{"id":1474469,"date":"2022-05-13T13:44:39","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T17:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1474469"},"modified":"2022-05-13T13:44:55","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T17:44:55","slug":"exclusive-ethics-group-alleges-dem-rep-exploited-covid-rules-to-campaign-for-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-ethics-group-alleges-dem-rep-exploited-covid-rules-to-campaign-for-governor\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Ethics Group Alleges Dem Rep Exploited COVID Rules To Campaign For Governor"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fexclusive-ethics-group-alleges-dem-rep-exploited-covid-rules-to-campaign-for-governor%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1474469&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A watchdog group will file a complaint against Florida Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist on Friday accusing him of taking advantage of pandemic-instituted proxy voting to campaign for governor of Florida, according to a document obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) will send a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) accusing Crist, who reportedly voted by proxy 107 times between Jan. 7 and April 7 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/news\/florida-politics\/2022\/04\/27\/floridas-crist-relies-heavily-on-pandemic-proxy-voting-rule-as-he-runs-for-governor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">according<\/a> to the Tampa Bay Times, of abusing the House\u2019s COVID-19 policy to avoid spending time in Washington while he <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/05\/04\/democratic-congressman-former-governor-charlie-crist-oust-ron-desantis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">campaigns<\/a> in Florida for governor. The letter asks OCE to open an investigation into Crist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is evident that the true reason he is voting by proxy and virtually attending committee hearings is unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d the complaint alleges. \u201cRather, the reason is so he can campaign for governor.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7429013\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7429013\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL), a candidate for Governor of Florida, greets Akua Scott during a visit with South Florida AFL-CIO union leaders and workers on November 23, 2021 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The complaint cites Crist allegedly attending campaign events while <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/03\/17\/stop-lying-republicans-trash-colleagues-who-use-proxy-voting-to-go-to-a-fundraiser\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">voting by proxy<\/a> and include screenshots of social media <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CharlieCrist\/status\/1504832370746220551?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">posts<\/a> allegedly showing him on the trail on the dates he was absent from Congress. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/04\/05\/florida-charlie-crist-ron-desantis-latinos\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: \u2018Wrought With Entitlement\u2019: Florida Dems Forced Back To The Drawing Board Over Cratering Latino Support)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want them to do an investigation, which even in the most straightforward cases, it requires them to compile evidence, get a response and make a decision,\u201d Kendra Arnold, executive director for FACT, told TheDCNF. \u201cUltimately, we hope that this is referred on to the Ethics Committee and that they impose the appropriate punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many members of Congress have taken advantage of the <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/01\/24\/supreme-court-proxy-voting-kevin-mccarthy-nancy-pelosi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pandemic policy<\/a>, with about 80% of all House members using it to vote remotely by mid-December, according to the Brookings Institution. Arnold said that while FACT, a conservative organization, is considering taking action against other politicians, Crist\u2019s actions were \u201cespecially egregious\u201d because his spokesperson acknowledged he was campaigning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Congressman has two important missions: representing Florida\u2019s 13th District in Congress and giving Floridians, exhausted by Ron DeSantis\u2019 never ending culture wars, a clear choice in November,\u201d Crist\u2019s spokesperson, Chloe Kessock, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/news\/florida-politics\/2022\/04\/27\/floridas-crist-relies-heavily-on-pandemic-proxy-voting-rule-as-he-runs-for-governor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told<\/a> The Tampa Bay Times in April.<\/p>\n<p>Crist\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A watchdog group will file a complaint against Florida Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist on Friday accusing him of taking advantage of pandemic-instituted proxy voting to campaign for governor of Florida,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":1482884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1474469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1474469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1482884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1474469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1474469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1474469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}