GOP 'dark money' funding DeSantis has ties to rival candidates as well: report

27 July 2023

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was arguably the MAGA movement's greatest success story of the 2022 midterms, running a far-right campaign that ended with a 19 percent reelection victory. But so far, the Republican governor hasn't fared nearly as well as a presidential candidate.

Polls released in late July have found DeSantis trailing former President Donald Trump by 43 percent (Morning Consult), 36 percent (The Economist/YouGov) or 44 percent (Rasmussen) among GOP primary voters.

Regardless, DeSantis' presidential campaign is receiving plenty of donations. And according to the Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger, some of the "dark money" funding the campaign has ties to other Republican presidential primary candidates as well.

"Immediately after DeSantis officially declared his inevitable candidacy," Sollenberger reports in an article published on July 27, "he was challenging fundraising laws. That's when his state-level PAC pledged to transfer more than $80 million to a pro-DeSantis super PAC, just weeks after DeSantis officially cut ties with the old group — a move Florida lawmakers changed the rules to accommodate and which quickly drew a federal complaint. But Florida campaign finance statements show even closer ties between these three groups than previously reported — and they go to the top of the DeSantis operation."

Under campaign finance laws, Sollenberger notes, groups funding DeSantis' campaign "are not allowed to coordinate with each other." But Brendan Fischer, deputy director of the watchdog group Undocumented, believes there is "little distinction" between these DeSantis-associated groups.

Fischer told the Beast, "It is another example of how DeSantis has been circumventing the federal campaign finance rules designed to prevent corruption and protect voters' right to know."

One of the "dark money" groups supporting DeSantis' campaign, according to Sollenberger, is Right Direction America (RDA) — which former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (a DeSantis presidential primary rival) started in 2019 to help Trump. Christie has since left RDA, which, Sollenberger reports, had "strong ties to DeSantis from the beginning."

Other pro-DeSantis "dark money" groups, Sollenberger adds, include Building a Better America and Friends of DeSantis.

The Daily Beast reporter notes that despite all the money it has received, DeSantis' presidential campaign has yet to take off. And some impatient donors are pointing the finger at his campaign manager: GOP strategist Generra Peck.

"GOP insiders and megadonors have increasingly expressed frustration with the campaign's flagging performance and runaway spending, and they're hungry for a scalp," Sollenberger explains. "According to multiple recent reports, they've set their sights on Peck, whose limited campaign experience has, through no fault of her own, made her vulnerable to those attacks."

The Daily Beast's full report is available at this link (subscription required).

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