What's that about the fox getting into the henhouse?
Wednesday evening, Gov. Charlie Crist will host an esteemed group for dinner at the Governor's Mansion. Six editorial cartoonists from around the state are coming over to sup with the gov. Two of them are artists from our Gannett-owned papers in Florida, Jeff Parker and Andy Marlette.
Jeff works for FLORIDA TODAY and Andy is with the Pensacola News Journal. Jeff may toil for the Brevard County paper, but he lives in Tallahassee, so he'll win the traveled-the-shortest-distance award. Jeff's work is also syndicated, so his cartoons frequently show up in our other Florida papers in Tallahassee and Fort Myers (along with hundreds of others).
In addition to Parker and Marlette, also attending Crist's soiree will be James Casciari, Scripps Howard; Jake Fuller, The Gainesville Sun; Ed Gamble, The Florida Times-Union; and Chan Lowe, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, according to a spokeswoman for the governor's office.
"They requested some cartoons from us. That's how we're singing for our supper," Jeff said.
He'll also be paying for his meal, avoiding any freebies from an elected official he frequently skewers. Caesar's wife and editorial cartoonists alike must remain above even the appearance of impropriety. It's the same way editors, including myself, paid up for a similar dinner at the mansion back in August. There were more than 50 at that lovefest, so the cartoonists' get-together promises to be more intimate.
Among Jeff's submissions to the governor's office was the cartoon reproduced above.
"One I did way back with Gov. Crist, back before he was governor when he was governor-elect, and they were talking about a special session on insurance and I did one with his hair as a hurricane. That was one of my favorites," Jeff said. "I don't know if that'll be hanging anywhere, maybe over the toilet."
You can see a lot of Jeff's work at his own blog on the FLORIDA TODAY Web site. There, he runs a cool weekly caption contest, along with behind-the-scenes notes on how he comes up with his ideas and executes them.
Here's an excerpt from Jeff's estimable resume:
"Jeff Parker grew up in Satellite Beach, Florida and has been an editorial cartoonist for FLORIDA TODAY since 1992. Jeff's work has been recognized with awards from Gannett News Service, Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Florida Press Association. In 2004, he was awarded the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Division Award for Editorial Cartooning after three prior nominations. His cartoons are distributed by Cagle Cartoons syndicate to hundreds of news outlets, regularly appearing in USA TODAY, Newsweek, TIME, The Washington Post, Le Monde, Courier International, The New York Times and on CNN and Fox News."