Scandals claim job of lobbyist
Dorworth resigns as reports link probes to web of power brokers
Central Florida lobbyist Chris Dorworth resigned from his firm on Friday, after his name had surfaced in a pair of unfolding scandals that have rocked Florida politics in recent weeks.
There’s a federal investigation that started with former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg but which has reportedly now expanded to include allegations of sex with a minor and sex trafficking against U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz.
And then there’s an investigation out of South Florida into allegations of staging dummy third-party candidates in high-profile state Senate elections last year, which has led to charges against former state Sen. Frank Artiles, a Republican from Miami.
Both controversies have in common Dorworth, the former Republican lawmaker-turned-lobbyist from Seminole County and longtime friend of both Gaetz and Artiles.
Records released this week by the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office show the Greenberg investigation appears to have begun when local authorities determined a teacher who been accused of a crime was really the victim of a bogus smear.
An attorney for the Trinity Preparatory School teacher — who helped lead opposition to Dorworth’s proposed housing development known as River Cross and ran against Greenberg for tax collector — told police that one of the people he suspected to be behind the smear was Dorworth, the records showed.
Separately, the New York Times reported this week that federal investigators, who have since taken over the Greenberg probe, learned of a conversation in which Gaetz and Dorworth discussed the possibility of putting up a third-party candidate to help their friend win a Senate seat.
That friend was Jason Brodeur, Dorworth’s longtime buddy. Brodeur won a fiercely fought Senate race in Seminole and Volusia counties that also included a mysterious third-party candidate who did no campaigning herself but benefited from advertisements funded by a darkmoney group.
One of the people at Brodeur’s victory party that night: Artiles, the since-arrested former legislator. According to the Miami Herald, was overhead at that party boasting of his role in lining up a thirdparty candidate in another Senate race — who also benefited from advertisements funded by the same dark-money group as the third-party candidate in Brodeur’s race.
Dorworth did not respond to requests for comment. But he told the New York Times he did not recall having a conversation with Gaetz about running a third-party candidate in Brodeur’s race and said he had nothing to do with the woman who ultimately did put her name on the ballot.
“I never met the woman who did run,” Dorworth said. “Never spoke to her, communicated by any written device, gave her any money or anything else.”
Still, amid the intensifying glare,
Dorworth announced Friday night that he was stepping down from Ballard Partners — the Tallahassee lobbying firm led by Republican Party fundraiser Brian Ballard where Dorworth was hired in 2012 after he unexpectedly lost a bid for re-election to the Florida House.
“I always loved working [at Ballard]. Best boss, best coworkers, best clients,” Dorworth said in a social media post. “The current political climate is nasty, and I told Brian I don’t think it’s fair for the recent media storm to take away from their missions.”
Gaetz has broadly denied all allegations against him and specifically said that he has never paid for sex nor has he slept with an underage girl as an adult.
Artiles, who is facing several campaign finance-related charges stemming from his involvement with a third-party candidate in a South Florida race, told reporters while leaving jail last month that “this will be decided in the courts.”
Greenberg, 36, who faces a slew of federal charges ranging from sex trafficking to stalking, wire fraud, identity theft and bribery of a government official, is currently negotiating a plea deal with federal prosecutors, which has fueled speculation that he could cooperate with federal authorities in the Gaetz investigation.
Powerful allies
Dorworth, Gaetz and Artiles have been close friends, powerful forces and divisive figures in Florida politics for a decade now, ever since serving in the state House of Representatives together.
Dorworth, 44, who served in the House from 2007 to 2012, was in line to become House speaker before losing reelection and becoming a prominent lobbyist in Tallahassee.
Artiles, 47, who served in the House from 2010 to 2016, was elected to the state Senate in 2016 but resigned a few months later after using a racist slur against some of his colleagues. He became a lobbyist, too.
And Gaetz, 38, served in the state House from 2010 to 2016 before winning an election to Congress, where he gained national prominence by becoming a loud supporter of former President Donald Trump.
All three are brash and combative. Some of their friends and allies have also been ensnared in the sprawling Greenberg investigation.
CBS News reported that investigators are also looking into a trip to The Bahamas that Gaetz took with Winter Garden hand doctor and GOP fundraiser Jason Pirozzolo in which Pirozzolo allegedly paid for travel, accommodations and female escorts.
Links through airport board
Pirozzolo, who did not respond to requests for comment, has long been a popular figure in the Florida House of Representatives, where he has repeatedly been invited to serve as the chamber’s “doctor of the day.” In fact, in 2013, then-House Speaker Will Weatherford joked on the House floor about how often Pirozzolo was in the state House; he’d been invited that day by Artiles.
“The rumor is he’s starting a satellite office in Tallahassee,” Weatherford said.
He’s also a pilot who has personally flown a number of politicians around the state.
Campaign finance records show that Artiles has flown in Pirozzolo’s plane before and in August 2018, while DeSantis was campaigning in the Republican primary for governor, Pirozzolo posted on social media that he’d flown a “friend” running in an election all around the state; that same day, DeSantis reported a contribution from Pirozzolo for $4,800 worth of “transportation.”
More recently, Gaetz encouraged DeSantis to put Pirozzolo on the board that runs the Orlando airport — where Pirozzolo then joined the 2019 attempt also involving Dorworth and Gaetz to oust the board’s longtime general counsel and replace him with new lawyers. One was an attorney who has represented Dorworth personally in River Cross.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported this week that another person on the alleged Bahamas trip was Halsey Beshears, another former Republican member of the state House. Beshears, 49, served from 2012 to 2019, before DeSantis appointed him to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
Beshears, who did not respond to requests for comment, also played a role in the Orlando airport power struggle.
He served as one of Pirozzolo’s references for the appointment by DeSantis to the airport board. And then — after Pirozzolo subsequently clashed with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, who are also airport board members — Beshears pushed legislation in Tallahassee meant to remove the mayors from the airport board.