Investigative reporter covering corporate influence in Florida. Publisher of Seeking Rents. Garcia.JasonR@gmail.com.
Orlando
Joined January 2009
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At the same time, the Agency for Health Care Administration — a state agency ultimately overseen by then-DeSantis Chief of Staff James Uthmeier — paid $100,000 to TAG for “media placement and production” as a subcontractor under Strategic Digital Services...
Campaign-finance records show that Keep Florida Clean — the anti-marijuana political committee run by then-DeSantis Chief of Staff James Uthmeier — paid TAG more than $25,000 for “advertising” and “media production"...
That company: TAG Strategies, an ad firm with a history of working for DeSantis’ political campaigns — including helping to produce a goofy commercial in which the governor pretended to be a jet fighter pilot...
That's not all.
There was at least one other vendor working on the political ad campaign against the marijuana ballot measure who was simultaneously working as a secret subcontractor on the DeSantis administration’s taxpayer-funded ad campaign, too...
But about a week later, vendor records show that another agency broadcasting anti-amendment PSAs — the Florida Department of Health — made a payment for just over $1.6 million to Strategic Digital Services...
Records show that Strategic Digital Services mistakenly submitted a second invoice to AHCA from Total Video Placements. The healthcare agency never paid that invoice, which was for just over $1.6 million...
And though the public record remains incomplete, it’s clear that AHCA wasn’t the only state agency secretly using the FlexPoint-linked subcontractor, either...
One congressional campaign-finance report even identifies Total Video Placements as a part of FlexPoint...
The connections the two companies are extensive. Total Video Placements uses FlexPoint’s post office box in New Albany, Ohio.
It also uses the same phone number as at least two other entities that FlexPoint set up under fictitious names...
And FlexPoint is the same firm that both the Republican Party of Florida and a separate political committee controlled by DeSantis’ chief of staff used for their own advertisements attacking the abortion and marijuana ballot measures...
That subcontractor is identified in the records as “Total Video Placements.”
But corporate records and filings with the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Elections Commission suggest Total Video Placements is controlled by another ad firm called “FlexPoint Media"...
But those invoice records also show that nearly all of the money — all but a $5,000 fee for Strategic Digital Services — was to be passed on to a hidden subcontractor that actually produced and placed the ads...
The payment was made by DeSantis’ Agency for Health Care Administration to a small Tallahassee marketing firm called Strategic Digital Services.
And invoice records show that it paid for an ad buy across all 10 media markets that reached an estimated 11.4 million viewers...
Last September – as Ron DeSantis was spending Florida taxpayer money on advertisements attacking citizen-led constitutional amendments that would have protected abortion rights and legalized marijuana – his administration made a $1.525 million payment for TV commercials.
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Jason Garcia retweeted
Even as it appears the battle against last year's pot amendment triggered a criminal probe ... there are now questions surrounding actions by the DeSantis administration with the 26 measure ... politico.com/news/2025/10/19…
New: Ron DeSantis paid campaign strategists on hidden subcontracts, rushed payments under misleading pretenses and took millions from reserves, in a taxpayer-funded ad war against abortion and marijuana ballot measures.
See screenshots for a sampler. Link will be added below.
"Days after the visit – with the help of the Largo Police Department – they learned that the officers were investigators with the criminal division of the state’s Department of Financial Services, which is overseen by Ingoglia."
State agents visit couple who sent critical postcard to CFO Blaise Ingoglia orlandosentinel.com/2025/10/…
Jason Garcia retweeted
State agents visit couple who sent critical postcard to CFO Blaise Ingoglia orlandosentinel.com/2025/10/…
