Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to suggest that Kevin Guthrie, the short-lived candidate for Lieutenant Governor who until this week ran the Division of Emergency Management (DEM), left the job of his own free will.
“Kevin offered his resignation and I accepted it,” DeSantis said in Orlando.
He said Guthrie, who served in the role for most of the DeSantis administration, “had a desire” to be current Lt. Gov. Jay Collins’ running mate as was announced Monday, a day before Collins’ second-place finish in the Primary.
While DeSantis acknowledged Guthrie had a “right” to run, he added that the “reality is that’s not what we want agency heads doing.”
“And so when he submitted the resignation, I felt it was a responsible thing to accept it. He didn’t ask my advice on that foray. I probably would advise them (Collins and Guthrie) to maybe handle it a little bit differently, but it is what it is. Once he tendered that, we accepted it,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis’ comments come after Florida Politics obtained a text Guthrie sent to former co-workers that suggested he had to leave suddenly and not by his own choice.
“I knew my choice was a gamble and even a long shot,” Guthrie wrote. “But I never imagined that I would lose my job for being added.”
It’s not clear whether the choice offered to Guthrie was between a quasi-voluntary resignation and a public dismissal, but the narrative divergence adds another wrinkle to this unexpected saga.
On Tuesday, DeSantis first told the public that Guthrie had resigned.
“If people want to choose politics, more power to them. I didn’t necessarily think that was something that Kevin aspired to, but given that he’s doing that, I think it’s important that we have emergency management just focused on emergency management. So I have accepted his resignation as the Director of the Division of Emergency Management,” DeSantis said.
Jared Perdue, the Secretary of Florida’s Department of Transportation, will be taking over Guthrie’s former role. It is exceedingly unlikely he will use it as a springboard to a campaign between now and the end of DeSantis’ term.
Guthrie spent much of his career in DEM, becoming Chief of Staff under former Gov. Rick Scott. DeSantis tapped him to be Deputy Director in 2019. DeSantis then elevated Guthrie, the former Emergency Preparedness Coordinator with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and Flagler County Public Safety and Emergency Management Director, to the top job in 2021.
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