According to Florida lobbyists, they have been contacted by state employees with instructions to send payments to the campaign of Ron DeSantis.  The ethical problems within this effort are numerous and could potentially be legally liable for DeSantis government officials participating.

At best, the issue is extreme swamp behavior, where DeSantis officials are pressuring lobbyists in Florida to donate to the DeSantis 2024 election campaign or their advocacy may be disregarded in state budget considerations.

When state employees use their offices to solicit payments to political entities, the legal issues become very murky.  Then again, this is swamp behavior – and when you hire the swamp to push your agenda, these are the types of outcomes that surface.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Officials who work for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration — not his campaign — have been sending text messages to Florida lobbyists soliciting political contributions for DeSantis’ presidential bid, a breach of traditional norms that has raised ethical and legal questions and left many here in the state capital shocked.

NBC News reviewed text messages from four DeSantis administration officials, including those directly in the governor’s office and with leadership positions in state agencies. They requested the recipient of the message contribute to the governor’s campaign through a specific link that appeared to track who is giving as part of a “bundle” program.

“The bottom line is that the administration appears to be keeping tabs on who is giving, and are doing it using state staff,” a longtime Florida lobbyist said. “You are in a prisoner’s dilemma. They are going to remain in power. We all understand that.”

The legality of the solicitations depends on a series of factors, including whether they were sent on state-owned phones, or if they were sent on state property. A longtime Florida election law attorney said that even if the DeSantis aides are fundraising for the campaign in their personal capacity, off the government clock, it still raised ethical questions.

“At a minimum, even if they are sitting in their home at 9 p.m. using their personal phone and contacting lobbyists that they somehow magically met in their personal capacity and not through their role in the governor’s office, it still smells yucky,” the attorney said. “There’s a misuse of public position issue here that is obvious to anyone paying attention.”

But the practice was still jaw-dropping for those who have long been involved in Florida politics.

NBC News spoke with 10 Republican lobbyists in Florida, all of whom said they couldn’t remember being solicited for donations so overtly by administration officials — especially at a time when the governor still has to act on the state budget.

[…] DeSantis has framed much of his political persona as a political outsider whose goal is to “drain the swamp.” His campaign store quickly started offering t-shirts saying “DeSantis breaks systems” after the flubbed Twitter rollout, which his campaign is saying was due to such a high level of interest that the social media platform simply could not handle.

“The practice feeds the DeSantis corrupt swampy meme perfectly for opponents. For no f—— reason,” said another veteran Florida Republican. “Hard to be Mr. Break the Internet and Swamp when you do this. Really dumb.”

Republican consultants and fundraisers in other states told NBC News they have not heard of a similar situation of state employees trying to get political contributions, and it would raise serious questions if their clients tried a similar approach.

“If any of my clients had legislative staff sending out donation links, we would be having a hard conversation,” a Republican fundraiser who works on federal elections said.

The person added that regardless of legal implications, the optics of taxpayer-funded staff asking lobbyists for political cash are bad.

“Whoever is telling these kids to do this has lost their damn mind,” said another Florida Republican lobbyist. (read more)

Hang around a one-legged tribe long enough, and eventually you are going to start limping.