Jason Garcia
@jasongarcia.bsky.social
Investigative reporter covering corporate influence in Florida. Publisher of Seeking Rents, a newsletter and podcast about state politics. https://jasongarcia.substack.com
The email trail was unearthed by Seeking Rents through a public records request that we made near the end of this year’s legislative session.
This is about as gross as it gets in Tallahassee.
And it’s even uglier than you may realize.
Much more here:
jasongarcia.substack.com/p/florida-la...
This is about as gross as it gets in Tallahassee.
And it’s even uglier than you may realize.
Much more here:
jasongarcia.substack.com/p/florida-la...
Florida lawmakers took instructions from a landowner's lobbyist. Now Florida taxpayers will pay $83 million for four acres.
Records show a lobbyist wrote a law enabling a controversial land deal in which Florida will pay more than $20 million an acre to buy a tiny parcel of property from a politically connected seller.
jasongarcia.substack.com
November 1, 2025 at 12:09 PM
The email trail was unearthed by Seeking Rents through a public records request that we made near the end of this year’s legislative session.
This is about as gross as it gets in Tallahassee.
And it’s even uglier than you may realize.
Much more here:
jasongarcia.substack.com/p/florida-la...
This is about as gross as it gets in Tallahassee.
And it’s even uglier than you may realize.
Much more here:
jasongarcia.substack.com/p/florida-la...
That sentence buried deep inside the budget — the line that enabled Florida’s top politicians to pull off a land deal that a longtime conservation leader called “a sham” — came, emails show, from a lobbyist for the developer...
November 1, 2025 at 12:09 PM
That sentence buried deep inside the budget — the line that enabled Florida’s top politicians to pull off a land deal that a longtime conservation leader called “a sham” — came, emails show, from a lobbyist for the developer...
And the state’s GOP-controlled Cabinet quickly signed off on the extravagant purchase price, which, at more than $20 million an acre, is more than 10 times the price the developer and his partners paid for the land less than a decade ago...
November 1, 2025 at 12:09 PM
And the state’s GOP-controlled Cabinet quickly signed off on the extravagant purchase price, which, at more than $20 million an acre, is more than 10 times the price the developer and his partners paid for the land less than a decade ago...
Three months later, the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis used that little line in the budget to spend $83.3 million in taxpayer money on a tiny spit of vacant land in Destin that records show is majority owned by a prominent real-estate developer and Republican Party donor...
November 1, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Three months later, the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis used that little line in the budget to spend $83.3 million in taxpayer money on a tiny spit of vacant land in Destin that records show is majority owned by a prominent real-estate developer and Republican Party donor...
Perhaps that's because using government power to help ag companies silence their critics would seem to be completely at odds with a wide swath of the Trump base – including folks in the MAHA movement or people who are passionate about free speech.
October 27, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Perhaps that's because using government power to help ag companies silence their critics would seem to be completely at odds with a wide swath of the Trump base – including folks in the MAHA movement or people who are passionate about free speech.
Oddly, Wilton Simpson's office doesn't mention this part of his "farm bill" in a lengthy press release they put out this morning...
October 27, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Oddly, Wilton Simpson's office doesn't mention this part of his "farm bill" in a lengthy press release they put out this morning...
That's not all.
Simpson's bill would even enable ag companies to sue critics of "any agricultural practices used in the production."
Like, say, the sugar industry's practice of setting pre-harvest fires in their cane fields that produce a toxic soot known as "Black snow"...
Simpson's bill would even enable ag companies to sue critics of "any agricultural practices used in the production."
Like, say, the sugar industry's practice of setting pre-harvest fires in their cane fields that produce a toxic soot known as "Black snow"...
October 27, 2025 at 1:57 PM
That's not all.
Simpson's bill would even enable ag companies to sue critics of "any agricultural practices used in the production."
Like, say, the sugar industry's practice of setting pre-harvest fires in their cane fields that produce a toxic soot known as "Black snow"...
Simpson's bill would even enable ag companies to sue critics of "any agricultural practices used in the production."
Like, say, the sugar industry's practice of setting pre-harvest fires in their cane fields that produce a toxic soot known as "Black snow"...
Florida's food libel law currently empowers ag companies that produce *perishable* food products (ie: fruits, veggies, meat) to sue industry critics.
Wilton Simpson's plan would expand the law to cover producers of *non-perishable* food products, too..
Wilton Simpson's plan would expand the law to cover producers of *non-perishable* food products, too..
October 27, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Florida's food libel law currently empowers ag companies that produce *perishable* food products (ie: fruits, veggies, meat) to sue industry critics.
Wilton Simpson's plan would expand the law to cover producers of *non-perishable* food products, too..
Wilton Simpson's plan would expand the law to cover producers of *non-perishable* food products, too..
Florida is one of ~13 states with food libel laws, which make it easier for ag companies to sue people who criticize the safety of their food.
These laws have famously been used by the beef industry to sue Oprah Winfrey & ABC and the egg industry to sue environmental groups...
