A Florida ethics panel announced Wednesday that the state’s Agriculture Commissioner and Democratic candidate for governor, Nikki Fried, failed to properly report the money she made lobbying during 2017 and 2018 on financial disclosure forms, according to a story from the Associated Press.
A spokesperson for Fried’s campaign said the allegations were baseless and political in nature.
“Consistent with the administration’s regular practice of feeding false information to its subordinate agencies, Commissioner Fried is being attacked for following the law and showing transparency, exactly the opposite of what Republican Ron DeSantis and his cohorts do every day,” Fried campaign spokesperson Drew Godinich told the AP.
Fried is the only Democrat in Florida to hold statewide office. Her department oversees the state’s Concealed Weapon and Firearms Licensing program.
Second Amendment watchdogs say her stewardship of the popular CWFL program has been abysmal and the subject of lawsuits.
Despite frequent claims that she has a CWFL and a firearms, Fried is decidedly anti-gun. She recently came out against Florida’s powerful preemption statute, which states that only the state legislature can regulate firearms. The law protects all of Florida’s pro-gun statutes. If local politicians try to create their own gun regulations, the preemption statute has severe penalties, which include a fine of up to $5,000 and removal from office.
Fried’s campaign has said she will ask an administrative law judge dismiss the ethics complaint.
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