'No holds barred': Negative campaign season in Tallahassee gets uglier as Election Day nears

One of the most negative campaign seasons ever seen in Leon County and Tallahassee has grown only uglier in the final stretch of the Aug. 23 primary, with candidates, political committees and others hurling accusations and legal threats at one another.

The latest round of finger-pointing began late last week after anonymous text messages surfaced making scurrilous accusations against City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow and other candidates, who blamed the developer-backed Grow Tallahassee political committee. Grow Tallahassee, however, denied any involvement and threatened legal action against candidates who said otherwise.

The anonymous texts and legal threats are just the latest examples of a campaign marked by scorched-earth rhetoric in a barrage of TV commercials, glossy mailers, and social media posts from electioneering websites.

It started with simple enough policy differences — over Blueprint sales tax funding of Doak Campbell Stadium, chiefly — only to devolve since. Both sides have spent much of the campaign accusing the other of extremism and ethical lapses.

Subscriber exclusive: In their own words: How each elected official explained their vote on divisive Doak deal

“This election is the only election I have ever seen in our community where it was no-holds-barred, bare-knuckle swinging at each other,” said Gary Yordon, a veteran campaign consultant who is officially sitting out this cycle. “It’s literally making everything sound as bad as it could possibly sound.”

The text messages about Matlow followed earlier texts of unknown origin against Gallop Franklin, who’s running for Florida House in District 8.

The texts, which didn’t include disclaimers identifying the sender, prompted swift condemnation by the candidates mentioned in the messages, including Matlow and County Commissioner Kristin Dozier, who’s running for mayor, and City Commission candidate Adner Marcelin.

“Such a disappointing text from the Grow Tallahassee slate,” Matlow said in a tweet that included the message in question. Dozier also alleged the developer group was behind the texts, tweeting, “If it looks like Grow Tallahassee and it smells like Grow Tallahassee, it’s probably Grow Tallahassee.”

Vote with confidence: The ultimate Leon County, Tallahassee voter's guide to the 2022 primary election

However, the developer-backed political committee denied any involvement in the texts. On Sunday, the committee’s lawyer sent cease-and-desist letters to Matlow, Dozier and others demanding that they stop “transmitting false and misleading advertisements and attributing them to Grow Tallahassee.”

“Grow Tallahassee is NOT responsible for the mass texts,” the letter says.

It was the second time in roughly 48 hours that a campaign threatened legal action over a political ad. On Friday, a lawyer for David Bellamy, who’s trying to unseat Matlow, demanded that the incumbent’s campaign pull a radio spot calling Bellamy “a Republican running as a Democrat” who “voted for” President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Bellamy’s letter notes that he has been a registered Democrat since 1988. It also flatly denied that he voted for Trump.

“As has been publicly reported, Dr. Bellamy stated that he did not vote for Donald Trump and stated that he did not want to see Trump become president again in 2024,” the letter says.

While Bellamy admitted to voting for DeSantis in an earlier candidate debate, Matlow’s campaign pulled the ad since the campaign couldn’t prove he voted for Trump, according to a WCTV report. The retooled ad focuses on Bellamy’s contributions to DeSantis and other Republicans.

Candidate contribution rundown: Matlow gives $20K to PAC; Bellamy donated to DeSantis

Franklin also raised the issue of legal action over the anonymous text attacking him with information he called “fully false.” He said he personally knows people involved in Grow Tallahassee and doesn't believe the group was behind the text about him.

“Any person or organization involved in any way spreading or sparking any sort of conversation about it could potentially be held liable for the criminal and civil activity of defamation per the laws of Florida,” Franklin said in an email.

The mudslinging has been especially visible in the contests for Tallahassee mayor, with incumbent John Dailey and Dozier jockeying for the lead in a race with two other candidates, and City Commission Seat 3, with Matlow and Bellamy squaring off one on one. More money has poured into the those two races combined — nearly $800,000 plus more from outside groups — than any other local contest.

The issues: Mayor of Tallahassee: A voter's guide to the 2022 primary election

Matthew Pietryka, assistant professor of political science at Florida State University, said negative campaigning can be an effective way for candidates to convey information and emotion to voters. But it can backfire and turn off voters if it goes too far.

“Even though it works,” he said, “people hate it.”

Dozier denies Dailey allegation that she voted to benefit family business

Dailey, who criticized Dozier of going negative after she ran commercials about his vote for Doak funding, recently began airing his own attack ads on TV. Among other things, they accuse Dozier of claiming to be “anti-developer” while voting on developments that benefited her family’s construction company.

“Hypocrite Kristin Dozier isn’t fooling anyone,” the narrator says in the commercial, which was paid for by Dailey’s campaign.

Dozier, who denies having any voting conflict, unveiled a “Dailey Fact Check” website last week that she tweeted would help voters “navigate the daily dose of spin" from the mayor and his supporters. The website, funded by Dozier’s campaign, called Dailey’s accusations “lies and distortions.”

