New York Isn't The Only State With Democratic Legislators Crossing Over To The Dark Side-- Meet Florida's Worst Fake Dem: Darryl Rouson

Before we get to the guest post by Kartik Krishnaiyer, let me remind DWT readers just who Darryl Rouson is. The St. Pete area state Rep. may have cured his severe cocaine addiction but his record shows that he's still a crook and a danger to society in every other way. Rouson has been plagued with serious ethics and criminal problems for his entire professional life and it came as a surprise to no one that he officially joined the Republican Party-- which he had been supporting anyway-- in 2005. Two years later, though, in a quest for elective office in a deep blue district, he switched to the Democratic Party, while hanging on to his reactionary politics. As a state Rep. he has consistently backed right-wing schemes that hurt working families, particularly his votes with the Republicans against public education. Floridians know him as a sleazy huckster tied to Tallahassee business and lobbying interests and as one of the most viciously anti-LGBT "Democrats" in Florida. Rouson: "I think lesbianism and homosexuality is morally wrong and the law is supposed to discriminate sometimes."

Kartik suggested we cross-post his piece from Florida Squeeze, a blog he founded last year:

Sources: Darryl Rouson playing ball with Republicans potentially threatening Crist’s veto sustaining ability
by Kartik Krishnaiyer

As Florida's Democrats are fighting hard throughout the state to elect Charlie Crist as Governor and keep the party's numbers in the House above 1/3 of the body in order to prevent a veto-proof majority for the GOP, a dissident Democrat is quite possibly making alternative plans.

Rep. Darryl Rouson, whose ouster as Democratic House Leader Designee in September 2013 brought the more progressive and ultimately more likable Rep. Mark Pafford into the same position, continues to be a thorn in the side for only a handful of legislators. The reality is this change in leadership has proven to be completely unlike the 1997/1998 coup with which this move was compared. In that action African-American then Rep. Willie Logan was ousted and that ushered in a few years of black caucus cooperation with the House GOP majority. By contrast this change in leadership has done little to impact Democratic cohesion in the House. In fact, during this election cycle unlike in 1998 just about every House Democrat has been helpful to the party's overall efforts.

Irrespective of the pronouncements of doom earlier a few months ago across the political community in Florida, Democrats are in fact holding their own in State House races.  Based on my extensive statewide travels for the Sheldon Campaign and my interaction with the Democratic House candidates and campaign operations, I believe that Tuesday's election is likely to yield a Republican gain of 2 to 4 seats, not the 6 to 8 or even 8 to 10 that was projected by many pundits as recently as early last month. The Democrats impressive House campaign efforts have further solidified Pafford's position as a strong leader that can take a largely united caucus through choppy water in the coming sessions.

GOP ex-coke fiend Rouson pretends to be a Democrat

Towards the end of the 2014 session and over the summer rumors swirled that Rep. Rouson had attempted to make the August primary victory of John Cortes in a Kissimmee-based Democratic primary over Pafford backer Rep. Ricardo Rangel an issue within the caucus by aggressively courting sitting members, but this effort failed to muster any support.

This week, multiple sources connected with Democratic members of the House indicated to the Florida Squeeze that Rouson was actively seeking to open lines of communications with incoming [Republican] House Speaker Steve Crisafulli about either switching parties or working to create a faction of dissident Democrats that would collaborate with the GOP on floor actions where the House leadership need to clear 80 votes. Seemingly having failed to take full advantage of the opportunities to pick up a number of seats this election, the GOP leadership is wisely trying to exploit the bitterness of Rep. Rouson. Rouson who is term-limited in 2016 will not have to face reelection in his overwhelmingly Democratic House district.

Rep. Rouson's St Petersburg based district has a history of term-limited party switchers having seen Rep. Rudy Bradley, an African-American switched from Democrat to Republican in 1999, and quickly trotted out as a token presence by the RPOF across the state. But if Rouson were to either switch his registration or try and create a faction of House Democrats to collaborate with the GOP he might have trouble running for future office if that is in fact his long-term plan.

