Jim Norman has been disqualified from the November 2 ballot in the state Senate district 12 race.
With a decision coming in shortly before 5 p.m. Friday afternoon, a Leon County Circuit Court Judge, Jackie Fulford wrote in her ruling that
this Court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the transfer of $500,000.00 from Ralph Hughes to Mearline Norman constitutes a gift to Jim Norman, triggering the financial disclosure requirements of Article II, Section 8(a) Florida Constitution.
She goes on to write that if the court were to sanction such a financial gift to a politician's spouse under the guise of a "financial deal" would completely subvert the purpose of financial disclosure requirements, adding
This Court will not condone, much less encourage, such conduct.
The Judge writes in her ruling that she doesn't buy for a second the alleged "partnership" between the late Ralph Hughes and Norman's wife Mearline. That has been Norman's excuse since the story broke – that he had no obligation to list the Arkansas vacation home on his financial disclosure forms because he did not own the property, but his wife did, and he knew nothing about she was able to round the cash up to purchase it for $435,000.
We have since learned that Hughes, a huge presence in the Hillsborough County Republican Party for years before he passed away in 2008, gave the money to the Normans to pay for the house.
So what's next? The GOP will need to name another nominee, who of course, will not be on the ballot. Norman has already accumulated votes in absentee voting, but those votes will now no longer go to him.
Too bad the Hillsborough Democratic Party didn't have their act together to find a warm body to oppose the Republicans in this seat that has been held by Victor Crist for years.
And what about Kevin Ambler? Voters in District 12 knew (or at least some of them did) about the Norman scandal since it broke well in advance of the August 24 primary. But Ambler did nothing on the legal front until after he lost. He will not be the nominee of the party.So Ambler filed suit after the election.
We do know this: After an 18 year career on the Hillsborough County Commission, Jim Norman and Victor Crist, both 18 year long elected officials, or in the current parlance, "career politicians" agreed in essence to trade positions.
But Norman won't be going up to Tallahassee as planned now. And it's not because of cheap shots uttered by a political opponent, but a Circuit Court Judge in the state of Florida who said he has done wrong.
Norman never "man'd up" as he so famously said to other Commissioners during a discussion on the transit tax earlier this year. He has looked over the past several months like a man who was hiding something. A judge said today that he was.
This article appears in Oct 14-20, 2010.