George Niemann is a Daily Loaf contributor and UCAN, R-LAND, FSP activist and supporter of Florida Hometown Democracy principles. The views expressed are my own and may not be the same as the organizations to which I belong.
Ex-Hillsborough Commissioner Brian Blair has agreed to settle the charge of accepting illegal campaign contributions in 2008 by signing a consent order and paying a fine of $750.
After two and a half years of delaying the inevitable, Blair has finally exhausted all his legal options. His trial had been scheduled to take place in Tampa on March 31, 2011 before an administrative law judge. Facing a courtroom filled with the press and the public and having the sordid details publicized, he decided to fess up and admit what he did.
The case is the result of charges I filed with the Florida Elections Commission back in August 2008. The incumbent Blair was being seriously challenged by Kevin Beckner in the 2008 race for Hillsborough District 6 County-Wide Commissioner.
When commission seats are up for grabs, I make it a point to check each candidate's election reports for irregularities and possible violations. In Blair's case, I found numerous possible violations. There seemed to be a pattern of violations, so I filed a number of charges against him with the Elections Commission.
Some of the charges were dropped for lack of evidence. The rules protecting our politicians make it extremely difficult to hold them accountable when they violate election laws. This one, however, stuck like glue because it was so blatant. It was what prosecutors would call a "willful" attempt to ignore the laws limiting campaign contributions.
In one instance he accepted more than the legal limit from Hung Mai, a developer that ended up being appointed to Hillsborough's Planning Commission. Also, the law has no provision for dealing with contributors that knowingly violate the limits. It only deals with the receiving end of the transaction. Perhaps if both the giver and the receiver were held culpable, we'd have better compliance.
In another instance he accepted more than the legal limit from maritime shipping company, A R Savage and Son. The evidence shows that he sent a written note back to Mr. Savage after receiving the illegal contribution and actually thanked him for donating double the legal limit. And he didn't return the excess contributions until after he was notified that I filed the complaint and realized he was caught.
The prosecutor in this case agreed that it was willful and told me, early on, that he would pursue the case with vigor in spite of Blair's repeated attempts to derail the case and avoid having it go to trial. I want to thank General Counsel Eric Lipman for persevering through all of the legal maneuvering that Blair threw at him in the last two and a half years.
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2011.