Thrash 'Em All

No sooner had John Thrasher won the 8th District Florida Senatorial seat this past November than he’s been catapulted to frontrunner candidate to become the next Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF), enthusiastically supported by a number of state Republican power-takers, including Jeff Atwater, Senate President.

Atwater has rejected any type of tax increases, leaving little hope to solve the projected budget deficit of $3-billion. With federal stimulus funds running out, as many as 20,000 teaching positions could be in jeopardy. Necessitating larger class sizes, compromised learning environments could adversely affect the life-time earnings potential of school children.

Economists don’t foresee a return to pre-recession tax revenues until 2015 – five years of sub-par education would be grossly detrimental to school children of all grade levels.

These dire predictions might be avoided if Atwater and the predominately Republican Legislature were to eliminate various sales tax exemptions. In particular, collecting sales tax from Internet sales would help level the playing field for Florida businesses. Closing corporate tax loopholes would also be helpful. Otherwise, it’s painfully inconsiderate of Atwater to maintain an attitude of playing servitude to special interests.

Another high level supporter of Thrasher is Mike Haridopolos, Senate Finance and Tax Committee Chairperson, set to become the next Senate President as Atwater campaigns to be Florida’s CFO, has said, “The senate will be building a budget on what the actual numbers are. We know that we’re in for a long, difficult road. We’re going to do what we have to do without any new taxes, (and) live within our revenues.”

The few options left for a balanced budget include cuts in social services; initiate layoffs, furloughs and pay cuts to state employees; and borrow money.

Although Thrasher, former Speaker of the House, wasn’t necessarily considered a ‘shoe-in’ candidate for the Senate seat left vacant upon the death of Senator Jim King, the reality of this past November’s special election was evidenced by his campaign funds exceeding $400,000 which was more than the accumulative $376,000 raised by the four challengers. During the campaign, former Governor Jeb Bush appeared in TV ads in support of Thrasher.

Minus the TV ads, Jeb is again giving his political blessing to Thrasher. In a recent letter to the media, Bush gave a two-line appreciation statement for the efforts of challenger Sharon Day, whom he referred to as “a friend”, but…

Bush gave his assurance that Thrasher, “as Chairman, he will be more than just a caretaker or a fundraiser. He will do the hard work that is needed to rebuild our party’s infrastructure and make the state Party more accountable and responsive to the needs and concerns of county parties, more accessible to party members, a more valuable resource for Republican candidates in every region of our state.”

This seems the perfect time for the next probable chairperson to assure the party faithful – voting constituents, not those in the Capitol buddy system – that the inappropriate use of GOP credit cards would be fully investigated to determine the extent to which party members keenly picked the GOP pocketbook. Surely it goes beyond ousted party leader Jim Greer.

Instead, while others such as gubernatorial candidate Senator Paula Dockery and Sharon Day, also a contender to lead the Republican Party, have mentioned the need for an audit, Thrasher commented, “The decision to have these issues aired in the mainstream media will only serve to trap our party in a continual discussion about the past, instead of looking forward to our future, and I will not participate in harming the party that I love.” This comes from the man who chairs the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee. No disclosure. No transparency.

A former lobbyist with Southern Strategy Group, whose clients include the Florida Medical Association and Blue Cross, Thrasher wants to give no-fault status to emergency medical responders, including ER doctors. Thrasher determinedly dislikes trial lawyers but, by his preference, questionable/inadequate medical decisions could put into jeopardy the health and lives of patients.

Another scheme of Thrasher was the September, 2007, deceptive ‘Signature and Petition Revocation Notice’ meant to rescind petitioner support of the Florida Hometown Democracy initiative. A business-backed group, Save Our Constitution, had more than 13,000 petitions revoked but a controversial law passed by the Legislature was ruled unconstitutional by three state appellate court judges.

To further question the choice of Thrasher as headmaster of the RPOF, he was twice cited for ethics violations – once as a House member for illegally representing a client before a state agency and for lobbying the Legislature less than two years after leaving office.

The Florida Republican Executive Committee will thrash it out this coming Saturday. It must choose a leader who will bring the party together as a whole and dig the party out of the deep, dark hole of questionable integrity.