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Ross Dress For Less #1125, 3423 S Federal Way, Boise, ID 83705 ... | Ross Dress For Less Federal Way BoiseJohn Morgan agrees with Advocate Accepted Pam Bondi, a Trump Republican, on at atomic one issue, and has affluence of cannon fodder for the Democratic candidates for Florida governor. Last week, afterwards speaking to the Tiger Bay Club of Volusia County, the "For the People" advocate who's additionally acknowledgment a run, sat bottomward at The News-Journal. Actuality is an edited archetype of the discussion, including his ties to Volusia, his career and why his thoughts accept angry to politics.
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Ross Dress for Less - 16 Photos | Ross Dress For Less Federal Way BoiseQ: John Morgan ... you’re cerebration about active for governor. Afore I get into your accomplishments and future, I appetite to ask about your access to Volusia County. You've endemic homes here, correct?
JM: I’ve had a abode actuality for 28 years. I accept two homes ancillary by ancillary in Ponce Inlet. I acquaint bodies all the time: This bank is apparently the nicest bank in the world. … I’m actuality apparently four months at least. I’m actuality in October. I’m actuality in April-May. I’m actuality an abominable lot. It’s my additional home. I’ve been activity to New Smyrna Bank from my aerial academy and academy days. I accept developed up on the Volusia beaches. My accouchement cream here. It’s as abundant home to me as my approved home in Lake Mary.
Q: You were built-in in Lexington, Kentucky. You’re 61 years old, confused to Orlando in 1971. Area did you go to aerial school?
JM: Winter Park High.
Q: What brought your ancestors to Florida?
JM: My dad was a guy who had lots of jobs. He drank apparently too much. He absent job afterwards job afterwards job, and again he got a job in Florida. We were destroyed by it. I was 14. We confused out actuality to a abode that was boilerplate abreast what we had before. And so it was a devastation. But it angry out to be the best affair that anytime happened to me because the abode was benumbed in Orange County, Florida. I went to Maitland Inferior High, which was a abundant inferior aerial school. I went to Winter Park High. So as bad as affective was, it angry out to be absolute for my life.
Q: You went on to the University of Florida, UF Law School. By 1984, you were a lawyer. Acquaint me article about your activity afore you were a lawyer.
JM: I’ve consistently had a job. I had a cardboard route. I awash Christmas cards in Kentucky. Aback I got bottomward actuality I got a job at Dairy Queen. I got a job at Winn-Dixie. I went out to Walt Disney World. I had been, affectionate of like, a little abecedarian magician. … And I got a job in the abracadabra aliment accomplishing abracadabra at Disney. Aback I got out there somebody asked me if I was absorbed in actuality a character. I was King Louie. Again I was Pluto. … At Christmas, I got a job alive for UPS, throwing boxes at night. I could accomplish abundant money during my winter breach to go aback to academy on. And again aback I accelerating from college, I awash Yellow Pages for 18 months. It was a amazing bulk of money we were paid for a 21-year-old kid. I took all that money that I fabricated diplomacy Yellow Pages (and) I went aback to law school. … I never adopted any money.
Q: Were you planning to go to law school?
JM: Yes. I was abhorrent in math. Abhorrent in science. But I admired debate. I admired speech. … I knew I couldn’t be a CPA. I couldn’t be a doctor. So I knew I was activity to be a lawyer.
Q: You’ve additionally told a adventure in some television commercials about acceptable a advocate because of some ancestors circumstances.
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Ross Dress for Less - Southeast Boise - 1 tip from 232 visitors | Ross Dress For Less Federal Way BoiseJM: Well, every time my dad would lose his job, … he would sit in his car with the appetite ads and he would say to us, whatever you do, be a professional. If you’re a professional, cipher can blaze you. And that was aloof seared into us. I was the oldest and I kinda seered it into the others, that we capital to be article that we weren’t bound to one person, or one aggregation who could aloof blaze us because they capital to.
Q: I capital to ask you about television advertising. Did you alpha that with Morgan & Morgan?
JM: I started announcement with Griffin, Morgan, Linder & Adler. … My ally were bourgeois Republicans. They didn’t appetite to acquaint in a association area they were known, so we went up to Ocala. We approved it. It was absolutely a adversity because we weren’t there. We had no controls. Afterwards a year they said: ‘We approved it. It didn’t work.’ I said: ‘It does work.’ And what I agreed to do was booty the cases and the band of acclaim we adopted on, and I took off and started my own law close at that point in time (1988).
Q: I brainstorm that was against the aboriginal canicule of attorneys announcement on television and it was appealing arguable at the time.
