What started as a $10 million scandal has exploded into a $36.2 million controversy involving multiple Florida state agencies allegedly misusing taxpayer funds to defeat constitutional amendments during the 2024 election cycle.
- State Rep. Alex Andrade joined the “(We Don’t) Color On The Dog” podcast to discuss bombshell reporting from the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times that reveals the scope of state spending against Amendment 3 (marijuana legalization) and Amendment 4 (abortion rights).
From $10 Million to $36 Million
“What Alexandra Glorioso and Lawrence Mower uncovered from the (Miami) Herald and the (Tampa Bay) Times was that the state agencies themselves were kind of skirting procurement laws and spending millions of dollars on ads, on TV ads, on radio spots and social media promotions,” Andrade explained.
- The money funded advertisements “that were really just designed to combat Amendment 3, the marijuana amendment, or Amendment 4, the abortion amendment, using taxpayer funds.”
The trail of money reveals a troubling pattern across multiple state agencies:
- $2 million from Department of Health grants and donation trust funds as “research services” in the marijuana regulation program
- $4.4 million from the Department of Transportation through engineering firm RS&H using a contract meant for road project engineers, paying with funds state law designates for “physical assets, such as buildings and land.”
- $250,000 advance payment from the Agency for Health Care Administration, which requires special approval because taxpayer money is spent before services are rendered
- $4 million from the opioid settlement fund was used despite the Legislature specifying it “must target communities disproportionately impacted by opioid or other substance misuse””
- $1.1 million from federal child protection grants meant for foster care services and family counseling
- Department of Education spent $3.2 million, but when asked for contracts, it sent a link to the state contracting website, where they never uploaded the contract
Targeting Voters, Not Public Health
Perhaps most revealing was how the advertising strategy evolved. Andrade pointed to an analysis showing ads initially targeted teenagers and children regarding marijuana use, which would be appropriate for public health messaging. Then something changed.
“Suddenly, as if on the flip, on the turn of a dime, they switched to advertisements targeting grandparents and older grandparents and older parents,” Andrade said. “If you’ve ever run a political campaign, you target the most likely voters and the most likely voters or the older population in the state. It was obviously not well-intentioned.”
Transparency Problems and Potential Criminal Charges
The investigation faced significant obstacles from state agencies resistant to transparency.
- State agencies did not record nearly half the spending in the state’s online contracting database.
- Reporters had to track money by tracing 29-digit account codes and 6-digit object codes across three separate state databases.
- The Times/Herald states: “The public can’t know the precise amounts spent” because the administration hasn’t turned over key documents like invoices and work product requested through open records law.
- The state only provided invoices for one-third of agencies’ spending.
Political Contradictions
Andrade expressed particular concern about the abortion advertisements, noting they included arguments from the state “saying that abortion was healthcare.”
- “If you’re a conservative Republican, that’s unacceptable, and I’m frankly shocked that Governor DeSantis wanted to do that and promoted that,” he stated.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and his chief of staff, James Uthmeier, challenged Amendment 3, going against Donald Trump’s endorsement of the marijuana amendment.
“On Amendment 3, James Uthmeier, when that Medicaid money ($10 million redirected to Hope Florida Foundation), made its way to his PAC. He gave $7 million of it to the Republican Party of Florida, and they were the ones that purchased the ads fighting Amendment 3,” Andrade said.
- “I need to double-check, but that was absolutely after President Trump had already endorsed Amendment 3 and said he was going to vote for it,” he said. “It’s a little bit bizarre to me that the apparatus of the Republican Party was even used for that because it was not a settled decision that the Republican Party of Florida was for or against that amendment.”
Andrade added, “It’s DeSantis way or the highway. He’s alienating people as quickly as he can, going into his last year in office.
