RPOF Elects John Thrasher

By: Aaron Deslatte Orlando Sentinel
After weeks of angst over lavish spending and secret deals, Florida Republicans turned to a GOP stalwart Saturday to help lift the cloud of financial scandal hanging over the party.

State Sen. John Thrasher, a 66-year-old former House speaker from Clay County who helped build the party to prominence in the 1990s, was tapped to serve the remaining 11 months of ousted Chairman Jim Greer's term — and right a party rocked by subpar fundraising, intra-party bickering and allegations of financial mismanagement.

Thrasher captured 135 votes out of the 222 eligible on the Republican Party of Florida's executive board, compared with 85 votes cast for his toughest challenger, Broward National Committeewoman Sharon Day, and two votes for Osceola committeeman Mark Cross.

After the vote at a special meeting at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Thrasher and GOP leaders pledged to launch a "forensic audit" immediately to unearth whether any illegal or improper spending and enrichment occurred within the state party.

"I hope that it's as clean as a whistle, but we're going to find out," Thrasher told the GOP executive board after his election.

Most of those questions have swirled around Greer, who appeared at the Rosen Centre to preside over the election but refused to answer any questions.

Greer was forced to resign in January amid complaints about party finances and rumors of his high-flying spending.

But the situation exploded after the Orlando Sentinel reported two weeks ago that Greer had inked a secret fundraising contract with his 30-year-old executive director, Delmar Johnson, that boosted Johnson's total pay last year to at least $408,000. Legislative leaders forced Johnson to resign after learning of the deal – which included a confidentiality clause to keep information from the party's own finance committee and major donors.

The news prompted Democrats and even some GOP leaders to call for outside legal reviews and possibly criminal probes into the financial dealings.

"Everything will be examined, whether that's credit cards, airplanes, questions about a contract," said Attorney General Bill McCollum, a GOP candidate for governor. "If there is any illegal behavior they discover, and I don't know if there will be, I stand ready to assist … in recommending that to the appropriate law enforcement agencies in our state."

Thrasher and party brass hoped to leave Saturday's election with a new sense of unity heading into what appears to be a promising election year for Republicans nationwide.

But the GOP clearly still has some baggage to handle first.

At its quarterly business meeting following Thrasher's election, Lee County GOP Chairman Gary Lee accused party general counsel Jason Gonzalez of telling him there was a secret severance agreement to keep paying Greer — then denying it in public last week.

"Gary, I just can't even believe you're suggesting that," Gonzalez said to Lee. "You asked me if there was an agreement, and I told you no agreement was reached."

Thrasher then said even if there were one, he wouldn't enforce it.

"The fact is Jim Greer is gone, and there's no commitment to provide him with anything further," Thrasher said. "If there were any agreements to that effect, I would not enforce them."

A few on the RPOF board were also irate that House Speaker-designate Dean Cannon and Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos had yanked close to $1 million from party coffers in the last month after Greer's resignation. The RPOF finished the month of January with $670,000 in cash on hand — a staggeringly low amount considering the party had $9.8 million in the bank heading into the 2006 election year.

When Treasurer Joel Pate was asked who approved the lawmakers' transfers, he said "As far as I know, it was Delmar Johnson."

"That was their money, and they have the authority to use it," Pate said.

Thrasher again jumped in to say he would get briefed on that soon and hoped the two powerful lawmakers could be convinced to give back the money, which they had raised for Republican campaigns and have deposited into a pair of political funds that they control.

"I'm hopeful our friends in the House and Senate will be willing to reconsider that," Thrasher said.

Thrasher will also have to rebuild bridges within the party at the grassroots level.

In the days leading up to the vote, Day had called Thrasher a Tallahassee insider who had known of Greer's woes and tried to cover them up. She said Thrasher's fundraising prowess — he'd help collect $1 million for the party in the weeks leading up the vote — was too much to overcome, and her supporters "heard it constantly" as they reached out to other committee members.

"We're in a tough place financially," she said. "And they played that hand very well — that fear factor."

But, Day said, she worries that once the legislative session opens, Thrasher will have to put his role as a fundraiser on hold. Lawmakers are prohibited from raising money while they are in session.

She also begged off a chance to throw her full confidence behind Thrasher. Asked if she was optimistic about the party's future, Day said, "I'm absolutely optimistic about our values and beliefs."

Thrasher will also have a chore winning over the grassroots activists that supported Day. To many, his election simply confirms their suspicion that party elders anointed Thrasher and that their desire for new blood wasn't taken seriously.

Greer's tenure, coupled with the same frustration helping fuel the Tea Party movement, has made many rank-and-file activists wary of anyone with ties to the "establishment."

Matt Nye, a Brevard Republican Executive Committee member and a Tea Party organizer, said Thrasher will have to reach out to Day supporters to demonstrate he understands the frustration at the local level.

"There's going to be a ton of resentment out there, especially among the people who aren't here today," Nye said. "They're going to see this as just more of the same."

A common complaint among county activists is that the GOP leadership is too quick to compromise conservative principles in the name of pragmatism.

"It's great to be united," Nye said, "but first you need something to be united behind."

Orange County GOP Chairman Lew Oliver said Thrasher can build confidence quickly if he immediately contacts local party members and adopts a series of policies to promote transparency at RPOF headquarters.

Both strategies, he said, are needed to "correct the errors of the previous administration."

In talking with Thrasher and the other chairman candidates, Oliver asked for a commitment that they would return his calls — something he said Greer didn't do.

"People here aren't different than anywhere else," Oliver said. "They want some attention. They want to feel like they have access to their chairman."

Bob Reid, a Day supporter from Putnam County, said despite his disappointment, he's ready to get behind Thrasher.

"As far as I'm concerned, once we leave here today, he's got the grassroots' support," Reid said. "We move on united."