PACs come to Juno Beach: Critical mailers target candidates in March 19 town election
JUNO BEACH — At least four political action committees have inserted themselves into the March 19 Juno Beach Town Council races and are driving a small-town election that normally would be decided by about 600 voters.
Three have blitzed residents with mailers accusing two candidates of various offenses, including favoring developers at a time when two sizable residential projects — Pulte Homes’ townhomes and Caretta condominiums at Donald Ross Road and U.S. 1 — are in the works. A fourth PAC has produced a video disparaging one candidate.
Juno Beach has about 3,800 residents and about 3,000 registered voters. Typically, only about 20% of those voters cast ballots in local elections. Persuading just 100 people out of the 600 or so who usually vote could mean victory.
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Little is known about three of the PACs, which are headquartered in parts of Florida hundreds of miles from Juno Beach. The people listed as leading them declined multiple requests for comment. How much money each has spent on the Juno Beach election is unclear.
The fourth is run by a former candidate for the Palm Beach Gardens City Council who told The Palm Beach Post that his PAC became involved to support longtime Council Member Peggy Wheeler’s bid to become mayor. Wheeler, a Realtor and a public notary, said she does not know the man and did not ask for his help.
Wheeler is running against incumbent Alexander Cooke for mayor and many of the mailers have targeted Cooke, who is the CEO of a wealth management company. Others have taken aim at attorney Diana Davis, who is vying with first-time candidate Dean Anthon for Seat 5.
Wheeler and Anthon, who has worked in private equity and venture capital, say they have no idea who is driving the attacks on Cooke and Davis and deny any involvement with the PACs.
Cooke and Davis have sent out newsletters to residents defending themselves against the allegations made in the mailers. One that Cooke emailed Feb. 23 said “dirty money” paid for them and that they “aim to distract us from the real issues at hand and derail our efforts to protect Juno Beach from over-development.”
Cooke and Davis maintain that these PACs can have unfair power in a local election in such a small town.
“The political action committees don’t have any requirements for truth in advertising,” said Davis, adding that she also believes “developer money” is behind the mailers. “It takes away the focus from issues that really need to be talked about.”
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Here are the PACs involved in the Juno Beach town election
The political action committees have plain names, some of which have little to do with an election in Juno Beach.
Two of them are led by William Stafford Jones, and a third's telephone number leads to a consulting company he works for. Jones is the state committeeman for the Alachua County Republican Executive Committee, according to the committee's website. Jones did not reply to multiple requests for comment.
The Gainesville Sun reported in 2019 that Jones operated 55 political committees in Florida and several other nonprofits. Some have ties to Data Targeting, a political consulting company based in Gainesville that has worked for Florida’s Republican Party.
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The four PACS are:
The Gainesville-based “Holding Developers Accountable” PAC mailed fliers to residents with claims about Cooke. Jones is listed as its chair. The committee has reported receiving no funds since December 2023, records show.
“Stop Domestic Violence Florida” sent out brochures targeting Davis. The committee is based in Tallahassee and Kori Schott is listed as its agent. Attempts to reach Schott have been unsuccessful. The PAC received $170,000 in contributions from other committees — one of them named “Serious Conservatives” — since its first financial report in 2020, according to state elections records.
The Tallahassee-based “Florida’s Values” PAC created a TV-ad-style video and website about Cooke. Records indicate that Jones is also its chair. The committee received $42,500 in funds since its first report in 2020. One developer, a real estate company and Stop Domestic Violence Florida — among other political committees and a farming business — have donated to the group, records show.
The phone numbers listed for Stop Domestic Violence Florida, Holding Developers Accountable and Florida’s Values all lead to an office phone for Electioneering Consulting, based in the Alachua County town of Newberry.
Electioneering Consulting lists Jones as its officer. The lone page on its website quotes the First Amendment in its entirety. The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision ruled that the amendment bans any government from restricting independent spending on political campaigns by corporations, nonprofits, labor unions and other groups.
The fourth PAC is Tampa-based “Taxpayers in Action.” Fliers sent out on its behalf contain positive messages about Wheeler and do not mention Cooke’s name. The committee has had two donors this election cycle: Palm Beach Gardens-based developer Hokunani, which donated $12,500, and Sarasota-based developer Neal Patrick, who donated $5,000, according to state elections records. Attempts to reach them were unsuccessful.
Howard Rosenkranz is the chair of Taxpayers in Action. He lost a race for City Council in Palm Beach Gardens in 2019.
“Our group got involved because I feel Peggy Wheeler would do a better job as mayor,” Rosenkranz, whom Wheeler said she doesn't know, told The Post during a recent interview. “All of our mailers were sent to get a positive message about her accomplishments and service to Juno Beach.”
All four Juno Beach candidates deny involvement with the PACs
Financial disclosure documents indicate the four candidates have raised and spent comparable amounts of money on the March 19 election. The amounts they have raised range from $1,000 to $5,244, and their expenditures run from $455 to $4,430 through Feb. 22, records show.
Of the candidates, Cooke, Wheeler and Davis say they are not working with political consultants. Campaign finance statements indicate Cooke and Wheeler are self-financing their campaigns and Davis' disclosure reports do not show any payments to consultants.
The Feb. 22 financial disclosure report for the Friends of Dean Anthon political committee indicated an in-kind contribution of $1,380 from Randy Nielsen. The Palm City-based consultant has long been involved in Palm Beach County political campaigns. Nielsen is a partner at Public Concepts, a public relations company headquartered in Jupiter.
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Anthon said he had Nielsen’s firm print materials and yard signs for his campaign. He said he chose Nielsen because he knew of his reputation for helping Republican candidates in the area, like him. The fliers Anthon sent out for his campaign stress his strengths as a candidate and discuss the issues he would focus on if elected. They do not mention Davis.
Nielsen did not respond to requests for comment from The Post. His past work on campaigns for local offices in northern Palm Beach County includes creating materials and mailings for Rosenkranz's 2019 campaign for the Palm Beach Gardens City Council, disclosure records show. Rosenkranz lost that race to council member Carl Woods.
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While it is fair game for political action committees to be involved in local elections, some who study politics are wary of the effect they can have on them. Daniel Pedreira of Florida International University is one of them.
“Traditionally, local government has largely been untouched by the partisan bickering that is a feature of politics in Washington, D.C., and state capitals across the country,” Pedreira, a political science professor at the Miami-based school, told The Post. “The increased influence of PACs like these can have an unfair advantage in local elections because they lend themselves to further polarization of the electorate by using tactics like running negative ads.”
He said PAC funding sources usually include wealthy “megadonors” or people committed to a cause. However, he said PACs can threaten democracy if those that run them disregard the “public good.”
“Increased PAC influence in local government can dissuade qualified candidates for public office from running, while promoting the candidacy of individuals tied to special interests,” Pedreira wrote.
Maya Washburn covers northern Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida-Network. Reach her at mwashburn@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: PACs come to Juno Beach election: Mailers target town candidates
