Ron DeSantis: poster boy for resign-to-run

Florida gov yet another political phony who shirks his duties while using taxpayer funds to campaign

Ron DeSantis is seeking the presidency. Whatever else DeSantis may or may not be, he is the poster child for resign-to-run.

So far this year, as DeSantis prepared his White House bid, he spent as much time out of Florida as in, dashing around the nation (and the globe) seeking attention for himself, raising money for himself, and giving speeches of self-praise.

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Which is another way of saying DeSantis has shirked his duties as Florida governor.

One cannot campaign for higher office and also fulfill the duties of one’s current post. This is the essence of the resign-to-run concept.

Suppose you worked for a company or college or foundation, and wanted a better job. You stopped reporting for work because you were traveling the nation campaigning for the better job, doing so at your employer’s expense. Yet you expected to keep receiving your paycheck. How long till you were fired?

In the private sector, not long. If you are a politician, you get away with it.

Setting aside whether DeSantis polices are wise or foolish, Florida voters who put him into the governor’s mansion expected him to earn his salary by attending to his duties. Instead he’s galivanting around attending to his own ego.

In 2023, from January through April, according to Tristan Wood of City & State Florida, DeSantis has taken trips to

·         Kansas City

·         Philadelphia

·         New York City

·         Chicago

·         Washington D.C.

·         Houston

·         Dallas

·         Des Moines, Iowa

·         Las Vegas

·         Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

·         Peoria (separate from Chicago trip)

·         Long Island

·         Cedar Rapids, Iowa (separate from Des Moines trip)

·         Akron

·         Wisconsin

·         Manchester, New Hampshire

·         Concord, New Hampshire (separate from Manchester trip)

·         Two cities in South Carolina

·         The affluent areas of California and Georgia (for fundraising)

·         Plus South Korea, Israel, Japan and the United Kingdom

It is inconceivable DeSantis could have done all this travelling without shirking his duties to the Sunshine State.

When a politician constantly travels to campaign for higher office, that person is broadcasting to the world, “I’m screwing up the job I already have, so give me a job that’s more important.”

It’s a little like Institutional Washington saying, “Our programs are failing, so we need to spend more on them.”

DeSantis does not want voters to know how badly he is shirking his duties, which is why he just pushed through the Florida state legislature a bill exempting him from public disclosure of travel expenses charged to taxpayers.

Supposedly the no-disclosure bill is to improve his security. Security has become an all-weather politician’s excuse for bodyguards that allow the pol to cut to the fronts of lines, travel in motorcades and enter speaking venues flanked by beefy sentinels as if a visiting head of state.

DeSantis, Florida official portrait.

At any rate, how could non-disclosure of where DeSantis went on previous trips improve security for future trips? It’s strictly a political cover-up.

DeSantis is galivanting around with taxpayer-funded detachments of officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, an agency over which the governor has close to personal control. That is to say, taxpayers are subsidizing the appearances where DeSantis denounces others who waste taxpayer’s money.

Now the punchline: DeSantis just got through the Tallahassee legislature a bill exempting him from Florida’s resign-to-run law. Not only is DeSantis a hypocrite with a capital-H, he is broadcasting that fact to the world. If voters fail to see through this phony, they will have only themselves to blame.

DeSantis: hardly the only phony.

The sitting vice-president, Kamala Harris, in 2020 ran for that office without resigning her seat in the United States Senate. Galivanting the nation giving speeches of self-praise, Harris neglected her Senate duties to California.

In 2016, Tim Kaine ran for vice-president on the Democratic ticket without resigning his Senate seat, neglecting his Senate duties to Virginia. Nor did Mike Pence resign that year as governor of Indiana when seeking the vice-presidency on the GOP side. Pence stayed in office, wasting taxpayer money as he promoted himself, neglecting his duties to citizens of Indiana.

The 2016 election  – no incumbent, White House open – was a nightmare of officeholders shirking their duties while promoting themselves and demanding more power.

Ticket leaders Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were private citizens. But their seconds, Kaine and Pence, were officeholders whop stayed in power enjoying taxpayer subsidies and public-financed security while demanding more power.

Nomination competitors of 2016 who stayed in power while demanding more power included Christ Christie, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Marco Rubio and Bernie Sanders.

In the March 2016 nomination debate between Clinton and Sanders, the Vermont senator suggested those responsible for the Flint, Michigan drinking water fiasco should go to prison.

That year Sanders was on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee,  which had federal jurisdiction over drinking water. Uncle Bernie did nothing about Michigan drinking water, too busy shirking his duties flying around the country demanding more power. Needless to say CNN, which hosted that debate, said nothing about this.

Fast forward to 2020. Of major party candidates for the 2020 tickets, Cory Booker, Bill de Blasio, Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Sanders and Elizabeth Warren did not resign-to-run, clinging to power as they used taxpayer subsidies to demand more power.

All of them shirked the duties they had already been elected to. There’s a word for this, and it has a Capital-H.

Of 2024 major party contenders, Joe Biden seeks reelection; Trump, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and Asa Hutchinson are private citizens; DeSantis and Tim Scott are shirking their public duties by not resigning-to-run; Pence if he declares is a private citizen; Glenn Youngkin, Chris Sununu and Doug Burgum (governor of North Dakota), should they declare, are Capital-H unless they resign-to-run.

Resign-to-run is a state matter, though perhaps could be required by federal statute.

Right now five states – Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii and Texas — impose resign-to-run, though the Florida law is a transparent sham.

And hmmm, the governor of a state where laws are transparent shams wants to become president. If voters fail to see through this, they will have only themselves to blame.

Bonus: Should Joe Biden Resign-to-Run? State laws on this topic don’t apply to incumbents seeking reelection; so too the proposals here. The logic is that someone who already occupies the office being sought is producing a track record that allows voters to assess a second candidacy.

Bonus: DeSantis and Pull Up the Ladders. There are cases to be made for contentions by DeSantis that rigid-left ideology has taken over many colleges and public schools. Back when colleges and public schools had rigid-conservative ideology, that was wrong. Rigid-left ideology is wrong too, and DeSantis should say so.

DeSantis himself benefited tremendously in life by attending the rigid-left Yale University as an undergrad followed by rigid-left Harvard Law. He’s snapped up every advantage these elite institutions confer -- and now wants to deny such advantages to others.

There’s a word for this, and it begins with a capital-H.