On July 24-25, 2008, Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer charged $5,198.03 in hotel expenses from The Breakers Palm Beach to the Republican Party of Florida’s (RPOF) American Express Card. [Attachment 1].
Pursuant to section 106.29(1) and section 106.07(4)(a)11, Florida Statutes, the state executive committee of each political party is required to disclose all contributions and expenditures made by such committees, including credit card expenditures. In an advisory dated October 25, 2005, from Dawn Roberts of the Division of Elections, it is stated that “[political parties] are required to list as an expenditure the amount paid to the credit card company and also report the individual amounts paid to each vendor or business by the credit card company via the ‘Other Distributions’ detail record… The ‘Other Distributions’ record contains fields which would link the record to the reported expenditure to the credit card company.”
Despite the fact that the RPOF reportedly charged at least $5,198.03 on July 25, 2008 at the Breakers Hotel, their campaign finance reports for both 04/01/2008 – 08/21/2008 and 08/22/2008 – 10/30/2008 reporting periods show their ‘Other Distributions’ to the Breakers totaling only $730.47 [Attachment 2].
During the two reporting periods cited above, the Republican executive committee has reported expenditures totaling more than $1,381,592.40 to American Express. [Attachment 3] There is no way of currently auditing the public records to determine if the Republican executive committee has properly disclosed all distributions.
Due to the appearance that the RPOF has not fully disclosed at least one distribution based on campaign finance records, the Florida Elections Commission should immediately investigate this matter.
(Additional comment not in the official complaint)
In essence, what it boils down to is that it appears that the Republican Party of Florida was required, by law, to report more than $5 thousand in hotel expenses charged to the party American Express Card as ‘Other Distributions’. As the data from the Division of Election shows, they did not appear to do that, which would be a clear violation of the law. Since their American Express records are undisclosed, the public can’t determine if violations have been made and these records should be released to the public and the Florida Elections Commission should look into this matter.
Attachments:
1) RPOF Chairman Jim Greer’s bill from the Breakers Hotel as reported by Times/Herald
2) All RPOF “Other Distribution” expenses paid to the Breakers Hotel from 04/01/2008 – 08/21/2008 and 08/22/2008 – 10/30/2008 reporting periods.
3) All RPOF Expenditures to American Express from 04/01/2008 – 08/21/2008 and 08/22/2008 – 10/30/2008 reporting periods.
