A.G. Gancarski
The talk in Jacksonville politics this week has been the subpoena served to Corrine Brown at the Bono’s on Norwood Avenue, a place that for African-American politicians in Jacksonville is as much a gathering place as Two Doors Down was in Riverside.
Brown says that this is a “tangential investigation” that is driven by her political enemies. Indeed, there are some in Jacksonville who might agree with that take. However, as scandal swirls and the back-channel narratives pile up and become more lurid, one might question the wisdom of handling her side of the narrative with a 100-word statement on a PDF press release.
Simply put, this isn’t going away. And this could have existential impacts on her desire to stay in office, as well as her Medicaid Expansion initiative via the Florida Health Solutions PAC.
What we know, so far:
Brown was meeting with political operatives, including Mincy Pollock and Siottis Jackson, regarding the Florida Health Solutions effort, in what was described to Florida Politics by one participant as a casual meeting.
Among the topics discussed: a belief that Supervisors of Elections offices are deliberately delaying the count of petitions, to ensure that the ballot measure doesn’t make it in time.
As the group talked and dined, two agents walked in and served the subpoena. According to our source, they looked demographically out of place, and it was clear as they opened the door that they weren’t at Bono’s for the barbecue.
That upset Brown, understandably. As Jackson told The Florida Times-Union, the meeting was “disrupted” and “went to left field” when the agents made their entrance.
There are those who have said off the record that federal investigators were asking them about Brown years ago, in relation to the Quick Picks and related matters.
Some local politicians, in fact, made ad buys concomitant with their receiving Quick Picks, in outlets like Onyx Magazine and the Florida Star, both of which give laudatory coverage to candidates on board. Others made $1,000 donations to Friends of Corrine Brown, her PAC.
Copies of the Star were distributed for free at Alvin Brown rallies at Gateway Mall on Jacksonville’s Northside before the 2015 election. They read like promotional literature for Democratic candidates. At these rallies, Brown worked the crowd, leading them in dances to songs like “Boogie Wonderland” and “Electric Slide.”
That’s in keeping with a practice among Democrats in Jacksonville, as those who recall Kim Daniels making “ad buys” in Shofar magazine know, using campaign funds to promote her book: “The Demon Dictionary.”
Back in March, Kenneth Adkins, representing a group of black ministers, called for the elimination of the Quick Picks and that they no longer be disseminated at early voting sites and black churches. His take is that the Quick Picks manipulate elections and cause tension within the African-American political community.
Adkins, on the phone with me after the press conference, mentioned that two City Council candidates — Mincy Pollock and Wendell Sams — were asked about finances by interested parties. The Rev. Adkins claimed Pollock was asked how much money he had by a previous quick pick, and Sams “confirmed that he was asked to pay” for inclusion.
We received a comment from Pollock: “Growing up in Jacksonville I’ve always looked up to leaders in the black community and hoped I would one day be on Corrine’s Quick Picks when the time came. When I decided to run I reached out to a number of leaders in the community and most of them responded with the question: ‘How much money have you raised?’”
Pollock, in the intervening months, became part of the Brown organization. He (and Jackson) attended a Congressional Black Caucus Boot Camp, which Brown said in March was one of the preconditions for her Quick Pick endorsement.
Elected City Council members, such as Katrina Brown, also attended the boot camp. As we wrote months ago:
Jerome Brown BBQ has its political connections in Democratic circles also. The company contributed a whopping $10,600 to Friends of Corrine Brown between November 2011 and November 2012, and Jerome and his wife (as well as KJB Specialties, another family business) have both contributed to Alvin Brown campaigns in the past. The money, like the sauce, flows both ways: over the years, Jerome Brown BBQ has made over $11,200 catering Democratic Party events.
Did these arrangements ensure that Katrina was Corrine’s Quick Pick? As the candidate relates, the explanation is somewhat more quotidian than influence peddling, even as she tells us that “I don’t understand why people bring up that endorsement. The Northeast Florida Builders Association endorsed me,” she says, and no one finds that endorsement controversial.
“Basically, when I went to Corrine about running in District 8, she told me that” she doesn’t endorse novice candidates without training, and so she “suggested a political boot camp” put on by the Congressional Black Caucus.
Articles on this subject, thus far, have been a connect-the-dots exercise … because Corrine Brown won’t address the nature of the subpoena in a forthright manner.
And she’s not the only politician stonewalling the media. The big story that all good City Hall reporters are chasing: the reputed “target letter” that a councilman with close historical ties to Brown, one who has been steeped in scandal like a tea bag in boiling water, received.
He’s not talking.
He probably should.
This scandal may have serious effects, in terms of the viability of Corrine Brown’s political organization, in terms of City Council, and, perhaps, beyond.
