When they know they cannot win, they resort to underhanded tactics that only end up misleading our voters and undermining the elections process.
Unfortunately, we’ve seen this time and time again this election cycle as the GOP faces the very real threat of a blue takeover here in Seminole County. Florida Senate candidate Patricia Sigman was targeted by a “mystery group” aiming to influence the results of August’s primary. Although local Republicans denied involvement, the group was listed as being managed by Republican Tallahassee attorney David P. Healy.
But we’re not just seeing these dishonest tactics at the state level – beginning in August 2020, an organization fronting as a legitimate news source, The Orlando Local News, began posting libelous articles about local Casselberry candidate Chad Albritton.
This month, a printed attack mailer funded by Seminole First PC, a political committee started and partially funded by Seminole County GOP State Committeeman, Jesse Phillips, started hitting mailboxes in Casselberry stating “Chad Albritton is running a campaign against your city for his interest, not yours!” making claims that Albritton is “cozy with Trump supporters” and “hired Russians to help his campaign”.
These outlandish claims are , of course, untrue. Chad Albritton is a longtime Casselberry resident how is working to ignite the city’s local economy, protect it’s natural resources, and create better transparency is local government.
The deception goes even deeper when you consider sources cited in the ad, including a link to Orlando Local News as a source for one of its claims. The site claims it was established in 1980 by Roger Swanson, boasting a full biography of Swanson and photos of the legitimate newspaper and its history. However, the Orlando Local News’ website was registered as an entity this year in May of 2020, and is registered to Marshall Polston, conservative talk show host, and former Rollins College student.[i] This inconsistency alone should give the reader pause.
We will not legitimize this political blog by linking it here, but it contains defamatory articles about candidate Chad Albritton, Representative Anna Eskamani (who has endorsed Albritton), and Representative Geraldine Thompson. The website also boasts endorsements for nine Seminole County Republican candidates, including Jason Brodeur and Leo Valentin.
Coincidence? Highly unlikely. Clearly, GOP will stop at nothing to spread false information in an attempt to delegitimize our candidates at every level—from the national races to our city elections. This only strengthens our resolve to work harder for Seminole County—and part of that means holding the GOP accountable for their lies.
You can show your support for Chad here, and show the GOP that we won’t be stopped by their deceitful attempts to manipulate our democracy.