Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

A.G. GancarskiApril 18, 2017

Keep hope alive? Rev. Jesse Jackson is one of more than 30 defense witnesses to be called to testify in the defense of Corrine Brown during her One Door for Education trial starting later this month. Former Congressional colleagues will testify also, including Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and Rep. Bennie Thompson. Jacksonville luminaries will testify also, including former Mayor John Delaney, […]

A.G. GancarskiApril 14, 2017

Corrine Brown faces charges in federal court this month — and the feds have a star studded witness list. Among the names reporters will track starting Apr. 26: Florida Democratic Party Chair Stephen Bittel, former Jacksonville Sheriff Nat Glover, current Jacksonville City Councilman Reggie Gaffney, Jacksonville superdonors John Baker and Ed Burr, JEA Board member Husein Cumber, Jacksonville lawyer and one-time Democratic […]

Phil AmmannApril 14, 2017

Does Al Lawson ‘get’ Jacksonville? Questions still remain as to whether Congressman Lawson understands Jacksonville, as his visits to the Jacksonville City Council Tuesday, and town hall Wednesday indicate. On Tuesday, one could sense among certain council members (specifically, those representing districts that overlap Lawson’s) a grating irritation over Lawson’s constant use of Eureka Garden […]

Phil AmmannApril 7, 2017

You may notice a running theme with this issue of Bold: much of it deals with crossroads situations (to borrow a phrase from 90s rappers Bone Thugs-N-Harmony). Will the city dredge JAXPORT? Or will years of deliberation and consternation lead — as they so often do — to nothing? Will Corrine Brown beat the rap […]

A.G. GancarskiApril 6, 2017

The next time I will see Corrine Brown — whom I still call “Congresswoman” — will either be inside a federal courtroom or walking to a federal courtroom. I won’t speak to her. She won’t speak to me. For days, for weeks of trials. That’s one of the rules of her trial regarding One Door for Education, her […]

A.G. GancarskiApril 5, 2017

Prologue: Nine months ago, a 24 count federal indictment dropped. It changed Jacksonville politics — forever. Former U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown and her chief of staff, Ronnie Simmons, were named as co-defendants in a federal suit about One Door for Education. One Door was a charity, marketed with Brown’s name and likeness, that did a great job bringing money […]

A.G. GancarskiMarch 27, 2017

Former Rep. Corrine Brown has the best sense of theater of any politician in Northeast Florida. And she gave a Jacksonville TV station a one-woman show. Brown, facing an April 5 status conference and an April trial for almost two dozen counts in federal court, stands alone now. Her co-defendant and chief of staff, Ronnie Simmons, pleaded […]

A.G. GancarskiFebruary 21, 2017

U.S. Representative Al Lawson may have had good intentions when choosing to spend the first part of an off week in Jacksonville. But intentions are one thing. And delivery is another. Lawson’s itinerary, arrived at last week, was pretty straightforward. Among other things: the first-term Democrat from Tallahassee was to go to Eureka Garden on Tuesday […]

A.G. GancarskiFebruary 9, 2017

It was never supposed to be like this for Corrine Brown. The now-former twelve-term United States Congresswoman was one of the leading politicos in Jacksonville, upbraiding media that crossed her, and picking winners and losers in primary and general elections alike. The slogan: Corrine Delivers. The end of that era: July 6, 2016, when Brown and […]

A.G. GancarskiFebruary 8, 2017

On Wednesday, Ronnie Simmons, a co-defendant in the One Door for Education trial with Rep. Corrine Brown, pleaded guilty to two federal felony counts. The timing was notable, as Brown and Simmons were slated to appear at a joint status conference on Thursday for jury selection for the April trial. The symbiosis between Brown and Simmons, her […]

Tag: Corrine Brown

Jesse Jackson to testify in Corrine Brown’s defense

Stephen Bittel among prosecution witnesses in Corrine Brown trial

Jacksonville Bold for 4.14.17 — My city was gone

Jacksonville Bold for 4.7.17 — See you at the crossroads

The unparalleled performance art of Corrine Brown

No plea deal: Corrine Brown gears up for epic late-April fraud trial

Comeback kid? Corrine Brown begins defense in explosive TV interview

Schedule confusion characterizes Al Lawson in Jacksonville

Corrine Brown won’t plead guilty, rebuffed in request for trial delay

Ronnie Simmons pleads guilty to two counts in One Door for Education case