Blinded by the Light: Looking for an Honest Man in Florida’s U.S. Senate Race

Floridians might need a lantern when looking for an honest candidate for the U.S. Senate this year, according to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

The bright Florida sunlight might not be enough to find one. 

In the eyes of the widely-respected watchdog group, three of the nation’s eleven most ethically challenged candidates are vying for the U.S. Senate in Florida. Democrat Kendrick Meek, Republican Marco Rubio, and Gov. Charlie Crist, who’s running as an independent, all made the organization’s list of “Crooked Candidates” running in 2010.

That’s not exactly welcome news in a state suffering from a devastating oil spill, a record number of mortgage foreclosures and where more than a million of its citizens remain jobless.

CREW’s list of the most corrupt candidates for federal office was published on Tuesday.

Meek, who is being seriously challenged by billionaire Jeff Greene and former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre in the state’s August 24 Democratic primary, was singled out by CREW for several questionable activities, including his relationship with South Florida developer Dennis Stackhouse, who is currently awaiting trial on charges of grand theft and fraud.

According to CREW, “Rep. Meek earmarked $1,072,750 for Mr. Stackhouse’s development project and requested an additional $4 million in earmarks for Mr. Stackhouse, which were never awarded.” At the time, former Congresswoman Carrie Meek — the candidate’s mother — received $90,000 in consulting fees from the developer and was given free use of a leased Cadillac Escalade. Stackhouse also reportedly donated the use of a 2,600 square foot office for her foundation.

In addition, Rep. Meek’s former district director received $13,000 from Stackhouse to help him purchase a home — a mortgage deal that Meek claims to have been completely unaware of.

The public citizen’s watchdog group also assailed the four-term congressman for accepting thousands of dollars in contributions from the developer in 2003.

In its scathing report, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington also criticized Meek for failing to recuse himself from voting on matters directly impacting the Wackenhut Corrections Corporation during his tenure in the Florida State Senate. At the time, Meek was employed as a business development officer for the company.

In including his name on its list of eleven “Crooked Candidates,” the Washington-based organization, headed by executive director and no-nonsense former assistant U.S. Attorney Melanie Sloan, also brought up the questionable circumstances surrounding Meek’s initial election to Congress in 2002, when his 76-year-old mother, a five-term member of the U.S. House, waited until two weeks before the filing deadline to announce her retirement, putting other Democrats in the district at a distinct disadvantage while “essentially bequeathing” the seat to her son.

Gov. Crist, who is leading both Rubio and Meek in recent polls, was cited by the watchdog group for his relationship with former state party chair Jim Greer, who was arrested on June 2 and faces six counts of grand theft, fraud and money laundering. Greer is accused of secretly setting up a shell company, Victory Strategies, for the purpose of siphoning off contributions to the Republican Party of Florida.

Crist was also sharply criticized by CREW for “failing to investigate those with whom he had political or financial ties” as Florida’s Attorney General, a post he held for four years before winning the governorship in 2006. In particular, Crist was faulted for failing to fully investigate Lou Pearlman, the former impresario of the Backstreet Boys and other popular bands of the 1990s who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for running a $300 million investment scam.

There was no mention of Crist’s relationship with convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein.

Marco Rubio, a former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives whose campaign has sputtered — losing its sense of purpose — since Crist abandoned the GOP primary in late April to run without party affiliation, was criticized for allegedly misusing Florida Republican Party credit cards during his tenure as Speaker and for admittedly double billing the party and taxpayers for eight airline flights totaling about $3,000 in 2007.

As part of a criminal investigation, the IRS is currently examining tax returns and other records to determine if Rubio and other party leaders personally benefited from the credit card scheme.

Among other things, CREW also slammed the 39-year-old Rubio, a favorite of the Tea Party crowd, for allegedly misusing two of his political committees for personal gain, including billing “more than $51,000 in unidentified travel expenses to his committee” and making “$14,000 in payments to family members, at least one of whom had a non-existent address.”

Though not cited in the CREW list of ethically-challenged candidates, billionaire Jeff Greene — one of Meek’s two major opponents in the hotly-contested Democratic primary — has also come under scrutiny in the past few days for reportedly paying $4,000 to a member of the Democratic National Committee from Florida for “political consultation and strategy” twenty-four hours after that same DNC member sent out an e-mail asking people to take a survey to help him decide whether to endorse Meek or Greene for the Democratic Senate nomination.

Not surprisingly, the DNC member shamelessly endorsed the billionaire shortly thereafter.

Apparently, everybody has a price.  What a sad country.

The self-funding Greene, who once ran for Congress in California as a Republican, made his enormous personal fortune in the subprime mortgage market that devastated the state’s economy, making Florida one of the most troubled states in the country in terms of foreclosures. Currently, 30.6 percent of all subprime mortgages in Florida are in foreclosure, compared to 13.6 percent nationally.

Incredibly, Greene, displaying a strange mixture of vanity and selfishness, continues to defend derivatives, the credit default swaps and other crazy financial instruments contrived and consummated out of unadulterated greed at the heart of this economic calamity — the same reckless derivatives that made him a billionaire while tens of thousands of Floridians lost their homes and their livelihoods — ludicrously suggesting during a debate last month that “if there were not derivatives, there would be no bank loans at all today.”

One wonders how the banking industry — and Wall Street — ever survived without them.  If he pauses long enough to reflect on the personal profits he’s reaped from the misery of others, if he stops counting his money long enough, perhaps Greene will read a book on the history of banking and finance in this country. 

At least we can hope.

He’s the last person struggling Floridians, those who have paid dearly for the excesses of Wall Street, need in the U.S. Senate.

That leaves Maurice Ferre, the amiable and avuncular former mayor of Miami, America’s most diverse city, who at times must feel like the last honest man in Florida politics. Despite being largely ignored by the mainstream press, he’s the one candidate in the race who remains completely unscathed by the charges of corruption and questionable ethics swirling about his Senate rivals.

“Integrity is the issue,” he says.

He’s right, of course, but it remains to be seen how many Democratic voters in the Sunshine State will be willing to play the role of Diogenes on August 24. 

They could clearly do a lot worse.