Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 24, 2009, at 2:13 pm
Love this story. Just love this story.
Soon-to-be-former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford first came up missing, then his staff explained that he was hiking alone on the Appalachian Trail, then earlier today came word she was cruising off the coast of Argentina. Now, the truth.
Yes, it’s another woman.
From CNN:
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford admitted Wednesday, amid speculation over his whereabouts for the last several days, that he has been engaged in an extramarital affair with an Argentinian woman.
“I’ve been unfaithful to my wife,” Sanford told a news conference in Columbia, the state capital. “I developed a relationship with what started as a dear, dear friend from Argentina.”
His voice choking at times, Sanford apologized to his wife and four sons, his staff and supporters, and said he would resign immediately as head of the Republican Governors Association. The affair was discovered five months ago, Sanford said.
Watch the video of his admission from a live news conference after the jump:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 22, 2009, at 4:34 pm
Elaine Silvestrini over at the Tampa Tribune has a great story to go with all the Brian Blair news today: One of Blair’s benefactors, the late Ralph Hughes, a top Money Man and power broker in Hillsborough County politics and business, died owing millions of dollars to the Internal Revenue Service.
The agency has filed a claim with Hughes’ family trust seeking more than $69 million in unpaid income and business taxes and interest for the years 2003 to 2007.
Hughes’ beneficiaries – his widow and two of his three children – are contesting the IRS claim, arguing Hughes paid millions in taxes.
After Hughes died at age 77 on June 27, 2008, Hillsborough County commissioners voted to rename the county’s Moral Courage Award for him. The decision was controversial, with detractors accusing commissioners of repaying their benefactor and injecting politics into what was supposed to be a nonpartisan award.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 19, 2009, at 4:20 pm
A curious piece of political literature has been hitting South Tampa homes over the past few days as a handful of County Commissioner Ken Hagan’s supporters do what is called a “lit drop” of campaign literature.
Only it is not really campaign literature, or at least, it doesn’t carry the necessary campaign disclosures that a campaign advertisement would carry. Nor is it a county government piece, as it points out that it was “Not produced at taxpayer’s expense.”
That left some Democrats e-mailing me furiously about how this was akin to the stealth campaign that Buddy Johnson ran with federal dollars in 2008, the one being probed by the Feds and the St. Pete TImes’ Jeff Testerman. And it caught the attention of at least one Democrat who has been thinking about running against the Republican Hagan in 2010.
Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles on Wednesday indicted a Jordanian businessman with connections to the Florida Republican Party on charges of funneling illegal contributions to three former presidential candidates and Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida.
The indictment of the businessman, Ala’a al-Ali, 37, shines a spotlight on the role of a business associate who the complaint asserts helped collect the donations. The associate, Harry Sargeant III, is a major Republican fund-raiser who owns an oil company with government contracts in Iraq and who recently resigned as finance chairman of the Florida Republican Party. Mr. Sargeant raised more than $500,000 for the 2008 Republican presidential campaign of Senator John McCain.
News organizations raised questions last summer about suspect donations to Mr. McCain from Arab-Americans that the campaign initially linked to Mr. Sargeant’s fund-raising before attributing them instead to another one of his Arab associates.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 23, 2009, at 3:01 pm
It sure doesn’t seem like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee knows that Bartow Congressman Adam Putnam won’t be around to take the heat in 2010.
The DCCC announced a new robocall, e-mail and text message camnpaign aimed at hurting 12 Republicans who were prominent in voting against the Obama stimulus plan.
Here’s an example of the automated calls that will be running:
Hello, I’m calling on behalf of House Democrats with an important message about the economy.
Did you know Congressman Thad McCotter voted against President Obama’s economic recovery plan, endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce? McCotter’s empty rhetoric can’t hide that he voted to raise the AMT tax on 22 million middle class Americans and against the largest tax cut in history.
Call McCotter at 734-632-0314 to ask why he voted to raise taxes on middle class families.
Check out Recovery For America to learn more.
On the list of the dirty dozen is Putnam, who has already announced he is leaving his congressional office to run for the state’s Commissioner of Agriculture.
Now, of course the DCCC knows that Putnam is going bye-bye; it is already trying to field good candidates to run for that seat. But still, running the robocalls in either an attempt to sway his votes over the next year and a half or as punishment for his future political ambitions seems to waste precious campaign dollars.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 7, 2009, at 12:21 pm
Back on Jan. 5, I wrote about how Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan could jump out of his district seat early (that term ends 2012) and run for Jim Norman’s countywide District 5 seat in 2010. This would give Hagan a chance at serving beyond his eight years that term limits hold anyone to in any one single seat. Hagan will have served six years in office by 2010; if he wins two terms in Norman’s seat he would end up with 14 years on the county commission.
I had been hearing buzz about this strategy for some time, so I raised the idea in January. Hagan late Friday followed through on his plans and filed for Norman’s seat. (h/t’s to Mariella Smith and Jim Johnson.)
Hagan's 2010 website greets visitors with this tease
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jan. 22, 2009, at 9:25 am
That’s the message you can draw from the latest Quinnipiac University poll, which shows that Florida voters repudiate two stances the GOP-dominated Legislature has taken: on cigarette taxes and gay adoptions.
Voters support 71 – 26 percent raising the cigarette tax an additional $1 a pack, the independent Quinnipiac (KIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.
The survey also finds that Floridians oppose 55 – 39 percent a state law that prohibits homosexuals from adopting children. Republicans support the law 52 – 43 percent, as do White Evangelical Christians 58 – 37 percent. Democrats oppose the law 61 – 32 percent, along with independent voters 60 – 34 percent.
House leadership, including embattled Speaker Ray Sansom, took the cigarette tax hike off the table before the special session earlier this month even started. The Legislature has also long opposed allowing gay couples to adopt children, even as some gays serve as foster parents.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Oct. 22, 2008, at 3:00 pm
I got a call this afternoon from an old buddy from my consulting days, Neil Brickfield, a Republican party vice chairman who is running for County Commission in Pinellas. He won a very tough primary race and now faces an unknown Democrat who couldn’t even manage to get the liberal St. Petersburg TImes‘ editorial recommendation. Brickfield has raised nearly $90,000 to his opponent Paul Matton’s $10,000.
So you would think that in a GOP-dominated county like Pinellas, Brickfield wouldn’t have a worry.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Oct. 22, 2008, at 7:20 am
We’re combining forces to bring you a more complete set of morning headlines in politics, media and pop culture. Joe Bardi’s Short List on the Daily Loaf and Wayne Garcia’s Morning Roundup in PoHo blog will now be combined, giving you even more news to start your day with.
Here’s a great idea. Too bad it’s illegal in Florida:
“Guess what? I got a fever. And the only prescription is more cowbell.”
You’ve just found the dead body of a movie star. Who do you call? 9-1-1? His family? If you picked Mary-Kate Olsen, congrats! You must be Heath Ledger’s masseuse.
