Gov. DeSantis endorsed dozens of sheriffs' candidates, but not St. Lucie's Keith Pearson

Gov. Ron DeSantis distributed a list last week with dozens of candidates he's endorsing in sheriffs' races across Florida.

Keith Pearson, whom DeSantis appointed as a replacement to the St. Lucie County sheriff's job last December, wasn't on that list.

In all, DeSantis recommended candidates in 54 of Florida's 67 counties, including Eric Flowers, the incumbent sheriff in Indian River County. DeSantis didn't make endorsements in some counties with uncontested races, including Martin County, where Chief Deputy John Budisek was unopposed for the top spot.

There were also a handful of contested races where DeSantis chose not to make recommendations, including Dade and Broward counties. Interestingly enough, in Broward County, Gregory Tony is a controversial DeSantis appointment from a few years ago who is running for a new term.

And then there's St. Lucie County, where Pearson faces two opponents in the Aug. 20 Republican primary.

For Pearson and his supporters, that's got to sting. Pearson has built his whole campaign for office around being "the governor's choice." That's what many of his campaign signs say, in bright, bold letters.

Fake news, or a fake endorsement?

Pearson has implied for months he's had the governor's backing, which he said in his inaugural news conference was his reason for believing he had what it took to run for the office.

After all, before DeSantis picked him, Pearson wasn't the office's second-in-command, third-in-command or anywhere among the senior command staff. He was just a mid-level employee who was promoted, for what appear to be political reasons, to a position that's beyond his training or expertise.

Without DeSantis' endorsement, his "governor's choice" claim is about as useful as a boarding pass for an airplane flight that has already taken place.

Having the governor's support to serve as a caretaker for a few months ahead of an election and getting a formal endorsement for a full four-year term are two very different things.

Naturally, Pearson isn't willing to acknowledge that.

“I was chosen and appointed to be Sheriff by Governor DeSantis. This is just another Fake News story trying to suggest a problem that doesn’t exist,” Pearson emailed when I asked about the apparent snub by DeSantis.

Fake news? Really?

But confronted with the facts before him, what else could Pearson really say?

A political liability for DeSantis

DeSantis tapped him to take over as an appointee following the abrupt resignation of former Sheriff Ken Mascara Dec. 1.

After reflecting upon the situation over that weekend, Pearson called a news conference the following Monday to announce he had filed paperwork to run for election for the full-time job this year, which he said previously wasn't something he had planned to do.

The sequence of events seemed a little suspicious, particularly since TCPalm later reported Fort Pierce businessman Anthony "Tony" DiFrancesco, a Pearson ally, hosted a November 2023 fundraiser for the governor's then-active presidential campaign, then DiFrancesco and other family members contributed more than $100,000 to DeSantis and affiliated political action committees, days before the appointment was made.

Pearson is running against acting Port St. Lucie Police Chief Richard Del Toro and Preston DiFrancesco, who is Anthony DiFrancesco's nephew.

The winner will face Democratic nominee Steven Giordano in the Nov. 5 general election.

I wrote in March Pearson might be a political liability for DeSantis, who still could have a bright political future after his term as governor ends.

I reasoned that any questionable behavior by Pearson could reflect negatively on his political benefactor, who's still young and popular enough to be in the mix for a future U.S. Senate seat or maybe even the presidency.

A comedy of errors, from the start

So what did Pearson do? Almost from Day 1, he behaved questionably.

∎ Journalists had trouble getting access to public records involving his office.

∎ Pearson also began regularly posting unprofessional-looking social media videos of arrested suspects, which drew criticism from others in law enforcement, including State Attorney Tom Bakkedahl, Public Defender Diamond Litty and U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe.

∎ He's been investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement a couple of times, although no charges have been brought against him resulting from those probes.

∎ He's had silly mistakes in some of his campaign literature, misspelling words and exaggerating his length of service in law enforcement.

The list goes on.

Given all that's happened over the last few months, is it any wonder if DeSantis took a step back and decided that maybe endorsing Pearson wasn't the wisest thing to do?

(Attempts to reach DeSantis through his communications office and his political committee Monday were unsuccessful.)

Governor's silence speaks loudly

For DeSantis supporters who have been turned off by Pearson's conduct, the governor's decision not to endorse in the St. Lucie County race gives them an out to choose whichever candidate they like best. They don't have to feel obligated to vote for Pearson out of loyalty to the governor.

If you were inclined to vote for Del Toro or DiFrancesco in the primary, DeSantis has tacitly given his permission.

Although early voting has started, there's theoretically still time for DeSantis to amend his list of endorsed candidates to include Pearson. I wouldn't bet on that happening, though.

In this case, it seems that by not choosing, DeSantis has made his choice pretty clear.

This column reflects the opinion of Blake Fontenay. Contact him via email at bfontenay@gannett.com or at 772-232-5424.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: "Governor's choice" Pearson not on DeSantis' endorsed candidates list