A political smear campaign or true oversight? DeSantises have to answer on Hope Florida | Opinion

Republican lawmakers’ newfound interest this year in scrutinizing Gov. Ron DeSantis is raising serious questions about whether his administration misused its power to advance the DeSantis family’s political ambitions and perhaps even crossed the line into illegality. The Legislature has been looking into a charity linked to Hope Florida, a program created by Florida’s first lady meant to get residents off welfare.

To be clear, we still don’t know whether the DeSantises or Hope Florida has done anything wrong. But what we know so far paints a worrisome picture.

The Legislature is questioning the $10 million in state settlement money that the Hope Florida Foundation — established to raise money to assist Hope Florida — received last year.

We’re glad that checks and balances have returned to Florida’s legislative branch, but we’re not naive. There’s clear personal and political animosity between Republican lawmakers and the Republican governor, and the scrutiny over Hope Florida may be meant to weaken First Lady Casey DeSantis as she’s reported to be mulling a run for governor against U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, who’s been endorsed by President Trump, an off-and-on DeSantis foe.

Regardless of the Legislature’s underlying political motivations, Floridians have the right to know whether the settlement dollars were distributed improperly.

On Tuesday, Rep. Alex Andrade, chair of the House Health Care Budget Subcommittee, said he had “serious questions” about what happened to the $10 million the Agency for Health Care Administration gave to the Hope Florida Foundation from a settlement between the agency and the state’s largest Medicaid managed care operator. House Republicans are questioning whether that transaction was legal under state law.

The foundation sent the money to two dark-money nonprofit groups, which then funneled millions to a political committee fighting last year’s recreational marijuana ballot initiative, which narrowly lost. Defeating Amendment 3 was a priority of the governor and the Republican Party.

“There were $10 million that should have gone back to the state treasury... and instead it went to Hope Florida and it did so in the dark of night,” House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, told One America News last week.

Andrade, R-Pensacola, said this week he will issue a subpoena for text messages and call logs from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier about the Hope Florida Foundation. Uthmeier controlled the anti-marijuana political committee and was DeSantis’ chief of staff. Andrade said he has “confirmed” that Uthmeier directed the dark money groups to each apply for $5 million grants from Hope Florida before the groups gave millions to the anti-recreational-pot political committee, the Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau reported.

Hope Florida was created in 2022 to connect people with community-based services that help them become less reliant on taxpayer-funded programs. DeSantis on Monday boasted that the organization has “gotten 30,000 people off welfare” but it’s unclear how his administration arrived at that number, the Herald reported. He has also defended the transfer of the $10 million as “100% appropriate” and accused his Republican foes in the Legislature of working with the “liberal media” to smear the first lady.

Hope Florida’s goals are definitely worthy ones that Floridians should support. But the DeSantises need to clear up the impression that the foundation might have been used to funnel settlement money that should have gone back to taxpayers to instead fund DeSantis’ political causes.

Unfortunately, based on what the Legislature has uncovered, Hope Florida has not been forthcoming.

Questions about the organization surfaced because lawmakers are considering a bill DeSantis is pushing to codify Hope Florida into state law. A legislative analysis of the proposal described issues obtaining audits and other records from the state regarding the program. That’s in line with the DeSantis administration’s overall hostility toward public records requests from the public and the media.

On Tuesday, the foundation’s chair told a House committee the organization didn’t keep meeting minutes, didn’t file its tax returns and asked few questions before distributing the $10 million. On Wednesday, the executive director of Hope Florida resigned the day after testifying before the committee, the Herald reported.

Even if this is all a politically motivated witch hunt designed to damage the prospects of the governor and his family, DeSantis has a lot explain.

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This story was originally published April 16, 2025 at 1:01 PM.