Y'all know that she resigned last week as Florida's lieutenant governor, after a $300 million gambling operation (for whom she once served as a public relations consultant) masked as a chain of veterans-charity-oriented Internet cafes was uncovered. Nearly 60 people have been arrested, but Ms. Carroll has not been charged with any crime. She did her first post-resignation interview with The New York Times (provided that they didn't ask her to comment on the gambling investigation), which also highlights her background:
What's next for her? "Despite a tumultuous week, Ms. Carroll said in a 25-minute interview
that she was ready to move on and that she viewed her resignation as a
setback rather than a catastrophe. She said she was already fielding
offers and was weighing a jump into corporate life, community service
and, perhaps later, a return to politics. 'People are calling me asking me to run for this, that and the other
thing,' said Ms. Carroll, 53, who is married with three grown children. 'I say, you know what? First of all, I am going to spend time with my
family, because for the last two years it’s been very difficult.'"
The longtime strained relationship with Florida Governor Rick Scott: "Rumblings
had surfaced in recent months that he might replace her in the 2014
campaign. Her connection to Allied Veterans was seen in Tallahassee as
the latest in a string of missteps that Mr. Scott had come to view as
troublesome, political consultants said, among them, excessive travel
expenses and the firing of an aide who later made embarrassing
accusations about her and the governor’s office."
The other hot mess in Jennifer Carroll's career: "As a lawmaker, too, Ms. Carroll was tripped up by ethical lapses or
oversights: she received a master’s degree from an online diploma mill;
in 2010, she introduced a bill to legalize sweepstakes cafes, despite
her work for Allied, later saying an aide had filed the bill without her
knowledge; and she overstated her net worth in 2005 by $200 million,
eventually amending it to show that her assets totaled $2 million. Last year, a former staff member, who is facing criminal charges,
suggested that Ms. Carroll was having an affair with a woman who was her
aide. Ms. Carroll, who has been married for 30 years, offended lesbians
by saying, 'Black women who look like me don’t have relationships like
that.' She later apologized, but critics said it was a major stumble. 'There were red flags in Carroll’s political career dating back more
than 10 years ago,' said Dan Krassner, the executive director of the
independent ethics watchdog group Integrity Florida. Other critics said she could be viewed as egotistical."
Her Navy background: "A tomboy who helped her uncle with plumbing and masonry — and who can
dip into salty language in private — she chose to venture into male
territory, selecting jet mechanic and aviation maintenance as her Navy
job. Despite discouragement, racism and sexism, she said, she rose from
the lowest rank to lieutenant commander. 'That was a very difficult experience for me,' she said. 'It was an
environment where a lot of senior enlisted men did not want women in
their Navy. They used to say that.' But she learned to thrive in a male-dominated enclave, which suited her
well when she entered Republican politics, friends and colleagues said."
More About Jennifer Carroll