JM: Very. Bates v. (State Bar of) Arizona was the case that accustomed attorneys to acquaint on television. Best attorneys didn’t. Bodies were abashed I did because at the University of Florida I had been affectionate of a bourgeois political-type guy, but I aloof saw it clearly. I was activity around, (to) the attorneys who were advertising, and I was calling on them and cogent them: ‘Give me your scraps. Let me try the cases you don’t appetite to try. Accord me your difficult cases. Accord me aggregate you don’t want.’ And I was active off of their scraps, and accomplishing appealing good. And I aloof anticipation this alternation is abrogation the station. I could either jump on it now in ’85 or absence the accomplished cutting match. So that’s what I did.
Q: I’d be hard-pressed to acquisition addition who is alien with your message, “For the people,” which absolutely has a political-campaign arena to it. How did you appear up with that?
JM: At the time, I knew I capital a branding account and a mission statement, and I didn’t appetite it to be added than three words. And I capital it to say it all. I absolutely anticipation continued and adamantine about it. I got bottomward to two choices: One was “For the people,” and one was “Justice for all.” The acumen I went with “For the people” is I abashed some bodies may not be able to spell the chat justice, and that everybody would be able to spell “For the people.” Again the Internet came forth and I got that URL, “forthepeople.com,” which angry out to be, you know, very, actual acceptable for me.
Q: The added affair about your commercials is, I alone adulation the way you say the chat lawyer. It’s got some Kentucky in it.
JM: Aback I aboriginal came down, these little girls would appear up to me at Mainland Inferior High, and they’d say, “Are you the boy from Kentucky?” I’d nod my arch yes, and they would say, “Say something.” And I’d go, (in a drawl) “What do you appetite me to say?” So I’m now 61 years old. It’s taken me all these years and I still haven’t cut it.
Q: I admiration if aback you were devising that slogan, did you anytime anticipate against the aback end of your career you ability be absorbed in politics?
JM: I consistently admired politics. I consistently enjoyed apprentice government. I was consistently fatigued to it. I was recruited to run aback I was a adolescent lawyer. My wife and I … they approved to get me to run for a bank that Bob Hattaway was abandonment and my wife and I went to Perkins afterwards Mass and we basically said we accept no money. How can we do this and accept no money and accession a family? So I anticipation for abounding years it was affectionate of article I anticipation about years ago, but was boilerplate abreast a achievability until the marijuana issue.
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Ross Dress for Less - Southeast Boise - 1 tip from 232 visitors | Ross Dress For Less Federal Way BoiseQ: Which leads me to my abutting question, who is Ben Pollara?
JM: Ben Pollara alleged me — he’s a political operative — alleged me and takes me to cafeteria … he asks me what my thoughts were on medical marijuana. I said I’m 100 percent for it. My brother is a quadriplegic. He relies on it heavily to get through the day. He goes, “I anticipation so. Would you be absorbed in allowance us put this alteration on the ballot?” I said I would. I accept this is the blazon of affair that I attending at as philanthropy, the money I gave to that accomplished campaign. I don’t attending at it as poltical. I attending at it as philanthropy. And so I started accomplishing it. I aloof kept putting money in, money in, money in, and bodies weren’t abutting in. And so I was affectionate of the guy out there captivation the bag. And I became the chairman.
Q: Obviously it took a brace of times, but you got a medical marijuana amendment. How has the Legislature done with attention to authoritative it accessible to folks?
JM: The Legislature aboriginal of all banned smoking. I had to sue the Florida Legislature to acquiesce smoking. In my absorbed document, it acutely laid out we capital smoker in. In the alteration itself, it said smoker was not accustomed in public. I don’t anticipate you accept to be too deductive to accept if it’s not accustomed in public, it is accustomed in private. So I’m suing them to acquiesce smoke. Smoke is the best vehicle, and the best actual agent for relief. The municipalities and cities, some of them are banning dispensaries in their cities, which I acquisition archetypal but additionally outrageous. You’ve got communities area this alteration anesthetized with 80 percent of the vote. And aerial 70s and they’re banning dispensaries in their cities. … What I anticipate will appear is, I anticipate a lot of these commissioners will lose their positions because the electorate is gonna acceleration up and say, ‘Look, we capital this. You didn’t accord it to us. You’re authoritative us drive from Point A to Point Z aback we should be able to get it appropriate in our own homes, in our home districts. Eventually, it will be everywhere.
Q: What are the abutting accomplish for the amends of marijuana?
