At the Senate Committee on Ethics and Elections hearing this morning, Chairman Senator Don Gaetz announced that Dr. Joel Rudman sent a text to his office this morning, saying he has resigned from the Pensacola State College Board of Trustees.
Over the weekend, Sen. Gaetz notified me that Rudman would not appear before the Senate Committee on Ethics and Elections to seek approval of his appointment because the former state lawmaker from Navarre would be out of the country.
BACKGROUND: At Governor Ron DeSantis’ media event at PSC on April 15, Rudman explained that he resigned from the Florida House to run for Congress because during a November 19 legislative orientation session, House leadership explicitly told Republican members they would no longer follow Governor DeSantis’s lead, allegedly using vulgar language to emphasize the point.
“As the second most conservative member of the Florida House, I couldn’t go along with this agenda,” Rudman said, calling the current chamber a “runaway house” that is “running away from conservative ideals.”
Last week, the Senate Higher Education Appropriations Committee unanimously voted down appointing former Rep. Joel Rudman to the Pensacola State College Board of Trustees.
At today’s hearing, Sen. Gaetz said, “Officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who are here. They’re prepared to take down all the evidence and all the names (which Rudman had threatened to present at the hearing). But Dr. Rodman has not favored us with his appearance and now has resigned from the board.”