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Following Tampa Bay's ABC Action News' illuminating coverage of Adam Putnam’s cover up of the Publix grocery stores food safety inspection failures, USA Herald Reporter Jeff Watterson revealed further information about the campaign contributions received by Putnam’s Florida Grown PAC that tie back to Publix. Watterson showed a link between additional contributions made by Publix to Putnam’s PAC even after the revelations of the removal of ratings critical of the grocery chain dealt the Agriculture Commissioner an embarrassing blow.

Watterson’s review showed either a direct link or a remarkable coincidence where Publix made substantial contributions to the Florida Retail Federation that ended upon Putnam’s PAC within a week of large checks being sent to FRF’s PAC. While this practice is not illegal, it’s interesting to note how big companies launder their contributions through industry PACs, so the intended donor/recipient link is never fully revealed or clear. This shell game does not, however, shed a favorable light on any of the coordinating participants.

For Putnam, a man who inadvertently and illegally launched his campaign for Governor this past week, the hubris is stunning. For Florida Republicans to even contemplate this man for the state’s highest office, now seems foolhardy. Putnam’s hubris turns to abject arrogance when one digs a little deeper into the Agriculture Commissioner’s corruption machine. You see, not only has Putnam legally raised millions of dollars from entities he regulates and changes the rules for when the answers are bad (as already pointed out by Bay News 9 and USA Herald). Putnam fails to accurately report his PAC expenses as required by Florida election law, which plainly states that all “expenses must be drawn from a check from the campaign treasury. This is not a complicated process and it is one that has been followed by candidates, parties and PACs for decades.

The Miami Herald’s Mary Ellen Klas pointed out the anomalies of Putnam’s reports in an article on March 24th. The Putnam team’s responses fell flat as vague and uninformed. The Florida Democratic Party, seeing an opportunity to embarrass the GOP Establishment frontrunner, filed a complaint with the Florida Elections Commission within a week of the report. It was a simple complaint which elicited a typical smug response from the perfect one – Commissioner Putnam, who stated that there was no doubt he was right and this was just politics. The absoluteness of his response was either poorly devised or poorly advised, leaving Putnam no wiggle room to blame advisors, should the Commission rule against him. He owns this one all by himself.