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Florida AG Pam Bondi's failures leave one choice: George Sheldon
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/editorials/fl-edtorial-george-sheldon-pam-bondi-endorsement-20141012-story.html
When Pam Bondi became Florida's first female attorney general in January 2011, some who had known her as a prosecutor in Tampa had hopes she would be a real problem-solver, not a partisan ideologue. Those hopes faded quickly.
Just two months later, as a member of the Parole Board, Bondi enthusiastically voted to make Florida the hardest state for ex-felons to regain their civil rights. She ignored former Gov. Jeb Bush's Ex-Offender Task Force, which concluded that easier rights restoration would help Florida by motivating more ex-felons to stay straight.
Most recently, Bondi has continued her defense of Florida's same-sex marriage ban, despite five court rulings against it. A self-described conservative would seemingly oppose laws that deny rights, but Bondi clings to an amendment that strips gay people of rights related to everything from taxes to end-of-life decisions.
Same-sex marriage, however, is just one of many issues where Bondi has acted against the interests of the state and its people. In February, she joined a lawsuit opposing cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay, which is hundreds of miles from Florida. Despite the urgency here of restoring the Everglades after decades of abuse from agricultural runoff, Bondi sided in that case with the American Farm Bureau and the Fertilizer Institute.
Compared with other attorneys general, Bondi also was passive in the multi-state lawsuit against financial companies. She has never intervened on behalf of consumers in a utility rate case, unlike her three predecessors, from both parties. She sued BP very late after the oil explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. She has no major consumer protection victories. Last year, she talked about joining a lawsuit against Donald Trump's online university. Shortly afterward, the Trump Foundation donated $25,000 to a committee supporting Bondi. She has not joined the lawsuit.
Bondi waited eight months before visiting the Miami office that is the center of the fight against Medicaid fraud. And two years after she took office, the fraud unit had 23 vacancies. Yet Bondi has found time to argue against the Affordable Care Act before the U.S. Supreme Court. She lost, as she lost her defense of Gov. Rick Scott's efforts to drug-test welfare recipients and the Legislature's stealth attempt to privatize prisons through budget language, rather than legislation.
Just two months later, as a member of the Parole Board, Bondi enthusiastically voted to make Florida the hardest state for ex-felons to regain their civil rights. She ignored former Gov. Jeb Bush's Ex-Offender Task Force, which concluded that easier rights restoration would help Florida by motivating more ex-felons to stay straight.
Most recently, Bondi has continued her defense of Florida's same-sex marriage ban, despite five court rulings against it. A self-described conservative would seemingly oppose laws that deny rights, but Bondi clings to an amendment that strips gay people of rights related to everything from taxes to end-of-life decisions.
Same-sex marriage, however, is just one of many issues where Bondi has acted against the interests of the state and its people. In February, she joined a lawsuit opposing cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay, which is hundreds of miles from Florida. Despite the urgency here of restoring the Everglades after decades of abuse from agricultural runoff, Bondi sided in that case with the American Farm Bureau and the Fertilizer Institute.
Compared with other attorneys general, Bondi also was passive in the multi-state lawsuit against financial companies. She has never intervened on behalf of consumers in a utility rate case, unlike her three predecessors, from both parties. She sued BP very late after the oil explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. She has no major consumer protection victories. Last year, she talked about joining a lawsuit against Donald Trump's online university. Shortly afterward, the Trump Foundation donated $25,000 to a committee supporting Bondi. She has not joined the lawsuit.
Bondi waited eight months before visiting the Miami office that is the center of the fight against Medicaid fraud. And two years after she took office, the fraud unit had 23 vacancies. Yet Bondi has found time to argue against the Affordable Care Act before the U.S. Supreme Court. She lost, as she lost her defense of Gov. Rick Scott's efforts to drug-test welfare recipients and the Legislature's stealth attempt to privatize prisons through budget language, rather than legislation.
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