Florida's Latest News

Ron DeSantis finance committees have a Florida feel.

With just over a month from the Iowa caucuses that may determine the future of his campaign, Gov. Ron DeSantis is rolling out national finance advisory boards and committees.

And as befits the Governor of Florida, friends from across the Sunshine State are prominently placed on both, including Capital City Consulting Co-Founder Nick Iarossi.

“I am thrilled to help lead Ron DeSantis’ National Finance Committee as we continue to work tirelessly to elect him the next President,” said Finance Advisory Board Co-Chairman Nick Iarossi.

“Ron DeSantis is a proven leader and the only candidate in this race capable of winning big for Republicans, serving two terms, and implementing the conservative policies we need to reverse our nation’s decline. The fundraising apparatus the campaign has built in the last few months has been historic, and we are excited to take it to the next level in the weeks and months ahead,” Iarossi added.

Iarossi, an ally of DeSantis since his 2018 Primary campaign for Governor, has offered valuable advice along the way, including advising the Governor to make his military service part of this campaign narrative. As DeSantis has become comfortable noting, he’s the only military veteran in the race.

DeSantis Taps Board to Boost Fundraising Efforts Before Iowa.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is launching a national finance board in a bid to expand fundraising efforts a month out from the Iowa caucuses, as his GOP presidential rivals make new inroads with wealthy donors.

The board, which is being announced Thursday, is chaired by several business leaders and donors including Roy Bailey, director of Bailey Strategic Advisors LLC; Nick Iarossi, partner and founding member of Capital City Consulting; and Mike McClellan, partner at Newmeyer Dillion LLP, according to a list of participants seen by Bloomberg News. Bailey is a former national co-chair of former President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign.

DeSantis faced a cash crunch this summer that saw donors question spending decisions. He raised $15.1 million in the third quarter but had only about $5 million on hand for the primary, trailing both Trump and Haley.

DeSantis’s fundraising his grown this quarter, including raising $2 million over a 48-hour stretch in November, his campaign said.

“The fundraising apparatus the campaign has built in the last few months has been historic, and we are excited to take it to the next level in the weeks and months ahead,” Iarossi said in a statement.

DeSantis forms new fundraising effort as Iowa showdown looms

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has largely pinned his presidential hopes on a top finish next month in the early voting state of Iowa, on Thursday formed a new national finance effort to help spur donations and try and keep pace with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.

The move comes as the most recent poll in Iowa, which holds its first-in-the-nation nominating contest on Jan. 15, showed Trump leading by about 30 percentage points over DeSantis, with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley slightly behind in third place.

The new financial advisory board will be co-chaired by Texas businessman Roy Bailey; Nick Iarossi, a Florida lobbyist and close DeSantis confidant; and Michael McClellan, a lawyer from Southern California, and will oversee a newly formed national finance committee.

The group includes “some of the best and most experienced political fundraisers and donors in the country,” Bailey told Reuters.

Insurance Summit: Recent legislation starting to get results in court.

'I think, as a rule, we are seeing much better rulings and much more sound rulings from all the districts.' Lawmakers have taken several stabs at stabilizing the state’s insurance market, but many insurers and policyholders haven’t reaped the benefits — yet.

Attorneys Scott Shelton and Aram Megerian of the law firm Cole Scott & Kissane, who represent insurers in civil litigation, told attendees at the 2023 Florida Chamber Insurance Summit that the impacts of the recent tort reform bill and other legislative interventions are starting to trickle through the court system.

There are only a couple of barriers remaining, one of them being the resolution of cases filed before those laws went into effect.

“One of the things that we’re seeing for sure, is there was a COVID backlog, and that still exists in civil litigation,” Megerian said. “The courts are trying to push it as fast and as quickly as they can. That doesn’t mean that it’s going to move as quickly as we’d like, but they’re pushing as hard as they can with a significant backlog.”