The group backing Rouson is minimal in numbers. From 23 supporters in Feberuary 2013, Rouson's hard support is now estimated to be in the middle single-digits at this point in time. Pafford's efforts to protect Democratic incumbents have been acknowledged privately by previously skeptical members who were previously part of Rouson's faction.

We will keep our readers posted on developments related to this important story.

The Florida Democratic Party-- Rotted

The Democratic Party is corroding from the inside— rotten at its core. Will it survive the corporatist excesses of the Clinton era as a vehicle for the aspirations of America’s working families? Can a party that celebrates "leaders" like Rahm Emanuel, Debbie Wassermann Schultz, Steny Hoyer, Chuck Schumer and Joe Crowley be a home for real people? Writing last week about the Florida Democratic Party, our old friend Kartik Krishnaiyer pointed out that the party “has long shared the internal behavior of collapsing businesses, declining empires or nation-states as well as losing sports teams in that decisions are often made based more personality, sentiment and factionalism than on competence, accomplishment and merit.

In Florida that means garbage political hacks like— first and foremost— Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and other self-serving careerists from Alcee Hastings and Joe Garcia to renegade opportunistic Republicans like Patrick Murphy and Charlie Crist. The party has acclimated itself to losing and losing and losing and the party “leaders” care nothing about anything except each of their own pitiful little ghettoized pieces of turf.

Referring to a bitter battle over control of the moribund party, Krishnaiyer warns that “whomever assumes control of the Florida Democratic Party is going to inherit a wounded animal – one whose infrastructure and effectiveness has long since waned. Florida Democrats have lost 17 of the last 20 statewide races and 17 of the last 18 statewide cabinet races – a record which is comparable to that of deep red states in the interior of the country. The new chair will also inherit a party with a progressive wing that does not trust the establishment, and an insider clique largely based in Tallahassee who routinely does lobbying business with Republicans despite representing themselves at election time as dyed-in-the-wool Democrats. The party is cracked, even fractured.”

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum is one of the few bright lights in the Florida Party. Andrew’s a fighter and part of the future of the party if it’s going to have one. He’s he’s being personally sued by the gun manufacturers’ lobbyists at the NRA. “In 2014,” he wrote, “as a Tallahassee City Commissioner, my colleagues and I refused to repeal ordinances that prevent shooting guns in a public park.

Because of our actions that day, and our commitment to the safety of our citizens, my fellow locally elected officials and I are facing fines of $5,000 per vote, damages up to $100,000, and the potential to be removed from our elected jobs by the Governor of Florida. We have also been forced to find our own lawyers to defend us in Court.”

Although nobody should be against these types of common sense laws, this lawsuit isn’t about guns. It’s about huge special interests, in this case the National Rifle Association (NRA), spending big money to take away local voices and local control, using tactics called preemption and super-preemption.

It’s also about how these special interests and corporations, after getting their way with state government, are trying to intimidate and bully local communities by filing damaging lawsuits against officials like me. Like your local commissioners. Like your local councilmembers. Like your Mayor. And like you.

It’s wrong, it’s cowardly, and unfortunately, it seems to be getting worse; especially in places with far-right conservative state governments.

But we are fighting back in Florida.

At trial, we have challenged the constitutionality of the laws that are being used to attack our local communities and officials. We have carried that fight to the First District Court of Appeals of Florida, and are set to hear Oral Argument on January 10, 2017.

We have had great support in this effort from state and national partners, and we hope to set a precedent for challenging these “super-preemption” overreaches. Our partners recognize that if these threats are deployed today by the gun lobby, there’s nothing stopping special interests from coming after protections for immigrants, the LGBT community, the environment, and others.

We want to stand up to these bullies everywhere they show up.

That’s why I am officially launching a nonpartisan, grassroots effort to bring together individuals, organizations, and elected officials concerned about the erosion of local rights.

This effort, the Campaign to Defend Local Solutions, will send a message to state lawmakers, and give citizens around the country the tools to push back against special interest groups and large corporations, and maintain their right to put forward local solutions to the issues facing their community.

We will hold events to rise against looming threats on issues like minimum wage and health benefits, the environment, local hiring practices, and water quality.

