The Fine Print

Haridopolos, "the law," and fundraising during session

Senate President Mike Haridopolos has had a series of evolving answers when he keeps getting asked about fundraising for his U.S. Senate race.

When he first jumped into the race, Haridopolos said he had not yet made up his mind on whether he would raise money during the 2011 session.

Then in February he added a new answer: Ask incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson if he planned to stop raising money while the U.S. Senate was in session.

The Merritt Island Republican brushed aside any suggestion at the time that his situation was different from Nelson even though the Florida Legislature meets for just 60 days and even though Haridopolos has considerable more power as leader of the state Senate.

So I asked about it this week at his press availability and here's what he had to say:

"I’m not doing any fundraising events," Haridopolos said.

That led to this followup: "You're not doing any fundraising events. You're not making any phone calls, not talking to anybody?"

Haridopolos: "I’m running against someone who is raising money during their session right now. And as you know I follow the law, that’s exactly what I’m doing."

A short while later, I asked a follow-up question which prompted this exchange:

"You said follow the law, I’m confused here because your rules ban fundraising during the session."

Haridopolos: "Gary, you need to read the rules."

"No, I have read the rules sir."

"Let me just finish," Haridopolos said.

"No, the interpretation is based on a federal court ruling. It’s not in your rules."

Haridopolos then said that previous Democratic members of the Florida Legislature had raised money during session:

"We have now Congresswoman (Debbie) Wasserman Schultz, we have Congressman (Ted) Deutch, we have Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, we had former Congressman Ron Klein. They all chose to raise money during session. Al Lawson chose to. That is an opportunity if they choose to do it. All I said, and I said it in this room, is that my opponent Bill Nelson is raising money and has never stopped. And I’m doing the same thing. I’m choosing not to have events as you see me up here every day. You’ve seen our agenda be followed. That’s what people are concerned about and that’s what I’m focused on. I think given the pace that we are going through no one is questioning where my focus is. My focus is how do we turn around this state, how do we turn around this economy, how do we tighten our own belts and that’s exactly what I’m doing."

So let's dissect this just a bit.

In regards to the rules of the Florida Senate, you can read them for yourself:

1.361—Solicitation or acceptance of contributions; registration
and disclosure requirements
(1) During any regular legislative session, extended session, or
special session, a Senator may not directly or indirectly solicit, cause to
be solicited, or accept any contribution on behalf of either the Senator’s
own campaign, any organization described under section 527 or section
501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, any political committee, any
committee of continuous existence, any political party, or the campaign of
any candidate for the Senate; however, a Senator may contribute to his or
her own campaign.

So how candidates raise money during session? Because there have been series of legal opinions from the attorneys who work for the Legislature on whether the rules apply to those seeking federal office.

Most of those opinions have cited a 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling from 1996 that struck down a Georgia law that barred legislators in that state from raising money during session if they were a federal candidate. The court concluded that the state could not pass laws that preempted federal campaign finance laws.

Interestingly enough, then-House general counsel Jeremiah Hawkes in 2007 issued a formal opinion where he cast doubt on the use of the federal ruling. Hawkes agreed that a 11th Circuit ruling was binding on Florida, but he added no other court had dealt with the issue and that ruling was not unanimous.

Hawkes also noted that "there does not seem to be any case that invalidates a legislative rule of procedure because of the preemption doctrine. Parliamentary bodies are given a wide range of discretion when it comes to governing the behavior of their members that can go beyond what can be regulated in statute."

Hawkes said in his opinion that House candidates were not barred from accepting contributions from federal races because the House rule was tied to a state law that did not cover federal candidates. Hawkes, however, cautioned that House members still had to follow another rule that says members should not take anything that could be construed to influence their vote.

"The fact that a solicitation was made during session could increase the likelihood that it would be perceived as influencing the member's vote,'' he wrote.

Just to note the Florida Senate does have a similar rule as well:

1.36—Improper influence
A Senator shall not accept anything that will improperly influence his
or her official act, decision, or vote.

But unlike the House rule the current Senate rule on solicitation is not linked to the state law that is limited to just state and local candidates.

