DeSantis orders another state agency into campaign against abortion and marijuana amendments

The Florida Department of Education is at least the sixth state agency Ron DeSantis has roped into what is now a nearly $20 million tax-funded campaign to keep abortion banned and marijuana illegal.

Photo credit: Matt Johnson

This is Seeking Rents, a newsletter and podcast devoted to producing original journalism — and lifting up the work of others — about Florida politics, with an emphasis on the ways that big businesses and other special interests influence public policy in the state. Seeking Rents is produced by veteran investigative journalist Jason Garcia, and it is free to all. But please consider a voluntary paid subscription, if you can afford one, to help support our work. And check out our video channel, too.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has dragged yet another state agency into his tax-funded crusade against two constitutional amendments on this year’s ballot.

This time it’s the Florida Department of Education, which is helping pay for a new television ad warning of the “risks to marijuana” — just as voters begin casting ballots on a constitutional amendment that would legalize marijuana in Florida.  

“Marijuana can do real damage to the still-developing brains of young people,” the ad warns. “Protect your teen’s future and mental health: Make sure they know the risks to marijuana.”

That Department of Education is at least the sixth state agency that DeSantis has enlisted into what now appears to be a nearly $20 million, taxpayer-financed campaign against two citizen-led constitutional amendments that Florida voters are about to decide — Amendment 3, which would legalize marijuana, and Amendment 4, which would overturn a near-total ban on abortion in Florida. Both ballot measures need at least 60 percent support to pass.

In addition to the education agency, the Departments of Children & Families, Health, and Transportation are all funding TV commercials that implicitly attack Amendment 3. DCF and the Health Department are also financing ads against Amendment 4, as is the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration.

And DeSantis’ Department of State recently accused the sponsors of Amendment 4 of petition fraud — unproven allegations that anti-abortion activists immediately seized upon in an attempt to get the abortion measure removed from the ballot.

These political ads masquerading as “public service announcements” have grown to at least five different commercials attacking Amendments 3 and 4, all of which are or have been in heavy rotation on broadcast television.

The latest anti-marijuana spots include one from FDOT in which a trio of Republican sheriffs — Wayne Ivey of Brevard County, Grady Judd of Polk County, and T.K. Waters of Duval County — inveigh against marijuana. The commercial appears designed to counter pro-Amendment 3 ads that feature Florida sheriffs supporting marijuana legalization.

One of the newest commercials attacking Amendment 4 centers an anti-abortion radiologist whom DeSantis has appointed to the state Board of Medicine, the powerful board that license and disciplines doctors. It’s designed to counter pro-Amendment 4 ads that include women and doctors telling horrific personal stories about the consequences of Florida’s statewide abortion ban, which is one of the strictest in the nation.

The DeSantis administration isn’t just spending taxpayer money on political campaigns, either. The Republican governor, who hopes to run for president again in 2028, is also spending taxpayer money on high-priced lawyers brought in to defend his decision to spend taxpayer money on political campaigns.

In just the past few weeks, records show state agencies have signed at least five new contracts with outside law firms to represent the agencies in regard to their political activities. The contracts — which will pay outside attorneys as much as $750 an hour — total nearly $2 million in spending.

They include a $100,000 deal between the Florida Department of Transportation and Tallahassee-based Lawson Huck Gonzalez. The law firm is simultaneously representing anti-abortion activists in a last-ditch lawsuit trying to block Amendment 4.

Altogether, Florida taxpayers now appear to be spending more than $18 million on DeSantis’ campaigns against the abortion and marijuana ballot measures, according to a Seeking Rents review of state contracts, purchase orders and vendor payments.

They include:

• A $5.5 million agreement between the Florida Department of Health and marketing firm Strategic Digital Services for an unspecified “media campaign”

• A $5.1 million agreement between the Florida Department of Children & Families and Strategic Digital Services for advertising campaigns related to “the dangers of marijuana, opioid, and drug use” and “mothers, babies and families”

• A $3.239 million agreement between the Florida Department of Education and Strategic Digital Services for “media placement and production” and other unspecified advertising

• A $2.4 million agreement between the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and Startegic Digital Services for an unspecified “public information campaign”

• A $900,000 contract between DOH and the law firm First & Fourteenth to represent the agency in potential legal actions against TV stations broadcasting ads in support of Amendment 4

• A $500,000 contract between DOH and the law firm Lombard Miles, also to represent the agency in potential legal actions against TV stations broadcasting ads in support of Amendment 4

• A $260,000 contract between AHCA and the law firm Cooper & Kirk to defend the agency in a lawsuit challenging its campaigning against Amendment 4

• A $200,000 contract between DOH and the law firm Cooper & Kirk to defend the agency in a lawsuit attempting to stop the agency from retaliating against TV stations airing pro-Amendment 4 ads

• A $150,000 agreement between the Florida Department of Transportation and the Florida Association of Broadcasters for an unspecified “public information media campaign.” The broadcasters association, which lobbies on behalf of TV and radio station owners, will also kick in additional $450,000 of free air time, bosting the total value of the deal to $600,000

• A $100,000 contract between FDOT and the law firm Lawson Huck Gonzalez to defend the agency in a lawsuit challenging its campaigning against Amendment 3

• A $200-an-hour agreement plus $2,540.28 in expenses for an anti-abortion legal scholar from The Catholic University of America who DeSantis brought in to testify before a state panel writing some of the ballot language for Amendment 4

• A $75-an-hour part-time job plus $3,612.76 in expenses for an anti-abortion fellow from the Heritage Foundation, who was then appointed to that state panel that wrote ballot language for Amendment 4