Does Florida have a new Jack Abramof Type Case

[democrat in Tallahassee]

This story from Tallahassee Democrat points to wide spread Repubican money laundering scheme.

http://www.tdo.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060220/NEWS02/602200314/1011

[stillcool]

1. what a teaser....

One Florida legislator, targeted when he first ran in the 2004 election, filed a defamation suit against the powerful special-interest group behind the attacks and its prominent political consultant.

Do you know who any of the parties are?...

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. The problem is...

It's a fill-in-the-blanks article, and any one of us in any county in Florida can fill in our local leaders and we'd be right.

[democrat in Tallahassee]

7. I'm amazed by the amonts of $$$

I'm amazed by the amonts of $$$ the Repubs can raise. Iwourk with a Democratic Group in Tally and we are lucky if we can scape together enough to mail post cards for our meetings.

[stillcool]

8. ...it's all about their connections...

I grew up in a totally republican dominated township. Everything was a one-hand-washes-the-other deal, and they protected their turf with a venegance and were proud of it. I know the mind-set. The opposition party consisted of 'outsiders'.

[acmavm]

2. There's something wrong with that webpage or I'm just too damn

dumb to know what to click to get to any details.

[democrat in Tallahassee]

4. link

It works for me but it is a weird looking link   try pasting
the following link and remove the parentheses
(http://www.tdo.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060220/NEWS02/602200314/1011)

[acmavm]

5. Go here maybe??

http://www.tdo.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060220/NEWS02/602200313/1011

This seems to be where the details and the players are detailed.

[stillcool]

6. here's another one....

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060220/NEWS02/602200313/1010
It began with leaflets that appeared in Charlotte County mailboxes days after Hurricane Charley, decrying a local doctor who was "sued three times for contributing to the death of his patients."

The return address was Floridians for Integrity in Government, a faceless political committee with a Tallahassee post office box for an address.

But Paige Kreegel, a Punta Gorda physician then running for the Florida House, found a way to strike back. He filed a defamation suit against the powerful special-interest group behind the attacks, the Florida Home Builders Association, and its prominent political consultant, Randy Nielsen.

[slaveplanet]

9. here's some meat

But people should read the whole article...FLA Repugs are some smarmy assholes

The defendants in Kreegel's lawsuit accuse the 47-year-old lawmaker of using one mistake in the mailer to launch a wider campaign against hardball politics.

''Oh what a tangled web Paige Kreegel weaves . . . when Kreegel practiced to deceive!'' one spider-web-themed mailer read, portending he had been arrested for ''criminal mischief,'' and sued for ''out of wedlock paternity,'' and passing ''worthless checks.''

Kreegel has been sued multiple times for medical malpractice. In all cases, he says, he was later dropped as a defendant.

and


Pruitt's Floridians for a Brighter Future committee has raised $775,000 since 2001, most of it while he was campaigning to support Florida's Bright Futures scholarships and building support for his own Senate presidency.

Pruitt said he's never used his committee money to launch negative attacks, although some money apparently wound up in the same federal 527 committee the homebuilders used to finance the attack ads.

Pruitt said political slush funds are not inherently deceptive.

''It's kind of like a gun. It isn't the gun, it's the one who pulls the trigger,'' he said. ''I got my pledges one vote at a time by working hard for my fellow senators, not for any particular reason."

Kreegel said he was hoping to put Pruitt under oath because he thinks the powerful lawmaker has more information about why he was attacked.

''This is a very small group with an awful lot of money deciding who the Senate president or the speaker of the House is going to be, and thus push their legislative agenda on the people of Florida,'' said Kreegel. ''It is a very dangerous situation. And it's not what the Founding Fathers had in mind.''