Supervisor of Elections David Stafford says that while he isn’t the authority to determine whether C.J. Lewis violated Florida Election laws, it does appear, in his opinion, that flyers don’t qualify as “independent campaign expenditure” because they don’t expressly advocate a position for or against the referendum and therefore would be legal. The Florida Elections Commission is the final authority to determine if Lewis’ flyer is legal.
However, Stafford said that state legislature had tried to address campaign literature like that mailed by Lewis to 5,000 Pensacola voters. They passed laws to regulation electioneering, Florida Statute 106.011 (18):
(18)(a) “Electioneering communication†means a paid expression in any communications media prescribed in subsection (13) by means other than the spoken word in direct conversation that:
1. Refers to or depicts a clearly identified candidate for office or contains a clear reference indicating that an issue is to be voted on at an election, without expressly advocating the election or defeat of a candidate or the passage or defeat of an issue.
2. For communications referring to or depicting a clearly identified candidate for office, is targeted to the relevant electorate. A communication is considered targeted if 1,000 or more persons in the geographic area the candidate would represent if elected will receive the communication.
3. For communications containing a clear reference indicating that an issue is to be voted on at an election, is published after the issue is designated a ballot position or 120 days before the date of the election on the issue, whichever occurs first.
Stafford said that in May 2009 a federal judge ruled the electioneering laws unconstitutional. However, he does believe the state legislature will redress the issue in its next session.
So it looks like Mr. Lewis is off the hook. I did speak with CJ this morning. He said it was never his intent to get people to vote against the charter by sending them the flyer. CJ said that is actually for strong mayor, but doesn’t agree with the process followed by the Charter Review Commission. People are asking him whether they should vote for or against the charter and he’s not telling them, according to CJ. He believes that neither side has done a good job to telling voters why to vote for or against the issue.
CJ did add that he thinks the claims by the No Boss Mayor side that the strong mayor will violate Sunshine laws are ridiculous.