Profile of a Florida Legislator

As budding political dynasties go, this one is more apt to evolve into the Borgias than the Kennedys.

She is a Haitian-American and had graduated a registered nurse from a college in Port-au-Prince.  She and her husband moved to Florida, and in 2002 she formed a company and became owner of several group homes for the elderly and disabled.  Her facilities were less like those of "Cocoon" and more like Arkham.

Under her watch, a male patient raped a female patient who died shortly after the assault.  A second patient suffered a facial cut and developed a fungus infection.  She died two days after having finally been taken to hospital.  A third patient choked to death on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  A fourth died after being taken to hospital with a suspected bowel obstruction.  Inspectors from the Department of Elderly Affairs found rodent droppings on food shelves and dead roaches on the floors.  Her employees complained of having to work 80-hour weeks.

By 2006, after just four years, the DEA had had enough.  After all, nursing homes may be way stations between this world and the next, but they're supposed to ease the journey, not expedite it.  The department cancelled its contract with the nurse's company.

In the meantime, her husband, who has a felony conviction for mortgage fraud, was alleged to have used the identifications of two business partners to defraud the DEA of hundreds of thousands of dollars.  He is currently in bankruptcy and two of his properties are in foreclosure.

Looking for an alternate career path, the nurse, Daphne Campbell, ran for state representative from Florida's HR District 108, which comprises a large section of Miami.  She was elected in 2010 and began at once slopping at the public trough.

In 2011, her 28-year-old son was charged with Medicare fraud for allegedly  billing the government for $299,000 worth of services through separate group homes, services he did not provide.

Last year, her secretary was arrested for defrauding Haitian constituents of thousands of dollars by charging them fees to assist them with mortgage issues, immigration concerns, and traffic violation summonses.

First order of business for Representative Campbell in 2013?  Get rid of the red-light cameras installed at intersections to shoot pictures of those running red traffic lights.

"My constituents complained and the people are hurting," she said.  "I promised them when I went to Tallahassee that I would repeal the red-light cameras."

One of those constituents, perhaps the only one, was her husband, who had racked up four $158 tickets.  One photo of his minivan plainly shows a Campbell campaign sticker on it.  Two videos show it making reckless turns on red, one left and the other right.  Representative Campbell admitted to having received a ticket herself in October, but did not know anything about the other four.

"Something is definitely wrong," she told a reporter.  "You are the one who just told me about it.  This is news to me."

"I don't know how she wouldn't know, unless her husband didn't tell her," said a spokesperson for American Traffic Solutions, the vendor that supplies the cameras.  "Someone there knows about them because three have been paid."

Despite the video footage of the minivan blowing through red lights, she didn't believe it.  "It's a lie," said Representative Campbell.  "That camera is a made-up story.  You can do anything with the computer now."

Is that your strategy, your ladyship?  Ignorance and denial?  Seriously?  We are to believe you had no idea your secretary was selling access to your office to the very people who pay your salary?  You had no clue that your son was ripping off taxpayers by defrauding Medicae?  You deny the hard evidence of your husband's scofflaw and instead blame the technology that caught him in the act?

Good thing you're in the minority party in the Legislature.  You can only take up space when you're there, and no one misses you when you're not.