Once again, criminals star in ads for State Rep. Scott Plakon | Commentary
In 2012, Republican State Rep. Scott Plakon was scared voters might kick him out of office. (Spoiler alert: They did.)
So Plakon’s supporters launched a nasty attack that tried to link his opponent to convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky.
It was, of course, ridiculous. Karen Castor Dentel was an elementary school teacher in Maitland. Sandusky was a college football coach convicted of sex crimes in Pennsylvania. The two had no connection whatsoever.
But Plakon’s supporters were desperate (and apparently lacked any kind of moral compass). So a committee — that Plakon swore he knew nothing about — mailed out the attack anyway.
It didn’t work. Voters tossed Plakon out of office that year.
Flash forward to this year. Plakon is back in office in a different district. He’s again fearful of losing his legislative seat. And his supporters are again trying to link his Democratic opponent to violent criminals.
This time, instead of using pictures of Sandusky, the Republican Party of Florida used photos of some guy in a tank top who is apparently supposed to be your standard “two-bit thug.” The party suggests Democrat Tracey Kagan wants thugs roaming the streets, threatening your family.
Why? Because Kagan, who worked as a prosecutor in the past, now works as a private defense attorney. The suggestion is that anyone who defends the rights of accused criminals is unfit for office.
That’s something the Republican Party of Florida might want to tell the Republican governor of Florida — since he also did work on behalf of accused criminals during his stint in the Navy.
And not just any criminals. Ron DeSantis, a lawyer, worked at Guantanamo Bay, where the U.S. kept accused terrorists. The Tampa Bay Times reported DeSantis' role was “to advocate for the fair and humane treatment of the detainees.”
So does that mean DeSantis sided with accused terrorists over innocent Americans? Of course not. It means that DeSantis and the Navy believed in the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which says that anyone accused of a crime has basic rights worth defending. We should all want that.
The Founding Fathers wanted defendants to have basic rights and solid counsel to make sure the wrong people aren’t locked up — and to ensure the real offenders stay behind bars.
Sure there are slimy defense attorneys, just as there are slimy members of many professions. But the Republican Party didn’t offer any evidence that Kagan had done anything improper or helped guilty people go free. Instead, the party just generically accused her of siding with every “two-bit thug, abusive spouse or drug dealer” she could find.
Plakon said he doesn’t generally comment on mailers that other people send on his behalf, except to say: “Her party attacks me, my party attacks her, and neither of us like it.”
But he also said it’s fair to scrutinize defense attorneys since, unlike public defenders, they choose their clients. Sure, it’s easy to berate defense attorneys. Yet I was curious whom Plakon might call if he were ever charged with a crime. He did not answer that question.
For its part, the Republican Party didn’t bother trying to defend its attack on defense attorneys. Instead, in a statement to Sentinel reporter Annie Martin, incoming House Speaker Chris Sprowls claimed Republicans were right to target Democrats who want to “defund the police.”
It was a deflective response. But let’s take a time-out here to address that accusation — because virtually any time you hear it, it’s a lie.
I haven’t seen any major-party candidates for local office — including Kagan — for local offices call for “defunding the police.”
Have some candidates called for steering more money into social services to help law enforcement? Absolutely. And maybe some street protesters don’t believe the world needs any cops. But that’s not a real policy stance by any serious candidates.
Heck, in Volusia County, where Republicans are accusing Democrat Patrick Henry of wanting to “defund the police,” the sheriff stepped up to call it a lie. Even though Sheriff Mike Chitwood had endorsed Henry’s Republican opponent, Chitwood went on Facebook to say that the GOP’s “defund the police” claims were “misleading and false.”
This entire line of attack is fear-mongering meant to prey upon weak minds and distract voters from real issues.
Plakon, after all, has a ripe record. He voted for the state’s famously inadequate unemployment system and to abolish the state’s growth management agency. He sucked up to police unions while demonizing teachers' unions.
And he also did some popular things — including joining Democratic Sen. Linda Stewart’s efforts to end the statute of limitations for prosecuting sex crimes against minors. The woman behind that law, courageous survivor Donna Hedrick of Orlando, says she appreciated Plakon’s efforts. (Though I’ve never forgotten that Hedrick also said the first time she actually met Plakon was when he invited her to one of his campaign fundraisers, where he introduced her to donors.)
There are plenty of other big issues in this race — expanding Medicaid, protecting the environment, funding for public schools and basic accountability for voucher schools. Plakon and Kagan have very different takes on virtually all of these issues.
Kagan has said she’s eager to discuss voting records and stances.
Plakon’s backers want to talk about “two-bit thugs” and bogus “defunding the police” claims.
We’ll see which tactic works.
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