DeSantis aims to 'drain the swamp'

Within the first 30 seconds of his governor campaign, Ron DeSantis started offering promises.

"I’m in a position to build on the great work that Gov. Rick Scott has done to advance economic opportunity, reform education and drain the swamp in Tallahassee, which needs to be drained, just like Washington," DeSantis said during an appearance on Fox & Friends back on Jan. 5.

Now, as governor-elect, he's the Capitol's biggest player and in a position to act on his pledges.

What does "drain the swamp in Tallahassee" look like?

The governor-elect's staff didn't respond to a request for comment on his reform plans, but in addition to putting DeSantis in the Governor's Mansion, midterm voters also provided a mandate for a swamp-draining approach.

Amendment 12 effects

The mandate occurred far down the ballot, where 79 percent of voters signed off on Amendment 12, which places new constraints on who can work as lobbyists and when former lawmakers can make that move.

As a candidate, DeSantis took aim at lobbyists, saying at his Jan. 30 campaign rollout in Boca Raton: "As dominant as K Street is in Washington, it may be that the case that the dominance of lobbyists in Tallahassee is even greater. I think putting the brakes on the revolving door between the state government and lobbying will be an integral part of my reform agenda."

So DeSantis is in position to work with lawmakers to shepherd in the new requirements, including penalties, before they take effect on Dec. 31, 2020.

The amendment expands restrictions on lobbying for compensation by public officers, such as former governors and other elected officials, ex-judges and former agency heads, during their terms and for six years after leaving office. The current ban is two years.

Also, the amendment makes liable all public officers and state employees who abuse their posts for "private gain" and eliminates government officials' right to a state-funded retirement or pension should they be convicted of a felony.

State Rep. Tom Leek, an Ormond Beach Republican who will chair the House Public Integrity & Ethics Committee, voted in favor of similar legislation that failed to pass the Florida Senate in 2016 and 2017.

The six-year requirement is important, Leek said, because it's designed to work in concert with Florida's term limits for lawmakers, which usually adds up to eight consecutive years.

"If you served with somebody, you should not be able to lobby that same person," Leek said.

While Carol Weissert, professor of political science at Florida State University, doesn't consider Tallahassee a swamp, she said lobbyists with too much power are one of three elements that comprise a hypothetical governing "swamp." The others: too much money in politics and state employees with too freedom to run things.

"There is undoubtedly too much money in politics, but this is very difficult to reform, thanks in large part to the U.S. Supreme Court," Weissert said. "Lobbyists are powerful, but we did recently add a pretty good ethics provision to the constitution. Regarding point three, Florida has way fewer state employees per population than any other state.

"In general, it will be difficult to reduce money in politics — and that’s really the most important aspect of my (hypothetical) swamp," she said.

New in town

DeSantis lands in the state capital after a 5½-year run in Congress representing the Volusia-Flagler area. In Washington, he frequently voted as an ideologue, a small-government, free-market conservative Republican who refused a congressional pension, argued an Affordable Care Act benefit fellow members were taking was extra-legal and sought to implement congressional term limits, long a D.C. nonstarter.

Susan MacManus, a University of South Florida political science professor-emeritus, pegged DeSantis as "dogmatic, an ideologue, a my-way-or-the-highway" guy during the governor's race, a narrow 0.4 percent victory over Democrat Andrew Gillum.

"He has, since he took office, made a couple of statements to try and put the harsh tone of the campaign aside and bridge the gap and bring Floridians together," she said. "Why? 1) he was elected, and 2) looking at the closeness of the races and the … demographics of the state, he’s savvy enough to know he’s got to broaden his appeal."

"Drain the swamp" is a phrase borrowed from the man whose support catapulted DeSantis in the polls during the Republican primary, President Donald Trump.

Steve MacNamara, a Florida State University communications professor who at different times served as chief of staff for Gov. Rick Scott, the Florida Senate president and the Florida House speaker, said he doesn't really know what "swamp" is.

"I think the drain-the-swamp thing is the new catch phrase. ... I don’t know necessarily that the swamp needs draining, but even if you're taking care of your swimming pool, you need to give it a good emptying once in awhile," MacNamara said. "The government is absolutely no exception."

Leek offered a different take.

"That term has taken on a meaning that really means: How do you restore public trust in the process?" Leek said. "You have to distinguish D.C. from Tallahassee."

Unlike Washington, where power is sometimes accumulated over the course of decades, the state is governed by a "citizen legislature, a part-time legislature," he said.

"I think Amendment 12 goes a along way to ensuring the public trust in the system," Leek said. "You've got to take the profit out of the process."

But MacNamara said the new lobbying restrictions are "hollow," and won't stop the influence of money in politics. Yet he's optimistic about DeSantis, who has thus far surrounded himself with "people who know how to navigate Tallahassee, who understand the complexities" in tackling a reform agenda.

"Ron DeSantis is not an insider. Neither was Rick Scott," MacNamara said. "DeSantis has a calm personality. He had a campaign voice like the president did, but I think he will have a softer governing voice like the president doesn't.

"Let him call it 'drain the swamp,'" MacNamara said. "But I don't think you'll see any sump pumps moving into Tallahassee."

What DeSantis has done

This week, DeSantis appointed a group of 33 advisers to a Transition Advisory Committee on Government Operations, tasked with helping him ensure "that the most critical functions of government are operating efficiently, responsibly and with the utmost transparency and accountability," while reducing regulatory burdens.

The team includes five people registered to lobby the Legislature in 2018 among its mix of businesspersons, local government officials and lawyers.

As governor-elect, one of his first tasks was putting together an inaugural committee. The majority of the 58 individuals named Nov. 27 to help raise money for the celebrations for his Jan. 7-8 inauguration were supporters, businesspeople and former public officials, including locals Mori Hosseini, Tony Grippa and John Hamlin.

And no fewer than 17 of its members are lobbyists, including the chairs, Brian and Kathryn Ballard of Tallahassee.

Further evidence of DeSantis transitioning from campaigning to governing came when he nominated former House Speaker Richard Corcoran, a onetime critic, as commissioner of education.

At one point during the Republican primary, Corcoran — who'd endorsed Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam over DeSantis in the Republican primary — was said by a DeSantis spokesman to be a "career insider" in the Tallahassee swamp. 

Longtime political observers note that it's not unusual for a governor-elect — even one who denounces the role of big money and career politicians — to tap former lawmakers and particularly lobbyists for an inaugural committee. They're good at raising money in a hurry.

"The question is: What does that mean for your governance?" MacManus said. "Everybody says they don’t want to be beholden to lobbyists until they have to be."