DeSantis Mega Donor lobbied for Everytown for Gun Safety during Permitless-carry hearing

[Miami_JBT]

It appears that a mega donor for Ron DeSantis is representing Michael Bloomberg's Everytown for Gun Safety and lobbying against Constitutional Carry in FL.



Jeff Hartley is a firm member of Smith Bryan & Myers, one of the premier government lobbying firms in FL.



From his own bio as a member of SMB:

Code: Select all

Jeff Hartley has been providing effective government relations consulting services to clients for nearly two decades. Jeff, as a shareholder and vice president of Smith Bryan & Myers, has helped grow the firm to become one of the most respected firms in Tallahassee.

His wide range of knowledge was developed through managing highly-targeted House Republican campaigns, where he was responsible for coordinating all fundraising and policy efforts, as well as public appearances, media events and direct mail buys. Additionally, Jeff has served as a liaison between the firm’s clients, House and Senate leadership, the Governor’s office and the Cabinet.

Get this, Jeff Hartley was a inauguration’s co-chair for the 2023 Gubernatorial Inauguration, an honor bestowed to folks thet raise $1 million or more in campaign funds. There were only five $1 million donors and Jeff Hartley was one of them. He received the “inaugural chair” designation, which included the ability to access multiple inaugural events. That included a photo with DeSantis, VIP seats to DeSantis’ swearing in and invitations to attend a candlelight dinner, inaugural ball, etc....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/18/desantis-inauguration-donors/



https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2023/01/following-record-fundraising-cycle-florida-gov-ron-desantis-woos-donors-and-lobbyists-at-inauguration-events/



Yup, a known Republican megs donor, someone that has connections to DeSantis and the Legislative Leadership, is currently representing one of the nation's most anti-gun organizations in the country.

I wonder what else is happening behind the scenes.

[tector]

LOL, these guys are like lawyers. Most will lobby for whoever pays them. Some firms have dedicated political positions, but most--whores.

I don't deny the result here is cooked in advance--that's obvious. But Everytown is not doing the cooking--it's the usual suspects.

[n0rlf]

LOL, these guys are like lawyers. Most will lobby for whoever pays them. Some firms have dedicated political positions, but most--whores.

I don't deny the result here is cooked in advance--that's obvious. But Everytown is not doing the cooking--it's the usual suspects.

This!

And on a much larger scale we will see this for the 2024 candidates across the board. Been happening forever we just have not had the ability to dig deep for the truth that we now have.

Hence the move to censor social media based on calling it misinformation.

Don't look behind the curtain! Management by diversion I call it. Don't look here look at that thing over there. That is why we are seeing new stories frequently now and never seem to see the outcome of investigations as we have to always wait for the final report. Not enough people either intelligent enough or just with common sense that cam be led to deer the truth. Everyone believes what they see or read or hear from social media.

I think we are CTD!

[Miami_JBT]

DeSantis inauguration sponsored by companies he loves to bash

[tector]

Seriously, are you a child? You are posting the same uncomprehending "purity test" shit over and over.

Conflating lobbyists with their clients is the same as conflating lawyers with their clients. It can be relevant in some instances, but generally means nothing. Just stepping back and looking at reality, what evidence do you have that DeSantis has gone "soft" on Disney now? I mean this just happened YESTERDAY:

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/2023/ ... ida-house/

I appreciate your efforts on behalf of the Second Amendment, but when it comes to politics generally you can't stop beclowning yourself.

[Miami_JBT]

Seriously, are you a child? You are posting the same uncomprehending "purity test" shit over and over.

Conflating lobbyists with their clients is the same as conflating lawyers with their clients. It can be relevant in some instances, but generally means nothing. Just stepping back and looking at reality, what evidence do you have that DeSantis has gone "soft" on Disney now? I mean this just happened YESTERDAY:

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/2023/ ... ida-house/

I appreciate your efforts on behalf of the Second Amendment, but when it comes to politics generally you can't stop beclowning yourself.

LOL.....