These laws have famously been used by the beef industry to sue Oprah Winfrey & ABC and the egg industry to sue environmental groups...
October 27, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Florida is one of ~13 states with food libel laws, which make it easier for ag companies to sue people who criticize the safety of their food.
These laws have famously been used by the beef industry to sue Oprah Winfrey & ABC and the egg industry to sue environmental groups...
These laws have famously been used by the beef industry to sue Oprah Winfrey & ABC and the egg industry to sue environmental groups...
The idea is buried inside a 60-page "farm bill" just filed in the Florida Legislature that is being spearheaded by Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson.
It would expand what is known as Florida's "food libel," "food disparagement" or "veggie libel" law...
It would expand what is known as Florida's "food libel," "food disparagement" or "veggie libel" law...
October 27, 2025 at 1:57 PM
The idea is buried inside a 60-page "farm bill" just filed in the Florida Legislature that is being spearheaded by Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson.
It would expand what is known as Florida's "food libel," "food disparagement" or "veggie libel" law...
It would expand what is known as Florida's "food libel," "food disparagement" or "veggie libel" law...
Altogether, Seeking Rents now estimates that Florida's governor burned between $35 million and $40 million in taxpayer money on so-called "public service announcements" attacking the two ballot measures, each of which was supported by large majorities of Florida voters...
October 20, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Altogether, Seeking Rents now estimates that Florida's governor burned between $35 million and $40 million in taxpayer money on so-called "public service announcements" attacking the two ballot measures, each of which was supported by large majorities of Florida voters...
These are just some of the details contained in hundreds of pages of public records obtained by Seeking Rents related to Ron DeSantis' unprecedented public ad campaign last fall against the abortion and marijuana amendments...
October 20, 2025 at 12:31 PM
These are just some of the details contained in hundreds of pages of public records obtained by Seeking Rents related to Ron DeSantis' unprecedented public ad campaign last fall against the abortion and marijuana amendments...
At the same time, the Agency for Health Care Administration — a state agency ultimately overseen by then-DeSantis Chief of Staff James Uthmeier — paid $100,000 to TAG for “media placement and production” as a subcontractor under Strategic Digital Services...
October 20, 2025 at 12:31 PM
At the same time, the Agency for Health Care Administration — a state agency ultimately overseen by then-DeSantis Chief of Staff James Uthmeier — paid $100,000 to TAG for “media placement and production” as a subcontractor under Strategic Digital Services...
Campaign-finance records show that Keep Florida Clean — the anti-marijuana political committee run by then-DeSantis Chief of Staff James Uthmeier — paid TAG more than $25,000 for “advertising” and “media production"...
October 20, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Campaign-finance records show that Keep Florida Clean — the anti-marijuana political committee run by then-DeSantis Chief of Staff James Uthmeier — paid TAG more than $25,000 for “advertising” and “media production"...
That company: TAG Strategies, an ad firm with a history of working for DeSantis’ political campaigns — including helping to produce a goofy commercial in which the governor pretended to be a jet fighter pilot...
October 20, 2025 at 12:31 PM
That company: TAG Strategies, an ad firm with a history of working for DeSantis’ political campaigns — including helping to produce a goofy commercial in which the governor pretended to be a jet fighter pilot...
That's not all.
There was at least one other vendor working on the political ad campaign against the marijuana ballot measure who was simultaneously working as a secret subcontractor on the DeSantis administration’s taxpayer-funded ad campaign, too...
There was at least one other vendor working on the political ad campaign against the marijuana ballot measure who was simultaneously working as a secret subcontractor on the DeSantis administration’s taxpayer-funded ad campaign, too...
October 20, 2025 at 12:31 PM
That's not all.
There was at least one other vendor working on the political ad campaign against the marijuana ballot measure who was simultaneously working as a secret subcontractor on the DeSantis administration’s taxpayer-funded ad campaign, too...
There was at least one other vendor working on the political ad campaign against the marijuana ballot measure who was simultaneously working as a secret subcontractor on the DeSantis administration’s taxpayer-funded ad campaign, too...
But about a week later, vendor records show that another agency broadcasting anti-amendment PSAs — the Florida Department of Health — made a payment for just over $1.6 million to Strategic Digital Services...
October 20, 2025 at 12:31 PM
But about a week later, vendor records show that another agency broadcasting anti-amendment PSAs — the Florida Department of Health — made a payment for just over $1.6 million to Strategic Digital Services...
Records show that Strategic Digital Services mistakenly submitted a second invoice to AHCA from Total Video Placements. The healthcare agency never paid that invoice, which was for just over $1.6 million...
October 20, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Records show that Strategic Digital Services mistakenly submitted a second invoice to AHCA from Total Video Placements. The healthcare agency never paid that invoice, which was for just over $1.6 million...
And though the public record remains incomplete, it’s clear that AHCA wasn’t the only state agency secretly using the FlexPoint-linked subcontractor, either...
October 20, 2025 at 12:31 PM
And though the public record remains incomplete, it’s clear that AHCA wasn’t the only state agency secretly using the FlexPoint-linked subcontractor, either...