Anne Geggis
Rep. Anika Omphroy is aspiring for higher office with a run for Congress, but a state Elections Commission order is fining her for unfinished business from her last Statehouse election.
The two-term state Representative paid a $10,440 fee to run for Congress in Florida’s 20th Congressional District on June 15. But an order filed June 8 says she owes the Florida Elections Commission $2,000 for her “reckless” disregard of reporting requirements for her 2020 election to represent what was then House District 95 in central Broward County.
And that might not be the worst of it.
A spokeswoman for the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office said there’s still an open investigation into Omphroy’s 2020 campaign finances.
Omphroy couldn’t be reached for comment about the situation.
The May 17 order with the $2,000 fine says Omphroy was notified Nov. 18, 2020, Dec. 1, 2020 and Dec. 11 2020 that a Termination Report from her 2020 unopposed General Election was missing. It also says she “falsely reported” contributions and expenditures that were not supported by the bank reports that were eventually included on her Termination Report.
There is no record of the fine’s payment in her online candidate document file. A spokesman from the Department of State did not return an inquiry about the situation.
“Respondent’s conduct was willful,” the order says.
She was ordered to pay the $2,000 fine within 30 days of the order’s filing with the state Elections Commission.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order in May 2021 assigning Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle’s Office to investigate allegations Omphroy violated the Florida Election Code. No charges have yet been filed, according to court records. And no details were given about what the allegations were when the executive order was signed.
A Sun-Sentinel story, however, detailed how she failed to disclose how she spent $47,994 in campaign contributions she received in 2020, when she won her seat for a second term.
Fernandez Rundle’s office was due to report its findings in reply to the executive order in April. That investigation is still open, according to a spokeswoman for the State Attorney in Miami.
Omphroy had originally filed for re-election in 2022 to represent her House district that includes inland Broward cities such as Lauderhill, Lauderdale Lakes and North Lauderdale.
Previous correspondence with the DOS dinged her for failing to file regular reports since November. That correspondence was no longer listed in her online documents file, however.
In the Aug. 23 Democratic Primary for Congress, she’ll be facing Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and former Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness.
