Miami Herald: Code of silence is breaking on Tallahassee’s sex secrets
TALLAHASSEE. For decades, sex has been a tool and a toy for the politically powerful in the male-dominated world of politics in Florida’s capital. Now it’s a weapon.
Allegations of sexual assault, sexual harassment and infidelity among the state’s legislators flew like shrapnel from a bomb blast in recent weeks, destroying much of the trust left in the Republican-controlled Legislature and replacing it with suspicion and finger pointing.
The latest target, Senate Appropriations Chair Jack Latvala, was accused by six unnamed women Friday of inappropriate touching and verbal harassment. Shortly after Politico Florida first reported the allegations, Senate President Joe Negron called them “atrocious and horrendous” and ordered an investigation. Latvala, a Clearwater Republican and candidate for governor, denied the allegations, said he welcomed the probe, and vowed a fight to “clear my name.”
The claims followed the abrupt resignation of one of Latvala’s allies, incoming Senate Democratic Leader Jeff Clemens of Atlantis on Oct. 26 — after he admitted to an affair with a lobbyist — and the revelation that a state senator had discovered a surveillance camera placed by a private investigator in a condominium where several legislators stay during the annual session.
“It’s almost like a dark state going on in Tallahassee,” said Rep. Carlos Trujillo, a Miami Republican and critic of the “culture of Tallahassee that compromises the process” because “priorities are shaped not on policy, but on relationships.”
Complicating the quest for justice, said Jose Felix Diaz, a Miami lawyer and recently retired state legislator, are those questions about political motives. “All these stories, and all these allegations, are they being instigated by other legislators with a singular purpose? Is it being strategic, or is it being done for the purpose of truly bringing justice to the system?”
The dangerous mix of exploiting rumors of sex between consenting adults, and serious accusations about victimizing women, has the potential to turn Florida’s next legislative session into an emotional powder keg.
“Session is starting now and our state has been ravaged by a hurricane that caused destruction and taught lessons and now you have this black hole consuming everything,” Diaz said. “Whether it’s politically motivated or not, it has a voracious appetite.”
The Herald/Times interviewed more than two dozen legislators and lobbyists who shared stories of sexual dalliances and affairs but would not make them public. They described a Tallahassee culture that creates conditions ripe for sexual exploitation:
▪ It’s a college town that draws ambitious young people eager to make names for themselves.
▪ Politicians have access to carefully managed political committees used to finance travel, meals and alcohol.
▪ Political expenses are rarely scrutinized or challenged.
▪ Lobbying firms rely on a business model based on relationships and some do not discourage intimacy in the quest for access to power.
“People do things in Tallahassee that they would never do at the Rotary Club back home, with their use of adult beverages and their personal conduct,” said former Senate President Don Gaetz of Niceville, who left office in 2016.
The exploitation can go both ways. Legislators, buoyed by power and away from home, might take advantage of subordinates — interns and aides — or lobbyists, who want attention and access. Powerful lobbyists, who can steer money to political campaigns, might take advantage of younger lawmakers eager to raise funds and increase their clout.
“They justify it by saying, ‘Guys are human beings,’ and ‘Tallahassee is for the mistresses, and home is for the wives,’” Trujillo said. “It’s like an honor code. There’s no honor there.”
In addition to the Latvala investigation, Negron was forced to defend the Senate’s sexual harassment policies, claiming it has “zero tolerance” for using legislative power to seek favors.
Sen. Anitere Flores, a Miami Republican and veteran lawmaker, said she welcomes the attention on sexual harassment.
“There’s constant commentary that men say to women, and maybe a lot of time it’s innocent,” she said. “‘Oh, wow, it looks like you’ve been working out. Oh, that dress looks really great on you.’”
A typical offhand remark often includes the suggestion that a woman might be doing well in politics because she is somehow inappropriately involved with a man, she said. “’This person is being successful because … insert accusation here. It happens all the time.”
The sense that people can get away with this kind of behavior in Tallahassee is widespread. One of the tools of the trade is the use of attractive young men and women who are hired by lobbyists to show up in the Capitol and nearby bars in the closing weeks of legislative sessions, flirt with lawmakers, and maybe even offer sexual favors.
They’re called “closers,” a reference to the end of the session when lobbyists need amendments tucked into bills and budgets — and will go to great lengths to get the legislative votes to pass them.
J.M. ‘Mac’ Stipanovich, a capital fixture for more than three decades as a staffer, political strategist and lobbyist, said that Tallahassee traditionally operated with a “code of silence” that protected questionable after-hours behavior.
