Gov. Ron DeSantis is, by all accounts, an avid golfer. Fortunately for the Florida Republican he doesn’t have to go too far to work on his game, however, because there’s a golf simulator, worth tens of thousands of dollars, in the gubernatorial mansion.
In fact, as The Washington Post reported, it was put there by a DeSantis donor just six months into the governor’s term.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s wealthy donors and supporters lent a golf simulator to the Governor’s Mansion and provided private flights to fundraisers and other political events, according to records obtained by The Washington Post. The golf simulator came from Mori Hosseini, a major home builder who chairs the University of Florida’s Board of Trustees and lent the device to the Governor’s Mansion in DeSantis’s first year in office, according to documents released to The Post in response to a public records request.
The reporting served as a timely reminder that DeSantis, a leading Republican presidential candidate who’s faced some awkward ethics questions related to fundraising, has been the beneficiary of his supporters’ generosity in a variety of ways.
That Post report was published last week. This week, the same newspaper ran a related follow-up report, noting the DeSantis administration’s decision to steer $92 million last year in leftover federal coronavirus funding “to a controversial highway interchange project that directly benefits a top political donor.”
The decision by the Florida Transportation Department to use money from the 2021 American Rescue Plan for the I-95 interchange at Pioneer Trail Road near Daytona Beach fulfilled a years-long effort by Mori Hosseini, a politically connected housing developer who owns two large tracts of largely forested land abutting the planned interchange. The funding through the DeSantis administration, approved shortly after the governor’s reelection, expedited the project by more than a decade, according to state documents.
The Post’s report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added that part of Hosseini’s plan involves developing land that “includes a sensitive watershed once targeted for conservation by the state.”
So let’s take stock. A DeSantis donor helped the Republican during his campaign — when the then-candidate vowed to “drain the swamp” — and then helped him again after the governor took office. A year later, DeSantis’ administration directed $92 million toward highway project — which faces considerable local opposition — which will greatly benefit the same donor. Ethics laws exist for a variety of reasons, including an obvious goal: avoiding the appearance of impropriety. It’s possible, of course, that Florida Commission on Ethics might take a look at developments like these, but let’s not forget that the current members of the state ethics panel were appointed by DeSantis.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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