We will help bring awareness and support to similar fights being undertaken by local officials across the country that are fighting to defend local solutions.

And we will elevate the voices and narratives of these efforts, so that no attempt to bully or intimidate local communities around the country will ever be tolerated. 

A good reason we need a vibrant two-party political system, don’t you think? Too bad the Wasserman Schultzes and have thought nothing about anything other than their own nasty little power preserves.

Darren Soto Hates Being Called Florida's ConservaDem Poster Child, But He'd Be Another Gwen Graham Or Patrick Murphy In Congress

There are definitely some big changes coming due to the judicial redistricting in Florida, likely among them will be the end of House careers for several conservatives: Carlos Curbelo who finds himself in a neatly blue district and will be facing Annette Taddeo, who can probably beat him; Daniel Webster, who also finds himself in a Democratic district he can't win, certainly not in a presidential year (although he is probably going to move to FL-06 and try it win the seat Ron DeSantis is giving up; David Jolly, who took one look at the new map and decided to run for the Senate, leaving his district to Charlie Crist who's been a Republican, an Independent and a Democrat and is likely to be a mix of all three in Congress; and Blue Dog Gwen Graham, the most right-wing Democrat in the House, whose newly redrawn district no longer has the Democratic voter base to make it feasible for even as far right a Democrat as she to expect to win. John Mica's Orlando area district is now also good territory for a Democrat but the DCCC recruited a total conservaDem loser, Bill Phillips, who even the DCCC sees can't win against Mica (or, probably any other competent Republican).

But the district I want to talk about today isn't one of them; it's district 9-- Alan Grayson's very blue Orlando-area seat. The PVI is D+8 and Obama won it with just over 60% both times he ran. In 2012 Grayson won the seat against Republican Todd Long 165,098 (63%) to 98,984 (37%). And in 2014, a bad midterm year for Democrats, Grayson, despite a poor turnout, was reelected 93,739 (54%) to 74,903 (43%). Grayson is leaving the House to take over Rubio's abandoned Senate seat. The key is to get a progressive voice like his into that House seat. But, of course, the DCCC has different ideas. Officially "neutral," they're surreptitiously backing one of the most conservative Democrats in the state Senate, Darren Soto. We'll come back to him in a moment.

The contours of the new district make it slightly less blue, but still relatively safe for a Democrat, particularly in presidential year. I'm estimating that the PVI will probably drop from a D+8 to a D+5. The whole part of Orange County west of the airport-- basically over 100,000 people in communities like Hunters Creek, Meadow Woods and Southchase, a very Puerto Rican area, is now going to be part of FL-10 (Webster's district, likely soon to be Bob Poe's district). FL-9's Hispanic population will drop from around 45% to around 31 or 32%. To make up for the loss of population, FL-9 pushes west further into Polk County and picks up neighborhoods like Lake Alfred, Winter Haven, Inwood and Auburndale that had been the southernmost part of FL-10.

The governing philosophy of the Emanuel/Van Hollen/Israel DCCC (and Israel's sock puppet Ben Ray Luján isn't making any changes in that regard) is to run conservatives as indistinguishable from a Republican as possible-- a losing strategy for holding seats when the inevitable midterm rolls around and Democratic base voters don't want to go vote for a Republican with a "D" next too his or her name. And, of course, that's exactly what Darren Soto is. Another Chamber of Commerce Democrat, Soto earned an "A" from the NRA (the only Florida state Senator to be so honored) and is widely considered a complete gun lobby shill-- exactly what Washington does not need. Another thing Washington doesn't need is another charter school goon, which is what Soto, who voted to divert public funds to private school vouchers several times, is. He also voted for mandatory ultrasound, 24-hour waiting periods and parental notification laws, all positions that are abhorrent to people who believe women should make decisions about their own body without government interference. He's been mediocre on the environment and way to generous with tax breaks for the wealthy and for corporations, pushing more of a tax burden onto the middle class.

