Florida Governor and Republican president nominee Ron Dasantis’ campaign experiences turbulence as one of his most influential political action committees (PAC), Never Back Down (NBD), according to sources from the Associated Press, have been coordinating with Desantis.
This important super PAC is a major contributor to Desantis’ campaigns, spending over 40 million on advertising alone this year. 16 million of which is spent solely in Iowa, which holds the US’ first and most influential presidential primaries. To put that into perspective, Desantis’ own campaign spending amounts to just only over 4 million dollars.
PACs, or political action committees, are organizations that pool funds in order to donate to political campaigns. Regular PACs are subject to limitations on how much they can accept from individuals or corporations, and how much they can contribute to a campaign. However, super PACs, made possible in 2010 by a Supreme Court decision, are not subject to these limitations, on the condition that they do not directly contribute to a campaign and that they do not coordinate with candidates. As a result, they can independently spend a limitless amount of money supporting a candidate through running ads or electioneering, all while being able to receive an unlimited amount of money from individuals or corporations
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According to the Associated press, at November 2023, Desantis’ wife, Casey Desantis expressed concerns about NBD taking down an ad criticizing their political opponent, Nikkey Haley. Desantis relayed these concerns to NBD’s board, who then relayed it to the staff of NBD. This clearly violates the condition that NBD, as a super PAC, may not coordinate, in any way, with Desantis. As small and innocuous as this action may seem, giving Desantis the benefit of the doubt would make historically hard to prove cases like these even more slippery.
“To actually have a conversation with the candidate’s agents and the super PAC’s agents about strategy — there is no plausible argument that that is legal,” legal director of the Campaign Legal Center Adav Noti expresses.
A hit to Never Back Down will be a major hit to Desantis and his campaign. As these concerns grow, disagreement between the nominee and the group fester, and many of the NBD staff being fired or quitting, Desantis seeks to appeal to new super PACs such as Fight Right.
Sources Used
Further Reading
Florida Politics - Similar case pertaining to Senator Rick Scott
- Ray Zhang
8 comments:
Despite the absolute illegality of this move (speechnow.org vs FEC), I do not believe it will affect DeSantis too much. Plenty of politicians or people of influence have been proven to break the laws in terms of funding (Bob Menendez or Clarence Thomas for example) with little to no repurcussions. I imagine that what DeSantis did will be forgotten in the week. Furthermore, as Ray pointed out, NBD seems to be distancing themselves from DeSantes, with the CEO actually resigning late November (coincedence(?)) of this year. However, they have actually communicated with DeSantis prior to this when they directly expensed his private airfare. This would require some communication between the parties, and no consequences have appeared yet.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/22/us/politics/desantis-pac-chris-jankowski.html
https://www.fec.gov/legal-resources/court-cases/speechnoworg-v-fec/
I agree with what Janus said about how this will soon be forgotten, and I also doubt it will matter very much. According to polls, Trump is wayyy ahead of DeSantis. However, Trump is being charged with dozens of felonies, and while he would still be able to run if convicted, he might lose a lot of support. This could be a chance for DeSantis or Haley to beat Trump, but I doubt that would happen.
source:https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-investigation-conviction.html
I agree with Janus, I'm not sure how much this move will actually effect DeSantis. To be honest, I don't think anything meaningful will come out of this either way, because as everyone is already aware, DeSantis is destined to be beaten by Trump. Him and Nikki Haley will put up a fight, certainly, but the era of Trump is unfortunately not over yet, and until Republicans can click factory reset on the whole MAGA fiasco, I don't see any of the other Republican candidates going anywhere with their campaigns. Plus, I think DeSantis has been down for the count since the Republican debates, because in my fair opinion, he is getting the tar beaten out of him by the other candidates, and by the internet. No amount of felony charges Trump accumulates is going to meaningfully sway his hold on the Republican presidential candidacy. Hence, regardless of what hits or advantages to their campaigns come, both DeSantis and Nikki Haley won't be going anywhere.
