When Floridians criticize their elected (or unelected) officials, they shouldn’t have to fear armed law enforcement showing up at their front doors.
But that’s exactly what happened to a Largo couple who sent a postcard to the current, unelected head of Florida’s Department of Financial Services. The three-word message — directed at Blaise Ingoglia, currently acting as Florida’s chief financial officer —was sharp, but certainly not threatening: “You lack values.” It was signed by James O’Gara — who, along with his wife Cathy, is active in progressive political causes.
What happened next was crazy — and chilling. As the Sentinel’s Jeffrey Schweers reported, Wednesday morning brought a knock on the O’Garas’ door. Outside were two men with guns on their hips, wearing bulletproof vests with POLICE stenciled on them but no agency name. They said they wanted to talk to James O’Gara.
“They started right off with ‘Did you send a postcard?’ They showed a picture of it, asked if this was it. They didn’t give a reason why they were there. They just showed the picture of the postcard,” James O’Gara said of Wednesday’s visit. O’Gara engaged them in conversation, and things got even scarier. One of the men made a casual reference to O’Gara’s Vietnam-era military service, making it clear that the couple had been thoroughly backgrounded. After more small talk, the men left — but when Cathy O’Gara was taking her granddaughter to school, she spotted two black SUVs parked on her street. She has no idea how many agents might have been inside, she told Schweers.
Nor did she know which agency sent the “police” to her door. The Largo police department eventually identified them as investigators with the criminal division of the state’s Department of Financial Services.
The unanswered questions
Why were they there? A DFS spokeswoman never managed to explain exactly how a powerful politician like Ingoglia found himself so threatened by this couple, who are certainly outspoken but no threat. Anyone researching this couple — as someone in Ingoglia’s office clearly did — would see two people who were clearly passionate about politics, but posed no physical danger to anyone.
That makes the statement by Sydney Booker, communications director for DFS, somewhat infuriating. “In light of recent events and with political violence on the rise, ensuring the security of public figures and maintaining public safety is increasingly important. While it is unfortunate that law enforcement must sometimes go the extra mile to ensure public safety, let it be known that it is a direct result of an increasingly hostile political environment.”
There’s no “must” here at all. And this frightening visit seems obviously sparked more by Ingoglia’s desire to bully and harass people who dare to disagree with him. We certainly don’t buy her assertion that Ingoglia knew nothing about the intimidating visit.
Ingoglia owes the O’Garas, and their granddaughter, an apology. And then he should explain himself to the people of the state of Florida, because his sins do not stop with his intimidation of one couple.
Among the other questions Schweers asked of DFS were these: What made the postcard a threat? How many other people has he investigated, or even sent armed law enforcement officials after, just for being critical of his agency? And finally: How much did this ridiculous exercise cost?
Dishing it out
That’s a very significant question, because Ingoglia — who was given his position by Gov. Ron DeSantis after Florida’s elected CFO, Jimmy Patronis, ran for Congress — recently appointed himself Supreme Arbiter of Wasteful Government Spending. He’s been prancing from city to city (at untold expense) indicting local governments on spurious charges of waste, which he’s measuring by a bogus calculation that compares their current spending with their pre-COVID budgets. His first target was Orange County; since then he’s mostly hit other cities and counties with Democratic majorities, though he also swung by Seminole County after the Sentinel’s Scott Maxwell called him out for ignoring their budget numbers.
In almost every stop, Ingoglia has failed to point out specific, significant over-spending. The closest he came was in deriding the placement of a hologram in Jacksonville’s airport — and then viciously mocking the city of Orlando’s poet laureate program. (That cheap shot revealed a lot about his tactics: If he’d actually investigated the city program, he would have found that the two poets who have held the position so far were probably among the hardest-working people in city government, reaching thousands of people with the power of written and spoken words. The newest laureate plans to use her mental-health background to help victims of human trafficking and domestic violence find comfort and healing. Yep, that’s the kind of thing Ingoglia makes fun of.)
So it’s a perfectly valid question: How much money did Ingoglia waste with the early-morning visit to the O’Garas’ home? Those officers — however many there were — drove to Largo from somewhere. A state employee database shows that DFS officers make between $63,000 and $111,000 a year. What did it cost taxpayers for officers to have a chat on the O’Garas’ stoop while their granddaughter watched wide-eyed?
It goes without saying, of course, that this money wasn’t just wasted. It was directed toward an effort to intimidate and silence people whose only crime was in expressing their contempt for him, personally. And it failed, as an avalanche of contemptuous response to this stunt has proved.
Don’t be afraid
As Americans, speaking truth to power was something the O’Garas had the right — perhaps even the obligation — to do. We hope this was an isolated case. But Ingoglia, along with Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier, seem to believe they should have a monopoly on belittling, bullying and criticising political opponents, often using misleading or downright false claims.
So here’s what we ask of our readers: If you’ve been contacted by someone in state government who bullied or threatened you — or, God forbid, showed up at your door with guns — speak up. And if you’re angry about what happened to the O’Garas, and the way Ingoglia is harassing local government, don’t be afraid to say that too.
It takes courage to protest, which is why our state’s leaders think they can crush opposition with intimidation. But Floridians need to know when their leaders are willing to go to such extremes, and if they are capable of understanding when they’ve stepped over the line.
The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Executive Editor Roger Simmons and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. Contact us at insight@orlandosentinel.com
Originally Published: October 13, 2025 at 9:36 AM EDT