DeSantis: I’ll kick Putnam’s keister

Republican governor candidate says he’ll win tri-county area big

Ron DeSantis predicts a strong showing in South Florida will help him win the Republican nomination for governor over his opponent, Adam Putnam.

“I am kicking his keister in South Florida, and I think part of that is I have a record on issues that are important to southern Floridians. [In] Miami, I am kicking his butt,” DeSantis said.

In the Aug. 28 primary, he said, “I will win Palm Beach, Broward and Dade with significant margins.”

To make that happen, he’s turning up in the region more often. He’ll be in Palm Beach County at least once this week and Republican activists are working on setting up a campaign day in Broward.

On Thursday, he was greeted like a winner by many of the 450 people who attended the Palm Beach County Republican Party’s annual Lobsterfest dinner.

By the time the DeSantis arrived at the pre-dinner reception, dozens of Republicans had already waited on a long line to have pictures taken with two other prominent party leaders: U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, and Ben Carson, the federal secretary of housing and urban development and unsuccessful 2016 presidential candidate.

When DeSantis joined them, many of the people who’d already had pictures taken got back on line again to get new pictures with DeSantis, Carson and Mast.

The evening was far different for Putnam supporters.

Putnam’s campaign had announced he’d be at the event at the Polo Club of Boca Raton, and would speak at the dinner.

When Michael Barnett, chairman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party, announced to the crowd that Putnam was a noshow because he was “stuck in traffic” there were noticeable boos from the dinner crowd. “Let’s be nice, please,” Barnett implored.

Many dinner attendees said they were skeptical about the explanation.

“For them to publicly say that Adam Putnam was not attending because he was stuck in traffic, it equates to the ‘dog ate my homework.’ It’s embarrassing. He’s basically admitting defeat,” said Myra Adams of Lauderdale-bythe-Sea, who writes frequently for conservative national politicians and is a veteran of political fundraising dinners.

She said it was “sad for the people in this room who have already voted for him or intended to vote for him.”

Even staunch Putnam supporter Bonnie Re of Boca Raton, asked if she believed traffic was the reason her candidate stayed away, said “I don’t know.”

DeSantis supporters were happy, not just because Putnam wasn’t there, but because they see their candidate as the one with momentum heading into the primary.

“Do you have a defibrillator for the Putnam campaign?” asked Joe Budd.

Budd is the Republican state committeeman for Palm Beach County, president of the county’s Donald Trump club, and a DeSantis supporter.

He thought DeSantis, currently a member of Congress, turned in a stellar performance at the second and final Republican debate on Wednesday. Putnam “just came across as if he deserved it,” Budd said.

Re disagreed. Putnam, the state agriculture commissioner and former congressman “cleaned his clock at the debate. [DeSantis] doesn’t have any of his own ideas,” she said. “He is not gubernatorial material.”

Re said she doesn’t accept public opinion polls that show DeSantis ahead. “I don’t look at polls. The race isn’t over.”

Palm Beach County Commissioner Steven Abrams, a Putnam supporter, said the campaign hasn’t been trending in his candidate’s favor recently but said it’s not yet over.

And he cautioned another Putnam supporter who was analyzing the candidate’s prospects: “Don’t say it in the past tense.”

Margi Helschien, former president of the Boca Raton Republican Club, supports Putnam.

“From a realistic point of view, it’s going to be DeSantis,” she said.

Abrams and Barnett said President Donald Trump’s support for DeSantis — he’s tweeted his endorsement and held a mass rally to boost the DeSantis campaign — was a major blow to Putnam.

“There is no question, President Trump is the key factor in this race,” Barnett said.

DeSantis gave Trump a lot, but not all, of the credit for his rise.

He told reporters in Boca Raton that he started to feel a shift at the end of June, when Trump tweeted his formal endorsement (the president first tweeted support for DeSantis in December) and when he and Putnam had their first debate (which aired on Fox News).

DeSantis also started TV advertising.

“I think it was combination of the tweet, the debate and then the fact that we started being on TV,” he said. “In a big state, you’ve got to get on TV.”

DeSantis reaped a publicity bonanza in late July for a humorous ad showing his support for the president, and the president’s support for him.

That support convinced many Republicans, like Christine Mancini of Boca Raton, who said she would “absolutely” vote for DeSantis.

“We have to go with whatever Trump says,” Mancini said, adding “not that I don’t have a mind of my own.”