Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has leaned heavily on the Florida legislature this session to give him a launchpad for a 2024 presidential bid, which he is expected to announce in the coming weeks.
Most recently, Republican lawmakers, who have supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature, have moved to protect DeSantis from Florida’s exhaustive reporting requirements, shielding his dealings as governor from public scrutiny.
Republicans in the state Senate passed legislation that would eliminate the requirements to report his official travel and meeting logs. Florida Rep. Angie Nixon, a Democrat from Jacksonville, said that’s designed to conceal his absence from Florida as he prepares to go on the campaign trail. In March and April, he had 21 days of scheduled travel, including for an international trade mission to Japan and Israel to shore up his foreign policy credentials. “Floridians deserve someone who’s going to be here and who’s going to govern our state,” she said.
The state Senate has also passed legislation to relax campaign finance reporting requirements for state political committees, which currently disclose their fundraising figures monthly. DeSantis’s state political committee, Friends of Ron DeSantis, has almost $86 million in its coffers and raised roughly $3.7 million in March. Under the new bill, that committee would have to report on just a quarterly basis.
Both of those bills are going before the state House, which is expected to pass them.
And the legislature is expected to move forward with legislation that explicitly allows DeSantis to run for president without having to resign from his position as governor, as may have been required by current Florida law. With the legislature scheduled to adjourn May 5, it’s running out of time to do so and will likely attach the measure to a larger elections package.
DeSantis’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
These bills on their own will…
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