Florida GOP embarrasses itself
09/17/2010
Just for fun Crowley Political Report is going to pretend that wasteful spending at the Florida Republican Party began in 2007.
Golly, we'll even make believe that the party has never used donor money to funnel it to favored former campaign aides who magically turn into lobbyists and senior consultants.
And surely the GOP never spent a dime on questionable air travel and hotel rooms before 2007.
There is no question that Jim Greer and Delmar Johnson made a fine art of creative spending of donor money. And investigators believe the two broke a few laws along the way.
It certainily appears, based on the newly released GOP audit of spending between 2007 and 2009, that Greer thought the RPOF was his personal piggybank.
The Republican Party audit of its finances is chock full of details - but does it tell the whole truth about what has been going on in the party for at least a decade - not hardly.
So here are a few of the scores of fun-facts that emerged from the audit released today:
30 - people had American Express cards with individual cards having totals during 2007-09 as high as more than $2 million to a low of $411.
15 - of the American Express card holders racked up more than $50,000 in charges from 2007-09 and these are the only folks audited because they represent 96.5% of all GOP AMEX charges.
26 - people were interviewed by Alston and Bird.
1 - vendor refused to be interviewed - Bill Baer of Baer Air - a firm that provided air transportation and maintained Jim Greer's plane.
243 - the number of times the RPOF chartered a plane from Baer Air - Greer's plane.
$326,111 - Amont spent by the RPOF on plane charters at Baer Air.
$381,786 - the amount of money the auditors say was not spent "primarily" related to RPOF business.
$98,412 - the amount of money the auditors say was "probably" not spent on RPOF business
$199,254 - money paid by the RPOF to Victory Strategies the company owned by Jim Greer and Delmar Johnson.
$7,339 - the amount the Jim Greer agreed to repay RPOF - the check bounced possibly because Greer's bank account are frozen as a result of the criminal indictment against him.
$1,854 - cost of tickets for Greer, his wife and another couple to attend Journey concert - plus $633 for a limo to take them to the concert.
$23,53 - price for car wash in Oviedo where Greer lives.
$10,000 - the amount paid to Erik Eikenberg for a company he called Groudgame that operated out of his home with his wife listed as registered agent.
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