Seems, the beleagured FL 16th US Congressional District needs some help!! Between Mark Foley and Tim Mahoney, that seat is more of a burlesque show than a good representative of the folks in the district. And, I am disappointed. I had hopes for Mahoney.
The 16th District covers most of Charlotte County, Glades County, Highlands County, most of Martin County, Okeechobee County, and most of St Lucie County. In Charlotte County, Punta Gorda is in it; in Hendry County, La Belle; Martin County, part of Indiantown and Port Salerno Hobe Sound; Palm Beach County, most of Royal Palm Beach West Jupiter; St Lucie County, Port St Lucie and part of West St Lucie; and in Palm Beach County, most of Wellington Village. Surely all those citizens are fed up with the sexual trysts of their representatives.
It is alleged that Representative Tim Mahoney, moderate Democrat, who has missed 41% of the votes in Congress, married, with one child, paid a former campaign staffer/mistress $121,000 to keep her quiet about their illicit affair and then called for a House Ethics Committee investigation into his own conduct. (I knew that committee would be useful!) According to ABC News' website, Mahoney agreed to pay Patricia Allen to resign amicably from her position with his staff and tried to get her a job at an advertising firm. ABC got all the scoop through recorded telephone calls between Mahoney and Allen.
All that, after Mahoney ran his 2006 campaign on a promise to return morals to Washington! Mahoney won the 16th Distict seat after Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Foley resigned when it was revealed he sent lurid Internet messages to male teenage pages who had worked on Capitol Hill. BTW-Foley was recently cleared of criminal wrongdoing by state and federal authorities because the authorities said they couldn't prove it was Foley. Makes me wonder if they asked the teens!
Mahoney, the "Man in the Middle," may just be unseated this go around though. The new challenger, Tom Rooney, moderate Republican, former Army officer and attorney, whose family owns the Pittsburgh Steelers, has a well funded campaign and friends at least at the Florida Governor's mansion. He is disliked by some Republicans because he is a "liberal" and equally disliked by Democrats for being of the upper financial echelon. To me, so long as he promises to and then actually goes to Washington to vote and do his job, and knows better than to do the dirty deeds over recorded telephone line or in emails, he is better than the past two choices.
Politics are bad enough as it is, the last thing the American public needs is more congressmen hanging their personals in the wind to airdry. John Edwards was the worse disappointment of my political awareness. Guys, keep the rascals wrapped and do your job. That's all I expect.
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This is a new local blog for Florida's first Congressional district and watching the actions of Jeff Miller, the Republican representative who misserves us in Washington. If you are interested in posting at The Jeff Miller Chronicle, drop me a line at quinnelk@hotmail.com with some idea of your Democratic and/or progressive credentials and I'll add you as a blogger.
A blog from Florida Progressive Coalition, LLC.