Congresswoman Corrine Browns Electioneering & Quick Pics

[Cheshire Cat]

Electioneering:  The practice of working actively to secure votes for a candidate in an election.




So what does the above image represent?  It is a picture of an electioneering tool used by Congresswoman Corrine Brown which is listed on her website http://www.corrineforcongress.com/quick-picks.  My guess is that many people are totally unaware of this website, her QP lists and how she uses them to influence elections in Jacksonville, Gainesville, Orlando, Seminole and Putnam counties.  She releases them as a representation of what Corrine Brown is "thinking" about a particular election.  There is no mistaking the fact that the list looks ballot like.  The names of those individuals Corrine has decided should be elected to office in any given district are indicated by a filled in voting box. She announces that her quick pic forms are allowed by law to be taken into the voting booth with you.  At the bottom of her quick pick is the following disclaimer: Paid for by The Friends of Corrine Brown Campaign Committee.  In this case my focus will be on Jacksonville elections and the above quick pic practice. 

Is this legal you may ask?  Yes it is.  There is even a handbook put out by the state that discusses electioneering.  It is called "Electioneering Communication Organization Handbook". You can view it at,  http://election.dos.state.fl.us/publications/pdf/2014/2014_ECO_Handbook.pdf.  The hand book sets out the parameters for electioneering and the parameters of lawful practice while electioneering.  Now here is the thing about Corrine Brown's quick pics and the law.  Chapter 4, titled Electioneering Communications Organization pg 3 (Chapter 106 Florida Statutes appendix B) Requires the creation of an "Elections Communications Organization", other than a political party or political committee.  Apparently Corrine is not following those laws.  How so you may ask?

If we look at the quick pic form used by Corrine you will see this statement at the bottom: Paid for by the Friends of Corrine Brown Campaign Committee.  So her statement is that she has followed Fla electioneering laws and her quick pic is presented under this named committee.  I set about checking the Fla Department  of State Division of elections records to see if Ms. Browns committee exists and is current using the Elections Committee Organization ECO first and then every other possible combination I could think of during the records search.  Here is what I found and the only thing on record that is named anything close to the committee Corrine has on her quick pic form.

Friends of Corrine Brown 

Type:    Political Committee
Status:    Closed
Address:    12055 Saverio Lane
Jacksonville, FL 32225
Phone:    (251)490-6211
Chairperson:    Gloria Simmons
11607 Longwood Key Drive
West
Jacksonville, FL 322180000
Treasurer:    Gloria Simmons
11607 Longwood Key Drive
West
Jacksonville, FL 322180000
Registered Agent:    Gloria Simmons
11607 Longwood Key Drive West
Jacksonville, FL 322180000
Purpose:    
Affiliates:    

You will notice that this is listed as a "Political Committee" which is not in keeping with the Florida State requirements and that it is closed and apparently has been closed since 2007

Now this raises a number of concerns.  Corrine has a website for quick picks that still lists her pics from 2014.  But it appears there was no lawful committee in place when she made those pics or any since 2007.  It that is true we have a problem.  There is no listing in State records for the organization Corrine lists on her ballot pic document. If it exists and has for years why doesn't is show up in the records using any related search or search combination?

But it goes deeper still.  What those who do not vote in districts 7,8,9 & 10 don't know is that Corrine's quick pics are highly prized by candidates running in those races.  It is said that in order to get on her quick pics the candidate must be someone she feels is in line with her political views and method of doing business.  Here is where it gets really murky and questionable.  For the past few years folks in those districts have been "telling" me about the practice and this is what I have heard from some seeking office in the past and currently but are unwilling to put their name to the accusation.  Likely because doing so would also be an indictment of their own character.  It has been suggested over and over again that if you as a candidate are not anointed to be on Corrine's list of pics it would be helpful if you were to offer some sort of monetary compensation to be placed there. These suggestions do not come from Corrine herself but allegedly from one of her many operatives or associates. Plausible denial? Maybe.  The amounts I have been told were suggested to candidates reflect thousands of dollars.  If the money is not possible, then the claim is, it may become an exchange of things less tangible, like support for a specific agenda etc. All of this of course remains nothing more than here say and it is being shared as such.  Until someone brave enough steps forward and tells their personal candidate story this will remain an unproven claim.  However a look at Corrine's history which include fines for campaign violations it seems at least plausible.  Why would a candidate do this?  It's simple really, a positive association with Corrine Brown can be very profitable once elected as well as the potential for other powerful connections.  I will be offering some future posts about those close to Corrine who profit in finances and goods with links to the information.   Here is one to begin with. http://freebeacon.com/national-security/all-in-the-family-2/

From the above link:  Brown's campaign committee paid her daughter's husband, Tyree Fields, $5,500 for political consulting work in 2006.