I definitely agree that this isn't going to matter in the long run; voters won't remember it or care much, and Trump is almost certainly going to beat De Santis anyway. I do think it's good to set the precedent of condemning super PACs that cooperate with candidates, though. I personally don't think they should have as much influence as they do --- why should the candidates with the most support from big-monied interests get the most exposure, regardless of how popular they are in general?
I think it is incredibly necessary to set a precedent in such a case, as more speculative cases like this one can lead down a slippery slope of corruption. Additionally, setting such a precedent would already have immediate effects, as the GOP campaign has been plagued with PAC issues. Something very recent on this front has been another super PAC, Fight Right, which has been falsely likening Nikki Haley to Hillary Clinton. However, much with the DeSantis-Never Back Down case, there needs to be much stricter punishments in place for such violations. Even if the claims are taken back afterwards, they may still have had a significant impact on those who viewed it, many of which will never be informed that the claims made by the advertisement were false.
(https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/07/us/politics/nikki-haley-desantis-hillary-clinton-debate.html)
Yes, I agree on the point that Trump will likely win the nomination regardless of this whole DeSantis-NBD scandal. Maybe DeSantis will drop in polls, maybe he won't, but either way he's significantly behind Trump already. But, I do think this will have an influence in other ways. NBD has lost much of its senior membership, including its CEO. More recently, its top strategist, Jeff Roe, released his statement of resignation on X. A scandal such as this may raise concerns for other PACs, especially in connection with DeSantis. These illegal tactics may also affect DeSantis' image for future elections either for Florida governor or 2028 GOP primaries if he choses to run again. Lastly, this fiasco might end in tighter restrictions on PACs and third party campaign funding, which would drastically change the face of American elections. This is all just me speculating-- guess we'll just have to wait and see.
But hey, Trump seems to be enjoying watching these recent events. He recently posted the following on the social media platform Truth Social:
“Jeff Roe is out — GAME OVER for DeSanctimonious!”
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4364654-top-strategist-departs-desantis-linked-never-back-down-pac-after-damning-report/
I believe that while this is a huge scandal against Ron Desantis, in the end, Trump will most likely win the Republican race. Due to his insane popularity throughout parts of the country, even after the incidents in 2020/Jan 2021, I don't think any other nominee has the popularity and hype to compete. Ironically, I believe that all the bad publicity and legal trouble that Trump has been getting into has actually helped him in the presidential race. As the saying goes, There is no such thing as bad publicity. In regards to Desantis, this just feels like another step in the wrong direction for his campaign. Desantis's chances at the White House have been looking worse and worse ever since his horrible performances during the Republican primary debates, while, unlike rising contenders such as Vivek Ramaswamy, he has continuously failed to stand out and make an impact. While this scandal is another horrible look for Desantis, I agree with everyone else that it isn't going to play a huge role in his campaign in the long term, Simply because his chances at the white house already look extremely thin.
I like that Ray's pointing out the money involved in campaigning-- it really puts the tax of running into perspective, and even more helps us visualize the role of PACs in politics. Also, while I agree with several of my classmates who state that any damages done to Desantis' candidacy will likely not impact the Republican nomination, as Trump is so far ahead in the polls... I think there's also room for speculation as to whether or not Trump will be able to maintain his place in the primary, given his legal situation. That being said, given how Desantis has decreased in popularity, dropping from 34% to 13%, he may be growing insignificant, especially with the negative press surrounding Trump. As Evan mentioned, Trump's legal troubles have arguably turned him into even more of a media celebrity in this age of celebrity politics... and amidst this, Desantis is losing media attention and public support. Still, should this slip-up find its way into a courthouse (or potentially, the Supreme Court), it will be interesting to see how it's ruled: we discussed funding limits as a method of undermining elitism in American politics, and I'm curious to see how this Court would react to Desantis.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-r/2024/national/#:~:text=Candidates%20with%20insufficient%20polling%20data,we%20calculate%20our%20polling%20averages.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/will-trump-go-prison-jail-b2464304.html
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