by Carl Hiaasen

We hear the question all the time: Why would anyone in their right mind go into politics?

Campaigns are brutal, and once you're elected your work hours are long and the pay is lousy.

But let's consider some of the fringe benefits, which are on display last week in two criminal cases at opposite ends of Florida.

From up in the Panhandle we learn that Rep. Ray Sansom of Destin ran up $173,000 on an American Express card issued to him by the state Republican Party.

Sansom was speaker of the House for about nine seconds until it was revealed that he'd taken a $110,000-a-year job with Northwest Florida State College, after steering $35 million in extra or accelerated public funding to that school.

Included in that mother lode was $6 million for a campus airport facility that a friend and campaign donor of Sansom allegedly planned to use for his private jet. Sansom has been charged with official misconduct, and has pleaded innocent.

Because he was a big shot in the GOP, he'd been given a credit card, ostensibly to use for party-related business expenses. The billing statements, subpoenaed by prosecutors, offer a fascinating glimpse of how a humble small-town politician managed to scrape by in such tough economic times.

While Sansom was out preaching fiscal conservatism and slashing away at Florida's education budget, he was living large.

Last summer, he used his GOP Amex card to take his wife and three daughters to Europe. Before departing, they stopped at the Apple store in Manhattan and charged $2,112. Presumably it wasn't all spent on iTunes.

While in London, Sansom dropped $222 at Harrod's, the swanky department store, and treated his family to relatively restrained meals at the Hard Rock Cafe and TGI Fridays.

Over two years, Sansom spent about $173,000 with Republican plastic, none of which has been reimbursed to the GOP as personal expenditures.

Among the 100-plus pages of credit-card receipts were some eye-popping charges back home, including $11,475 at Best Buy, $839 at Starbucks, $320 at a Cole Haan shoe store and almost $9,000 at a florist shop in Fort Walton Beach.

Sansom also spent $69.50 for fabric and yarn at Jo-Ann Fabrics. Now he can knit during his trial.

Embarrassed by these revelations, Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer last week announced he was taking away all party credit cards from Republican officials, and made a show of chopping up his own.

He did not, however, hasten to produce his own billing receipts.

Meanwhile, down in old Key West, suspended Monroe County School Superintendent Randy Acevedo was being prosecuted in another case of dubiously extravagant fringe benefits.

Acevedo was accused of trying to cover up some of his wife's alleged "misappropriations," including nearly $200,000 in tuitions and fees that were supposed to fund adult education programs.

Monique Acevedo, who was conveniently employed by the school district that her husband ran, allegedly collected $190,264 in cash from adult ed students between January 2005 and March 2009.

Prosecutors said the money was never accounted for, and that Mrs. Acevedo turned in only $44 to the finance department. So either $190,220 cash is sitting in a drawer somewhere in a school administration building, or the superintendent's beloved made off with the dough.

Records show that Monique Acevedo also racked up more than $95,000 on her school-issued credit card for items that she claimed were necessary for classes in cosmetology, GED and English as a Second Language.

These vital educational aids included bar stools, pink silk ties, a chandelier, a table saw, spear-gun attachments and a DVD box set of the popular HBO show, "Six Feet Under."

Facing up to 30 years in prison, Mrs. Acevedo has pleaded innocent. So did her hubby, who said he was so darn busy supervising the Keys school system that he didn't notice what his wife was up to.

Prosecutors asserted that Randy Acevedo knew about Monique's questionable spending habits, and brushed off repeated warnings by his staff. Moreover, he sent an inter-office e-mail indicating he was taking a personal trip to North Carolina on dates matching airline tickets bought by his wife with a district credit card.

Acevedo has said he repaid the school district for some plane tickets, and also for a pair of $300 sunglasses that Monique charged to Monroe County taxpayers. Other than that, said Acevedo's attorneys, he had no knowledge of any shady purchases.

Their client was convicted on Friday. Let's see if he wears a pink necktie to his sentencing.

 

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