The Phoenix Flyer

State Rep. Sean Shaw demands apology from CFO Jimmy Patronis for “racially biased” questions

By: CD Davidson-Hiers - July 6, 2018 4:00 pm

From left to right: Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Gov. Rick Scott, Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis and Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam met June 14 as the Executive Clemency Board to hear pending applications. Credit: The Florida Channel

In response to a Florida Phoenix story, Florida State Representative Sean Shaw, who is running for Attorney General, is calling for Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis to apologize for his “racially biased” questioning of an African-American applicant at the June 14 clemency hearing in Tallahassee.

“It is one thing to try to determine the good moral character of someone applying for clemency but it is a whole other when an elected member of the cabinet asks racially biased questions such as by how many different mothers an applicant has fathered children,” Shaw stated in a press release.

The release went on to say that if having a child by more than one or two mothers were a standard the clemency board considered, then President Trump would not be eligible for clemency should he apply.

“The CFO should apologize to Mr. Jones and to the African-American community for even considering, lest uttering such a question,” Shaw said in the statement.

Shaw is a first-term Democratic representative from the Tampa area running for Florida Attorney General where his only competitor is Hillsborough County immigration attorney Ryan Torrens. Patronis is currently running for election as Chief Financial Officer after being appointed by Gov. Rick Scott last year to fill former CFO Jeff Atwater’s term.

Patronis was not immediately available for comment.

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CD Davidson-Hiers

CD Davidson-Hiers is a 2017 summa cum laude graduate of Florida State University with a degree in Creative Writing and French. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Golden Key honors societies, and has received multiple writing awards for fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Prior to joining the Florida Phoenix, CD worked at the Tallahassee Democrat and has bylines in Tallahassee Magazine. She is a native of Pensacola and currently lives in Tallahassee with her tabby cat, Faulkner.