Peter Schorsch
U.S. Rep. David Jolly’s campaign is claiming he is the victim of “dirty tricks and pettiness” from a rival Senate hopeful.
Accusations came after an anonymous blog posted a video showing the Pinellas County Republican, his wife and a staffer rushing through security screening at Miami International Airport.
It happened less than twenty-four hours after Jolly and fellow Republican Congressman Ron DeSantis each earned high marks at a gathering of Florida editors and reporters for their focused, policy-driven campaigns.
Consultants for both candidates exchanged pointed barbs after the two-minute (and otherwise boring) video popped on HelloFla.com — a newly launched website claiming to offer “the inside scoop … from the mouth of people inside Florida’s political process.”
However, it is not clear what is the “inside scoop.”
The video shows a TSA screener escorting Jolly and his wife to their plane. Also, a Jolly spokesperson says the Pinellas Congressman was only doing what airport security asked.
“When the airport director tells you that you will have security on you when you are in the airport, you do not question it,” said Sarah Bascom, Jolly’s campaign representative. “This was not done at the Congressman’s request. As a member of Congress, there is often increased security for a myriad of reasons and this is simply an unplanned example of one of those instances.”
Bascom said it was her understanding that the video of Jolly and Co. was being shopped to the media by DeSantis’ political team, specifically by consultant John Konkus.
Konkus flatly denied any involvement with the video, but he did say he was at the Miami airport at the same time as Jolly — an admission that led the Jolly camp to conclude Konkus was the one who made the video.
When shown a picture of Konkus, all three members of the traveling party agreed he recorded them.
“This was taped by John Konkus, who is a member of Congressman DeSantis’ political team, and it representative of the exact type of pettiness in politics that David Jolly is running against,” Bascom said. “I would think that Congressman DeSantis would not condone a fellow congressman and his wife being followed and taped secretly by one of his staffers.”
“As someone whose wife is running for Congress,” Bascom continued. “I wonder how he would feel if someone followed her and secretly taped his wife and made her feel as uncomfortable as he did Mrs. Jolly.”
Bascom also represents Republican Neal Dunn, the Panama City urologist facing Mary Thomas in the primary for the Congressional seat held by Democrat Gwen Graham. Konkus is Thomas’ husband.
After Jolly staffers had said they were absolutely sure it was Konkus, he responded: “Nope, but I was there and I’m absolutely positive I saw the same thing that blogger saw.”
“I take that flight all of the time,” Konkus added.
