Corrine Brown

legislator

Personal Information

Born on November 11, 1946, in Jacksonville, FL; single. Religion: Baptist.
Education: Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Tallahassee, Florida, B.S., 1969; University of Florida, Ed.S. education degree, 1974.
Religion: Baptist.

Career

United States Representative, Third District of Florida, member of the Democratic Party. Taught at University of Florida, 1970s; faculty member, Florida Community College, Jacksonville, 1977-82; guidance counselor, Florida Community College, 1982-92; elected to Florida House of Representatives, 1982; delegate, Democratic National Convention, 1988; elected to U.S. House of Representatives, 1992; re-elected in 1994, 1996, and 1998.

Life's Work

Corrine Brown, elected to the United States House of Representatives from Florida's Third District in 1992, was the first African American sent to Congress from Florida since the Reconstruction years of the nineteenth century. An outspoken and combative figure, she stood at the center of two of the most important issues affecting African American politicians during the 1990s. The use of redistricting to increase African American representation in Congress was a hotly debated issue for most of the decade. And at the end of the 1990s, Brown was subjected to an ethics investigation over her treatment of a West African millionaire who had given expensive gifts to her daughter. She became one of a number of African American elected officials whose dealings received closer-than-usual scrutiny.

A divorced mother of one, Brown was born in Jacksonville, Florida, on November 11, 1946. Graduating with a bachelor of science degree from Florida A&M University in Tallahassee in 1969, she went on to earn her master's degree in 1971, and an education specialist degree from the University of Florida three years later. Returning to her hometown, Brown taught at Florida Community College from 1977 to 1982 and then worked as a guidance counselor, a post she held until she ran for Congress in 1992. She is also the owner of the Springfield Travel Agency.

Elected to Florida House

Brown was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1982. She served five terms, gaining wide recognition in the Jacksonville area, and serving as a delegate to the 1988 Democratic National Convention. After the 1990 census, the Florida legislature carved out a new Third Congressional District in the northern part of the state. This district was designed to enclose an African American majority within its boundaries. Snaking through the old plantation country around the St. Johns River and Cross Creek and touching on predominantly African American neighborhoods in Jacksonville, Gainesville, Orlando, and Ocala, the Third District seemed likely to send Florida's first African American to Congress in over a hundred years, and Brown jumped at the chance to compete for this prize.

Brown faced several candidates in the 1992 Democratic primary, but the strongest opponent to emerge was a flamboyant white talk radio host from Jacksonville named Andy Johnson. Johnson, according to the Almanac of American Politics, called himself "the blackest candidate in the race." Brown defeated Johnson in the primary and in a two-candidate runoff, and went on to win the general election in November of 1992 by a 59 to 41 percent margin.

Combative from the start, Brown had admirers and detractors. Upon her arrival in Congress, she challenged the discriminatory treatment that minority motorists received in one of the rural counties that flanked Interstate 95, the main north-south route connecting the cities along Florida's coastline. She also worked diligently to bring economic development dollars to northern Florida. Although Brown voted mainly with the House's liberal Democratic bloc, she sat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee and was generally sympathetic to military concerns. Although the Republicans won control of the House following the 1994 congressional elections, Brown was easily re-elected.

Re-Elected Despite District Change

During the next election cycle, Brown was faced with new challenges. In 1995, the boundaries of the Third District were struck down due to their irregular shape, and the percentage of African American residents of the district declined to about 47 percent. One of the main instigators of the lawsuit that led to the redistricting was Brown's old political rival, Andy Johnson. Brown railed against the change, complaining that "[t]he Bubba I beat [Johnson] couldn't win at the ballot box [so] he took it to court," as she was quoted as saying in the New Republic.

Nevertheless, Brown faced a white majority smaller than those which confronted Georgia Democrats Cynthia McKinney and Sanford Bishop in the wake of the same court decision, and her district remained strongly Democratic. On Election Day in 1996, she won a convincing victory of 61 to 39 percent. Brown continued to work hard for her district, spearheading the construction of an $86 million federal courthouse in Jacksonville and using her seat on the House's Transportation Committee to set in motion various rail projects intended to alleviate central Florida's growing highway congestion. However, the most difficult challenge of Brown's Congressional tenure was yet to come.

