Frank Stanfield| For the Daily Commercial
Editor's note: This story was revised at 5:15 p.m. June 17 to include comments from Carey Baker.
Lake County Property Appraiser Carey Baker “shot himself in the foot” Friday, ending up as a write-in candidate by not plunking down a $10,685.04 qualifying fee or hundreds of petition signatures, said Alan Hays, supervisor of elections.
He waited until almost noon, the qualifying deadline, and minutes later candidate Mark Jordan qualified for a ballot spot in that race. The job pays $180,084 per year.
Jordan is the brother of David Jordan, the county tax collector.
David Jordan said he was in the Supervisor of Elections Office on Republican Party precinct matters when Baker came in and put his name in as a write-in candidate.
“How do you know someone else won’t qualify?” Jordan recalled asking him.
“I’m not worried; it would be a pay cut for you,” he recalled Baker replying.
Baker ignored the warning, such as it was. David Jordan knew someone else was coming in to qualify. “I didn’t tell him it was my brother.”
“I told David what I was going to do. I considered him to be my friend. This couldn’t have happened unless it was a friend that double-crossed me,” Baker said Monday in a phone interview.
Baker said he does not remember David suggesting that someone else might qualify. “I was in a room with people I know. David was there and Mark was there. I didn’t see anybody else that was there that might qualify or I would have paid the $11,000.”
Mark Jordan could not be reached for comment.
It was just one of the surprising late changes in the election. Anthony Sabatini dropped out of the U.S, House of Representatives race on June 13 and into the crowded District 1 County Commission contest. Sabatini did this when former President Trump endorsed longtime congressional incumbent Daniel Webster.
Sabatini went on Facebook over the weekend calling on Mark Jordan to “immediately resign over election fraud and deception.” He also called for a censure motion at the next monthly meeting of Lake County Republicans.
But “he didn’t do anything wrong,” David Jordan said, and he is not the only one who thinks that way. Lake Supervisor of Elections Alan Hays ordered his staff to do what he called an “after-action report,” going over every document and recollection.
Sabatini claimed Baker filed for re-election as a write-in candidate at 11:59 a.m. on June 14, “…knowing no one else could file against him at 12 p.m., Carey Baker left the building. Once he walked out of the office and doors were closed and locked, candidate Mark Jordan, in conjunction with Tax Collector David Jordan, waited until Baker was out of sight, then withdrew his candidacy paperwork for the North Lake County Hospital Board race, and then filed instead for the Republican nomination for Lake County Property Appraiser – stealing the nomination from Mr. Baker.”
But “Sabatini got his timeline wrong, as well as some other errors,” Hays said.
Anticipating a last-minute rush, Hays said he had people on hand to make sure no one missed the deadline because of a shortage of staffers. Candidates filled out a form and the forms were time-stamped.
The idea was similar, Hays said, to making sure voters in line before a 7 p.m. deadline could still vote if a long line kept them from casting their ballot on time. Voters who show up after 7 p.m. are not allowed to get in line and vote.
Hays said he expected to have all the facts gathered before 2 p.m. Monday, though he was certain no laws were broken. He said he consulted state election officials on how to handle the dispute “so it was not some home-brewed solution.”
Mark Jordan had been in the election office several times in prior days asking. “What if I do this, or that?” Hays said. “We had no idea what was going to happen and there was nothing we could do to stop it even if we did.”
David Jordan had no sympathy for Baker.
“He had over $21,000 in campaign contributions; it wasn’t even his money; he could have paid the qualifying fee,” Jordan said. The alternative was to gather about 2,700 petition signatures. “Really, about 3,000 since some are thrown out.”
Baker said he has filed last minute in the past so he could return campaign contributions to the donors.
Sabatini was disappointed over Trump’s endorsem*nt of Webster.
“I don’t always agree with Donald Trump’s endorsem*nts, but I understand the political reality of what they are,” Sabatini said in an earlier Facebook post.
“We need stronger Republicans in local office fighting for the America 1st agenda. District 11 will have to wait for another day,” he wrote.
Baker was elected to the property appraiser post in 2012. He made the same move with the qualifying fee in the last election cycle, but he faced no opposition, so it did not hurt him, Hays said.
The two candidates will square off in November. Baker’s name will not appear on the ballot. Voters will have to go to a blank space and physically write his name.
Baker was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2000 and was reelected in 2002. He was elected to the Florida Senate in 2004 and reelected to that post.
Baker said the move has ignited a firestorm on social media and that the Lake County Commission might take a vote on the controversy. He said he intends to challenge it, but if he doesn't succeed. "We'll just have the biggest write-in campaign in the history of Florida."
Sabatini, who is a lawyer, is a former member of the Florida House of Representatives.
This is how the other local races shake out:
Mollie Cunningham and Gavin Rollins are running against each other for District 4 School Board.
+ Marie Aliberti and Susan Hooper are competing for North Lake Hospital Board Seat 1
+ Carolyn Maimone and Ralph Smith are running for Hospital Board Seat 2
+ Hays faces opposition for his position as elections supervisor from Edward Prosienski, Tom Vail, and write-in candidate Ronald Wingerter
+ Sabatini is running against incumbent Douglas Shields, Sam Simmons, Vara Vail, and write-in candidates Brett Kness and Yasmira Saldana
+ Sabatini’s wife, Francheska, is running against incumbent County Judge Chad Monty.
Where there is a race with a write-in candidate, those names will appear on the November ballot. Everyone will be able to vote in the non-partisan county judge and school board races in the August primary.
Incumbents David Jordan, Sheriff Peyton Grinnell, School Board member Tyler Brandeburg, Clerk of Court Gary Cooney, County Commissioner Kirby Smith, County Judge Sarah Jones and Hospital Board member Thomas Hansing were elected without opposition. Timothy Morris was unopposed for the District 5 County Commission post.
