Some congressional candidates can't claim credibility

A crowded field of candidates looking to succeed U.S. Rep. Val Demings in Florida’s 10th Congressional District -- a portion of whom she represented during her 24 years in Congress-- but authenticity is a problem for some of the contenders.

One month after pleading guilty to tax evasion in a scheme where she siphoned money from a charity and got caught, longtime U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown filed to run for Congress again.

Brown, 75, had been convicted before in 2017 of 18 counts and served more than two years of her five-year sentence in prison before her release due to the coronavirus pandemic and its potential harm on older incarcerated people. After Brown’s appeal, her conviction was vacated.

After accepting her guilty plea, Chief Judge Timothy J. Corrigan, who was nominated by President George W. Bush on May 22, 2002, sentenced Brown to the time that she had already served in the custody of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, specifically two years, eight months, and nine days. Brown was also ordered to pay $62,650.99 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

The former congresswoman's plea agreement reveals her fundamental dishonesty and even though Brown lives in Jacksonville, she can run for office in the Orlando area.

State Senator Randolph Bracy claimed that he is the front-runner in Florida’s 10th Congressional District, the most effective Democratic state legislator in Florida, and the only candidate with lawmaking experience but there are factual sources that indicate he is lying, although some may call it overly optimistic.

Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson, a Republican, proposed raising the minimum wage for Sunshine State employees to $15 but Bracy tried to take credit for that during a televised debate on WESH, calling it a "$15 an hour raise for all state employees" which it is clearly not.

“From school bus drivers to maintenance and cafeteria workers to voluntary prekindergarten staff, every employee in our education system will be making at least a $15 per hour wage,” said Simpson, a Republican representing Citrus, Hernando, and part of Pasco counties.

AFSCME Florida President and AFSCME International Vice President Vicki Hall said Simpson deserves credit for the wage hike, not Bracy.

“Senate President Simpson’s $15 per hour is a good place to start and across-the-board increases can help reward longevity to retain experienced, caring workers who have expertise in their professions and provide valuable services in our communities,” said Hall.

A simple look at the state Senate website shows that almost every piece of legislation that Bracy proposed in recent years has died in committee.

Bracy also said that he was the only Democrat who helped shape the gun control law adopted by the Republican legislature after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland but Jeff Boone quickly pointed out that Bracy voted against the firearms restrictions enacted in 2018.

As for being the front runner, Bracy lags behind Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson in poll numbers and trails far behind uber-youth Maxwell Frost's astronomical fundraising, even without the million dollars that cryptocurrency billionaire Samuel Bankman-Fried — known as SBF online — is pouring into the race.

The crypto fund manager seemingly believes Frost — who has raised more money than all other candidates combined in the Democratic primary for U.S. House District 10 — could be an ally in the fight against the Biden administration's effort to regulate currencies like Bitcoin.

"I'm a survivor of gun violence," claimed Frost at a debate hosted by WESH, but candidate Jeffrey Boone quickly pointed out that his youthful rival has never been shot or even near a shooting.

His lie exposed, Frost acknowledged during the debate that he was not a "gun violence victim" but insisted that he is still a "gun violence survivor."

Frost also tried taking credit for the 2018 Florida law that banned weapons sales to citizens younger than 21, imposed a three-day waiting period, and created a “red flag” law. Bracy voted against that legislation but he conclusively discounted the possibility that Frost wrote it.

After opening the door to negative campaigning with the first attack ad and drawing attention with his multi-million dollar fundraising haul, Frost's mendacity is being challenged with a derivative if not an eponymous website.