Repulsive Florida GOTP mailing compares teachers' unions to Jerry Sandusky (Republican, education)

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GOTP hits bottom, digs, then digs some more until it comes out in Australia. Even its intended beneficiary says it's "indefensible."

How can people like the ones who created this ad look at themselves in the mirror in the morning?

Group financed by incoming Speaker Will Weatherford tries to link Castor Dentel with convicted molestor Jerry Sandusky – Central Florida Political Pulse – Orlando Sentinel

Mailers began arriving Friday at homes in House District 30 in Orange and Seminole counties that on one side depict a grainy image of Castor Dentel, an elementary-school teacher in Maitland. And on the other: the image of a jumpsuit- and handcuff-clad Sandusky, the former Penn State University assistant football coach who in June was found guilty of 45 counts of child sexual abuse, convicted of molesting 10 boys over a 15-year period.

Next to Sandusky’s image, the mailer reads: “Karen Castor Dentel would rather protect bad teachers and the union than young and impressionable students.”

The claim appears to be based on Castor Dentel’s opposition to a measure passed in 2011 by the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature that eliminated tenure for public-school teachers. The measure was fiercely opposed by the Florida Education Association, of which Castor Dentel is a member.

Castor Dentel called the attack “disgusting.”

“I’ve never seen anything so despicable,” she said.

Plakon, R-Longwood, said he had nothing to do with the attack and that he had not seen the piece himself. But he acknowledged, “It sounds indefensible.”

The mailer was paid for by a committee known only as the “Committee to Protect Florida.” But records show the group is being financed in large part by Republican leaders in the Florida House – chiefly by incoming House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel.