Alan Clendenin dismisses complaint filed against him as ‘baseless’

The battle to be the next chair of the Florida Democratic Party is becoming increasingly crazy – and intense. Two of the five candidates have had to move to different counties to be eligible for the position and one of them, Alan Clendenin, has been hit with a complaint regarding his election as state committeeman in Bradford County last month.

On Tuesday, the Tampa Bay Times Adam Smith was first to report that Patricia Byrd, a state committeewoman in Bay County, filed a complaint last week with current chair Allison Tant, calling on her to reject Clendenin’s election.

In a statement issued Tuesday night, Clendenin is dismissing the complaint, alleging that Byrd is a supporter of Stephen Bittel, the Coconut Grove developer whose own election as state committeeman in Miami-Dade County last month has been subject to criticism.

“Instead of making the case for why he’s the best person for the job, it appears as though this candidate is trying to win by clearing the field using baseless and unfounded complaints to disqualify his opponents,” Clendenin says about Bittel.

“I want to be clear – the complaint filed today with Chair Tant is baseless,” Clendenin continued. “Like other candidates in this race, as well as the past four FDP Chairs, I qualified for this position within our current rules. I know that these rules do not make sense to many people which is why I’m calling for them to be changed and will make this a top priority if elected. This complaint is nothing more than an unnecessary distraction from talking about how we move this party forward.”

Clendenin and former state Senator Dwight Bullard both lost in their bids for state committeeman at their respective counties reorganization meetings last month, making them ineligible to run for state party chair. However, both have now relocated to different counties where there were positions open for committeeman; both were elected.

In Clendenin’s case, it necessitated moving from his South Tampa home to Hampton in Bradford County. Bullard moved to Gadsden County, after losing his bid for committeeman in Miami-Dade.

Bittel won that vote, but only he was able to run after the party’s former committeeman, Bret Berlin, resigned to make way for Bittel.

Duval County Committeewoman Lisa King and Osceola County Democratic Chair Leah Carius round out the field.