Back in July, when Soto first made it clear he intended to run for Grayson's seat if Grayson jumped into the Senate race, our old friend Kartik Krishnaiyer ran down Soto's abysmal record-- first here and then here-- for the Florida Squeeze. "Soto’s voting record through his eight sessions as a legislator," he wrote, "is on the extreme rightward end of what is acceptable as a Democrat... Free from the constraints of tough primaries and quickly emerging as a favorite of business and school 'choice' lobbyists in Tallahassee, Soto became the poster child for conservative Democrats who seek higher office by running in safe Democratic seats backed by Republican money and the support of large elements of a bipartisan political establishment. The Sunshine State News, one of the voices of record that conservative political insiders in the state swear by said the following about Soto:

Soto is about as good as conservatives can hope for from his liberal Democratic district.

The SSN is spot-on, but here’s our perspective-- Soto is about as BAD a Democrat for liberals and progressives as anyone in the state."

Krishnaiyer went on to list many of Soto's short-comings and got some serious pushback from some right-of-center establishment Democrats who have virtually wrecked the Florida Democratic Party over the last few decades, which is why he wrote the second post in which he explains that "Democrats in Florida are badly in need of developing a values based party that represents something beyond simple electoral and political “moderation”.  Right now we don’t have a clear set of values that drive us as a party collectively forward.

While it is true Soto voted for the onerous HB 71 “personhood” bill days after winning a Special Election in 2007 and also cast anti reproductive-rights votes in 2008 and he voted for Parent Trigger in 2012 (one of only two Democrats in either chamber to do so), and that he got an “A” rating from the NRA in 2010 and 2012, and numerous other bad votes let’s focus on his more recent record in the Florida Senate this very calendar year.

Before walking through this it is important to remember President Obama got close to 65% of the vote in Soto’s current Senate district in 2012 and that Congressional District 9 where Soto is running currently is an area where the President got about 62% of the vote in 2012.

Let’s review what some of the conservative special interest groups that lobby the Legislature thought of Soto’s 2015 performance.

• Soto scored 100% on Jeb Bush’s Excellence in Education Foundation which advocates for the privatization of public education

• Soto scored 100% on the Florida Chamber scorecard; This was higher than many conservative Republicans

• Soto scored 96% on the Associated Industries of Florida scorecard; This was higher than many conservative Republicans

Keep in mind Soto was casting these votes with right-wing interest groups just as he was planning on launching a campaign for Congress in a liberal seat. With one eye one must surmise toward who could help him raise the most campaign cash in a safe Democratic district, Soto cast his lot for the past several months with conservative Republicans. Or perhaps Soto is just a conservative who will serve the interests of the US Chamber of Commerce and other business interests were her to be elected to Congress? Either way, progressives throughout Florida should be alarmed.

...Soto’s game has been like that of any transactional politician. Find allies in other offices, schmooze special interest lobbyists while pretending to be a good progressive in front of local audiences that will have a bearing on future runs for office. For us at TFS, this is exactly the type of politics we abhor and are committed to opposing it while trying to reform our party.

There may be as many as half a dozen Democrats in the race, including some strong progressives, but you can always count on the DCCC to find the worst of all and just for him, in this case Darren Soto. Thursday, one of the most extreme right of the defeated anti-Choice Pennsylvania Blue Dogs, Jason Altmire, now a Florida-based lobbyist, is holding a fundraiser for Soto. We used to write a lot about Altmire when he was in Congress for 3 terms. He was one of the worst of the worst, very much like Soto. It makes sense that he's helping him now. Alter voted with the Republicans against the Affordable Health Act, voted with the Republicans against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act and was an anti-Choice fanatic with a ZERO rating from NARAL.

Yesterday we looked at a study about what accounts for low Democratic voter turnout. The author wrote that "it’s clear that many voters are alienated by parties, and many see very few differences, which can depress turnout. Low-income Americans are the most likely to perceive large differences, possibly because parties overwhelmingly favor the preferences of the rich. Some have advocated Democrats pushing toward the center, but a working paper by political scientist Seth Hill finds that parties are far more successful in pulling in new voters than in converting swing voters." That describes the Soto type Democrats and Hill, whose data is all from Florida, emphasizes that "swing voters contribute on average 4.1 percentage points to change in party vote shares, while change in turnout influences outcomes by 8.6 points." Or, we can make it even simpler, watch the video:

Florida's Crooked Governor Rick Scott Discovers Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned

Unless you're from Florida, you probably don't remember Jennifer Carroll, Rick Scott's former Lt. Governor, a crook-- like him-- but one he held to a much higher standard than he holds himself. Just over a year ago, we covered her problems with ethics and common decency, problems that caused Scott to force her to resign. Kartik Krishnaiyer used to occasion to point out that the resignation was just the latest example of the ongoing culture of cronyism and corruption in the Sunshine State.

