It has been three months since a grand jury in Tallahassee heard closed-door testimony about Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Hope Florida scandal. The longer nothing else happens, the more it will seem that the investigation is going nowhere.
Speaking of hope, we hope that’s wrong. Florida law makes grand jury proceedings secret, so the silence isn’t conclusive.
If the probe is at a dead end, however, it could deprive the in-session Legislature and voters of information they deserve to know. If the investigation remains alive, it would be helpful to have it concluded before the regular session ends in March. Gaping barn doors need to be shut. A grand jury presentment could point the way and be difficult to ignore.
DeSantis’s administration spent more than $35 million in plundered public funds, according to the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald, in a successful campaign to defeat the recreational marijuana and abortion rights initiatives on the 2024 ballot.
The grand jury’s focus was the shell game played with $10 million that rightfully belonged to the Florida Medicaid program. The $10 million was extracted from a $67 million settlement that had been negotiated with Centene, a Medicaid contractor accused of overbilling.
Medicaid money misappropriated
The DeSantis administration directed the $10 million to be set aside for a charity, the Hope Florida Foundation, which then gave it to two nonprofits. In turn, they sent a nearly equivalent amount to a DeSantis political committee, Keep Florida Clean, which was fighting the two initiatives and was run by the governor’s chief of staff at the time, James Uthmeier.
Hope Florida, a social welfare program, is sponsored by Casey DeSantis, the governor’s wife. Whether it has been as successful as the governor claims is debatable, but it’s beside the point of the investigation.
Uthmeier is now state attorney general, appointed by DeSantis to replace Ashley Moody, whom he appointed to the U.S. Senate. Uthmeier, a Republican, is running for election.
The Hope Florida probe puts the Tallahassee-area State Attorney Jack Campbell, a Democrat, in an unprecedented situation. This is the first time to our knowledge that a sitting attorney general, whose office represents state attorneys in court appeals, is himself a possible grand jury target.
Whether Uthmeier is or is not a target is something voters need to know before the Republican primary in August, where he is heavily favored, and in November, where he will likely face a credible Democratic opponent in former state Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez.
The connection to the governor’s wife is an obvious complication for Campbell and the grand jury.
Another is the surprising fact that no Florida law specifically prohibits public officials from misspending public funds on political advertising.
D.C. should look, too
The Hope Florida case might be ripe for a federal grand jury, since Washington shoulders 57% of Florida’s Medicaid expenses. Florida has reimbursed $38 million to the feds, roughly 57% of the Centene settlement. However, the Trump administration appears totally disinterested in making federal cases against Republican states.
Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, the state legislator who investigated the original $10 million diversion and pressed for the grand jury probe, said the payment to Washington was significant.
“It was theft, regardless, but now we also know the state had to admit that the $10 million was Medicaid money,” Andrade told a Pensacola TV station. “And [it] should’ve been handled more responsibly by James Uthmeier.”
A bill filed by Andrade (HB 593) would not expressly prohibit political advertising with public money, but it would forbid state agencies from ordering “any funds offered the state to be sent to a third party as a condition of settlement” as in the Centene case. It would also require prompt written notification of any settlement to the Legislature and attorney general.
Another important provision forbids the use of official authority or influence to make anyone contribute to a campaign or political committee.
The bill also cracks down on travel expenses by officials who live elsewhere than where their official agency headquarters are. That, too, is worthwhile and overdue.
Senate Bill 802 by Sen. Debbie Mayfield, R-Melbourne, contains some equivalent provisions. But neither her bill nor Andrade’s appears to be a priority of House or Senate leaders. They should be, and even a critical grand jury report could provide much-needed momentum.
Campbell didn’t respond to our requests to discuss the Hope Florida scandal. He can’t disclose what a grand jury is doing or might do, but it would be useful to hear what he thinks about using public money — our money — on a political campaign.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2026/01/23/a-troubling-silence-in-hope-florida-probe-editorial/
