Democratic Party bungling- Florida Style

How did the Florida Democratic Party get in this mess? There appears to be a history of Democratic Party bungling when it comes to their finances in this state.

Scott Maddox plans on running for governor next year? I'm a registered Democrat and he is already stricken off my list.

Outside the Beltway trackback at- http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/11042/trackback/

The entire story can be found at- http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/gen/ap/FL_Democratic_Party_Finances.html

Florida Democratic Party faces IRS lien; $900,000 shortage
By BRENT KALLESTAD
Associated Press Writer

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Broke and without enough money in the bank to pay its bills after the end of the month, the Florida Democratic Party has now been slapped with a lien by the Internal Revenue Service for failing to pay payroll and Social Security taxes in 2003.

Meanwhile, the state party's budget and finance committee voted Tuesday to ask for a new audit to account for more than $900,000 it believes somehow disappeared from the books during the 2003-2004 calendar years when the party was led by Scott Maddox, who is now seeking its nomination for governor.

Maddox said Tuesday that he would accept responsibility for any errors made by either his staff or the auditing firm at the time has was chairman, said his campaign strategist, David Beattie of Fernandina Beach.

However, Maddox was not aware of the problems until Tuesday, and thought the unaccounted $900,000 must be a bookkeeping matter rather than actual missing funds, Beattie said.
Karen Thurman, who became party chairwoman just last month, did not immediately return phone messages asking for comment.

"We're going to be on top of this a lot more than we were previously, not only in Scott's term of office, but Bob Poe's term in office," state party vice-chair Diane Glasser of Fort Lauderdale said Tuesday. "We weren't getting all the information we should have been getting." Maddox replaced Poe.

While the party owes roughly $200,000 in delinquent payroll and Social Security taxes, the lien was against the remaining $98,000 in their account on Friday, longtime Leon County committeeman Jon Ausman said. Ausman said it cost about $250,000 a month to pay salaries and overhead for the party operation in Tallahassee and that it had been spending more so far this year than it has raised.

The Democratic Party in Florida has traditionally gone through financial woes, selling its headquarters building in Florida a few years ago to get out of debt.

Glasser said she was confident the party would be able to meet its commitments.

"We've had these problems before," Glasser said. "I think that everything will resolve itself. Karen has already got commitments for money that is going to be coming into the party."