Trumpanzee Makes His Move Against The Florida GOP Establishment-- Endorses A Neo-Fascist For Governor

Suppose you found yourself in charge-- for a week. One week to clean up America. Would shooting plutocrats Sheldon Adelson, Rebekah (and Robert) Mercer and Foster Friess be part of the plan? (We’ll leave the Koch brothers out of this for a moment, because this post isn’t really about shooting anyone.)

Who remembers when Adam “Howdy Doody” Putnam retired from Congress in 2009? Little Howdy Doody had one dream… to be governor of Florida. So he ran for Agriculture Commissioner in 2010, a stepping stone to the governor’s mansion. And he’s waited patiently. Everyone assumed he would be a shoo-in for the Republican nomination in 2018. The 3 top Democrats in the race-- Andrew Gillum, Blue Dog Gwen Graham, and conservative self-funder Philip Levine-- have all been tacitly running against him. But Señor Trumpanzee upended the race this week, with a seemingly off-the-cuff tweet, pretty much endorsing a far right extremist congressman, Ron DeSantis. Every single poll since December of 2016 had shown Putnam winning the GOP primary and the most recent poll has him ahead of DeSantis 23-12%. But… along comes Mary, I mean Trumpanzee.

Back to Koch, Mercer and Friess. In the wake of Trump’s tweet they’re all on Team Neo-Nazi, part of DeSantis’ Finance Leadership Team, along with David Bossie and far right money-bags Jonathan Burkan, Dick Uihlein, Elliott Broidy, Roger Hertog, and Darwin and Doug Deason. Bossie, who doesn’t need a “neo” when his politics are described, said Trump and all those billionaires backing DeSantis sets him “apart from the rest [Putnam]. He will have the financial resources and the ground game and the Trump base to be an incredible statewide candidate.” Politico’s Marc Caputo:

As a member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, DeSantis is a frequent Fox News guest who has earned a reputation as a small-government conservative, an opponent of the independent federal investigation of Trump and a supporter of moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. And donors have so far loved what they have heard.

“These big national finance givers are true believers. Donors like Adelson care about Israel, and they watched DeSantis fight for what they care about,” the fundraiser said. “They see him consistently boosting Trump on Fox. So here they have a prominent national congressman who speaks their language, pushes their issue and defends their president.”

A spokesman for the Adelsons, who own the Las Vegas Sands casino empire, said “there is no decision on the level of financial support” for DeSantis but that the husband and wife duo “appreciate and have great respect for the leadership of Congressman Ron DeSantis on numerous issues.”

Mercer’s support for DeSantis stands above the others. She manages the political giving of her father, hedge fund magnate Robert Mercer, and played a key role in the Trump transition. The Mercers, top supporters of Trump’s campaign, own a stake in the conservative Breitbart media enterprise and the Cambridge Analytica data firm used by Trump’s campaign.

Other top DeSantis finance team members include:

• Bernard Marcus, a Home Depot co-founder who has given nearly $18 million to federal campaigns and political committees since 2000, Federal Election Commission records show. Of that money, more than $7 million went to committees supporting Trump’s 2016 election.
• Thomas Peterffy, the founder of Interactive Brokers, one of the nation’s largest electronic brokerage firms. Peterffy contributed $366,200 in 2016 to two committees helping Trump’s election, according to Federal Election Commission records. Peterffy, according to a Time report, was Florida’s richest immigrant who supported Trump.
• Foster Friess, a Wyoming-based investor who has toyed with running for U.S. Senate in his home state after talking to Mercer and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. Friess has given more than $4.3 million to federal campaigns and committees since 2000, with more than $2 million going to committees supporting Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign in 2012. Friess also donated $100,000 to the Trump Victory PAC in 2016.
• David A. Siegel, the CEO of Westgate Resorts in Orlando, who contributed $30,000 last year to the Trump Victory committee. Many expect the time-share mogul could start playing more in state and national politics with Trump’s election. Siegel last year said Trump’s election was “the greatest thing that's happened to me since I discovered sex.” Siegel’s wife, Jackie, said she once went on a few dates with Trump.

One name conspicuously absent from DeSantis’ list: Koch. None of the famed conservative brothers have signaled their support for him, though Siegel and other DeSantis backers, such as Dallas investor Doug Deason, are Koch network donors.

In a sign of his rising national profile, DeSantis played golf with Charles Koch in June at a Koch network retreat in Colorado. Another prominent Florida Republican who is considering a bid for governor, state House Speaker Richard Corcoran, didn’t get the same face time. While Trump’s tweet supporting DeSantis put a damper on Corcoran’s prospects, the list of top national donors supporting the congressman makes it even tougher for the state legislative leader to run as the conservative alternative to the GOP front-runner, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.

Though many of the big-name Republican donors who announced their support of DeSantis have yet to contribute to the congressman, his campaign-to-be is expecting their financial support in the beginning of the year to eat into the hefty fundraising advantage enjoyed by Putnam, who is widely perceived in Florida conservative circles as having a relatively weak right flank in a Republican primary.

In a state as big as Florida, where a week’s worth of saturation TV during next year’s general election could cost as much as $3 million, cash is king. And Putnam has so far reigned over both his likely and current Democratic and Republican rivals by raising his money from the major industries that do business in Florida’s capitol, such as agricultural interests, the health care industry, power companies and Disney.

Blue America is supporting Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum for governor of Florida. If you’d like to keep another Trumpist out of the governor’s mansion, please consider contributing to his campaign here. And if you want to read why we’re supporting Andrew, you can read about that here.