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Campaign finance laws: a dodge 'em game

By LUCY MORGAN
Published October 15, 2005

Perhaps we should just toss out the campaign finance laws. Maybe abolish all ethics laws as well.

They don't seem to be doing anything to regulate the way political parties and candidates are spending money and behaving.

And no law we have passed comes close to touching the mysterious political committees that spend millions of dollars.

The 2006 election is beginning to look more like a money laundry than a carefully regulated campaign by high-minded individuals who want to serve the people of Florida.

Take the race for governor. Please take it.

Thanks to a 2005 change in state election laws, the political parties can now spend up to $250,000 on any statewide candidate, plus unlimited amounts for polling services, research services, campaign staff and professional consulting services (which is about everything but direct mail).

In 2004 the party was limited to $50,000 in cash plus the unlimited extras. It's clear we've gone from bad to worse, and we're still more than a year from Election Day.

In practice, the new law gives major political powers a lot of leverage over individual candidates and makes it all but impossible for independents or minor parties to compete.

Party officials admit they spend money on the candidates who help them raise money, even though state laws forbid the parties from earmarking specific contributions for certain candidates.

You don't need to look beyond the race for attorney general to see what is happening. Former Pinellas County Sheriff Everett Rice is facing some unusual odds against Rep. Joe Negron, R-Stuart.

Negron is House appropriations chairman. Lots of people need his help if they get any money out of the state's $63-billion budget, so they are willing to cough up cash to the Florida Republican Party.

In return, Negron has received $15,000 in "in kind" services from the party and can get unlimited help in the future. The party won't disclose who contributed money for Negron, creating a situation that allows candidates to evade the $500 limit individuals can give.

Rice has received nothing from the party and has been busy raising money for his own campaign.

In the governor's race, the Republicans have already spent $288,035 on Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher and $162,134 on Attorney General Charlie Crist - all since January.

Don't get the idea that this is merely a Republican thing. The Democrats are hard at it, too.

U.S. Rep. Jim Davis of Tampa has already collected $355,000 in services provided by the Democratic Party for his candidacy and state Sen. Rod Smith has collected $344,951. Former party chairman Scott Maddox isn't even in the race anymore, but the party spent over $107,000 on him while he was.

And the parties haven't even started to ante up the cash they can give.

Now we have the spectacle of legislators taking a $48,000 trip on a private jet owned by a gambling outfit. It's yet another example of lawmakers getting someone to funnel the money for a trip or gift into the coffers of a political party while they get the benefit of the gift.

The last time trips like this became a scandal, some senators lost elections and two dozen lawmakers got charged with crimes for failing to report gifts.

Sen Jim King, R-Jacksonville, says the trip was the equivalent of an economic development venture aimed at attracting the world's largest auto parts maker, which also happens to own a racetrack.

Perhaps King, state Rep. Frank Farkas, R-St. Petersburg, state Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, and state Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Treasure Island, can convince their constituents that it was perfectly acceptable to take a private plane trip from the folks who own a racetrack that wants to become a casino.

Senate President Tom Lee has ordered a formal investigation, and the Republican Party is paying Magna Entertainment for the trip.

It is perhaps time legislators stop relying on lobbyists with bags full of money to provide their every need.

Most of them could afford to pay like the rest of us.

[Last modified October 15, 2005, 06:05:03]