It was a photo shoot aimed at galvanizing Republican voters, one showing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis posing in front of a helicopter Sunday on the southern Texas border.
But the screen is creating an unwanted spotlight for Mr. DeSantis: The helicopter is funded by Texas taxpayers, raising questions about the political nature of the flight and its cost.
Federal law requires presidential candidates pay the fair market rate for non-commercial air travel and reimburse flight providers. In this case, the Texas Department of Public Safety owns the 2008 Eurocopter, according to a Federal Aviation Administration database of aircraft tail numbers.
Also, ethics rule in Texas prevent officials there from using state resources in support of political campaigns.
The office of Mr. DeSantis suggested he was visiting the border in a dual capacity, as governor and presidential candidate, but his official schedule as governor omitted mention of it. Jeremy Redfern, spokesman for Mr. DeSantis in the governor’s office, referred questions about the helicopter flight to the Texas Department of Public Safety on Wednesday.
This agency said that Mr. DeSantis was briefed during his visit on joint immigration enforcement activities between Florida and Texas at the border, part of a program known as Operation Lone Star.
“The briefing included an aerial tour that was provided by DPS in order to give Governor DeSantis a clearer understanding of how Florida’s resources are being used along our southern border and to see the challenges firsthand” , Ericka Miller, spokeswoman for the Texas Department. of Public Safety, he said in an email Wednesday.
The campaign of Mr. DeSantis shared the photo of the helicopter on Twitter on Monday, the same day he proposed a series of right-wing immigration policies in a campaign speech in Eagle Pass, a small Texas border town.
As a reflection of the divided nature of his duties, Mr. DeSantis wore a short-sleeved white shirt Sunday that read “Gov. Ron DeSantis” on the right and “DeSantis for President” on the left.
The use of Mr. DeSantis of the taxpayer-funded helicopter was first reported by The daily beast, who also noted that he took a boat tour of the Rio Grande as part of his visit. A reporter from Fox News accompanied him air and for water.
That boat is owned by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, The New York Times confirmed. The state agency had already deployed the ship there through a mutual aid agreement and as part of the Operation Lone Star program.
Mr. Redfern, in a statement, challenged that there was anything inappropriate about Mr. DeSantis on boat owned by Florida taxpayers.
“Participating in a routine patrol with FWC is not outside the scope of the governor’s job as the state’s chief executive,” he said.
Myles Martin, a spokesman for the Federal Election Commission, said in an email Wednesday that he could not comment on specific candidates or their activities. But he noted that federal campaign finance rules require candidates to reimburse federal, state or local government entities when they use aircraft owned by them to campaign.
Political committees must also pay for costs associated with other means of transportation, including boat travel.
Mr. DeSantis has previously faced accusations that he is inappropriately blurring the lines between his official duties and his campaign.
When Mr. As DeSantis prepared to sign Florida’s record budget earlier this month, lobbyists and state lawmakers said the governor’s staff called them seeking campaign contributions or political endorsements, a disclosure normally made by members of the campaign of Mr. DeSantis. The talks prompted lobbyists and lawmakers to fear that Mr. DeSantis vetoes his budget projects if they don’t comply, they said.
And when Mr. DeSantis signed the budget, vetoing several projects sponsored by state Sen. Joe Gruters, a Republican who has supported former President Donald J. Trump, the Republican front-runner. Gruters accused the governor of retribution, calling him “grumpy” and saying he had chosen to “punish ordinary Floridians” over a political disagreement.
The governor’s office denied the vetoes were political. And at a press conference in Tampa last week, Mr. DeSantis said there was nothing wrong with aides in his office supporting his campaign in their “spare time.”
But Nikki Fried, the chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, filed ethics and state election complaints against three top staffers in the governor’s office. “Any reasonable person could infer from the report that our governor was holding the state budget hostage in exchange for political endorsements and donations, actions that are unethical and illegal,” said Ms. Fried in a statement.
At the beginning of the year, Mr. DeSantis also signed a bill shielding his travel records from public disclosure, preventing an account of taxpayer funds from being used to cover security and other costs during his campaign trips.