In June of 1998, allegations surfaced that Brown's daughter Shantrel, a lawyer who worked for the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, had received a $50,000 Lexus LS 400 automobile as a gift from an agent of a Gambian millionaire named Foutanga Sissoko. Sissoko, a friend of Congresswoman Brown, had been imprisoned in Miami after pleading guilty to charges of bribing a customs officer. Brown had worked to secure his release, pressuring U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to deport Sissoko back to his homeland as an alternative to continued incarceration. Shantrel Brown later admitted at least the appearance of impropriety by selling the car and donating the proceeds to the African Methodist Episcopal Church's scholarship fund.

Filed Conspiracy Complaint

Brown, however, angrily denied wrongdoing. She filed a complaint of conspiracy to impede a member of Congress against two reporters from the St. Petersburg Times who tried to ask her about the case (the charges were later dismissed), and faxed a statement to Editor & Publisher magazine, which covered the controversy involving the reporters. In the statement, Brown remarked that "[i]t is unfortunate that the civil rights movement in this country must always prove itself--even defend itself when no defense should be necessary." Questions were also raised about the lack of documentation for a $10,000 donation made to Brown by the Rev. Henry Lyons, a controversial Baptist church leader who faced indictment on theft charges. Brown again denied any wrongdoing.

In the 1998 congressional election, Republicans tried to capitalize on Brown's political troubles by recruiting an African American candidate of their own. Their candidate, Bill Randall, was controversial in his own right. Much of the controversy centered around Randall's past nonpayment of taxes, and allegations that he had fathered a child out of wedlock. Although Republican heavyweights Newt Gingrich, Alan Keyes, and Christie Whitman campaigned for Randall, Brown won reelection by a margin of 55 to 45 percent.

Observers speculated that Brown had successfully weathered the political storms that had swirled around her. However, in June of 1999, the House Ethics Committee finally addressed the charges against Brown relating to Sissoko's gift to her daughter. "I am confident," Brown told the Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News, "that these charges...will also be finally put to rest."

Corrine Brown

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 3rd district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 5, 1993
Preceded by	Charles Bennett
Succeeded by	Incumbent

Born	November 11 1946 (1946--) (age 60) Jacksonville, Florida
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	single
Religion	Baptist

Biography

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Brown was educated at Florida A&M University where she received a bachelor's and master's degree, and the University of Florida, where she was awarded an Education Specialist degree. She received an honorary doctor of law degree from Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, and has been on the faculty at the latter two schools and at Florida Community College at Jacksonville. She served in the Florida House of Representatives for 10 years before entering government at the national level, and she is currently a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. In college she became a member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, one of four African American Greek letter sororities in the United States.

Brown was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1982. She served five terms, gaining wide recognition in the Jacksonville area, and served as a delegate to the 1988 Democratic National Convention.^{[citation needed]} After the 1990 census, the Florida legislature carved out a new Third Congressional District in the northern part of the state. This district was designed to enclose an African-American majority within its boundaries. A horseshoe-shaped district touching on predominantly African-American neighborhoods in Jacksonville, Gainesville, Orlando, and Ocala,^[1] the Third District seemed likely to send Florida's first African-American to Congress since Reconstruction, and Brown decided to run.^[2]

Brown faced several candidates in the 1992 Democratic primary, but the strongest opponent to emerge was a white talk radio host from Jacksonville named Andy Johnson. Johnson, according to the Almanac of American Politics, called himself "the blackest candidate in the race." Brown defeated Johnson in the primary and in a two-candidate runoff, and went on to win the general election in November of 1992.^[3] In 1995, the boundaries of the Third District were struck down by the Supreme Court^[4] due to their irregular shape, and the percentage of African American residents of the district declined to about 47 percent. One of the main instigators of the lawsuit that led to the redistricting was Brown's old political rival, Andy Johnson. Brown railed against the change, complaining that "[t]he Bubba I beat [Johnson] couldn't win at the ballot box [so] he took it to court," as she was quoted as saying in the New Republic. Brown won in her new white majority district in 1996.^[5]

Brown has enjoyed some of her strongest support from religious leaders.^[1] She also receives PAC money from organized labor and the sugar industry.^[6]

Complaints and investigations

Controversy has followed Brown since the start of her national political career, from her actions while a state legislator.^[6] The Florida Ethics Commission fined Brown $5,000 for using legislative employees as dual employees of her travel business.^[6]

