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Candidate lobbied improperly

By BRADY DENNIS
Published October 4, 2006

TAMPA - Between 2002 and 2005, Hillsborough County Commission candidate Al Higginbotham collected nearly $200,000 in lobbying fees from the state agency that represents death row inmates.

Most of that money came while Higginbotham served as chairman of the Hillsborough County Republican Party, raising questions about whether someone in control of party purse strings should be lobbying legislators who depend on his help.

Now, a state investigation has concluded that the payments made to Higginbotham violated Florida statutes that prohibit certain agencies from using public funds to lobby the Legislature.

The investigation also revealed that at one point the agency changed Higginbotham's contract from a three-page document outlining his lobbying duties to a half-page contract describing him as a consultant. His job, however, remained the same.

Higginbotham makes no mention of his lobbying work in campaign literature, on his Web site, on the biography he recently submitted to the St. Petersburg Times or on his financial disclosure forms.

"I never considered myself a lobbyist," he said Tuesday, even though he registered with the state as a lobbyist from 2001 to 2005.

In fact, records show Higginbotham spent years fighting to keep state funding for the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, which defends death row inmates.

"I remember the situation vividly," Senate President Tom Lee recalled. "He was there quite a bit. He was pretty hard to miss."

Lee declined to elaborate on what he thought of Higginbotham's dual roles of party leader and lobbyist.

Findings released recently by the Florida Department of Financial Service's Office of Fiscal Integrity claim that CCRC violated state laws that forbid any agency under the executive or judicial branches from using public funds to pay lobbying fees to anyone not a state employee.

Investigators want lawyers for the state to try to recoup the money paid to Higginbotham, and a spokeswoman said the report has been sent to the governor's office and the Florida Commission on Ethics.

Meanwhile, CCRC officials have argued that the agency does not fall under the executive branch, even though its leaders are appointed by the governor, and they have asked for an administrative hearing to determine the agency's status.

Higginbotham said Tuesday he had not read the investigation's findings. But he said he saw no problems either with CCRC's payments to him or with his simultaneous work lobbying and running the county Republican Party.

Higginbotham has faced other questions about conflicts of interest during his campaign.

The St. Petersburg Times reported Sunday that a company owned by Higginbotham and his wife built the Plant City home of Hillsborough Elections Supervisor Buddy Johnson last year. Higginbotham worked in Johnson's race for the state House in 1991 and later wrote a letter urging the appointment in 2003 of Johnson to elections chief by Gov. Jeb Bush.

The couple's company, Archive Properties, also completed a room addition last year for Plant City restaurant owner Fred Johnson, the brother and former business partner of Buddy Johnson, who catered Higginbothams' kickoff fundraiser.

[Last modified October 4, 2006, 00:08:19]