Ross is on recess, but no word yet on when he’ll face constituents at a public event
With Congress out of session until next week, Congressman Spano’s been hard at work in his district – holding tons of media availabilities and public events spanning from Brandon to Lakeland to Groveland.
Just kidding! Spano hasn’t held a single public event since he fled Washington one week ago.
Ah, vacation. Ross Spano could use one after a rough couple months for the scandal-plagued freshman.
Spano was sworn in amid a swirl of controversy over his half-baked scheme to finance his campaign with private loans. That hair-brained idea led to complaints being filed with the FBI, FEC and House Ethics Committee. And then Spano’s own lawyer acknowledged his possible “violation” of the law. Whoops!
And lately, Spano and his campaign have been suffering from foot-in-mouth disease.
After it appeared Spano only raised $1 from grassroots contributions, his campaign strangely volunteered that they had only been “testing” their website – and that they’d really raised $0 from the grassroots. Way to go!
A few days later after that “clarification,” Ross had another bright idea: while addressing the nation from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, he would quote civil rights icon Coretta Scott King in a speech opposing civil rights legislation for LGBTQ Americans… and was promptly pilloried online by thousands of Americans for doing just that.
And after all the fun he’s been having lately, Congressman Spano fled Washington last week and decided to let it rip on Fox. Beats working!
Some of our favorite moments from his interview include:
- Spano eagerly describing how so many Americans hate people like him who represent “Washington politics”
- Spano slamming partisan politics moments before repeating his partisan talking points
- Spano conceding that Republicans like him bear responsibility for trillion-dollar deficits and have “a spending problem”
- And in a Freudian slip, Spano accidentally referring to the U.S. House as the “Florida House” – Spano’s former place of employment in the good old days before all those pesky scandals!
Meanwhile, still no word on when the embattled congressman plans to hold his first town hall meeting and face his outraged constituents in person. Congress is out of session until Monday, June 3.
At the very least, Congressman Spano will get to enjoy being away from the job he hates for a few more days.
“Welcome home, Congressman Spano – you may have been in Washington for the last few weeks but your scandals and legal questions haven’t gone anywhere,” DCCC Spokesperson Avery Jaffe said. “We know Congressman Spano keeps a busy schedule of working to strip Floridians of their health care and stumbling into gaffe after gaffe, so we hope he enjoys this time off.”
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