Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has demoted Genera Peck and replaced her with his chief of staff, James Uthmeier, as his polling numbers continue to plummet.
- Peck guided his gubernatorial campaign against ex-GOP Gov. Charle Crist last year but wasn’t ready for the prime-time as DeSantis continued to fall in the polls.
Who is Uthmeier?
* Former senior advisor and counsel to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross in the Trump administration.
* First served as General Counsel and Chief Ethics Officer to Gov. DeSantis, overseeing the judicial nominations process. He joined the DeSantis administration in 2019.
* Named chief of staff in the fall of 2021.
* No national campaign management experience, but neither did Peck.
Polling Nightmare for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
DeSantis is falling in the polls while former NJ Gov. Chris Cristis is rising.
An Emerson College survey of 663 likely GOP Primary voters, conducted between Aug. 2 and Aug. 4, shows Trump with 58%, DeSantis with only just 11% support, and Christie with 6%.
- The aggregation of polling figures produced on RealClearPolitics website shows DeSantis’ support among GOP primary voters has been cut in half.
His numbers have fallen from 30.1% on March 30 to 15.7% on Aug. 6.
Who Stole the Texts?
The question being asked in coffee shops, diners and bars is who stole 60,000 personal text messages off the county’s server.
Commissioner Jeff Bergosh asked the county IT department to download data off his personal cellphone to preserve any public records so he could clean and reboot it.
- Bergosh even publicly thanked IT staff during a BCC meeting.
Former county employee, Johathan Owens, said he was given the stolen records on a thumb drive that mysteriously appeared on this desk – which he told the PNJ happened all the time.
- Why Owens didn’t turn over the stolen records to the county attorney or the administrator is not known? He was a county employee at the time.
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- Bergosh beat him the 2020 GOP primary – that might be a factor.
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Who else received the stolen records? Does a current or former county employee still have a copy? Who else did Owens show the records?
- What is Owens’ chain of custody of Bergosh’s personal texts from his desk to Elder’s attorneys?
- What proof do we have that the records weren’t altered or tampered?
- Did he discuss or show the records to his boss, Commissioner Doug Underhill?
The issue isn’t Dr. Rayme Edler’s lawsuit against the county. No, the issue is: who stole the text messages? And why?
