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Corcoran's crystal clarity

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Tom Jackson

tjackson@tampatrib.com

Published: June 7, 2009

LAND O' LAKES - Mud is the natural byproduct of political ambition, and no one who spends more than a little time in the arena escapes without at least a spattering.

Richard Corcoran, arena veteran, carries the memory - at least - of how it feels to be the proverbial man by the puddle just as the taxi whips past.

This may help explain the most interesting aspect of Corcoran's campaign to succeed term-limited District 45 Rep. Tom Anderson in the state House. Not that it's among the first half-dozen reasons he provides for his filing, but his thoughts on this particular matter may set him apart from the other Republicans in the primary.

His as-yet-untrumpeted issue: transparency.

From city hall to Capitol Hill, corruption tends to be an institutional highway, and what you tell your constituents about it usually reflects your status. Outsiders decry it, often right up until the moment they become insiders - especially insiders in the majority.

The highway survives, often with widening projects and lavish exit and entry ramps and despite the game efforts of sincere reformers, because it travels through the Land of the Permanent Fog. Yes, even in the Sunshine State.

All sunshine, all the time

Corcoran, 45, a Trinity-based lawyer specializing in business and labor law - the Pasco County Sheriff's Office is among his clients - would change all that. He would subject everything from the entrails of budget-making to the slightest entry on a public official's expense account to speedy disclosure on the Internet.

He would do away with having to ask for the lawmaker's past six months of travel data, followed by the inevitable delay. It's already digitized; set up a pass-through system and make the public record, well, public.

Plainly, the current arrangement makes favor-swapping far too convenient because it is far too easily smothered in procedural wallpaper. Where there is convenience and the probability of not being caught, corruption grows like mildew in a neglected lanai.

The April indictment of former House Speaker Ray Sansom over apparent budget hanky-panky leaps to mind.

To this, Corcoran says: more sunshine.

Being right, being smart

It's not just the right thing to do. It's the smart thing, too. Majorities slide from favor for assorted reasons, but the stamp of corruption - from the federal House banking scandal in 1991 to Mark Foley and suggestive e-mails to House pages in 2006 and beyond - shifts power more assuredly than a bad economy and unpopular wars.

The campaign trail is certain to re-expose the warts on Corcoran's resume. His bloody battle in 1998 for Nancy Argenziano's state House seat; his time as an opulently paid chief of staff to then-Speaker Marco Rubio; his quick exit from a state Senate race in 2008; his popularity with power players in Tallahassee from the elected and lobbying classes.

His predisposition for sunshine would serve him well in those areas as well. After all, transparency begins at home.

Keyword: The Jax Files, for Tom Jackson's bonus insights.

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