Spence-Jones pleads not guilty to bribery charges
The suspended commissioner turned herself in today in a Miami-Dade courtroom, but was released on her previously posted bond. She entered a not guilty plea, and left the courtroom saying only “God be the glory.”
Meanwhile, the Miami New Times’ Riptide team gives the developer in the latest Spence-Jones saga, FOJ (friend of Jeb) Armando Codina, the Tiger Beat treatment. Spoiler alert: Spence-Jones isn’t the only Miamian to refer to themselves in the third person…!
AMEXgate: don’t ask, don’t tell
The most striking paragraph from today’s Miami Herald/St. Pete Times update on Marco Rubio’s spa cuts and Macaraoni Grill habit with his Republican Party credit card is this:
“I don’t think it’s appropriate for the party to question the former speaker of the House’s judgment as to when it was appropriate to use the card … The cardholders are members of the Legislature. Why would we not trust them to use their due diligence to repay personal expenses?”
That was Katie Gordon, spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Florida, and what she’s saying is pretty stunning. The party simply didn’t bother to enforce the laws governing the spending of donors’ money, which is, by law, only to be for the purposes of influencing elections, because, well, these are powerful lawmakers and therefore we just have to trust their judgment. Really? Isn’t that the same rationale that federal regulators used to let Bernie Madoff steal billions of dollars? He was a powerful, successful man and so they just assumed he knew what he was doing? The money that Marco Rubio spent on himself (he admits that “89 percent” of his credit card bills were for party purposes, meaning that 11 percent was spent outside the rules) didn’t belong to him. It belonged to the donors to the Florida Republican Party, who I’m sure did not intend by their donations to the contribute to the upkeep of Marco Rubio’s minivan (an expense for which he did NOT reimburse the party.) Read more
Friday video: Marco Rubio’s RPOF bill pay deal, ‘priceless’
Democrats have some fun with Marco Rubio’s sweet deal with the Republican Party of Florida. The upshot: “getting your personal bills paid by the Republican Party of Florida like Marco Rubio: priceless.” Watch:
AMEXgate: Chris Dorworth, what’s in your wallet?
Designated 2014 Florida House Speaker Chris Dorworth
You know whose American Express statements I’d like to see next? RPOF-selected future House Speaker Chris Dorworth. After all, Florida has had bad luck with Speakers lately, and his predecessors include college and airport hangar patron Ran Sansom, and $130 haircuts and husband of the former “first lady of the Florida House” Marco Rubio (otherwise known as “the outsider” … ahem…) And Dorworth has far deeper financial problems than Rubio, who used his party AmEx card to dine out in NYC, run to Winn Dixie and the Apple Store in MIA, stock the fridge with wine and keep the family minivan going. Wouldn’t you love to know if Dorworth used HIS party-issue card to help dig himself out of the hole?
Wasserman-Schultz, DNC blast Florida Republican Party, call for special prosecutor
Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL)
In a conference call with reporters that just wrapped up, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (who’s also the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, and easily one of the party’s most effective spokespeople) along with DNC Communications Director Brad Woodhouse, Florida Democratic Party Executive Director Scott Arceneaux and Florida party spokesman Eric Jotkoff blasted away at the Republican Party of Florida over AMEXgate, calling on Gov. Charlie Crist and Bill McCollum to take action, and the former to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate what Wasserman-Schultz called Florida Republicans’ use of party American Express cards as a “personal slush fund.” Read more
AMEXgate: GOP donors bought Rubio wine, dinners at Macaroni Grill
Credit card records reveal that former FL House Speaker Marco Rubio enjoyed the benefits of a party-issued credit card.
What can a Republican Party credit card do for you?
• $765 at Apple’s online store for “computer supplies.”
• $25.76 from Everglades Lumber for “supplies.”
• $53.49 at Winn-Dixie in Miami for “food.”
• $68.33 at Happy Wine in Miami for “beverages” and “meal.”
• $78.10 for two purchases at Farm Stores groceries in suburban Miami.
• $412 at All Fusion Electronics, a music equipment store in Miami, for “supplies.”
Plus a half dozen plane tickets for the wife, $1,000 in repairs to the family minivan, $130 in services (haircut? Harold Ford-style mani-pedi???) from chichy Churchill’s barbershop in Miami, and “Three payments to a Tallahassee property management group, which Rubio described as personal, were paid by the party, totaling $1,024, state and credit-card records show.”
