Since suspending his presidential candidacy over the weekend, Gov. Ron DeSantis has thrown himself into minding the store in Tallahassee, participating in a flurry of meetings with lawmakers and administration officials.

DeSantis even scheduled his first news conference since leaving the race on Sunday, traveling to Lake Okeechobee on Thursday to relive an early bright spot from his first term, at least as evidenced by favorable press coverage — environmental protection.

The occasion was a ribbon cutting marking the first flows into the 6,500-acre EAA Reservoir, one of the water receptacles constructed during DeSantis’ governorship to filter lake water of toxic algae before it can flow into St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers, coastal estuaries, the Everglades, and Florida Bay.

Besides creating a foul-smelling, dangerous mess alongside coastal properties that can cause serious illness in people, the algae can kill fish and the sea grasses upon which the Florida manatee depends.

DeSantis called the EAA “the crown jewel of Everglades restoration.”

But he never took questions from reporters at the press event Thursday.

That makes sense to Mac Stipanovich, the former Republican political consultant turned independent out of opposition to Donald Trump.

“I would advise DeSantis to tread water for a while and wait to see how things play out between now and November. An Everglades press conference with no questions is treading water,” Stipanovich told the Phoenix.

“He is damaged and should want some time to heal. Plus, things are so fluid, so volatile in MAGA world that it would be easy to make more mistakes doing things that don’t need doing right now. In the meantime, go back to 2019: Everglades this week, teacher pay raise next week,” Stipanovich continued.

Asked for comment about when DeSantis would take questions about what if anything Thursday’s environmental emphasis portends, press secretary Jeremy Redfern replied by email.

“Water quality and Everglades restoration has been a priority of the DeSantis administration since the governor took office in 2019,” Redfern wrote. “I suggest listening to the governor’s comments he made today, as well as the numerous speakers that joined him, to get a better understanding.”

Stipanovich referred to DeSantis’ early days in office, when he struck a moderate tone for a Republican who’d campaigned at a Trump acolyte.

But during much of his time in office, while planning his entry into the Republican primaries, the governor took more hard-right political stances. He attacked LGBTQ people, especially the transgender community; signed a six-week abortion ban (which hasn’t taken effect yet); led book purges at public schools and attacked the Disney company; banished diversity efforts; and undermined academic freedom in public colleges and universities.

And DeSantis’ public pronouncements on environmental protection have long obscured his record in this area, including his burial of most of a task force report about how to solve the algae problem and backing developers over environmental protection, as recorded over the years by Phoenix columnist Craig Pittman.

Still, unable to compete with Trump, DeSantis pulled the plug on his presidential race on Sunday, after finishing second in the Iowa caucuses but nearly 30 points behind the ex-president.

The governor hasn’t entirely abandoned the pugilistic attitude. He released a video Thursday supporting Texas Gov. Greg Abbott against President Biden’s effort to regain control of policing the Mexican border. Texas police had prevented the U.S. Customs and Border Protection from approaching the border.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered Abbott to stand down, but he appears intent on confrontation with the Biden administration.

But DeSantis restricted his caustic critique of Biden to social media, not repeating it amid the other dignitaries present at the ribbon cutting, including representatives of the U.S. Department of Interior and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Full story at Florida Phoenix