I find it hard to believe that these political “stars” have to use Buddy Nevins’ blog to communicate.

My opinion? They both have extensive baggage and too much money to protect it.

Wish an honorable candidate would step forward, but then again…this is Broward County.

I was curious about Senator
Geller continuing to use the title, too.
I found Practical Protocal for Floridians issued by the Florida House. It states that “Senators enjoy the lifetime courtesy title.” Just like a judge or the president.
So Geller is right to call himself senator….Buddy Nevins

Thank you for your response. It proved several of the points that I’ve been making.

Your post demonstrates why I don’t and won’t engage in responses on blogs. It’s a no-win situation for a candidate. I don’t think anyone that read your post thinks that you’re objective. Your knowledge of the Mutual case exceeds mine. I could not have told you who Anthony Livoti was until your post.

Your remarks about Mike McNerney strongly prove one of my points. Just for the sake of argument here, let’s ignore the fact that he hasn’t been convicted of anything, and let’s say he’s guilty, a fact not proven. What would I have known about him during the years he was representing Mutual and spoke with me? Florida Bar Board of Governors. Past President, Broward County Trial Lawyers Association. Chairman, University of Florida Law Center, Board of Trustees. Chairman, Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce Downtown Council. Volunteer General Counsel, Bonnet House. Second name Partner in one of the largest Law Firms in Broward(Brinkley, McNerney, Morgan Harris, etc.). Yes, that qualifies as a “pillar of the legal community”. I also remind you that Mutual was one of the largest philanthropic contributors in Broward, as well as one of the largest employers in my district. It’s not reasonable in general to claim years later that politicians should have known that pillars of the community that they had any contacts with, however slight, would be indicted, and that the politicians are therefore guilty by association.

Viaticals and life settlements were a dirty business when I sucessfully set out to regulate them. My legislation prevented the ads that referred to viaticals as “guanteed” or “insured”. It gave the Department of Insurance the ability to regulate sales tactics and advertisements. It required a life insurance license to act as a viatical salesperson. It regulated Life Settlements for the first time. It did lots of other things. Today, life settlements are sold by many large companies, such as HSBC, Bear Sterns, Merrill Lynch, UBS, Deutsche Bank, etc. My legislation took major steps towards cleaning up that industry.

I will now resume my prior stance of not responding on these boards. It appears that my request for civility and a moratorium on attacks will not work, as I predicted, and as the prior post shows.

And by the way, I like Lori Parrish.

Steve Geller

McNerney was indicted and faces federal charges together with defendants Joel Steinger, Steven Steiner, and Anthony Livoti, Jr., for conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, and who knows what else will get added.

As a Senator that was very much familiar with insurance matters, and having previously concluded that the viatical industry was “dirty” you’d think a much greater degree of caution would have been shown by Geller when presented with an opportunity to exchange favor with a company like Mutual Benefits. To the contrary, Senator Geller did not displayed eagerness to cozy up to them, even to the point of hand selecting a list of lobbyists that they could choose from to carry their message to Tallahassee. If that’s not helping a company that the Senator himself says was in a dirty business, I don’t know what is. And then to accept campaign contributions from them?

This is disturbing.

By the way, shouldn’t he be signing his name as Former Senator Steve Geller?

I normally don’t reply, but since Sue and I are opening up on this one, I will.

First, because you went after both Sue and I, I assume that you aren’t part of either campaign. My complaints are about those clearly orchestrated blog attacks that are clearly the work of a campaign. And you’re misquoting the quote I used from my wife. That was a warning not to engage and respond to every blog article.

Let’s talk about Mutual. You made the mistake of starting by assuming that I was close friends with Mutual, and should have known better. Not the case.

I thought that the Viatical industry was dirty, and in 1999 introduced legislation to clean it up. A well known, well respected pillar of the legal community, Michael McNerny, showed up and told me that he represented the largest viatical company in the country, that they were located in my Senate district, and that they wanted to help pass the legislation because they were the good guys, and wanted to put out of business unethical companies who were hurting the reputation of the industry. They did testify in favor of and help pass very tough legislation which I sponsored that, at the time, was among the toughest regulation of Viaticals in the country. At the time, I’d never heard the name Joel Steinger.

Mutual became one of the largest philanthropic contributors in town. You could not attend any major charitable function without seeing one of the Steinger/Steiner brothers. At some point, probably at charity functions, I would have been introduced to them. Mutual also gave heavily to political campaigns, primarily to Republicans.

In 2002, Mutual’s Tallahassee lobbying firm dissolved. I don’t remember who it was. Someone from Mutual, one of the largest employers in my district, asked me for a referral for a new firm. I gave them three names, which I always did if anybody asked for a referral. They picked one of the three. That’s all.

I never represented Mutual or any of their companies or any of the family members as an attorney. I assume that a company as large as Mutual had boats or planes. If they did, I was never on them. I never introduced legislation for Mutual. The Senate Insurance Committee chair (a Republican) intreoduced a bill supported by Mutual. It passed unanimously through every committee. It passed 37-1 through the Senate and 113-1 through the house. Everybody voted for it. At the time, it was not considered contraversial.

To the extent that there was any contraversy in Tallahassee involving Mutual, it was seen as an internal Republican fight between Crist supporters and Gallagher supporters. Gallagher was reportedly supported by a rival viatical company. You’ll have to check with Republicans to find out if any of that was true.

According to published reports and indictments, Mutual contributed at least $3 million dollars between 2000 and 2004, reflecting 3 election cycles. Most of it went to Republicans or Republican fundraisers. For example, they apparently gave $500,000 in one election to a local Republican’s race for State Representative. As their local senator, they gave me some contributions, but not very much. Apparently, they gave me less than $20,000 combined over 3 election cycles. Several lobbyists have each raised more than that in this one election for my opponent.

My involvement with Mutual was minimal. My contributions from Mutual were minimal. I had no reason to believe that one of the largest employers and philanthropic contributors in my district was “dirty”. My involvement in any investigation into them is non-existant.

This is the clear short version answer. I trust you’re satisfied with this answer.

Ron Gunzburger works for me for only one reason…he is a great lawyer. Most of our legal work is handled in house by Ron.

I might add he was a part time employee for Bill Markham and then for Rocky.

The reason he is still there has nothing to do with politics. He is excellent at his job.

Lori Parrish

Most people think that politicians focus on who gave to them. The truth is that most only care about who gave to their opponent…