No wonder Marco didn’t want his AMEX records released. Read more
Marco Rubio and the ghost of Ray Sansom
Ray Sansom spared his mentor Marco Rubio the indignity of having to testify before an ethics panel about what he knew, and when he knew it, regarding his protege’s lavish budget handling when it came to a small Florida college, an airport hangar for a contributor, and a sweet, $110,000 part time job for himself. But just because Sansom quit rather than face the music in the House (he’ll still have to face it at trial) doesn’t mean Rubio shouldn’t have to answer questions. After all, Sansom wasn’t just any old budget writer. He was the House’s chief budget writer during Rubio’s speakership, and that means Rubio should have been aware of what Sansom was putting in those budgets, to include some $35 millie for a tiny Florida college that wound up getting more money than the state’s largest educational institution, Miami-Dade College, which has more than ten times the student enrollment. Sansom succeeded Rubio as speaker, and Rubio has continued to support him as a “high quality person.” And yet, as the now obsolete SackSansom.com points out:
- On the same day Ray Sansom (R-Destin) was named the new Speaker of the House it was announced he had landed a six-figure salary job at Northwest Florida State College. Further reporting revealed that earlier this year, in the midst of a state budget crisis, Sansom quietly steered $25 million to the college even though officials had only requested $1 million.
- Sansom used state resources and staff to fax his job application for the post at Northwest Florida State College that will pay him $110,000-per-year – $25,000 more than his predecessor in the same job. His communications director has since acknowledged this was “not appropriate.”
- The job was unadvertised, no other candidates were considered for the position and Sansom’s application wasn’t included in a public notice for the meeting of the college’s board of trustees before they decided to hire him.
- Northwest Florida State College (formerly Okaloosa-Walton Community College) got more money than any other community college in the state, including Miami-Dade, which has more than ten times as many students enrolled.
- Sansom skirted Sunshine laws by participating in a meeting with the Northwest Florida State College Board of Trustees which was only advertised in an Okaloosa County newspaper – nearly 150 miles from where the meeting would actually take place (Tallahassee.)
- Sansom recently earmarked millions in “education funds” to build a jet hangar for a major donor to his campaign with a financial stake in the project.
And that’s not to even mention Sansom’s nearly $175,000 worth of good times with his party-issued credit card, including a trip to Europe… Read more
The SCOTUS Five: making the world safe for corruption?
Three of the court's conservatives, Scalia (left) Chief Justice Roberts (center) and Alito (right)
Apparently, public corruption is NOT like pornography. Tony Scalia doesn’t know it when he sees it. And that’s not just because Supreme Court justices live sheltered, sexless lives (had a Coke lately, Clarence…?) No, it’s because like corporations, including multinationals with substantial foreign ownership, investing unlimited sums in American elections, politicians should be allowed to trade their votes for money from time to time. Read more
Asked and answered: Crist v. Spence-Jones
A spokesman for Gov. Charlie Crist tells me the governor does indeed plan to go forward with suspending newly re-re-elected Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones. Spence-Jones won her seat back last night after being suspended previously by the governor over grand theft charges she’s facing. Spokesman Sterling Ivery told me Crist believes he does have the authority under state law to suspend Spence-Jones again, even though voters re-elected her with full knowledge of the charges against her. There has been some chatter that a suspension would constitute a usurpation of the will of the voters (most of it from the pro-Spence-Jones camp,) and with PULSE out there with protest songs at the ready, there’s always a risk of blowback, particularly for a Republican governor with a rare talent for being popular with black voters. Asked if the Gov worries about a possible backlash if he removes the commissioner again, Ivery added, “the governor feels he has the responsibility to uphold the laws of Florida.”
The suspension won’t happen today, since obviously there is a lot of other stuff going on (namely Haiti.) But could come at the time of Spence-Jones’ swearing in. The commissioner has filed papers with a state court seeking to block a second suspension, and legal eagles around these parts seem to believe she has a decent case. A hearing on the motion filed by the commissioner’s high priced attorneys is expected to take place next week.
Stay tuned!
The Eggelletion boys: the family that preys together?
At left: talker Andre Eggelletion, at right: down-for-the-count pol Joe Eggelletion.
Even more than his big brother, my former co-host Andre is a crier. So if this thing goes much further, there will be tears. From inimitable reporter Elgin Jones, bain of sketchy politicians (and their kin) everywhere:
[South Florida Times] State prosecutors are investigating to determine if local radio talk show host Andre Eggelletion may have accepted money on behalf of his brother from companies that had business before the county commission, according to sources. Prosecutors are seeking to determine what work Andre Eggelletion’s National Jingle Company performed for Prestige Homes of South Florida, Inc., and whether any of the money from the developer went to Josephus Eggelletion, possibly as a concealed bribe, sources said.
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