Today, Richard Corcoran’s shameless, hypocritical rhetoric about cleaning up Tallahassee was proven to be nothing more than disingenuous politics as usual. Politico Florida’s detailed account of how a junior Republican Party of Florida staffer fronted the organization more than $800,000 in fundraising expenses on his personal credit card raises troubling questions about Richard Corcoran’s ability to be honest with Floridians.
Here are 6 questions Floridians deserve answers to:
—How is having a junior staffer front the state party more than $800,000 for private planes, cigars, and fundraising expenses “more efficient, more accountable, and more transparent”?
— The last time the RPOF was caught doing this, the staffer involved claimed she “did not have the sole discretion to initiate credit card spending” and said expenses were made in her name without her knowledge. Is this the case with James Blair?
— Was James Blair provided the credit card by a third party?
— What is Richard Corcoran trying to hide by funneling the reimbursements of senior staff and House leadership through a junior staffer?
— Were incumbent Republican House members aware Richard Corcoran was spending nearly a million dollars partying in 2015?
—Were all of these expenditures and reimbursements reported correctly in compliance with Florida law by the Republican Party of Florida?
“Given the leading role Richard Corcoran played in the Republican Party of Florida’s last credit card scandal, he knows that describing this set up as efficient, accountable, and transparent is laughably false,” said Florida Democratic Party spokesman Max Steele. “When vulnerable House Republicans wonder where the money to help their reelection is, they will have to look no further than James Blair’s credit card statements. What is clear for all to see is that Richard Corcoran still has not found a solution to his spending problem.
“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”