Jack Latvala resigns from the Florida Senate
moncler outlet Facing a public corruption investigation and possible expulsion from the Florida Senate, Jack Latvala resigned Wednesday, a day after monlcer down jackets a retired judge concluded that he likely violated state corruption laws by trading legislative favors for physical contact and for sexually harassing and groping multiple women. moncler outlet
Latvala, 66, of Clearwater, a long time Tampa Bay leader and Republican candidate for governor, sent a letter of resignation to Senate President Joe Negron in an abrupt and dramatic end to a controversial career that spanned three decades.
cheap moncler coats Referring to the national MeToo movement, he wrote: “My political adversaries have latched onto this effort to rid our country of sexual harassment to try to rid the Florida Senate of me.” cheap moncler coats
Latvala’s resignation, effective at midnight Jan. 5, followed a revelation in retired Judge Ronald Swanson’s 33 page report, reportedly documented by explicit text messages from the senator over the past three years, that he agreed to support a lobbyist’s agenda if she would have sex with him or let him touch her in cheap moncler coats a sexual manner.
The woman, not identified in the report, is now a Senate employee and has known Latvala moncler mens jackets since the mid 1990s, Swanson wrote. In the report, he quoted her stating she ended her lobbying career “in large part so [she] would never have to owe [Latvala] anything.”
cheap moncler jackets Her “testimony raises issues of public corruption and ethics violations not within the scope of this report,” Swanson wrote. cheap moncler jackets
moncler outlet sale As Latvala was resigning in disgrace, leaving a half million Tampa Bay residents with no voice in the Senate, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was conducting moncler outlet a preliminary review cheap moncler sale of Latvala’s conduct, which Swanson said may be a crime. moncler outlet sale
moncler outlet jackets Latvala’s resignation also came on a moncler outlet online day when moncler sale the Senate released a second report from an independent investigator looking into anonymous claims of sexual harassment against Latvala by multiple women. The report by Tampa lawyer Gail Golman Holtzman included testimony from several unidentified women who said the lawmaker repeatedly moncler outlet store shamed or groped them and attempted intimate physical contact in exchange for his attention to their legislative requests. moncler outlet jackets
Latvala’s resignation was the third in the 40 member Senate this year. Frank Artiles, a Miami Republican, resigned in April after other senators complained about his use of racial insults, and Lake Worth Democrat Jeff Clemens resigned in late October after he acknowledged an affair with a lobbyist.
Previous Coverage: Investigation concludes Sen. Jack Latvala’s conduct may be criminal
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Latvala’s future political prospects were exceedingly grim.
moncler outlet store The Senate that cheap moncler he often professed that he loved so much had scheduled a formal hearing Jan. 11 to consider the Swanson report, which contains four separate findings of probable cause that Latvala repeatedly engaged in “inappropriate and unwanted” verbal and physical contact with Rachel Perrin Rogers, a Senate staff member. moncler outlet store
cheap moncler In his last interview before resigning, Latvala again denied her charges. He told the Times/Herald Tuesday: “I just did cheap moncler jackets not foresee this going down this way. It kind of puts a cheap moncler outlet damper on the whole Senate.” cheap moncler
moncler outlet uk Bombastic, confrontational and short tempered, Latvala was a political fixture in Tallahassee. Friends said he could be kind, but he had a volatile temperament and intimidating manner that at one time or another offended practically everybody. moncler outlet uk
moncler factory outlet He was a throwback to an earlier political time in Florida a time that no longer exists. moncler factory outlet
The Legislature’s last link to an era before term limits and an avalanche of special interest money transformed the Capitol’s culture, Latvala entered politics in the mid 1970s, fresh out of Stetson University. The Republican Party was lost in the wilderness and desperate for relevance.
A protg of Jack Eckerd, the St. Senate and governor, Latvala found work as a party operative, driving a station wagon across moncler outlet sale fast growing Central Florida in search of Republicans willing to occupy back bench seats in a Legislature teeming with Democrats.
“I started in 1975,” Latvala recalled at a gathering of party activists in Orlando in August, days before he entered the race for governor.
cheap moncler jackets sale In that speech moncler outlet , with no way to anticipate his rapid downfall, Latvala said buy moncler jackets the Republican Party had lost its way and that it risked falling out of power after two decades. cheap moncler jackets sale
moncler sale In words that would prove prophetic, he said: “We’ve got to kind of look at what we’ve accomplished, how we’re acting, how we’re working together monclerdownjacket , and make sure we can continue to have the confidence of the voters of Florida.” moncler sale
Along the way, the rules changed.
Holtzman’s report documented that numerous women stated they feared retaliation if they spoke out about unwelcome advances and groping, with one lobbyist saying he’d ask “What do I get?” when talking about her work, which she took to mean he was suggesting a quid pro quo for sexual favors.