Reply #6: Let's not forget the GOP AmEx cards that these guys used, padding their personal lifestyles.

[seafan]

Lots of pieces of collected, relevant information in this post that should be preserved, so please excuse its rambling nature.



From here, a letter from Greer's attorney to the RPOF:


Date of this letter is approximately February 8, 2010.

.....

For the good of the Party, I respectfully submit that rather than wasting precious resources attempting to circumvent the clear and unambiguous obligations the RPOF has to Mr. Greer, you gentlemen need to be slapping a tourniquet on the incessant hemorrhaging of confidential internal affairs to the press. Yesterday's revelation in the Orlando Sentinel that Mr. Dean Cannon transferred money out of the RPOF and into his personal CCE because he no longer trusted the money with the RPOF flies in the face of the binding document upon which he set his signature and about which this letter is written.

.....

March 05, 2010
Haridop's committee returns $294k to RPOF


Remember how, amid the chaos of the state GOP chairman's resignation, nearly $1 million was quietly stashed in two committees linked to incoming House Speaker Dean Cannon and Senate President Mike Haridopolos?

Well just as quietly, the group associated with Haridopolos -- The Alliance for a Strong Economy -- has given the money back. Its website shows expenditures of $100,000 and $294,500 in "dues refunds" to the Republican Party of Florida on Feb. 25, five days after state Sen. John Thrasher of St. Augustine was elected the new party chairman. The group also paid $3,000 to the Robert Watkins & Co. accounting firm in Tampa.

The group tied to Cannon, The Florida Liberty Fund, still has $655,000 of the party's money. Its most recent expenditure was nearly $15,000 to Tallahassee consultant Ron Sachs on Feb. 26.

UPDATE: We asked Haridopolos about the refund, and he said he didn't know all of the details on the move: "I guess we chose to move it over."

Asked if it was because of the change in the party leadership, he said: “Given the vote by the executive committee of the RPOF, I think we had that much more confidence in the board and the staff. And we made the decision to make sure we had the resources to make sure the party can still operate.”

-- Beth Reinhard

Near the end of the interview, he still seemed a bit puzzled: "I’m not well versed on this issue right now ... We moved our money back in?"

Reporter: "I guess so. I thought you would have some role in that."

"I probably did," he said, noting that there are a handful of other senators on the committee.

Posted by Times Editor at 12:15:18 PM on March 5, 2010

April 01, 2010
Cannon gives back RPOF cash, too

Several weeks ago, Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos gave back the $294,000 he had stashed in his campaign committee in the chaos of former RPOF chairman Jim Greer's resignation. Well, now future House Speaker Dean Cannon has followed suit.

His committee reports that on March 15, two separate payments totaling $655,000 were returned to the party.

With that much money at stake, it seems the two lawmakers are satisfied with the current party leadership -- colleague John Thrasher.
Posted by Lee Logan at 06:46:08 PM on April 1, 2010

Secret contract, lavish spending push Republican Party of Florida to crisis

By Adam C. Smith and Beth Reinhard, Times/Herald staff writers
Tuesday, February 9, 2010


As a volatile election season gets under way, the Republican Party of Florida is facing its biggest crisis of confidence in decades.

Donors and party activists are livid over newly revealed records that suggest outgoing chairman Jim Greer used the party as a personal slush fund for lavish travel and entertainment. The records also show that executive director Delmar Johnson padded his $103,000 salary with a secret, $260,000 fundraising contract and another $42,000 for expenses — at the same time the once mighty Florida GOP was having to lay off employees amid anemic fundraising.

Another sign of trouble came Monday with news that incoming House Speaker Dean Cannon transferred $665,000 of party money in the days surrounding Greer's resignation to a separate political committee called the Florida Liberty Fund, suggesting lack of confidence in the party election machine.

.....

Some Republicans say the party cannot move forward without a public and potentially embarrassing airing out of its internal finances. The repercussions of full public disclosure of party spending could be far reaching, as Greer had long acted as an arm of Gov. Crist's political machine, and Crist's U.S. Senate rival, Marco Rubio, had his own party credit card as speaker of the Florida House.

The leading candidates to replace Greer vowed Monday to take a hard look at the party's finances but wouldn't commit to opening the books.

"While I fully agree with disclosure, the question is disclosure to whom?'' asked state Sen. John Thrasher of St. Augustine, anointed by top elected Republicans to replace Greer. "The decision to have these issues aired in the mainstream media will only serve to trap our party in a continual discussion about the past, instead of looking forward to our future, and I will not participate in harming the party that I love so much."

.....

Republican state Sen. Paula Dockery of Lakeland, an underdog candidate for governor, said the party needs to come clean: "Seriously, how do you ask everyday folks to contribute whatever they can, then refuse to let them see the credit-card costs for communicating our message?"

Attorney General Bill McCollum, the Republican gubernatorial frontrunner, has been deeply involved in the controversy, while trying to keep it quiet. He received a copy of the secret contract between Greer and Johnson in January, and then briefed House Speaker-designate Dean Cannon and Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos.

They stormed over to GOP headquarters, and Greer and Johnson vacated the office soon after. Days later, most of the state party staffers were laid off.

.....

