Moms for Liberty co-founder grilled by Florida lawmakers about state ethics post
TALLAHASSEE
Tina Descovich, the co-founder of the rightwing advocacy group
Moms for Liberty, on Monday pushed back against accusations of political bias and conflicts of interest as she gets one step closer to being confirmed as a state ethics officer by the Florida Senate.
Descovich — who Gov. Ron DeSantis picked to serve on the Florida Commission on Ethics — faced questions from Democrats on how her association with the conservative group, her public statements on issues such as gender and critical race theory and her close ties to DeSantis would impact her ability to remain neutral on state ethics cases.
“I think my role with Moms for Liberty, I look at it as completely separate from the ethics commission,” Descovich told the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee as she was grilled about potential conflicts of interest due to her organization’s involvement in endorsing school board candidates and polarizing education policies in Florida and other parts of the country.
During questioning, Descovich acknowledged there would be a “public perception” issue if there were to be an ethics violation complaint against Bridget Ziegler, a founding member of the group who today serves as a school board member in Sarasota and a board member in DeSantis’ Walt Disney World oversight board. Descovich said she would also recuse herself if an ethics complaint were to be filed against Jennifer Jenkins, the Democrat who beat her in a Brevard
School Board race in 2020.
She also insisted that she would be able to “rise
the fourth largest county in the state and is home to 17 municipalities, including Lakeland, Lake Wales and Winter Haven.
Florida’s portal classifies cases based on the county where the person lives and doesn’t necessarily mean that the person got sick in the county. In total, Florida now has nine reported measles cases.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT MEASLES
Measles is a highly contagious disease that can spread through coughing, sneezing and by touching infected surfaces.
For those who are vaccinated, it’s rare to fall ill — one dose of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, or MMR is about 93% effective and two doses is about 97% effective, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
If you were exposed to measles, contact your doctor for guidance, which may include getting the MMR vaccine.