A.G. Gancarski
The News Service of Florida reported Monday about some apparent inconsistencies in a list of supporters recently rolled out by Attorney General hopeful Jay Fant.
It seems that not all of those listed as supporters actually support Fant, a Jacksonville Republican.
Carolyn Otworth, the Clay County chair of the Trump Club, told NSF’s Dara Kam her name was included on the list without her approval.
“I was just shocked that anyone would say I endorsed them when I did not,” Otworth said.
Kam points out that “Florida law makes it a crime for ‘any candidate or person on behalf of a candidate to represent that any person or organization supports such candidate unless the person or organization so represented has given specific approval in writing to the candidate to make such representation’.”
Not a good look for an AG candidate, especially one running as a law-and-order Republican.
And unfortunately for Fant, this kind of screw-up has happened before.
In 2014, when Fant was running for the House District 15 seat he is now ready to leave, Fant claimed endorsements he didn’t actually have from “the NRA and the Florida Right to Life.”
In the endorsement war, Fant is losing “bigly,” (to quote Donald Trump).
Ashley Moody has collected myriad endorsements from county sheriffs thus far; Rep. Frank White, meanwhile, has been endorsed by two prominent Republicans in Fant’s home base: Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry and U.S. Rep. John Rutherford.
Fant has gotten support from fellow members of the Florida House.
So far, Fant has collected over a dozen House endorsements — a combination of locals, such as Paul Renner, Bobby Payne, Clay Yarborough and Jason Fischer, and other colleagues, such as Mike Miller.
The Fant campaign commented on Tuesday, sending us a news release that indicates Fant support from a “Trump coalition.”
Joe Gruters, co-chair of the Florida Trump campaign, said, “Ever since the first release last week, my fellow Trump patriots have been calling me asking how to get involved with Fant campaign because they see his efforts to shake up the status quo and get things done.”
The list of Trump patriots is below.
