Rekers's Rent Boy a Dream for Florida's Dems

Rent boy Jo-vanni Roman may be the bane of George Rekers's existence, but the Florida Democratic Party couldn't love him more. In fact, Roman may be the one to help them take back the governor's office.

For anyone who doesn't watch late-night television, Roman is the paid escort whom "conversion" therapy proponent Rekers hired to accompany him on a trip to London and Madrid earlier this month. The Miami New Times broke the story of the traveling twosome, and Rekers later said he didn't realize Roman worked hourly when he hired him to help "haul luggage." Roman later elaborated on the European vacation, telling the New Times he administered nude massages to Rekers during the trip.

Here's where it gets bad for not only the GOP establishment of Florida, but Bill McCollum, the state's Republican attorney general who wants to succeed Charlie Crist as governor of the Sunshine State. McCollum paid Rekers over $120,000 for antigay testimony in a 2008 case in which a judge ultimately ruled Florida's now-33-year-old ban on gays adopting children was unconstitutional.

"This is such a glaring example of government waste," Eric Jotkoff, communications director for the Florida Democratic Party, tells The Advocate. "[Especially] as he makes claims to be a fiscal conservative as candidate for governor of Florida."

Jotkoff's boss, Florida Democratic Party chairwoman Karen Thurman, sent McCullom a letter Tuesday asking him to return Rekers's payment to Florida's coffers: "To show you recognize the egregious nature of your spending, your campaign should reimburse the State of Florida's treasury the full cost of the funds you steered towards George Rekers for his 'expert' testimony. Anything less would be an affront to the taxpayers of our state."

McCollum's mess keeps getting messier. Not only was McCollum's hiring of Rekers ethically dubious -- an Arkansas circuit court judge called his testimony in a 2004 case involving gay foster parent rights "extremely suspect" and said Rekers "was there primarily to promote his own personal ideology" (the judge's words came four years before McCollum hired him) -- but Jotkoff says the actual payment illustrates extreme incompetence on McCollum's part.

"Because McCollum had been negligent in signing the [initial] contract to Rekers for $60,900, which didn't have a cap on the fee, it allowed Rekers to charge the state of Florida another additional $59,793," Jotkoff said. "And McCollum, unlike in the Arkansas case where Arkansas fought the additional fees, just paid it without question."

As of press time, McCollum's camp did not return a call for comment.

Floridians are not supportive of the ban on gay parenting, according to Jotkoff, which makes McCollum's aggressive push to maintain it even more egregious. McCollum appealed the 2008 Miami-Dade circuit court decision that ruled the ban unconstitutional -- a ruling by the appellate court is expected soon.

Many are calling for the attorney general to inform the appellate court of Rekers's tainted testimony and have it struck from the record. Both Democratic candidates vying to replace McCollum as attorney general said they would drop the appeal if elected, according to Jotkoff. Alex Sink, Florida's chief financial officer and the Democratic candidate for governor, has previously voiced opposition to her state's ban on adoption by gays. She also blasted McCollum's role in Rekers's hiring Wednesday.

Speaking on a radio show, Sink said, "When Attorney General McCollum was asked why he would hire a man like this -- who previous courts had said that his testimony [had] no legitimacy -- his response was, 'Well it wasn't me who hired him. It was the Department of Children and Families, they hired the expert witnesses.' Well, surprise, surprise, about two weeks later the Department of Children and Families said, 'Oh, no that's not the way it was. We didn't want to hire this guy. The attorney general demanded that we hire the man,' and they produced a letter signed by the Attorney General McCollum himself."

The Democrats of Florida couldn't have asked for a better present than Jo-vanni Roman. But Jotkoff sounded sincere when he said the Democrats really do want to end Florida's adoption ban.

"There is a growing sense of anger," Jotkoff said. "Floridians have long opposed the discriminatory ban. This scandal involving Mr. Rekers just highlights, not just the hypocrisy of the right-wing Republicans who continue to defend [the ban], but Florida's Republican legislature and Florida's Republican governor, who also continue to defend it. The true scandal here is that Florida still has this discriminatory ban that stops loving parents from adopting children."