The Big Story: Getting away with attempted political murder
March 26th, 2008 by Wayne Garcia in Issues & Wonky Shit, Politics, Tampa Bay Politics
During the 2007 Tampa City Council elections, the Times‘ Brady Dennis had a great story raising questions about some suspicious campaign contributions made to candidate Julie Brown in her (unsuccessful) bid to unseat John Dingfelder, all with connections to Tampa car dealership owner Jason Kuhn. As the newspaper explained just before the March 2007 election:
A St. Petersburg Times analysis in January found that more than $20,000 of Brown’s contributions came from local car dealer Jason Kuhn, his relatives and associates at his Honda and Volkswagen dealerships.
Dingfelder had previously opposed a plan to add a used car lot to Kuhn’s business on W Kennedy Boulevard.
Kuhn said he didn’t encourage or force employees to give. And Brown said she made no promises on how she would vote.
Here’s exactly what Kuhn said during the campaign, according to the Times:
“We don’t tell our employees who to give money to,” Kuhn said, noting that many didn’t give a dime. He called them simply a “very loyal and very passionate” bunch.
Now we find out that Jason Kuhn really did funnel his own money into the campaign by asking employees to stroke personal checks and then reimbursing them from his wad o’ cash. But he will not be charged criminally because the law and the prosecutor said Kuhn 1.) is really, really sorry and 2.) didn’t know it was against the law to funnel his own cash in excess of campaign contributions limits into a city council race because of his personal dislike of the incumbent.
The Times reported this week:
“We looked at it and said, ‘He won’t do that again. He’s learned his lesson,’ ” said Wayne Chalu, supervisor of the [Hillsborough State Attorney] office’s economic crime unit.
What a steaming pile of bullshit.
In all my years of covering politics and being involved in campaigns as a political consultant, this is the most egregious example of a practice that many suspect is more widely spread than we ever prove. The only solace in this is that Brown ended up losing to Dingfelder anyway — but what role did the revelation by the Times and Dennis of this little scheme play? And what if the press hadn’t caught it? Brown could have won and Kuhn would have gotten away with political murder.
Send to a friend:
March 26th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
So wait, are you implying the political hanky panky is illegal? No, it is a way of life and the foundation of the old boys network that we call Tampa.
If not for corruption and subversion of ethics Tampa would not be what it is today! We depend upon developers to pay off politicans so we can get miles of pavement with Bennigans and Durangos at every intersection!
We want unplanned and uncontrolled growth, we want to take from the people and give to the few. That is what we are.
If we were to do as you ask, why then we could suffer from progress! We don’t need progress as it could upset the status quo.
Next crazy thing you suggest might be encourasging people to vote.
Sadly the above rant seems to be the true attittude, even though it is not my own.
March 26th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
shocked, do I detect a note of cynicism?
you are, of course, correct in your assessment. this is unfortunately the way things roll out in Tampa (and many big cities across US) all too often. But this is the first time I have seen such an egregious effort at it that actually got caught red-handed and nothing happened
March 26th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
then again, Kuhn really is sorry and promises it won’t happen again
March 26th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Kuhn should have to give us all a free car. It’s only fair…
March 26th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Cynical to the bone!
I call all advocates of progress to be haters Tampa and are traitorous! They should all move away and leave us to our ways.
Want fair goverment? Then you hate Tampa! Want an open soceity of thoughts and discourse? Then you must hate Tampa. Why do you hate Tampa so much? Why be a hater?
Hey it feels good to let my cynicism be expressed. I have to do it this way, esle the curse words will fill volumes.
It is shameful that this has been allowed allowed to happen unchallenged. Shocking, depressing, and shameful.
March 26th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
honestly, I don’t see the illegality in what he did.
If his employees wrote personal checks to the campaign of their own free will, then they made personal constributions.
If he paid them $500, how can one prove it was a reimbursal and not just a bonus to his staff?
Is it shady - of course. Illegal. I don’t see that it should be.
An employer has a right to pay its staff what it wants, and a person has the right to contribute to a candidate of their choice.
March 26th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Reality — here’s the rub: state and federal laws limit the amount of money you can contribute to any one given candidate during any one given period of campaign time. We do this as a society to mitigate the bad effect of unbridled financing, in other words to prevent somebody from having undue influence with any one candidate because of the amount of money they directly contribute. It is a balancing act between preventing candidates from becoming beholden to moneyed interests vs. free speech in politics.
In this case, the employees did not really write personal checks; they wrote a fraud to the campaign, since they had no intention of giving their own money to the candidate, it was merely a means for Kuhn to give more than the limit from his own cash without it showing up on campaign reports illegally. That is, at best, deceptive and ethically wrong on all their parts; it is, at worst, a violation of Florida criminal laws if they knowingly do it to circumvent the campaign limits.
If it were just the individual will and money of the employees, that is fine. But it was not, as the FDLE investigation showed.
March 26th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
“An employer has a right to pay its staff what it wants, and a person has the right to contribute to a candidate of their choice.” was written above.
The point here is he did no give cash to staff and say “Donate where you think best” he gave them money with the expectation and instruction to give it to the Brown campaign. He did not give money to people freely.
Money is speech. His speech is limited to 500$.
You can argue a case he subverted his employees speech by taking their limit for hinself as well.
Note he did not reimburse all donations to politics, just the race and candidate he supported.
March 27th, 2008 at 9:19 am
But, what would happen if each of the employees said that they donated personally and of their own free will to the campaign/ How could the DA prove otherwise?