 

 

 

Rubio: I am not under investigation nor will I ever be

The furor over the still unreleased Republican Party of Florida audit this past weekend prompted the campaign of U.S. Senate candidate Charlie Crist to take several shots at rival Marco Rubio. After a closed door session on Saturday, the party said it may sue to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars that Crist and former chairman Jim Greer spent on non-party related travel expenses.

Danny Kanner, a spokesman for Crist, said the party should worry about whether or not Rubio is under investigation for the way he used his Republican Party of Florida issued credit card instead of inferring that Crist may need to pay back thousands of money to the party. The Crist campaign says the move by the party is a political payback aimed at Crist, who bolted the party to run as an independent.

Rubio, however, flatly insisted on Friday that he is not under investigation by either the FBI and IRS - and he boldly predicted that he never will be.

"It's just not true,'' said Rubio following his well-received speech at the 2010 Victory Dinner at Walt Disney World. "I have never been contacted by anyone. I'm not going to because it's not true."

Rubio continued to insist that he used his RPOF credit card for “political purposes” and that the “few instances” that it wasn’t that it was “paid back at the time.”

It's clear, however, that there is some type of investigation into party finances that has been underway for some time now. And Al Hoffman, a former U.S. ambassador and top fundraiser for the party, said at the Saturday RPOF meeting that he has been questioned by both the FBI and IRS about party spending matters.

It's just another reminder that despite RPOF chairman John Thrasher's bold statement before donors and party faithful on Friday night that the "dark period" of the party is over there is still plenty of fallout that could come from Jim Greer-credit cards-Ray Sansom series of scandals.

Now it's unclear how much of this will unfold before Election Day. The trial of Sansom - the former House speaker charged with using his power as budget chairman to steer money to a political donor and developer - has now been scheduled for early next year.

Greer's trial on charges that he steered party money to a shell company that he set up with former executive director Delmar Johnson was initially scheduled for October. But Damon Chase, an attorney for Greer, said the case will not move forward until the defense team has had a chance to put under oath Thrasher, incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, and incoming House Speaker Dean Cannon. They all signed a proposed severance package back in January that says that what Greer did as chairman was "proper, lawful and appropriate."

"I can't wait for the depositions where you sit them down and ask them questions," Chase said this past week. "We're going to walk into court, and go, boom, boom, boom, with the testimony."

Haridopolos, Cannon and Thrasher said they aren't bothered by the prospect of giving a deposition.

"I look forward to justice being done in that case and look forward to cooperating anyway I can,'' Cannon said.

Spilling the secrets of the Republican Party

Some of the innermost secrets of the Republican Party of Florida spilled out in the open on Tuesday as prosecutors released documents that raise additional questions about the ongoing financial scandal that has resulted in the arrest of the former party chairman.

Jim Greer, the man handpicked by Gov. Charlie Crist to lead the party, was arrested earlier this month on six felony charges that he steered party money into a shell company that he set up with another top party official. Greer, who was ousted from his post in January, has said he is innocent.

But the documents that were released -- and the potential witness list for Greer's trial -- could have extensive reverberations for many top elected officials. Crist is listed as a potential witness, as are many other party officials and even a potential future House speaker.

Keep reading here for the full story.

Among the details:

Crist gave investigators a written affidavit saying he knew nothing about Greer's involvement in Victory Strategies, the company that Greer set up and received money from the party.

A 56-minute phone call between Greer and former executive director Delmar Johnson where Greer says he Crist and Greer talked about Crist's independent bid for U.S. Senate days before Crist went on Fox News and said he staying with the Republican Party.

Greer says on that same phone call that he and House speaker in waiting Rep. Chris Dorworth talked about whether the party intended to use Victory Strategies - the company that Greer used to get payment from the party - as a "blackmail mechanism" to get out of paying Greer a severance agreement.

Johnson - who in May signed a deal that keeps him out of prison for helping investigators - repeatedly reassures Greer on the phone call that he's not turning on him. "You never have to worry about me,'' Johnson lies to Greer at one point.

Greer talks about how that "idiot Thrasher," a reference to party chairman John Thrasher, will "try to use that anybody as a scape goat." He calls Thrasher, Attorney General Bill McCollum, and incoming Senate president Mike Haridopolos and incoming House Speaker Dean Cannon the "four horsemen."

