As he prepares to become speaker of the Florida House in November, Rep. Richard Corcoran (R-Land O' Lakes) has made reforming the state's increasingly money-driven legislative process a top priority. At the same time, however, he's spending massive amounts of cash in his role as chief fundraiser for the House's Republican Campaign Committee.
Financial reports show the committee has reimbursed a Corcoran staffer $800,000 over the past 15 months for purchases ranging from luxury hotel stays to charter flights and wine tastings. The scope of the expenses and the way they were incurred is raising concern among some government watchdogs.
"Putting a card in the hands of a staffer that can rack up $800,000 in credit doesn't seem at least like a lot of transparency," said Brad Ashwell of the Florida Alliance for Consumer Protection.
The spending has helped the committee raise exponentially more cash from large corporations and influential lobbyists. Incoming speakers are expected to assiduously court such donations, but the arrangement could be problematic for Corcoran, who has pledged to root out cronyism in Tallahassee.
"We must build an absolute firewall between our personal lives and the influence of the special interests. We must remove temptation," Corcoran said during a speech following his designation as speaker in September.
Still, while the way Corcoran has been overseeing the campaign committee's fundraising doesn't sit well with Ashwell, he says the speaker-to-be shouldn't be faulted for operating within a campaign finance system that allows limitless contributions and expenditures.
"I think it's good that Representative Corcoran is making these grand [reform] pronouncements," Ashwell said. "I think it's good that he's striving, even if he's limited in what he can do, even if he has to play by the rules of the game and even if he is critiqued for being hypocritical, I think it is good that he's still striving to make the system better."