The Other GOP Election Scandal That May Lead To A Special Election-- FL-15

Florida's 15th congressional district-- the heart of Florida-- connects the Tampa Metro to the Orlando Metro, hitting the suburbs of both while being primarily agricultural. The two biggest population centers are Lakeland and Brandon... and neither is all that big.

The district is marginally red-- with an R+6 PVI. Obama lost both times he ran and Trump beat Hillary by 10 points-- 53.1% to 43.1%. It used to be Adm Putnam's district but Dennis Ross won it when Putnam went on to be state Agriculture Commissioner. Ross decided to retire this year and, with help from Marco Rubio, state Rep Ross Spano won a Republican primary against ex-state Rep Neil Combee. Meanwhile, self-described "moderate," Kristen Carlson, an EMILY's List candidate, beat a progressive Navy vet, Andrew Learned. She outraged him by self-funding around $100,000 into her campaign.

In the general, Carlson spent $2,038,400 to Spano's $851,583, a hefty chunk of which was illegally obtained. More on that in a moment. Ryan's SuperPAC spent $1,744,302 attacking Carlson and the DCCC responded with just $694,360, pretty much sealing her fate. The race was rated a toss up leaning towards Spano. 538 gave him a 57.9% chance to win and her a 42.1% chance. Every legitimate poll showed Spano ahead of her, though not prohibitively so. The biggest part of the district is in the Tampa suburbs (Hillsborough Co.) and that was very close with just a small lead for Spano, His lead in Lake County was also small, but Spano lead her by a very wide margin in Polk County. Overall, the results looked like this:

John Romano's column in the Tampa Bay Times yesterday, Welcome to Congress, Rep. Spano. Now please resign, explains what happened next.

He has yet to be sworn in as a congressman, and Ross Spano’s reputation is already hopelessly cheapened.

It started benignly enough with late campaign finance reports, escalated to potential illegal campaign donations and now seems to be entering an inappropriate staffing juncture.

The revelations are coming so routinely that they are threatening to obscure the one thing that voters should care about most:

He cheated.

All of the accusations and details are important-- and need to be investigated by the appropriate authorities-- but the bottom line is Spano broke some pretty important rules to win a congressional seat.

It doesn’t matter if it was unintentional. It doesn’t matter if it fails to rise to a criminal level. It doesn’t matter if he was the favorite anyway.

This Hillsborough County politician won an election unfairly, and that reality cannot be ignored.

Thus, he needs resign. Before he even takes office.

Really, it shouldn’t even be a debate. The evidence is clear enough that Spano himself has acknowledged potential misdeeds, although he claims it is a case of ignorance more than malfeasance.

Setting aside the ramifications of that defense-- the man is an attorney who has served three terms in the state House of Representatives, and he doesn’t understand basic campaign financing laws?-- it still does not change the fact that his victory is irrevocably tainted.

Think about it this way:

What if you accidentally filed false tax returns? Do you think the IRS would accept “oops’’ as a defense? Even if you weren’t charged with a crime, I’m pretty sure the feds would want their money back.

What if you were an athlete who accidentally took performance-enhancing drugs? Do you suppose the International Olympic Committee would be okay with you keeping that gold medal?

Well, those same standards should apply in an election.

In other words, voters should get their ballots back.

In this case, Spano acknowledged he may have (i.e. probably) accepted loans from friends and then used that money in his campaign, which is specifically forbidden because it would be a simple way to get around individual donation limits. When it was first pointed out to Spano, he suggested the money might have been legally donated by his wife. That excuse didn’t hold up very long.

We’re not talking a few hundred, or even a few thousand, dollars. The amount of loans and donations, first discovered by Tampa Bay Times correspondent William March, was in the six figures.

As if Spano were trying to create a template as to why these shady transactions are illegal, he apparently allowed one of the people who loaned him money to later fire his campaign treasurer and be part of the hiring process for his congressional staff, according to a recent Politico report.

So you have a politician who conveniently failed to file campaign reports on time, conveniently suggested his wife gave him this mysterious money, conveniently got rid of his campaign treasurer and, when all else failed, conveniently suggested personal loans might have been used, quite innocently if illegally, for his campaign.

By this point, whether you believe Spano’s many explanations is irrelevant.

The harm has been done and the only solution is Spano’s departure and a special election for his not-even-warm congressional seat.

The first Democrat to represent Polk County in recent times was Alan Grayson. I wonder if there's any way to talk him into running for the seat. He'd be a hell of a lot better than either Spano or Carlson.