Attorney Bruce Childers is asking a judge to grant him an emergency writ of mandamus and a declaratory judgment so that he can run for Supervisor of Elections and remain on the ballot.
There is some new information: Plaintiff is Bruce Childers; Plaintiff’s wife: Clerk of Courts Pam Childers.
When they paid the fee:
While the Plaintiff worked with Ms. Daniel to verify payment and Form 6 requirement, the Plaintiff’s wife had a side conversation with Ms. Daniel’s assistant to show her the completed financial disclosure form on her iPad located on the Commission on Ethics website which showed proof of completion of the entire report and a date stamp of June 12, 2024. Upon leaving, Plaintiff asked Ms. Daniel if anything else was needed, to which Ms. Daniel stated something ot the effect of “… you’re complete, you’re all good”.
More:
Six days passed. On Tuesday, June 18, 2024, after the period for qualifying had passed, Plaintiff received caal from the Supervisor of Elections Office, Sonya Daniel, saying that he was not qualified because he had not properly filed all the forms required by law, specifically the financial disclosure form, Form 6.
Plaintiff immediately asked for a meeting with the Supervisor of Elections and shortly thereafter, on the afternoon of June 18, met with Sonya Daniel, not the Supervisor of Elections, Robert Bender, and an attorney from the County Attorney’s office. The meeting itself ended with no resolution, with the County Attorney indicating she would look into the matter and render her recommendation later.
Another point before the qualifying deadline:
Plaintiff’s wife, upon reviewing the Supervisor’s website, noticed that the Supervisor’s office had made a mistake as to Plaintiff’s email address. Plaintiff’s wife texted Sonya Daniel and told her of the mistake. Ms. Daniel apparently again checked Plaintiff’s file, texted Plaintiff’s wife back and told her she would make the correction, which she subsequently did. The two texted back and forth several times that evening, thus showing that a qualifying agent again checked the file and had sufficient opportunity to notify Plaintiff before the end of qualifying to cure any deficiency.
Read 13-29-26-864.
#notreadbypamchilders
Joan, thank you for your comments. Robert Bender has endured a merciless slander campaign from the moment Pam Childers commenced her retribution tour, the same evening meeting when her friend Janice Gilley was terminated. He does not deserve this, particularly as he stated publicly *numerous* times that when he saw what the amount was on his first check with the 401a money included, he called Pam herself to verify it was correct. She informed him–in no uncertain terms, as is her custom–that she knew best and the amount was exactly what it should be.
Then she admitted during the 401a hearing that she was still writing those checks after she had questions about their legality. By law, she herself should have been responsible for every dime she signed on those, but she’s never held accountable for anything. On top of it all, she publicly refused the BCC’s request to ask for an AG opinion on the 401a, costing the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars for her legal team, simply in the service of blowing things up as much as possible.
This morning, Underhill posted an urgent call for protestors on Escambia Hate Watch that they needed more losers to head down to the Elections office to hold the signs they made, including Robert Benders photo with his face slash-Od.
The Pensacola News Journal and Lisa Savage should be ashamed of themselves for handing the editorial pen to the likes of this rot. If they’re that desperate for comment, maybe Gannett should think about just closing down what’s left of the shop.
Looks likes candidates have to file the complete form 6 with the EFDMS and then it’s a public record. Did Bruce file his form 6 on the electronic financial disclosure management system. With the Commission on ethics. Then show pages 1 and 2 to the qualifying officer? At SOE. Like it states in the handbook?
Bender simply checked a selection on his paperwork and opted for the 401a when elected. It was an option at the time. He has been publicly humiliated unnecessarily.
Bruce is crying victim when he failed to file his form 6 with the ethics commission.
That’s what I think happened. Not a good look.
Robert discovered it later.
Check with the EFDMS.
Robert is following the law. Seems to be while we are splitting g hairs about TDT.. same applies here.
Pam, did he file it…
https://disclosure.floridaethics.gov/Account/Login
#Notreadbypam.
CJ,
Bruce Childers did not submit it to the Florida Division of Elections. A candidate can only fill out the Form 6 and print it out to give to the Supervisor of Elections. The Division doesn’t store the candidate’s form. That is the issue – Bruce Childers only gave the SOE a photo of the first page – not a full financial disclosure as required by the state constitution.
Incumbents can get a verificiation certificate because they file a Form 6 every year and the Division keeps it on file.
What you say is clear is not even close to being that:
1) You only have Childers’ side of what happened, and it will be interesting what is said under oath by all parties. Childers is an attorney and should have known the law and state constitutional requirements. All candidates are instructed to read them. Plus, his wife knows the process, having qualified multiple time and filed multiple Form 6s. It is Childers’ responsibility to meet the requirements. It baffles me that they thought the photo of a tablet screen was fine.
