Will Cronyism Take Down Charlie Crist?

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In November of 2008, I posed a question: will Jim Greer take down Charlie Crist?

With Governor Crist’s once seemingly inevitable Senate bid in dire straits and the the Republican Party of Florida publicly imploding before our eyes, it is time to revise and revisit this question.

Will cronyism take down Charlie Crist’s Senate campaign?

The Orlando Sentinel reported this week that soon-to-be former RPOF Chairman Greer secretly paid his hand-picked Executive Director Delmar Johnson, a former Crist field organizer who is miraculously as fat as Greer, roughly $405,000 in 2009. I’d be shocked if a large percentage of that money wasn’t sent back to Greer, which might explain why Johnson’s contract was confidential.

And after cutting up his own Party American Express card to appease critics calling for an audit of RPOF records, Greer used Johnson’s Party-issued Amex as if it were his own to pay for his travel and trips taken by Crist campaign staffers and some state legislators, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

“We’re done. I hope I never hear American Express again,” Greer said at the card-cutting ceremony, according to the Associated Press. “For those people who want to keep talking about the issue, they’re doing it for one reason and that is to cause trouble.”

The discussion did not end, nor did Greer’s excessive spending. In fact, he only got so reckless and desperate as to use his campaign for re-election as a slush fund. Greer’s paid himself $150,000 through his campaign, which also doled out more than $90,000 to Johnson.

RPOF records would not hold up to an IRS investigation. Greer  and Johnson would be roasted, like fat pigs, I might add. The million dollar question is, who else would go down?  I have to wonder why Crist remained loyal to Greer as calls for his resignation grew. Did Crist have an RPOF Amex? He expressed “extremely high” confidence in Greer as late as November.

Many (and arguably most) politicians are guilty of cronyism. The problem for Crist is that he picked the wrong cronies. They are too blatant; they can’t help themselves. It’s easy to follow the money.

George LeMieux - who had a hand in every pot during his short stay in the private sector, between his job as Crist’s Chief of Staff and his new gig as an appointed U.S. Senator - was paid $350,000 by RPOF over the same period of time that Seminole gaming interests were injecting $580,000 into the State Party and another $100,000 into the Conservative Values Coalition, an ECO that supported Crist in his gubernatorial bid.

Crist, who had opposed expansion of gambling during his 2006 campaign, quickly changed his tune. LeMieux acted as the chief negotiator for Crist with the Seminoles and offered them an unbelievable compact that would give them an unusually low tax on slot machine revenue and access to card games blocked by Florida law and the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

This compact was never ratified by the State Legislature and was later struck down by the Florida Supreme Court. Yet, Crist and LeMieux had done their part, as the Seminoles have been allowed to continue operation of these prohibited card games while the law remains in limbo.

After leaving the Governor’s office at the end of 2007, LeMieux continued to negotiate the compact between Crist and the Seminoles while managing the law firm Gunster Yoakley & Stewart, where he had previously worked from 1994-2002. The next gaming compact drawn up by Crist and LeMieux - which was dead on arrival in the legislature - would have given the Seminoles even more: a total monopoly on gambling.

When he rejoined Gunster in January 2008, LeMieux already had a plush first assignment: he was paid $500 an hour as part of a brand new contract with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) in which his firm advised the state on its attempts to purchase right of way to the tracks owned by Florida East Coast Railroad (FECR).

It has been my contention that this work posed a conflict for LeMieux, as his firm simultaenously listed FECR’s parent company, Florida East Coast Industries (FECI), as a client. Mark C. Thibault has filed a bar complaint against LeMieux regarding his apparent double-dipping, as was first reported by Marc Caputo of the Miami Herald/St. Pete Times.

The back-and-forth between LeMieux and Thibault is quite interesting in that LeMieux never refutes any of Thibault’s supporting evidence and instead just repeatedly asks for the matter to be dismissed and attacks Thibault for his consulting work. LeMieux provides no explanation for why his firm’s website listed FECI as a client until August 2008.

Thibault appears to have caught LeMieux lying to the bar, too. LeMieux and Gunster claimed that he first began working on the FDOT project in March 2008, and Thibault forwarded the bar emails which show LeMieux working on the project two months earlier.

It’s possible that Thibault, a Democratic political consultant who ran a Miami-Dade slot machine referendum for Flagler Dog Track, filed the complaint as retribution for the ridiculously stilted Seminole compact. But Gunster’s repeated mention of his consulting work has absolutely nothing to do with the validity of his complaint, as Thibault has noted.

Crist’s unending loyalty to the shameless George LeMieux - who thinks he is a real Senator now, placing holds on appointments and co-sponsoring legislation - and thieving slob Greer has alienated many in his 2006 support team, which is why Crist’s campaign is caught between a rock and a hard place.

Crist has a reputation as a tireless, hard-nosed campaigner, but the damage to his Senate candidacy is already done. It’s time to stick a fork in him.

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