With power comes responsibility — and occasional sharp questions.
So when a well-connected appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis refused to answer a state senator’s simple question “on the advice of counsel,” it looks ugly because it is.
The person who clammed up in the Capitol on Wednesday was Tina Vidal-Duart, a health care executive whose appointment as a Florida Atlantic University trustee must be confirmed by the state Senate.
Steve Bousquet, South Florida Sun Sentinel columnist.
Her appointment by DeSantis in December 2024 was not taken up by the Senate in the 2025 session. The law says that if she’s not confirmed next session, she’ll be out.
That would be an embarrassing thumb in the eye not just to her, but to DeSantis.
In recent years, the Senate has taken its advise-and-consent role a lot more seriously. Last session, at least 17 appointees were not confirmed, were not considered by the Senate or withdrew rather than face unwelcome questions under oath.
Now Vidal-Duart is squirming. Could she be the next casualty?
I doubt it. She may have enough political “juice” to survive, in the parlance of Florida’s Capitol. Besides, some senators believe the governor has the right to appoint whomever he wants.
Vidal-Duart has all of the necessary qualifications to serve on a state board in this administration, with its conspicuous pay-to-play culture.
She and her husband Carlos were generous contributors to DeSantis’ failed run for president ($1.9 million, according to the Miami Herald’s capital bureau). They both served on his national finance committee. They have been big donors to the Republican Party of Florida.
When you pay, you get to play.
Vidal-Duart is also a governor’s appointee to the foundation at Florida International University, where a friend, former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, is FIU’s president.
Nuñez is listed as a reference on her appointment application. So is a prominent Tallahassee lobbyist, Nick Iarossi.
Vidal-Duart, 44, is chief executive of CDR Health Care, which received multiple lucrative contracts from the DeSantis administration, first during COVID-19 and then to build “Alligator Alcatraz,” the notorious immigration camp in the Everglades.
Her husband Carlos is CEO of CDR Companies, a Miami-based disaster relief company that also has reaped high-dollar state contracts, including at Alligator Alcatraz.
The Florida Bulldog reports that the governor’s office has flagrantly violated a state law requiring posting of state contracts totaling $6 billion, including $537 million that went to Duart’s company, using an “emergency procurement” provision that allows no-bid deals, a tool widely abused by DeSantis and his people. It has spawned an epidemic of what Democrats call “Gator grift.”
Vidal-Duart got off too easily Wednesday at a confirmation hearing in a Senate higher education committee. She appeared from the safe distance of Zoom, even though records show she has a luxury home in Tallahassee, just a short distance from the Capitol.
The first sign of a lack of senatorial seriousness was the usual “Go Gators” fluff as four University of Florida trustees were approved without much thoughtful discussion.
The one Democrat present, Sen. LaVon Bracy Davis of Orlando, came with questions for Vidal-Duart and zeroed in on her membership on the board of the Hope Florida Foundation, a DeSantis-backed charity rocked by a scandal. The foundation is under a state grand jury investigation for the legally dubious diversion of $10 million from a Medicaid overbilling settlement.
Vidal-Duart said she was not aware until recently that the foundation had no bylaws or conflict-of-interest policy. When Bracy Davis persisted, she turned silent.
“I’ve been advised by counsel not to comment on the ongoing matter without counsel present, as long as an active investigation is pending,” Vidal-Duart said.
The chairman, Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, jumped to Vidal-Duart’s defense and shut down the questioning.
“Is this germane to her appointment?” Harrell asked.
Yes, Bracy Davis said, calling it “relevant board experience,” which it is, of course.
Senators should demand Vidal-Duart’s presence in person on Wednesday when her confirmation goes before the Senate Ethics & Elections Committee.
The chairman, Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Crestview, has assured Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, that senators will vote separately on whether to confirm Vidal-Duart.
Gaetz is willing to hold DeSantis appointees accountable. His elections panel was a political killing ground for lousy appointees in 2025 as several university trustees were rejected.
DeSantis belligerently reappointed some of them anyway, an action that Polsky called “a farce” at a Capitol news conference.
“As you can see, what the Republican majority is doing is just pushing all of this ugliness under the rug,” Polsky said.
What’s the point of requiring Senate confirmations if senators don’t ask tough questions?
Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or at (850) 567-2240.
