Florida’s penchant for the weird and strange — often manifested in new ways of criminal behavior (think chasing people through a store with a live alligator) — is so prevalent that it has created a cottage industry of chroniclers and followers.
However, like a contagion that has escaped a hermetically sealed lab, the swamp fever of Florida weirdness appears to be spreading now to the politicians who represent the state’s nearly 21 million residents.
Over the past week, a legislative candidate staged an elaborate scam to try to convince people she was a college graduate. Another candidate had to deny putting out a Facebook ad accusing an opponent of distributing tainted breast milk. Then there is the thing about sphincter bleaching.
Photo: AP
Even for long-time followers of the Florida experience, this is a bit confounding.
“Florida politics has always been as weird as Florida in general, but this year has seen a Twilight Zone-level of campaign screw-ups, oddball candidates, post-Republican Trumpers in all their lunatic glory, edge cases, easily debunked fraudsters and a cavalcade of stupid,” said Rick Wilson, a Republican consultant whose hostility toward US President Donald Trump he channeled into a best-selling book.
“The political subspecies of ‘Florida man’ is in full glory,” Wilson said.
“Florida man” does not on most days refer to those men and women who have sought public office, although the record must reflect some notable incidents over the years, including a fist fight in the Florida House of Representatives, a parking lot brawl instigated by insults hurled on the radio and a county commissioner who fled the US amid a tangled tale involving drugs and a stolen car.
However, consider these recent events: A city commission candidate on Florida’s east coast on Wednesday told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that his Facebook account was hacked and that the hacker put up an ad attacking his opponent for passing on genetically defective breast milk.
Melissa Howard, a candidate for the Florida Legislature, dropped out of her race this week after it was revealed that she had falsely claimed to have a college degree and posted a purported copy of her diploma online. Howard had previously posted a photograph of herself with what looked like a Miami University diploma. However, the Ohio university later sent reporters a statement saying she attended the school, but never graduated.
The Miami Herald reported that Hallandale Beach Mayor Keith London on Monday accused a city commissioner of making a living from “sphincter bleaching” after she questioned whether he made a living at all.
London was appointed to his job earlier this year after the previous mayor was arrested and charged with accepting illegal Russian campaign donations.
The Herald reported that it was not clear what London meant.
Commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub’s mother does own a spa that sells skin-bleaching cream, but she told the paper she does not work there.
One veteran political observer in Florida is not convinced that Floridians are witnessing a new trend.
Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist, said the rise of social media has made it more likely that such incidents get attention.
“I don’t think it’s any more or less crazy,” Schale said. “I think it’s more out there... For democracy to be representative, the public space is going to have its share of people who are nuts.”
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