Fla. Insurance Office Probe Should Wrap Up Shortly

A spokesperson for Florida Republican Gov. Charlie Crist said today that the probe into use of state computers for political purposes in the office of Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty should be concluded shortly.

"The investigation is limited in scope, so we expect a relatively short turnaround time," said Kathy Torian, the governor's deputy press secretary.

Ms. Torian said there is now a joint investigation underway by members of the Financial Services Commission, which consists of all state cabinet members and the governor and includes chief inspector general Melinda Miguel.

The investigation has been pressed by Florida's Democrat Chief Financial Officer Adelaide "Alex" Sink. Since she announced an inquiry into the office of Republican Commissioner Kevin McCarty, Mr. McCarty issued an apology and dismissed a high-ranking staff member.

Ms. Sink said Wednesday she had directed her inspector general, who was initially told to investigate, to ask Gov. Crist's chief inspector general, as well as the inspectors general for Attorney General Bill McCollum and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, to conduct a joint investigation.

The CFO began investigating after she said she learned that Mr. McCarty "was reportedly the sole host for a political fundraiser" for Robin Lotane--the wife of Mr. McCarty's communications director, Bob Lotane.

Invitations or e-mails to the affair were said to have been put together on an OIR computer.

Ms. Lotane, according to OIR spokesperson Jonathan Kees, was running unopposed for Circuit Court judge.

Ms. Sink said she was concerned Mr. McCarty may have used his position as insurance commissioner to solicit insurance industry political contributions.

Mr. McCarty reacted by announcing he was accepting Mr. Lotane's resignation and that, in addition to Inspector General Doug Darling from Ms. Sink's office, he had asked another inspector general attached to his office--Dan Callahan--to investigate.

Mr. Kees said Mr. McCarty had not seen the invitation before it went out, did not approve it, and did not attend the reception at the exclusive Governor's Club in Tallahassee.

Mr. McCarty said that his office welcomed an investigation and would cooperate fully.

The Commissioner said it was "unfortunate this isolated incident occurred, but we will work to ensure this does not happen again."

Mr. Kees added that while Mr. McCarty had used his personal phone to invite people to Ms. Lotane's fundraiser, he "did not use government resources."