On the national stage, where, just now, most of his energies are concentrated, Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has been on a fair winning streak.
Following critical acclaim for demonstrating presidential chops during Wednesday’s third GOP debate, DeSantis was back in Iowa — site of the official campaign kickoff caucuses — Hoovering up the endorsements of Hawkeye State legislators.
DeSantis also scored a legal victory that will play well with the Republican base when, Monday, a federal judge rejected a challenge to a 2021 Florida law prohibiting transgender females — that is, biological males — from competing on women’s and girls’ sports teams.
[U.S. District Judge Roy] Altman ruled the … law did not violate constitutional equal protection and due-process rights and Title IX, a federal law that prevents discrimination based on sex in education programs. …
Attorneys for the state argued that the law was aimed at helping ensure athletic opportunities for girls and women who want to play interscholastic or college sports. They contended the opportunities could be threatened by the participation of transgender females, who were identified as biological males at birth.
Altman said he found that “promoting women’s equality in athletics is an important governmental interest” and disputed that the law (SB 1028) discriminated based on stereotypes.
Back in the state where he still has a day job, however, DeSantis the governor has had better weeks.
We respond, chiefly, and with dismay, to a report in Friday’s Orlando Sentinel that indicates DeSantis has taken a perfectly worthwhile idea — ending the Walt Disney Co.’s supreme rule over its sprawling, 47-square-mile Central Florida theme park kingdom (you know the catalyst) — and turned it into a political boondoggle.
Given the power by the Legislature to appoint members of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board — the successor to the 56-year-old Disney-controlled Reedy Creek Improvement District — DeSantis appears to have allowed leaders to be chosen undistinguished by their knowledge of or experience in municipal government administration, which is the role of the district.
Instead, they appear to be, uniformly, political creatures with a single distinguishing characteristic: loyalty to the state’s chief executive. The rewards, as anyone landing a top government job well outside their expertise — *cough* Pete Buttigieg *cough* — well knows can be staggering.
As CFTOD’s first top administrator, Glen Gilzean (the successful son of Jamaican immigrants) brings a resume rich in advocacy politics. He lobbied for school choice, was chair of the state’s African American History Task Force, led the Florida Commission of Ethics, and, for nearly eight years, was president and CEO of the Central Florida Urban League.
Worth noting, for turning the moribund Orlando chapter of the National Urban League around, getting it out of $1.2 million in debt, Gilzean was named a 2019 Central Florida CEO of the Year by the Orlando Business Journal.
But nowhere along his 14-year professional career was Gilzean ever tasked with the challenges specific to overseeing a municipal government. Nonetheless, having landed near the front of a steep learning curve, Gilzean was awarded a $400,000 salary, $50,000 more than his Reedy Creek predecessor.
None of this means Gilzean is not a grand fellow. Even someone with the proper credentials for the job, rejected candidate William Sturgeon (former city manager of nearby St. Cloud, pop. 60,000), reports a fondness for the man whose politics beat him out.
Still, at least one of the boss’ personnel decisions is more than a trifle cringe-worthy: Gilzean picked a Central Florida Urban League colleague, Paula Hoisington, as his chief of staff; a few months later, he promoted her to deputy district administrator, boosting her salary to $250,000 from $195,000.
Others who landed at CFTOD include a well-connected GOP legislative aide and a DeSantis administration director (who soon departed without explanation).
Instead of the promised accountability, CFTOD’s novice leadership appears to be careening from crisis to public embarrassment and back. There were public spats about ending annual passes for Reedy Creek employees (subsequently replaced by bonuses more than equal to the price of a pass), squabbles about trimming $8 million from Disney’s silky smooth the roads-paving budget, and a report last week that — citing this perceived cronyism — morale is sinking fast among Reedy Creek employees who stayed through the transition.
More than 40 of roughly 370 left the district voluntarily since the changeover in February, many trailing scorched-earth exit interviews, according to the Associated Press. OK, we know: There are few surveys less reliable than those provided by disgruntled ex-employees.
Team DeSantis’ official response has been limited to a single email to the Sentinel:
“CFTOD [Central Florida Tourism Oversight District] appointing those they believe are qualified for certain positions isn’t cronyism,” Jeremy Redfern, a DeSantis spokesman, said in an email. “Cronyism is a local government that served as a Corporate Kingdom for over 50 years. The ‘criticism’ from the cronies indicates that the District is doing the right thing.”
We know, also, that Democrats do precisely, and excessively, the same thing. Moreover, as president, Donald Trump’s record of “hiring all the best people” was pretty spotty.
Lucrative backslapping and insider promotions infect both parties. Hey, you hire who you know, and loyalty gets rewarded.
But those lame excuses do not perfume the stinky spatter of swampy paternalism DeSantis allowed.
Anybody making an argument for DeSantis as the GOP presidential nominee has to acknowledge that, at the very least, this looks icky. We want better. We deserve better. And those eyeing the DeSantis bandwagon still imagine he will deliver better.
