FOR MADDOX, IF IT AIN'T ONE THING, IT'S ANOTHER

The past couple of weeks have not been kind for former Florida Democratic Party chairman and current gubernatorial candidate Scott Maddox.

First came to light the party's having a lien placed on it by the Internal Revenue Service for failing to pay income and Social Security taxes which had been withheld from it's employees paychecks. Then comes concerns from some within the leadership over $900,000+ in funds which are reportedly unaccounted for, although most say there was likely no theft involved and that the funds will be found.

Now in today's St. Petersburg Times, political columnist Adam C. Smith notes that bookkeeping issues were an issue during Maddox's watch when he served as chairman of the Leon County Democratic Executive Committee.

In December, the Leon County DEC paid a $10,500 fine to the county elections office on December 16 --- more than the local party organization reportedly spent for the entire year --- for filing a required campaign report three weeks late last October. The state party comptroller, Debbie Griffin-Bruton, also was the Leon County Democratic Party treasurer. Maddox had brought her on after working under his watch as Finance Superintendent for the City of Tallahassee's Parks and Recreation Department.

A couple of other problems with this is 1), only weeks afterward Maddox signed a form certifying that the local party had neither raised or spent money during the period, apparantly not mentioning the fine, and 2) many members of the Leon County DEC were never made aware of the fine.

While the issue with the form may have been a simple oversight, it is a third degree felony to deliberately submit false information on a campaign report...a HUGE NO-NO that can get not only the chairman, but the county party into a LOT more trouble. We'll leave the issue of wheather it was deliberate to others.

That said, I will note here that a fine of such a large amount --- $10,500 --- for filing a report late does seem quite heavy. That type of penalty might be appropriate for a situation where the person or organization was chronically late or if it were proven that the delay was deliberate for some underhanded purpose, but the amount seems heavy-handed.

But there is definately NO EXCUSE not to inform the DEC members of the fine. The members of the Democratic Executive Committee represent the rank-and-file party membership in their respective precients, and many work quite hard to raise funds and support the candidates and issues in their local area. They are true partners in the effort, and to not admit an occurance of this nature shows a huge lack of respect and lack of trust in the membership which trusted Maddox to elect him to a leadership role.

Back to the IRS issue: The lien has been removed, and the FDP has placed a copy of the release form on it's Web site with a message from current chairperson Karen Thurman noting that the forensic review team is continuing it's work and that a preliminary report should be released mid-week.