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DISREGARD the St. Pete Times url. That was an old racetrack story.

The Miami Herald always prints negative GOP material and their article is up to date.

Posted on Fri, Oct. 14, 2005

HERALD WATCHDOG | REPUBLICAN PARTY

State GOP to repay racetrack for travel

The state Republican Party said it will reimburse the owner of Gulfstream Park nearly $50,000 that the company paid to fly four lawmakers to Toronto.

BY GARY FINEOUT

The Republican Party of Florida did a turnabout Thursday and said the party will fork over nearly $50,000 to the owner of Gulfstream Park to reimburse the company for money it spent to fly four powerful state lawmakers to Toronto this summer.

The four legislators spent two days in July in Canada, including eating at a restaurant that overlooks Niagara Falls, before they were flown back to Florida on a private jet paid for by Magna Entertainment Corp., which owns the Broward County racetrack and others around the country.

The legislators said the trip was organized as part of an effort to raise money for the state GOP, and Magna reported an in-kind donation to the party for the amount of the expenses. But state Senate President Tom Lee said no one in the party ever authorized the visit, and on Thursday, a party spokeswoman said that the Republican Party should not have reported the trip as a donation from Magna to the party.

OVERSEE PARIMUTUELS

The Republican Party plans to write a check for $48,180 to Magna to cover the cost of the private plane, lodging and meals that went to state Sens. Jim King, Michael Bennett and Dennis Jones and state Rep. Frank Farkas. While none of the legislators are from South Florida, both Jones, a St. Petersburg Republican, and King, a Jacksonville Republican, sit on the committee that regulates parimutuel gambling in the state.

''It's unfortunate these members put the party in this situation,'' said state GOP spokeswoman Camille Anderson.

But even if the party picks up the cost of the trip, the four legislators may still be open to ethics charges that they accepted illegal gifts, because the party did not arrange the trip or select the lawmakers who went.

King continued to defend the trip on Thursday, saying he viewed it as an effort to try to woo a major company to Florida, since a company related to Magna Entertainment is a $20 billion conglomerate that manufactures auto parts and assembles cars.

''We came back thinking it was a worthwhile trip,'' King said. ``I am sorry there was any supposed taint the party felt they had. I applaud their actions, because by doing so they have validated it.''

But while the decision to reimburse Magna may end the party's involvement in the trip, Lee said Thursday that he will ask the Senate's top lawyer to investigate the ''circumstances and facts of the trip,'' including how it was organized and who paid for it. Lee, a Brandon Republican, said he would rather have the Senate conduct its own investigation instead of waiting for someone to file an ethics complaint to trigger an inquiry.

''I have no reason to believe that laws have been broken,'' Lee said. ``We're doing this because we don't think it's appropriate for a presiding officer to wait for some external action to happen when we know there are clouds hanging over the Senate. . . . The best thing we can do is be proactive.''

SENATE PRECEDENT

Lee's call for an internal investigation is the same action he took in the spring after The Herald reported that state Sen. Mandy Dawson, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat, had solicited money from lobbyists to pay for her January trip to South Africa. That inquiry concluded that Dawson violated state ethics laws. The senator was publicly reprimanded by the Senate and removed from the chamber's Ethics and Elections Committee.

King said he welcomed the inquiry.

''There is absolutely nothing we did wrong,'' said King, who has been a fixture in the Florida Legislature since 1986. ``There's no rule or law we broke. I've been raising money for the party for two decades. We went for a purpose. We were invited by the company to come to talk about their increased involvement in the Republican Party of Florida and to also look at their short-term and long-term prospects for Florida.''

King said that the Toronto trip netted a $10,000 contribution and a pledge of $50,000.

But it turns out the check that legislators collected was not from Magna Entertainment, but from Gulfstream. It wasn't deposited until this week because it had not been given to party officials until now, even though it was written on July 7.

TURNED IN REPORT

The payment for the lawmakers' trip came to light this week when the state Republican Party turned in its quarterly contribution reports. The report showed an ''in-kind'' donation of $48,180 from Magna, which owns 12 racetracks around the country, including Gulfstream in Hallandale Beach and Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course, home of the Preakness race. In-kind contributions are donations of goods and services rather than cash or checks and can include travel, food, polling, phone banks and other services useful to party operations.

There is nothing illegal or improper about such large contributions, as long as they are controlled by the party. But they cannot be made to individual legislators: State law prohibits giving lawmakers gifts valued at more than $100.

FV SAYS: Senator Jim King is destroying Florida's Republican Party. He's up for re-election next year. He's a real sleazy character. Fla AG Crist won't investigate this nor will the Florida Elections Commission or the Legislative Ethics body.