Jack Latvala – The face of ugly old-school politics

If you live here in the Bay area, Jack Latvala is your state senator.

St. Petersburg, Fl
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
Author: In Search of Robin, So You Want to Blog. 

Like many, I have watched the sexual misconduct charges originally reported in Politico regarding Florida State Senator Jack Latvala gradually unfold.

Latvala, often referred to as the most powerful man in the Florida Senate, has reacted to the allegations with a full-frontal attack on the lone accuser of the six reported in Politico to come forward.

The moral outrage by some of Latvala’s colleagues is at times laughable, but the circumstances of Mr. Latvala’s actions are certainly not.

Latvala’s approach to intimidate his accuser and scare off any others from coming forward is as old as time.

The tide is turning against the senator as colleague State Senator Lauren Book has filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee.

 “It appears the Senator may have engaged in behavior that violates the trust we sought to establish, and which every alleged victim of misconduct deserves, by potentially victimizing, or re-victimizing, the complainant,” wrote Book, herself a childhood victim of sexual abuse. Read more in  the Miami Hearld/Times article by Mary Ellen Klas: Senator files complaint against Latvala for interfering in investigation.

Just in case you question the power and reach of Jack Latvala, note this December 5, 2017 article from John Romano Tampa Bay Times Romano: Forget the accusers, Latvala is taking himself down. One day later a much more understanding John Romano in the Tampa Bay Times, writes Romano: Like him or not, Latvala deserves a fair hearing.

It seems the most concerned people about the imploding of Latvala’s political career are those he could or has helped the most, and the ones most interested in his political demise are his political adversaries. Few seem concerned about the women he has viciously attacked in the media and the others who may lie awake at night enraged by what happened to them and too terrified to say anything.

The only thing that gives guys like Latvala the ability to commit and get away with these acts is the power of the position they occupy.

It is way past time for Latvala to go, and the only thing keeping him in place is the rest of the good old boys in Tallahassee who are scared to death that the timely demise of Jack Latvala’s political career may open the flood gates and swallow them up too.

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