Another in a series of profiles of candidates in Florida's 6th Congressional District.
Campaigning for the GOP nomination in Florida's 6th Congressional District, Ron DeSantis wants to take conservatism to a new level.
"Don't make government work like a business ... it's inherently inefficient. You need to be intent on reducing size, scope and influence of government," he says.
While that's not exactly a line one would expect from a Yale and Harvard Law graduate, the 33-year-old DeSantis isn't a conventional congressional candidate either.
Never having held -- or even run for -- political office, the Ponte Vedra Beach resident is an officer in the Navy Reserve with extensive prosecutorial experience in the military and at the U.S. attorney's office in Jacksonville.
Writing a 2011 book, "Dreams From Our Founding Fathers: First Principles in the Age of Obama," DeSantis found himself pulled into politics. During book tours, he would be asked by tea partiers and others twice his age, "Why don't you run for office?"
But where? "I would not have bet I'd be a candidate," he recalls.
"The state House and Senate weren't my focus. That would have looked like I was just running for the sake of running. But the military has given me defense and national security experience. I have a reason to run for Congress," he told Sunshine State News in an interview.
The Jacksonville native, who left his job at the law firm of Holland and Knight to pursue his congressional bid, jumped into the race Feb. 8. Three other declared GOP candidates are seeking the open seat in the northeast district that includes Volusia, Flagler, St. Johns and parts of Putnam counties.
DeSantis may be the most conservative of a conservative field.
An unabashed social conservative who decries the Obama administration's "assault on religious freedom," DeSantis says the Democrats' "goal is to have taxpayer-financed abortions."
On the fiscal front, DeSantis takes a hard line against the ever-expanding Washington bureaucracy and the Congress he seeks to crash.
"I would get rid of the Department of Energy and transition nuclear projects to the Department of Defense," he says, adding that he would also abolish the Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development.
"These departments develop constituencies like barnacles on a ship," says the Navy veteran, who was deployed to Iraq during the 2007 troop surge as an adviser to a SEAL commander.
On education, DeSantis said, "We should at least repeal No Child Left Behind and Obama's Race to the Top."
And blasting the EPA for "running roughshod with fines and fiats," he believes "all regulations should be sunsetted, which would force Congress to reauthorize them. Let some of these regulations go the way of the buffalo."
Sharing the public's dim view of Congress, DeSantis likes the "No Budget, No Pay" initiative launched by the bipartisan group No Labels, to withhold congressional pay when spending plans are not passed on time.
"Congress's core duty is the power of the purse. I would also tie congressional pay to the national debt -- if it increases 5 percent, they should have a 5 percent reduction in pay. Light a fire under their butt."
Though he considers himself "middle class," DeSantis, who is married to Casey Black DeSantis, a television show host, believes that congressional pay of $174,000 is too high as it is.
"There's no rational relationship between performance and pay. I would get rid of [congressional] pensions altogether." Pledging not to take a pension himself, DeSantis said such perks "breed careerism."
"Public service ought to be a sacrifice -- we've lost sight of that."
Without the built-in fundraising network enjoyed by most politicians, DeSantis has nevertheless built some important alliances.
Former Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton and his father, businessman Herb Peyton, participated in a recent fundraiser. The event, hosted by developer and insurance executive Jerome Fletcher, also included Fletcher's brother, Paul, and investor Joe Hixson.
Ensconced near the top of the 120-mile-long coastal CD 6, DeSantis says neighboring Flagler County has been hurt by the federal government's "role in facilitating the collapse of the real estate market."
Once one of Florida's fastest-growing counties, Flagler today is reeling with one of the state's highest unemployment rates -- and DeSantis says there's a connection.
Citing aggressive and politically driven lending policies by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that turned a boom into a bust, DeSantis concluded, "Had government not gotten involved, many of those mortgages wouldn't have been sold in the first place. It was a case of skewed incentives, not a free market.
"It went off the rails."
And how does Congress get Flagler and the rest of the country back on track?
DeSantis, the government skeptic and minimalist, prescribes the Hippocratic Oath: "First, do no harm."
Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
