Looks like the bloom is off the DeSantis rose:
DeSantis pulled back a contentious plan this week to add golf courses and hotels at some Florida state parks. The governor acted after his administration’s “Great Outdoors Initiative” faced a withering blast of criticism from across the political spectrum, including from one-time GOP allies who may run for governor when he’s out of office.
Local school board candidates he backed underperformed in the Aug. 20 primary. He is feuding with the lone Jewish Republican in the Legislature after that lawmaker called out DeSantis for recently traveling to Ireland — which has recognized Palestine as a country.
And two initiatives on the November ballot on abortion access and recreational marijuana appear poised to pass despite the governor’s opposition.
[…]
“I don’t think the backlash about parks was about him being a lame duck,” said Jamie Miller, a veteran political consultant who once worked for the Republican Party of Florida. “But I also do think that when the governor was tone-deaf in the past, people would go along with it. And now they’re positioning themselves for their political futures and you won’t see them do that.”
[…]
The potential passage of the two amendments on abortion and marijuana could also affect the governor’s legacy. DeSantis has been very vocal about the two measures and his chief of staff is running two political committees aimed at defeating them. DeSantis and his wife Casey DeSantis will hold a donor retreat next week at a golf resort in north Georgia to raise money for their opposition to the initiatives.
[…]
The recent events stand in stark contrast to most of DeSantis’ first five years as governor, including when he achieved a nearly 20-point reelection victory in 2022. DeSantis became a conservative star due to his handling of Covid-19 where he reopened schools faster than other states and fought against mask and vaccine mandates. He also waded into policy including a much-publicized battle with Disney after the company objected to a state law over classroom instruction of gender and sexual identity.
In the lead-up to his presidential run, DeSantis had continuous cooperation with the Florida Legislature on a series of laws about guns and abortion and other conservative touchpoints that he touted on the campaign trail. Many Republicans who disagreed with the governor rarely challenged him, and those who did said they were punished for doing so.
As one of his critics said, “You’ve got to be nice to people on the way up because there is going to come a time when you are on the way down,” Sadly for Ron, he’s just not capable of it.
This arrogant jerk did a lot of damage in his “anti-woke” campaign to destroy the Florida education system, torture ex-felons, alienate the state’s largest employer and treat migrants like political prey. Let’s hope his career has gone the way of a previous Great Whitebread Hope, Scott Walker, and we will never have to hear from him again. When your presidential campaign crashes as badly as his did it’s very hard to come back.