Leadership Funds Make Florida Officially for Sale to the Highest Bidder

Florida Legislature proves once and for all that it is for sale

* The votes for the law were 89-31 in the House and 30-9 in the Senate. The House vote went largely along party lines, but in the Senate, newly elected Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, voted for it.

By Howard Troxler, Times Columnist

In Print: Sunday, March 27, 2011.  Read the full article here.

The Florida Legislature proved this past week, once and for all, that it is the utter Whore of Babylon.

It is now legal in our state to pay off the Legislature directly, (effective immediately). Who says so? The Legislature.

On March 24th, the Legislature voted to relegalize a bygone and corrupt institution, outlawed in this state for more than two decades, known as "leadership funds."

These "leadership funds" are campaign slush funds operated legally and officially by the leaders of the Legislature themselves: The president of the Florida Senate and his successor, the speaker of the Florida House and his chosen successor, the "speaker designate," and the leaders of the minority party in the House and Senate. 

 (This means under the law, Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, and House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, are now able to raise unlimited funds for campaigns.)

This is Florida — where the laws of our democracy are now openly, officially For Sale.

And they call it 'reform.'

Last Year's Bad Idea for Unlimited Fund Raising Is Still a Bad This Year

Last year, then Governor Crist vetoed a bill passed by the Florida Legislature that would have permitted legislative leaders to raise unlimited money through leadership funds is being resurrected.

The House State Affairs Committee is considering a veto override on last year's bill that allowed top legislative leaders such as the Senate president, speaker of the House and majority and minority leaders to raise money through a special fund that is separate from political party fundraising.

In the Senate, veto overrides have not emerged yet in committees.

Republicans supported the bill to establish leadership funds last year, claiming it as a way to improve transparency in the fundraising process because it required quarterly reports of fundraising activities.

When Crist vetoed the leadership fund bill, he said he rejected the notion that affiliated party committees, or leadership funds, would benefit our state.

The Legislature originally outlawed these funds over 20 years ago.

Democrats who opposed the bill last session said that the public needs to know who raises money for political parties and who has discretion over how those dollars are spent and would have given lobbyists and corporations another way to influence powerful legislative leaders who wield considerable control over what bills are given serious consideration.

Campaign finance reform anyone?

FAIR DISTRICTS DATA UPDATE

The US Census Bureau announced today that 2010 census data should be released next week.

Under the Legislative Resources section at www.floridaredistricting.org, there is a growing list of presentations that were done for legislators, their staff and other organizations.

During this period of open development and public testing of MyDistrictBuilder,it is a great time to learn about the MyDistrictBuilder application and several other ways Floridians can participate in the upcoming redistricting process.

GERRYMANDERING - THE MOVIE

Friday, March 18 · 6:00pm - 9:00pm
All Saints Cinema, Railroad Avenue, Amtrak Station, Tallahassee
Another showing on Sunday, March 20th at 5 PM. 

Sponsored by the Tallahassee Film Society, a very timely movie about how voting districts are drawn and redrawn to benefit special interests.

Gerrymandering is a practice of political corruption that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected, and neutral districts. The resulting district is known as a gerrymander; however, that word can also refer to the process.

The following organizations are working actively on redistricting reform:

Americans for Redistricting Reform Brennan Center for Justice California Forward Campaign Legal Center

Common Cause Council for Excellence in Government Fair Elections Arizona 

Fair Districts Florida

Fair Vote Leadership Conference on Civil Rights League of Women Voters  

Map 150

Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund NAACP Legal Defense Fund National Association of Latino Elected Officials Public Interest Research Group Reform Institute

Americans for Redistricting Reform | Brennan Center for Justice |  

California Forward | Campaign Legal Center | Common Cause | 

Council for Excellence in Government | Fair Elections Arizona |  

Fair Districts Florida | Fair Vote | Leadership Conference on Civil Rights | League of Women Voters | Map 150 | Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund | NAACP Legal Defense Fund |  

National Association of Latino Elected Officials | Public Interest Research Group | Reform Institute | Voices of Reform

DATA FOR IMPLEMENTING FAIR DISTRICTS COMING IN

According to today's Miami Herald's blog, The federal government sent Governor Scott and other state leaders a letter today informing Florida that the "2010 Census Block Assignment Files" are now available.

All the data has yet to be provided. But it is now coming in. Text of letter is available here.

That data is crucial for redistricting, the once-a-decade process of redrawing political boundaries to ensure that politicians represent roughly the same number of constituents.

Read the full post here