“You have attractive and ambitious young women and powerful and perhaps predatory men,” he said. “And they are at a great distance from the usual filters that modulate that dynamic.” But with the revelation that private investigators were trailing legislators looking for photographic evidence of dalliances, Stipanovich warned: “that may be what’s ending.”
Ron Book, the powerful lobbyist whose daughter is now a state senator, said he is often angered by the behavior of some of the people in the Capitol and does not approve of the use of “closers.”
“It cheapens the process, and it cheapens them,” he said. “If you’re making people available for sexual activity, frankly, it borders on criminality. I respect the place I go to work every day.”
Many sex offenders in the Florida senate and house! Shame on these hypocrites
Ron Book is lying through his teeth. How can one of the most vicious lobbyist in T-town not be involved in this stuff when a lot of his stuff gets put through? I hope this entire house of cards comes falling down…..not that it will help our situation any, but it’ll still be fun to watch.
It’s the only article post that I actually agree with what Ron Book said. If you have no respect or professionalism at the place you work at or work for, then there is no self respect unto yourself or anything else you claim to have respect for. It does cheapen you as Ron Book stated. I’ve been in situations like that in my past jobs as an executive and administrator where you deal with attractive people and temptation even. Whether they are colleagues or clients. I had once a very attractive client vandalise my car, because I professionally and eloquently declined her flirting sexual advances towards me. In no way shape or form did I ever even give her any signals to such behavior. When I’m at work I’m in work mode – Period! But I guess at this point, vandalising my car was better than having been falsely accused of sexual harassment out of the feeling of rejection one must of feel. This was of course in the private sector. But to know that this is going on in the public sector and even more so in a state capitol where the lives of millions of people depend on your professional leadership and service is very disturbing and appalling. You can file this article right under the very definition of corruption.
If we can just get our right back to be anonymous when we comment on an article and not be tracked by FDLE because of our “internet identifies” we can help open a sh*t storm against these hypocritical politicians.
Having the right to remain anonymous is protected by the First Amendment and I am waiting with bated breath for the judge to rule on the Summary Judgment motions that was heard last week.
Man could we draw attention to the politicians who have declared war on RC’s with this kind of information…..and it comes out weekly in the news. Glad to see this is going on the the political arena and not just Hollywood!
i’ve been anonymous on the web for 15 years. haven’t found me yet. fuck ’em.
Sex, Florida and Ron Book. Enough Said….
What does Ron Book mean…”borders on criminality”? It is criminal!
The real perverts and criminals are running the show so of course they’re going to divert attention from themselves by using scapegoats like sex offenders and the stupid useless ( yet easy to exploit and sensationalize ) sex offender registry!
The scortched earth of FL was created
by the guilty minded “leaders” in Tallahassee….shall we share a spot on the registry for them…..
If there is a threat to ‘them’ by the registry, the registry just might go away, after all, the registry is their way to refocus sinful activities from themselves to others and if that is no longer effective it will go away.
Ha! Those hypocrites are going to be on the registry for life. The same registry they fought for and lied for is now going to be their just deserts.
What goes around comes around. Eventually there is justice.
Like the closest gay conservative Politician who votes publicly against gay rights legislation it seems we have the same scenario happening with horny old Florida legislatures – voting so harshly against that which they do themselves with impunity. Out ’em all!!
You know that politics are truly twisted when friends of Judge Roy Moore try to use the “Mary and Joseph” defense to justify his behavior. Hey Roy. Jesus called and said you are a perv and you should stop claiming divine endorsement in your run for Senate. 😉
First of all, I believe in “innocent until proven guilty”. Just before election day to come out with a charge like this I must consider very questionable. I wonder if some cash wasn’t put on the table to bring up this charge. How convenient that this ‘victim’ should wait 32 years…when proof of innocence is no longer available…and in the atmosphere of today, where one is guilty until proven innocent. His friends who propose a “Mary and Joseph” defense are no friends at all. That shows that they do not trust Judge Moore and that they are buying the potential lies with no proof. As far as I am concerned he needs to call these allegations lies and move on. As RSO’s we should know what it is like to be held accountable for events that we were never involved with and never care to be. Distance restrictions for potential actions we’ve never considered for example. It’s a crazy, mixed up world.
Finally the source of these overly harsh laws: “doth protest too much!” Hypocrites who write laws so harsh so as don’t to draw attention to their own behavior.
It’s the law of thermodynamics…pass the heat! Politicians get the heat off of themselves by placing it on some other part of the population, i.e. RSO’s.