The Florida Democratic Party's executive committee on Sunday changed its rules to allow Chairwoman Karen Thurman to sign checks up to $25,000 without a second signature. The previous threshold was $5,000 — a limit party officials was set in the 1980s and caused delays and inefficiencies.
"We've seen the cost of campaigns grow significantly, so this is an effort to modernize it,'' said party spokesman Eric Jotkoff. "We need to modernize our financial controls to be competitive in this state."
But the Tallahassee Democrat says in an editorial today that the party is asking for trouble and recalls the bad bookkeeping under former Chairman Scott Maddox.
The Democratic party's looser rules go into effect just as the Republican Party of Florida is tightening controls on Chairman Jim Greer by requiring former House Speaker Allan Bense to co-sign checks from its "Victory 2010" account. More on that here.
UPDATE: Party spokeswoman Katie Gordon says: Speaker Bense was asked to serve as the Finance Chairman of Florida Victory 2010 due to his time-tested ability to fundraise on behalf of Republican candidates. The insinuation that this appointment was in any way an effort to reassure donors about spending by Chairman Greer is flat out wrong. Chairman Greer asked Speaker Bense to serve in this capacity. The appointment was made by Chairman Greer in cooperation with the McCollum Campaign and is in no way an effort by the Republican Party of Florida to tighten controls. It is what we do every election year. I don't know who you have been speaking to, or what their agenda is, but the decision to appoint Speaker Bense was made by Chairman Greer and the McCollum Campaign — not by the naysayers who would rather dwell on Party infighting rather than actually working to get Republicans elected. Every RPOF check has a co-signer. It makes logical sense that Speaker Bense would be one of the people responsible for co-signing checks for Victory 2010, as that is the finance effort he is responsible for overseeing. Just as any of the other directors are responsible for authorizing expenditures for their respective departments. All expenses incurred by the RPOF — those associated with Victory 2010 or not — are authorized by Chairman Greer. The fact at over 8,000 donors contributed more than $4 million to the RPOF last cycle is testament to our donors confidence in Chairman Greer's leadership. Things are running smoothly at the RPOF. There are always going to be a couple of naysayers with their own motives who want to stir up this speculation, when the reality is that the RPOF is in a great financial position headed into 2010 and Victory 2010 is something Republicans across the state are looking forward to working on.
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