Florida Not Punishing Debt Collectors Hard Enough to Satisfy Newspaper

Does anyone remember the story about the two politicians tripping over themselves to regulate debt collectors in The Sunshine State? No?

In the run-up to the 2010 Florida gubernatorial election, the two leading candidates from their respective parties waged a very public war against the ARM community in their state. Well, “war” alone is a tough word, since nothing actually happened, so let’s call it a war of words.

Both candidates were in positions that gave them the authority to regulate financial matters, like debt collection. Alex Sink, the Democratic candidate, was Florida’s Chief Financial Officer at the time, while Republican Bill McCollum was the Attorney General. So why did they decide to wage war on Battlefront: Debt Collection? Because of a newspaper.

The Orlando Sentinel pointed out that neither candidate had launched actions against debt collectors, despite both being in a position to do so. This was in late 2009, when it was apparent both would be players in the Governor’s race. Thus started a game of one-upmanship to determine who could be harder on collectors.

But democracy got in the way and neither was elected Governor. McCollum didn’t even get his party’s nomination, losing it to eventual winner Rick Scott. Sink showed well in the general election, losing to Scott by a single point. Interestingly, Sink nor McCollum currently holds an elected position in Florida after their losses.

The Sentinel did not let the story die. Friday, the paper issued a fresh call for someone, anyone really, to take on debt collectors in the state. Despite hundreds of complaints since election day, a finalized action against a debt collector from any Florida official has not materialized, although several are in the works, according to the article.

After the original article in 2009 targeted at Sink and McCollum, the Florida legislature did pass more restrictive debt collection rules. They just haven’t been used. So the paper got at least one result from its writing.