Former Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer’s arrest on six felony counts sent political campaigns scrambling Thursday to either defuse their connections with the disgraced party boss or exploit a rival’s.
U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio wasted no time putting up a Web advertisement attempting to further lash his opponent, Gov. Charlie Crist, to Greer, who is accused of skimming more than $125,000 from the state party last year.
Republican gubernatorial contender Rick Scott used Greer’s arrest to burnish his criticism of party frontrunner Attorney General Bill McCollum as a “career politician” who benefited from the chairman’s one-time “kingmaker” ability.
Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman also sought to tarnish McCollum, accusing Statewide Prosecutor William Shepherd of steering the Greer investigation away from the attorney general, after personally donating $500 to his campaign.
“Greer has become the Deepwater Horizon of the Republican Party,” said David Johnson, a longtime GOP consultant and former party executive director. “He just continues to spew out a black goo that seems to spread everywhere.”
Crist, who selected Greer as party chairman following his 2006 election, clearly has the most to lose, most agree. But running as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate, Crist is getting hit hardest by Republican Party officials eager to now separate the party from Greer and tie him to the breakaway governor.
Greer’s successor as party chairman, Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, who earlier praised McCollum for bringing the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and statewide prosecutor into the Greer investigator, also sought to further shield the GOP’s lead gubernatorial contender from Democratic attacks Thursday.
Thrasher dismissed Thurman’s demand as “offensive and an attack on FDLE and their agents that is rooted in politics with the intention of some way benefiting (Democrat) Alex Sink and her run for governor.”
But Kevin Wagner, a Florida Atlantic University political scientist, said that while Democrats are feasting on the Greer scandal, Florida Republican candidates have plenty to worry about – no matter the level of personal link they may have to the former chairman.
“It has blowback on the Republican brand, and that could hurt every one in the party running,” Wagner said. “While Rubio may be able to swing at Crist, the sword swings both ways and he clearly doesn’t want this Greer story to return to the party’s credit card spending.”
Rubio ran up more than $100,000 in charges on a party American Express card from 2006 to 2008, repaying about $14,000 in personal expenses. During Greer’s three-year tenure as chairman, spanning 2007 through 2009, party credit-card charges topped $7 million – spending which federal prosecutors are believed to be reviewing following a request from Crist that they launch their own Greer probe.
Alex Burgos, a Rubio spokesman, said that in underscoring Crist’s connection to Greer, the campaign feels voters can discern who is most responsible for the chairman’s excesses.
“There was no shortage of people sounding the alarm about Greer,” said Burgos, whose web ad uses footage of Crist defending Greer at a newspaper editorial board meeting a month before the chairman was forced to step down. “We think people will recognize where the fault lies for Jim Greer.”
Burgos also said he felt the GOP has been reenergized with Greer’s departure and now – his prosecution. “Republicans will benefit by having a state party that no longer is driven by a cult of personality,” he added.
But Jennifer Baker, a spokeswoman for Scott, a former health care executive who has spent more than $9 million of his own money on statewide television advertising, said party officials continue to make the same missteps made during the Greer era. Among them: picking favorites in primaries, with McCollum the choice of party insiders.
“The Greer case just shows how interconnected everyone is within the party, and they’re all the same,” Baker said. “That’s exactly what everyone is sick and tired of. There’s a dearth of candidates like Rick who are not career politicians.”
But Scott’s Greer-inspired shots at McCollum also drew a response from GOP officials – with 18 county chairmen and committee members demanding that he retract criticism of the attorney general.
Among those writing Scott was Palm Beach County Republican Chairman Sid Dinerstein, who told the News Service of Florida that he was among a handful of party leaders interviewed by FDLE agents in the Greer investigation.
“Charlie Crist will not be able to run far enough or fast enough from Jim Greer,” Dinerstein said. “But Bill McCollum was the guy who got everybody in a room to get rid of Greer. Rick Scott can’t make that claim that he was involved. Scott had nothing to do with clearing up the party’s problem.”
By John Kennedy
The News Service of Florida
