When Attorney General Pam Bondi did not show up after being invited to appear on Facing South Florida, a Sunday morning news program on CBS, host Jim DeFede was prompted to note that the AG has not made an appearance in South Florida during the campaign. “I thought she was the attorney general for the whole state?” DeFede observed.
It did not look good that Bondi left the stage of that show to her opponent, Democratic nominee George Sheldon, to make the case for why he should be the next AG. This was especially bad for Bondi, coming on the heels of last week’s gubernatorial debate, during which Governor Rick Scott unintentionally threw Bondi “under the bus” by blaming her for the postponement of an execution because it conflicted with a political event. Scott also placed the blame and senseless cost of legal appeals to same-sex marriage court rulings at her door. He suggested that being an obstacle to same-sex marriage was Pam Bondi’s personal agenda.
If that weren’t enough, Bondi was blocked by a court from taking her case against same-sex marriage directly to the Florida State Supreme Court.
Later in the week, questions were raised in the media about Pam Bondi’s involvement in cases outside of Florida, having nothing to do with the interest of Floridians, who pay her salary.
Then, on Wednesday the New York Times printed an article on the shady relationship between lobbyists and State Attorneys General, Pam Bondi being the most prominent one. It seems the Florida Attorney General has had a cozy relationship with law firm Dickstein Shapiro, allegedly accepting money from them for her travel expenses to luxury resorts. Suddenly, cases involving Dickstein Shapiro clients were being dropped by the Florida Attorney General’s Office, according to the Times.
If this is true, Bondi is guilty of the appearance of unethical conduct, at the very least. Already, questions are being raised about the legality of Dickstein Shapiro acting as a lobbying organization in Florida, where the company is not registered as a lobbyist.
Pam Bondi’s Democratic opponent, George Sheldon, was quick to comment on the scandal: “This is devastating to her credibility. It tarnishes the images of attorneys general nationwide. This whole pay-to-play concept has got to stop.”
According to Tampa Bay Times, the Libertarian nominee, Bill Wohlsifer, was more critical. “This is an attorney general who, once she is on a case, like gay marriage, won’t let go,” he stated, “This raises so many concerns because over and over she dropped these [Dickstein Shapiro] cases for no reason.”
In the face of all these incidents and scandals, Pam Bondi can no longer be considered a sure thing for re-election. According to most political analysts, the momentum is now with George Sheldon. It remains to be seen whether this will be too little too late to help him overcome her lead in the polls in the last week of the campaign.