It appears Ron DeSantis has learned a great deal at the feet of his fellow Floridian, the mega-MAGA, megalomaniacal man of Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump. Since becoming Governor of Florida, DeSantis has developed a yen for some rather imperial accoutrements for his role. He has a special "State Guard" police force reporting to the Governor. He has a dedicated "elections police force" reporting to the Governor. And he's developed a yen for traveling via private jet. Everywhere.
The state of Florida bought a few small jets in early 2019 for use by top leaders after the prior governor Rick Scott had sold off the state's fleet during his term. Scott was worth somewhere north of $250 million while governor and owned his own planes ("God bless the child that's got his own..."). Unfortunately, those state planes acquired in 2019 are only for official state business and DeSantis has a great deal of non-state business to attend to across the country. That creates a dilemma for a man with NetJets / Ritz level expectations but a net worth closer to the Southwest / Ramada edge of the travel spectrum.
As several news outlets have been reporting for months, DeSantis latched onto an answer that seems very familiar. Since he is running for President and operates a political action committee named No Backing Down (NBD), the answer seems obvious:
- have your PAC schedule and sponsor most of your out-of-state appearances
- have the PAC pick up the tab for your private jet travel
- rinse
- repeat
It isn't totally clear this is legal according to campaign finance rules. In theory, PACs are supposed to be independent of specific candidate campaigns. One would assume an "event" hosted by a PAC interested in "issues" would invite multiple candidates to appear in order to spur open debate about that PAC's favorite issues. It isn't clear if that is the case with these events or if DeSantis is showing up as a solo act. When a candidate operates a PAC and is running for office and the candidate's PAC is paying his travel expenses to attend one of its events, the law is a bit murky, even if the ethics of such self-dealing are NOT murky at all to the average voter.
These are not just occasional flights getting reimbursed. In July, his campaign filings reported the following expenses:
- $179,000 on chartered planes
- $483,000 for services from a limited liability travel company
- $343,000 paid to same LLC by the No Backing Down PAC
That's not the whole story though. The Washington Post reported that BOTH Ron Desantis' presidential campaign AND his No Backing Down PAC made an "investment" in a "private transportation management company." The name of this company? Empyreal Jets. A pun on Imperial? Curiously, Empyreal seems to be a common word in the names of small companies, maybe because it might be pronounced imperial or maybe the owners don't know how to spell imperial. Regardless, the name seems perfectly suited for this situation.
The idea of a political campaign or a political action committee using donor funds for "investments" should make any American voter retch. The opportunities for self-dealing, money laundering and speculation are limitless. A candidate can curry favor with business owners with vastly more leverage than the candidate can afford on his own. (Ron DeSantis' entire net worth was about $345,000 in 2019. Now it is estimated at $1,500,000 after proceeds from a book deal.) Illicit investments in shady businesses can be laundered by donating money to a PAC or specific campaign which can then feed it into the target company for "consulting fees" or "miscellaneous IT services." A candidate touting controversial policies with material impacts to specific industries can "invest" in those industries and trigger material changes in their value by suddenly withdrawing from the race with timing only the candidate can predict.
The whole purpose of a campaign is to communicate ideas and positions on public matters that voters need to make specific selections in a specific election. All spending in a campaign should be one hundred percent focused on that goal. Any PAC operating on a perpetual timeline isn't trying to impact a specific race or issue, it's simply trying to become a think tank. Any campaign or PAC spending that could be categorized as an "investment" has nothing to do with helping voters. The efforts of DeSantis to subsidize his rather imperial traveling habits via political contributions communicates nothing about immigration policy, civil rights, trade policy, etc. It does speak volumes about DeSantis' true values – avoiding the masses as much as possible while traveling like the mogul he would very much like to be but can only dream of with a mere $1,500,000 net worth.
This is probably a space worth watching. Exorbitant travel expenses. Payments to vendors with a beneficial relationship to the spender. Presidential campaign donations. Possible mixing of state and personal business with Florida state taxpayer money and campaign funds. All the fixin's for a grift that even Trump might approve.
WTH
