Former Broward County Mayor Ben Graber Supports Clinton
The full text of a press release I received this morning:
CORAL SPRINGS, FL – Ben Graber, former state representative, county commissioner, and mayor of Broward County, is endorsing Hillary Clinton for President.
Graber, who is a longtime supporter of the Clintons, was an advisor on healthcare reform to the White House in 1993 after successfully passing groundbreaking health reform in Florida. Graber’s bill reached far beyond the state and was used as a model for health reform in several other states.
“I am excited to lend my support to Hillary,” Graber said. “She is the most experienced candidate and understands the issues facing our nation today.”
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Hey, good for Graber. At least he's finally supporting a Democrat. Back in the 2006 elections, that wasn't the case.
Comments
Ben Graber did not support Ron Klein in 2006, because of Klein's moonlighting as a lobbyist. Graber is opposed to any elected official's private lobbying as a principle.He continues to stand firm on that issue.
Posted by: Ben Graber | August 26, 2007 9:13 AM
1. Ron Klein is a tool.
2. Ben Graber is a washed-up tool.
Posted by: b | August 27, 2007 10:46 AM
Mr. Graber, with all due respect, you're using a Republican talking point to justify your siding with Republicans, a time during which you sided with Clay Shaw by issuing a press release filled with, natch, Republican talking points.
Note
this Palm Beach Post story, which delved into Rep. Klein's work as a lobbyist and found that, Clay Shaw's mud-slinging commercials notwithstanding, the paper could find only a handful of times in Klein's entire legal career that he did any lobbying whatsoever.
According to the Post, in Palm Beach County, he attended one meeting as a lobbyist in 2004. Other than that his only lobbying work in Palm Beach County was in 1999, when he worked as a lobbyist to provide health insurance to county workers.
In Broward, his full career as a lobbyist, that the paper could trace, consisted of working in 2000 on behalf of Carl's Furniture in the store's attempt to open a location in Pembroke Pines -- an attempt that failed.
The attempts by Shaw and his supporters to paint Klein as some sort of super-lobbyist who used his position as an elected official to line his pockets or help special interests cash in may work on people who don't delve deeply into politics. But to any standard-brand political junkie like myself, they're insulting to the intelligence.
Posted by: Dan | August 27, 2007 6:13 PM