Twenty-five years ago, local candidates who ran negative ads often lost their races. Social media platforms hadn’t been created. Mailers were rare, and political action committees (PACs) weren’t involved.
Candidates avoided attacking their opponents in print because they had to put their names on the ads. One exception was State Sen. W.D. Childers, who later chaired the Escambia County Commission until he was indicted. Childers loved to go negative the weekend before election day when his opponent had no time to respond. He would buy a full-page ad in the Pensacola News Journal filled with the worst photos of his opponent he could find. Childers focused on election day because vote-by-mail was rare and early voting didn’t exist.
Instead of attack mailers and text messages from mysterious PACs, voters might find in their driveway a flyer filled with wild allegations the morning the polls opened. Candidates used phone banks to call voters to offset the misinformation. They also had several supporters at the precincts talking to voters as they headed inside to vote.
Today, attack mailers are acceptable, though they rarely come directly from the candidate. The optimal times to send them are when the Supervisor of Elections sends the first batch of vote-by-mails, the Saturday before early voting starts, and the weekend before election day. Some political consultants recommend having at least four attack pieces in front of voters.
In the District 4 county commission race, the Committee to Protect Florida sent a race-baiting mailer attacking Walker Wilson. The mailer darkened his face, tied him to Commissioner Lumon May and called Wilson “another Downtown Democrat.” The mailer hit mailboxes in District 4 on Saturday, Aug. 10, the first day of early voting.
On the weekend before election day, Build the Wall PAC sent a mailer calling the other two candidates in the GOP primary, Ashlee Hofberger and Buck Mitchell, “Liberal Fake Republicans.” Mitchell didn’t have PAC-funded mailers to help his campaign.
Hofberger won the primary with 38% of the vote, finishing ahead of Wilson (33%) and Mitchell (30%). She took the lead during early voting when the “blackface” mailer was received and never relinquished it.
PAC men went wild in Santa Rosa County. Fortunately, they failed miserably, costing two county commissioners their jobs.
The Committee to Protect Florida and Moving Families Forward sent mailers attacking Commissioner Sam Parker’s opponent, Bobby Burkett, for receiving campaign contributions from developers and being once registered as a Democrat. Since Pace doesn’t have a downtown, the PACs couldn’t label Burkett a “Downtown Democrat.”
The Committee to Protect Florida is run by political consultant Mark Zubaly, who settled a defamation suit filed by a Santa Rosa County Commissioner for $50,000 last year. Zubaly, using the Nature Coast Conservative PAC, sent a mailer during the 2022 election cycle attacking Kerry Smith. It claimed Smith was “found guilty several times of domestic violence against his then-wife” and “violated probation after being found guilty of domestic violence.”
Alex Andrade represented Smith, who won the commission seat. He told Florida Politics that Smith was never found guilty of hitting any woman, let alone his wife, and never violated a probation. Zubaly agreed to pay the settlement and signed sworn affidavits identifying the source behind the attacks, homebuilder Edwin Henry.
The Santa Rosa PAC superman is Commissioner James Calkins. His America First Alliance PAC aggressively went after his opponents, Jerry Couey and Rhett Rowell, and his fellow commissioner, Colten Wright. America First Alliance lists Calkins’ grandmother, Judith Sorenson, as the chairperson. Calkins did his best to cover up his relationship with Sorenson by listing himself as James Lee in his grandfather’s obituary.
The PAC tried to portray them as tied to developers. However, developers, contractors and others tied to real estate deals in Santa Rosa County contributed money to America First Alliance and the Committee to Protect Florida.
Burkett soundly defeated Parker, 52%-34%, with two other Republicans receiving the remaining 14%. Calkins was totally embarrassed, finishing behind both Rowell (43%) and Couey (29%).
I doubt we will see PACs disappear from Santa Rosa politics, but voters have become more educated on how to work. Let’s hope Escambia wakes up, too.
Read more of Inweekly’s Aug. 29 issue, or check out the digital issue.