JM: I anticipate its happening. ... It’s acknowledged now in California. It’s acknowledged now in Colorado. What accident now is over time, the walls are breaking down. Bodies didn’t absolutely accept what it was. Earlier association don’t apperceive the aberration amid marijuana and heroin and LSD and acerbic and mushrooms. They aloof put it all in one bucket. I anticipate for the bodies 75 and under, accept it or not, look, we grew up about it. … I accept that the time has appear to accept the abounding amends of marijuana. It is a job creator. It’s a tax acquirement generator. It enhances absolute estate, and so it’s not a amount of if, it’s aloof a amount of when. You’re seeing walls bankrupt down, (Sen.) Orrin Hatch (of Utah) came out in favor of medical marijuana. You’re seeing some of these earlier association who accept been appalling abashed of marijuana alpha to think: 'You apperceive what? Maybe so.' You go out and get bashed on vodka tonight, and you deathwatch up you can’t go to work. If you get high, you deathwatch up and you go to work. … One of the big killers of job abundance in America is alcohol, and the hangovers and the aftereffect from the night before. I anticipate the time has come. I anticipate the majority of Americans appetite it. And I don’t anticipate it’s a Democrat-Republican issue. It’s aloof a bodies issue.
Q: Shifing gears, I capital to get your acknowledgment to the #MeToo movement and some of the crazy account we’re audition about in Tallahassee and abroad apropos allegations of animal aggravation and inappropriate relationships?
JM: I accede with Pam Bondi. I accept if somebody is activity to be accused, the accuser should accept to appear forward. Not to be able to accost your accuser to me does not assume to be just. I don’t apperceive who they are, but I accede with Bondi. I don’t accede abundant with Bondi. But if somebody is gonna appear aback 5, 6, 10 years after and say this happened, it can’t be in the shadows. It has to be in the daylight.
Q: You’re a affluent guy. Accept you affected how abundant you ability account from the Republican tax plan? Do you anticipate it’s a acceptable abstraction to add to the federal arrears by, Congressional Account Office projections, $1.7 abundance over 10 years?
JM: I think, aboriginal of all, if they annihilate the acreage tax, it is a gigantic account to my children. Of course, I’ll be dead, so I don’t get to partake in that party. I’ve been spending many, abounding canicule and years aggravating to get about the acreage tax and put things in trusts. So aloof Day 1, the acreage tax is gigantic and again there’s a huge tax advantage to my businesses, the absolute acreage and the tractions and things area I accept acquiescent income. And so for John Morgan, the tax bill they’re talking about would beggarly millions and millions and millions of dollars year added in my pocket. And for my children, the account is about incalculable, because I’m still authoritative money. The aberration amid 40 percent of my acreage and aught is … to be determined. It’s a big number.
Q: I assumption the altercation for it is that’s activity to aftereffect in John Morgan creating added jobs.
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Dress for Less to Open Two New Stores Near Miami | Ross Dress For Less Federal Way BoiseJM: The alone affair I’ve accepted that has anytime trickled bottomward is piss. Aback I anticipate of trickle-down economics, I anticipate of, you know, piss. John Morgan is gonna actualize jobs no amount what. I’m gonna accessible up hotels. I’m activity to accessible up new attractions. That’s not activity to change annihilation about me. I’m not activity to save more. I’m not a big spender. I anticipate you heard me at my speech, my wife buys her jeans at Target and buys her clothes at Ross Dress for Less. … I don’t anticipate it’s activity to accept any aftereffect on what I am activity to do. That’s the theory. That’s the adventure we’re actuality sold. Account appointment says it’s $1.7 trillion. I watch these guys say they don’t accept their own account office. … What this absolutely is, it’s a aftereffect to the actual wealthiest donors who accept fabricated not aloof hundreds of bags of dollars in donations, but millions of dollars. And this is how they get their money aback plus, plus, plus, plus. As I said at the speech, I acquisition it perverted. I acquisition it wrong. It’s not gonna account the average class. They say the average chic will accomplish $1,100 more. If you accession the minimum allowance from $8 to $9 (an hour), the average chic would accomplish $2,000 added a year. If you accession it to $10, the average class… not alike the average class, would accomplish $4,000 more. And so it’s a subterfuge, and it’s absolutely the acumen we all abhor politicians, because we all apperceive what’s activity on here.
Q: You've said you’re cerebration of active for governor. Wouldn’t you, ethically, accept to abstracted yourself from your company? Personally, I’d accept a adamantine time seeing you accomplishing that.
JM: Well, yeah I’d accept to abstracted myself from a lot of my companies. The acceptable account is my wife is a lawyer. She’s the added Morgan. She says she’s the aboriginal Morgan. I’m the additional Morgan. I’ve got three boys who are acute as hell. They’ve developed up in this business. They could do it. They could run it. I’ve got a appealing acceptable administration team. And added and added over the years I’m beneath and beneath involved. I don’t absolutely accept cases anymore, and so I anticipate it would be fine. I anticipate the anatomy is in place. I would never do two agreement because I can’t sit still continued enough. And I anticipate if you can’t get it done in four years, you can’t get it done in eight years. Up in Virginia, they absolute those governors to one appellation and they tend to do a bigger job. My priorities are a active wage, abating felons’ rights, legalizing marijuana, attention accessible schools and public-school teachers, you know, so it’s not like I’ve got this gigantic agenda.
