Guest AuthorGeorge Sheldon is campaigning for the Democratic nomination for Florida Attorney General. If he wins, he will face Pam Bondi, the current attorney general, in November. Here are his answers to questions I posed to him:
What does the Florida Attorney General do?
The attorney general is the chief legal officer for the state, responsible for protecting consumers from fraud, rooting out Medicaid fraud, defending our civil rights, defending the state in lawsuits and criminal appeals.
I believe the attorney general should be the “People’s Lawyer,” not the governor’s or legislature’s.
What letter grade would you give the current Attorney General Pam Bondi, and why?
I’d give her a D, because I’m an easy grader. She has let the people of Florida down over and over again. She fought to keep some 1.2 million Floridians from getting access to health insurance through Medicaid. She has been mute as the Legislature imposed restrictions on voting. She has tried to keep a voter initiative off the ballot to allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for patients suffering debilitating pain.
In addition, she had an execution delayed because it conflicted with her campaign fundraiser. She took money from Donald Trump at the same time that she had dozens of consumer complaints in her office about his online “university.” I’ll give her points for her position against human trafficking and the explosion of pill mills in our state.
Why are you the best person to be attorney general?
I served in the Florida Legislature as a young man. I’ve worked in a bipartisan fashion as deputy attorney general to Bob Butterworth, as secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families, and, until last November, as assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’ve acquired the management skills and experience required for the office.
Can you predict some of the major issues the next attorney general will face?
Our geography makes us a center of human trafficking as well as international legal issues. We have a large population of elderly and frail people, who are especially susceptible to frauds and cheats as well as physical attack. We need an attorney general with integrity, a record of accomplishment, and a proven ability to work with people in both parties to solve problems.
The attorney general is a constitutional officer. What does that mean?
The people elect the attorney general. The AG is not the lawyer for the governor or for the Legislature but for the people. The AG has important constitutional and statutory responsibilities in the legal system, including representing the state in a number of civil and criminal matters, and is one of three members of the Cabinet overseeing a number of state agencies. I believe the attorney general also needs to be the moral conscience of state government.
What is the relationship between the office of the governor and the office of the attorney general?
The governor and the attorney general certainly should work together whenever possible. That happened when Jim Smith was AG and Bob Graham was governor, and when Bob Butterworth was AG and Bob Martinez and then Lawton Chiles were governors. The highly successful tobacco litigation is a great example of that cooperation, and it produced billions and billions of dollars for health care in Florida and for efforts to keep teens from taking up smoking.
These two executive officers also have worked together on matters before the Cabinet, such as preserving precious waters and natural resources and overseeing the state pension fund. At the same time, the attorney general is independent, and is not beholden to the governor in any legal sense, and indeed has an obligation to the people to challenge the governor if the governor is making a serious error in judgment or policy.
What should an attorney general do if he or she judges a law to be unconstitutional?
There is a widespread but inaccurate belief that the attorney general is obligated to defend any law or constitutional provision. The attorney general is required by law to “attend to” any challenges to a state law, but then must weigh a number of factors in determining whether to take a position on the provision in question.
A very timely example is the issue of marriage equality. The voters approved an amendment to the state constitution a few years ago to ban same-sex marriage. That provision is now being challenged in court. The ban is legally indefensible as some 25 federal and state courts have ruled. Most people in America and in Florida have moved past this old bigotry, but Pam Bondi is going to one court after another trying to stop change. This is unconscionable. We need an attorney general who respects equal rights for all citizens.
What, if any, bad Florida laws should be overturned–and why?
Clearly, efforts to restrict the right to vote. There will continue to be efforts to further restrict the right to vote, whether restrictions on absentee voting, early voting or limiting polling places. A new attorney general needs to be the policeman at the polls enforcing citizens’ right to vote.
Contrast the Office of Attorney General under Pam Bondi and under George Sheldon.
Regrettably, the Office of Attorney General under Pam Bondi has failed to oversee utility regulation, corporate greed, and civil rights violations. The Office of Attorney General under George Sheldon will protect the people of Florida and level the playing field for a fair marketplace and a fair shake for everyone.
Any question(s) I haven’t asked that you’d like to answer.
The attorney general has a major leadership role in public safety and the reduction of crime. In a world of cyber-attacks and cross-border crime, as well as the challenges of a growing state population, we need to do a better job of enlisting and coordinating law enforcement at all levels – federal, state and local – and ensuring that people who commit crimes are caught and prosecuted.
We must also incorporate into our fight against crime making society safer by getting tough on the causes of crime – poor education, economic desperation, mental illness, substance abuse. I think the best expenditure we could make as a society would be to invest in children under the age of 5, when their minds are developing most quickly, when their personalities and values are being formed, and when they develop the strong minds and bodies that will serve them the rest of their lives.
Stephen L. Goldstein is the author of “The Dictionary of American Political Bullshit” and “Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned.” He lives in Fort Lauderdale. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
