeSantis’ interview. The comments were strictly about Gillum’s politics, he said, in contrast to DeSantis’ own conservative views on taxes and spending.

“Ron DeSantis was obviously talking about Florida not making the wrong decision to embrace the socialist policies that Andrew Gillum espouses. To characterize it as anything else is absurd,” Lawson said.

If DeSantis was hoping to highlight his ideological differences with Gillum, he instead seemed to ensure that racial tensions would overshadow them.

Read more here.

Curbelo says DeSantis should apologize

@alextdaugherty

Miami Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo thinks GOP gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis should apologize for his “monkey this up” comment made while talking about Democratic nominee Andrew Gillum.

“That was just a stupid comment to make, one that was offensive to a lot of people,” Curbelo said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. "I know Ron has clarified that it was no way intended to be racist but I think he should apologize.” 

Curbelo said he did not find the comment racist and that he’s never heard DeSantis say anything disparaging about any race during their time in Congress.

Democrats have jumped on DeSantis’ comment, made Wednesday morning on Fox News, arguing that it’s racist.

“He is an articulate spokesman for those far-left views. And he’s a charismatic candidate,” DeSantis said of Gillum. “I watched those debates. None of that is my cup of tea but, he performed better than the other people there so we’ve got to work hard to make sure that we continue Florida going in a good direction. Let’s build off the success we’ve had with Gov. [Rick] Scott. The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state. That’s not going to work. That’s not going to be good for Florida.”

Curbelo is running for re-election against Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in a Miami-to-Key West district that both parties are trying to win in November. Mucarsel-Powell called on DeSantis to apologize yesterday.

Watch the video below:

https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/desantis-should-apologize-says-florida-republican-1309681219617?v=raila&cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma

Beach access battle, algae blooms appear to cost Scott votes

While everyone was glued to the governor's race Tuesday night, Gov. Rick Scott was cruising to victory in a little-noticed Republican U.S. Senate primary.

Scott crushed his little-known opponent, Roque (Rocky) de la Fuente, a wealthy California businessman, with nearly 89 percent of the vote.

But a closer look at county-by-county results strongly suggests that Republicans in two counties sent Scott a message of disapproval over his handling of two highly controversial issues: access to Florida beaches and toxic algae blooms in Florida waterways.

Hopelessly overmatched, de la Fuente had no visible signs of a campaign and got 11 percent of the vote. But he did much better in two counties: Walton in the Panhandle and Martin on the Treasure Coast.

De la Fuente got 20.5 percent of the vote in Walton and 20 percent of the vote in Martin, almost twice his statewide average.

The popular beach communities of Walton County have been ground zero in the beach access debate, which has deeply divided beachgoers and tourists against private property rights advocates.

Scott signed a bill that requires court intervention to enforce a doctrine known as "customary use" that ensures public access to beaches.

Scott then issued an executive order last month that blocks state agencies from taking action based on the bill (HB 631).

Scott and his opponent, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, have repeatedly blamed each other for the algae blooms that have poisoned waterways. The governor toured the St. Lucie River nearly three weeks ago, but he did not interact with local residents who were on the scene.

Scott's soft numbers in Martin were first noted by Politico. The county-by-county election results are here.

An unknown candidate gets one-fifth of the Republican vote against a sitting governor? That's no coincidence.

A spokesman for Scott's campaign, Chris Hartline, said: "Rick Scott won more votes than any U.S. Senate candidate in Florida history. It's no surprise that Democrats and the Times would try to distract from Nelson's failing campaign by focusing on the counties where the governor won by only 60 percentage points."

Scott released a new digital ad through his campaign Wednesday that criticizes Nelson for "walking out of a Senate hearing" on Capitol Hill Tuesday during a discussion of the algae blooms.

Scott's online ad can be seen here.

Gillum says he’s ‘not getting into the gutter’ with DeSantis’ ‘monkey’ comment

@alextdaugherty @newsbysmiley

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum said he’s “not getting into the gutter” with Republican opponent Ron DeSantis hours after the Trump-supported GOP nominee said he hoped Florida voters would not “monkey this up” if they elect Gillum, who is black.

“That part wasn’t lost on me. It’s very clear that Mr. DeSantis is taking a page directly from the campaign manual of Donald Trump,” Gillum said on Fox News on Wednesday afternoon, hours after DeSantis made the monkey comment on the same cable news network. “He thinks that in today’s day and age Florida’s voters are going to respond to that level of division. But I think he’s got another thing coming to him.”

Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, was pressed by host Shepard Smith to say if he thought DeSantis’ comments were explicitly racist. Gillum did not directly answer if he thought DeSantis' comments were racist, but he insinuated it.

“Well, in the handbook of Donald Trump they no longer do full whistle calls, they do full bullhorns,” Gillum said. “I’m not going to go down in the gutter.” 

Fox distanced themselves from DeSantis’ comment, made about 12 hours after Gillum pulled off a historic upset to become Florida’s first black major party gubernatorial nominee. Sandra Smith, the Fox host who conducted the interview with DeSantis, later said that the station does not condone his choice of words.

“During the interview, he made what some are calling an inappropriate comment about his Democratic opponent, Andrew Gillum,” Smith said. “We do not condone this language and wanted to make our viewers aware that he has since clarified his statement.”

Stephen Lawson, communications director for the DeSantis campaign, said it was “absurd” to call DeSantis’ comments racist.

“He is an articulate spokesman for those far-left views. And he’s a charismatic candidate,” DeSantis said of Gillum on Wednesday morning. “I watched those Democratic debates. None of that is my cup of tea but he performed better than the other people there so we’ve got to work hard to make sure that we continue Florida going in a good direction. Let’s build off the success we’ve had with Gov. [Rick] Scott. The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state. That’s not going to work. That’s not going to be good for Florida.”

DeSantis made the comment about 9:36 a.m. while appearing on Fox News following his victory in the Republican primary. He was speaking about Gillum, who won the Democratic primary after being endorsed by Democratic Socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. 

Read more here.

DeSantis says Florida shouldn’t ‘monkey this up’ by electing Andrew Gillum

 

w/ @AlexTDaugherty

Ron DeSantis, the Republican nominee to become Florida’s next governor, has been accused by Democrats of using a “racist dog whistle” after saying during a TV interview Wednesday morning that voters would take the state’s functioning economy and “monkey this up” by electing his liberal African-American opponent.

DeSantis made the comment about 9:36 a.m. while appearing on FOX News following his victory in the Republican primary. He was speaking about Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who won the Democratic primary after being endorsed by Democratic Socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders.

“He is an articulate spokesman for those far-left views. And he’s a charismatic candidate,” DeSantis said of Gillum. “I watched those Democratic debates. None of that is my cup of tea but he performed better than the other people there so we’ve got to work hard to make sure that we continue Florida going in a good direction. Let’s build off the success we’ve had with Gov. [Rick] Scott. The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state. That’s not going to work. That’s not going to be good for Florida.”

Almost immediately, Democrats rushed to condemn DeSantis’ statements. See what they said by clicking here.