TALLAHASSEE — Despite pledging to run the most open administration in Florida history, Gov. Charlie Crist will not fully disclose details of his political travel on private jets owned by special interests and wealthy Republican Party donors.
By law, he doesn’t have to. But Crist has raised expectations by stressing total transparency in government and by requiring staff members to abide by higher ethical standards than the law requires.
In his two years in office, Crist has flown to events on planes belonging to Harry Sargeant, a Boca Raton businessman whose contracts to send fuel to troops in Iraq have been questioned by Congress; Dick Mandt of Tampa, a former publisher of shopper newspapers; and Daytona Beach home builder Mori Hosseini, among others. All are Republican Party fundraisers.
Taxpayers did not pay for those excursions. The owner donated the flight’s cost to the party or the party reimbursed the plane’s owner.
“The reporting of that is all adhered to in accordance with the disclosure laws the party abides by,” Crist spokeswoman Erin Isaac said. “And when the governor travels for personal reasons, he personally pays for that travel.”
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Sunday that Crist has used private jets more than 100 times during the past two years. His office said Crist uses corporate jets to fly to political events, and flies commercial at his own expense on personal trips, such as to his condominium in St. Petersburg.
The governor’s office did not acquiesce to the newspaper’s request that Crist document how he paid for all his travel.
State law requires political parties to account for all expenditures including travel, but not to specify which flights are flown by which public official. So it’s impossible to see which corporate interests are flying Crist around the most or whether corporate executives are enjoying exclusive airborne access to Crist.
Travel records obtained by the Herald/Times show Crist has been careful as governor to avoid using state planes for political or personal gain. While that has increased his reliance on corporate planes to maintain a busy political schedule, it has saved taxpayers money, too.
A side-by-side comparison of Crist’s use of state planes in his first two years in office and former Gov. Jeb Bush’s last two years in office shows Crist used state planes less often.
In that period, Bush flew nearly 137,000 nautical miles on a state plane for a total of nearly 429 hours in the air or the equivalent of nearly 18 days. Crist flew 75,000 nautical miles on a state plane for a total of 241 hours, or 10 days, since he became governor two years ago, according to official state manifests.
The reason Crist hasn’t flown as much on the state plane is “out of an abundance of caution,” Isaac said. She said he flies at the Republican Party’s expense when any political work appears on his schedule.
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