Another legislative journey Redux

A few weeks back I reported on the exciting South African trip taken by Florida State Senator Mandy Dawson, as part of a legislative trip to drum up business for Florida ports.
Dawson, who sits on the Senate's Ethics & Elections Committee, wrote letters to nine lobbyists and the treasurer of a statewide political action committee, asking them to send her $2500 to help defray the cost of the trip, which she called a "once in a lifetime opportunity."

Dawson now says that "This was not a joy and pleasure trip." But it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

A cynical observer, and I am one, would note that Mandy could have taken this trip any time she wanted and spent her own damned money on it, too. The only reason this was such a rare opportunity was because only as a 6-year incumbent of the state Senate did she have the power and connections to extort money from others to pay for the trip.

The trip cost $2500 a person. Mandy asked each of her ten lobbyist friends to send her $2500. What, exactly, was she expecting? To take four of her closest friends? It is a bit of a concern that she won't reveal the identity of her traveling companion (though a bit of professional research could turn it up rather quickly, I imagine). (I'd like to point out here that this trip cost only $2500. I recently reported on a trip by Congressman Ander Crenshaw to South Korea that cost over $24,000. So Mandy may have been breaking ethics rules, but at least she was doing it on the cheap.)

Clearly the good senator knew she was doing something wrong. Her own aide expressed concern that using Senate letterhead for the request might be a bad idea, and Mandy said in the letter that, "due to ethics rules" (a misuse of the phrase "due to," but I'll let it pass), the checks should be made out to the legislative Black Caucus and not to her. She knew she was skating on thin ice, but went ahead anyway.

I have a suggestion for Senate President Tom Lee. Get Mandy Dawson off the Ethics Committee, out of the Senate, and bar her from running for office again for ten years. Then revoke the lobbying licenses of Larry Williams and Ron Book and censure Alan Mendelsohn. Make an example, and it's less likely to happen again.

The St. Pete Times has more.