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Bought and Paid for: Iowa Evangelical Admits to Receiving $95k Payment Before Endorsing Ron DeSantis
Breitbart ^ | 22 Nov 2023 | HANNAH BLEAU KNUDSEN

Posted on 11/22/2023 12:27:32 PM PST by SoConPubbie

A top evangelical leader in Iowa, Bob Vander Plaats, confirmed Tuesday that his organization received $95,000 from what Reuters originally described as the “DeSantis campaign, a super PAC linked to him and a nonprofit group” before he endorsed the governor’s presidential election.

Fox News’s Bret Baier questioned Vander Plaats on the report, which asserts that Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) campaign and groups associated with him gave a total of $95,000 to the nonprofit, the Family Leader Foundation, which Vander Plaats heads up. At the time, Reuters pointed to campaign finance reports “and a document prepared by an Iowa state lawmaker who was helping the Vander Plaats organization raise money for a July 14 presidential candidate forum.”

“Well, it’s definitely true,” Vander Plaats told Baier, encouraging “everybody to read the Reuters article.”

“Everything we do is above board,” he added.

BREAKING: Iowa evangelical leader admits he was paid by the DeSantis Team prior to his endorsement pic.twitter.com/EoVmMPLe1y

— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) November 21, 2023

According to the August Reuters article, “DeSantis and supporting groups got three pages of advertisements in a booklet distributed at the July forum attended by 2,000 Christian conservatives, and tickets to the summit, lunch and an after-dinner event.”

At the time, Vander Plaats dismissed the so-called fees, describing them as “not even close to exorbitant” for the prime opportunity to be involved at a forum of that caliber.

“My only regret is that we probably should have charged more,” he said, as the DeSantis campaign spun the $95,000 as a sponsorship of sorts.

DeSantis spokesperson Andrew Romeo expressed pride in the campaign sponsoring “an ad with one of the largest and most effective social conservative groups in the state of Iowa.”

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Florida; US: Iowa
KEYWORDS: 0001bribe; bobvanderplaats; desantis; florida; iowa; rondesantis; trump
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Regardless, the DeSantis campaign surely hopes this endorsement will serve as fuel to the governor’s flailing presidential campaign, as recent polls show him slipping in early states, including Iowa, where former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is beginning to gain steam, tying DeSantis for second place as he falls to third in South Carolina and fourth in New Hampshire.

1 posted on 11/22/2023 12:27:32 PM PST by SoConPubbie
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To: SoConPubbie

Is this serious? A religious leader was paid for his endorsement?


2 posted on 11/22/2023 12:33:34 PM PST by Fido969 (45 is Superman! )
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To: SoConPubbie

10% for the big guy- can I get an amen!


3 posted on 11/22/2023 12:34:34 PM PST by Dr. Ursus
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To: SoConPubbie

Reflects worse on DeSantis, like JEB! spending 110 million dollars for three delegates in 2016.


4 posted on 11/22/2023 12:35:07 PM PST by Thapsus_epiphany (Socialism is a prison, Communism is a death camp )
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To: SoConPubbie

Lol. What are they? Democrats?


5 posted on 11/22/2023 12:40:03 PM PST by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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To: SoConPubbie

lol… this is the same fee anyone who used the advertising powers and services, dinners etc.
All candidates had the same opportunity.
Sounds cheaper than the lockdown prez signing a blank check on the taxpayers dime to Pfizer n Moderna tho.


6 posted on 11/22/2023 12:49:25 PM PST by momincombatboots (BQEphesians 6... who you are really at war with. )
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To: SoConPubbie

Hey, it works for the Dems with Jesse Jackson and Sharpton. DeSantis has to do something.


7 posted on 11/22/2023 12:53:33 PM PST by mikey_hates_everything
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To: Fido969

What it looks like to me is that the organization the man is a part of was holding a conference of some sort and the DeSantis campaign paid for ADVERTISING in the group’s program booklets.

You know like those “Playbill” magazines you might get at a theatrical show? My kid was in an orchestra one year and they had a year-end banquet. The banquet gave each attendee a little magazine with the program and all the kids’ pics in it...and they also sold ads in that little magazine.

The Brietbart article makes it look like a “payoff”; but it all seems to be legit. Were other campaigns afforded the opportunity to be in the program? Or were other businesses in the program?

Questions.


8 posted on 11/22/2023 12:54:17 PM PST by Recovering_Democrat
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To: Fido969

Trump gets “donations” for his endorsements..

Paying for or donating to get endorsement is nothing new on either side.

It’s a non-story.


9 posted on 11/22/2023 12:54:32 PM PST by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: Fido969
A religious leader was paid for his endorsement?

I didn't know Whites could make that work. I thought one had to be Black to make that income stream work.

10 posted on 11/22/2023 1:14:28 PM PST by PAR35
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To: Fido969
A religious leader was paid for his endorsement?

I didn't know Whites could make that work. I thought one had to be Black to make that income stream work.

11 posted on 11/22/2023 1:14:28 PM PST by PAR35
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To: Fido969
A religious leader was paid for his endorsement?

I didn't know Whites could make that work. I thought one had to be Black to make that income stream work.

12 posted on 11/22/2023 1:14:28 PM PST by PAR35
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To: SoConPubbie

"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and I will endorse thee verily!"

13 posted on 11/22/2023 1:22:09 PM PST by Songcraft ( )
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To: SoConPubbie
Hat Tip to Sundance at the Last Refuge - home of the Conservative Treehouse.


14 posted on 11/22/2023 2:01:37 PM PST by freepersup (“Those who conceal crimes are preparing to commit new ones.” ~Vuk Draskovic~)
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To: PAR35

The post so nice, you posted thrice!


15 posted on 11/22/2023 2:19:17 PM PST by PghBaldy (12/14/12 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15/12 - 1030am - Obama team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: momincombatboots

Yeah, this is fine.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/22/us/politics/desantis-pac-chris-jankowski.html


16 posted on 11/22/2023 2:26:02 PM PST by M. Thatcher
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To: SoConPubbie

Of course the desantis supporters/nevertrumpers are trying to gaslight everyone and say:

everybody bribes ‘evangelical’ leaders for the evangelical vote....


17 posted on 11/22/2023 2:30:05 PM PST by backpacker_c
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To: backpacker_c

“everybody bribes ‘evangelical’ leaders for the evangelical vote...”

...except they never bother to identify other examples. Hmmm.


18 posted on 11/22/2023 2:54:25 PM PST by BobL (Trump gets my vote, even if I have to write him in; Millions of others will do the same)
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To: PghBaldy

Need to ditch my mouse. It’s been double-tapping on me, but that’s the first 3-fer. It’s hard to find affordable wired mice these days.


19 posted on 11/22/2023 3:10:32 PM PST by PAR35
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To: momincombatboots

You sound confused, again. It was governors like DeSantis, and local leaders who shut the country down, not Trump.


20 posted on 11/22/2023 3:18:12 PM PST by mbrfl
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