FL-13: Buchanan Hit With Fraud Lawsuit

Roll Call (subscription required) is reporting that Vern Buchanan has been hit with a lawsuit alleging consumer fraud at the auto dealerships that he owns. In and of itself, this might not be huge news; this isn’t a criminal indictment, so when you’re in the same party as the Doolittles, Renzis, and Fossellas of the world, a little civil action isn’t even going to get you noticed, right? (The Sarasota Herald Tribune has a story here about the basics of the case.)

There are some eye-raising details to the case that Roll Call raises, though, suggesting that campaign finance violations in his 2006 run for Congress may be intertwined with the fraud allegations. FLA Politics has some excerpts:

Joseph Kezer, a former finance director at Buchanan’s Sarasota Ford dealership … Kezer also alleged in an interview with Roll Call that he observed campaign finance violations ahead of Buchanan’s narrow 2006 victory against bank executive Christine Jennings (D)…

Some of the Buchanan campaign’s record $8 million outlay in the 2006 campaign, according to Kezer, likely was laundered corporate cash funneled through higher-ups at Buchanan’s numerous dealerships.

Buchanan faces a rematch against 2006 opponent Christine Jennings, against whom he won by 369 votes against a backdrop of malfunctioning electronic voting machines… well, assuming he’s still a free man in November.

19 thoughts on “FL-13: Buchanan Hit With Fraud Lawsuit”

  1. great polls today and Obama is up in Missouri too.

    Rasmussen. 6/3. Likely voters. MoE 4% (5/6 results)

    McCain (R) 42 (47)

    Obama (D) 43 (41)

    From the Kos front page.

  2. Something big so that voters down here wake up and realize what scum these people are.  Governor Crist having an affair with Mark Foley maybe?  No wait, Crist is too old for Foley.

  3. “I’m sorry, Your Honor. I can’t serve on this case. I have my mind made up already — he’s GUILTY!!!”

  4. This is startlingly similar to a scandal about 15-20 years ago involving Republican Congressman Joe Dio Guardi and a series of car dealerships in Westchester County, NY.  In that case “the accountant in Congress” skimmed contributions through managers, executives, and their families of a car dealer chain in Westchester.  By the end of the day, Democrat Nita Lowey was elected to Congress, Dio Guardi has become a permanent fringe candidate in surrounding dcongressional districts, and the car dealerships were sold to another chain.

    The differences are that Buchanan is less knowledgable but more culpable.  If this shatters the local image of Buchanan (say honest or capable business man) than not only is Buchanann gone but the Republican party in the area is badly wounded.  

    1. Same here. This is great news and puts the pressure off of Virginia, which is another state that looked great early on, but has not given us the numbers I would like to see recently.  

      1. so true; speaking of “chain gang” charlie, don’t you just love his new faux “girlfriend”(can you say pandering to the right-wing to make him veep?)

Comments are closed.