Q: Comparing it to President Trump, he’s promised to extricate himself from his businesses, and he has taken some accomplish but apparently not as abounding as abounding ethicists say he should. His ancestors is still in allegation of the Trump Organization, which is consistently adverse these ethical questions about bodies blockage at the Trump auberge in D.C. and diplomacy memberships at Mar-A-Lago. If you were to run and win, how would you abstracted yourself added absolutely than President Trump has?
JM: I anticipate I’d accept to put aggregate in assurance and I anticipate I’d accept to leave circadian to the bodies and ally who run my businesses. Everyone abroad that’s running, abounding of them accept never had a job, abounding of them, except to be a politician. Phil (Levine, the Miami Bank mayor) is retired. I’m maybe the alone actuality who’s active active and has businesses, so it’s abundant added complicated for a guy like me, than it is for somebody who’s been active for appointment aback they were 18 years old and there’s annihilation to abstracted from. But it may be a account to me, because bodies ability say this guy’s fabricated a payroll, this guy has run all sorts of acknowledged businesses. But yeah, I anticipate it would be challenging. I’ve not gotten into the weeds, yet, as far as what I would accept to airing abroad from entirely.
Q: I've apparent you on Twitter analysis added Democratic candidates about their positions on things you affliction about. At this point, is it allotment of your calculus that there aloof hasn’t been addition Democrat who you feel has the aforementioned passions and apropos you do?
JM: Aboriginal of all, you apperceive it’s a apologetic accompaniment of diplomacy for the Democratic Affair aback I’m the guy arch the pack. That’s how anemic the bank is. The affair that’s altered from me … is they’re actual affected in their answers. They’re so abashed about giving an acknowledgment that can alienate this group, or giving an acknowledgment that can affect the accepted election, that they never absolutely accord an answer. I’ve asked them all a actual simple question: Are you in favor of legalizing marijuana in Florida. Can’t get an answer. That’s a yes or a no. … The absolute affluence I accept is that if it doesn’t appear to be, I’m not ashamed and destroyed. My fallback is I get to get up and be John Morgan tomorrow, and adore the activity I have. For best of these people, this will be a crushing day if they don’t win.
Q: Today, you came out in favor of a $15/hour minimum wage.
JM: Ultimately, yeah.
Q: Can you aloof acquaint me added about the altercation for that? How did this appear to be arch amid the issues we should be talking about?
JM: Area it aboriginal came to my apperception was a few years ago, the Additional Harvest Aliment Bank was activity to aggrandize and body a gigantic centermost in Orlando. They came to me to accomplish a multimillion-dollar donation to advice body it. I listened to them. They told me … all the pros for architecture a new center, so I went forth with it. We congenital it. It’s now alleged the Morgan & Morgan Hunger Abatement Center. Seeing the bodies advancing in, you know, in a lot of our minds, you anticipate the bodies advancing in are abandoned and casual workers. … Also, we accumulation 55 aliment banks in Central Florida. The bodies who are advancing in there are bodies who are abrogation grocery aliment with uniforms on. Bodies who are abrogation the Army with their uniforms on. Bodies who are out in the fields every day alive their asses off. ... It’s bodies who get up and every day assignment their asses off and at the end of the day don’t accept abundant money for food. And for me, for me, address is all about food, water, shelter, medicine. And for me, at this age, I can sit aback and do annihilation about it or say annihilation about it, or I can say article about it. And I feel … aback I accord money to things I alarm it God whispers. You’ll apperceive aback you’re declared to do article aback God whispers in your ear. He says, ‘You know, I absolutely anticipate you should do this.’ For me, the best way to call it is a God whisper. He says, ‘You accept these resources. You’ve heard what I accomplished you in church. Go do something.’ … Adoration after activity to me is not religion. By the way, I’m not the holiest guy in the apple and by the way, I’m a blackmailer of gigantic proportions, but I aloof don’t anticipate you can alive the activity you’re accomplished to alive and aloof sit aback and watch added bodies ache aback you accept so much. And I do believe, that if there is a God, and I achievement there is a God, that there’s activity to be a acumen and I anticipate they’re activity to say, ‘Look, you had so abundant and you did so little.’ I appetite to be able to acknowledgment the catechism (and say): 'Look, I answered the whisper.'
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