A.G. Gancarski
In a six-candidate House District 11 field to replace Janet Adkins perpetual GOP candidate Jack Daniels stands out in that he’s raised no money so far.
In an email to FloridaPolitics.com, sent 1:34 a.m. Monday, Daniels says that’s his strategy.
“I sincerely believe that I will make history by winning that seat without accepting any money. I almost did it in my City Council campaign,” Daniels wrote.
He also provided in the email a letter that he’s delivering to HD 11 Republicans asserting the rest of the field is “bought and paid for”:
Like you, I’m a resident of District 11 and a Republican. And like me, you are probably tired of people being elected to the Florida Legislature who have been bought and paid for by lobbyists and others. In return for their money, they expect political favors that are often detrimental to us. So I’m a candidate for the Florida House of Representatives District 11 who won’t be bought and paid for; I’ve rejected and will continue to reject all of the money that they have and will offer to me.
The amount of money offered to Daniels is unstated.
“I can win this election without their money. Recently I was a Republican candidate for city council,” Daniels wrote.
“I rejected all of the political money offered to me. Consequently my opponent accepted over $130,000.00. If I had secured just 3 more percent of the vote, I would have defeated him.”
We’ve tried to contact Daniels about his response to King’s claim, made in the wake of Daniels endorsing that same opponent who “accepted over $130,000.”
In the spring, King asserted that Daniels was “a character out of central casting: a grifter always looking for his next mark” who has had “at least seven failed candidacies in districts all over the city” and “flouted the law in those runs, unless of course you define an RV as a residence.”
In a follow-up email, Daniels issued another broadside against opponents, past and present both.
“When I filed to run for Fla. H. D11, I had decided to accept political money and refuse to let it corrupt me. But when it was offered and I thought about what would happen if I didn’t let it corrupt me, I rejected it. For I just can’t be a political whore bought and paid for by the lobbyists, special interests, and the others. I decided that I’ll try to win by just campaigning harder and smarter than I did in my city council campaign.”
Daniels added that “I know, like so many others know, that money corrupts our political process. Since I hadn’t accepted any political money, my campaign for city council consisted of almost nothing but a year of door to door visits. In contrast, since my opponent accepted it, his campaign consisted of paid advice from expert political consultants, continuous paid advertisement promoting his candidacy in the media, numerous paid campaigners for him who made thousands of door to door visits to frequent voters, a multitude of campaign signs, many mailings to frequent voters promoting his candidacy, etc.
“The year long campaign wore me out both mentally and physically. Discouraged,” Daniels added, “I even began to wonder whether a candidate could win an election without having accepted political money.”
