A.G. Gancarski
The rules of the Florida Senate are straightforward: no campaign contributions or solicitations thereof during Session.
“During any regular legislative session, extended session, or special session, a Senator may not directly or indirectly solicit, cause to be solicited, or accept any contribution on behalf of either the Senator’s own campaign, any organization described under section 527 or section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, any political committee, any committee of continuous existence, any political party, or the campaign of any candidate for the Senate,” reads the language.
The letter and the spirit of the rule are pretty clear: during session, don’t mix fundraising with legislating.
That would seem to include blast emails promoting events, which would at least qualify as indirect solicitations, even if sent from a third party with delegated authority.
On Wednesday afternoon, as Special Session was beginning in Tallahassee, “[email protected]” sent an email promoting a “fun-draiser” in Hollywood, Florida, at the 4.2 star Westin Diplomat Hotel, a facility “fresh off a $100 million transformation.”
The flyer contains a “checks should be made payable to Audrey Gibson Campaign” and even as the flyer has the official address of the campaign. it also has Gibson’s own phone number on it — which would have created an awkward optical situation, should someone with an interest in Special Session legislation have called or ended up at the event next week.
We asked Gibson about the email.
“I didn’t send this out,” she said at first.
When we noted the campaign account email, Gibson said: “I don’t have an email for my campaign. Perhaps the person I’m working with emailed not knowing not to.”
“Thanks to you I sent them a text just now not to email anymore,” Gibson added.
When we asked what would happen if someone did call to RSVP or contribute, Gibson said “I follow the rules.”
Then, Gibson followed up: “Sent at 7:23 to the person I’m working with. You didn’t send it fundraising flyer did you? We can’t during special session.”
At 8:17 p.m., an email went out to her mailing list from the gmail account. It had one sentence of content.
“Please disregard previously issued email sent in error.”
Leaving aside the question of responsibility for the actions of a campaign, this tempest in a teapot offers an illustration of the pressures created by the Special Session on a calendar that otherwise would have moved on to the campaigning and fundraising portions of the job.
