Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis paid near $50 per head to an influential Iowa Christian leader to organize a recent forum for GOP candidates in the state that attracted 2,000 voters, an usually large sum to pay to sponsor a forum in the key campaign state, Reuters reports.
Bob Vander Plaats, the leader of the Family Leader Foundation, not only defended the $95,000 collected by DeSantis and his PAC, he lamented that he wasn’t making enough off the forum, held July 14th. The cost to the campaign was “not even close to exorbitant [to the campaign]. … My only regret is that we probably should have charged more,” he said.
Iowa’s position as an important early Republican showcase gives so-called evangelicals an opportunity to bilk voters to spend money. While the Family Leader Foundation extort money from campaigns, another group, Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition, makes money coming and going: not only do they charge sponsors like candidates PACs up to $5,000 for favorable promotion, they also charge voters $75 per ticket to hear the candidates speak.