DISTRITO 25: Campaña de Paul Crespo despeja el camino Republicano: de nuevo VS. David Rivera

Enviado por ei en Abril 22, 2010 – 21:41 pm.

Paul Crespo’s opponent in the Republican primary David Rivera, the Florida House “Budget Chief,” accepted obscene amounts of money in contributions to his congressional campaign from at least 80 individuals and political action committees while they were lobbying the State Legislature. This is truly outrageous.

One of Tallahassee’s most notorious lobbyists, Ron Book, his wife and his daughter, contributed a total of $12,600 to David Rivera’s campaign. Book’s client, AutoNation PAC, threw an additional $2,000 at Rivera while the employees of another of Book’s clients, Biscayne Bay Pilots, tossed $3,100 into Rivera’s war chest. Mr. Book has run afoul of campaign finance laws in the past.
John Burnetti who owns Hialeah racetrack and is hoping the Florida legislature will restore horse racing at his track gave Rivera $4,800, the maximum allowed by law. The owners of a major agribusiness with several pieces of legislation pending before the Florida House, also contributed the maximum to Rivera.

“As the state house’s budget committee chairman,” notes the New Times, “Rivera has significant clout over the state’s multi-billion dollar budget. He holds the purse strings for every project in Florida. So even if he is not directly violating the contribution ban, it doesn’t look good when most of the $700,000 he raised in the last quarter came from lobbyists and special interests.”

In 2007 Jeremiah Hawkes, the former General Counsel for the Florida House wrote: ”Members have chosen in the past to act with prudence…by not accepting contributions during the session.”

Apparently David Rivera believes that prudence is not a virtue and he can write his own rules.

“It’s time to end this game. I challenge my opponent to immediately return all the money he has taken from lobbyists and individuals who had legislation pending in the Florida House while he was the Budget Chief. Our politicians should not even appear to be involved in influence peddling.” said Paul Crespo.

The Republican Party cannot afford these antics from our candidates. We can’t clean up Washington by sending a Tallahassee insider and machine politician like Rivera to Congress.