Johnson on the call says that McCollum "played a much role behind the scenes than we realize."

While some party officials say they knew nothing about Greer's involvement with Victory Strategies, one party employee says she told to "keep quiet" about the arrangement.

Investigators seized items from Greer's home when he was arrested in early June and included in the haul were American Express records for Cannon, Senate President Jeff Atwater, former House speaker Allan Bense, former Senate President Ken Pruitt, former RPOF chairman Carole Jean Jordan, and Richard Corcoran, a former top aide to Marco Rubio. Investigators also seized invoices/payments for other party officials and Dane Eagle, a top aide to Crist.

Priceless: $80,000 for Greer Force One and $35k for party purge

 

So here's the gift that keeps on giving. When Jim Greer was still chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, Greer and then executive director Delmar Johnson decided that a good way to be "eco-friendly" and save some serious cash was to send out an electronic Christmas card instead of real ones on paper.

But one of the early drafts drawn up the party decided to poke fun at the whole credit card mess and even the contributions of Ponzi fund schemer Scott Rothstein. There's funny little statements about Greer's airplane travels and security detail to "orchestrate the party purge" as well as references to former House Speaker Ray Sansom's American Express expenses as well as Greer's time at the Breakers.

Greer of course was forced to step down from the party earlier this year and is now the subject of a criminal investigation into whether he steered party money to a company he controlled. Greer has insisted he has done nothing wrong and that the party is just trying to get out of paying what the party promised to pay him if he stepped down.

"It was just purely an idea,'' explained Katie Gordon Betta, a spokeswoman for the party about the proposed Christmas card. "We kind of liked the idea of doing a spoof on the credit cards."

Here's the card that the party wound up sending out instead.

Legislator will try one more time to get lobbyists to tell the truth

Sen. Alex Villalobos has had a change of heart.

Just two weeks ago the Miami Republican said he was giving up and had no intention on filing his "Truth in Government" Act that would require those testifying before the Legislature to swear to tell the truth.

But he said he changed his mind after talking to Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach. He said the Senate president supports having lawmakers push ahead with several bills that deal with ethics, including some of those being sponsored by Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach. So Villalobos refiled his bill, which would make it a crime to lie to a legislative committee. It would not apply to legislators and children.

"I see an opportunity given the president's desire to move bills that address ethics and corruption,'' said Villalobos this week.

There has been a renewed interest regarding ethics in the wake of a long list of scandals in the last year - including the arrest of Scott Rothstein and Alan Mendelsohn. Atwater was among those who met with agents from the FBI last year to discuss issues surrounding Mendelsohn.

Gelber said he too has talked with Atwater and he feels confident that some of his bills have a shot of success. Gelber has filed no less than eight bills dealing with campaign contributions, ethics, and the legislative process. Just last week he filed a measure, SB 1554, that would make it crime for any public servant to fail to advertise a solicitation for procurement.

"My sense is that the Senate president recognizes the need to do something,'' said Gelber. "I'm hopeful that a great number of bills will get a hearing if not approved."

Grand jury report prompts Senate President to open up budget process

Senate President Jeff Atwater, responding in part to a critical grand jury report that blasted how state legislators craft the annual state budget, said on Wednesday that within the next two weeks he will institute additional changes to the budget process for the 2010 session to make it more “transparent.”

While the changes have not been finalized, Atwater said they could include creating timelines for when information will be made public and putting in guidelines for discussions between the Senate President and the House Speaker. “You are going to see things exposed a little longer,’’ said Atwater.

Atwater added that he also may be willing to open up meetings where legislative leaders reach an agreement on allocations, or the actual amounts of money set aside for each area of the budget. These changes, however, would only apply to the Senate this year and would need to be formally added to the Senate rules in order to become permanent.

 

Last year a Leon County grand jury indicted former House Speaker Ray Sansom for steering money to a project that was sought by a Panhandle developer and political supporter. The grand jury in its report also criticized the secretive nature of how legislators have shaped the annual spending plan. That prompted lawmakers in 2009 to hand out and then discuss the lengthy provisions that appear both in the actual budget itself and in the so-called conforming bills that accompany the budget.

