To the editor:

Amanda Jones’ letter to the editor in last week’s edition contained some inaccuracies which I feel need to be corrected.

The Lee County Patriots have not endorsed any candidate. We were, however, pleased when Speaker Rubio accepted an invitation, tendered last November when his poll numbers were well behind those of Gov Crist, to come to Pine Island and tell us of his values and his vision for our country’s future.

The Values posted on the LCP’s Web site are the core values of the Republican Party. Our group was formed from a loosely knit Republican Club. Admittedly, this was not clear on the Web page at the time Ms. Jones read it.

Out of 1,500 words contained on our Values page, Ms. Jones chose 23, “The Constitution is not a welfare document – It is simply ‘unsustainable’ for the government to provide for all the basics needs of society.” Her confusion is thus understandable because this sentence does not appear to have anything at all to do with the allegations she makes about Speaker Rubio using Republican Party of Florida funds for personal expenses.

The $4,000 for repair to the family’s minivan was actually, according to the St. Petersburg Times, “…a $1,000 charge at Braman Honda in Miami for repairs to the family car in January 2008. Rubio said the minivan was damaged by parking attendants at a political function and that the party agreed to cover half of his insurance deductible.” The party did not pay for the total of damage to the minivan.

As for the charge to All Fusion Electronics, might this have been an online or telephone purchase? It was never confirmed, at least by the media or certainly they would have reported it, that the purchase was made in person.

It should be noted that the (corrected) total of expenses cited by Ms. Jones was $1,912.58. During the time the expenses were charged, Speaker Rubio managed to raise over $10,000,000 for the Republican Party of Florida.

Gov. Crist should be talking about the issues, not Speaker Rubio’s expense account.

This is the sort of “campaigning” about which the American people are sick and tired. We here in Florida had the opportunity to pay attention to what Gov. Crist had to say during his campaign for the governorship and have had the opportunity to form opinions about Gov. Crist’s qualifications to serve as our state’s junior senator from his service as governor and lieutenant governor.

For instance, last year Gov. Crist spent $4,800 of TAXPAYER money to fly on a state plane to Tampa and Hollywood to hold ceremonial bill signings when he had actually signed both bills into law earlier in the day in the state capital. During the two week period during which the governor made these trips, he also traveled to Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Ocala, St. Augustine, Naples and Jacksonville for bill signing photo ops, according to the Miami Herald. Fiscally responsible? Good judgement?

But, since Gov. Crist brought up the issue about personal charges on RPOF AMEX accounts, how did an alleged thousands of dollars for flowers, airfare and accommodations for Gov. Christ’s December 2008 wedding wind up being charged to the RPOF Amex account? (www.shark-tank.net, March 25, 2010.)

Kathy Jones

St. James City