Fla. Commissioner in Hot Water Over Political Fundraising; Aide Resigns

Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink has rebuked the state’s insurance commissioner for hosting a political fundraiser on behalf of the wife of one of his employees.

Sink also said she has ordered the department’s inspector general to investigate whether Kevin McCarty’s office used state equipment for political purposes.

“I am concerned that Mr. McCarty may have used his position as Insurance Commissioner to solicit political contributions from the insurance industry,” Sink said in a news release from her office.

McCarty’s spokesman, Bob Lotane, resigned last Thursday following allegations of unauthorized use of a state-owned computer. The fundraiser at the private Governor’s Club on Wednesday was held for Lotane’s wife, Robin Lotane, a candidate for circuit judge in Leon County.

“It is unfortunate this isolated incident occurred, but we will work to ensure this does not happen again,” McCarty said in a press release where he promised to cooperate fully with the CFO’s investigation.

“I’m new in the office and (am) totally aware you cannot engage or use governmental assets like computers and telephones for fundraising activities,” Sink told The Associated Press.

Sink said she wanted to wait until an investigation of the events was completed before making any decision on McCarty’s future. She and the governor along with at least one other Cabinet member would have to agree to remove McCarty.

“I’ll just say in this particular situation he didn’t use good judgment,” Sink said.

“I shared with him my concerns that his involvement was unsuitable and could cast Florida’s regulatory system in an unfavorable light,” Sink said. “While this may not be illegal, it is certainly not right.”

Gov. Charlie Crist backed Sink’s statement.

“She spoke well and I think that her tone was appropriate,” Crist said.

Lotane said he apologized to McCarty and others at the office for an error in judgment. Lotane said he received an invitation to a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on his work computer and that he saved the fonts and designs from it on a disc to take home and prepare an invitation for his wife’s fundraiser.

Sink, the only Democrat on the Florida Cabinet, was elected in November and inherited McCarty, who was selected in March 2003 by Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet to head the state’s new Office of Insurance Regulation.

That office, created after the Cabinet was reorganized into three offices from its previous six, is responsible for regulating insurance companies, including licensing, rates and solvency.

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Associated Press writer Brendan Farrington contributed to this report.