 

 Atwater conceded that the grand jury report has prompted the changes.

 

"I think their feedback was valuable to us to say, 'This is the people's budget,' why shouldn't we go an extra mile to make sure they see it,'' said Atwater.

 

Tell the truth in the Legislature? Not this year, maybe not ever

State Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, is giving up.

For the last several years Villalobos has tried to push a bill through the Florida Legislature that would have required those who appear before legislative committees to swear to tell the truth.

The legislation was an outgrowth of the contentious 2003 series of special sessions on medical malpractice where the Florida Senate eventually decided to place several officials - including the head of the state's main malpractice insurer - under oath. Villalobos concluded that the testimony before legislators would change dramatically if everyone who testifies would be put on notice that they could be charged with a crime if they lie. His bill was primarily directed at lobbyists since it exempted legislators from the requirement.

But Villalobos legislation has constantly gotten bogged down. Last year House leaders refused to move his bill beyond one committee.

So Villalobos has decided he won't file the bill again during his final session.

"I've never gotten traction,'' said Villalobos.

Villalobos said his inability to get the legislation seriously considered sends a message that lying in the halls of the Florida Legislature is no big deal.

"It says people can go to the Capitol and lie and nothing will happen to them,'' said Villalobos.

Crist, Sansom and that $6 million mystery

As the ongoing legal drama over the fate of former House Speaker Ray Sansom moves forward, there remains one key unanswered question.

Why did Gov. Charlie Crist decide against vetoing the $6 million budget item that is now at the center of the charges against Sansom?

Sansom, R-Destin, was charged this past week with grand theft and conspiracy to commit grand theft. The two new charges stem from the same allegation that Sansom tucked money into the 2007 state budget by claiming it was a building to help out Northwest Florida State College when in fact it was money for an airport hangar wanted by a Panhandle developer and contributor.

In 2007, Crist vetoed more than $450 million in items included in that year's state budget. Internal budget documents from the governor's office show that Crist used his veto pen to eliminate spending items being sought by some of the Legislature's top leaders at the time including both then-House Speaker Marco Rubio and Senate President Ken Pruitt. Read more about the veto mystery here at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Here's the internal budget documents that show that the governor's staff clearly identified the $6 million budget item for the college as questionable. The document also show that the governor's office had linked Sansom's name to $75 million worth of budget items for that year.

Download Ray Sansom Member Issues 2007

Crist wound up slashing $35.2 million worth of projects that Sansom's name was linked to, although two of the projects were for Valencia Community College and one was for Florida A&M University. Interestingly enough, all three of these projects were also being sought by then-Sen. Dan Webster, the Orlando Republican who endorsed Tom Gallagher over Crist in the 2006 Republican primary for governor.

Governor's office budget documents from 2007 also show the following:

Sen. Jeff Atwater, the North Palm Beach Republican already in line to become Senate President, was linked to $33.1 million worth of budget requests reviewed by Crist's office. Crist vetoed 17 separate items totaling $11.06 million including money for an emergency operations center that Crist's budget staff said circumvented the existing budget process. The $6 million appropriation that Sansom wanted for the Destin Airport was flagged by the governor's budget office for not being on any list and that the "college did not request the project."

Download Jeff Atwater Member Issues 2007

Then Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, was linked to $120.69 million worth of projects back in 2007 with the largest bulk of the money going to Florida Atlantic University. Crist vetoed $31.5 million worth of items linked to Pruitt including $14 million that Senate staff told the governor's office that Sen. Carey Baker also wanted for a performing arts center at Lake-Sumter Community College.

Download Ken Pruitt Member Issues 2007

As previously reported the governor's budget office also had a long list of budget items linked to Rubio.

Rubio's name was associated with $98.8 million worth of budget projects, including $80 million for a genetics research institute being established at the University of Miami. Crist wound up slashing $3.02 million sought by the Miami Republican including $2.5 million for a cancer center at UM and $300,000 that would have been used to buy television time to highlight Florida golf courses on the Golf Channel.

Download Marco Rubio Member Issues 2007.

Ethics Commission may ask for more power and steeper fines

Talk about good timing.

