A spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Florida, Katie Betta, said she could not confirm the investigation nor make any comments. Coming in a high-stakes election year, the investigation could expose the inner-workings of a party that has dominated state government and raked in millions of dollars from lobbyists and special interests.
Meanwhile, in a separate inquiry, the IRS is also looking at the tax records of at least three former party credit card holders — former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, ex-state party chairman Jim Greer and ex-party executive director Delmar Johnson — to determine whether they misused their party credit cards for personal expenses, according to a source familiar with the preliminary inquiry.
Political parties, which are tax exempt, are allowed to spend money only on political activities, such as fundraising, running campaigns and registering voters. While it's commonplace for party officials and politicians to wine and dine donors, the Florida party allowed credit card holders to rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in charges with little oversight.
So far this story has received little attention and we'll see if the story grows as a result of the latest revelation.
In today's atmosphere where partisanship allows anyone to discount wrongdoing on the part of those with similar political beliefs, two questions must be asked:
ReplyDelete1. Are the allegations true?
2. If the allegations are true, is what was done objectively wrong?
If you can tell yourself the answer to one of those questions is no, you can claim its a political witch hunt, and then nobody will know what to believe. The media's no help, all they do is regurgitate talking points.
AG..
ReplyDeleteGood analysis.