CRIPPLED: Election law dispute hits DeSantis where it hurts him most
Gov. Ron DeSantis just lost a major source of donations at the precise point in time when he most needs to beg for money.
A federal district court just ruled that the 200,000 email addresses compiled by the Ready for Ron PAC cannot give those email addresses to DeSantis and his campaign.
A supporter’s email address can be worth $8 each to a candidate. The budding DeSantis campaign surely planned on receiving the $1.6 million gift.
The ruling makes Ron a little less ready as he purportedly plans a formal announcement to run for president next week.
The judge ruled that emails compiled by a political action committee and then given to the campaign would violate federal election laws. According to FloridaPolitics.com, U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss opined:
“The Court agrees with the Commission that what RFR calls a petition is, in fact, a contact list and, more importantly, an in-kind contribution. As such, the list is subject to the contribution limits contained in the Federal Election Campaign Act, and it is now well-trod ground that those limits satisfy constitutional dictates.”
The ruling could be considered quite a blow because, ideally, the campaign would push to raise as much money as possible concurrent with his announcement.
It is also an astonishingly amateur mistake.
Guess they’re not ready for the Florida Governor, or maybe perfectly on brand with him.
Why Ready for Ron would spend so much time, money, and effort compiling a “petition” as an obvious attempt to get contact information is a bit mystifying.
PACs face strict limitations on direct donations to the candidate.
The lawyers representing Ready for Ron argued that their hapless attempt fit an exemption for donations to politicians who were merely “testing the waters” at the time.
Since no real campaign existed, they argued, and DeSantis hadn’t even dipped a toe in the water when the emails were compiled, then they should be allowed to deliver the list to the Florida Governor just to help him out.
But Judge Moss rebuffed their weak-sauce argument by noting the obvious, “applying that exemption to this case would allow for easy evasion of the federal campaign finance laws.”
Ironically, the Florida Republican plans to spend a fortune in Iowa, perhaps visiting all 99 counties.
Team DeSantis sees his aggressive Iowa plan as necessary to narrow any gap with Trump and pick up momentum in the first caucuses scheduled for February 5th, 2024.
His plan doesn’t come with any assurance that Iowa’s caucuses will come first, as the Republicans have also considered moving which states lead off the nomination process.
Ron could feel “friendless” if he’s touring Iowa while everyone else is in New Hampshire.
Now, without access to a ready-to-go donor base, paying for the effort will prove that much more difficult.
It also acts as yet another indication that DeSantis may not be ready for politics on a national level.
His early trips, both abroad and within the country, have been met with tepid or worse support.
Perhaps Ready to Ron DeSantis can take some comfort from a straightforward, air-tight observation.
His war on everything “woke” in Florida has been fought with such intensity and absurdity that there is little need to meet people and establish his priorities.
Everyone already gets his point.
Indeed, if Trump is deemed to be “unelectable,” DeSantis could “sleepwalk” to the nomination.
Perhaps he would even pay $1.6 million to stay sleeping for the next 12 to 16 months.
Ron DeSantis would never want to be seen getting woke up.
I can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com and @JasonMiciak
