TALLAHASSEE — Former Republican Party of Florida Chairwoman Carole Jean Jordan said the GOP issued American Express cards to top officials while she was at the helm from January 2003 to January 2007, but “we were very careful. We set up a lot of business procedures….Nobody had carte blanche.”

The party made about $3.1 million in American Express payments during the four years Jordan was chairwoman. During the three years her successor Jim Greer was in charge, the party’s AmEx bills topped $3.8 million. Greer stepped down last month in part because of controversy over his lavish spending.

Jordan, now the tax collector of Indian River County, is in town for a Republican women’s conference. Asked her opinion of the American Express spending under Greer, she paused briefly, then said: “It’s over. We need to move on. I’m very excited to see Speaker/Sen./Chairman (John) Thrasher running the party.”

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Senate President Jeff Atwater said he is more than willing to hand over his Republican Party of Florida-issued American Express credit card statements but that the party’s new chairman, Sen. John Thrasher, won’t do it.

Reporters asked Atwater, who is running statewide for chief financial officer, about the notorious AmEx spending that’s embroiled former House Speaker and U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio and former House Speaker Ray Sansom.

“I asked Chairman Thrasher if he would release the statements of the RPOF credit card that was assigned to me and he said no,” Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said. “He said he has his internal process going on…I have asked him and he has said no. That is the party’s card. It is not my card. I do not have the statements.”

When pressed about why Atwater did not request the statements, he insisted he could not.

“I’m not the card. That would be RPOF. It’s RPOF’s card. So if RPOF were to request those statements I assume they could get them. At this point, it is the party’s card. And I have asked the chairman would you release any card statements that were associated with me? I have no qualms about what anyone would see on that and he said no, we’re doing our process.”

Atwater had one of the AmEx cards while he was recruiting Republican Senate candidates and raising money for the party in 2007 and 2008. He says he used the card strictly for party-related business.

The cards, issued to an undisclosed group of top elected Republicans and party officials, have been a continuing source of embarrassment as details have emerged of lavish spending by former Chairman Jim Greer (including that $3,600 meal at Brasserie L’Escalier), indicted former House Speaker Ray Sansom (his $173,000 in AmEx charges included a family trip to Europe and an $893 Starbucks tab) and former exec director Delmar Johnson ($133,763 in a single month last summer).

Rubio got his turn in the AmEx spotlight last week when someone, presumably a supporter of opponent Gov. Charlie Crist’s slumping GOP Senate bid, leaked records of Rubio’s $125,000 in charges from 2006 to 2008. No Greer-scale extravagances emerged, but the records showed a $133.75 visit to Churchill’s Barber Shop in Miami that Rubio said he paid himself.

Sen. Mike Haridopolos and Rep. Dean Cannon - on tap to be the next Senate President and House Speaker - aren’t coughing up their state GOP-issued credit card statements, the pair said in a press release today.

“While the media is now calling for the release of many of the Party’s internal financial records, it is our firm belief that the professional auditors should be allowed to do their job without the interference of a media circus surrounding the release of any records,” Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, and Cannon, R-Winter Park, said in the release.

The leaders-to-be issued the release after former House Speaker Marco Rubio’s American Express statements were leaked to the media earlier this week, causing embarrassment for Rubio’s U.S. Senate campaign and glee for his GOP primary opponent Gov. Charlie Crist.

Crist has said that the Republican Party of Florida books should be opened up because of questionable spending by RPOF staff. The party’s spending was among the reasons former state GOP boss Jim Greer was forced out last month.

New RPOF Chairman Sen. John Thrasher, R-Jacksonville, ordered an audit of the party’s books to begin on Monday.

But he won’t release the statements, either.

Despite a trend of anti-establishment activism running through conservative politics, Florida Republicans on Saturday selected a Tallahassee insider to lead the party into a critical election year.

