Opinion: Allie Braswell's Financial Impropriety Disqualifies Him from Public Office

Although Allie Braswell’s State House campaign platform doesn’t include bankruptcy as a core tenet, his record certainly indicates a fondness for going broke. Braswell’s last failed campaign for Florida’s CFO came to a grinding halt when the Tampa Bay Times outlined his propensity for financial mismanagement, filing for bankruptcy three times over an unlucky thirteen years from 1995 to 2008.

Braswell’s 2008 bankruptcy petition listed $324k in assets and roughly $509k in liabilities, accompanied by an abrupt and unexplained closure to his military career.

Judge Arthur B. Briskman of the US Bankruptcy Court ultimately dismissed the case due to Braswell’s failure (yet again) to keep up with his payment plan, being in delinquency to the tune of $6k, and a homeowners association, along with the town of Oakland, filed liens against the embattled politician at the time of his third divorce for unpaid fees and bills.

One might suspect the third time to be the charm for Braswell with three bankruptcies and three failed marriages, but he most recently filed for a fourth bankruptcy in May of 2015, and the debtor now seeks to take this same mindset to the State House as the Democratic nominee for district 45. A transplant from outside the county, Braswell isn’t just a mere bankrupt or the average political carpetbagger. He’s a flip flopper, switching parties in July of 2008, apparently for partisan purposes.

Like our gerontocracy in Washington, Braswell’s lifetime of financial antics disqualifies him for public office. If he can’t manage a simple household budget, how can he do so at the state level? If he can't remain faithful to his obligations, how can he keep fidelity to the people of Florida?

We believe in the old rule from America’s favorite pastime: “three strikes you’re out.” Braswell's already had four financially. If he wants a fifth try at bankruptcy, he needs to do it own his own dime, not the taxpayers'.