Señor T has been pretty successful at getting into DeSantis’ head— and under his thin skin. The other day, he crowed about DeSantis’ poor response in New Hampshire and warned that he’s harming his brand in a way that will hurt his chances for 2028. DeSantis is making lame excuses, blaming the media and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, for his inability to connect with voters as reflected in his dismal polling trajectory. Thursday on Fox: “Well, I think if you look at the people like the corporate media, who are they going after? Who do they not want to be the nominee? They’re going after me. Who’s the president of Mexico attacking because he knows we’ll be strong on the border and hold him accountable and the cartels? He’s going after me. So, I think if you look at all these people that are responsible for a lot of the ills in our society, they’re targeting me as the person they do not want to see as the candidate.”
But with a clueless and moribund Florida Democratic Party, DeSantis has all the space he needs to ignore his own state and fully concentrate on Iowa instead. Yesterday, for example, NBC News reported how he disingenuously bragged about sending Iowa help in the Davenport building collapse-- 10 hour after Iowa informed him they didn’t need any help. That’s how desperate he is to save his faltering campaign with an Iowa win, despite Iowa GOP caucus voters’ history of backing losers:
2008 Mike Huckabee
2012 Rick Santorum
2016 Ted Cruz
This morning, the NY Times’ political A-team reported on the battle between Señor T and Meatball in Iowa, personalizing it into a fight for Governor Kim Reynolds’ support. She’s claims she’s neutral; Trump knows her heart belongs to the DeSanti. “For DeSantis,” they wrote, “Iowa is where his allies acknowledge he must first halt Trump’s momentum to prevent him from steam-rolling his way to a third consecutive GOP nomination. For Trump, it is where he hopes to snuff out his challengers’ candidacies, and win where he did not in 2016. And there is no politician in Iowa with greater sway than Reynolds, 63, who has overseen her party’s swelling state legislative majorities with an approval rating among Republicans near 90 percent. Republicans say she can command attention and shape the landscape even without making a formal endorsement… [T]he warmth of her embrace of DeSantis has become conspicuous.”
“I hate to say it, without me, you know, she was not going to win, you know that, right?” Trump said of Reynolds when he campaigned in Iowa in June.
The Republican crowd, notably, did not applaud that off-key remark, which came only months after Reynolds had romped to re-election, notably, did not applaud that off-key remark, which came only months after Reynolds had romped to re-election, carrying 95 of the state’s 99 counties. But the claim spoke to the former president’s self-centered view of the world: That it was his appointment of her predecessor, Terry Branstad, as his ambassador to China that cleared the way for Reynolds, then Branstad’s lieutenant governor, to take the state’s top job.
Reynolds is said to have tired of Trump, and she reacted with disbelief to his comment that she owed him her governorship, according to people familiar with her thinking and her response. Still, she sided with Trump after his most recent indictment, lashing out at the Biden administration and saying it was a “sad day for America.”
…Trump advisers have snickered privately about her having neutrality-in-name-only. “She is quote unquote neutral,” said a person close to Trump, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the team’s thinking, which is that Reynolds will do whatever she can to help DeSantis short of endorsing him.
Back home, it’s looking like state Rep. Anna Eskamani is getting ready to play the part of sacrificial lamb against Rick Scott in the Senate race. Yesterday, Jeffrey Schweers reported on Eskamani’s attack on an easier target: Meatball Ron. “DeSantis,” wrote Schweers, “was more concerned about Iowa corn farmers than Florida taxpayers when he vetoed a popular bill that could have saved the state $277 million by adding electric vehicles to state and local government fleets.” That came right from Eskamani, who pointed out that “More EVs would mean less of a demand for ethanol, which is processed from corn grown in states such as Iowa, the expected home to the first presidential caucus next year. It’s another example of DeSantis putting his own political ambitions to be president over the needs of Floridians. “The Iowa caucus voters who are all about ethanol don’t see electric vehicles as something that is economically in their favor. DeSantis is catering to his Iowa voters, not passing policy for Floridians.”
Funny enough, the bill Meatball vetoed SB 284, which would have required all state and local governments, colleges and universities to buy vehicles based on their lowest lifetime costs, was sponsored by a Republican, state Sen. Jason Brodeur. Schweers pointed out that Meatball’s “veto last week was perplexing, supporters said. Both the Florida Natural Gas Association and the Sierra Club supported the measure, along with the Advanced Energy United and Electrification Coalition, a group that supports increasing the use of alternative-fuel vehicles. ‘It was a common sense, good governance bill. There is nothing in this bill that any person in America should be against,’ said former Sen. Jeff Brandes, a Tampa Bay Republican who tried getting similar legislation through last year. The law could have saved state and local governments $277 million over 15 years by adding more electric vehicles to their fleets, said Michael Weiss, the Florida state lead at Advanced Energy United, a trade association of clean energy companies… ‘This veto is a baffling decision that will cost Florida taxpayers millions of dollars,’ Weiss said. ‘The Florida Legislature saw the clear economic and taxpayer benefits of a modern and efficient state fleet, but Gov. DeSantis somehow didn’t get the memo.’… The bill passed both chambers of the Legislature with just a single no vote, by Rep. Yvonne Hinson of Gainesville. But it is not likely anyone would even suggest trying to override the veto because of the governor’s immense grip on Tallahassee.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Eskamani said.
Eskamani said DeSantis also has put personal politics first with culture war laws such as sexual orientation in schools, banning gay-themed books and drag shows, and making it harder for unions to collect dues.
She and other Democrats have pointed out problems such as soaring insurance premiums and a spike in housing costs that go unsolved.
“Not a single part of his agenda that passed is helping Floridians,” she said. “His agenda is tailored to the needs of Republican [primary and caucus voters].”
Meanwhile, the Mafia Princess is campaigning as a solo act in Iowa, launching Mamas for DeSantis in a suburb of Des Moines. But Trump is making moves in Iowa as well and headlined a mega-MAGA rally in the reddest part of the state, in Council Bluffs yesterday. Funny enough, he attacked Meatball for the opposite reason Eskamani did— for once having opposed the federal mandate for ethanol. Trump is claiming his positions have hurt Iowa farmers by “demonizing ethanol.”
The Associated Press reported that “As a congressman from Florida, DeSantis co-sponsored a bill in 2017 that would have immediately ended the renewable fuel standard, a position consistent with fiscal conservatives who see such mandates as government overreach.”
The latest Emerson poll of Iowa Republican voters can’t be encouraging for Meatball, although he hasn’t fallen below 20% yet the way he has in New Hampshire and other states.
Señor Trumpanzee- 62%
Meatball Ron- 20%
Pence- 5%
Nikki Haley- 5%
Tim Scott- 3%
Ramaswarmy- 2%
Așa Hutchinson- 1%
Doug Burgum- 0.4%