Tampa Bay Times reporter Craig Pittman – a native of Floridian – addresses why many people consider the southern sunny state one of America’s most idiosyncratic. Among other topics, he examines the huge influence U.S. Sugar has on state politics, and why some politicians are have not been completely open about their involvement with the company.
The Florida-based U.S. Sugar Corp is America’s largest producer of sugar cane and has significant political influence in the state, according to Pittman. “We exposed that U.S. Sugar was paying for secret trips for a lot of Florida politicians, including the governor, to take down to King Ranch to go hunting. It was showing up in anybody’s campaign finance reports, it wasn’t even listed on the governor’s official schedule that he was down there.”
Pittman said the role U.S. Sugar plays is very much behind the scenes, spends a lot of money, and their lobbyists get a lot of access. “I was calling members of congress from Florida asking, ‘Have you been to King Ranch, have you been there for these secret hunting trips,’ where they basically bought access to these politicians. And one congressional aide said ‘No, they don’t need to do that, they just walk in the door and they get to talk to my boss.”
He also addressed the many retirees that decide to settle in Florida from either the northeastern U.S. or Midwest, and said both groups have commonalities in their attitudes about living their later years in Florida. “One thing that they both seem to have in common is they feel like, ‘Hey, I paid my taxes up north, I supported the schools and so forth, and I don’t really want to see high taxes down here in Florida.”
Watch the full episode to also hear Pittman discuss Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground gun-rights law, as well as the too-close-to-call gubernatorial race between incumbent Rick Scott and Charlie Crist.
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