A congressional ethics committee investigated Brown in 1999 after a $50,000 Lexus purchased by African banker Karim Pouye was registered to Shantrel Brown.

Brown failed to disclose a $10,000 donation from a secret Wisconsin bank account that her friend Baptist leader Henry J. Lyons allegedly used for money laundering during her 1996 re-election campaign. The House Ethics Committee eventually cleared Brown.

Brown paid a $5,000 fine to the Florida Ethics Commission in 1993 after it found she used legislative staff members as employees in a travel agency she owned.

In another instance, Brown's campaign treasurer quit after discovering his name had been forged on campaign reports, leading to a rebuke from the Federal Elections Commission.

and this from the same article:



A nonprofit connected to Rep. Corrine Brown (D., Fla.) and run by a local political power player over billed Medicaid by nearly $1.4 million, the Florida Times-Union reported.

According to an audit by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, the Community Rehabilitation Center in Jacksonville overbilled Medicaid by nearly $1.4 million. Reggie Gaffney, a former Jacksonville Port Authority board member, runs the nonprofit, which provides medical services for mental illness, substance abuse, and HIV/AIDS for low-income residents.

Brown's daughter, Shantrel, is a lobbyist for Arlington-based Alcade and Fay, whose clients include the nonprofit. Community Rehabilitation Center has paid $185,000 to Alcalde and Fay since 2005.

Such arrangements aren't unusual in Congress. According to a 2012 report by government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, 44 members have family members who lobby or are employed in government affairs.

Brown requested nearly $3 million in earmarks for the Community Rehabilitation Center between 2008 and 2010, when Congress banned earmarks, the Florida Times-Union reported in 2010.

Of those requests, Congress approved $147,000. However, the tax dollars did not go directly to the nonprofit health center, but rather "streetscape improvements and renovation" for Pearl Plaza, the shopping center in Jacksonville where the nonprofit is located.

Gaffney and several other Community Rehabilitation Center executives own three for-profit businesses that lease space in the plaza.

Gaffney and the health center did not immediately return request for comment, but in 2010 he said that the for-profit businesses provided job training.

When the connection between Gaffney, Brown, and her daughter was revealed by the Florida Times-Union in 2010, Gaffney said he was "unaware of Ms. Shantrel Brown's involvement with securing funding for the agency."

Gaffney has contributed $5,300 to Brown since 2003. Brown's office did not return requests for comment.[/quote]




Beyond all of the above there is the reason why I am sharing this information.  It is so that the public can be educated as to how politics goes down in Jacksonville and to point out again the fact that so many people go to the polls and are uneducated about the candidates.  In the case of those using Corrine's quick pics they simply take her word when it comes to choosing a candidate.  She indicates who to vote for with no background or information shared about the candidate.  That is a good part of the reason that voters in these districts continue to find themselves with representation that takes care of their business obligations at one level and the business of the people falls in line behind that.

Why should they care if the use Corrine's quick pics.  A look at these numbers recently shared in a Time Union article are one good reason to question following Corrine's lead.  In the decades of her time in office these are the stats for many of her constituents.

Anyone trying to connect with voters this year might keep in mind these benchmarks of how different Jacksonville looks, depending on where people stand:
■ By 2013, unemployment had dipped to 7.5 percent for whites and 16.4 percent for blacks.
■ Household income for whites — the median was $55,035 by 2013 — was a world apart from the $31,911 median for black households and far higher than the $40,261 for Hispanic households.
General racial differences found all over Florida don't fully explain why; white incomes in Duval County were well above the median statewide, but black incomes were below that norm.
That's masked in overall numbers, with the county's $59,238 median family income standing a prosperous $2,500 above statewide levels.
■ Poverty is more common in Duval County than in the state overall, although just a little. From 2010 to 2013, the share of Duval residents living in poverty rose from 16.6 percent to 17.1 percent.
■ Whatever else happened with incomes, more and more people in Duval County have been signing up for food stamps, now known by the government acronym SNAP. From 2010 to last year, food-stamp enrollment rose from 162.5 per 1,000 people to 212.1 per 1,000, a 30 percent increase and well above the state norm of 187.1 per 1,000.
■ Education remains the clearest dividing point for earning power. The median income for someone with a bachelor's degree in Duval County was a bit under $45,000 a year, compared to a little more than $27,000 for someone with a high school diploma and no college.
By some basic benchmarks, Duval has been playing catch-up to the state in education — or trying to

For the article link,  http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,23661.0.html\

UPDATE:  I have formally requested that the SOE determine with the State whether or not the organization she claims to be operating under exists anywhere at the state level and if so, how long it has been in effect and if it is still current according to law.  That way there will be no doubt as to whether or not the appropriate laws regarding electioneering have been followed