2022 Election: Who's an R and who's a D? A partisan guide to Leon County nonpartisan races

Dailey’s commercial didn’t specify which development he alleged benefited Mad Dog Construction, where Dozier worked until 2010 when she was elected county commissioner. In an interview, he pointed to an Oct. 23, 2014, vote by the Community Redevelopment Agency to fund up to $682,000 for sidewalk and street improvements outside the downtown DoubleTree Hotel.

Dozier was part of a 7-1 vote in favor of the funding, which was requested by John “J.T.” Burnette, the owner of the hotel who was indicted five years later on public corruption charges and convicted last year. The agenda item includes an estimate for the work, submitted to Burnette by Mad Dog, though the company didn’t get the job.

Florida ethics laws bars public officials from voting on items that would give a special benefit to themselves and certain others, including family members. Officials are required to recuse themselves from such votes to avoid a conflict.

“The responsibility of recusal is placed solely on the shoulders of the commissioner,” Dailey said. “I believe and my legal team believes that there was a voting conflict.”

A Tallahassee Democrat report: 'It gets complicated': Inconsistencies emerge when commissioners declare conflicts of interest

The minutes reflect that Dozier asked whether she needed to recuse herself not on that vote but on one that immediately followed involving a policy on the use of local vendors for CRA projects. Dozier noted she hadn’t worked for Mad Dog in four years. She voted no after Assistant City Attorney Lou Norvell told her she would not be in conflict.

"For the mayor to claim I took a vote that benefited my family’s business is absurd," Dozier said in an email. "Mad Dog provided an estimate for the grant application, they never had a contract for the work and I never voted on a CRA project that Mad Dog built. Unfortunately the mayor continues to use negative and misleading attacks in this campaign in an effort to distract people from his record."

Outside groups pushing negative ads amid pledges to stay positive

Meanwhile, political action committees and other third-party groups began dropping their last mail pieces and other marketing before Election Day.

Bellamy vs. Matlow: Tallahassee City Commission, Seat 3: A voter's guide to the 2022 primary election

Progress Matters, a PAC chaired by Reggie Cardozo, who is managing the Dailey and Bellamy campaigns, sent out a mailer touting Dailey’s “ethics and integrity” while blasting Dozier. Some of the committee’s biggest donors include Gordon Thames’ Arbor apartment businesses, corporations owned by prominent developers including the Ghazvini family and the Police Benevolent Association.

4TLH, a tax-exempt organization that bills itself as being “for” rather than “against” things, sent out a mailer with links to articles on its website. Included were headlines linking to articles critical of Matlow and Dozier. The website also pointed to an expired license and recent inspection of one of his restaurants, The Iron Daisy, calling it his "Kitchen Nightmare."

The group, chaired by former County Commissioner Bryan Desloge and former FSU vice president Lee Hinkle, doesn’t disclose its donors or expenses the way a traditional political committee does. Matlow and others have long accused former Democrat Publisher Skip Foster of being involved in the effort, though he won’t confirm that one way or the other.

Grow Tallahassee put out mail pieces endorsing Dailey, Bellamy, City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox, County Commissioner Bill Proctor and County Commission candidate Christian Caban. The group’s donors include Ghazvini firms, FSU Boosters and other university officials.

Bugra Demirel, chairman of the Grow Tallahassee political committee, said all of its political advertisements have been positive. He denied reports by partisan media site Our Tallahassee that the group was behind the secretive text messages.

“Absolutely not,” Demirel said. “We do not engage in this. From Day One, we promised to keep things positive, and we always have.”

However, Grow Tallahassee has shelled out money to boost news articles and opinion pieces on Facebook that are critical of Matlow, City Commissioner Jack Porter and Max Herrle, one of Our Tallahassee’s founders. One of the boosted ads includes a photo of all three and the headline “House of Lies.” Herrle has worked behind the scenes on campaigns for Matlow, Porter and Marcelin.

Electioneering websites abound:

• Inside 'Our Tallahassee': Website with links to Porter, Matlow aims to upend 2022 election

• Their Tallahassee: 'Dark money' political websites aim to shape 2022 local elections

Our Tallahassee has sponsored Facebook posts, too, including one blasting Dailey for supporting Blueprint funding of FSU’s stadium while accepting thousands of dollars in campaign donations from FSU officials. One of Herrle’s political committees, Say No 2 Doak, sent out mailers supporting Marcelin and attacking Williams-Cox for supporting the “disastrous” stadium appropriation.

John Geer, a professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, said voters increasingly exist in their own “media bubbles,” consuming information that lines up with their partisan beliefs.

“In this day and age, everybody’s so tribal that it’s not clear to me the ads do as much as they used to,” Geer said. “There used to be much more of an undecided middle. We don’t have a lot of good data that suggests right now the impact of ads.”

Correction: Only one vendor, Mad Dog Construction, submitted an estimate for improvements outside the DoubleTree Hotel as part of a 2014 CRA vote.

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or follow @JeffBurlew on Twitter.

Never miss a story:  Subscribe to the Tallahassee Democrat using the link at the top of the page.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee and Leon County elections mired in scorched earth campaigning