Lawyer Jeff |Childers has the scoop

In the latest news from the Trump campaign’s political war on Governor DeSantis, the Hill ran a story yesterday headlined, “Trump-Allied Super PAC Files Ethics Complaint Against DeSantis Over ‘Shadow Presidential Campaign’.”

I’m sure you’ve already heard about it.

Make America Great Again Inc., filed a 15-page complaint with the Florida Commission on Ethics alleging that the pro-DeSantis super PACs, state-level political contributions, and the governor’s “personally lucrative book tour” adds up to an improper, un-filed presidential campaign.

The key is Florida’s “Resign-To-Run” law, which requires any officeholder seeking a new office to resign from their current job if the terms of the two offices would overlap. DeSantis’ current term overlaps the next presidential term by two years. So Trump’s PAC is arguing that DeSantis is violating the law by running for president (without declaring it), and should have resigned first.

They are off base. The relevant statute, § 99.012, says that:

No person may qualify as a candidate for more than one public office, whether federal, state, district, county, or municipal, if the terms or any part thereof run concurrently with each other.

The statutory key word is “qualify.” If the statute applies, DeSantis must resign to run for president ten days before “qualifying” for president, which is the formal process of filing. He hasn’t filed yet, and the deadline is way off. Even publicly announcing his intent to run would not trigger the statute. And even if DeSantis does submit his resignation, it would not be effective until the first day of the new presidential term.

But there is a serious question about whether the statute even applies. DeSantis has a solid legal argument that the law doesn’t apply to him. In State ex rel. Davis v. Adams, 238 So.2d 415 (1970), the Florida Supreme Court held that offices defined by the U.S. Constitution (in that case, the House of Representatives), have their own Constitutional qualification requirements to run for office, and state laws cannot willy-nilly pile new state requirements on top of the Constitutional requirements.

I’m not the only one suspecting presidential campaigns are excepted from Resign-To-Run, as you can see from this excerpt from the Division of Election’s website — which was posted in 2018, long before DeSantis had a whisper of a clue of running for President:

Here’s the link. The statute doesn’t reference the Office of the President at all, so the statutory citations on the DOE’s website don’t make a lot of sense to me. Maybe I’m missing something. But the Florida Supreme Court’s holding in State ex rel. Davis v. Adams seems pretty compelling.

I believe all this explains why the Trump PAC filed an “ethics complaint” instead of a lawsuit, which would’ve gone nowhere. Instead, they’re arguing it might not be illegal, but DeSantis is still violating the spirit of the law by not resigning to run, and is therefore acting unethically. They bizarrely asked for the Ethics Commission to promptly remove DeSantis from the Governorship.

The Ethics Complaint is going nowhere.

First of all, five of the Ethics Commission’s nine members were appointed by DeSantis. So. Beyond that, in my experience, it’s hard to get the Ethics Commission to do ANYTHING even in clear cases of abuse. This is not a clear case; if anything it’s a stretch. Significantly, Trump’s PAC has to know that. So this complaint poses no real threat to DeSantis; it’s just a political stunt or a way to generate headlines.

It’s regretful that the primary seems headed toward a negative campaign. More than anything, I wish the two men would not attack each other and would just focus on presenting their own best cases to the voters.

But you know what? There is a bright side, due to the very compelling argument that DeSantis needs more experience in the crucible, because after he DOES declare, the democrats are certain to be merciless and it will be something the Governor hasn’t faced before.

It is one hundred percent certain that democrats would’ve attacked the Governor over Resign-To-Run even if Trump hadn’t. And DeSantis would be dealing with those lawsuits much closer to the election, and the democrats would inflame everyone about how DeSantis was breaking the law by not resigning.

In that sense, Trump’s PAC is really doing DeSantis a favor by drawing the sting of this issue now, in the most harmless way, in the most DeSantis-friendly forum. It ALMOSt makes me suspect the two campaigns might be working together. Either way, I bet the democrats are probably spitting nails that DeSantis’ Resign-To-Run issue will be resolved long before the deadline. So the Ethics Complain looks super gross, and it’s getting lots of media attention, it’s more fascinating than anything that anyone’s knickers should get twisted about.