Disney Ron DeSantis feud leaves Florida Chamber of Commerce silent

The Florida Chamber of Commerce has counted Disney as an ally for over a decade, and helped to propel Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ climb up the state’s political ladder.

Now, because the governor and one of many state’s largest employers feud, the highly effective enterprise lobbying group hasn’t taken sides — a transfer that would danger damaging a relationship with both of the important thing gamers within the Sunshine State.

The Chamber has deep ties to certainly one of Florida’s largest employers in Disney: the previous chairman of the group’s board was Anthony Connelly, who was as soon as the president of Disney’s Cruise Line. Disney additionally donated over $400,000 through the 2010 election cycle to a pair of political committees run by the Florida Chamber, based on the Orlando Sentinel.

Final month, the chamber boasted that Walt Disney World donated $100,000 to assist STEM schooling in Florida. It highlighted Rena Langley, an government on the large Florida theme park and a longtime member of the Chamber’s board.

The Chamber additionally has lengthy tried to remain on the nice facet of DeSantis, who has largely promoted insurance policies that corporations assist however nonetheless waged a protracted struggle in opposition to certainly one of his state’s greatest financial drivers. The group and lots of of its board members have additionally backed the governor’s campaigns, based on marketing campaign finance information and statements reviewed by CNBC.

However as Disney and DeSantis descend into an more and more venomous struggle, the state Chamber has not defended or criticized both facet. The enterprise lobbying group has but to weigh in on the dispute on its web site.

David Jolly, who whereas a Republican member of Congress, represented Florida’s thirteenth congressional district, instructed CNBC that the state Chamber is among the many enterprise teams which are allied with each DeSantis and Disney, placing the lobbying group right into a just about inconceivable place.

“Your entire enterprise and lobbying class are allies of each DeSantis and Disney,” stated Jolly, who’s now an MSNBC political analyst and has left the GOP. “The Chamber’s political division might be the premier ally of the state GOP in producing polling and analysis in low greenback state Home seats, and in addition mobilizes mushy {dollars} round state legislative races.”

The Florida Chamber of Commerce declined to remark. A Disney spokesperson didn’t return a request for remark.

The struggle started final yr, when Disney spoke out in opposition to a Florida invoice limiting classroom dialogue of sexual orientation or gender identification, dubbed “Do not Say Homosexual” by critics. Quickly after, the governor and his allies focused the particular tax district that has allowed Disney to basically self-govern its Florida operations because the Sixties.

Disney just lately filed a lawsuit in opposition to DeSantis alleging the Republican has waged a “relentless marketing campaign to weaponize authorities energy.” The board of supervisors picked by DeSantis to supervise Disney’s operations voted Monday to sue Disney in response to the corporate’s litigation.

The feud has trickled into the 2024 Republican major for president, as DeSantis considers a run for the White Home. Former President Donald Trump, who has referred to as DeSantis’ struggle with Disney a “political stunt,” is planning to make use of the same assault on the Florida governor if he enters the race, based on an individual near Trump who declined to be named to talk freely concerning the marketing campaign’s technique.

“Trump plans to say, ‘Ron cannot even beat Mickey Mouse in his personal yard, how can he tackle China? How can he take care of Russia?,'” an in depth advisor to the previous president instructed CNBC.

A Trump marketing campaign spokesman didn’t return a request for remark.

Because the state’s legislative session wraps up Friday, Republicans have backed a number of items of laws concentrating on Disney. State legislative information present the Chamber has not formally lobbied any of the payments that went after Disney, together with (HB)9-B. The invoice, signed by the governor earlier this yr, aimed to finish the corporate’s self-governing standing.

Republican state Rep. Fred Hawkins who launched the (HB)9-B invoice, instructed CNBC that probably the most he heard from the state Chamber was questions from leaders and members of the group “simply asking what was within the invoice and when it might be filed.”

The information present that the Florida Chamber of Commerce has purpose to not get entangled with the bitter feud regardless of having a historic alliance to Disney.

The state Chamber has made main contributions to a pro-DeSantis PAC, Mates of Ron DeSantis. Since DeSantis’ 2018 profitable run for governor, the Florida Chamber of Commerce has donated $345,000 to the group, based on state marketing campaign finance information.

Nearly half of these donations got here through the 2022 election cycle. The state Chamber lists DeSantis’ sweeping win over Democrat Charlie Crist as certainly one of dozens of victories for the lobbying group inside Florida over the past election cycle.

The state Chamber’s board can also be affected by DeSantis allies, a few of whom had been financiers for DeSantis’ campaigns or appointees to state board positions.

Charles Lydecker, the CEO of insurance coverage firm Basis Threat Companions, was a board member for the Florida Chamber as of 2020, based on a tax type filed by the group. These varieties are the latest publicly obtainable tax paperwork for the group.

Lydecker has contributed $135,000 to the pro-DeSantis PAC since 2018. In 2019, DeSantis appointed him to the board of governors of the state college system. Lydecker, who’s listed as a Chamber board member on the state college system’s web site, didn’t return a request for remark.

Robert Grammig Jr., an lawyer and accomplice at Holland & Knight, has labored with the state Chamber for years whereas supporting DeSantis’ gubernatorial campaigns. His Holland & Knight profile says that he was the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s chairman till 2019 and at the moment serves as chairman of the lobbying group’s Worldwide Enterprise Council.

Florida state marketing campaign finance information present that he repeatedly donated towards DeSantis’ two runs for governor, together with $50,000 in 2022 to the Mates of Ron DeSantis PAC. Grammig didn’t return an electronic mail searching for remark.

H. Wayne Huizenga Jr., a businessman and son to the late billionaire H. Wayne Huizenga, was additionally listed as a member of the state Chamber board on the 2020 varieties. DeSantis introduced in 2020 that he was appointing Huizenga Jr. to the board of governors of the state college system.

The businessman gave not less than $150,000 to the Mates of Ron DeSantis PAC through the 2022 election cycle, based on information.

It’s unclear if Huizenga Jr. continues to be a state Chamber board member. He didn’t return a request for remark.