A few weeks after becoming a member of the U.S. House in 1993, the Federal Elections Commission began investigating her. Her former campaign treasurer quit and said Brown had neglected to take action against an aide who had committed forgery, forging the treasurer's signature on her financial documents,^[6] and Brown told the FEC that her federal campaign reports contained several errors.^{[citation needed]} The staffer alleged to have forged the treasurer's signature stayed with Brown and as of 1998 was her chief of staff.^[6] In 1996, there was another investigation concerning charges that Brown improperly received and spent a $10,000 check from a secret account used for money laundering by National Baptist Convention leader Henry Lyons.^[1] Brown admitted receiving the check but denied she had used the money improperly.^[1] She was accused of not reporting the check or reporting who she received the money from. Brown said that she had taken the check and converted it into another check made out to Pameron Bus Tours to pay for transportation to a rally she organized in Tallahassee. She said that she didn't have to report the money because the rally was to protest the reorganization of her district lines, and she did not use it for herself.^[1] If the $10,000 gift had been reported, it would have exceeded the $1,000 individual donation limit.^[1]

Brown had had previous dealings with Lyons; in 1992, her campaign paid $5,000, allegedly for a computer, to a company owned by Lyons. The company had shut down six years earlier.^[6] Her office once arranged for Lyons to buy several airline tickets at the government discount rate.^[6] Under Congressional rules, only members of Congress and their staffers are allowed to take this rate.^[6]

In 1998, Brown hired jazz and gospel singer Roslyn Burrough as a "congressional outreach specialist". Burrough was paid $40,000 at taxpayer expense for two 12-week engagements.^[7]

In another discrepancy, Brown did not disclose the $40,000 sale of her Tallahassee travel company and improperly reported the sale of her Gainesville travel agency in her Congressional financial documents. In 1994, Brown was sued for $94,000 by a group of airlines alleging her travel agency had not paid them for services. She was investigated by the IRS for $14,000 in unpaid taxes. She attempted to pay a $5,697 debt to the University of Florida with a bad check.^[8]

On February 25, 2004 Brown referred to the George W. Bush administration as a "racist" "bunch of white men" in a meeting with senior State Department officials and members of Congress.^{[citation needed]} Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega, a Mexican American, said that he deeply resented "being called a racist and branded a white man." Brown replied to Noriega and Cuban-American Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart that "you all look alike to me". Brown later apologized for her statements, but still contends that President Bush's involvement in the 2004 Haiti Rebellion was racist.^{[citation needed]}

Ethics involving daughter

On June 9, 1998, the Congressional Accountability Project filed an ethics complaint against Brown. The Project called for the U.S. House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to investigate several violations of House Rule 10.^[9] One of the complaints was that Brown's daughter Shantrel, a lawyer who worked for the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, had received a $50,000 Lexus LS 400 automobile as a gift from an agent of a Gambian millionaire named Foutanga Sissoko. Sissoko, a friend of Congresswoman Brown, had been imprisoned in Miami after pleading guilty to charges of bribing a customs officer. Brown had worked to secure his release, pressuring U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to deport Sissoko back to his homeland as an alternative to continued incarceration. Shantrel Brown later admitted at least the appearance of impropriety by selling the car and donating the proceeds to the African Methodist Episcopal Church's scholarship fund. The Project held this violated the House gift rule, but Brown denied she had acted improperly. The congressional subcommittee investigating Brown found insufficient evidence to issue a Statement of Alleged Violation, but said she had acted with poor judgment in connection with Sissoko.^[10]^[1]

In June 2007, Citizens for Ethics released a report reporting Brown's daughter Shantrel Brown-Fields as a congressional lobbyist; the organization maintains that Congressional relatives working as lobbyists for special interests are a conflict of interest for lawmakers. Brown-Fields is employed by Alcalde & Fayte, with clients including ITERA, Miami-Dade County Commission, and Edward Waters College. In 2006, Brown's campaign committee paid her daughter's husband, Tyree Fields, $5,500 for political consulting work. Rep. Brown has earmarked millions of dollars in federal funding for her daughter's client Edward Waters College.^[11]

Political activity

In her previous (2003–2005) term, Brown cosponsored legislation regarding civil rights and foreign relations. She has also participated in Michael Moore's "Slacker" college voter drive tour.