State Sen. John Thrasher, a former lobbyist and state House speaker, defeated two opponents in an extraordinary special election called after former Chairman Jim Greer was forced to resign over accusations of excessive spending of party money and improperly influencing primary races.

The election is expected to have repercussions in the state Senate, where Thrasher is chairman of the Ethics & Elections Committee and one of 40 members hoping to turn around the state’s escalating unemployment and spiraling foreclosure crisis.

Thrasher said he would step down from the elections committee position, an offer Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, indicated he would accept. But Atwater insisted Thrasher could simultaneously focus on another year of state budget problems — his duty as a state lawmaker — and rapidly rebuilding a party that, until recently, had been the envy of Republicans nationwide.

Story here.

Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson wants Sen. John Thrasher stripped of two important committee assignments if he is annointed chairman of the state GOP as expected.

Lawson asked Senate President Jeff Atwater today to remove Thrasher as chairman of the Ethics and Elections Committee and off the powerful reapportionment committee if he is also chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.

“The conflict is evident: Senator Thrasher’s primary job as RPOF head is to see that Republicans win and maintain office through the elections process – a process in which his committees - one of which he controls – play a critical role,” Lawson, D-Tallahassee, wrote Atwater this morning.

Thrasher, a former House Speaker, returned to the legislature in a nasty special election to replace the late Sen. Jim King of Jacksonville. The trial lawyers’ association political arm targeted Thrasher in a racially-charged mailer that resulted in a shake-up at the Florida Justice Association leadership and forced former executive director Scott Carruthers to resign.

Thrasher’s special election drama was one of the reasons why Atwater appointed him to chair the committee, Atwater said at the time. Campaign reforms are at the top of Thrasher’s agenda this session, the Jacksonville lobbyist said late last year.

Along with members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, I was deeply troubled by the announcement earlier this week that Republican Senator John Thrasher may take over as head of the Republican Party of Florida, while maintaining his seat in the Florida Senate.

“As you know, the task of the committee he chairs is to set public policy on maintaining fair and unbiased elections. The task of the second of which he is a member is to oversee the drawing of legislative districts. To allow Senator Thrasher to remain in dual chairmanship roles and/or as a member of a committee holding sway over fair representation would threaten the integrity of the process as a whole,” Lawson wrote.

Stay tuned for a response from Atwater.

Jim Greer speaking at a press conference in October 2008

Thrasher

“Jim has long been a loyal servant to the Republican cause, and I appreciate the many sacrifices the Chairman, his wife Lisa, and their four children have made to ensure our Party’s continued success in the Sunshine State,” Gov. Charlie Crist said in a statement.

“I call on Florida Republicans to unite behind our common values of less government and more personal freedom and sincerely hope that we can move forward together to ensure statewide Republican victories in 2010.”

Greer has been negotiating his exit since a letter
from party fundraisers last week saying he had to go. In addition to Thrasher, other names discussed included former House Speaker Alan Bense of Panama City and former Senate President Ken Pruitt of Port St. Lucie.

Negotiators were far apart over the weekend, but found had a breakthrough late last night.

The transition is a hit to Gov. Charlie Crist, whose U.S. Senate campaign has benefited from his close relationship with Greer.

Thrasher, meanwhile, is more closely aligned with the Jeb Bush-wing of the party, which has always had a rivalry with the Crist team and given significant support to Crist’s primary opponent, former state House Speaker Marco Rubio.

News of Thrasher replacing Greer was first reported by the Times/Herald.

A race-baiting mailer backed by the state’s trial lawyers has resulted in a shake-up at the top of the group’s political organization.

Scott Carruthers, executive director of the Florida Justice Association, quit today after more than two decades years at the organization.

FJA political director Albert Balido and Deputy Executive Director Paul Jess have both been demoted.

Balido will continue on FJA as a lobbyist and Jess will keep his role as general counsel, according to FJA spokeswoman Jacqui Sisto.

“After 22 years of service to the FJA, Scott has decided to leave the organization and pursue other opportunities,” Sisto wrote in an e-mail.

