Jeremy Ring criticizes Jimmy Patronis’ ‘racist’ clemency questions

Democratic challenger Jeremy Ring, in his bid to unseat Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, tore into the Cabinet member for posing allegedly racist questions during a clemency hearing in June.

But Patronis’ re-election campaign dismissed the criticism as name-calling and signs of desperate campaigning by his opposition.

A number of Democratic officials statewide called into question Patronis’ judgment during a June 14 hearing for Erwin Jones, an applicant seeking clemency, about how many children he had and how many mothers there were to those children.

Former state Sen. Ring, a Coral Springs Democrat, issued a letter to supporters labeling the remarks as “intolerance and ignorance” while demanding Patronis recuse himself from clemency hearings in the future. “It is unconscionable that applicants would be asked in a public hearing how many children and how many different mothers of those children,” Ring said. “Not only should that have zero to do with Mr. Jones ability to have his rights restored, but smacks of racism, intolerance and ignorance.”

Additionally, Democratic state Rep. Sean Shaw of Tampa, a candidate for Attorney General, said Patronis’ line of questions sounded “racially biased.”

“If having a child by more than one or even two mothers were the standard, President [Donald] Trump wouldn’t be eligible for clemency for crimes he may have committed,” Shaw said. “The CFO should apologize to Mr. Jones and to the African-American community for even considering, lest uttering such a question.”

The critiques came on the same day the newly launched Florida Phoenix published an article about Florida’s subjective process for restoring rights to ex-felons.

But Patronis’ spokespeople say accusations of racism remain baseless, and specifically said Ring’s use of the issue to further his campaign showed signs of desperation. “Jeremy Ring stooped to a new low today to try and distract from the fact that he’s being heavily out-fundraised and outworked by CFO Patronis,” said Katie Strickland, campaign communications director for the incumbent.

Strickland said a study of the full transcript shows Patronis only raised the baby-mother issue because Jones had a history of violence with multiple mothers of his children. “In one case a woman was sent to the hospital and in another case, a child was harmed,” Strickland said. “The focus of the conversation was about how to best protect all involved and the community from a convicted felon with a decades-long history of arrests.”

The CFO’s office referred all questions about the controversy to the Patronis campaign.