As first reported here, it did not take long for the first attack mailer to surface in the special election for House District 2.
An Electioneering Communications Organization (ECO) – The Committee for a Better Florida – targeted former Gulf Breeze Mayor Ed Gray and former Pensacola City Councilman Jack Nobles for being “Two Career Politicians” and part of the “Same Old Story.” The Committee for a Better Florida is funded primarily by another ECO, the Freedom First Committee.
(You can view the mailer here.)
Gray is pushing back against the claims made in the mailer. In an interview with Eric Giunta of Sunshine State News, Gray goes point-by-point over the charges leveled against him.
For example, the first criticism leveled in the mailer calls attention to $345 million of tax-free loans by Capital Trust to the Seminole Indians in Tampa and Hollywood “to help [them] build casinos in Florida.” The IRS investigated in 2005, issuing an initial ruling that the bonds violated federal law, which, the IRS alleged, allows tribes to use tax-free bonds only for “essential government services,” not hotels or casinos.
Gray at the time told the Associated Press that “[i]n Florida, it’s a long-established governmental purpose to issue bonds for economic development activity, including resorts, because of tourism being key to our state.” And he continues to insist that the loans to the hotels did not amount to government financing of casinos.
“We helped them finance the construction of their hotel and convention facilities, which obviously house some gaming activities – that’s no secret – but we did not finance any of the gaming operations,” Gray told SSN. “We financed the facilities, which are used for that purpose [i.e.,casinos], and are a good tourist draw for those communities.”
Gray goes on to address the other two main thrusts of the mailer. His explanation is worth a read.
Unfortunately, most of the voters who received the attack mailer won’t hear Gray’s side of the story.
After all, if you are ‘xplainin’, you ain’t campaignin’!