Rubio, who is challenging Crist for the U.S. Senate, had a party American Express card when he served as House speaker in 2007 and 2008. He said he would leave it up to the next chair to decide what information should be made public.

.....

Looks like Rubio's pal John Thrasher, now the new RPOF Chair, is not interested in releasing the American Express credit card records, so Rubio can relax.

GOP leaders say release of AmEx records would create “media circus;” Cue the bear on the bicycle

posted by jim stratton on February, 27 2010 12:08 AM


OK, so incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos and House Speaker Designate Dean Cannon say they won’t be pushing the Republican Party of Florida to release any other American Express statements that may be floating around party HQ.

That’s expected — and probably politically prudent.

But the reason Haridopolos and Cannon give — apparently with a straight face — is wonderful.

“It is our firm belief,” they intone, “that the professional auditors should be allowed to do their job without the interference of a media circus surrounding the release of any records.”

Now it’s true that the press corps can be obnoxious. We interrupt, don’t dress that well and spend waaaay less than $130 on a haircut. But the incoming Speaker and Senate President make it sound as if we’d show up on unicycles, with big floppy shoes and seltzer bottles.

Are they worried we’d rumble into RPOF offices in a tiny car with 25 of us spilling out? That while auditors were trying to doing God’s Work we’d be tearing up documents and juggling calculators?

“Stop honking those horns this instant! We’re trying to reconcile accounts receivable!”

No, it seems that there’s no way to make those credit card records available without causing a spectacle, a nightmare, a “media circus.”

Except make copies.

Crist wants to release AmEx records; McCollum, not so much

posted by aaron deslatte on February, 9 2010 9:22 AM


TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Charlie Crist says he believes the Republican Party of Florida should release American Express credit card records for all elected party leaders who held them.

“I think it’s a good idea. Transparency is always good,” Crist told reporters Tuesday. “I didn’t have one of those credit cards, by the way.”

Reports that RPOF officials had lived the high-life while paying their executive director at least $408,000 last year have rocked the normal cadence of politics in Tallahassee this week.

Crist said the salary disclosed by the Orlando Sentinel last week “doesn’t look good.” His reference to not having a card could also be seen as a subtle slap at U. S. Senate primary rival Marco Rubio, who did have a party card when he was House speaker.

But the leading Republican running to replace Crist in the governor’s office, Attorney General Bill McCollum, said releasing AmEx statements for past card holders was a decision that should left to the next party chairman and he personally doesn’t think party business should be a public matter.

“That might be a question for the Legislature to decide, since the Legislature makes the rules for parties,” McCollum said. “Right now the party matters are totally internal … I don’t think it’s good for any political party to be having everything that’s done inside the party open to the public and the press.

“On the other hand I think it’s very important for the party regulars … all have a clear and confident understanding of what’s been going on in terms of everything, credit cards and bank accounts, everything else. I think that’s what’s been missing, and I think that’s what the next chairman will correct.”

McCollum’s primary opponent, state Sen. Paula Dockery, has also called for party AmEx records to be released in order to clear the air before it gets too close to the 2010 elections. Whoever gets tapped next week to replace Jim Greer as chairman will have to make that call — but there’s mounting evidence that the elected leaders now effectively running the party had seen enough internally to be extremely nervous.

House Speaker-designate Dean Cannon was so unnerved by party finances last month that he yanked $655,000 he had helped raise for House races. McCollum had made a similar move earlier last year when he established a separate “Victory 2010″ account with former House Speaker Allan Bense in charge. But he said he hadn’t yanked any more money out after the fall of Greer.

“Nothing other than the separate bank account we have inside the party for Victory 2010,” McCollum said.

Marco Rubio's lavish rise to the top, St. Petersburg Times, March 13, 2010


By Adam C. Smith, Beth Reinhard and Scott Hiaasen, Times/Herald Staff Writers


Marco Rubio was barely solvent as a young lawmaker climbing his way to the top post in the Florida House, but special interest donations and political perks allowed him to spend big money with little scrutiny.

About $600,000 in contributions was stowed in two inconspicuous political committees controlled by Rubio, now the Republican front-runner for the U.S. Senate, and his wife. A St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald analysis of the expenses found:

• Rubio failed to disclose $34,000 in expenses — including $7,000 he paid himself — for one of the committees in 2003 and 2004, as required by state law.

• One committee paid relatives nearly $14,000 for what was incorrectly described to the IRS as "courier fees" and listed a nonexistent address for one of them. Another committee paid $5,700 to his wife, who was listed as the treasurer, much of it for "gas and meals."

• He billed more than $51,000 in unidentified "travel expenses'' to three different credit cards — nearly one-quarter of the committee's entire haul. Charges are not required to be itemized, but other lawmakers detailed almost all of their committee expenses.

Rubio's spending continued in 2005 when the Republican Party of Florida handed him a credit card to use at his own discretion. While serving as House speaker in 2007 and 2008, he charged thousands of dollars in restaurant tabs to the state party at the same time taxpayers were subsidizing his meals in Tallahassee.

.....

Marco Rubio (Steve Cannon/AP)




Jeb's hoping he'll escape the Lehman scrutiny with all the attention on the RPOF debacle.






It's time to send in the feds to nail every one of these bastards to the wall.