lucius-gantt_web.jpgIf you are a beast banker, an insurance scammer or a predatory mortgage lender looking for a gangster’s paradise, Florida wants you!

Florida Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Alex Sink is attempting to make political history by being elected in 2010 as the Sunshine State’s first female governor.  I would love to see a woman, or a man, elected governor who will put the citizens and the voters first, not one who will put the winning gubernatorial candidate first.  However, I’m seriously concerned about the political performance of the CFO. There are too many home foreclosures, business failures and Bernie Madoff types in Florida.

The CFO is a member of the Democratic Party and President Barack Obama is too, but all Democrats are not created equally.

You can’t judge a book by its cover, and you can’t judge a politician by his or her political party membership.  There are
Democratic foxes and there are Republican wolves.  A fox and a wolf are both canines, and any time black people vote for a candidate based on party affiliation and not on what the candidate will do for the citizenry, African Americans usually end up in the dog house!

I know you don’t like for me to write like this because our folk love them some Democrats.  I only love the Democrats who love me.  I only love Democrats who love to support black citizens and black communities.

When the current CFO took office not too long ago, Florida was already a safe haven for greedy bankers, predatory lenders and insurance crooks.  Has that situation changed? Yes! The situation has gotten worse.

If you’re a financial crook who does not want to be investigated, does not want your license suspended and does not want to be charged, convicted and jailed for financial misconduct and financial crimes, do you think it would help you to contribute to a candidate who can investigate your thievery?

I don’t think CFOs seeking election should take contributions from the companies that they regulate. But that’s another column.

This column is about the main campaign issue, so far, for the CFO trying to be governor. The CFO’s main issue, it seems, is saving taxpayer dollars.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? But this writer doesn’t think finding a cheaper way to rubber stamp whatever financial wrongdoers say is better for the masses. I don’t think the taxpayers want to save money by eliminating training and hiring friends and campaign supporters in critical financial office positions.

I don’t think taxpayers want to save money by reducing the number of complaints that are investigated. And I don’t think taxpayers want to save tax dollars by totally ignoring citizen complaints about financial law breaking and misconduct by companies doing business in Florida just to try to get votes for a governor’s race.

Politics is funny. Every politician talks about “transparency,” but they only want the people to see what’s going on after politicians are caught doing things like misusing travel on state aircraft.

I don’t want to call out every state agency head, but there are agencies that investigate crimes against consumers.

There are agencies that investigate cyber and computer crimes. There are agencies that investigate ethics complaints.

Now you tell me, have you or anybody you know who complained about bank, insurance or mortgage company misconduct had their complaint thoroughly investigated by the State Office of Financial Services without the complainant having a video or audio recording of the crime?

Be careful, voters.  Before you go to the polls next year and blindly cast your votes for people who belong to the same political party as President Obama, look at the candidate’s record in serving black citizens, See if black complaints about misconduct and crimes are investigated or ignored.

If you vote with your eyes and ears closed without knowing the facts, you could easily vote for political enemies of the black community acting as our supporter, posing as our benefactor and pretending to be our protector.

All candidates, regardless of political party, race or gender, should have to earn black votes by black people with respect, equal rights and justice!

Lucius Gantt is a political consultant based in Tallahassee. He is also the founder of All World Consultants and author of the book, Beast Too: Dead Man Writing. Contact him at www.allworldconsultants.net or call 850-222-3475. You can also find him on Facebook.

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