Janelle Irwin Taylor
Some GOP voters in Pinellas County recently received a text message blasting Republican candidate for County Commission Vince Nowicki.
The text went out before Nowicki’s Republican challenger, David Leatherwood, withdrew from the race, meaning what began as an attempt to support Leatherwood may have just instead benefited incumbent Democrat Charlie Justice.
Nowicki is seeking the District 3 seat, which Justice has held for more than a decade. Leatherwood’s departure from the race, which came after the qualifying deadline for candidates, means it will be a matchup between Nowicki and Justice. Hence, a dig on Nowicki is an unexpected gift for the Justice camp.
The text message included both text and an image.
“Can we trust Pinellas County Commission candidate Sticky Vince Nowicki?” it began.
The text then announces that Nowicki “was charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors for theft and forgery among others.”
“Would you trust Sticky Nowicki with your tax dollars?”
The text then includes a graphic repeating much of the same information, but in more detail. It lists several charges against Nowicki, including felony theft, two counts of felony forgery, two felony counts of issuing a false document, misdemeanor theft and two counts of misdemeanor forgery. The image cites the charges from various Baltimore-area courts.
Florida Politics obtained a background check file on Nowicki that corroborates the charges listed in the political communication. The file also included several traffic infractions, including driving with a suspended license, also in Maryland.
However, the file also notes that none of the criminal charges Nowicki faced were ever prosecuted. Some were listed with a disposition of “nolle prosequi,” which means a prosecutor or plaintiff decided not to pursue prosecution, or as “stet,” which means a case has been indefinitely postponed.
In Maryland, such a disposition means the case will not get prosecuted so long as the defendant abides set conditions. The background check file doesn’t include information about what those conditions were.
The cases listed all stem from 2013.
The text message also includes the required disclaimer, which attributes the message to the Education Defense Fund. The political committee lists an address in Gainesville, which is the Delta Upsilon fraternity house on the University of Florida’s (UF) campus.
The political committee lists its Chair, Treasurer and registered agent as Nicholas P. Andrews, a UF grad student seeking a degree in political campaigning, according to his LinkedIn bio. The political committee has only been active since March and, as of July 12, has only raised $600 and spent less than $73. Of the contributions, $500 came from Tampa lawyer and lobbyist Ron Christaldi.
While it’s not clear who the political committee is supporting, the distribution to only Republican voters strongly suggests it was sent to benefit Leatherwood. It’s likely the next round of finance reports will include more information about who funded the text message.
Leatherwood just withdrew from the race late Monday. Florida Politics has received tips that he departed the race to accept a position on former President Donald Trump’s campaign, but we have not been able to independently verify that information.
The only activity on his campaign Facebook page since announcing his withdrawal came from U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who called him a “selfless person” who “made a decision that was best for the country.” There is nothing posted to his X account regarding his withdrawal or other recent professional endeavors, and his Instagram account doesn’t offer any clues either. Leatherwood’s campaign website is now inactive.
Leatherwood had raised nearly $17,000 for his campaign, which he launched just over one month ago.
Nowicki, meanwhile, had raised nearly $75,000 as the candidate in the race the longest, even longer than incumbent Justice. Justice has raised nearly $52,000. All of those numbers are as of July 12, the most recent date for which data is available.