On the first day of early voting for the 2004 General Election, Brown, with several supporters, stood on the steps of the entrance of the Duval County Supervisor of Elections headquarters, an early voting site, and began passing out a "pseudo-ballot," directing people to vote for only Democratic candidates and Florida amendments that should pass. It was not until noon that Brown and her supporters moved to the mandatory fifty feet away from the entrance. Brown claimed her intention had been to increase awareness of early voting, and that she had not knowingly violated the fifty feet rule.^[12]

She was one of the 31 who voted in the House to NOT count the electoral votes from Ohio in the United States presidential election, 2004. [1]

In 2006, Brown voted "no" on the Child Custody Protection Act, Public Expression of Religion Act, Electronic Surveillance Modernization Act, Military Commissions Act, and Private Property Rights Implementation Act of 2006. She voted "yes" on the SAFE Port Act.

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "Rep. Brown explains check from Lyons" (July 28, 1998). St. Petersburg Times.
^ "COMMENDING CONGRESSWOMAN CORRINE BROWN OF THE 3RD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF FLORIDA FOR OUTSTANDING PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT." Alabama State Legislature.
^ "Concentrating Minority Voters Builds Liberal Strength in the South" (April 11, 2004) Stanford University.
^ "The shape of things to come: Cleo Fields is the first to fall as redistricting changes the political map — Blacks in Congress are threatened — Elections '96" (October 1996). Black Enterprise.
^ "Testimony of Professor David Canon " (June 21, 2006). Senate testimony.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h "Lawmaker got $10,000 from Lyons fund" St. Petersburg Times.
^ Guinta, Peter (June 30, 2004). [http://www.staugustine.com/stories/102498/congress_election.shtml "Congress seat battle continues" ]. The St. Augustine Record.
^ (August 16, 1999). "Rep. Corrine Brown and her long trail of lies, deceit and unpaid bills". Capitol Hill Blue.
^ Ethics complaint. Congressproject.org.
^ [http://www.house.gov/ethics/Press_Statement_CorrineBrownend.html "Statement of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct in the Matter of Representative Corrine Brown"] (September 21, 2000). House.gov.
^ "Family Affair" (June 2007). Citizens for Ethics.
^ Meenan, Kyle (October 19, 2004). First Coast News Report. FirstCoastNews.com.

References

Tallahassee Democrat: Feb. 26, 2004 Coast Guard stops boat carrying 21 Haitians
WJXT (Jacksonville): Corrine Brown Calls Administration's Policy On Haiti 'Racist'
Washington Post: Brown Sorry She Called Powell Aide 'White'
Rep. Corrine Brown and her long trail of lies, deceit and unpaid bills, Capitol Hill Blue, August 1999
Doug Thompson, The most corrupt member of Congress?" Capitol Hill Blue, May 17, 2005
Ken Silverstein, "The ITERA/Weldon Link: Congressman flacked for daughter's client despite being briefed on its shady practices", Harper's Magazine, October 24, 2006
Anthony Gancarski, "Rep. Corrine Brown: A Good Fit for Her District?", CounterPunch, January 31, 2003
"Ethics finds troubling conduct by Rep. Corrine Brown", CNN.com, September 21, 2000

External links

U.S. Congresswoman Corrine Brown official House site
Corrine Brown at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Federal Election Commission — Corrine Brown campaign finance reports and data
On the Issues — Corrine Brown issue positions and quotes
OpenSecrets.org — Corrine Brown campaign contributions
Project Vote Smart — Representative Corrine Brown (FL) profile
Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Corrine Brown voting record
Corrine Brown for Congress official campaign site

Political offices
Preceded by Charles E. Bennett	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 3rd congressional district 1993–Present	Succeeded by Incumbent

Florida's delegation to the 110th United States Congress

Senators: Bill Nelson (D), Mel Martinez (R)

Representative(s): Jeff Miller (R), Allen Boyd (D), Corrine Brown (D), Ander Crenshaw (R), Ginny Brown-Waite (R), Cliff Stearns (R), John Mica (R), Ric Keller (R), Gus Bilirakis (R), Bill Young (R), Kathy Castor (D), Adam Putnam (R), Vern Buchanan (R), Connie Mack IV (R), Dave Weldon (R), Tim Mahoney (D), Kendrick Meek (D), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R), Robert Wexler (D), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R), Ron Klein (D), Alcee Hastings (D), Tom Feeney (R), Mario Diaz-Balart (R)

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