NYT: DeSantis Blocking Donations To GOP Convention

The New York Times reports:

When President Trump first threatened to pull the Republican National Convention out of Charlotte, N.C., Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida started campaigning to bring the event to his state.

But now, as convention planners in Jacksonville seek to raise tens of millions of dollars on an almost impossibly rushed time frame, and in the middle of a raging pandemic, the governor is hindering those efforts, interviews show.

Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, has directed his top fund-raiser, Heather Barker, to tell donors not to give to the convention because of a personal dispute between the governor and Susie Wiles, his former campaign manager who is serving as an informal adviser to the convention planners, according to multiple people familiar with his actions.

The Tampa Bay Times reports:

Wiles, a veteran Republican strategist with a winning track record in Florida, helped rescue DeSantis’ flailing campaign for governor in 2018 in the final months before the election. DeSantis narrowly won the race, and he then put Wiles in charge of his inauguration and his political operation.

But their relationship soon soured. It took a turn for the worst in September of last year, after the Tampa Bay Times reported that DeSantis’ political committee had offered lobbyists the opportunity to pay for access to governor.

Donors could arrange a round of golf with DeSantis for $25,000 or $100,000 for a foursome, or pay to have dinner with him, for example.