Florida State Senator Resigns After Using Racial Slur in Tirade

[Sunlei]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by NH Ethylene (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: NYT

A Florida state senator who unleashed an expletive-laden rant over drinks with two other lawmakers this week, uttering a racial slur for black people and other vulgarities, resigned from his position on Friday.

State Senator Frank Artiles, a Republican from Miami-Dade County, apologized the day after the episode, saying on Tuesday that he let his “temper get the best of me.” But Mr. Artiles continued to face increasing pressure to resign. The state’s Democratic Party and members of the Florida Legislative Black Caucus said that an apology was not enough.

The profane tirade occurred on Monday night at the exclusive Governors Club in Tallahassee during a conversation at a table with several people, including two other state senators, Audrey Gibson and Perry Thurston, both Democrats who are black.


After a discussion between Mr. Artiles and Ms. Gibson over bills in the Legislature, Mr. Artiles used two expletives to refer to her, she told The Miami Herald. In a conversation about the Senate’s leadership, Mr. Artiles said the Senate president, Joe Negron, was elected only with the help of six black lawmakers, using a racial slur to describe them, Ms. Gibson told the newspaper.


Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/21/us/florida-senator-frank-artiles-resigns-racist-rant.html?_r=0

---

Mr. Artiles, a 43-year-old former Marine, served for six years in the Florida House of Representatives before being elected last November to the Senate.

State Senator Frank Artiles, a Republican from Miami-Dade County.

[TexasTowelie]

1. Duplicate thread in LBN:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10141758022

[HAB911]

2. It gets better: Hooters 'calendar girl' and Playboy 'Miss Social' were Frank Artiles' paid consultan

TALLAHASSEE — Just months before his resignation Friday, Sen. Frank Artiles scored a coup in November when he unseated Democrat Dwight Bullard with an aggressive $1 million campaign in a district that favored Democrats.

But the long list of expenditures filed with the Florida Division of Elections by Artiles' political committee, Veterans for Conservative Principles, also raised some questions. Why did the committee hire a former Hooters "calendar girl" and a Playboy model with no political experience as "consultants?" Were the payments related to a trip to the Kentucky Derby or a fishing tournament in Key West? What was the more than $51,000 in reimbursements to Artiles for?

Heather Thomas, a former Hooters calendar girl and waitress at 101, a restaurant and bar in Tallahassee, was paid $2,000 between March and June of last year. The expense report lists the purpose as "consultant." Her friend, Brittney Singletary, is a waitress at Stetsons on the Moon in Tallahassee. She was paid $1,500 with three checks covering three of the same dates and listing the same purpose.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/hooters-calendar-girl-and-playboy-miss-social-were-frank-artiles-paid/2321199

[Chemisse]

3. Locking

Please continue discussion under the first thread about this:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10141758022