Integrity Florida was created in 2012 to serve as a nonpartisan research institute and government watchdog whose mission was to promote integrity in government and expose public corruption in the Sunshine State. It was led by two men, executive director Dan Krassner and research director Ben Wilcox.
But while Wilcox is still on board, Krassner left the group last month to become the political director of Represent.US, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit which calls itself a “fiercely” non-partisan movement to pass tough anti-corruption laws in cities and states across America, and end the legalized corruption that has come to define modern politics.
Aided by former FEC Chairman Trevor Potter, notorious former GOP lobbyist Jack Abramhoff, and Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig, Represent.U.S created the American Anti-Corruption Act back in 2013, described by Lessig as perhaps the most ambitious reform proposal to address the “corruption” in Washington in a hundred years.
Meanwhile, Wilcox will keep on keeping on. The former executive director of Common Cause Florida for a decade, Wilcox has been with Integrity Florida since its creation, and he says that the group will continue to issue out hard-hitting reports pointing out corruption in the Sunshine State.
A report, to be published in conjunction with the LeRoy Collins Institute that looks at the state of campaign finance in Florida, should be out in the next couple of months.
