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. . Report reveals Rep. Kreegel's campaign also used attack tacticsTALLAHASSEE -- Rep. Paige Kreegel, a Republican from Punta Gorda, peeled back some of the mysteries of Florida politics last year when he sued a well-connected Palm Beach County political consultant.
Kreegel claimed the consultant, Randy Nielsen, slandered him with attack fliers paid for by nebulous groups that did not reveal their sources until after the primary vote.
But Kreegel's political consultant, Jim Rimes of EM Campaigns in Tallahassee, said in a deposition taken last month that similar fliers, also paid for by a shadowy political group, were sent to attack Kreegel's primary opponent in the 2004 race.
In addition, a poll paid for by a separate political group and used by Kreegel's campaign was not accounted for in his campaign finance reports.
In the attack fliers over which Kreegel sued, the material was sent to voters in his district and contained vitriolic claims, including an assertion that Kreegel had been arrested -- an accusation Kreegel vigorously said was defamatory and false.
Yet Kreegel's consultant also said last month that his research led him to believe Kreegel indeed was arrested.
Kreegel has criticized the use of vaguely named groups to pay for attack ads, such as the ones targeting him in 2004.
On Tuesday, he said it was "ironic" that his own campaign used a group, People for a Better Florida, to pay for two attack fliers against his primary opponent, Ken Roberson.
The Florida Medical Association and individual physicians largely fund the group.
Kreegel is a physician. But Kreegel said he had little knowledge of the activities, allowing more seasoned political hands from Tallahassee to make those decisions.
"I didn't ask for it," Kreegel said. "I was pretty surprised to see the fliers against him."
Kreegel said as a political newcomer, the details of the campaign were largely handled by EM Campaigns.
"I was in the dark to the end," Kreegel said, saying he was "along for the ride" during the campaign and that he would like to abolish the use of outside political groups in campaigns.
Rimes declined to comment Tuesday. In his deposition, he said he told Kreegel "things were going on" related to polls and fliers, but he was unsure about the details of those conversations.
The use of a group called the Floridians for Fairness Action Fund to pay for a poll in Kreegel's district may have skirted election laws. The group, which listed Rimes as a contact person in 2004, was registered with the IRS as a 527 nonprofit group and was not registered for political action with the state.
Mark Herron is a Tallahassee lawyer specializing in election rules. He said as a general rule, a 527 group can pay for ads and other campaign work that advance a message that helps a candidate, but it cannot engage in details such as a poll.
Though the poll was specific to Kreegel's race and district at a time, when Rimes was overseeing that campaign, the poll was conducted for Rimes and Floridians for Fairness and not the Kreegel's campaign.
Rimes said in the deposition that after he received the poll for Floridians for Fairness, he recommended the Kreegel campaign pick up activity to bolster sagging poll figures in the Lee County portion of the district.
Should a poll paid for by an outside group benefit a candidate, its cost should be listed as a contribution on that candidate's campaign finance reports. Kreegel's reports show no such contribution.
And, while contributions to a candidate are limited to $500, IRS documents show the poll cost $5,398.
"If part of their poll is something that is of value to a candidate and they give it to a candidate, there is a thing of value being given that must be limited to $500," Herron said.
The crux of Kreegel's lawsuit is that the attack flier's claim that he was "arrested" is false and defamatory.
The accusation was based on an incident in 1989 in which Kreegel said a woman who had been harassing him drove her vehicle at him and he kicked the door as she passed. The driver went to the state attorney, who signed off on a document known as an "information" for criminal mischief.
Kreegel said he did not know about the state attorney's action until 2004 and was never arrested.
An information has the same legal standing as a grand jury indictment.
Willie Meggs, the state attorney for the 2nd Circuit in Tallahassee who has no involvement in the Kreegel lawsuit, said this year an information is not considered an arrest unless it has been served on the person.
But Rimes, in his deposition, said his "initial reaction" upon reviewing the campaign's own background check was that Kreegel had been arrested.
Kreegel said Tuesday he was not arrested and maintains the flier defamed his reputation.
Nielsen's attorney, Martin Reeder, said the fact that Kreegel's campaign consultant believed he had been arrested will make it very tough for Kreegel to meet the legal standard of "malice" necessary to win a defamation suit.
Depositions taken by Kreegel's attorneys last year revealed that the Florida Home Builders Association OK'd the anti-Kreegel attack ads orchestrated by Nielsen in an effort to elect lawmakers more amenable to choosing Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, as House Speaker in 2009.
The lawsuit became a rallying cry for lawmakers this year hoping to curtail the influence of groups that shuttle money between themselves in an effort to hide the source of political activities.
Roberson, a Port Charlotte funeral home owner and Kreegel's Republican primary opponent in 2004, said Tuesday he believed Kreegel knew nothing about the fliers that attacked him.
One flier pictured a hearse and accused Roberson of "running away" from "his record of contributing money to liberal Democrats."
Roberson has contributed $500 to Kreegel's current campaign and wrote off the fliers as the product of Kreegel's campaign operators.
"The saying that all's fair in love, war and politics is certainly true," Roberson said.
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