Jax Daily

Jaguars

Jacksonville this week it’s really not about the Jaguars, more importantly two top ten college football teams are coming to town for the annual boundary game. The Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs will faceoff Saturday and if you’re looking for a good time head out to the Landing for the World’s largest cocktail party.

The Jacksonville Jaguars are coming off a loss to the Browns which could mean Jack Del Rio’s time is ticking. But hey, playing the Bengals this week will definitely help and if they don’t come out with a win expect big changes in J’Ville. The Bengals are winless on the season and have not looked good at all. With the Tennessee Titans rolling the Jags can’t afford to keep losing games. Win or lose David Garrard has been playing great football and has not thrown an interception in the past three games. With the passing game becoming successful the only thing left to getting back on track from last year is the defense. The Jaguars defense is ranked 23rd compared to 6th this time last year, so it’s about time to step up.

This week starting any of the Jaguars key players will be a good move. Expect a big day out of the offense with a balanced attack that should have at least four TD’s. Garrard should start the game hot and lead the team down the field for early touch downs and then from there on out holding the lead and building on it will be where the running backs come into play.

—————–

Buccaneers

Offensive struggles were the problem for the Bucs last week; the team was not able to score a touchdown in the game against a Cowboys defense that has struggled all year. Now falling to second place in the division, just like the Jags the Bucs will be facing one of the easier teams in the NFL. The Chiefs have one win on the season and will be without Larry Johnson again this week due to his suspension from his sexual assault case.

This week Joey Galloway will be at 100% for the first time in six weeks, so expect that to open up the deep ball throughout the day. Warrick Dunn is still suffering from the lower back injury and Earnest Graham is slowly starting to get back into the hang of things from last year. Starting Garcia, Graham, Bryant or even the defense could be a top 20 move for this week because the Chiefs have the worst defense in the league and the 5th worst offense.

—————–

Dolphins

The Dolphins are coming into this game looking to take down another division leader in the Denver Broncos. The last time these two teams met the Dolphins handled the Broncos beating them by 24 in a defensive turn-up. The Denver Broncos have struggled in recent weeks and are coming off a bye so hopefully fixed their defensive problems. The Dolphins will look to pound the ball this week because after watching the Patriots run for over 230 yards they know they can do the same. Chad Pennington has risen to the top leading the Dolphins pass game to 8th in the NFL. In the tight AFC east everyone is still a contender and every game is going to be crucial from here on out.

Expect the Dolphins to use Ted Gin Jr. again this week to try and finally break the former first round pick surprise into stride. After coming off a career high game with 175 yards Teddy is looking to finally prove that the pick the Dolphins made to take him was a good one. This game should be a high scoring game and lots of physical play. The fantasy player in this game to look out for is Ronnie Brown who might not have a five touchdown game but will be an elite reason why the Dolphins will keep up with Broncos.

The Florida State Senate District 1 race hasn’t attracted much attention this year. It pits sitting State Senator Tony Hill (D) against little-known challenger Louis Tart (Constitution) in a contest that will decide who represents the largely African-American district for the next four years.

Aside from paying the qualifying fee of over $1,900, Mr. Tart hasn’t run much of a campaign. He hasn’t raised any money and he’s spent less than $10, as of the October 10th report, on mailing expenses.

Tart is a member of the conservative Constitution Party, which has never successfully elected a State Senator anywhere in the nation. This race was, quite obviously, over before it even began.

But despite having no significant opposition, Democratic State Senator Tony Hill’s re-election campaign has continued to raise funds at a rapid pace, building up a warchest of over $170,000. The money came in bundles of checks from law firms, teachers unions, gambling interests, labor unions, major corporations, developers, car dealerships, and a host of other sources. Even the Fraternal Order of Police.

What is a State Senator who is flush with campaign cash and has no significant opposition to do? Seems like the reasonable and ethical way to proceed would be to run a modest campaign and return the balance of the donated funds to contributors.

However, as of the last reporting period which ended October 10, the Hill campaign was not holding back their spending at all. Indeed, Senator Hill is spreading the wealth around.

In July he spent over $500 at Books a Million and Barnes & Noble, and recorded it as “Literature Charitable Contribution” on reports filed with the state. But the vague contributions don’t stop there. Another $668.50 was spent at Foot Locker for what is described as “Donation Equipment” in the report, and a $550 check to the University of North Florida for what’s called a “Student Donation”.

Slightly unusual, but it’s hard to say what these donations really mean. Are they donations to a single person or to an organization?

Another one of the many donations is a $250 donation registered as going to Cynthia Sciptt. I don’t know who or what that this is, but it sounds like a person’s name. Should a campaign be making “donations” to individuals?

But all of that is petty and not particularly unusual for a large campaign. It gets much more disturbing as you dig a little deeper.

Meals, meals, and more meals. Scanning the list it’s easy to spot so-called planning meetings at restaurants in Washington, Atlanta, Louisiana, and elsewhere. Hotel bills in Chicago, at a Disney resort in Orlando, New York, Denver, Tampa, Tennessee, and many other places located far outside District 1.

It appears that Hill’s campaign account has been used to finance all of the Senator’s travels for the last two years. Hotel, airfare, conference registrations, rental cars… it’s quite a list and definitely worth taking a look at.

There’s $1,233 for “Candidate Lodging” at Red Lion Hotel in Denver , Colorado . A quick search on the Internet turned up a nice looking hotel in the Denver area, but not anything extremely expensive. In order to spend that much money, you’d probably have to have a room there for well over a week. Or I guess you could be renting multiple rooms or purchasing other amenities.

(UPDATE: I just noticed that this Denver expense was at about the same time as the Democratic National Convention was being held in the city.)

Actually, late August was a busy time for the Hill campaign. While Hill was apparently at the DNC in Colorado , his campaign reports show expenses for gas and food in the Jacksonville area. And shortly before that, a big car rental bill in New Jersey.

What does any of this have to do with getting re-elected to the State Senate?

Two voice messages left with Senator Hill’s office requesting clarification of this unusual spending have resulted in no return phone calls.

But it would be interesting to get some answers.

I mean, thousands upon thousands of dollars in airfare for “candidate travel” on Continental, Delta , U.S. Airways, and other airlines? Over $600 for Avis car rental during Memorial Day week? Another $800 at Avis during August? The company’s national headquarters is listed on Hill’s finance reports, so it’s not possible to tell where he was when he was renting these vehicles or what they were for.

What legitimate campaign purpose could these expenses serve? Is Senator Hill personally chasing down absentee voters one-by-one around the country to talk face-to-face with them?

Scratch that, Hill must be looking for absentee voters from around the globe. Last year he spent over $2,000 for travel on South African Airlines and an additional $400 at the Vineyard Hotel in Capetown , South Africa for candidate lodging. And then the campaign spent $610 at the Windhoek County Club Hotel in Namibia.

Quite a trip.

More likely than absentee voter outreach, it seems that Hill’s re-election fund is being used as a general purpose piggy-bank into which special interests and powerful supporters can donate large sums of money. And then those funds are used for whatever Senator Hill feels like using them for. Conferences or vacations or maybe official business. Who knows what some of these items actually mean?

In an era in which public officials are nervous about accepting a free lunch or dinner, Senator Hill’s use of campaign cash is somewhat shocking. Perhaps it would be prudent to have an ethics investigation into the sources and uses of this money.

With one final pre-election campaign finance report due any day now, it will be very interesting to see how Senator Hill disposes of the rest of his re-election funds.