Peter Schorsch
Two weeks ago, FloridaPolitics.com reported on congressional candidate Jonathan Chane’s professional history representing banks in home foreclosures. On Friday, Chane’s campaign manager, Brian Weeks, was quoted in a Palm Beach Post story about his boss’s opponent, Randy Perkins’ political giving history, saying “[Perkins’ contributions] hurt real people.”
Wow, Mr. Weeks! In one sentence you managed to (1) really up the ante on your hyperbolic rhetoric, (2) toss yet another stone into the plate glass window of Chane’s house (paid for with money made foreclosing on South Florida homeowners, ahem) and (3) really miss what should be voters’ takeaway from the facts of Perkins’ political contributions.
Yes, as the Palm Beach Post reported, Perkins has given a ton of money to Republicans. A ton. He’s also given a ton of money to Democrats. A ton. As we noted in our previous story about Chane, he has given a sum total of zero dollars to politicians of either party, unless you count the $100,000 he gave to his own campaign for Congress.
But this isn’t an appendage measuring contest. This particular district, which Patrick Murphy is now in his second term representing, is perhaps the most evenly divided, bipartisan and competitive in Florida. Note that in all the recent back-and-forth over redistricting, CD 18 remained pretty much untouched. In a presidential year, it’s ever so slightly Democratic; in a non-presidential year it’s ever so slightly Republican. A lockstep partisan can’t hold this district long term, as evidenced by Tea Party-darling Allen West’s defeat there by Patrick Murphy in 2012.
It seems to me that Perkins is the type of candidate – in the mold of Murphy, who likewise faced questions about donations to Republicans when he first ran – to be the perfect fit for such an evenly divided district. And here’s what Perkins said to the Post, “If you do not have relationships and you cannot build relationships with the other party…being in office is going to be totally useless. They might as well send a cardboard cutout to Congress.”
Well put!
Far from disqualifying him from the Democratic nomination for this seat, Perkins’ diverse political giving history makes him uniquely qualified to represent District 18 in congress. What’s the most common refrain you hear in complaints about Washington D.C.? “Too much partisan bickering and gridlock,” right? So what other candidate can credibly make the claim to be able to effectively work through the insipid partisanship that plagues our nation’s capitol?
Hint: it ain’t Jonathan Chane.
I think (hope) voters in Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast will end up seeing Randy Perkins as a problem-solver who can reach across the aisle to get things done. We need more bipartisanship and collegiality in public service. And we certainly don’t need more lawyers fighting for big banks over Florida homeowners.
