Buddy’s Political Tidbits: Lobbyist Does A Good Job
BY BUDDY NEVINS
The town mayor’s election may be over for Davie voters, but maybe not for defeated candidate Mike Crowley.
An election committee run by his wife, Heather Nydick, has apparently found a way to spend money it didn’t have. At least that’s what her financial reports to the town indicate.
The latest filing for Davie citizens for a Better Future, the pro-Crowley vehicle in the mayor’s race, spent $14,792.
Yet the committee reports no contributions to cover the debt. None.
I don’t think that is kosher.
Crowley is already facing a vote buying complaint with the State Attorney’s Office over his unique campaign gimmick to offer voters $1.10 worth of stamps if they mail an absentee (first disclosed by Browardbeat.com more than a month ago.).
Now his family may have the authorities question how the committee spent what it didn’t have.
Is Mike sorry he ever ran?
The Kibosh On Fund Raising
State Rep. Franklin Sands, D-Weston, had to call off fund raising and pull a donation button off his website when the Legislature was called back into session earlier this week.
Rules forbid members from fund raising while the House is in session.
The rules, of course, don’t apply to Sands’ opponent in his School Board race – Donna Korn.
Doing His Job
Clarence McKee may not be the best-known lobbyist in Tallahassee. But he did an effective job for one client.
Clarence McKee
McKee pried $50,000 from the tight-fisted Legislature for for the Broward School System’s BECON television station.
Who led the fight for McKee, who is a North Broward Hospital District Commissioner? An unlikely pair of state senators: Democrat Eleanor Sobel of Hollywood and Republican Ellyn Bogdanoff of Fort Lauderdale.
How can McKee convince Gov. Rick Scott not to veto the appropriation?
Maybe he should remind the governor that the station is Emmy-Award winning and its programming is used by stations across Florida. That might work.
But he definitely should tell Scott that he is featured regularly on various public interest shows on the station. That should convince the governor, who is already preparing for his re-election campaign in two years.
Here is the bill containing the money:
HB 5001 Enrolled-Posted 03/14
From Page 27,
SECTION 2-EDUCATIONAL (ALL OTHER FUNDS)
“102 SPECIAL CATEGORIES
GRANTS AND AIDS – INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY
FROM GENERAL REVENUE FUND . . . . . 386,477
From funds in Specific Appropriation 102, $336,477 is provided to the
Panhandle Area Educational Consortium (PAEC) for Response to
Intervention (K-12) behavioral interventions, tracking, management and
web-based counseling for students in Tier 1 and Tier 2 and students who
have had five or more disciplinary/behavioral referrals (universal
screening) and $50,000 is provided to the Broward Education
Communication Network for educational programming.”
March 17th, 2012 at 2:51 pm
Here Ye Here Ye! Candidates take note on how to NOT to run a campaign:
Crawley: Robocalls and PACs – Large signs in empty lots. Scare tactics about a dead deal regarding BSO.
I’m still scratching my head as to why the Crawley’s would have to resort to setting up a PAC for a Mayoral race in Davie…..Davie! You can’t fool people in Davie with that kind of city slicker political BS.
You know what Political Action Committees (PAC) should stand for? Political Aspersion Committees.
March 17th, 2012 at 7:59 pm
Mike is an honorable person and does a good job with his day job at Central Broward Water Management. To me, he was encouraged to run for Mayor by the development interests behind the infamous Davie Commons project. Was it coincidental that there were new potential investors planning to buy the Commons property on the court house steps the day after the election? And that those investors included several of the same folks whose firms lobbied Mike successfully to vote for the project when he was on the Town Council? Buddy, follow the money and see how much was given to Mike and those “non affiliated” PACS by the Commons development team, its lobbyists, and potential vendors? It is also concerning that his wife’s PAC has reported no contributions on its election reports so you cannot identify who funded it. Thankfully their – and his – campaign fizzled but I was not surprised because it was based on knocking Judy and not providing any vision of his own for the Town. And as others have said, the robo calls became obnoxious. So it appears western Davie and Weston are spared a mega mall in their neighborhood at least for 3 more years. Now Mike can focus on our area’s fragile water system and Judy can continue to be the Town’s “full time” Mayor on basically a volunteer basis given the minimal compensation (with which I agree) that the Mayor and Council members are paid for their positions. It will be interesting to see if those same developer interests rear their heads again when Marlon Luis’ seat comes up by supporting another puppet for their unwanted project as they did against Marlon last time.
March 18th, 2012 at 12:41 am
I think the police union put up more money than anyone
March 18th, 2012 at 5:54 am
Gosh darn he cant raise money. Looking at that stunning diamond nedcklace his wife was showing off last weekend at the parade, he is not hurting.
Not hurting? But I thought Franklin was stung by Bernie Madoff?
Maybe he lost his principal. but was he living large on the profits for many years? If so, wouldnt that mean he was living off the invesment money of those who invested after him who may have lost it all?
March 18th, 2012 at 12:20 pm
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2011/01/state_rep_franklin_sands_says.html
So this article reads to me that despite Franklin Sands claims he lost millions of his live savings he pulled out almost all of his principal. Logic would say in a Ponzi that when early investors get their principal back that money has to come from newer investors who probably were not in it long enough to get their investment back.
Also, if Sands didnt have red flags going off at the made up Madoff returns can we really trust him to manage a 1.4 billion dollar School Board Budget?
March 19th, 2012 at 11:23 am
The governor needs to veto this. The school system should not be in the TV business.
March 26th, 2012 at 1:53 pm
Starting with Jeb Bush, several Governors have vetoed this same appropriation several times before. NBD