Ron DeSantis and Big Sugar join forces in key south Florida campaign

Florida's governor and the state's Big Sugar companies have teamed up in an important Palm Beach County election — while a big Everglades battle looms in the background.

Photo credit: Kim Seng

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Ron DeSantis is taking a hands-on role in a high-stakes race in south Florida.

Federal accounts linked to Florida’s Republican governor recently funneled $40,000 to one of the candidates in a pivotal Palm Beach County election — an election that will likely decide which party controls the biggest government in a county of more than 1.5 million people.

The bundled cash was dropped into a political committee supporting Michael Barnett, a county commissioner in Palm Beach who was installed last year by DeSantis. It was part of an appointment two-step by the governor that gave Republicans a 4-3 board majority. But that majority is now hanging in the balance as Barnett runs for re-election against Democratic challenger Joel Flores, a former mayor of Greenacres.

DeSantis’ cash arrived in the form of a trio of checks that Friends of Michael Barnett booked on Oct. 1. They included:

• $15,000 from Never Back Down, the Super PAC that DeSantis used to finance much of his failed campaign for president

• $15,000 from Fight Right, a second Super PAC that DeSantis allies set up during his national campaign

• $10,000 from Great American Comeback, a DeSantis-controlled leadership PAC

The gifts from the governor swell to $55,000 if you include a $15,000 check from the Republican Party of Florida that Barnett’s political committee deposited on the same day. It came immediately after DeSantis transferred $2.5 million into the state party from a state-level political committee the governor controls.

It’s enough to make DeSantis the largest single donor to Barnett, who records show has raised roughly $417,000 between his political committee and regular campaign account.

It also puts DeSantis into an unusual alliance with another of Barnett’s biggest contributors: The sugar industry, with whom DeSantis has had a famously antagonistic relationship (mostly).

Companies and consultants connected to Florida’s two Big Sugar producers — Florida Crystals and U.S. Sugar Corp. — have bundled more than $20,000 to Barnett, campaign-finance records show. It’s possible the sugar companies are responsible for even more of Barnett’s money, too.

For instance, five affiliates of Florida Crystals gave Barnett a combined $5,000 in May. On the very same day, 10 separate political committees controlled by the same Republican consultants — consultants who have worked with Big Sugar in the past — bundled another $10,000 to Barnett. But there is no way to definitively identify the original source of that money based solely on public records.

Now, it's important to note here that Big Sugar is a bipartisan money-bundler when it needs to be.

Records show companies linked to Florida Crystals and U.S. Sugar also donated at least $10,000 to Democrat Bobby Powell, an outgoing state senator who is heavily favored to win a different seat on the Palm Beach County commission after he won the August primary. Many of the same donor-masking political committees steered money to Powell, too.

And Barnett’s opponent, Joel Flores, has himself raised $377,000 between his regular account and a political committee. Much of that money comes from suspicious sources, like gray-money committees controlled by a consultant with big business clients like Florida Power & Light and the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

The fact that DeSantis and Big Sugar are aligned on this one county election might normally be nothing than idle curiosity.

Except it comes just as another Everglades battle is brewing — one in which Big Sugar is likely to need help from both the DeSantis administration and the Palm Beach County commission.

It centers around a proposed rock mine in the Everglades Agricultural Area, a nearly 1,200-square-mile area south of Lake Okeechobee where Florida’s famed River of Grass was drained for farming.

It is immediately north of what is known as the “EAA Reservoir” — a linchpin project in the decades-long effort to revive the Everglades that will help restore the historic flow of freshwater from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay.

Source: South Florida Water Management District via Captains for Clean Water.

Records show the roughly 8,000-acre mine would excavate rock from land owned in large part by U.S. Sugar and Florida Crystals. The mine would be run by Palm Beach Aggregates, a company reportedly co-owned by Florida Crystals.

Boosters have tried to pitch the mine as a second water-storage reservoir that could complement Everglades restoration, dubbing it the “Southland Water Resource Project.”

But a coalition of environmental groups — such as Captains for Clean Water and Friends of the Everglades — oppose the proposal.

They say mining so close to the EAA reservoir could damage the most critical project in Everglades restoration. They also note that project documents show mining on the site would take 20 years or more. And they say there are simply far smarter ways to help revive the Everglades than digging a 15-foot-deep hole in the ground.

Amid the backlash, the companies behind the mine recently pulled it from consideration by the South Florida Water Management District. But they continue to work with the DeSantis administration to obtain permits through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

They have also asked the water management district — which is run by DeSantis appointees — to issue something called a “Letter of Project Identification.”

That may sound like a boring bit of bureaucracy. But such a letter would enable the companies to seek permission for their mine from Palm Beach County — teeing up a potentially critical county commission vote.

It’s the sort of thing that makes every single county commission seat matter.

Especially if Ron DeSantis ends up aligned with Big Sugar on more than this one county election.

Correction: An earlier version misstated the current Republican majority on the Palm Beach County Commission. The GOP currently holds a 4-3 majority.