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Editorial: Don't believe Rick Scott attack on Charlie Crist

 
Published Sept. 19, 2014

It's funny how a few facts can expose the lies repeated over and over in political television ads. A somber ad from Gov. Rick Scott's campaign features a man complaining he was "swindled'' by convicted Ponzi scheme operator Scott Rothstein and former Gov. Charlie Crist. Yet a detailed Miami Herald report identifies the man in the ad and finds no evidence to support that serious accusation about Crist, the former Republican turned Democratic nominee. Such reckless mudslinging says more about the incumbent governor's integrity than it does about the former governor's, and voters should hold Scott accountable.

The Scott campaign ad, repeated regularly in the Tampa Bay market, features an unnamed man identified by the Herald as Fort Lauderdale investor Dean Kretschmar. After Kretschmar recounts how Rothstein and Crist were close, he says, "I got swindled by both Rothstein and Charlie.'' As the Herald reports, there are no facts to support that statement.

In fact, Kretschmar never made that claim in his successful lawsuit to recover millions lost in the Rothstein Ponzi scheme. In fact, Crist is not named in that lawsuit or in any other major lawsuit involving Rothstein's criminal operation, which involved the sale of fabricated legal settlements. In fact, Kretschmar recouped most of the some $8 million he personally gave Rothstein and appears to be doing just fine financially.

Most damaging to Crist is Kretschmar recycling Rothstein's unfounded claim that Crist sold judgeships in return for campaign contributions. Federal prosecutors found no evidence to support Rothstein's allegation, which smacked of a desperate attempt to avoid a prison sentence by offering up a bigger fish. But that did not stop Kretschmar from warning in the ad, "If Charlie Crist will sell judgeships, everything is for sale.'' That is the worst of smear tactics based on nothing but a convicted felon's unsubstantiated attack.

Here are some other facts reported by the Herald that voters should know about that Scott campaign ad. Kretschmar's lawyer is William R. Scherer, a Scott donor and longtime Republican operator in Broward County. Scott appointed Scherer to a Judicial Nominating Commission, which screens judicial candidates before they appointed by the governor. And Scott appointed Scherer's daughter to the circuit court bench. It is Scott, not Crist, who is the governor who has manipulated appointments to judicial nominating commissions to reflect his political ideology, failed to recognize the importance of racial diversity in judicial appointments and politicized the courts.

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Crist took about $81,000 from Rothstein for his unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign, although he is not the only Florida politician who took the swindler's tainted cash. The former governor's poor judgment in selecting some close political allies is certainly fair game. See Rothstein and former Republican Party of Florida chairman Jim Greer, who pleaded guilty to grand theft and money laundering charges and served a prison sentence.

But there is a clear difference between questioning a governor's choices for political associates and suggesting he sold judgeships or declaring he swindled someone when there is no evidence to support it. Scott says the ad "speaks for itself,'' and he's right. It speaks very loudly about Scott's willingness to do anything to win, regardless of the facts.