Carruthers resigned after several heavy-weight lawyers dropped their Florida Justice Association membership in protest over the trial lawyers group’s failure to fire anyone in response to a race-baiting campaign mailer.

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The state’s trial lawyer association suspended Executive Director Scott Carruthers, Deputy Executive Director Paul Jess and political director Albert Balido for their involvement in a racially-tinged flyer targeting then-candidate John Thrasher.

“We repeat FJA’s apology for our financial role in the offensive and appalling absentee mail piece,” FJA President Michael Haggard said in a press release.

Haggard asked former Florida Supreme Court Justice Gerald Kogan to investigate the mailer and released Kogan’s report today after a board of directors’ meeting in Orlando.

The mailer sent to potential absentee voters was aimed at persuading Jacksonville residents to vote against Thrasher, a Republican, in the race to replace the late Sen. Jim King. Thrasher, a former House Speaker, later won the election.

The mailer depicted Black Panthers, President Barack Obama, Al Sharpton, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and a group of blacks holding an ACORN sign and was captioned “Is this the change you want to believe in?”

Kogan’s report, slightly longer than three pages, found that the three FJA executives were the only members of the organization who had knowledge of the flyer that drew outrage from Republicans and black lawmakers.

Everyone questioned about the mailer found it “outrageous, shocking, disgusting and contradicting everything FJA represents,” Kogan wrote in his report.

The trial lawyers initially distanced themselves from the mailer then admitted that Balido had hired political consultant Bill Helmich to come up with the last-minute attack.

“Bill, did it have to be so over the top?” Balido asked when initially shown the mail piece, according to Kogan’s report.

FJA promised that an oversight committee would review all campaign materials and expenditures in the future, according to the press release. (Read about FJA’s campaign spending at a bondage bar and a trendy South Beach night club here.)

The press release did not identify the three executives by name but said that “all three staff members specifically identified in the Kogan Report for their involvement in the matter have been temporarily suspended.”

Senate President Jeff Atwater tapped former House Speaker John Thrasher, the most recent addition to the Florida Senate, to head up the Ethics and Elections Committee.

Thrasher is no stranger to ethics violations. He admitted to breaking state ethics rules twice, once when he was a House member and again after he returned to lobbying.

The first violation took place in 1993 when Thrasher appeared before the state medical board as a paid representative of the Florida Medical Association. State law bans sitting lawmakers from lobbying.

In 2001, after he left the legislature and returned to lobbying, Thrasher was hit with another ethics violation.

The Jacksonville Republican lobbied lawmakers on behalf of his client the University of Miami without waiting for the two-year waiting period to elapse before former lawmakers can legally lobby current lawmakers.

Thrasher admitted he had violated the ethics laws and was chastised for the first violation and fined $500 for the second.

A racially-charged mail piece targeting former House Speaker John Thrasher will cost the state’s trial lawyer association more than embarassment.

The Florida Justice Association has hired former Florida Supreme Court Justice Gerald Kogan to conduct an investigation into the flier that elicited outrage from the legislature’s black caucus.

“It was the most blatant display of racism I’ve seen in 27 years,” Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson, who is black, said at the legislature’s black caucus meeting last night.

The mailer was especially offensive to black lawmakers because they have historically sided with the trial lawyers in votes and considered them their friends, Lawson said.

“This experience really threw me for a loop,” Lawson, D-Tallahassee, said.

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Attorney General and GOP candidate for governor blasted trial lawyers for running a race-baiting ad in a special Jacksonville Senate election.

The controversial mailer depicted the Black Panthers, President Barack Obama, the Rev. Louis Farrakhan with the caption: “Is this the change YOU want to believe in? Violence and intimidation at the voting booth.”

Former House Speaker John Thrasher, a Republican, won the special election and now replaces the late Sen. Jim King.

Scott Carruthers, the head of the powerful trial bar group, admitted yesterday that his organization was behind the ad and apologized for it.

