Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia doesn’t want Democrats moving to the state or joining his party. He told Republicans in Orlando he’d rather make sure to keep the insufficiently conservative out.
“We have enough to worry about with Republicans acting like Democrats. We don’t need Republicans who actually are Democrats,” he said. “Just because they have an R next to their name doesn’t necessarily mean they believe what we believe. Be careful who you trust. Salt and sugar look the same.”
The former Republican Party of Florida Chair spoke at the Florida Freedom Forum, weeks after being appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to his Cabinet post.
The speech directed many of its sharpest barbs against members of his own party. That’s something DeSantis quickly welcomed in a subsequent speech. “Aren’t you glad that you have a new Warrior fighting for you, as the Chief Financial Officer?” DeSantis said.
Notably, Ingoglia when he was appointed seemed bound for a Republican Primary against Sen. Joe Gruters, who since emerged as President Donald Trump’s choice for Republican National Committee Chair.
Several times during his speech, Ingoglia punctuated differences between himself and other Republicans, including Gruters, who backed last year’s marijuana decriminalization amendment. That measure won a majority of support but fell short of a 60% threshold to pass, as did one on reversing Florida’s six-week abortion ban.
“If both of those amendments had passed the way they were written, on your way here, you might have walked past a late term abortion complaint waving pot smoke at their face. That’s what we were headed for,” Ingoglia said.
He said as Florida attracts more individuals to live in the state, Republicans should be wary about the political consequences.
“Many of us moved here to escape high tax, high regulatory states because we found freedom and opportunity in the great state of Florida,” he said. “Let’s not change this state into something that we escaped from. Now, if you want to move to Florida, that’s fine, just leave your leftist ideology at the door.”
Ingoglia also took a veiled shot at an old intraparty nemesis, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott.
Florida’s senior Senator, who as Governor wanted a different party chair than Ingoglia, recently flew a banner over New York City encouraging residents to leave before the election of a socialist Mayor.
“Let’s stop running ads in New York inviting anyone and everyone to come to the Sunshine State,” Ingoglia said. “Let’s not import our ideological opposition. That is a sure fire way to go from a red state to a blue state.”
Post Views: 0