Charles Perniciaro
Candidate for Florida Senate, District 8
Press Conference Statement, July 21, 2010
This campaign has always been about curing a growing disconnect between our leaders and the people they’re supposed to represent. We started just two months ago in response to a critically ill political system that can’t wait any longer.
The Republican base has come to feel that their own leaders aren’t very different from the self-serving, grabby establishment in Washington. There’s a strong feeling out there that the Tallahassee game has been fixed, so lobbyists and Political Action Committees (PACs) always win.
When you have a 70 billion dollar pie to be divided up amongst the most influential political insiders, the concept of right and wrong in Tallahassee has become irrelevant. Every dollar they can find is spent, then they get the federal government to borrow more for them. Secret deals, ethics violations, and hidden spending are a growing infection.
But the Republican Party still has a healthy core, and we have a majority of Republicans, no longer silent, who are very aware that some of our leaders have forgotten who we are. In a way, it’s harder to accept in your own party.
We’re supposed to be the good guys. Our values say you don’t indulge yourself and your friends in Tallahassee, and then come back here at election time to tell us you’re a conservative who is looking out for us.
The Republicans who work hard, pay their taxes, and take care of their families want their party to be as good as they are.
Maybe we can’t solve all the problems by sending one man to the capital. But we can elect representatives who actually live by what we believe in.
Today, I’m doing my part by making a sharp break with the way political insiders do things. I have decided to decline contributions from PACs of any kind.
This is a critical step to neutralize the influence of PAC money, which is at the heart of almost everything that bothers us about politics.
You see, this campaign isn’t about what I can get. I haven’t been feeding at the trough. This campaign is about what I can do for the people like you, who fill that trough. Our campaign treasurer has returned the PAC checks that we have received, and we won’t accept any more going forward.
As you can imagine, our plan has never depended on having as much money as Mr. Thrasher will. It depends on having enough to be heard. That’s all we need.
Our campaign financial reports will be turned in this week and will show over $340,000 in funding, with more coming in every day. The television and radio time for our campaign is bought and paid for. I am not.
Politics these days seem to be all about the money, and that’s where you’ll find the best evidence of the differences between Mr. Thrasher and myself.
I didn’t start tapping PACs and state vendors as soon as last year’s election was over. Did you know that ninety percent of Mr. Thrasher’s contributions came from outside our senate district? And almost all of them are from PACs and corporations. Ninety percent. And, is it telling that his campaign treasurer is in Tallahassee?
My opponent has nearly unlimited access to PAC money for his own campaign, and for the murky 527 organizations that he uses to attack me. I won’t be diverting any money into 527s so that I can hide while my political guard attacks. In fact, we won’t have any ads at all devoted only to attacking our opponent, as last week’s, and yesterday’s, supposedly anonymous mailer did to me.
Our advertising will go out with our campaign disclaimer and will present the contrasts between Mr. Thrasher and me. The facts about his discipline for ethics violations, and his centralized control, big government legislation, such as Senate Bill 6, will serve to illustrate the differences between us.
Mr. Thrasher and his associates have tried hard to scare people about my party registration change. We need to talk about that, because this primary is now a referendum on which candidate is the better Republican.
I’m a Republican because I’m a fiscal conservative. I believe in limited government, and I’m profoundly concerned about our enormous national debt.
Until recently my registration said Democrat, but I’ve really been a Republican for a very long time. If you search the state contribution records, you’ll find 15 years of my contributions to Republicans and committees that support tort reform. No Democrats. That scare tactic is 5 percent technicality and 95 percent hot air.
It is Mr. Thrasher who gives to Democrats, including Alex Sink in this current election cycle. He lobbied against the Taxpayer Protection Amendment. He signed a contract promising to tell us everything Jim Greer did was legitimate.
So I welcome a close examination of our Republican credentials.
The contrast between us is a reflection of what’s going on in the party. And, faced with the dissatisfaction of their members, some party leaders do exactly the wrong thing. They instinctively circle the wagons to hide wrongdoing and defend those in charge, when they should be leading the party to live up to its own values.
It’s funny, at some of the Republican meetings I go to, a lot of the people who get to stand at the front of the room and talk will defend the status quo at any cost. Most of us sitting in the rest of the room know the party can’t be healthy unless we live by our principles.
There are good people anywhere you look in the Republican Party, and I have a lot of faith that those who believe we’re supposed to stand for something good will attract many of those who now only focus on protecting what they have.
I’m very grateful for the support I have received, and I feel a strong responsibility to be what we need now: someone who isn’t running to become part of the problem. It’s so important to stick to our values and reject any appearance of influence. And that is why I have decided to decline PAC money for our campaign.
Thank you for being here. May God bless all of you.
http://www.charlesperniciaro.com/
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Thu, Jul 22, 2010
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