‘Fix this problem’: Senate approves bill to make candidate party affiliation rules enforceable

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After numerous instances of candidates running afoul of Florida’s partisan election, state lawmakers are moving closer to adding “teeth” to enforcement.

The Senate just approved a bill (SB 280) that would give the Division of Elections the power to remove candidates from ballots if they misrepresent their party affiliation when registering to run.

The measure passed 38-0.

Florida law today requires people seeking to qualify for nomination as candidates for a partisan office to state in writing that, among other things, they have been registered with their political party or with no political affiliation for a year.

“Courts have found no mechanism by which the provision can be enforced if the person seeking to qualify did not actually comply with the requirement,” said Kissimmee Democratic Sen. Kristen Arrington, the bill’s sponsor.

Arrington said SB 280 will “put some teeth” in state statutes “to fix this problem.”

The issue isn’t new to Arrington. In 2021, when she was a member of the House, she and Boca Raton Democratic Sen. Tina Polsky succeeded in amending a sweeping election reform package to require candidates to affirm their membership or non-membership to a political party when filing to run for a partisan office.

But since then, several candidates have run under a certain party affiliation despite not meeting the requirement of being a member of that party for at least a year.

In 2022, Florida Politics revealed that congressional candidate Curtis Calabrese was running illegally as a Democrat, having only been a party member for two weeks before he filed to run for Florida’s 22nd Congressional District. He dropped out of the race two months before the Primary.

In December, a candidate running for Florida’s 6th Congressional District did similarly.

But other candidates insisted on staying in the race even after it was pointed out that they ran afoul of Florida’s rules.

There was Wancito Francius, who remained on the Democratic Primary ballot for House District 107 last year despite falling six weeks short of the 365-day requirement.

Florida’s weak enforcement ability was known by then, due to a case involving former COVID dashboard operator Rebekah Jones. A three-Judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled that Jones could stay on the 2022 Democratic Primary ballot even though she technically didn’t qualify.

Judge Scott Makar cited a “gap in the statute” governing party affiliation, adding that lawmakers “may wish to consider implementing a mechanism to decide, early on, the bona fides of a political Primary candidate’s party oath (because) currently one is lacking and requires that political party candidates be taken at their word, which is not likely to be sustainable.”

Palm Harbor Sen. Ed Hooper, who cosponsored SB 280 with fellow Republican Sen. Jay Collins of Tampa, said he had a similar issue with his Primary opponent in August, John Siamas.

“The Division of Elections opined, when I inquired, ‘We don’t have statutory authority to remove a candidate even if they filed a frivolous, untrue oath. The circuit court in this district (said the same),” he said. “Let’s fix this or quit filing this form, one of the two.”

Whether SB 280 or its House analog (HB 208) by Tallahassee Democratic Rep. Allison Tant makes it to the Governor’s desk depends considerably on St. Pete Beach Republican Rep. Linda Chaney.

Chaney chairs the House Government Operations Subcommittee, HB 208’s first of two committees to which the bill was referred in January.

She has yet to schedule the bill for a hearing.