'Cute' e-mail lands state Rep. in hot water (FL Republican)

TALLAHASSEE -- State Rep. Don Brown thought he was being "cute." His fellow Republicans in the Florida House had another word for it: racist.
Brown, a DeFuniak Springs Republican, apologized Thursday for sending an e-mail to his colleagues that noted the April 17 federal income tax deadline.

"Don't forget to pay your taxes -- 12-million illegal aliens are depending on you!" Brown wrote in a message to his colleagues on a state-issued email account.

.....

Rep. Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, said the Brown e-mail showed "an ignorance as to the founding of both this state and our country. It deeply saddens me that this mentality still exists in what we consider to be a forward-looking government."
Rep. Juan-Carlos Planas, R-Miami, said Brown's remark was "not just racist on its face, but it's not true."

"It's that type of mentality that is prohibiting passage of a reasonable compromise immigration bill in Washington," Planas said. "As long as that festers, we're losing what the American spirit was all about."

.....

"I wish I had not sent it out," Brown said in an interview. "I have apologized, and I will apologize again. In fact, I had not given it a whole lot of thought, which was my fault."

Brown added: "I did not think it through. It looked cute to me."

.....

Crist Gets Rare Public Rebuke from a Fellow Republican

posted by Jason Garcia on Apr 13, 2007 7:30:21 AM


Gov. Charlie Crist applied the personal touch again Thursday, appearing before the House Jobs & Entrepreneurship Council to persuade them to approve a bill making state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. more competitive with private insurance companies. The plan "would help the people of Florida," Crist told council members.

But the council approved the bill only after one member, Rep. Don Brown, R-DeFuniak Springs, publicly rebuked Crist, who was still sitting in the front row of the audience. Brown, one of two legislators to vote against the bill, pointed out that roughly three out of four homeowners in Florida aren't Citizens homeowners -- but would still have to pay extra assessments to bail Citizens out should it run out of money after a hurricane.

"The governor wants to help the people of Florida? I can tell you what'll help the people of Florida is to vote this bill down -- so that those three out of four don't get an assessment for a risk they didn't take," Brown said.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2007/04/crist_gets_rare.html