Hartley is close to DeSantis. The question is, was he specifically hired by Everytown to network off that relationship and more importantly, is there a behind the scenes agreement that a full bill won't pass, just the watered-down version and the dog and pony show happens?

Because the biggest companies that DeSantis goes after, are the ones who paid the bills for his inauguration.

In FL, there have been multiple cases where in public, folks are bitter rivals but behind closed doors, they're best of friends and it is all scripted like WWF. Heck, you had the Republican President pro tempore of the Florida Senate (#2 of the Senate) have an affair with the Democrat Senate Minority Leader. Both were married with kids, who publicly, argued like they were bitter rivals. Behind closed doors, they were literally knocking boots.

So, what else is happening behind closed doors?

Florida's lobbying/political social circle is VERY SMALL. Everyone knows everyone. Some consider Hartley to be part of DeSantis' inner circle.

[George W]

I appreciate your efforts on behalf of the Second Amendment, but when it comes to politics generally you can't stop beclowning yourself.

But, I am an asshole for saying the same things. Welcome to the club.

[tector]

I appreciate your efforts on behalf of the Second Amendment, but when it comes to politics generally you can't stop beclowning yourself.

But, I am an asshole for saying the same things. Welcome to the club.

The Second Amendment is a massive issue, most people here believe that. But being absolutely monomanical about any one issue tends to distort reality for some people.

It is pretty unlikely that GOA is going to fully get what it wants out of Tallahasseee, true Constitutional Carry, which at a minimum includes Open Carry of handguns (IMHO true ConCarry would also include OC of long guns--the Second Amendment nowhere distiguishes between hand guns or long guns). So we are going to wind up with permitless carry of concealed handguns. Got it.

I agree this deal was fixed in advance, plainly. You don't have to be a genius to figure that out. So far so good.

But spiking OC has been a sport for the FL GOP long before DeSantis ever came on the politcal scene. Too bad our pre-July 2018 archives are all lost, because we (myself included) went on and on about this subject AGES ago. They'd use designated GOP fall guys (and girls) to do the trick. Remember Ellyn Bogdanoff (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellyn_Setnor_Bogdanoff)? She was one back in the day and she was driven from office in 2012, for Christ's sake. So the Johnny-come-latelys here can excuse me if am not in a state of shock over this year's developments. I really don't need to invent fairy tales about lobbyists controlling DeSantis to understand what is going on.

My advice to everyone is to take a nice, close shave with Occam's Razor.

[George W]

I appreciate your efforts on behalf of the Second Amendment, but when it comes to politics generally you can't stop beclowning yourself.

But, I am an asshole for saying the same things. Welcome to the club.

The Second Amendment is a massive issue, most people here believe that. But being absolutely monomanical about any one issue tends to distort reality for some people.

It is pretty unlikely that GOA is going to fully get what it wants out of Tallahasseee, true Constitutional Carry, which at a minimum includes Open Carry of handguns (IMHO true ConCarry would also include OC of long guns--the Second Amendment nowhere distiguishes between hand guns or long guns). So we are going to wind up with permitless carry of concealed handguns. Got it.

I agree this deal was fixed in advance, plainly. You don't have to be a genius to figure that out. So far so good.

But spiking OC has been a sport for the FL GOP long before DeSantis ever came on the politcal scene. Too bad our pre-July 2018 archives are all lost, because we (myself included) went on and on about this subject AGES ago. They'd use designated GOP fall guys (and girls) to do the trick. Remember Ellyn Bogdanoff (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellyn_Setnor_Bogdanoff)? She was one back in the day and she was driven from office in 2012, for Christ's sake. So the Johnny-come-latelys here can excuse me if am not in a state of shock over this year's developments. I really don't need to invent fairy tales about lobbyists controlling DeSantis to understand what is going on.

My advice to everyone is to take a nice, close shave with Occam's Razor.

I remember well. Marion Hammer even posted here about how "we" sabotaged it when she knew damned good and well the fix was in.

[wjbarricklow]

Every Second Amendment right we lost, we lost through incrementalism. Every one we won, we won back through incrementalism.

If we can pass permitless carry without open carry, so be it. Still better than passing nothing.