When then-gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott selected Jennifer Carroll as his running-mate in 2010, it seemed like a stroke of genius. Carroll, 53, ticked a number of boxes that were missing for Scott, and for the Republican Party.
As a woman, an African-American, and an immigrant (she was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad), Carroll allowed Scott to tout the diversity of his potential administration. Her immigrant status also provided Scott cover, as he both supported Arizona’s controversial law allowing law enforcement to inquire about the immigration status of people questioned for other potential offenses, such as traffic stops, and for his and the tea party’s push for a similar law in the Sunshine State.
Further, Carroll, who was a member of the 2012 class of theGrio’s 100, was a 20-year Navy veteran (she enlisted in 1979, according to her official bio), which presented a positive image for Scott, whose former company, Columbia/HCA hospital chain, had settled a record Medicare fraud claim with the federal government during the 1990s. Carroll was a family-values candidate, a rare black “Reagan conservative,” with a son who was a star football player at the University of Miami. She was classic story of an immigrant who made good — the former owner of a Green Cove Springs hair salon, then called Great Clips, who rose first to the state house, and then to the second highest office in Florida.
Now, with Scott facing re-election amid record low approval ratings, Carroll is proving to be more of a liability than an asset. She resigned Wednesday, two days after being questioned by Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials as part of an expansive federal probe into Allied Veterans of the World — an ostensibly charitable organization based in Jacksonville, which authorities allege defrauded veterans to enrich a small group of people involved in the alleged scheme. Allied Veterans operated a string of “internet cafes” — facilities where patrons can play “sweepstakes”-style games using online terminals also capable of accessing the Internet.
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The gaming centers, several of which were raided and shut down by law enforcement officers this week, fall under a murky area of Florida law, and the city of Jacksonville, along with some members of the state House, have sought to ban them outright. When she was a member of the House, Carroll sent a bill to the floor that would have legalized the operations, but the legislation was withdrawn after Carroll admitted to an apparent conflict of interest — her consulting firm, 3M-JC, had Allied Veterans as a client. Federal authorities, including the IRS and the Secret Service, have been probing the group across 6 states including Florida, and have so far issued 57 arrest warrants in the case.
In 2010, Carroll recorded a TV PSA for Allied Veterans of the World, which took in some $290 million over five years from the Internet gaming cafe operations, while donating just 2 percent of the proceeds to charity. On Wednesday, five people connected with the organization, including Nelson Cuba, the head of the Jacksonville Police Benevolent Association, his first vice president, Jerry Bass, the commander Allied Veterans, and Kelly Mathis, an attorney who represented the organization and the alleged mastermind, were indicted on federal racketeering charges and accused of excessively profiting from the business, including money that went to the principals, and the purchase of real estate and other amenities. It is not clear how much money the organization paid Carroll’s firm, and authorities have not stated what her alleged involvement in the investigation might be.
A source close to Carroll’s family tells theGrio the family fears she will be indicted too, however, and they are consulting with attorneys and bracing for the worst.
It’s a jarring end to what had already been an increasingly rocky tenure for Carroll.
Almost from the start, members of her inner circle complained that Scott’s office was freezing her out, under-utilizing Carroll, and even taping conversations between the two offices using a “magic pen” that doubled as a recording device. Last year, a dispute over Carroll’s attempt to set up her own website, separate from the governor’s, spilled into the press, as a member of Carroll’s staff emailed one of the audiotaped conversations to the Florida Times-Union newspaper. That staffer, Carletha Cole, was charged with a crime for leaking the tapes, after which she leveled scandalous charges of her own: that Carroll had engaged in a sexual affair with a female staffer, including an encounter in the office, which Cole claims she walked in on.
Carroll vigorously denied the allegations, and in the process, angered LGBT advocates in the state by declaring that black women who “look like” her don’t engage in lesbian relationships. Carroll ultimately apologized for the comments, after first standing by her statements.
Last July, Carroll’s brother-in-law, Edward Beckles, was indicted as part of a federal takedown of a place-based “pill mill” operation. Beckles was accused of providing Oxycodone pills to two drug rings operating between Florida and Kentucky, and was even accused of trading pills for sexual favors. Carroll denied any knowledge of her brother-in-law’s business practices.
Last spring, Gov. Scott named Carroll, a lifetime NRA member, to lead a task force charged with reviewing Florida’s gun laws in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting, and subsequent controversy over the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law. Gun control activists were disappointed by the task force, which disbanded last month, making no recommendations for changes to the law.
And while many black Republicans in the state hoped she would be a bridge to the governor’s office on issues like state funding for historically black colleges and minority small business loans, the governor has done little in either area, even proposing to slash funding for HBCUs in the state in his proposed budgets.
Carroll’s resignation has also brought back previous allegations of scandal to the fore.
In 2010, she was accused of falsifying the address of her firm — the same one that consulted to Allied Veterans of the World — in order to qualify for a Jacksonville-based minority business grant. And there had been whispers that one of her degrees was from a diploma-mill.
And yet, her rise through the ranks of state government to its highest levels made her an historic figure — the first black Republican elected to the Florida legislature, and the state’s first black lieutenant governor. She had the distinction of being able to navigate two worlds that rarely come together in Florida politics, described this way by the Miami Herald in 2009, when she was on the short-list for then-Gov. Charlie Crist’s picks to replace retiring U.S. Senator Mel Martinez: “How many people do you know that belong to both the National Rifle Association and the NAACP, who belong to the black Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority as well as the American Legion?”
Carroll ran twice, unsuccessfully, for Congress, challenging long-serving Democrat Corinne Brown. And though she lost those races, she was consistently promoted by a small cadre of influential black Republicans around the state for higher office, who pitched her first to Crist, and then to 2010 gubernatorial candidates, then-Attorney General Bill McCollum and Scott, who eventually gave her the nod.
As Florida’s lieutenant governor, Carroll was one of just a handful of African-Americans holding statewide office in the country — Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and California Attorney General Kamala Harris being two of the others, prior to the appointment of Tim Scott and Mo Cowan as U.S. Senators from South Carolina and Massachusetts, respectively. As such, and as a black Republican, that meant instant national stature for Carroll, who was among the supporters then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney took with him to the NAACP convention in Houston, Texas, where he addressed the organization last July.
And Carroll placed Romney’s name into nomination from Florida during the 2012 Republican National Convention.
Now, her future is unclear. And her departure has left Scott without a running-mate in 2014, and with the difficult task of maintaining her diverse appeal on the ticket.
“Lt. Gov. Carroll has been an inspiration to thousands, including women and many from different cultures and nationalities; her resignation saddens us but we wish her all the best,” said Levi Williams, an attorney and longtime Carroll backer who was tapped to head Scott’s campaign in Broward County, Florida in 2010.
Williams, who like Carroll has a Caribbean background, said Carroll’s example continues to be inspiring, despite her present difficulties. And he called her resignation a “sacrifice” she’s made for her party that was in everyone’s best interests.
Asked if he is disappointed in a woman he was central to promoting as a potential running-mate for Scott, Williams said he was not. “I have not read anything to be disappointed about,” he told theGrio. “Many of us in the professional and consulting realms can relate to the fact that clients sometimes may make decisions that are questionable. By the grace of God go I,” adding, “her sacrifice for all is commendable.”
Clarence McKee, a longtime black Republican activist who along with Williams was key to pushing Scott to choose Carroll in 2010, did not respond to requests for comment.
Follow Joy Reid on Twitter at @TheReidReport.