2012 Florida Legislature to end on Friday without EVER examining carpetbagger Joe Gibbons' faux residency -he's NOT a permanent Broward County resident anymoreYes, just like last year.
And the year before that.
And so on...
It's a sad familiar refrain wherein a guy who pretends to live here, and who gets paid to represent people who really DO live here, just keeps getting the last laugh -at our expense.
No doubt after the gavel is banged down tomorrow before several necessary things are done -ALF reform, for instance- Gibbons, D-105, will once again be thanking his lucky stars.
Which is to say, thanking whatever the stars are that burn brightest over his head in north Florida at night as he laughs and drives all the way back home to the Jacksonville area, where his attorney wife, Ava Lora Parker, works at her firm, Lawrence & Parker PA, and where his kids live.
For those of you far from me here in Florida, The State Capitol Building complex in Tallahassee is 164 miles away from her office.
It's 468 miles from the capitol to HB City Hall, where he used to be a City Commissioner until 2006.
Do the math!
Meanwhile, just like last year, it's fair to ask why SO MANY print and TV reporters in the country's fourth-largest state, which includes Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Orlando, Pensacola, Daytona Beach, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Ft. Myers and Palm Beach, et al, seem to once again have gone out of their way to NEVER bring the subject up.
You won't hurt his feelings to bring it up, he already knows he's getting away with it!
Frankly, that complete lack of journalistic curiosity, especially when the story is just sitting there on a silver platter, only proves conspiracy theorists correct about one old maxim at least -that the most-important news stories are usually the ones that you never see on TV or read about in the newspaper -or in the Buzz blog or Broward Politics blog- because the reporters or editors are compromised in some fashion or another.
Well, that is except for Bob Norman of the ABC-TV affiliate in Miami, WPLG-TV, Channel 10, who penned this 15 months ago, before he jumped over to TV last year:
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BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes
Broward Politics
House Pro Tem Investigated for Homestead Fraud
By Bob Norman
Monday, November 15, 2010 at 10:15 AM
Monday, November 15, 2010 at 10:15 AM
State Rep. Joe Gibbons, who has been named the number-two Democrat in the Florida Legislature, was investigated for homestead fraud earlier this year -- and government records indicate he lied to officials during the probe.
The Broward County Property Appraisers Office investigation also found that Gibbons' homestead in Hallandale Beach conflicted with another controversial homesteaded property in Jacksonville owned by his wife, Florida Board of Governors member Ava L. Parker.
On top of that, it doesn't appear that Gibbons had a valid residence in his own district.
Read the rest of the fact-filled, jaw-dropping post at:
Now that FL State Rep. Evan Jenne of Dania Beach has officially declared for the Broward County Commission, District 7, presently the John Rodstrom seat, rather than run in the August Democratic primary against Gibbons in the newly-redrawn House district, I can go back to my Draft blog post labeled, "Will carpetbagger Joe Gibbons actually move his family to Broward County from Jacksonville this summer in an attempt to defeat Evan Jenne in the Democratic primary?" on account of it being too good to be true.
I hate when that happens!
I was really looking forward to Jenne just crushing Gibbons alive, and all but daring him to bring his wife and kids with him to debates in Broward county so his kids could see where he claimed to live.
But sadly, that just isn't meant to be.
No "film at eleven."
In Indiana, you have to live where you say you do, and be able to prove it.
Even if you are an elected official
In Florida, not so much.
This article shows the contrast.
Los Angeles Times
Indiana secretary of state convicted of voter fraud
February 4, 2012 | 1:17 pm
After deliberating for 12 hours, an Indiana jury early Saturday morning found the state's top elections official, Charlie White, guilty of six of seven felony charges related to voter fraud.
White, who was elected Indiana's secretary of state in 2010, had been accused -- among other things -- of lying about his address on voter registration forms. He was indicted in March, two months after being sworn into office.
As the case unwound, White kept his post.
The indictment alleged that White was living outside of the district of the Fishers Town Council where he served and continued drawing a salary. It also accused him of voting in the wrong district during the May 2010 primary.
Around 2 a.m. Saturday, the Hamilton County jury convicted White of false registration, voting in another precinct, submitting a false ballot, theft and two counts of perjury. The theft charge stems from the salary he received while living outside the district. He was acquitted on a more serious fraud charge, the Associated Press reported.
About an hour after the conviction, Gov. Mitch Daniels appointed Jerry Bonnet as interim secretary of state.
"I have chosen not to make a permanent appointment today out of respect for the judge’s authority to lessen the verdict to a misdemeanor and reinstate the elected office holder," Daniels said in a statement. "If the felony convictions are not altered, I anticipate making a permanent appointment quickly."
Prosecutors argued that White used his ex-wife's address instead of a condo he had with his fiancee because he didn't want to give up his $1,000-per-month Fishers Town Council salary after moving out of that district, the Associated Press said.
White, 42, has said the charges ignored a complicated personal life in which he was trying to raise his 10-year-old son, plan his second marriage and campaign for the statewide office he won that November. He said he stayed at his ex-wife's house when he wasn't on the road campaigning and did not live in the condo until after he remarried.
A date has not yet been set for sentencing. White's lawyers, however, have indicated they will attempt to reduce to the felony convictions to misdemeanors.
-- Ricardo Lopez
And this clown is supposed to "represent" me in the state capital?
Where Mike Satz?
Just more proof of why he needs to go!
