Organizers of the three-day vaccine distribution event last month at Rancho Lakewood, in Manatee County, were focused on more than gunshots, text messages between them and the governor’s office show.
They were also aware of the political optics of bringing Governor Ron DeSantis into town to promote vaccines in his Republican-rich neighborhood. Rather than relying on a random selection of residents eligible for the vaccine, the governor’s team wanted them to create a list of who would receive the vaccine.
“The government said he could show up, ” Lakewood Ranch developer Rex Jensen wrote in a February 9 text message to Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh. “You should try to see if it would help you get exposure here.”
“Excellent point. After all, 22 is just around the corner, ” Baugh replied, referring to the 2022 race for governor.
Jensen had just ended a call with DeSantis and another Lakewood Ranch developer and Republican donor, Pat Neal, about hosting the event and what followed was carefully choreographed, records obtained by Bradenton Herald Show.
An advanced team from the governor’s office visited the site. A list of selected members from two selected postal codes has been compiled to be eligible for vaccines, including Baugh herself. And a TV appearance in which the governor said he “wanted to increase the numbers of the elderly.”
At a press conference on Lehigh Acres on Tuesday, DeSantis was asked how Baugh and Jensen “were texting about how it could benefit him politically”. He did not respond to text messages, but said, “It is a mistake to try to demonize certain elderly people.”
“I think there are some elements, especially the corporate corporate media, that don’t want to vaccinate people who disagree with them politically,” said DeSantis. “This is insane.”
He said the site is part of a larger effort to increase vaccination rates in Manatee County. “It was about that. When you have counties that are lagging behind, we want to try to bring extra vaccines there. ”
Vaccine event stimulates investigations
Since then, the vaccine event has generated anger in the community and a criminal and ethical investigation.
“I am outraged at the economic bias in selecting who is eligible to receive Covid vaccines at the Lakewood Ranch Sports Complex, ” wrote Mary Gibbons, a resident of Manatee County in an email to Baugh when news of the exclusive event was released on February 16.
Gibbons hoped to get vaccinations for her and her husband, but she does not live in one of the two selected zip codes, so she was not eligible for special treatment. “It is illegal to buy your spot on an organ donor list, but the Lakewood Ranch community is’ buying ‘your spot on the vaccine list,'” said Gibbons
Baugh, the chairman of the commission, is now under investigation by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office after a complaint alleging that she abused her public position by creating a VIP list of names. The list included her and Jensen.
She also faces an ethics complaint that she allegedly abused her position to organize the exclusive event and create the VIP list.
Baugh and his fellow commissioners voted unanimously in January to make the reserve pool random in order to make the system more equitable. The county’s IT department created a database that randomly selected who would be eligible for consultations. DeSantis praised the launch in January.
Baugh bypassed the waiting vaccine pool
But the text messages indicate that neither Baugh nor the governor’s office suggested trusting the random group to choose who would get the vaccine at the Rancho Lakewood event, and instead, the governor’s team asked Jensen to create a list and take charge. making appointments.
“Surprising. They want me to keep a list. They can’t. Screw it,” wrote Jensen to Baugh in a text message on February 9, shortly after a conversation with Courtney Coppola, chief of staff at the Department of Health at Florida.
“Let me see what I can do,” replied Baugh. Jensen then gave her Coppola’s cell phone number and added, “I said if I could go through the list, they would probably give you injections in 2 days.”
The emails show that Baugh instructed the county public security director and staff to pull out only residents who listed their postal codes as 34202 and 34211 when they registered. Both postcodes are in the district of Baugh.
Meanwhile, Jensen sent an email to Coppola to emphasize that he did not have the ability to create a list as requested.
“Although we can easily disclose it, I don’t have the infrastructure or staff to answer all the calls needed to build and maintain a list of vaccine candidates,” he wrote. “I am copying Commissioner Baugh in the hope that she can think creatively to find a solution.”
Neither the Florida Department of Health, the Florida Emergency Management Division, nor the governor’s office explained why they asked Jensen and Baugh to create a list of vaccine recipients, rather than relying on the random vaccine reserve pool of the county.
They also did not answer why the 3,000 extra vaccines were not added to the county quota.
“The goal is to vaccinate as many elderly people as possible, in the most efficient way possible, and working with elderly communities is a common sense approach, both administratively and logistically,” said Meredith Beatrice, spokesman for the governor.
Baugh defended his selection of the two CEPs at a county commission meeting, saying that they “really cover much of the southeastern area of Manatee County, which is what the governor wanted to do.”
“People need to look at the statistics,” she said. “There were other clinics and many people in the east have not received the vaccines and are in need. I see this as a win-win situation. This is not a negative situation. “
DeSantis, who did not announce his candidacy for re-election, maintained strict control over the distribution of vaccines, often appearing in specially selected communities with a welcome audience of enthusiastic supporters. Since December, when vaccines started arriving in Florida, the governor has used his political committee to raise $ 3.9 million, including $ 2.7 million in February alone.
Among the major donors in the past was Neal, another Rancho Lakewood developer, who gave the governor $ 125,000 in 2018-19. In 2018, DeSantis overwhelmingly defeated Manatee County against his Democratic opponent, Andrew Gillum, getting 57 percent of the vote.
But DeSantis’ handling of vaccines has also drawn criticism that he has been a favorite, as wealthy donor communities are among the recipient lists of some of the first vaccine clinics.
‘This can be huge for him’
DeSantis denied giving anyone any special treatment, but the governor’s office refused to release full details of his vaccine distribution records and the criteria he uses to decide which communities will receive them and when.
“If Manatee County doesn’t like us to do that, then we are totally fine putting it in the counties that want it,” said DeSantis when asked about it.
But the text messages between Baugh and the governor’s team show that the governor’s office was responsible for most of the shots.
“[Gov] Chief of Staff Adrian was also involved, ”wrote Jensen to Baugh later in the day on February 9, referring to DeSantis’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Adrian Lukis. Baugh had just confirmed that they agreed to “handle the list” of vaccine recipients.
“I will call the governor’s office in the morning and try to organize everything and tell you how it will be,” she added.
But the location and its political importance were also on their minds.
Referring to the Lakewood Ranch sports complex, Baugh said, “It looks like Premier is the best.”
Jensen agreed: “Yes, and he is best known on the east side. Premiere could have a good setup for it. ”
“Certainly,” replied Baugh. “We will do a great deal to have you at Premier. This can be huge for him. “
As of Friday, February 12, the details had not been finalized with the governor’s team and, text messages show, Baugh and Jensen were growing impatient.
“I’m calling Gov this morning to see what’s going on, ” Baugh told Jensen. In an email late in the morning, Coppola confirmed that the event would begin next Wednesday.
As if to point out that the event was being funded by taxpayers, not by them, Baugh told Jensen: “It will be done by the National Guard for [second day and] they will bring nurses to give the vaccine. We’re close.”
Bradenton Herald team writer Ryan Callihan and Tampa Bay Times writer Lawrence Mower contributed to this story.
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