Florida Republicans have created a class of entitled politicians who lack intellectual curiosity or any governing wisdom. They are not conservatives as much as they are political whores for power and certain big business. They have lived for years on easy street being opposed by an impotent Florida Democratic Party that lacked organization or the courage in its own convictions to take the fight to the Republicans. The Democrats have benefited from these same tendencies in liberal southeast Florida, where it seems half the elected Democrats on the county level have been at one time or another linked to scandal.

...Lt Gov. Carroll’s resignation is an indication that consequences are now being suffered by those in power for excessive and potentially illegal behavior. The progressive movement throughout American history has focused on issues of graft, greed, cronyism and corruption. Florida Progressives should do the same. Regardless of party, corrupt government cannot be progressive government.

She works as a political commentator for WJXT Channel 4, a Jacksonville TV station. Her side of the story-- an autobiography called When You Get There-- hits the bookstores today, her birthday. I suppose Gov. Scott could be happy that the book isn't being released closer to November, since he's the villain of the story.

Carroll, a retired U.S. Navy lieutenant commander, was the first black woman to serve as lieutenant governor of Florida and held the largely ceremonial job for more than two years. Scott's two top aides forced her to resign on March 12, 2013, after state law enforcement agents interrogated her about past public relations work for Allied Veterans of the World, a group linked to Internet cafes that were shut down after investigators uncovered widespread fraud.

Carroll initially did not disclose all of her income in 2009 and 2010 from Allied Veterans on state financial disclosure forms, but later reported the money on amended forms.

She was not charged with any wrongdoing and writes that she felt humiliated by how Scott's aides "ambushed" her with a one-sentence resignation letter they forced her to sign.

Carroll describes Scott as overly controlled by his own staff and lacking in a personal touch, saying he showed no concern after she fainted and struck her head on the floor at a hot Greek church.

"Clearly, something was missing there, some ability to make personal connections that he just didn't have," Carroll said.

Working with black political consultant Clarence McKee in the 2010 campaign, Carroll said she built a plan to reach out to black voters with local newspapers, radio and phone calls and that despite the campaign's objections, she attended a forum in Miami hosted by Bishop Victor Curry, a radio host and prominent voice in Miami's black community.

"The campaign didn't want it, but I did it anyway," she writes.

As a result, Carroll writes, Scott got 6 percent of the African-American vote, according to 2010 exit polls, and if she had not directed a "minority stealth" campaign, "Scott would have lost the election."

…Carroll's book contains no new bombshells, and many of the incidents she describes were reported by the Florida media at the time. But few in Scott's orbit escape Carroll's wrath.

She claims that Scott's former chief of staff, Steve MacNamara, blocked access to the governor and would "undermine or get rid of people who didn't go along with him," and that his replacement, Adam Hollingsworth, was "even more ruthless" and lower-level staffers cowered in his presence.

Carroll, a stylish dresser, wrote that when she wore designer pants and boots for an event at the Governor's Mansion, Hollingsworth ordered her to change clothes, and told her to scrap a scheduled birthday party in 2012 because a hurricane was approaching the state and Scott had canceled public events.

"It was just so silly," Carroll writes.

Carroll writes that she spent months asking superiors for a travel budget before she got one, but after security costs in her first year approached $300,000, Scott's staff limited her travel and assigned her a lower-ranking state trooper than previous lieutenant governors had.

During Scott's inaugural celebration, she writes, "I was treated like an unwanted stepchild," and when she wanted to talk to the governor, she said, she was told to ask for an appointment with his scheduler.