Not good enough, McCollum’s campaign said today in a statement.

“We expect lawyers to not only obey the law but to act in a manner consistent with both the judicial process and the treatment of every individual with respect. I am appalled that the Florida Justice Association engaged in this behavior and their apology is clearly a case of too little too late,” the statement reads.

Opponents of former House Speaker John Thrasher launched a new television ad yesterday blasting the lobbyist’s ties to trial lawyers.

Stop Tax Waste, a shadow political committee, accuses him of voting in favor of the trial bar and “against taxpayers.”

Thrasher is running in a GOP special election primary against former state Rep. Stan Jordan to replace the late Sen. Jim King, who died earlier this month after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

The Senate District 8 primary will take place on Sept. 15. No Democrats have filed for Jacksonville seat in a GOP-heavy district that stretches from the Florida-Georgia border in Nassau County to Volusia County.

The latest ad is the second Stop Tax Waste launched against Thrasher, accusing him of being a spendthrift with taxpayer money by, among other things, a lavish redecoration of the Speaker’s office.

Former House Speaker John Thrasher has at least a dozen fundraisers scheduled before the Sept. 15 special election GOP primary to replace the late Sen. Jim King.

The Florida Dental Association, the Florida Medical Association are among those hosting the Florida fundraisers for the Senate District 8 candidate.

Thrasher, a prominent lobbyist, is under attack by “Stop Tax Waste,” a political group that launched an Internet site lambasting Thrasher for his spending while Speaker, including a lavish revamp of the his office and the House chambers.

“Stop Tax Waste” also launched a television ad this week blasting the Jacksonville Republican for being a Tallahassee insider and again accusing him of wasting taxpayer money.

Thrasher accused trial lawyers of being behind the attack ads, but the “Stop Tax Waste” folks deny the association.

The attack ads coincide with former state Rep. Stan Jordan’s entree into the race. Jordan now serves on the Duval County School Board.

The first television ad in a competitive state Senate special election race in Duval County attempts to capitalize on the energy surrounding the health care debate in Florida and across the country.

In the 30-second spot above, conservative activist Dan Quiggle pulls a clip from his April speech at a local tea party. “We are up against stimulus packages, socialized health care, bailouts. My friends, freedom and liberty are under attack and our politicians are out of control.”

The election, called after the passing of Republican Sen. Jim King, will be worth watching if only for the fact that it is unfolding during such a highly-charged moment in state and national politics. Plus, the GOP primary for this seat in 2010 was already competitive: King’s would-be successors had combined to raise more than $750,000 for the race by June 30.

Now that a special election is needed, the Republican race — featuring Quiggle, former House Speaker John Thrasher, Jacksonville Commissioner Art Graham and former state Rep. Stan Jordan — will be take days, not months, to unfold: The primary is Sept. 15.

Thrasher’s campaign says it will join Quiggle on North Florida airwaves “very shortly.” today.

Meanwhile, Jordan, who only entered the race on Tuesday, said he wasn’t too concerned about the financial gap he faces: His three opponents already have six-figure campaign accounts.

“I’ve done this many times,” he said. “I’m probably the most economical candidate in the state.”

And if you thought the health care battle hasn’t reached North Florida, think again. On Wednesday, 400 people packed into a Live Oak room designed for 136 people. And while there was no violence, it wasn’t pretty: video from ActionNewsJax.com here.

Among the endless ways to slice and dice campaign finance reports, here is the list of top fundraisers of the 2010 election cycle among candidates state legislative office.

These figures include all money raised through June 30 and are largely dependent on the spreadsheet compiled by On3 Public Relations.

A few notes: The top five money raisers in the House and Senate so far are all Republicans and, with the exception of incumbent Dean Cannon, all are chasing open seats. The top Democratic fund-raisers in each chamber are both unopposed incumbents from Weston: Sen. Nan Rich ($185,029) and Rep. Franklin Sands ($53,800).

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