Gov. Ron DeSantis’ vow to “start slitting throats” of government employees if elected president didn’t go unnoticed by some of the 19,000 state workers in Tallahassee.
New Hampshire Public Radio reported Wednesday that while he spoke about the “deep state,” DeSantis promised that firings of federal bureaucrats would begin immediately if he claims the presidency.
“We are going to start slitting throats on Day One.”
It is not the first time that DeSantis has sent a chill through the halls of state office buildings in Tallahassee with threats to disrupt the lives of federal workers if he were to be elected president.
When DeSantis officially announced his candidacy in May, he cited a need to “re-constitutionalize” the federal government, that is, reduce the power and the authority of Washington, D.C., through the elimination of some agencies and the relocation of others across the country.
That begs the question as to whether such a plan could apply to what he calls “Free Florida” and diffuse the state workforce beyond bright blue Tallahassee.
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A gaggle of more than a half dozen state workers approached during Thursday’s lunch break at three restaurants near the Capitol conceded DeSantis’ comments did raise eyebrows among workers in state office buildings.
But not one was willing to comment for attribution about DeSantis’ ideas.
One state worker explained they did not work for the DeSantis campaign and therefore should not comment.
Another said throat slitting talk is not good for morale.
A third added morale was not good anyways.
When the governor’s office declined to comment for this story, a spokesman rejected the premise of a question that asked whether DeSantis “believe there is a need to re-constitutionalize Florida government like he proposed he would do to the federal government if elected president? “
“Florida’s government is efficient. Our state has 84 full-time state workers per 10,000 while the national average is 171 per 10,000. When combined with part time workers, the ratio is 99 state workers per 10,000 while the national average is 208. Florida also uses taxpayer funds efficiently. Personnel costs account for $39 per resident, which is the lowest in the nation. The second closest state is Arizona at $52 per resident, and the national average is $91. This is all to say that Florida runs three branches of government efficiently while paying down our state debt and respecting taxpayer funds,” said DeSantis spokesman Jeremy Redfern in an email exchange.
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Redfern said to check with the DeSantis campaign for clarification of the governor’s comments.
It did not respond to a request for comment.
Vicki Hall, AFSCME Florida president, suggested DeSantis has found a way to “re-constitutionalize” state government through leaving vacant positions unfilled.
There are more than 16,000 vacancies in the Florida state personnel system, jobs funded by the legislature but not staffed, leaving those on the job overworked, according to workers.
“That’s a 25% state vacancy rate,” said Hall. “That means residents are not getting the services they deserve, and employees are overworked and burning out.”
‘Political theater’
Since that announcement, and a summer spent on the campaign trail promoting his ideas, DeSantis has fallen behind former President Donald Trump in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
A RealClearPolitics review of eight polls taken during July gives Trump an average lead of 35 point.
That makes DeSantis a “dead candidate walking at this point,” according to Nova Southeastern University political scientist Charles Zelden.
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But if DeSantis fails to win the presidency, he will still have two years remaining as governor and the opportunity to use Tallahassee and Florida as a testing laboratory for his ideas.
Zelden, who teaches at a private university, dismissed DeSantis’ throat slitting comment as political theater and an attempt to draw attention to the campaign in a cluttered media environment.
“In social media alone, there are so many things vying for people’s attention. How do you cut through the dance videos, people singing, funny animal tricks? You have to be interesting,” said Zelden.
Or in this case, graphic.
Zelden said Tallahassee shouldn’t need to worry about a mass exodus of state jobs to downstate locations because Florida, for the most part, has a pretty decentralized state government.
“What you have in Tallahassee are the policy people. The bureaucrats, the people who actually make things happen, are situated in the counties. It’s the counties that do most of the work, the actual checking up on things, the work,” said Zelden.
James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com. Follow on him Twitter: @CallTallahassee