Jennifer Carroll-- What A Mess... (And Not At Concrete Blonde)

In announcing the forthcoming release of new polling numbers from Florida, PPP tweeted early Saturday morning that "Even after this week Jennifer Carroll only has about 30% name recognition in Florida." And they weren't talking about Top Chef Jennifer Carroll. Until this week she was the state's Lieutenant Governor and if barely anyone in Florida knows who she is, I'm going to have to assume far fewer outside the state know who she is either-- or why she resigned this week. "If her name rings no bells, you're probably in the majority. It's the price one pays for being Florida's first sidekick, a job state leaders rank somewhere between test dummy and anthropologist."

Born in Trinidad, she was a state Rep from Clay County and in 2011 became the first woman and the first African-American ever elected Lt. Governor. In fact, she's the first African-American elected to any Florida statewide office since Reconstruction and before that, she was the first African-American female Republican ever elected to the Florida Legislature. After being defeated in a congressional run against Corrine Brown, Gov. Jeb Bush appointed her Executive Director of the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs. Keep that in the back of your mind for a moment. It helps bring some light about why she's in the news again.

After Rick Scott, who had been convicted of massive Medicare fraud and who felt he needed a woman on the ticket to help soften his gangster image, won the GOP gubernatorial primary, his first two picks for a Lt Governor-- Toni Jennings (once an appointed Lt. Governor) and Susan Story-- turned him down, he turned to Carroll. Her short tenure at Lt. Governor was plagued with controversy, corruption-- and lesbian sex in the office. How could Floridians not remember who she is after that, right? And it gets even more noteworthy (not to mention that her son, Nolan Carroll is a defensive back for the Miami Dolphins. Jennifer resigned last Tuesday, March 12, a party to a federal gambling racketeering case. "[H]er tenure as lieutenant governor," wrote the NY Times, "has been marred by scandal and poor judgment, and Ms. Carroll was increasingly viewed as an embarrassment to the man who chose her for the job. Gov. Rick Scott. He remains unpopular in the state and is expected to face a tough re-election battle."

In a news release she put out late Wednesday, Ms. Carroll said she would fully cooperate with the federal and state agencies investigating the sweepstakes company, which ran a quasi-gambling operation. She said the company, Allied Veterans of the World, had been a client of the public relations firm she co-owned before her appointment. She filmed an advertisement promoting Allied Veterans as a Florida House member.

...The resignation came the same day Ms. Carroll was interviewed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Investigators questioned her about her former association with Allied Veterans of the World, a Florida nonprofit that operates dozens of Internet “sweepstakes” cafes in the state. Ms. Carroll once co-owned a public relations company that represented Allied Veterans, although her firm stopped conducting business after she became lieutenant governor.

Ms. Carroll, a former Navy lieutenant commander, has not been charged with a crime and it is unclear whether she is being investigated.

Sweepstakes cafes operate in a legal gray zone, allowing customers to buy Internet or phone cards that allow them to play games that resemble slots or video poker. They have been called “convenience casinos.”

Pam Bondi, the Florida attorney general, announced Wednesday that law enforcement officials had issued nearly 60 arrest warrants for people in Florida and several other states on charges of racketeering, illegal gambling and money laundering, among others.

Operating under the guise of a charitable organization for veterans, Allied Veterans of the World leaders were running a $300-million illegal gambling scheme, Ms. Bondi said at a news conference. The company lied about how much of the proceeds from these cafes were donated to charities affiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs. The company grossed $290 million, an affidavit said, but donated only $6 million.

...In 2010, Ms. Carroll’s association with the company briefly came under scrutiny when she introduced a bill to legalize sweepstakes games. She withdrew the bill, saying it was filed by mistake by an aide, according to the Florida Times-Union. The Legislature is considering banning the 1,000 sweepstakes cafes, which do $1 billion of business a year. They operate under a loophole in Florida gambling laws.

Last year, Ms. Carroll was forced to defend herself after a former aide said in a court filing that she had caught the lieutenant governor in a compromising position with another female aide. Ms. Carroll, who is married and has three children, inflamed the scandal by saying, “Black women who look like me don’t engage in relationships like that.” She later apologized.

