A few weeks ago, Buzzfeed caught the Jolly campaign editing David Jolly’s Wikipedia page to remove mentions of Jolly’s lobbying past. Jolly tried to blame the incident on his staff, but this isn’t the first time that Jolly has manipulated his biography to hide his lobbying career.
During his run for Congress in 2014, Jolly’s campaign literature completely omitted four years of work at Washington DC lobbying firm Van Scoyoc Associations. Though Jolly worked at Van Scoyoc from early 2007 to 2011, that information is conspicuously missing from this resume his campaign circulated:
Not only did Jolly carefully edit his resume to remove any mention of his time as a lobbyist, but he also manipulated the dates of his employment in other jobs to cover the four years he worked at Van Scoyoc.
Jolly claimed he started Three Bridges Advisors, Three Bridges Law, and 1924 Communications in 2008, but two of those businesses were not registered or operating until at least November 2010.
He also says he worked in US Rep. C.W. Bill Young’s office until 2013, but Jolly previously admitted to leaving Young’s in late 2006.
Before he ran for Congress, Jolly’s public biography prominently featured his lobbyist work, touting his “large and diverse portfolio” of clients. Yet once Jolly decided to run for office, he quickly went to work hiding his lobbyist career.
“David Jolly’s Wikipedia incident was no simple staff mistake – Jolly has a history of manipulating his biography to remove mentions of his lobbying career,” said Lauren Passalacqua, DSCC National Press Secretary. “Jolly should be ashamed of this blatant attempt to mislead Floridians. Florida voters deserve to know the truth about their elected officials, and Jolly has actively attempted to distort the truth about his lobbyist past.”
