DeSantis’ war on ballot measures ignites fury in Florida: ‘This is still a democracy’

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Gov. Ron DeSantis is using every lever at his disposal to defeat two November ballot measures that would legalize cannabis and restore access to abortions in Florida.

The all-encompassing effort has drawn in state agencies ranging from the one that oversees elections to the one that builds roads. The Republican governor and his administration have openly campaigned against the amendments during events organized by his official office. And they’ve spent taxpayer money on ads warning voters about the dangers of marijuana and pushing back on the abortion amendment, which would overturn the state’s six-week ban.

The flurry of actions has generated litigation, a rebuke from a federal judge and assertions that state officials may be breaking laws designed to prevent the use of state resources to influence an election. DeSantis himself signed a law two years ago that blocks local governments from sending out any kind of communications on local referendums.

“No matter where you stand on an issue, this is still a democracy, and in a democracy, we do not spend taxpayer dollars in advance of a political issue,” State Sen. Joe Gruters, a Sarasota Republican and former chair of the Republican Party of Florida, said last week. “Tax dollars are meant to be spent on our police, schools, roads and other public programs that make our state great, not for political agendas.”

Gruters supports the cannabis amendment but opposes the abortion one.

Those backing the two measures — Amendment 3 and Amendment 4 — have spent millions of dollars on television ads and both the Republican Party of Florida and Florida Democratic Party have also paid for ads urging voters to say “yes” or “no” on the initiatives.

The passage of one or both amendments could undermine DeSantis’ much-touted “Florida Blueprint” that he used while campaigning for president. Abortion-rights supporters launched the push for their initiative shortly after DeSantis signed the six-week ban on abortions last year.

The governor and top state officials are unmoved by the criticism of their intervention in the process.

“State agencies have the authority and dedicated funding to educate the public on important issues, especially those that impact the health and safety of women and children,” said Bryan Griffin, a spokesperson for DeSantis. “Of course the state is going to educate Floridians on the dangers associated with drug use and ensure truthful information is disseminated regarding laws that protect the health of moms and their kids."

Past Florida governors have gotten directly involved in political battles over ballot initiatives, which were first authorized by the state’s 1968 constitution. In 1976, then-Gov. Reubin Askew, a Democrat, led the charge to require elected officials to file financial disclosures and later helped defeat an amendment on casino gambling.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush was caught on tape saying he had “devious plans” if voters approved a measure placing limits on the number of students in classrooms. Bush, a Republican, made the class-size measure — which ultimately passed — one of the central issues of his 2002 reelection campaign. He ran campaign ads that contended his opponent would have to raise taxes if it passed.

But the efforts undertaken by DeSantis and his administration appear unlike any previous ones.

“It has not gotten to this level, we are now in the major leagues,” said Daniel Smith, a University of Florida political science professor who has done extensive research and writing on ballot initiatives around the country. “Spitballs, pine tar and Vaseline are now in the game.”

The governor’s own chief of staff is helping raise money and direct anti-amendment efforts for two political committees while at the same time helping run the administration. The state’s election crimes office created by DeSantis spent weeks investigating allegations of fraud in the petitions used to place the measure on the ballot even though the petitions had been verified by local election officials. The report is being used in a lawsuit to try to block the abortion amendment even if it passes.

The effort is a reminder of how DeSantis has expanded the power of the governor’s office since his election nearly six years ago. He spent hundreds of millions without legislative approval during Covid-19, he ignored deadlines on judicial picks, and suspended two prosecutors after maintaining they had enacted policies at odds with state law. Previously, governors had largely only suspended local officials who had been arrested.

One part of the effort to derail the amendments includes the state paying for public service announcements that warn of the dangers of marijuana, including one ad funded by the state Department of Transportation that mentions driving statistics from states where it was legalized. The state’s health care agencies have a separate ad warning about teenagers using marijuana.

Smart & Safe Florida, the political committee backing the pot initiative, said it has pulled television records and found that cannabis-related public service announcements paid for by the state have aired 13,000 times so far in the run-up to the election. They put the cost at $50 million. A spokesperson for the governor did not respond to a question about the estimate, although it’s possible the state was able to purchase the ads at a discounted rate.

State Sen. Jason Pizzo, a Democrat from South Florida, sued over the DOT ads, maintaining legislators never gave the agency budgetary authority to purchase the air time. But Circuit Court Judge Angela Dempsey, who was first appointed to the bench by Bush and in recent years has made several favorable rulings for DeSantis, tossed the lawsuit.

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration launched a website and a series of 30-second advertisements in recent months that warn against voting for the measure. The website, which says “Amendment 4 threatens women’s safety,” led the campaign in favor of the amendment to file a lawsuit asking a state court judge to order the state to take the site down, arguing that it was rife with misinformation and that the agency had misused state funds on a political campaign. A Leon County Circuit judge ruled against the case, writing in his decision that the truth of Amendment 4 is for the voters to decide and not the court.

The state hasn’t just aired its own ads related to abortion and marijuana. The Florida Department of Health also sent cease and desist letters in early October to TV stations that ran advertisements supporting the abortion initiative. It said the ads could be considered an “Unsanitary nuisance” and suggested the stations could face charges.

The letters were signed by the general counsel for the Department of Health, who said in a federal court filing that the letters were actually written by lawyers working for the governor and that he quit after he was pressured to send another round of the letters. The Amendment 4 campaign filed a federal lawsuit to stop the agency from enforcing any laws that were included in the letters. The case is now pending before U.S. District Court Judge Mark E. Walker, who ordered DOH to temporarily stop sending the letters, saying the Amendment 4 advertisements are protected by the First Amendment.

The tug-of-war against Amendment 4 isn’t just limited to ads, but over the actual ballot itself.

This past summer, the DeSantis administration and the Florida House helped reshape the wording of a financial impact statement that is listed on the ballot below the amendment summary. The ballot statement tells voters that Amendment 4 may force the state to pay for abortions through Medicaid and lead to an economic downturn and higher regulatory costs. A legal challenge to this was tossed aside.

DeSantis touted this move during a September speaking event at a Tallahassee church where many of his office employees attended.

“That provides some clarity when a voter sees that,” DeSantis said. “That is not a partisan organization providing that information — that is going to be on the ballot that you actually read.”