Open Secrets:
One of the Republican Party's biggest donors -- a Florida real estate
developer who apparently is facing a federal investigation over the use
of special tax districts for his retirement complex -- hired a lobbyist
in the last quarter of 2012 for the purpose of "contacting the federal
government" about the districts.
The Villages,
owned by developer H. Gary Morse and his family, had not previously
hired a lobbyist at the federal level, according to OpenSecrets.org
records. But the new lobbying report shows that it paid $30,000 during the quarter to Cardenas Partners,
led by Al Cardenas, the Cuban-born two-time chairman of the Florida
Republican Party. Cardenas has done state-level work in the past for the
Villages.
An overwhelmingly white, mostly Republican retirement
community 90 miles north and inland from Tampa Bay, the Villages cuts
through parts of three counties. Sometimes referred to as Disneyland for
retirees, it includes dozens of golf courses and about 50,000 homes.
Can Big Al summon enough political leverage to make this investigation go away? Probably, given the pathetic performance of the current US Dept of Justice in prosecuting white collar crime. Chances are 70/30 that the Morse money machine (AKA The Villages) will keep rolling along and bamboozling the unsuspecting residents of their Republican fiefdom.
Posted by: can't take anymore | January 31, 2013 at 02:42 PM