Republican Party of Florida releases $7.3 million in AmEx statements (Still hiding Rubio's....)

TALLAHASSEE — The Republican Party of Florida released internal records Friday detailing $7.3 million in credit card charges made since 2007.

The bulk of the credit card statements were detailed in previous St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald reports, but the documents included at least $2.5 million in newly disclosed expenses.

Among the new charges: $95,296.80 that former party boss Carole Jean Jordan spent in one month for party events and $1,075 that finance staffer Cameron Ulrich dropped at Nic's Toggery, a high-end menswear store in Tallahassee.

Altogether, the expenses from 31 cardholders reveal the perks of being the political party in power, awash in special-interest money that fuels the extravagant lifestyles of top GOP lawmakers and staffers.

The statements cover the tenure of former Chairman Jim Greer, whose lavish spending prompted party officials to demand his resignation in January.

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But the release of statements only from Greer's tenure — even though the credit cards date back years earlier — demonstrates a concerted effort by the party to use him as a scapegoat and hurt the man who put him in charge, Gov. Charlie Crist.

Crist left the Republican Party on April 29 when he decided to run as a nonpartisan candidate for the U.S. Senate, a move that prompted the party to attack him with the same zeal it once defended him.

Crist never had a party credit card, but he acknowledged some charges covered his expenses.

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