And what if Kuhn said the $500 payments to each of them were Christmas bonuses? Again, how could the DA prove otherwise?
Ober is right that it’s a shoddy case.
March 28th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Kuhn clearly knew what he was doing, and claiming otherwise is a little more than a white lie.
If a major candidate in a national race pulled something like this, there would be hell to pay.
Luckily, we live in Tampa, which makes Mayberry look like NYC.
March 28th, 2008 at 10:58 am
One consequence Kuhn won’t escape: damage to his brand. As I’ve discussed this with friends, we all have the reaction–never do business with cheats and liars.
March 28th, 2008 at 11:04 am
incredulous - if we took that attitude about all car dealerships, we would all be using mass transit! LOL
March 28th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Sickening. And “no pressure” my big beautiful behind … anytime a manager “makes a suggestion” to an employee - that’s pressure.
Again, politicians counting on our ignorance not to be up in arms.
Kuhn will never have the benefit of my business, nor my vote. And I will be on the watch for his future races or candidates that he backs - you are known by the company you keep.
And the Hills Co Attorney - Wayne Chalo - I’ll be checking to see who you were backing in this election process.
And Wayne, get ready - you’re future lawbreakers - they’re going to use the “I’m sorry and it won’t happen again” excuse and you’ve set a precedent - I think you’ll hear a lot of this in the future.
March 28th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
whoo you better be careful. Ms. Brown offered to SUE our asses for printing her name as in FDLE investigates Julie Brown donations from Jason Kuhn. Amazingly enough that lil josh poltilove got RIGHT ON THE PHONE with us to disavow his OWN headline. Even more amazingly, I am almost related to her through marriage.
I like that word egregrious. I spell it with an F and an UP.
WOW, they better not ever DARE try anything like charging a democrat with a crime again …
I don’t think Ober likes to prosecute, so much. Plenty of people gettin away with MURDER in Tampa. Not just politically.
March 28th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
oh and didn’t JULIE BROWN as a high-powered INSIDER OF CITY OF TAMPA ATTORNEY know better? Or does she get to pretend she didn’t know?
I guess so.
They thought we’d forget. It’s been ALMOST A YEAR.http://tampasbackdoor.blogspot.com/2007/06/you-have-to-ask.html
SInce I asked about what happened to it
L O L.
http://tampasbackdoor.blogspot.com/2007/07/bargaining-chips-and-such.html
some other mentions:
http://tampasbackdoor.blogspot.com/2007/05/tampa-will-duke-it-out-but-still-lose.html
here
http://tampasbackdoor.blogspot.com/2007/04/sticks-of-fire-what-is-up-with-these.html
me and julie related?? ALMOST
http://tampasbackdoor.blogspot.com/2007/04/amazing-really-what-small-world-it-is.html
good thing cause she’s MAD at me:
http://tampasbackdoor.blogspot.com/2007/03/kuhns-julie-brown-campaign-donations.html
here her and pam dang no wonder why they get all piffled with me. I tell THE TRUTH.
http://tampasbackdoor.blogspot.com/2007/02/finalllly-mayoral-race-silence-ends.html
original post which she requested that I change the heading.
http://tampasbackdoor.blogspot.com/2007/02/julie-brown-being-investigated-for-kuhn.html
Interestingly that’s where Sheriff Gee and his developer friend emerged STRONGLY onto my interstate but they were there before THAT. I DO own the most lucrative property in Tampa OF COURSE the sheriff is interested. LOL
Julie Brown BUYS MORE PRESS than Pam Iorio. Oh, that’s RIGHT, Pam didn’t want any … she had it all sewed up by firing serious and aria ray….
http://tampasbackdoor.blogspot.com/2007/02/im-so-confused-now.html
The posts are listed in order of LIFO last in first out.
Julie, John is doing a GREAT job. But, I HAVE met a LOT of your friends, ever since your email. They’re just lovely, thanks.
Every dog has it’s day.
March 28th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Sorry to take up so much space. When people lean on you I figure you should get your LEAN’s worth.
Try to steal my peace of mind; I’ll have a piece of yours.
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March 28th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Thank you. I feel so much better now. I bet this earns wayne chalu a promotion to investigating murders.
OH that’s RIGHT they do NOT investigate murders in Hillsborough County. AND, if they do …. that’s okay. They have most of the judges to fix that for them.
Sorry guys. It’s just fricking OVERBOARD. And, everyone KNOWS.
People KNOW.
You’re so lucky we started talking about it before someone really got HURT. Because your lifestyles and your criminal activity is very bad for the health of many people.
And you DISGUST ME.
More importantly.
This is no way to get the attention of beautiful women with HEART.
We all know that’s all it’s about …. besides the chirrun.
Okay, OUT.
Thanks for the space, Wayne.
I feel … GLORIOUS. Despite the toxicity of my environment. Speaking of which: GOOD TRY ST PETE TIMES. Between the toxins UNDER houses and YOUR MADE UP DISEASES AND MEDS you are truly bleeding swastikas.
LMAO !!!
March 30th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
You would think the Hillsborough DEC would be making more of a stink over this. The FDP, too.
Did anyone on the city council notice it?
Maybe we should just go back to the glory days of unlimited spending, except, this time around, with complete disclosure of donor and amounts. This way, Bill gates could give a million bucks to Samm Simpson, and she wouldn’t have to ask everyone she talks to for money.
Politicians spend so much time asking for money, no wonder they can’t get anything done.