‘He’s Developing Blinkers’: Has Ron DeSantis Let All the Winning Go to His Head? – POLITICO

Its hardly just Republicans who think so. Ione Townsend, the chair of the Hillsborough County Democratic Party, told me she knows three or four people who she said voted for DeSantis in 2018 but wont this year because of this because of the action he took against Warren. She also said they didnt want to talk about it publicly. I heard a lot of this from a lot of people.

They absolutely exist, she said, as if she were speaking about some scarce species.

But enough of them? To make a difference come November? Townsend doubted it.

Were too polarized. There are people who come hell or high water theyre going to vote Republican or theyre going to vote Democrat. No matter what. Because were in our silos. There are too many Fox News watchers who believe Democrats are pedophiles and eat babies, she said. Its really discouraging.

When something like this happens, you can for a moment lose your faith in politics, Warren told me. But Ive been encouraged and had my faith restored by not just all the people whove rushed to my defense but people who have told me, I didnt vote for you, but I know this is wrong. Ive had people tell me, I wont vote for the governor again because of this.

Supporters, former voters, for DeSantis? Who are not anymore? Because of this? I said.

Correct.

But again how many?

I dont know, he said.

It sounded at least to me like a tacit recognition that for every Republican or independent who is outraged by these power plays by DeSantis there probably are at least as many voters who are cheering him on or just dont know or care. If there is, then, true political peril, it more realistically plays out over a longer arc of time.

If Warren comes back as state attorney in any way, shape or form, I think thats a loss, a former DeSantis aide told me. Like, Charlie Crist couldnt take him down Covid couldnt take him down but Andrew Warren took him down? the aide said. Andrew Warren cant be his first loss.

Hes developing blinkers where hes not seeing the board, in my judgment.

Mac Stipanovich

I dont know that well find out this year, or when well find out, but has he gone, or will he go, too far? Mac Stipanovich said. Hes developing blinkers where hes not seeing the board, in my judgment. Now, it hasnt cost him anything so far, he keeps being rewarded, and so he keeps up the behavior that produces those rewards. But I think hes missing things that could come back to bite him.

It is in the end, of course, not about the Warren case as such, or even its eventual upshot. Its about the precedent.

If Andrew Warren could be suspended for what he did, Stipanovich said, then any public official could be suspended for almost anything that they said.

Excerpt from:

'He's Developing Blinkers': Has Ron DeSantis Let All the Winning Go to His Head? - POLITICO