Politico is up with a piece that points to lDeSantis losing influence among several places IN his state….
With Presidential chances envaporing by the minute?
It’s costing him ….
He seems to have messed with the wrong guy and gone TOOO FAR to the Right in everything……..
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is losing his clout in Florida.
College boards, stacked with DeSantis appointees, are rejecting job candidates with ties to the governor.
The chair of the Republican Party of Florida urged executive committee members to attend all GOP candidate events — giving cover to party faithful who want to attend a dinner at Mar-a-Lago with former President Donald Trump.
And the board that oversees many of Florida’s affordable housing programs this month placed on leave its executive director, who was helped into the job by a top DeSantis adviser.
Interviews with nearly two dozen lobbyists, political consultants and lawmakers revealed that DeSantis’ struggles as a presidential candidate have already eroded his influence in Florida. There is a widespread expectation that his candidacy will end in failure. His standing at home may depend on how long he slogs forward in the presidential campaign — and how he will manage his exit from the race if he eventually drops out.
Now, it may be just a matter of time before Florida Republicans, once unflinchingly loyal, seek distance from DeSantis and his hardball governing methods.
“You don’t get the assumption they are measuring drapes anymore — they are waiting for him to drop out,” one long-time Republican consultant in Tallahassee said of those working for the governor. The consultant, like others quoted in this story, was granted anonymity to freely discuss the sensitive situation….
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…Some state lawmakers are still bitter that DeSantis’ campaign asked Florida lawmakers to fundraise for him ahead of the GOP debate in August, according to a former Republican officeholder who spoke with them.
“Few members of the Legislature have a relationship with Ron DeSantis,” the person said. “He’s like the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain. You can’t get to him. All you hear about is the great and powerful Oz.”….
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Democrats, who have little power under the GOP-supermajority Legislature, say they’re also seeing signs of the governor’s dwindling power. House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa predicted that if DeSantis were to lose the GOP nomination, he would be a very weak lame-duck governor.
“I don’t know that the Legislature is going to play ball with him in the same way that they have previously,” she said, though she pointed out that DeSantis would still wield power over the budget….
DeSantis anti-Covid shot stance causing some alarm….
DeSantis’ posture has alarmed public health officials, who fear he is mainstreaming positions once relegated to the political fringe and seeding Republican voters with distrust for vaccines beyond those associated with Covid.“
In looking at the response to Covid in Florida, we need to ask ourselves, why did we go from having one of the lowest Covid mortality rates in the U.S. a year and a half into the pandemic to having one of the highest? And did anti-public health and anti-vaccine policies and messages play a role?” Scott Rivkees, who served as Florida surgeon general during the beginning of Covid and resigned amid a dispute with DeSantis, said in an interview….
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Fauci, who now teaches at Georgetown University, declined to comment for this article.
But other doctors laced into DeSantis for using his public platform for not just attacking Fauci but for promoting, what they considered, an irresponsible position on vaccines that could cause Americans physical harm.
“There is no denying that this vaccine works to prevent symptomatic infection, especially serious infection,” said Offit. Offit, who is 72 years old, said he has “never” seen such a politicized reaction to a medical vaccine during his lifetime, adding: “I can safely say that this is the first virus in human history where you’re far more likely to die if you are Republican than if you are Democrat.”….