DOC's chief of staff traded messages with a Pinellas man deriding presidential candidate John Kerry.
By Associated Press
Published March 27, 2004
TALLAHASSEE - The Department of Corrections suspended its chief of staff for five days effective Monday for using his government e-mail account for personal and political use, including one exchange with a Pinellas County man who criticized Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
Mike Hanna will forfeit more than $1,600 of his $85,000 annual salary during the suspension announced Friday.
Hanna served as a deputy personnel director for Republican Gov. Jeb Bush's transition team in 2002 after working on Bush's gubernatorial campaign in 1998 and 2002. Responding to a March 9 e-mail from Gene Davis that called Kerry "a Roman Catholic Jew sympathetic to Islam," Hanna wrote back: "Gene my man ... this is funny ... we'll take him out. We need you to help us carry Pinellas!"
The original note, asking "Who is, Johnnie Kerry," described the Massachusetts senator as "a veteran who thinks the military stinks," and "a billionaire that desires to increases taxes."
Corrections spokesman Sterling Ivey said the department used the suspension as an opportunity to remind its employees about properly using their state e-mail accounts.
Some of Hanna's e-mails included political business as well - not a violation of law.
Bush, however, said he doesn't allow it in his administration.
"I don't think it was campaigning per se," Bush said. "He's being punished for it."