The corruption level is so high inside the Florida Republican Party that many worry that the myriad scandals that defeated Congressman David Rivera will destroy the career of his closest friend, former roommate and reputed co-conspirator in years of Tallahassee criminal enterprises, Marco Rubio. Many would rather blame the stench of Florida politics in general for the scandal than Carroll herself.

Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll's career is ruined, thanks to her ties to an unsavory gambling company whose interests she promoted while a state representative.

Sadly, such entanglements are not unusual for lawmakers, who are quick to push the agenda of moneyed interests.

Granted, most of those interests are not involved in the multi-state criminal enterprise that the Internet sweepstakes cafes company Allied Veterans of the World is accused of conducting.

Carroll resigned Wednesday as law enforcement officials executed 57 arrest warrants following an investigation that concluded the cafes were illegal gambling centers that generated more than $300 million.

Attorney General Pam Bondi called it shameful that the company that claimed to be raising funds for veterans contributed only 2 percent of its revenues to charities.

It appears more charges are to come, and investigators did not rule out the possibility elected officials could be targeted.

Perhaps this will cause some heads to turn in Tallahassee, where policy too often is based on who's giving what to whom, not on what's best for the people of Florida.

It underscores the importance of having teeth in ethics and campaign reform bills being considered this session.

But more important than tough laws are good judgment and integrity.

Carroll, it seems, was particularly reckless in her connection to Allied Veterans. Her public relations firm represented the company while she served in the Legislature, and she once offered legislation legalizing the sweepstakes, which she later said was filed by mistake.

That didn't stop Gov. Rick Scott from picking the former Navy officer as his running mate in 2010. Carroll had her share of stumbles in office, and now her selection will be seen as another embarrassment for the governor.

The other side of Floridians not knowing who Jennifer Carroll even is, is the fact that Rick Scott is doing the best he can to cover up everything about the scandal that forced her to resign, a resignation he is rumored to have demanded. The editors of one of the biggest newspapers in the area she lived and served in, the Gainesville Sun demanded some sunshine from Scott. Her resignation "was 'the right decision,' Scott said, but voters need an explanation, not platitudes."

According to an Internal Revenue Service affidavit, "In an effort to mislead the public into believing that it is not profiting from an illegal gambling enterprise, Allied Veterans and others have engaged in a conspiracy and scheme to defraud."

As reported by The Associated Press: "Investigators found evidence of over $6 million in what appear to be charitable donations by Allied Veterans. That amount, however, was only about 2 percent of the over $290 million made from gambling operations during that time period. Instead of going to veterans, the vast majority of the money went to for-profit companies and the individuals who operated Allied Veterans and its so-called ‘affiliates.'"

"Callous" and "despicable" were the words Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi used to describe the Allied Veterans scheme.

Maybe Carroll was simply gullible. That's no crime-- but Floridians have higher expectations than that for their elected officials.

What people don't want to talk about is how the GOP used her-- as an African-American and as a woman-- to cover up their racist agenda and their role in the Republican War Against Women. She was, for example, the front for the GOP coverup of the Trayvon Martin "Stand Your Ground" murder. Worse yet, people are asking why it's considered legal in Florida for legislators and government officials to make massive amounts of money from private companies they promote as part of their official duties. Yesterday Kartik Krishnaiyer pointed out that Carroll’s resignation is just the latest example of the continued culture of cronyism and corruption in this state.

Florida Republicans have created a class of entitled politicians who lack intellectual curiosity or any governing wisdom. They are not conservatives as much as they are political whores for power and certain big business. They have lived for years on easy street being opposed by an impotent Florida Democratic Party that lacked organization or the courage in its own convictions to take the fight to the Republicans. The Democrats have benefited from these same tendencies in liberal southeast Florida, where it seems half the elected Democrats on the county level have been at one time or another linked to scandal.

...Lt Gov. Carroll’s resignation is an indication that consequences are now being suffered by those in power for excessive and potentially illegal behavior. The progressive movement throughout American history has focused on issues of graft, greed, cronyism and corruption. Florida Progressives should do the same. Regardless of party, corrupt government cannot be progressive government.