2) Bender handed off all aspects of the Supervisor of Elections race to other people in his office as other election supervisors that are facing opponents around the state do – that is standard operating procedure. Could those experienced employees done a better job following up with Childers? Yes, but of all the 30 or so candidates qualifying, you would have thought Childers and his wife would need the least hand holding.
3) The Supervisor of Elections does not have the discretion to violate the state constitution. That wasn’t what Stafford was talking about in 2010.
Mr. Lewis, if Childers wins his legal case, then of course, there is a universal primary contest where every voter in Escambia County gets to participate, including me, a registered Democrat.
Having said that, given that I believe Bruce Childers may have been involved in obstructing my litigation rights when I proceeded as a de facto assistant attorney general of Florida, per quo warranto law, and still do, Bruce and Pam must concede, I must have my right to true fair due process and if that means, Pamela Lynn Childers did not have the minimum valid signatures to qualify, the duly elected by Florida law properly applied Circuit Clerk of Escambia County, will serve the remainder of the term elected in the 2020 general election when they were the only qualified candidate, when they are running for ECUA District 3, in what is also a universal primary contest, where all voters may vote as both candidates are Democrats and where I will make clear of Larry Williams, he and I are running against each other now, we will differ on issues, but I intend to run a campaign where on a ballot where it is not us against each other, we might end up endorsing each other.
And so I would say, especially as Pam is re-elected at this point, if she lacked the minimum valid signatures to qualify, much evidence suggests this including my meeting in 2020 immediately after the general election, I will gladly serve the remainder of my term, where I am running for another office anyway.
And where I contend, the reports of Lois Benson suggest she did not have the fee to qualify in 2022, and where I discussed that yesterday, but where of course if she did not, I was the only candidate eligible to be elected, should have been written up as unopposed and of course, while you can dual hold ECUA with another office as it is an independent special district, I believe independent special districts serve a vital purpose and I stand by the Rayson and Sasso opinions, where there is over a half century of law on this especially Attorney General opinions, where Attorney General opinions for over 50 years are available for all to read.
If I am sworn into my rightful seat as District 2 ECUA Representative, which is a representative seat on what is an independent special district, created by state legislation, the election within a county and thus the election administered and qualified by the Supervisor of Elections, then of course, I am not signing a resign to run to also contest District 3, notified of election of District 2 in 2022, even belatedly due to Benson lacking the fee, I will opt that and then of course, Williams is elected unopposed, I will only say I expected more candidates to qualify for ECUA and was also shocked the District 5 representative of the board had no opponents.
A reminder, in ECUA District 1, whether you are a Democrat, NPA, or any other non-Republican registration, you can vote, as only Republicans filed, it is a universal primary election and the Pensacola News Journal has done a disservice to the people by disseminating confusion in not making it clear what a universal primary election is and that we have two of them and if Childers wins his suit, will be three, and I urge the Pensacola News Journal to please stop bringing confusion to the voters of Escambia County and instead remember the example of Walter Cronkite, and start being like that, and further more remember what my great-grandmother Connie Bea Hope and her co-host Estelle represented when on TV together, when Dot Moore never bothered to have a co-host and we should all work together for harmony and good government.
Channel 3 is breathlessly spinning the story to make it appear that Mr. Childers never even submitted the Financial Disclosure Form 6, as if he refused or forgot. He did submit it to the Florida Division of Elections. The only issue here is if a candidate (Mr. Childers, etc.) should be able to rely upon the word of the Supervisor’s staff when told to give that office a partial copy of Form 6. As a two-time candidate, I always did as instructed by the staff. Sonya Daniel is one of the most competent public servants in Northwest Florida. Everyone knows that she’s a straight arrow. If she had told me there was a new requirement that all candidates sing her a song to qualify I would. The “buck” stops with Supervisor Bender. Everything he and his staff do or don’t do or say and don’t say falls on him. It does seem clear: 1) Mr. Childers was given the wrong instructions; 2) an accurate secondary review of his paperwork was not conducted in a timely manner; and 3) Supervisor Bender has the discretion to uphold the original action to qualify Mr. Childers. In 2010, Supervisor Stafford testified before the Escambia County Consolidation Study Commission advising us that he exercised great discretion in the performance of his duties and this was why his office should remain elected vice an appointed official in the proposed consolidated government. The gracious thing to do is for Supervisor Bender to call Mr. Childers – on the telephone – apologize, say that the original decision to “qualify” him stands and then issue a press release saying so. If not, the obvious narrative will be that Supervisor Bender withheld notification to Mr. Childers to ensure his only opponent did not qualify. That’s how it “smells” at this point. If under oath a staffer next says that they did alert Supervisor Bender but were directed to not call Mr. Childers then watch out. Maybe Governor DeSantis will get involved. If the legal challenge drags on, and if Mr. Childers prevails, perhaps the Supervisor vote could be placed on the general election ballot, when a lot more people will get to vote.