A.G. Gancarski
The Duval County Supervisor of Elections race between Republican Mike Hogan and Democrat Tracie Davis (current Deputy SOE) that has been free from negative campaigning changed Friday.
A press release issued by Robin Lumb, chairman of the Duval GOP, posed the provocative question: “Is Tracie Davis Someone Voters Can Trust?”
“Democrat Tracie Davis needs to answer questions about her conduct and judgment as a candidate for Supervisor of Elections,” the release stated, and then made three material claims about unethical conduct by Davis.
The first claim is that Davis exploited her supervisory role in February 2014 by emailing SOE employees to ask them to “support her for Supervisor of Elections and to sign her ballot petition and mail it back at their expense.”
“Apparently Ms. Davis believes it was appropriate to exploit her relationship with Poll Workers for the purpose of advancing her political career,” the release stated. “How does Davis know whether SOE employees felt intimidated and only signed her ballot petition because they were afraid of losing their jobs?”
Florida Politics obtained a copy of that email, which pointed out that because Jerry Holland (the current SOE) could not run for re-election, she decided to “announce [her] candidacy to run for Supervisor of Elections in 2015.”
The email said she had decided to qualify by petition to avoid paying filing fees, and asked recipients to send signed petitions to her campaign office. It also encouraged them to copy the petition “to allow other voters registered in Duval County” to complete it as well.
Beyond the solicitation email, the Duval GOP release castigated Davis for filming her TV commercial in the Duval SOE Office after hours without Holland’s permission, and accused her of exaggerating her experience. In her video ad, “Davis clearly states that she’s been ‘second in command’ at the SOE’s office for 13 years. In reality she’s held the post of Deputy Supervisor of Elections for less than four years. Prior to that she spent most of her time in a training position. Why is Ms. Davis making misleading and exaggerated claims about her experience?”
In a written statement Saturday morning, the Davis campaign fired back:
I have not done anything illegal, unethical or that was not afforded to any other candidate running for office. This Press Release was filled with untruths and hyperbole. It’s funny that the Republican Party has issued a release with a list of questions, yet they didn’t reach out to the Supervisor of Elections for answers. What’s clear is that this partisan wing of the party feels threatened by the fact that voters are attracted to an experienced candidate who is winning this race.
The written statement from the Davis campaign went on to contrast Davis’ 13 years of experience in operating city elections with Hogan’s experience of only running in city elections, and also contended that she is not running to “connect a pension” but “to ensure that the work that we have done at the Supervisor of Elections office, continues.”
We contacted the Mike Hogan campaign for comment. They knew about the issues raised in the press release, but had nothing to do with it. A spokesman said, “From the beginning we decided to focus our efforts on running a positive campaign and letting people get to know Mike. We feel confident that strategy will result in people coming to know him as someone who will continue to bring fair and honest elections to the people of Jacksonville.”
Meanwhile, Lumb wrote in a subsequent email Saturday afternoon, “We did reach out to the Supervisor of Elections to verify key details in the press release. We also made other inquiries. That’s why we stand behind it. If the Davis campaign would explain what it means by ‘untruths and hyperbole’ we will be happy to address them. Ms. Davis believes that asking her to account for her questionable judgment is reflective of ‘partisanship’. In fact, explaining her conduct is a duty she owes every voter in Jacksonville — Republican, Democrat and independent.”
We tried to contact Jerry Holland for comment. Once we hear back, this story will be updated.
