Looks like Scientology is making a big push in Florida
FLORIDA POLITICIANS AND OFFICIALS LENDING UNDUE CREDIBILITY TO SCIENTOLOGY
From a recent St. Petersburg Times editorial: Some Tampa Bay area public figures who lately have sounded like supporters and defenders of the [Scientology] church - including Pinellas County Commissioner Susan Latvala and political consultant Mary Repper - should know of those hazards. So should Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, who accepted campaign support from Scientologists earlier this year and recently had dinner with actor Tom Cruise, a celebrity Scientologist, at Repper's house.
St. Petersburg Times. St. Petersburg, Fla.: Mar 22, 2001. pg. 14.A Abstract (Article Summary)
Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Thomas Penick, who has the unenviable task of refereeing sidewalk skirmishes between the Church of Scientology and anti-Scientology protesters in Clearwater, recently pointed to an arrangement that allows off-duty Clearwater cops to work for Scientology and noted, "They are coming very dangerously close to becoming a private security force for the Church of Scientology."
The situation seems bizarre to observers who know that since the church moved into Clearwater under a false identity in the 1970s, the relationship between Scientology and the Clearwater Police Department has been cool at best, outwardly hostile at worst. The police gathered intelligence on Scientology for years, amassing an enormous investigative file. The church struck back by writing attack pieces about the police, printing them in Scientology publications and throwing them on residents' lawns. The relationship worsened after the suspicious death of church member Lisa McPherson in a Scientology hotel and the arrival of the Lisa McPherson Trust, which is organized and operated out of downtown offices by Scientology critics. Copyright Times Publishing Co. Mar 22, 2001