On the same week that Gov. Charlie Crist gets rebuffed in his bid to create a statewide grand jury to probe corruption, the state's ethics commission may do something that Crist hasn't done so far: Ask the Florida Legislature for increased investigative power, steeper fines and a different standard to prove that someone has broken the state's ethics laws.

This Friday the commission will revisit its 2010 legislative recommendations. Their discussion comes just four days after the high court dismissed Crist's grand jury request. Crist made the request in the wake of scandals in South Florida.

Some of the ideas that may give more "teeth" to ethics laws, according to Phil Claypool, the executive director of the panel are:

* Giving the commission the ability to launch investigations in limited situations - including allowing the panel to investigate a possible "breach of the public trust" if it is referred to the commission by the governor, the Chief Financial Officer, a state attorney or the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Currently the commission can only launch an investigation if it receives a written complaint.

The recommendation also calls for giving the ethics commission the authority to launch an investigation in the wake of newspaper stories and other public information that is deemed "reliable and publicly disseminated." In either situation it would take a unanimous vote in order to move forward on these cases.

* Beefing up the civil fines that can be imposed on someone who breaks the state's ethics laws. This recommendation calls for increasing the maximum civil fine that can be imposed from $10,000 to $100,000. The commission can only impose fines in limited cases. But the commission can recommend that the governor impose fines in many cases.

* Change the burden of proving a violation of ethics laws from "clear and convincing evidence" to "preponderance of the evidence."

It may not be surprising that the panel is considering such serious changes. In discussions at earlier meetings this year members have said it is more important to recommend "the right thing to do" than to worry about whether or not something will pass.

And there is a chance that none of these changes will pass. The Legislature has shot down past efforts to give the ethics commission greater power, including recommendations that came from an anti-corruption task force set up by former Gov. Jeb Bush.

State Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, said some of these ideas make sense, but he doesn't know if they will get through the Legislature.

"If you want to restore integrity we have had plenty of ideas already,'' said Gelber, who is pushing his own anti-corruption bill for the upcoming 2010 session. "We just need to get them adopted."

Sansom case could wind up before the Supreme Court

One potential bit of fallout from the ongoing legal case involving ousted House Speaker Ray Sansom is that it could actually have an impact on Florida's existing anti-corruption laws and it could easily wind up before the state Supreme Court.

That's because there are now conflicting rulings regarding a key part of the law that Sansom was charged under - which incidentally was part of an anti-corruption bill that was an outgrowth of the 1999 task force put together by then-Gov. Jeb Bush.

Sansom was charged with official misconduct and perjury for his role in securing $6 million in the state budget for Northwest Florida State College. A grand jury found that the money was intended for an airplane hangar to benefit a developer and donor.

Circuit Judge Terry Lewis in October ruled that the statute used to charge Sansom with official misconduct was "unconstitutional as applied to the undisputed material facts of the case" and dismissed that charge against Sansom. State Attorney Willie Meggs has appealed the decision. That doesn't mean Lewis thinks the law goes too far, he just disagrees with how they law was used by state prosecutors.

In his ruling Lewis says that the budget cannot be made "false" by fraud, trickery or misrepresentation of individual legislators. Lewis also stated that the application of the law by prosecutors would make it overly broad, which was part of the reason courts had stricken portions of the law in the past.

But the Fourth District Court of Appeal - when it upheld official misconduct convictions on Sept. 30 against a Hollywood city commissioner - ruled that in that case the state only had to prove that the commissioner "misrepresented the underlying facts" included on voting conflict forms he filed.

This sets the stage then for rival interpretations of the official misconduct law eventually heading to the Supreme Court. It also means that this could throw a curveball on plans by Gov. Charlie Crist and Florida lawmakers to get serious about taking additional steps to battle corruption anytime soon.

Crist asked a statewide grand jury to look into corruption but his request has yet to be granted by the state's high court. But an ongoing court battle over how to interpret current anti-corruption laws could prompt state lawmakers - who were reluctant to adopt the 2003 bill - to delay until the high court acts.

"Historically the Legislature has been reluctant to mess with a law when there's a pending case,'' noted Mark Herron, the veteran Tallahassee attorney who handles election and ethics law cases.