Hope Florida's $10M diverted to Governor's anti-pot fight

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The Tampa Bay Times reports that it has tracked how the $10 million settlement to First Lady Casey DeSantis’ Hope Florida Foundation was spent.

The funds ultimately supported her husband’s efforts to defeat the recreational pot amendment last year after being channeled through a non-profit and a Florida Chamber of Commerce foundation.

This is how the newspaper broke it down:

9/28/24: Centene signed a settlement deal with the Agency for Health Care Administration (ACHA), which included giving Hope Florida $10 million.

10/13/24: Secure Florida’s Future, run by the Florida Chamber of Commerce, submitted a grant asking for $5 million.

10/18/24: Save Our Society from Drugs (SOS), a national drug-prevention non-profit based in St. Petersburg, Fla, also submitted a grant asking for $5 million.

The committees sent $8.5 million to Keep Florida Clean, a political action committee controlled by James Uthmeier, DeSantis’ then-chief of staff and now Florida Attorney General. Keep Florida Clean campaigned against Amendment 3, which would have legalized recreational pot.

10/17/24	Secure Florida’s Future	$ 2,000,000
10/23/24	SOS	$ 1,600,000
10/24/24	SOS	$ 2,650,000
10/24/24	Secure Florida’s Future	$ 1,500,000
10/28/24	SOS	$ 500,000
10/29/24	Secure Florida’s Future	$ 250,000
		$ 8,500,000

Another $1.1 million went to the Florida Freedom Fund, chaired by Uthmeier.

Pensacola lawmaker Alex Andrade is investigating Hope Florida. He believes that Hope Florida’s receipt of the $10 million was against the law.

“It’s a violation of state law to not take settlement funds and put it in back into general revenue, and it’s a violation of state law to not share information about these types of settlements with the legislature,” Andrade said on Thursday, before the Tampa Bay Times report.

He added, “I think it was done for an illicit purpose. We just don’t know what that purpose is yet.”

Well, we may now know what the illicit purpose was.

Denials

Jeff Aaron, who became a lawyer for the Hope Florida Foundation this month, told the Tampa Bay Times:“I remain confident nothing was illegal and it is not a political organization,” he said of Secure Florida’s Future, the organization overseen by the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

A spokesperson for DeSantis’ Florida Freedom Fund said it was “absolutely false” that any of the $10 million ended up in the governor’s political committee or the effort to fight Amendment 3.

A spokesperson for Centene said the company “had no part in or knowledge of any decision by the Hope Florida Foundation regarding the subsequent use of any Foundation funds.”

He was on my podcast the day before this story broke.

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Follow the Money: How Casey DeSantis’ Hope Florida Foundation Funds Flowed to Anti-Pot Campaign

This is how the newspaper broke it down:

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